Baby Shower Invitations

My dear friend Sowmya is having her second baby in a month and a couple of us got together to organise her baby shower. Of course for me organising a baby shower isn't about the food, the party games or the decorations. It's only about the invitations! I love any occasion to craft so I really had a blast doing the invitations for her shower. 

I shaped the invitation as a little diaper. It was easy enough to find the template online so I found one that suited me and cut it to this shape. Once I put it together with the ribbon and everything, it turned out to be a little too bulky for a regular envelope and hence the box envelope by the side. I chose the DCWV French Country Stack for this project as it had a great combination of pastel pinks, greens and blues. We don't know the sex of the baby yet so I needed something neutral. 

The card as I said is shaped like a diaper or nappy. It's got side flaps which close together with a ribbon. Then to open the card, one has to just open the ribbon and read the message inside. I didn't use card stock at all in this project. I used two papers from the French Country Stack, stuck back to back so that the outside was one design and the inside was another complimentary one. So glad with the result. 

For the boxes I used a fun template I found online where the closing flaps are kept together using some twisted twine. You can use buttons or brads for the twine but I decided to use some fabulous flowers with pollen from Itsy Bitsy. For the twine, I used my stash of Sew Easy pink floss. It was the perfect shade of pink and the right thickness to keep the box closed while at the same time not putting pressure on the rose. 

I've still got a few more to do as we finalise the guest list but I wanted to share it right away as I'm ticked pink with the project. What do you think of my creation? Would love to hear your views. Leave a comment and let me know.

Till then, Happy Crafting!!!

Supplies Used

Baby Boy Layouts with the Spellbinders Cherry Picking Die

Spellbinders Dies are one of the best investments one can make in their crafty endeavours. Most Spellbinders dies come with 3 to four cutting options and have the capability for embossing and stencilling. I never quite understood how it all worked until I picked up the Spellbinders Cherry Picking Die. I had been eying it for quite a while and last week I finally took the plunge and bought it! Woo hoo! My first order of business - using it for a Baby Boy Scrapbook. Here are 2 pages I created using this fantastic and versatile die. 

The picture above is the opening page of the scrapbook where the baby is introduced to the readers. I wanted to provide space for the mother to add photographs of the little one and the Spellbinders Cherry Picking Die offered an excellent approach. The die allowed me to cut  a frame, the embossing feature enabled me to emboss the cherries and the stencil feature enabled me to heat emboss only the cherries!  Voila! A beautiful personalised one of a kind frame. Here's a closeup! 

To see how I created this fantastic effect, please watch the following tutorial which offers step by step instructions on how to make full use of this die.

The Spellbinders Cherry Picking Die also has 2 more dies included in the pack providing more results. I used them for the Family Tree page on the reverse side. The larger blue die cut is cut from the central portion of my original frame and the inner white frame with the tiny circles is cut using the additional dies available in the set. There is also a cherry and leaf die too. I used the cherry die to embellish the text 'Introducing Siddharth'. Love it to bits!! Here's a look at the page with a closeup below. 

The Spellbinders dies retail anything from Rs. 1099 to 1399 at Itsy Bitsy and if this is a little too steep for you, you have to check out the Couture Creations Intricutz dies. These are fantastic! Each is priced very reasonably - Rs. 499 to Rs. 799 and they cut cleanly and neatly. I used the Picket Fence Die and Heirloom Die to create the bottom trim on the Introduction Page. So thrilled with the turn out!

Here's a demo video showing the Intricutz dies in action. You can see how I created this extra broad fence and how I applied the flower vine. 

How do you like my Baby Boy Scrapbook Layout? Would love to hear your views - leave me a comment and I'll be sure to get back.

Supplies Used:

Scarecrow -Pumpkin Photo Frame - Guest post

With Halloween approaching soon & Fall crafts being the most discussed craft over the blog-o-sphere these days, I decided to follow the bandwagon and make something that is both functional and that fit the theme.

To make this friendly scarecrow in a pumpkin patch,

You'll need -

1. Foam sheets - Orange & brown
2. Felt sheet - Green, White, Pink & Red
3. Icecream stick
4. A pair of googly eyes
5. Blue Pipe cleaners 
6. Corrugated flowers
7. Black Sketch pen
8. Straw 
9. Glue Gun & 
10. Scissors

To make -

First cut out a pumpkin shape from the orange foam sheet. 

