NAVARATHRI KOLU USING HANDMADE DOLLS

Hello friends , its been quite a long time since I posted . I was little busy keeping Navarathri kolu and inviting friends to my home. Right from my childhood I loved arranging the dolls, decorating the house , inviting guests and singing songs for Navarathri. Its indeed my most favorite festival. When I came to US after marriage I didn't want to break our family tradition of keeping kolu. So made a few quilled dolls and arranged it as Kolu. Two years have passed and now I have enough handmade dolls( thanks to the craft challenges) to fill three big steps. So this year we decided to invite non-Indian ( foreigners) friends to join us in our celebration. Below is the e-invite which I created for inviting the guests.

My regular readers would be familiar with  the dolls kept in the Kolu as they are all posted in my blog previously.

In South India the kolu has evolved itself and people celebrate it by arranging the dolls based on a specific theme. Well what is the theme of this Kolu?? Maybe we can say Altered art / recycle craft as most of the projects you see here are recycled. 

Now let us take a closer look at the individual steps. 

MAKING OF KOLU PADI:

      I used one medium sized box measuring 18" (height ) * 18 (breadth) * 16 (length)  and one large sized moving box measuring 18" (h) *18 (b) * 24 (l). I wanted the steps height to be at a difference of 6". The bottom step measures 6" , the middle measures 12" and the top most step measures 18" in height. 

Since the height of the medium box is 18" I cut it into two  pieces - One with 6" (h)*18(b)*16(l) forming the bottom most step and the other with 12"(h)*18(b)*16(l) forming the middle step

I kept the large box as such but trimmed the edges to get the length of 16". 

FIRST STEP ( TOP MOST STEP):

In the first step I have kept Mandap , clay Ganesha with lotus asana, Altered jar and paper roses.

1. Mandap:

   My father and me made this mandap last year. For the base we used old laptop box . The pillars are made by stacking  empty tissue paper rolls. The roof is made using packaging cardboards. The mandap is covered with golden and red color paper and decorated with golden glitter lace and small bells. Inside the Mandap Ihave kept the idols of God.

Things Altered: Empty Laptop box,Tissue paper rolls & packaging cardboard 

At the top of the Mandap you can see the Ganapathy with instruments mural work.
Tutorial for Ganesha with Instruments

2. Clay Ganesha with lotus Asana:

At the center below the Mandap is the clay Ganesha in lotus Asana.. Click the link below for the tutorial. You can use this Asana to keep the idols of Lord Durga or Lakshmi.

Material Altered: Candle jar , cardboard sheet for the backdrop
Tutorial of Lord Ganesha with Lotus asana

3. Fall themed altered jar:

You can alter an empty jar to demonstrate a theme. Here I have demonstrated a fall theme by decorating empty ghee jar.

Things Altered: Ghee bottle
Tutorial of Altered Jar 

4. Paper rose bouquet:

Materials Altered: Ghee jar , paper
Tutorial of paper rose bouquet

5. Clay teddy bear:
On both sides of the Clay ganesha I have placed two cute teddy bears made using playdoh.

MIDDLE STEP:

6. Violin Shaped card:

Materials Altered: Packaging Cardboard
Violin shaped card tutorial

7. Spring Garden:

Instead of a normal garden create this Spring garden using books, bird nest and lamp.
Things Altered: Soap cartons, empty ribbon roll, Packaging cardboard
Tutorial of Spring garden

8. Bird house:

Things Altered: Empty tissue rolls , Cardboard
Tutorial of DIY bird house

9. Girl playing piano:

This piano card is not an altered project. It is created using black cardstock.
Tutorial of Grand Piano 

10. Tulip Garden:

Made this tulip garden with playdoh, tooth pick and Styrofoam sheet .

11. Bicycle carrying flowers:

Things Altered: Tissue paper rolls , Tissue paper
Bicycle carrying flowers Tutorial

BOTTOM STEP:

In this step I have displayed some of my mural and mixed media works .

12. Beach Mural:

Have lot of sea shells collected at the beach?? Create a beach layout and stick the sea shells to it.

Things Altered: Altered card board sheets
Beach Days

13. Kalash clay mural:

Things Altered: Card board
Tutorial of Kalash clay mural

14. Beach Days:

Things Altered : Plastic plate
Beach Mural tutorial

15. Thulasi Maadam:

Things Altered: Perfume Carton
Thulasi Maadam tutorial

16. Christmas sleigh:

Things Altered: Cereal box , soap carton
Christmas Sleigh Tutorial

17. Chettiar dolls:

I made these dolls last year for Navarathri using terracotta clay.
Chettiar dolls

18.Fruit tray:

Things Altered: Peeled garlic tray
The fruits are made using air dry clay.

19. Cake factory:

These cakes are made using playdoh and cold porcelain.

