A journal making to store design papers

I have many designs on papers, like embroidery designs, dress designs etc. I had kept those in a normal paper folder. Artist in me was not satisfied with the plain paper folder. To make it interesting , I thought of decorating the folder to keep all the designs. I haven't used any special technique, just went on doing whatever came in my mind. :)
 It is a folder made of cardboard, I stuck cloth all over the folder. On the cloth, glues some wet tissue.

Folder with wet tissue glued on it

Once the tissue dried applied , light blue and dark blue paint on it.

After application of paint

On the front attached wooden embellishment and painted it with golden color:

With wooden embellishment 

Back of the folder with a lock embellishment :

The folder looks better rather than plain folder to store my designs.

Coming up with embroidery projects soon. Keep an eye on my blog:)

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Decoupage Box- Antique look

Recently worked on many decoupage projects. I feel among all the crafts, decoupage is less time consuming and gives magical transformation. In the process of decorating my craft room, I'm making many handmade items . I have already shared about the craft table made,  and the shelf transformed with decoupage.  This is one more decoupage box to decorate my craft room.I have used antique look paper with miniature painting.
Here is it with my craft supplies:

Box with my craft supplies

How to make decoupage box with antique look(Tutorial)

This is a wooden box, which I got it made by a carpenter. The first step is to paint with primer.

First paint with primer

 I have some miniature paintings replicas , which I had got when I had visited Salar jung museum , Hyderabad. Attached it on one side of the box.

Miniature paint attached

To give antique look, I selected a paper with antique look. Attached it on all the sides of the box.
This time I used Modpodge for the decoupage. I felt it was very easy to handle and the finishing was very nice.

With antique paper attached

Here is the box completed:

Completed box

Inside also painted with brown color and outside with a modpodge. It looks like antique box. Hope to complete many more projects in coming days. Will definitely share with you all.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

DIY craft- Tutorial to make Sandook(Box) from waste boxes

Sandook is a box , which is used earlier days for storing precious items like jewellery. These were used by king and queens of India for the storage of their jewels. Now also there is a big Sandook in my mother's place, in which many old books are stored. Inspired by the sandook, I made similar box, by a cardboard box.

Sandook made of cradboard

  Here are the steps how I made the sandook: 

I had these two waste cardboard boxes . One was small and another quite flat one.Here are those boxes:

Two packaging boxes

To making of semi circle sides is quite difficult as it requires exact measurement. I measures the side of the box, and with half of its measurement drew two  semi circles on the card board:

Drawing the semi circles

 Then cut the semi circles along its boundaries:

The semicircles required for the sides

After cutting , the semi circles, bent the other card board piece of same size as the box. And attached the semi circles made out of cardboard on both the sides. The steps are illustrated in image number 4,5,6 and 7. Now the  portion of  of the sandook is made.

Steps to make the lid of the sandook

Next attached this top portion to the cardboard box, with fevicol and a cloth. The reson behind using the cloth was to make it easy to open the lid.

Attach the lid with a cloth on one side of the box

To this box attached  ice cream sticks all over the box, as illustrated int the below picture:

Attach ice cream sticks

It is now ready for painting and decoration! Painted with wood color and attached shiny tape along the corners.

Paint it and attach the border along the corners

Now the sandook is ready for storage:

Sandook is ready

It is now placed in my shelf  which was decoupaged , in my craft room.

I have stored all valuables like my spectacles, pen drive, and some electronics items in this sandook, so those will be easily accessible, as I keep forgetting the place where  kept those.

Will share about some more DIY crafts in coming posts.

Until then,

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Five years of blogging

I have completed five years in blogosphere. Time just flies. Started this blog to share about my experiences and experiments in arts and crafts. Another wonderful year completed , with 30 more posts about different arts and crafts.
Last year , my blog was neglected by me a  bit. I was busy with my other commitments. This year I'm confident  that I will share many posts about different forms of arts and crafts, write about many artists whom I have met and their works, and of course about my projects too.
This blog started with a post about qulling. And , it just went on. This blog is nearing 200 posts. The year 2015 was fantastic year for me as I had learnt many crafts, including siporex mural carving. Year of fulfillment, as I visited many events happening in arts and crafts world including Chitrasante -2016  . I worked on many forms of crafts , like decoupage, card making and punch craft. 
I converted a small space in my house to a craft room, with a small table decoupaged , and decorated it with a little  idol  of Buddha I bought from Bodhgaya . 
Here is the glimpse of Buddha in  my craft room. About my crft room which I will  share in the coming posts, as still it has to be organised. Otherwise my time was wasted in searching materials :)

Small Buddha idol in my craft room

Buddha idol

After I have craft space , all the materials are organized properly and I'm able to work on more projects.

Last year I could not work on saree designing. Hardly  2-3 sarees I designed, but very happy with the sarees I have designed. My favourite is the saree which I designed with printings of Jaimini Roy's paintings.
This year planning to share more about saree designing and also include video tutorials about school craft projects.
Five years of blogging has given me pleasure, learning and wonderful friends in the blogosphere. The journey will continue with you all. 
Thank you for being part of my life in this blogosphere.

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Decoupage - My craft table

Returning after a month to blogosphere. Life was hectic, due to father's health issues I had become like a shuttle between hospital and home. Due to stress I could not make anything. Now everything is sorted out. After his bypass surgery, my father is back to normal life. Returned to native Kumta.   Slowly life is coming back to normal. I  needed some refreshment, what else can refresh me other than my passion Arts and Crafts :)


As any craft person, even I always wished to have a craft room. I worked in many forms of arts and crafts, from sewing to paper craft, thread crafts like crochet, tatting , jewelry making, school projects, painting, sketching.... ( jack of all master of none :)). But the major problem with any crafts person is accumulation of crafts materials. I'm not an exception to it. Family members always blame about the loads of craft materials. Its obvious that a crafts person needs a well organized place with craft materials. I also wished the same, but I did not have a separate room for this. I turned a small unused space in my house into craft room.  In a craft room the craft table is very important. For me its comfortable to sit on floor and work on crafts. So I preferred a short table. Got it done by a carpenter. I told the carpenter to not to polish it so that I could decorate it according to my idea.

I thought decoupage will be the best, so chose a picture to paste on it. Here it is, with the picture I selected to decoupage:

First applied the wood primer , and pasted the picture on the top of the table.

The extended the picture with little bit of oil painting:

Finish it with painting on the borders. I thought dull brown color would look better, instead I selected bright colors. As this is the table where I spend time exploring my creativity. It should be bright :)

 I always like Kuttchu designs, so attached the Kuttchus made of woolen thread on the edges:

Then with the final application of varnish, the table is ready.

My wish to have a separate craft table for my craft works is fulfilled with this decoupaged small table. Slowly arranging all my craft materials. My wish is to have handmade organizers. So decorating each of those with different ideas. Surely I will take into my craft room when it is completely ready.

Until then,

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana