December 2018 challenge

Hello!!!

Thank you all so much for coming and playing my 

 November THANK YOU Challenge!

So very grateful that you'll come back again and again to play!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!

Here is the challenge for December 2018 !

HOW TO PLAY

Make a card or tag using the theme given. 

Take a photo of your creation and link it up below.

If you have a blog, write a post about our challenge and link it back to our challenge, including photos of your card or tag.

Please display this storyboard prominently in your blog post so that others may be inspired to play.

ALSO, please display this logo prominently on the sidebar of your blog so that others may join us.

FOLLOW/JOIN  THIS BLOG

 FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM AND TAG YOUR SUBMISSIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA WITH THE TAG

#PCMCHALLENGES

If you don't have a blog, post your photos on social media and TAG them with #PCMCHALLENGES

If you don't tag them, we will not see them on social media.

VERY IMPORTANT

PLEASE Link your blogpost/social media post to the linky below.

INSPIRATION

To start off, I layered red and green Simon Says Stamp Stitched die cut panels on a white card base.

I then die cut the elf legs, put them upside down on a tag die cut and added the sentiment from Craftangles  'santa claus' stamp set.

I added some twine and some shiny stars and the card was done.

Quick and simple!

Here, I started out with a tag, die cut from Kraft card stock. On this I stamped the mason jar and christmas elements from a Hero Arts stamp set.

I coloured it in and used mu white gel pen to add some details for interest. The sentiment is from Craftangles 'Season's greeetings' stamp set.

 I added some red and white bakers twine to finish the card.

I also made these super fun Santa 

Claus gift envelopes. They are pretty simple.. a piece of black paper wrapped around the envelope and a square frame cut out of gold and silver glitter card stock, along with a stamped and fussy cut sentiment from Craftangles. 

I hope these cards, inspire you to

bring out those Christmas goodies and come and play!

PRIZES

I will choose ONE winner , 

who will then be the GUEST DESIGNER  for the next month's challenge, 

to be posted around the 15th of the month.

I will also pick TWO other winners for an honorable mention, 

who will also get an opportunity to design a card each for this challenge blog. 

Their creations will be posted around the 20th of the month.

Please link up your creations below.

To be eligible to win a prize, please follow all the instructions carefully...

you will find them above and in under 'how to play' in the right sidebar.

Thanks so much for stopping by...

Have a great day!

Paru Mahtani

An InLinkz Link-up

April 2018 challenge

Hello!!!

Thanks for all your amazing entries for the COLOUR challenge!!

Here is the challenge for April 2018

As the challenge has started late this month, it will run till the 29th of April.

FLOWERS!!!

The possibilities are endless! 

I'm waiting to see all your creativity!!

HOW TO PLAY

Make a card or tag using the theme given. 

Take a photo of your creation and link it up below.

If you have a blog, write a post about our challenge and link it back to our challenge, including photos of your card or tag.

Please display this storyboard prominently in your blog post so that others may be inspired to play.

ALSO, please display this logo prominently on the sidebar of your blog so that others may join us.

FOLLOW/JOIN  THIS BLOG

 FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM AND TAG YOUR SUBMISSIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA WITH THE TAG

#PCMCHALLENGES

If you don't have a blog, post your photos on social media and TAG them with #PCMCHALLENGES

If you don't tag them, we will not see them on social media.

VERY IMPORTANT

PLEASE Link your blogpost/social media post to the linky below.

INSPIRATION

Here is some inspiration to start you off this month.

For my first project, I made a gift tag using Hero Arts woodblock and cling stamps and Mft dies.

I started by die cutting the tag using an Mft tag die. 

I then created a background using the hero arts birthday background stamp.  

I then stamped and coloured the flower (also from Hero Arts) using Sakura Koi watercolours. 

I fussy cut the flower and adhered it to the tag using 3D foam tape.

I die cut some leaves using Mft dienamics tropical leaves dies. 

I then used Tim Holtz' mowed lawn distress ink to darken the edges of the leaves, to create some interest.

I finished the tag with a bit of jute twine from Mayarts ribbon.

For my second project, I have combined stamps and dies from my fabulous sponsors this month...Lawn Fawn and Craftangles by HNDMD.

I recently purchased the new Lawn Fawn pivot pop up die and couldn't wait to use it!!

To make this card, I started out with a white card base, which I masked and watercoloured using my Camel watercolours, to create a soft teal wash. Once it was dry, I used a hero arts background stamp to stamp some dots to create some interest. 

I then stamped, watercoloured and fussy cut some cherry blossom flowers from the Craftangles 'Mom you rock' stamp set and adhered them to the card base. 

I then die cut the sentiment (from Winnie and Walter), and, used Memento Angel Pink ink  and Tim Holtz 'bubblegum' distress ink to colour it. 

Once the sentiment was adhered, I added the birthday sentiment (from Hero Arts) and some wooden hearts (Craftangles).