Cut out the center to foam a space that's 4.1" x 6.1" [ this will accommodate a 4"x6" size picture] 

To make the scarecrow, Cut a circle from the white felt, cut out a hat shape from the brown foam, cut the straw into 6 inch long strips. tie them together and bend them in half. Stick them to the bottom of the hat. Stick the hat onto the felt face using glue gun. Stick on googly eyes & a triangle foam piece for the nose. Stick on some flowers for the hat.

Cut a rectangle felt piece for the shirt & a red felt piece for the neck scarf. Twist a blue pipecleaner around some straw to make the hands. Glue them all together as shown.

Stick the scarecrow onto the pumpkin foam. Add a stump, felt leaves, draw a mouth for the scarecrow using black sketch pen and finally add a ice-cream stick at the bottom of the photo frame for the scarecrow stick.  Now take a picture of your child in their Halloween costume and paste it behind the orange foam cutout.

You have your very own scarecrow in a pumpkin patch photo frame ready.

Shruti Bhat is a Software Quality Analyst by profession who mostly exercises her left brain during the day at work and her right brain takes over at home. She loves crafting with her 7 year old daughter and blogs at ArtsyCraftsyMom.com. She can be reached at @ArtsyCraftsyMom on Twitter, Facebook & Pinterest

Supplies Used

Cards with Crochet

My love affair with craft began when I was seven or eight years old when my mother introduced me to cross stitch. She taught me the basics and then gave me a pattern book as back then there weren't any stitch kits. I spent hours embroidering little birds and flowers, fruits and designs. Then my mother taught me how to knit, that again became a passion. Later my interests evolved to artwork and painting and now it is paper craft. Through it all, crochet was the only thing I hadn't tried. I was always interested but never attempted it. So when I saw the new range of crochet yarns at Itsy Bitsy, I knew the time for crochet had come. 

I picked up 2 balls of yarn from Itsy Bitsy -  a shaded pink and an olive green. I also picked up some hooks - Itsy Bitsy has a range of crochet hooks with different sizes, I picked the thinnest one as I figured with yarn so thin, the needle had to be thin too. Then I headed over to YouTube. I cannot tell you how many tutorials there are online for different types of crochet projects. There are tutorials on the basics, on patterns, on shawls, scarves, jackets, shrugs, flowers, leaves - my goodness, the list is endless. After watching and practicing, I started getting the hang of crochet. Then I started making the flowers, following that the leaves and in 3 days, my set of crochet flowers were done. Now it was time to put them to use. And being the paper crafting I am, of course it had to be cards. 

Here's a look at the cards I made using my hand made crochet flowers and leaves. I had also just picked up the DCWV French Country Stack which went perfectly with this colour scheme. Since I had made 3 flowers, I decided to make 3 cards and for the first time, I found I was able to put them together fairly quickly. I guess the crochet flowers had inspired me!

For my first card, I used white card stock as the base layer and placed a sheet from the French Country stack on top. I added a final layer of white card stock which I had embossed with a lovely Itsy Bitsy embossing folder. I distressed both these layers using the We R Memory Keepers Sweetheart distressing tool. My crochet flowers and leaves went on one corner and a lovely bow on the opposite one. I finished the card with an adorable Blue Moon scissor charm on my ribbon. Love it to bits!!

My next card had more layers of pattern paper from the French Country Stack. The crocheted rose with accompanying leaves formed the center piece, I gotta say, this flower is my favourite one. I embossed the top layer of white card stock with the Sweet Flowers Embossing folder and added some pretty pink and white roses on the two corners for a really pretty finish. Some randomly placed pearls added to the floral feel and voila, my card was done. 

For my next card, I tried a completely different layout. I used the pattern paper as the base, gluing two pieces back to back. This made it heavy enough to serve as a card base. I filed one of the new rectangular doilies at Itsy Bitsy in half to create a lacy top layer and added a border of pearls on it. My crochet flower went on the centre and the rest of the empty space was filled with die cuts from the Couture Creations Intricutz Die. This card started out looking quite sad but finished up looking the best I think. 

