Tuesday 22 April 2014

1000+ Facebook Likes celebration contest


My page Pratvam Progs on facebook recently crossed 1000 likes. It was all so encouraging coz I had just returned back to crafting in february after my MDS exams got over.

Did some pretty good amount of work in the small time frame... A lot of orders and new products were launched in the same time.
As a token of love I am offering free shipping on products bought on my website www.pratvamprogs.com


When I won a Cute stamping bella set from Creativita and won the Hobby mela contest my mom wanted me to giveaway a gift too on my page... As we were thinking what it could be... Mom suddenly said 'Do a contest and whoever wins give them a prize'. So thus began the idea for the contest... I myself have entered into a lot of contests on various blogs... It quite fun and the feedback is really great!!!

So this will be the 1st contest that I will be hosting on the blog... Quite nervous I must say... when I posted on Fb regarding how many people would be interested, I got like 6 comments and 18 likes for the post within one hour.


As I have been quilling a lot lately the contest is bound to be paper related!!!
Have divided the contest into 2 categories.

1- Paper/Quilled Jewelry- Use paper crafting techniques to make earrings. The twist here is you will have to make the designs of the earrings first. I mean you need to get down to drawing the design and then make the earrings...and when you make your blogpost or if you enter from FB pls click 2 pictures, One pic with the sketch and one without the sketch.

Here is some inspiration and examples as to what I meant by drawing your designs. You don't need to be excellent at drawing... simple sketches will do :)






2- Typograhical quilling- In this category you can make quilled greeting card, quilled plaques, canvases,photoframes.... sky is the limit actually...The twist here again is that You will have to plan out atleast how you think the your final product will look. For quillography projects u can either design them on your PC or you can sketch them also...So again you will have to uplaod 2 pics to your blogpost or your FB album.
Few inspirations from my side!!!

Quilled card- This is an easel card with typographical work for the name!!!


Quilled canvas- this is a 4*4 inch canvas on which the work life has been quilled. The backside of the canvas has a magnet so it can be used as a fridge magnet


Quilled plaques- Name plaques or the personalised plaques!!!





Rules of the contest.
1)Like my FB page.
2)Share about this contest on FB. 
3) You can enter the contest upto 4 times. If you are entering for the 2nd time then please enter 2 next to ur name.
4) You can link the project to as many challenges as you wish to.
5) Last date to enter the contest is 25th May. No links in the comment box will be entertained. If there is any problem in linking your project you can contact me via Pratvam@ymail.com or oing me on my FB page and I will get back to you ASAP.
6)For Paper/Quilled jewelry- Pls follow the rules that are stated. Please click the pics as mentioned already in the post. If the pics do not meet the criteria mentioned you might be disqualified.
7)For quillography- Pls follow the rules that are stated. Please click the pics as mentioned already in the post. If the pics do not meet the criteria mentioned you might be disqualified.
8)If you win in one category, you will not be considered for winning the 2nd category, though you might be in the top 3 list.
9) The prizes will be shipped within India only.
10) If you don't have a blog, make an album on FB and make sure that the album is set to public!!!
11) No back-linking of entries is allowed... Your creations need to be created after the date this post was made that is 22nd April 2014

Monday 21 April 2014

Happy b'day card with typographical quilling

When I was contacted to make a b'day card I got down to thinking about how to integrate all that the customer wanted in the card!!!!
The customers outline for the card
1) Card must have 'Happy Birthday Akhi' in the front.
2) Light blue colour should be used
3) A personal message

So after some thought I decided to make an easel card with a difference... this will be a picture loaded post so bear with me :)


The outer envelope made out of white thick board and used blue ribbon For tying and the stamp used is from Stamping bella that I had won from Jovita of Creativita :)

So this is the flat view of the Easel card. Used the white and blue quilling strips to make this card. As in all my typographical projects I printed out 'Akhi' on a blue cardstock and used Modified beehive technique to fill up the name. I made small flowers using blue and white strips and used rhinestones for their center.
Printed out the Happy B'day sentiment and went over it with a silver gel pen and put some pearls to the edges. I used foam tape underneath it to give it a raised effect.

As it is a easel card it stands up and holds its place because of the layered cardstock. Used some white felt flowers and stuck rhinestones to them. Stamp used is from Fiskars- Make a wish quote. Used brilliance Dew drop platinum planet to stamp the image.

This is the open view of the card with the quote the customer wanted.

The quote- 'The joy of stepping into another year of life is to keep smiling always and to spread true happiness all around forever'
 I printed the quote on blue cardstock and went over with it using silver gel pen.

Some closeups of the card :)





The order is being packed and will be on its way to New York today :)
Hope the customer likes the card as much as I loved working on it :)


Entering this into

 Create something catchy challenges- CSCC 2
Used quilling technique, the color blue, flowers and swirls inspired by the pic


Friday 18 April 2014

BELIEVE- Typograhical Quilling Project- 7th International order...

This was the 2nd plaque that the same customer has ordered for and the only requirement he had was- it has to be colourful and please don't use black colour.

This will always remain one of those challenging projects that I did... that I will always remember. Coz I finished it in a weeks time. I took my own sweet time to finish each letter and I think the end result was worth all the time that I took to finish the project!!!

So yet again this will be a pic loaded post so rest back and continue :) As of now You must know all the steps that I work through...

Selection of font, printing on thick card- chose white this time. cutting out of the letters and initial outlining with white quilling stips... I used 5 quilling strips to finish the outline... And this took me 30 mins to finish.

The hardest part began when I started off with the filling of the letters...U can see the series of pics when the work was in progress. I chose to use colours that would be soothing and wanted a kind of gradient look. 
I took nearly 4-5 hrs to quill each letter... my slowest work ever I guess :P 
My mom used to peep in every now and then to check the progress of the work :) even she will accept that this is one of those projects where I used up all my brain power :P



Finally I finished the project... and was pretty happy abt the way it turned out. Sent out the pic of the same to the customer. The customer was elated and now just wanted a few flowers to be added...


As the customer requested we put in flowers( tulips). I really like the tendrils :)


Added the tulip buds and then gave them a touch of viva decor gold.
The completed final project :)


Linking this upto
1) Colour conceptions challenge- Anything but cards- this is a personalosed plaque measuring 17*7.5 inches.
2) Pinque Peacock challenges- #4 Flowers- used tulips- full bloomed and buds!!!
3) My craft creation- anything goes



Sunday 13 April 2014

IMAGINE- Typographical quilling project- 7th International order...

I have been doing name plaques for over 2 yrs now...But when I got this call from New Jersey I was in  for a surprise as this was not a order for a name plaque but an order for a personalized quilled plaque with the word IMAGINE to be quilled...
I knew I could do it, but figuring out how to do it was the actual challenge. IMAGINE- the word has wide array of possibilities, so I started jotting down random ideas that came to my mind in my book. After a lot of thought I narrowed it down to a single idea, then started the making of the quilled Imagine :)


This will be a picture loaded post showing you the various steps of the quilled piece in the making...

1)The first step was selecting the font, printing it on thick paper and cutting the letters out using a cutter and then sticking the cut letters onto the base sheet I chose. I deliberately chose grey as the base.

2)The second step was to do the outlining of the letters. I chose to do it with white. This took me 45 mins to finish.
3) Then I started to fill each letter Up..This is beehive technique but a bit modified version...

As the customer while ordering clearly mentioned that he wanted it to be colourful... I chose do it this way... Went from dark Violet to red colour... Not the Rainbow colours exactly but somewhat similar....thus this is the finished Imagine... Now it was time to work around the piece.

So I added felt clouds and stars and the quilled moon which I again used modified beehive to fill up.
after adding the felt clouds I again went around them using white paper strips to give a raised effect. This was the first project where I tried to integrate felt into the project and I am happy with the way it has turned out. As they say you can't be sure of something till you have tried it. So here goes a trial that turned out to be a good one. :) 

Here's the close up for the moon and stars :)



Then I decided to add a few flowers, so used basic shapes in quilling to make the flowers and added 
co-ordinated rhinestones to the flowers and the leaf scrolls.

Another angle of the flowers!!!


 The completed product. i really like how all the elements fell into place.


 Angled shots of the completed products






I comepleted this project in 30hrs!!!

This was my 7th international order. It went all the way to New Jersey. The customer is really happy with the results!!! Will post what the customer had to say about the plaques that were delivered in the next post as he ordered 2 plaques. :)

Entering this into 
Colour conceptions challenge- Anything but cards
BCG #49- Grown with love- used almost all the colours and for the garden elements used flowers and leaves!!
Pinque peacock chanllenges- #4 flowers- used quilling flowers


Saturday 12 April 2014

Double Recycle Can- The tutorial

This has been a long pending tutorial for almost 3 years now.
When I first made this in 2011 I had a lot of the crafters asking me for a tutorial but as I was in my 3rd year BDS at that time I couldn't find the time to share the tutorial as the steps involved couldn't be photographed properly. But now as I have a lot of free time waiting for my PGCET results I got the time that this tutorial deserved.
This is my first video tutorial so pls be patient with my talking :P :D
I will be putting in pics where ever I can but photographing a few steps was difficult so will be writing about the steps instead.

Hope you enjoy the tutorial.



Adding a picture tutorial as well, But some steps can be better understood in the video.
Materials required-

Quilling tools can be Bought at Craft universe



Procedure

Step 1------ Cutting

    A)     Cutting of the top of the can- Use the jumbo cutter to cut the top of the can. Cut 2 cans in this way.
   



      B)      Cutting of the can into strips
a.       Can 1--- Mark 1cm using a ruler and marker all over the diameter of the can and taking these marks cut the can into strips.








b.      Can 2--- Mark 2mm using a ruler and marker all over the diameter of the can and taking these marks cut the can into strips.





Step 2----- Rolling of the strips

Can 1----Take one strip and bend it outwards forming a 90 degree angle to the can,  then using the needle to curve up the end of the same strip and roll it towards the center. Continue the same procedure for the rest of the strips. Once done with all the strips you can keep adjusting the strips to be on the level.





Can 2- First flatten the strips by pushing all the strips downwards using your palm. Alter flattening push each strip into the slot in the slotted tool and roll towards the center. Continue to do all the strips.


Step 3- Sticking of the cans

Apply fevibond to the bases of the cans and wait for approx. 2 mins and then press them together. At this step If u see any irregualrities in the Can 2- u can manipulate it with your fingers.


Final Product!!!


Depending on what cans you choose to do the project... Your end results will vary!!!


Hope you had no problem in following the tutorial. In case of any doubts feel free to ping me on Pratvam Progs.
For other Projects that I made out of cans u can visit my page--- I am linking the recycle love section... click here to view them...
Recycle love level 1
Recycle love level 2

If you need a tutorial for any of the project from the recycle love collection fell free to leave a msg on Pratvam Progs