20. Natural cooking set:

I made this natural cooking set using playdoh.

Usually in India all my relatives and neighbors celebrate Navarathri by keeping Kolu. So there is nothing new to explain them. This year kolu was very special to me as I was very happy to explain about our festivals and traditions to foreigners. They were very eager to know everything about Navarathri and greatly appreciated our rich Heritage. So this is my most memorable Navarathri kolu. 

FABRIC PAINTING ON T SHIRT

Hello friends, Welcome to my blog!! Today am posting something that I wanted to share with you all for a long time - fabric painting on a T shirt.  This is the first time am into fabric painting. I bought a plain T shirt from Michaels last year and totally forgot about it. Three months back when I was cleaning my wardrobe found it and finally decided to paint it .

I love warli printed dresses so decided to do warli painting on this T shirt.

Initially I washed the cotton T shirt and ironed it .  Then measured the center of the shirt using an inch tape. I drew the circle using a compass and fabric markers. I fitted the area to be painted inside a frame and started to paint.

I have used Tulip soft Fabric paint and 00 brush. All the designs are hand-drawn. I didnt use any stencil. 

In a similar way I made the neck design too.

I thought of using this T shirt for my vacation but after finishing I loved it so much that I wanted to wear it on my birthday. I also made a matching pair of  quilled jhumka.

Fabric painting is a relaxing hobby and it gives happiness to wear hand painted dress. So if you are new to fabric painting I hope these tips will useful to you.

1. Use fabrics that are 100% cotton and tightly oven. In michaels you get T shirts specially designed for fabric painting.
2. Pre - wash your fabric to remove the starch.
3. Iron the fabric and spread it on a large table.
4. Have the design ready on a paper before proceeding to draw on a fabric.
5. Depending on the type of finish you want you can select the type of Fabric paint. There are puffy, matte and soft finish available. I have used soft fabric paint in this project.
6. Instead of stretching the fabric by clipping it on a cardboard I prefer attaching the area to be painted on a embroidery frame as they hold and stretch it tightly enabling us to work conveniently.
7.Mark the center of the fabric before drawing .
8.Use fabric pencils instead of normal pencils so that the marking can be easily erased .
9. Do not use water except for wetting the brush.
10.Reverse iron the fabric after allowing it to dry for 48 hours.

Happy Painting!!

ICRD AUDITIONS 2015

Hello Friends, Indian Craft room is back again and is looking for new designers. Am happy to participate in their auditions.

For details on the Audition, rush to ICRDESIGNER AUDITIONS  in the ICR CHALLENGES GROUP !!!

The last date to submit is sep 30th 2015. 

I have submitted my following creations to the audition:

SPARKLE AND SMILE CAS CARD

Hello friends, hope you all are enjoying your weekend.. Today I have a CAS card to share with you all. This week in casology challenge,  the theme is "Circles" . There are endless possibilities to this theme but the first thing that struck my mind is the " Smiley". Smileys are used to express that little extra feeling during a conversation. They are a great source of fun as they can easily add a laugh and color to the otherwise bland chats.  So I made a smiley card using glitter foam sheets. 

The background strips and smileys are hand-cut and the sentiment is hand written. To bring more shine to the card added rhinestones.


Entering this card to the following challenges:

1 .Casology challenge blog - cue word " Circles"
2. Shopping our stash challenge blog - " Show us your smile"
3.4 crafty chicks challenge blog - " Sparkle and shine"
4. Lulupu challenge blog - " Sparkle and shine"
5.Beyond grey challenge - " Cas cards or layouts"

FALL THEMED ALTERED JAR

Hello Friends, Welcome back to my blog!! Well the autumn season has begun, so today's project is all about welcoming this beautiful season of gold. I love to walk on the dried crispy leaves as they give a crunchy effect like that of potato chips.. Lol..  There is a surprise inside this jar which is revealed at the end of this post!!

In California fall season is not much pronounced like the east coast so we can see lot of green trees with some dried trees in between them. So I took the color palette from what I see here - green , yellow, gold and red. I have seen many altered mason jar projects made by my fellow bloggers of which my favorite is Neha's altered mason jar. So I bookmarked that and thought of trying it soon. When the ghee bottle became empty I decided to alter it with the fall theme. 

I covered the jar with pattern paper from DCWV paper pack. Then adhered different laces from "Celebrate it" collections. I inked the laces with golden, yellow and red distress inks. Recently I bought a Martha Stewart daisy punch and was waiting to use it. All the flowers in this project are made using this punch and recollections card stock. The leaves are hand cut and distressed using inks.

The sentiment is a print out. I used pearl chain, pearls and golden bead chain to decorate the jar. The mini book charm is handmade using stacked papers from old magazine and packaging card board.  