Here are some closeups of the first two cards, to give you a look at the embossing and the detailing in the crochet flowers. I really got quite addicted to the crocheting aspect, found myself at it till 4 am every night. Now that my project is ready I hope I still continue to crochet. 

How do you like my first attempt at crochet? Do you like how I used them in cards? Have you tried crochet yourself? Leave a comment and let me know! Would love to hear all about it. 

Supplies Used

Birthday Party Favours with Itsy Bitsy

My daughter recently celebrated her 2nd birthday and I'm the kind of mom who gets really into the party theme and wants everything to be thematic. The theme I had decided was 'Cows and Music' as these are my daughters 2 great loves. I was also on holiday until a week before the big day so I just had a few days to put everything together. And when it came to Party Favour bags, I had only one store in mind - Itsy Bitsy of course!

You may or may not know that Itsy Bitsy is the best place to source your birthday party supplies. Apart from the disposables and decorations, you can also find your favour bags and return gifts. The theme I chose was not a common one so I couldn't expect to find Musical Cow bags. But I was unfazed - Itsy Bitsy had everything I needed.

Itsy Bitsy has a whole bunch of brown paper bags called as Kraft Bags with sizes starting from 10" by 11" and varying into bigger versions. This smallest bag is priced at just Rs. 15 per bag and it's sufficiently large to fit just about any gift you purchase. 

Did you also that Itsy Bitsy has A4 sticker sheets. These are amazing as they allow you to customize the bag to match your party theme. I printed this awesome cow print design with the text 'Moo'chas Gracias' on the Itsy Bitsy sticker sheets. Then I peeled off the back and just stuck it onto my bag which had now been converted from a regular brown bag to a fun party favour bag. 

Finally it was time to choose a return gift. My daughter is 2 but since we live in an apartment community, there were lots of older and younger children who were invited to the bash. I had to choose a gift that would suit children as young as 1.5 years to as old as 6. Enter the Itsy Bitsy DIY Craft Kits. These handy packs come in so many themes and contain everything you need to make a particular project. Prices start from as low as Rs. 70 and you can almost always find something that suits your party theme. I managed to find a Cow Puppet Kit! And in it went into my customised favour bag!

Here's a glance at a few of the DIY kits available at Itsy Bitsy. There are loads more which you can view here:

What do you think of my party favour bags? Leave a comment and let me know!

Supplies Used

The Itsy Bitsy Pretty with P Challenge with Some Changes

Folks, we're back again with a brand new challenge and going forward we've introduced some changes to the status quo.

• Firstly our challenges will run from the 15th of the month to the 10th of the following month.

• Winners will be announced by the 20th of the month. 

• We are also changing the evaluation methodology. Until now, winners have been hand picked by our panel of creative judges. Hence forth there will be a 2-pronged evaluation approach. 

• We will open the entries for audience voting for 5 days. During the same period of time, the judges will be evaluating your entries. 

• To choose the winner, we will be combining audience feedback and judges selection. 

So without further delay let me reveal the theme this time. As always there will be 2 categories, one for Jewellery Making and the other for everything else including paper crafting, general craft, embroidery and other craft creations. The theme this time is 'Pretty with P'. Wondering what we mean by P??

P for Pearls

P for Pattern Paper

P for Posy

P for Pink

Your challenge this month is to create something using these Ps. We need you use at least two of the P's in your project and additional points will be given to those projects that incorporate more P's in their creation. This clause applies to both Jewellery Making and Paper Crafting.

Here is some inspiration for your projects. Our creative team at Itsy Bitsy really had their task set out for them - Pink and Pearls is easy enough but how does one incorporate pattern paper and posies in a jewellery making project. They finally put their heads together and came up with this masterpiece! Check out the paper beads made out of pattern paper and don't miss the flowers for the central feature! Love their creation! Super!!

For paper crafting, I decided to make a card. I haven't made a card in quite a while so it was fun to do and especially so when the task was to incorporate such pretty elements.

I started with some white card stock and added 2 different designs from the DCWV Fabric Paper stack. This stack is just divine - full of pretty pinks and flowers and all fabric with adhesive backing so when you touch it, you can feel the fabric texture! For the central frame I used the Spellbinders Cherry Picking Die that I embossed and inked using the stencil feature of the die. I slipped in some flourishes that I cut using my Couture Creation Die and finished off with a border of pearls. Here are some closeups. 

