Crafter in The Spotlight 59 - Itsy Bitsy

Hello arty-crafty folks,

Thursday’s back and so am I, with this week’s Crafter in the Spotlight. It’s Aparna Suresh who is going to share her story with us this week.

Aparna has always been passionate about art and calls ‘craft’ her new found love. She holds a Masters degree in Fine arts, which reflects her fervour for creative endeavours. Indian Vintage is Aparna’s favourite and she loves paper cutting and creating designs for her own charms.

How did Aparna 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 Aparna 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?  Tell us a bit about yourself & your background?

Aparna Suresh: My name is Aparna Suresh; an artist by passion and a mother of two beautiful children. I hold a master's degree in Fine Arts and it has helped me get creative in making bags and boxes. Crafting is my new found love and canvas painting is my all-time love. I am a Bharatnatyam dancer and have a keen interest in waste management.

RC: How did you get into crafting?

AS: While painting I saw myself slowly enjoying crafting too. I started to dabble on paper, wood, glass etc. Itsy Bitsy in Phoenix Mall, Bangalore is paradise for me as I started to buy my craft supplies from there. I started buying pattern papers, modpodge (even without knowing what it is used for) and other craft materials.

RC:  What is your favourite type of craft?

AS: I slowly saw myself up-cycling papers to journals, pieces of wood to frames or key holders, boxes to wall hangings, waste glasses to name plates etc.

RC:  What are your favourite products at Itsy Bitsy?

AS: Undoubtedly silicon glue is my favourite Itsy Bitsy product. Others are clear stamps, pattern papers, paper flowers, chalk paints and colour splashes.

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

AS: I love to do paper cutting. Most of the charms I create are from my own designs of papercuts. If I had magical powers I would mass produce my own papercuts designs.

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

AS: Rubber stamps from the store are my prized possessions.

RC:  How would you describe your style of crafting?

AS: My style of crafting is Indian Vintage.

RC: How do you organize your time for crafting?

AS: Afternoons are my craft times.

RC: Tips for people who want to craft

AS: My tips to crafters will be; Experiment, Create artworks that can be used and UPCYCLE.

RC:  Your all -time favourite quote?

AS: My favourite quote "Live your passion."

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

This is a Kitchen cabinet door, that is being converted into a frame. Ensure usage of masking tape to avoid bleeding of the paint.

After first layer of Gesso is applied to the frame, allow it to dry. The frame was painted with acrylic cadmium yellow and to add more dimension to the monotonous yellow; shade of yellow ochre was added.

A vintage distressed look was created using Vermilion archival ink.

Impasto was mixed with acrylic blue to get a coloured texture paste

The cake stencil from Itsy Bitsy was placed for creating pattern on the frame and the impasto paste created in the aforementioned step was used to get the desired 3-D lace effect.

The final frame with a hand painted Lord Ganesha is ready!!

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

Many congrats Aparna 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!

Crafter in The Spotlight 53 - Itsy Bitsy

Hello Crafty Folks, this Thursday is special!! It’s our 53^rd Crafter in the Spotlight; that means we have completed a journey of One Year. That’s exciting isn’t it?? We have celebrated a talented crafter every week for an entire year and will continue to do so to motivate and bring out hidden talents!

Today, I am here to feature yet another extremely talented crafter from Delhi. She is Preeti Datta, a crafter who chose to go with freelancing jobs to make time for crafting. She started with kid’s craft and moved on to discover various techniques of mainstream crafting like mixed media, card making, journaling and more.

Preeti rightly calls her crafting style eclectic and ever evolving because she likes to try out different styles, starting from simple cards to mixed media. Little Birdie color sprays, flowers and embellishments are among Preeti’s favourite craft supplies and she loves using them quite often.

 What are Preeti’s tips for fellow crafters, her favourite quote, how would she contribute to crafting world if she had magical powers?? To know all these & to know more about her interesting journey & to see a step by step project of hers, please read the interview & leave your comments for her.

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

Preeti Datta: My name is Preeti Datta, my friends on facebook know me as Dutt Preety. I’m a resident of Delhi. I have studied Clinical Psychology and worked as a Psychologist and a Talent Acquisition Specialist. Currently, I work as a freelancer so that I have time to craft and work on other assignments.  Cooking, watching movies, listening to music and crafting are my favorite leisure time activities. My family consists of my parents. My dad was a Naval Aviator and my mother was a School Principal. I have 2 elder sisters, 3 nephews and 1 niece and I really enjoy spending time with the little ones.

RC: How did you get into crafting?

PD: I have always enjoyed crafting. Even as a child I spent hours dressing up my Barbie dolls and making new clothes and jewellery for them. Over the past few years, I have helped out my nephews, niece and friends’ children in their school art and craft work and holiday homework projects and that’s how I started children’s crafting. I got into proper crafting last year in September, 2016. Ever since then I have been hooked. I really enjoy creating, working with colors and learning new techniques.

RC: What is your favourite type of craft?

PD: I enjoy paper crafting and I think card making is my favorite followed closely by art journaling.

RC: What are your favourite products at Itsy Bitsy?

PD: I really love the Little Birdie color sprays; I use them on almost all my Mixed Media work. Also, the Little Birdie theme based embellishments and flowers are quite beautiful and I enjoy splurging on those every so often.

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

PD:  If I had magical powers, I’d contribute to the crafting world by making all kinds of art and craft tools, supplies and tutorials available and affordable to anybody who wishes to craft. So that everybody has the opportunity to learn and enjoy it.

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

PD: The dies, embossing folders and pattern papers I bought from Itsy Bitsy. I have a huge stash of those and absolutely adore them.

RC: How would you describe your style of crafting?

PD: I would describe my style of crafting as eclectic and ever evolving. I am enamored by different styles of art work including CAS, mixed media and shabby chic. I like experimenting with all these styles and varying it up.

RC: How do you organize your time for crafting?

PD:  I try to craft on most days during the week. I just enjoy the process; sometimes it takes me a few hours and at others can take a few days. A lot of times, thinking about the design and composition takes a lot longer.

RC: Tips for people who want to craft

PD: I would say just jump into it, watch youtube tutorials, read a few blogs, try out simple things with the materials you already have at home, see what piques your interest. Try spending a little time every day crafting, coloring or pursuing any creative endeavor because it is a great stress buster and your precious “me” time.

RC: Your all-time favourite quote?

PD: “Determine to live life with flair and laughter” – Maya Angelou

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

Mixed Media Mini Canvas: 

Step 1: Collect the materials required. I have here supplies from Itsy Bitsy including a Mont Marte Canvas Panel (5 by 7), Mont Marte Impasto Paste, Camel’s Gesso, Palette knives and Burlap Ribbon 

Step 2: Apply Impasto paste or any other texture/modeling paste you have onto the canvas through a stencil 

Step 3: Add more texture (for added interest) with some gesso. Randomly apply it with the edge of the palette knife to give vertical textured lines. This will create movement in the piece

Step 4: Cut the Burlap Ribbon into thin strips and adhere layers of these strips onto the canvas based on your composition, I have kept them skewed to the right. I’ve adhered them with gesso itself.

Step 5: Now comes the fun part, we get to add the embellishments and color the project. Here is a selection of Little Birdie Flowers, chipboard and sparkly bits I had in my stash, I will use some of these on the project

Step 6: I will use the new Little Birdie Gold Alcohol Splash Sprays to add color to the canvas as well as color the chipboard. I’ve used 4 colors on the project ie., Pure Gold, Wild Rose, Golden Mocha and Black Soot.

Step 7: Finally, adhered all the embellishments. The title consists of a scripty die cut and a couple of word stickers, then added some sparkle to the canvas with the hearty mélange (gold hearts). Finished off by adding few details with inks and black and white markers and then some splatters of ink. 

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

Many congrats Preeti 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!

Mixed Media Canvas

This is Tanvi, welcoming you here today!

In her previous posts - here & here, DT Lekha used the Itsy Bitsy metallic paints & I knew I had to try them! Was so happy to find them in my DT kit this time! 

Mont Marte Impasto & Mont Marte dimensional paints are two other products I am using for the first time & will talk about these in a bit.

For my post today I am working on a mixed media canvas.

After a base coat of gesso on a 8x10 canvas I started working on creating the background. 

I used teal blast metallic paint. These colors are very creamy & rich, give very good coverage & the metallic sheen is simply amazing. Pearlized paints are available in an array of colors - 

Also I have used these on a variety of media in this project as you will see soon -  canvas, paper, MDF, chipboard, fabric, handmade paper, metal. 

To even out the color I used a baby wipe.

Next I wanted to add some silver to the background & this is where I brought in the dimensional paint. Once again with the baby wipe blended it in the background. Mont Marte Dimension acrylic is a high viscosity fine art paint. 

After this I wanted some stencilling to add texture to the background using IMPASTO. 

 Impasto is a technique of using very thick paint, usually thick enough so that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible. When dry, impasto provides texture & thats how I experimented with it using a stencil. Mont Marte Impasto is a heavy bodied paint that is colorless. When mixed with the color it does not change color. 

As you can see in the picture I mixed both the colors with impasto & it formed a rich creamy blend. 

Carefully I used the irregular dot stencil, using both pastes randomly.

While it was drying I brought out some embellishments from my Itsy Bitsy stash! 

For some more texture I glued some doillies on the canvas & also some gesso splatters all over the canvas.

Once I decided on the layout I glued all the embellishments using silicon glue. 

I brushed gesso on all & later painted them with the teal color. The chipboard frames, pearl strings & metal charms I chose to paint silver. At this point I also added some silver stencilled script to the background,

Here is the final look at the canvas & some close ups! Love how the sheen is captured by the camera!

All the embellishments transformed so easily to a teal color!

I had a lot of fun experimenting with the paints & impasto & hope you will try these too!

Thank you for visiting today!

Supplies used - 

Metallic paints 

Mont Marte Impasto 

Mont Marte dimensional paints 

Flexible knife

gesso 

 canvas

embellishments

Chipboard shapes

Handmade flowers

Fabric flowers

Stencil brush

doillies

irregular dot stencil

Script stencil

silicon glue