Where does my day go? Where do my weeks go? Or my months for that matter? Well, apart from the usual house-and-baby-keeping, I tend to have a gazillion ideas floating in my head, which soak up my time, so much so that I am no good to write about them at the end of it all. There are numerous projects lying around me, in various stages of unfinished and finished craft. So what is the latest? See for yourself!
Paper is my new love. And creating cutesy little stuff from it, including quilling which seems to be ruling the internet space nowadays, slowly crept into my craftspace as well, though I kept trying to not involve my lazy crafter self into it. I was literally shoved into it by my Ladies Club here, for which I was asked to create a couple of invitation cards and a circular for the monthly Ladies Meet. For those who do not have a clue what on earth is Ladies Meet, stay assured that it is your regular Kitty Party on a Fauji scale, a monthly get together for all the army wives in a location, hosted by ladies of different battalions when their turn arrives.
So, at the first opportunity of making cards, off went my mind to quilling. Then I also remembered the paper craft crash course that I had attended last year when I was writing these posts (
Link) last June. And then my gazillion ideas started colliding violently with each other, causing a chemical release of some kind which would not let me sleep till I completed the cards.
After seeing the samples, the ladies agreed upon an explosion box card and a simple card in a box. The theme that we all had agreed upon was 'Retro Bollywood' and the cards also needed to show some of the spirit. And then I was left to my own devices, with my coloured printouts, handmade paper sheets and quilling kits. The explosion box was going to have three layers, each of which will show some 'Retro Bollywood'.
For the bottom layer, I took color prints of old movie poster images from our own Google Baba and pasted them along with some fun-funky words which would coincide with the theme and some cut-paper itsy-bitsies.
The middle layer would have vintage style machines like a car, a gramophone and such, along with sticker bindis which were a last minute idea to give it a polka dot background.
The topmost layer was going to have the actual invitation in the centre, with more 'Retro Bollywood' on the four panels surrounding it. Notice those dance poses of Helen? I am in love with them. I even used one of them as the backdrop of circular. Aaand done!...wait! Did I not mention quilling above?
Yes ma'am I did, and I would decorate all the four outer walls and the lid of the explosion box with quilling, which I have never done before but claim to myself that it was a no-brainer, simple thing. After all, how difficult could rolling paper be?
Not Much! Except that I have a limited knowledge of making colour combinations and I had a hard time choosing the right colours of quilling strips for each arrangement. And it took a lot of time too. The fact that I could only get assorted strips in the local craft stores added to my woes as I had to use different colour combinations on all five surfaces, even after buying four different packs of quilling strips. Each colour has only five strips in an assorted pack which hardly complete a single flower, let alone a whole arrangement. And so, I did not get the more professional colour-coordinated look in the finished box that I wanted. But people who saw it liked it for being the kaleidoscope that it was.
Getting the other card ready was comparatively easier. I had saved a sweets-box made of cardboard a few months ago for crafting. After searching the local bakery and a couple of other options, I remembered I had this box stashed away waiting for its stars to shine. I pulled it out of its hibernation, covered it with a lovely gold-printed handmade paper sheet, cut out some lace out of tracing paper, pasted around the box and the lid and sat a neat little flower on top of the lid. Voila! But the card that was to go inside the box could only be ready in the last hour before delivery.
This card was a simple affair with two sheets of handmade paper pasted together for stiffness, folded into a card. On the front went a beautiful portrait of Madhubala, to show some old Bollywood charm, inside a handcut 'Photoframe', decorated with a hint of quilling. It carried a similar invitation as the explosion box on the inside.
And off she went into the box, which would later include the circular too, scrolled and tied with a ribbon.
As my five day marathon crafting session came to an end abruptly, I suddenly felt very sad that all this colourful, crafty goodness was about to leave me. Those five days had been nothing short of a fever for me, with the frenzied crafting, messy home and kitchen, everything going haywire, and nothing on my mind but colours, patterns and handmade paper. As much as I had wanted it all to get done soon, I did not like the emptiness that was ahead.
As I was already an hour past my promised delivery time, I quickly took as many pictures as I could and hurried off to give the boxes to the senior most lady of the battalion who would be inviting the guests next day. It was great to see that she liked it. Even better, she asked me to accompany her to deliver the explosion box card and I quickly said yes. After all, I always wanted to know how did the person who actually received it react. And it was great to see her (our guest) looking at it again and again, sitting on her beautiful coffee table among expensive objects, looking so rustic and homemade.
She is known to be an artist herself, and made me really happy by saying that she would convert it into a jewellery box later. But happier than me was my husband, who got rid of taking care of the little tempest known as Coco round the clock while I was locked away in his study room, crafting away to glory!
