Monday, January 14, 2013

The MARVELOUS ItsyBitsy Foam Punch

ItsyBitsy has a new range of punches which punch foam and card stock. They are really quite marvelous because they punch out crisp and clean outlines which work wonderfully for any craft project. I've just done a new video demonstrating how this works and you can see first hand how well they work.
There are about 20 awesome foam punch designs available at the store. Remember they also work well with card stock. Plus we also have a fabulous range of foam sheets which you can examine as well. 

Have you created anything with foam? Leave a comment with your link. We would love to check it out!

Thursday, January 10, 2013

A Masculine Card

Crafters! A few submissions are trickling in for our Weddings and Celebrations Challenge - glad to see the awesome entries and looking forward to more glamorous and gorgeous creations.

My topic for today is masculine cards. A friend of mine is celebrating his birthday and I figured I would make a card when I realized that masculine cards are not the easiest feat. We're constantly jazzing up our creations with flowers, butterflies and bows so we find ourselves stumped when we need to create something for a guy. Fortunately ItsyBitsy has some awesome embellishments that can make such a project a breeze.


A good starting point is the color scheme. Obviously we should avoid pinks and lavenders. I went with this blue background and added a lovely striped pattern paper to the center. I created the background crisscross design by manually cutting and glueing strips of paper to replicate a lattice feeling. Finally I used these uber cool black chipboard embellishments for the diamond border and the gorgeous sentiment. I couldn't resist a little bit of ribbon and that's what the ruffle at the two corners is about.

Then comes the most important part - step away from the card! If you're like me you just can't stop embellishing so I forced myself to just get up and walk off. The card is ready and I think I've achieved my objective - to create a masculine card.

Have you created a masculine card? Would love to see it, leave a comment with your link and I will be coming over very soon. 

Supplies used:



Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Kraft Bags, Doilies and What Not!

ItsyBitsy is bursting with exciting new products and I've been itching to blog about it. Firstly a few weeks ago, they launched these Kraft Bags which are really economically priced, well made and come in a variety of sizes. Then a week ago, they introduced paper doilies intricately designed and available in 5 awesome sizes. Finally they've rolled out these amazing foam punches - Now punch craft will take on a whole new persona with crafters able to punch foam, paper and card stock with equal EASE! Here's a little project I made incorporating these amazing elements!


I started with a Kraft paper bag and proceeded to add a doily to the top and bottom. Then I went all out with the embellishments - some beautiful boutique elements flowers, punched butterflies using the new foam punch and scores of little crystals. For the center band, I used the ItsyBitsy Lace Die, threaded some satin ribbon through it and filled the center with a glitter foam butterfly using ItsyBitsy's butterfly Die. The scallop and straight ovals are all cut using ItsyBitsy's Thin Cuts dies. Here's a close up of the embellishment.
The Kraft Bags start from just Rs. 15. The bag I used above is 12" by 7.5" and goes for this rate. The largest bag is 18" by 14" and costs Rs. 39.

The Paper Doilies come in sets of 6 starting from Rs. 29 a set. For this project I used one 5.5" doily and one 8.5" doily, each cut in  half for both sides of the bag.

For this project, I used the Butterfly Foam Punch which retails for Rs. 299. It works well with both foam and card stock. I will shortly release a demo video to show how well it works.

And here is a list of all the items I used for this project:

8.5" Doily
Satin Ribbon
Butterfly Foam Punch
Pink Pearl Card Stock
Kraft Bag
Purple Glitter Foam
Rhinestones



Tye Die Gypsies
Boutique Elements
Plum Jeweled Florettes


5.5" Paper Doilies

Sunday, January 6, 2013

A Craft Contest for Young Crafters


At ItsyBitsy, we are keen to support all forms of craft. Starting this month we will be rolling out a monthly contest for young crafters. Simply create anything you like within the guidelines that follow, then enter it into our month-long photo contest on Facebook and get your Facebook friends to vote. We will select 2 winners - one will be the audience favorite and the other will be judges pick! Both winners will receive a fantastic gift basket from ItsyBitsy. 


Here are the guidelines:

1. The project should be made by someone below the age of 13. Parents and guardians are welcome to assist but the project should be made by a young crafter.

2. The photo can be submitted either by the creator themselves, or if they don't have a Facebook account, by their parents, guardians, siblings etc. 

3. You can enter up to 3 creations.

4. You can make anything you like as long as any 2 of the following general craft items are incorporated somewhere in the project:









Looking forward to seeing your fabulous entries!!!

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Winners and Finalists of The ItsyBitsy Two's Company Challenge

Crafters! We are happy to say that we have completed evaluating and assessing the submissions for our December challenge. As you know the theme was to make a pair of coordinating projects and we had 67 awesome entries. We have selected our winners and finalists keeping in mind that the key word in our criteria is 'TWO'.

