SUNSET AT THE BEACH - CLAY MURAL WORK

Hi friends, Welcome back to my blog!! As the post title says today's post is about sunset at the beach. As its pretty hot here we go to beaches almost every weekend. California is well known for its cliff lined beaches and beautiful lighthouses surrounded by a bed of rocks. Here during summer the sunset occurs between 8-8.30 pm. 

Two weeks back we had been to this amazing beach called "Grey whale cove" near half moon bay. We drove to the top of the hill and from there we overlooked the beach. Then we took a wooden staircase to go down to the waters. The beach was calm with a big lighthouse on top of a mountain and the different shades of blue in the water was clearly visible.An hour before the sunset the sky prepares itself by changing its colour. We can see pink, violet and yellow colour of the sky  This is the hour I love most so  tried to imbibe all of these in my creation.

The one thing that I miss in the US beaches are the beautiful coconut trees which I will find along the shores of Kerala beaches. So to fulfill my wish added two coconut trees. I wanted my painting to have a 3D effect so used air dry clay for the lighthouse and the trees. 

I recycled am old plastic plate for this project. I started off by applying a thick coat of gesso to the plate. Once its dried I sketched the outline of the painting. Then I took the sir dry clay and pasted them wherever I want. This is my first full fledged oil painting.  So I wasn't able to capture the full effect of sunset in this painting. Once the paint is dried I gave a coat of varnish. 

Submitting this to

Lulupu Challenge - " Summer splash" - I have created a beach themed mural painting.
City crafter challenge blog - " Lets get " nautical"
Allsorts challenge blog - " Blue as ocean"
Frilly and funkie challenge blog - " Summer"
Simon monday challenge blog - " Summer"
Altered eclectics- I have altered a plastic plate into a mural

GRAND PIANO BOX CARD TUTORIAL

Hello Friends, Welcome back to my blog!! Today's post is very special and nostalgic to me. It's been a long time since I played keyboard. As my in laws are here they insisted me to play and show them. When I started to play old memories queued my mind one by one. So that's the birth story  of this post.

 I remembered the first time when I played keyboard. It was a gift from my dad for my 10th birthday. He himself an admirer of music had very good collection of music albums with him. That helped me to learn new ragas and songs apart from what the teacher taught me. My dad was instrumental in shaping up my hobbies and motivated me to try something new always. Still he reads each and every post of mine and gives suggestions and ideas.

The second great person associated with this piano is my grandfather. He was my first audience and critic. He would be with me throughout my piano class and will make sure that I learn and practice the song properly. He would listen patiently to all my stories and will make me laugh by telling jokes. If he was there today I would tell him lot of stories.

As I reached my  12th standard my studies took precedence over my hobbies and over the years somehow lost interest towards the piano. It was my cousin brother who rekindled my  passion and inspired me to play by sending his recordings.We both used to play piano together during our vacation. He taught me to combine music and technology . With his help I did my first ever  recording with beats using a software. Whenever I have a problem he will always be there for me. So I would like to thank these 3 great men of my life and dedicate this post to them.

Here is the pictorial:

Materials needed:

1. Black cardstock  12*12 " ( 2 nos)

2. Vintage music notations pattern paper

3. Piano keys print out

4. Hot glue gun

5. Scissor, ruler

6. Flower embellishments

The basic template:

Take an A4 sheet and draw the design shown above. Cut this design and place it on a 12*12 card stock.

The cardstock should be double the size of the paper template which we had cut above. Mine is 6.5". So I  took a 12*12 cardstock. Trace the design onto the card stock. Flip the template to the other side and trace it.  Then cut this design. This will form the upper part of the piano .

Cut another card stock as that of the design template for the bottom portion.  To cover the sides of the piano measure the length of the side.  For me it was 6.3" or 16 cm. To measure the length of the curve, take a thread and mark the starting point with an ink. Run this thread through the curve. At the end point make another dot with the marker ( the marked points indicated using arrows in the picture). 

 Now  Stretch the thread and measure the length. This gives the length of the curve.  For covering the sides cut a strip of black card stock with the length we measured and with the breadth of 3cm. From the top and bottom measure 1 cm and make a crease. Paste one creased line on the top portion and the other line on the bottom portion of the piano.

 For covering the curved portion of the piano cut a strip of cardstock with the length we measured and with the breadth 3 cm. From the top and bottom mark 1 cm and make a crease. Cut slits as shown in the picture and glue it to the top and bottom portions of the piano. The slits make it easy to fit into the curve. 

Measure the lower edge down the piano. Cut a cardstock with the length measured and breadth 2 cm. For the inside stick and 3 legs I used 4.5cm by 9cm piece of cardstock. I rolled and glued them to the piano using hot glue gun.

Stick the vintage paper inside and paste the keys as shown. Decorate the upper portion using flowers and other embellishments. The flowers used here are all handmade by me. 

For the piano chair I stacked 4 pieces of cardboard together. The design on the chair is hand drawn. The legs of the chair measures 2 cm by 8 cm. I placed a quilled doll on top of the chair . Hope you all liked this post. Please leave your valuable comments/ feedback. 

SEA SHELL JEWELLERY

Hello Friends, Welcome back!! Summer has spread its hot wings here in California , so to chill out we went to the beach last week. I have the habit of collecting sea shells so that I can use it in my craft projects. This time to my surprise I found some cute tear drop shaped shells. I love tear drop earrings so searched for the shells that are similar. Though I couldn't find the exact match there were few shells that are quite similar. So more than playing in the water I spent time collecting sea shells and was dreaming about the jewellery that I will make with them ( lol). Here is the jewellery which I made ... 

I took extreme care that they should not break during our travel. After reaching home I washed it with mild soap water and wiped using a towel. The next step was to paint. I chose silver pearl paint as I don't have much of silver coloured earrings.

After 2 coats of pearl paint to get the gloss gave a coat of varnish. I don't want to drill holes on the shells as am afraid it will break. So this is how ( below pic) I attached the eye pins to the shells. I used air dry clay and tacky glue. 

I loved the earrings very much so made a  matching chain with that!!

Now I have a sea shell jewellery set!!

Submitting this to
Earrings everyday - " June reveal"

This is the inspiration picture... I was inspired by the sea shells...

ICE CREAM CAS CARD

Hello friends, Welcome back to my blog!! Today am here to share my inspiration post for Create something catchy challenge...

 The theme for this month's challenge is to create CAS ( Clean And Simple) card based on this stylish ( below) inspiration picture....  Click here for more details...

When I saw the picture the first thing that caught my attention was the ice cream.... That's because am eating too many ice creams these days.. So I made a simple card inspired by the ice cream and colours of the picture...

Here is the pictorial on how I made this card:

 I coloured the image using distress inks.

The sentiment is a print out. Hope you all liked my card. Thanks for visiting and don,t forget to participate in our challenge. Click here to enter....

Submitting this card to the following competitions:

Crafty catz challenge blog - Clean and simple cards

Cas-ual fridays - CFC #140 -Michele's idea of summer - I have used the skin tan colour , blue colour and lots of white space.

The crafters cafe challenge blog - " Anything goes"

Papercreators crafts -" Anything goes"