As you open the card, you can now see the mechanism at work.

Once open, You can see the full card.

I stamped and watercoloured the pop up part of the card using stamps from the Craftangles 'Mom you rock' stamp set and Camel watercolours.

I also stamped the inside of the card using Hero Arts small dots background stamp and Memento Angel pink ink. 

I finished the card with a sentiment from Paper Wishes.

You can learn how to make a Pivot Pop Up card here.

Here is a video to show you how this fun card pops up!

I am playing the simon Says Stamp Wednesday 'Happy Birthday' Challenge with this card!

To inspire you some more, I have the amazingly talented 

Bharati Nayudu

Hello there!

I am Bharati Nayudu and I am very excited and greatly honoured to play along with Paru's Card Making Challenges as Guest Designer for the month of April. 

The theme is flowers -to welcome spring,

Many thanks, Paru, for having me over!

I live in Visakhapatnam, a coastal city in India with my 10 yr old son (who loves craft as well) and my loving husband-my soulmate. I have a talented little sister who is my best pal and an artist. I am an HR executive by profession and crafter at heart, committed to spreading handmade happiness.

I started blogging and entering online craft challenges from August 2017. 

Although, I am quite new to the blogland, thanks to a very encouraging and supportive crafting community, I feel completely at home. 

It's as if the mothership found me and now I live in the world of crafts!

Besides card making, I also enjoy quilling,decoupage art, art journaling and giving virtual hugs to crafty friends all around the world.

may your spring be filled with colourful flowers and cards.

 I blog at www.bharatinayudu.com and  I am active on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/bharati_nayudu

My first project is a card inspired by my dear friend Sanjeevini, who has a very happy and cheerful personality and who loves flowers and bursts of colours.

To make this card i started with heat embossing, in white, the flowers and leaves from the stamp set 'More spring flowerw' by Simon Says Stamp.

I then added distress in to each image using finger dabbers and fussy cut them.

While adding the ink, mixing two or more colours to get a gradient look always works.

I then took another white card piece and heat embossed the sentiment in white before ink blending the panel. The white heat embossed sentiment goes with the white outline and the dash line on the images. I then die cut a rectangular white card panel and then cut an oval window through it.

I then adhered the leaves and flowers on the white window panel with tape. I also used foam squares in a few places for dimension. I then adhered the window panel with the images using foam tape on to the ink blended card stock with the sentiment, I finished the card by adding a few sequins and adhering the whole card from to a deep green card base.

Apart from the colourful look, I love how a portion of the leaves is inside the window and few leaves pop out of the card from the top and bottom on the card.

I really had a ton of fun making my second project which is a thank you tag.

I started with smooshing distress oxide inks on my craft mat and spraying some water. I then pressed my tag onto the ink. I repeated this process several times till I was happy with the results. Building layers of colour each time by adding ink, splattering water and drying between the layers. I then added interest by stamping some scripty font in black ink and the stamp i used is by Hero Arts and its called ‘Old French writing’. To add more interest i stamped randomly pattern from Bo Bunny’s  rough-it-up stamp set using spiced marmalade distress ink. I also added an image of a swirly ribbon in black ink from Inbetweenies stamp set by  Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions. To add some texture to the tag i applied some embossing paste using a stencil by Tim Holtz. I was gifting a pack of beautiful flowers by Prima that I was hording since long and finally found place this tag. Before adhering the  flowers and the word die cut in black by Mudra Stamps, i did add few splatters of black ink with a thin brush. Then all that was left to do was to tie a white ribbon on the tag.

As you  can see I played with a lot of crafty goodies while making this tag and therefore enjoyed the whole process.

The theme for the month..FLOWERS has many possibilities and I hope my projects inspire you to play along.

Thanks agoin, Paru, for the wonderful opportunity!

THE PRIZES

A $25 gift card from 

Lawn Fawn

and 

A Rs. 1000 hamper from 

HNDMD

The challenge will run till the 29th of April...

I am extending it this month as the challenge started late.

The winners will be announced on the 30th of April.

Don't forget to stop by!

Please link up your creations below.

To be eligible to win a prize, please follow all the instructions carefully...

you will find them above and in under 'how to play' in the right sidebar.

Thanks so much for stopping by...

Have a great day!

Paru Mahtani

An InLinkz Link-up

September 2017 'Rainbow' Challenge

Hello everyone!1!!! 

Thank you so much for playing along with the 'Anything Goes' in August!

I was thrilled by the response! So many beautiful cards!

Here is the September  challenge!

It's 'Anything Goes'..so let your creative juices flow!!

HOW TO PLAY

Make a card or tag using the theme given. 

Take a photo of your creation and link it up below.

If you have a blog, write a post about our challenge and link it back to our challenge, including photos of your card or tag.

Please display this storyboard prominently in your blog post so that others may be inspired to play.

ALSO, please display this logo prominently on the sidebar of your blog so that others may join us.

