Thursday, May 18, 2017

Crafter in The Spotlight 50 - Itsy Bitsy

It’s Thursday, time to announce the ‘Crafter in the Spotlight’ but this week is special because it’s the 50^thstory we are going to share with you. The idea behind ‘Crafter in the Spotlight’ was to create a platform where crafters could get recognition and encouragement from fellow crafters. It’s our unique way to motivate and appreciate all crafters. The journey till here has been very exciting for me and I hope you have enjoyed reading about fellow crafters and their creative journey.

This week the limelight is on Afrreen Banu, an ardent and active crafter from Trichy, Tamilnadu. Afrreen has been a crafter at heart since her childhood. She started making cards and simple craft projects with supplies available at hand from quite a young age.

How did Afrreen get into crafting, what inspires her, what are her tips for fellow crafters, her favourite quote, how would she contribute to the crafting world if she had magical powers? Read answers to all these questions, discover more about her interesting journey and catch a glimpse of a step by step project by Afrreen in this interview. Don't forget to leave your comments for her.

Rashmi Closepet, MD, Itsy Bitsy: Tell us a bit about yourself & your background?

AB: Hello all you lovely ladies, this is Afrreen Banu from Trichy, Tamilnadu. I am so happy and honoured to be the ‘Crafter in the Spotlight’ that too in the 50th week. I am a passionate and crazy crafter who is always keen about learning new things. I live with my family who are my biggest support. A big thanks to my family, Rashmi Harish and Itsy Bitsy team for this honour.

RC: How did you get into crafting?

AB: All of you must be bored hearing the same thing which so many crafters have already told you …but I am no different and have been a crafter from very childhood. Earlier, my craft only used to include cards with chart papers, DIY stuffs, flowers and the usual craft supplies. I used craft using whatever I could lay my hands on but that was before I started serious paper crafting. I also used to make Kundan jewellery & did some stitching work. Later I picked up quilling as a hobby. Slowly my craft arena widened and I moved on to card making , scrapbooking, mixed media and more….it’s been a wonderful journey till now..

RC: What is your favourite type of craft?

AB: Ahhh!! it’s a tough question.. I do not restrict myself to any particular art form. I would love to try all forms... Now I love making mixed media and miniature projects.

RC: What are your favourite products at Itsy Bitsy?

AB: Handmade flowers, silicone glue, colour splash, embellishments, stencils….I really like the way they are nominally priced and affordable by every crafter.

RC: If you had magical powers, how would you contribute to the Crafting world?

AB: I will hoard craft supplies as much as I can....Lol :p Am a big hoarder. I would share my stash with crafters who are not fortunate enough to buy all the things they want.

RC: Your prized possession in your craft stash from Itsy Bitsy?

AB: Color splash & flowers. I have so many of them in my stash that whenever I use them, I feel like they will never get over from my stash.

RC:How would you describe your style of crafting?

AB: Versatile crafter.... who is used to adapting various styles. I won’t restrict myself to any art form. I would love to try almost every art form.

RC: How do you organize your time for crafting?

AB: I really don’t organize time for crafting, whenever I feel like…I just craft. I simply start my work and my peace of mind is enough to keep me motivated.

RC: Tips for people who want to craft.
AB: Don’t hesitate to start crafting because you have only limited supplies to start with. A small piece of paper can be turned into something beautiful. Everything depends on you and how you make it. Small drops can make an ocean, so you can slowly start building your craft supplies. Just let the creative juices in your mind flow!!!!

RC: Your all -time favourite quote?

AB: Enjoy every little thing in life; one day when you look back you will realize how big they are.

Here is a gorgeous project by Afrreen & step by step procedure:

Step 1: Take any bottle of your choice , coat it with gesso using cotton or a sponge blender & let it dry. Apply black acrylic paint all the way around

Step 2: Adhere flowers as per your wish, and coat them with black acrylic paint..

Step 3:Make sure the black acrylic is completely dry, now gently rub acrylic colors of your choice using your fingers, here I used turquoise blue & purple.. then rubbed Camlin silver dust here and there…

Step 4: Now adhere some thermocol balls, beads and net lace in between gaps….

Finally its done!! Its so simply and easy to make..I love the way it turns out... 😄.. Thank you Itsy Bitsy and team for this opportunity...

Here are a couple of Afrreen's other awesome creations:

Many congrats Afrreen for being the CRAFTER IN THE SPOTLIGHT – ITSY BITSY!!

You will receive Rs.500/- Itsy Bitsy gift voucher 😊😊 & a Crafter in the Spotlight badge, which can be proudly displayed on the side bar of your blog and other platforms. Looking forward to many more creations, Happy Crafting!