For the top panel I have used burlap cloth , lace and handmade flowers. The bird is hand cut from the glitter foam sheet. 

So what is inside the bottle??  Here is the surprise!!!

I wanted to create a window so that my haunted house is visible. So glued the laces only 3/4th of the jar.  For the background I have used black glitter foam sheet. On the lid of the jar I pasted a LED candle using double sided tape. 

With the onset of fall the temperature starts to decrease here so its not possible to keep the door open always as in summer. So we need an air freshner.  Hence I filled the jar with  home made air freshner  and added three pumpkins above it.  On the lid of the jar I pasted a LED candle using double sided tape. See how it gives a spooky effect in the dark.  I am going to keep this decorated jar in my crafting table so that I can enjoy the pleasant smell while I craft. 

Here are some of the ideas to make your own air freshner:  http://www.viralnova.com/diy-air-fresheners/

I added  homemade potpourri  inside the jar. As its fall time I picked many dry leaves and flowers from the nearby garden and added lavender essential oil to it. 

Hope you all like my project. Do leave your comments/ suggestions!! Have a nice weekend!!

Entering this project into the following challenges:

1, City crafter challenge blog - "Fall has arrived"  - I was inspired by the falling leaves and the colors of the picture. I have used red, yellow , green and brown in my project.
2. Kraftzone challenge blog - " Altered art with sentiment" - I have altered a ghee bottle/jar.
3. Dream valley challenge - " Autumn colors"
4. Lessology challenge - " Its reading time" - I have made a mini book charm by recycling magazine papers. I have also recycled ghee bottle/jar.
5. Crafting musketeers - " Challenge 29 - Autumnal colors
6.Our creative corner - " Shades of autumn"
7. Altered eclectics 

LOTUS ASANA AND BACKDROP FOR GANESH CHATHURTHI

Hello Friends, Hope you all are doing great!! Am back after a short vacation to Alaska. Today am posting the decoration and the idol made for Ganesh Chathurthi . Ganesh Chathurthi is one of my favorite festivals as its super fun to do puja for the handmade idol .  Last year when my parents were here, we all made Ganesha idol for the first time referring to this youtube video. You can view that post here. This year too I made a small Ganesha.

I used air dry terracotta clay for making the idol . Once it is dried I painted the idol using acrylics and gave a coat of varnish.

When I was searching for the decoration ideas I came across this lotus asana for Lord Ganesha in a website. So decided to create a similar one using glitter foam sheets. I have used glitter foam sheets as they are easy to cut and paste.

I decided to alter an candle jar for the asana. You can see the step by step pictures for making the lotus asana below.

For the backdrop:
I drew the design on the cardboard and painted the design using acrylics. I hand cut the design and decorated it using silver and white glitter foam sheets. I stuck the backdrop to the candle jar using hot glue gun.

Hope you all like it... Do leave your comments/suggestions... See you soon with another post... Have a crafty weekend...

Reference links:

To make the clay Ganesha idol : Clay Ganesha making tutorial
To view my last year's Ganesha idol and decoration  : Handmade clay ganesha idols

Submitting this project to:

Lulupu challenge blog - " Sparkle and shine "

DIY BICYCLE USING RECYCLED MATERIALS

Hello friends, today's post is very special to me as its my first guest designing post for Lulupu Challenge. I made a tutorial on making a bicycle carrying flowers by recycling tissue paper rolls.Click here to read a short interview about me. 

For making this project materials needed are:

1. Empty tissue rolls (2)
2. Floral wire thin and thick
3.tissue paper
4. Hot glue gun
5. Paints
6. Crepe paper for making flowers
7. Materials for decoration like lace , pearls etc

Procedure:

Step 1: Cut two circular pieces from tissue paper rolls and wrap it with tissue paper.

Step 2: Twist two floral wires and cut them into small pieces such that it fits inside the circular piece. Wrap it with the tissue paper and glue it to the tyre.

In a similar way make three tyres.

Step 4 : Take a thick wire and join the two small tyres. Using the same wire make the handle and the front of the cycle ( as shown in the pic above)

Step 5: Glue the front portion of the bicycle to the front wheel. Join the front and back of the cycle using a thick wire.

Basket and flowers:

I made the basket by weaving 4 strips of paper.

For making flower I used crepe paper.

The flowers are hand cut as my punches doesn't support crepe papers.

Painting and other tips:

1.Since the bicycle is made of tissue paper use dry brush technique for paining it. I used fevicryl acrylic colors.
2.The bicycle cannot withstand weight so do not try to add more embellishments to it. If you want a more sturdy bicycle you can use empty tape rolls. But I felt tissue paper roll is easy to cut and hence I tried making with it.

3.For stability you can tie floral wire at the joints as shown in the above picture.

So a mini bicycle is ready to decorate your craft table!! Hope you all like my craft!!