Friday, September 30, 2011

Feature Friday - Paper Quilling Hair Pins from our Etsy Shop

As our regular readers know we have an etsy shop and we have been devoting a lot of our creative energies these days towards developing new items for our shop.We are starting a new series.Feature Fridays where we will share some new items from our etsy shop Navanka Creations. The first one in the series is our new line of paper quilled hair pins.We like to call them "Cute Clippies". It was so much fun creating these. Hope you like them. Would love to get some feedback :).

Here are few pics of the clips packed and ready to ship.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

DIY Play Gym for Parakeet or similar birds


We got a Parakeet in the month of Feb this year. It took a lot of convincing from my husband and my daughter to finally get one for our home. I was not sure if I will be able to take care of a bird. Both my husband and daughter are pet lovers. So after an Aquarium finally we had a Parakeet for our house. My daughter has lovingly named her Rainbow as at that time she recently discovered the beauty of Rainbow and she found this bird as beautiful and colorful as Rainbow. So, now she is Rainbow and we are not allowed to say that she is a bird. She is a part of our family and her name is Rainbow. My daughter can say her Birdie though from time to time.
We do keep Rainbow outside her cage for quite a while, she stays in her cage also for food and sleep.

We have been planning on buying a play gym kind of set up for her from long. We have added lot of toys but were not happy with the play gym kits which were available in the pet shops. More so because whatever we saw we thought we can make better than that ourselves and that too at a fraction of price. Well not so sure of the price part but, we took the plunge. The idea of making the play gym on or own was very exciting to both my daughter and crafty hubby (who hardly gets a chance to be crafty). This weekend we took the plunge and voila the colorful Play Gym is ready.

Supplies-
Wood tray
Wood dowels various sizes
Wood craft ready to paint house
Wood craft ready to paint Ladder
Acrylic Paint non-toxic
Wood glue
Wooden beads and string
Ready made Bird toys like mirror with bells etc.
Nail
Paint brushes

I am really happy with the result and so far this is the biggest wood craft project we ever did.It is a great example of a Family craft where you can involve a 3 year old too.


She did most of the painting, esp the bird house and the ladder.I have never seen so excited or involved for any craft as such.


The hard work paid off when our Rainbow also enjoyed and explored the Parakeet Play Gym.


Tips: All the wood craft ready to paint pieces were bought from Michaels and Joann.
It took a while to find non-toxic acrylic paint, but it is important to get this as it will be used by Parakeet. Other kinds might be harmful to the bird.
Be careful about using non-toxic glue too.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Paper quilling leaves card


I made this card for our ETSY shop  Navanka Creations some time back. I wanted to design something that could be given to men as well as women and for all occasions. I love the shaded quilling strips and I guess it did add dimension to this design.

Its surprising how the weather here has switched over to Autumn in a day. This entire week it has been cloudy  and rainy :(.  So from amazing summer in Seattle we are back to the Rainy Seattle.Back in India, with the hot summers rains used to be so welcome..Monsoon was my favourite season. How things change when you have too much of anything :).

Fall is beautiful here so thats one thing I am looking forward to.  With fall approaching I am thinking of revisiting this design with fall color shades. What do you guys think? Will love to get your opinion.

Hope to get some sun this weekend.
cheers

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Baby Shower Greeting Card with Paper Quilling


It was one of my friend's baby shower today. I made this card for her. As you can see, she is having a girl ! Baby showers are fun here ...we do both the traditional Indian God Bharai  ( Blessing the would be mom and baby) ceremony as well as the Baby Shower party with fun games and of-course lots of food. So its like the best of both worlds. 

Its their first child. I wanted to make something special and cute for them. And also something new....repeating designs is not much fun. So yesterday night I made this cute little pink and white onesie. I used crimped strips to get that frilly girly feeling for the onesie. I also decorated the envelope with a bow and tag for message. I ended up having a late night ( means less sleep when you have a toddler who wakes up at a fixed time in the morning) but her reaction when I gave her the card today made it all worth it. She simply loved it and I made up for the lack of sleep with a late afternoon nap after the function was over. Off to sleep now ...have a fun Sunday all of you!
 




Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Beautiful coasters with paper quilling in colors of rainbow


I love rainbows. They are one of the nature's creations that bring a smile on every one's face regardless of age. Somehow they also remind me of my childhood and care free days of summer.

Recently I made these rainbow coasters for our Etsy shop Navanka Creations. It took more than 100 quilling strips and quite a while of rolling I would say to finish these coasters :) .I did follow the rainbow colors sequence inside out ... remembered my childhood days and how we used the acronym VIBGYOR  to remember the rainbow colors in sequence.

It was also part of a challenge in one of  ETSY teams, ETSY paper's  rainbow challenge. Its a group of very talented people and it was fun to see various rainbow creations.

Here's a beautiful poem ...enjoy and have a Happy Day!

God is the greatest artist
To whom no one can compare,
Streaking sunsets very beautiful,
Painting rainbows in the air.

Brushing green the hillside scene,
Blotting blue the sky above,
Splashing flowers 'cross the ground beneath,
Shading white clouds with His glove.

Of the wonders God has made
There is none that is so fair
As the smile He paints upon your face
When you realize He's there.
                        - Udiah