So without further delay, here are the winners! Dr Sonia for her lime and orange photo frame box set and Sindhu for her baby blue photo frame and easel drawer card set.

Sonia
Sindhu
Congratulations Sindhu and Sonia, you both win a voucher worth Rs 1000 from ItsyBitsy.

And on to our finalists. Here are our favorites in no particular order:

Kavitha
Hussena
Tanvi
Manu
Chandana
Shalini Pahwa
I know you all join me in congratulating all the finalists and winners. Your creations are stunning and the your success is well deserved!

Winners please write in to info@itsybitsy.in for your vouchers and badge
Finalists please write in to info@itsybitsy.in for your badges

Looking forward to another crafty year with all of you. Hope you're already getting started on our Weddings & Celebrations Challenge - can't wait to see what you come up with!!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

The ItsyBitsy Weddings & Celebrations Challenge

It's the 1st day of 2013 and at the onset here's a Hearty Happy New Year from the entire team over at ItsyBitsy. May you have a prosperous, blessed and of course CRAFTY New Year!

Our next challenge which will run through the first month of 2013 will be Weddings & Celebrations. We wanted to give all you talented crafters out there a chance to be decadent, indulgent and lavish with your creations so don't hold back - make the lusciously embellished creations you've been itching to create. Here's what I've created as inspiration - hope it gets your crafty fingers itching to get started!



I'm sure you will agree that ItsyBitsy is the ultimate source for flowers and embellishments and I have gone to town with them on this project with flowers, pearls and glitter. Plus we have also recently launched lace doilies at an unbelievable price and I've used one as a prop in this photograph just to give you a hint of what's available. Watch this space for more ideas in the next few days.

Here are your challenge rules:
  • Your submission can be a card, box, tag - anything as long as it fits the theme 'Weddings & Celebrations.
  • The contest closes at midnight on 31st January 2013.
  • In order to submit your entry, click on the inlinkz button provided at the bottom of this page, add your image and link to your blog post containing the submission.
  • Each participant can submit a maximum of 3 entries. 
  • Participants can withdraw entries at any time before the contest closes by deleting their own submission.
  • Submitting old projects is not permitted. All submissions have to be created after 1st January 2013.
  • In your blog post, create a link back to this page - The ItsyBitsy Weddings & Celebrations Challenge.
  • 2 winners will be selected and will receive a voucher of Rs. 1000 each, redeemable online at www.itsybitsy.in.
  • In addition 6 finalists will be selected all of whom will receive a badge to display on their blog. 
And with that I shall sign off! Looking forward to seeing your masterpieces and once again Happy New Year!

Monday, December 31, 2012

Demo of the Rotary Cutter to Make a Shop Card

Folks, as promised in my previous post, here is the tutorial on how to make a shop card using a rotary cutter. I have given you a detailed walkthrough on how to use the cutter, replace the blades and create an adorable shop card with it. Hope you find it useful.


Also here are the templates for the canopy and the 3D shop counter. My card size is 4.5" by 6.5" so both these templates will complement this card size. For both the designs, the dotted lines are for scoring and the straight lines are for cutting.

Shop Counter Template


















Canopy Template:

Thursday, December 27, 2012

A Shop Card with the Rotary Cutter

A few days ago, we launched the rotary cutter with mat at our store and I thought I'd take some time to  describe it's mammoth potential. It's a cutter ideal for a crafter with space constraints and who doesn't yet have a cutting mat for her craft work. It comes with a handle and 3 blade options - straight, large wave and smaller wave. I used the large wave blade to make this shop card for my cousin who just had a baby girl.


I've seen shop cards on the Internet and I love that cute striped canopy that tops the card for which I used the rotary cutter large wave blade. I added my own touch with the 3D shop counter for the bottom and filled up the 'shop window' with oodles of super cute baby girl embellishments from ItsyBitsy. They really are the most adorable little stickers in the world. I finished off the bottom with of the much loved sparkle florettes from ItsyBitsy and added a rim of pearls for a final luscious touch. I have made a tutorial on how to make this card using the Rotary Cutter, so have a look when you can. 

Now the card was 1.5" thick thanks to the protruding canopy and the counter top. A box envelope wouldn't do, it had to be a box instead. I didn't want to make it too ornate, the card was embellished enough. I added these darling little baby footprints for the top and instead of flowers on the top, I decided to add just a couple to each corner of the side. The sentiments are all stickers from ItsyBitsy's baby girl range.

 

I'm heading off to Kerala on Saturday to present my cousin with this concoction. It will be really hard to part with it because I seriously love it. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Also, you may have noticed a change in my photo style. I added a few 'props' and changed the background to suit my card.  I got inspired by Sindhu of Trapped in Craft - she's been adding the most wonderful accents to her photographs.