For the central posy of roses, I used some Thai Natural Paper from Itsy Bitsy as a backing. The feel of this paper is so great and added a wonderful textured look to my card. Love it!!

So here are the rules of the challenge:

1. For the Paper/ General crafting project, your submission can be a card, box, tag, scrapbook layout, dress, embroidery, crochet work etc - anything as long as it is handmade and
contains at least 2 of the 4 P's - Pink, Pearls, Posy or Pattern Paper

2. For the jewellery making project, your submission must be some form of jewellery and once again must contain at least 2 of the 4 P's - Pink, Pearls, Posy or Pattern Paper. 
3. Quilled jewellery or jewellery made out of paper beads will fall under the Jewellery making category.
4. Entries can be submitted until 10th October 2013.
5. Entries will be open to audience vote from 11th to 14th October 2013
6. Following this, the winners will be selected after combining both audience feedback and judges feedback.
7. In order to submit your entry, click on the inlinkz button provided at the end of this post, add your image and link to your blog post containing the submission. There is a separate button for each category.
8. If you do not have a blog, please create an album on any online photo gallery, ensure the settings are public and link it up as detailed in point 5. 
9. If you are unable to create an online gallery or blog,  please write in to 
itsybitsycraftcontests@gmail.com with your submission.
10. Each participant can submit a maximum of 3 entries within each category
11. Submitting old projects is not permitted. All submissions have to be created after 15th September 2013
12. In your blog post, create a link back to this page - The ItsyBitsy 'Pretty P' Challenge.
13. Entries are welcome from all over the world however if you are the winner, we can only ship your prize to an Indian address.
14. 2 winners will be selected, one for jewellery making and one for paper/general crafting who will each receive a voucher of Rs. 1000 each, redeemable online at 
www.itsybitsy.in.
15. In addition 3 to 6 finalists in each category will be selected all of whom will receive a badge to display on their blog.

Submissions for Paper Crafting

Submissions for Jewellery Making

That wraps up this post. Looking forward to seeing your incredible entries and all the very best folks!

Supplies Used

SALE SALE SALE!!!!!!!!!!!

It's that time of the year again folks! Itsy Bitsy is on SALE!! Up to 80% off on our fantastic range of craft supplies - and some amazing savings on offer!! The best part of it all? The sale is on at the stores and online!!! So check out the deals and start stocking up now!!

A Candy Box and Card Set

With festival season around the corner, I thought it would be fun to spend some time doing candy boxes to pack with chocolates, sweets or mithai. I honestly feel that candies become even sweeter when the presentation is top notch which is why I wanted to go all out to make the box and coordinating card as grand as possible. I also feel that candy and sweet boxes should have a 'peek-a-boo' window for a sneak peak at the goodies inside so that that's what I included in my creation. 

For the base of the box I kept it simple with a black card as I was planning to go a bit insane for the lid. I started with some bright orange card stock on which I stamped this pretty damask design using a Kaisercraft stamp from Itsy Bitsy with versamark ink. Then I dusted some black WOW embossing powder all over the inked design and once I dusted off the excess, I used my heat tool to melt the powder and create this pretty glazed finish. Here's a close up of the embossing. For a detailed view of how the heat embossing, be sure to catch the tutorial video at the end of this post. 

Then I got to work creating the see-through-portion of the lid which I accomplished using some Scallop Rectangle Dies from Itsy Bitsy coupled with transparency sheets. The next step was embellishing the lid and here I decided to make my own flowers. Using the Sizzix Sizzlets 3 pack flower die, I created the corner flower embellishments and added a flourish on either side for a little drama. Pearls and doilies on the edge finished off the box. 

For a detailed account on how I heat embossed the lid and created the see through window, watch my video tutorial below.

At the end of my project, I realised that the colours I chose made the set appear to be more appropriate Halloween than  a happy Festival so if I could do it over, I think I would have replaced the orange with gold or silver or even a rich red. That said, I was really kicked with my black flowers and the heat embossing.

How do you like my project and the tutorial? Would love your frank feedback. Leave a comment and let me know!

Supplies Used