Friday, May 5, 2017

DIY Mothers day gift with Mini canvas & Alcohol splash

Hello peeps ! Welcome to another crafty session with me - Angela Jose. This time I have a brand new product from Itsy Bitsy - Gold Alcohol Splash. Today I will be sharing my experience with these Gold alcohol splashes and a tutorial on how to make this cute Mother's Day gift with them.

What is Gold Alcohol Splash ?

The recently launched Gold Alcohol Splash comes in 12 different shades, in bottles of 50 ml and you can see the shade swatches on their website along with the product. They are priced at a very nominal price of Rs.200 per bottle so you can go grab the entire range and try them out.
These Gold Alcohol Splashes are unique as every spray gives out a particular hue along with really really minute nano glitter particles. The gold kinda settles at the bottom of the bottle when not in use so, you need to shake them really well before each use.
When I received the package I was super excited. The gold in the sprays are stunning and I couldn't wait to start making something with them!
The spray is not like the fine mist type of spray so you need to hold the bottle a little away from where you want to spray so that it lands lightly and doesn't leave the force spray effect on your working surface.
These colours dry very fast, but if you intend to spray multiple layers make sure you give time for each of them to dry prior to applying the next shade. Blending two colours is easy with the alcohol blending solution and sponge blenders also launched by Itsy Bitsy. The sponge blenders are really cheap and comes in two shapes. I used them for all the blending and paint application in this project - more about that later :)
The gold sheen as you see in the bottle doesn't look so dense your project but it definitely gives a metallic/glitter spray effect ( Check my swatch sheet below to view the effect).

DIY Mothers day gift with Mini canvas :

So this year Mother's Day falls on May 14th and I wanted to make something in that theme so that you guys could gather supplies and surprise your mom. Lets start right away!

I used these mini canvas from Itsybitsy that comes in set of four. These are pre- stretched, pre-primed and fixed on these hollow square frames and perfect for unleashing colors. I wanted to have two complementing shades on each of the canvas to create a gradient from one corner to the other so I first made a swatch sheet of the gold alcohol inks that I had and chose shades for my mini canvas.

I wasn't sure if the base will be fully covered with the ink so I chose a lighter shade of fabric paint and gave a base coat to each of the mini canvases.

The sponge blenders were awesome for spreading the paint evenly across the canvas. I remembered the time when I used to buy kitchen sponge and tear them into small pieces to apply paint :( Now these come in ready made shapes - too good to use!

Once the paints were dry, I used the gold alcohol sprays on them. A word of caution - the spray press button might be tight or smooth on different bottles so its a safe practice to spray on a newspaper first so that you can control the spray on your main project. The mist of colours and gold that comes out with each spray is not fine mist that spreads in air so you need to maintain a little distance from your canvas.

This one has shades Pink Punch and Golden Mocha sprayed across the corners and you can see how that pattern is formed on it because I didn't give enough time between the coats. I sprayed a generous coat of alcohol blending solution and then with the sponge dauber just dabbed the areas (not rubbing just dab) and this was the result.

The shades blend so well and give a really nice smooth coverage when blended with the alcohol blending solution. I would advice to certainly buy the blending solution along with the Gold Alcohol Splash colours. Now I also covered the rest of the mini canvases with the gold splashes and I think the base coat gave a nice background for the colors to show up.

You can check out the shades from the swatch sheet and select matching colors for your projects. I loved the smell of the alcohol blending solution so I applied them on all my canvases even though they dint require blending :P

Next I wanted to place these chipboards stating "World's best mom" , "Caring", "Loving" etc on each of these canvases but during my experiment, I spoiled one of the canvas so I had to use another round MDF I had in my stash. If you have white gesso, you can give a coat of it on top of this if you want to repaint them. I painted the sentiments in black paint so I wanted a little lighter background to make it stand out.
I chose this 'Fairy Dust' in gold shade; a micro glitter product that Itsy Bitsy had recently launched and applied it over the central area of the canvas with glue. I think I should've chosen a less stronger shade of glitter but I think its okay.

I placed the chipboard elements at the middle of each of the canvases across the diagonals and adhered them using glue (the foam sticker on it was standing out being white so I removed them)

I wanted to hang them into a wall hanging with the square shapes standing at diamond positions. Like in my last key hanger tutorial, I used screw hooks to connect these diamond shapes. Since the frame of the canvas is made of wood, you can easily twist the screw and fix them into it.

I used some jump rings to connect two of the canvases and also to add a little hanging bead with hot glue at the other edges - just for a little interest :)

One of the canvases was a little small for my chipboard plus it got overloaded with my gold splash experiment :P I instead replaced the first block of my wall hanging with an MDF circle I had in my stash. I applied a coat of white gesso over it and then sprayed the gold splashes. You can see how vibrant the shade is... even without any similar base coat in acrylic fabric paint.