FOLLOW/JOIN  THIS BLOG

 FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM AND TAG YOUR SUBMISSIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA WITH THE TAG

#PCMCHALLENGES

If you don't have a blog, post your photos on social media and TAG them with #PCMCHALLENGES

If you don't tag them, we will not see them on social media.

Link your blogpost/social media post to the linky below.

Now for some inspiration...
I have used this beautiful stampset deisgned my my talented guest designer
Deepti Malik called Kathryn's Rainbow.

For my card, I stamped and masked the umbrellas to create a floating pattern on a watercoloured sky.

I then painted them with rainbow colours and added the lovely sentiment from the set.

I added the clear sequins from Craftangles to complete the card.

To make the tag, I started with a stitched circle die cut on which I stamped the rainbow and clouds and watercoloured them.

I then cut part of a sentiment from the set and stamped it on the larger cloud which I popped up using 3D tape.

I then die cut some seagulls from the Recollections Nautical die set.

I finished the tag using Craftangles clear sequins and black and white baker's twine.

To inspire you some more, I have as my Guest Designer today 

Deepti Malik

of 

Dee's Art Utopia

Hi.

Thanks for having me over.

 I am sketch artist by default and a card maker by choice. My card making started with making some new year cards back in 2013 and now it has turned into a passion.

I moved a step ahead in 2015 as I started to illustrate my own stamp designs with my line of stamps

"Dee's Artsy Impressions" 

under the umbrella of STAMPlorations:)

I am also an instructor at Craftsy where I teach a class on Watercolour Cards made Simple.

I love all things clean and simple, but I also love to experiment. Water colours are my passion when it comes to a specific medium :)

Besides doing all the creative work, I am also, mom to a 19 month old siddharth, who keeps me on my toes 24x7 ;)

Here is a little  about how I made the card and tag-

I had so much fun making these! 

Lately, my love for inking is back and that led me to make the rainbow background for these.

To make these cards, I drew some diagonal lines using a ruler and then masked off and inked the stripes in rainbow colours using distress inks on both the card panel and the tag.

I then splattered some water on the top.

Next, I stamped, fussy cut and coloured the images and put those together on the base. To finish the card, I stamped the sentiment and added some clear sequins.

I look forward to seeing what you create with this set!

***

I just love Deepti's unique work..I hope you have been inspired to play along!

THE PRIZES
As always we have some awesome sponsors!!

We have the stamp set
Kathryn's Rainbow

 from

Dee's Artsy Impressions

And a 

$20 gift certificate from Pink and Main

The winner will be announced on the 28th of September, so don't forget to stop by!

Please link up your creations below.

To be eligible to win a prize, please follow all the instructions carefully...

you will find them above and in under 'how to play' in the right sidebar.

Thanks so much for stopping by...

Have a great day and have lots of fun!!

Paru Mahtani

An InLinkz Link-up

November Challenge

Hello everyone! 

Welcome back to all of you who have played my challenges before 

and a big welcome to those who are stopping by for the first time! 

I hope you have great fun playing  along!

November 14th is the birthday of our first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. 

As he was very fond of children, It is celebrated as Children's Day in India.

Therefore, the challenge for the month is to make a card or tag for CHILDREN.

HOW TO PLAY

Make a card or tag using the theme given. 

Take a photo of your creation and link it up below.

If you have a blog, write a post about our challenge and link it back to our challenge, including photos of your card or tag.

Please display this storyboard prominently in your blog post so that others may be inspired to play.

ALSO, please display this logo prominently on the sidebar of your blog so that others may join us.

FOLLOW/JOIN  THIS BLOG

 FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM AND TAG YOUR SUBMISSIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA WITH THE TAG

#PCMCHALLENGES

If you don't have a blog, post your photos on social media and TAG them with #PCMCHALLENGES

If you don't tag them, we will not see them on social media.

Link your blogpost/social media post to the linky below.

Now for some inspiration...

This month our sponsor MHK designs 

has shared some beautiful digital papers and stamps with us,

which we  have showcased.

I started with the papers from the Autumnal Accents digital paper pack

 and added the digital stamps from the Butterfly wisdom set.

I coloured the butterfly to make it pop, using faber castell colour pencils and then added the sentiment which I printed on vellum.

I finished the card with some MayArts jute ribbon.

For this tag, I used the same papers and stamps as above and

 added a dry embossed panel and some self adhesive gemstones for interest.

I finished the tag with charcoal bakers twine from the Twinery.

For the Instagram inspired shaker card, I have used the papers from the

radiant rainbows digital paper pack.

I created the shaker element by die cutting  and stacking multiple circles using 

Simon Says Stamp Stitched circles die .

I added some silver and gold star confetti and closed the shaker element using the same patterned paper as the background. 

I added a spellbinders nested heart and 

a speech bubble from Simon Says Stamp 'Talk bubble' die set.

The birthday sentiment is from Stampendous.

I really enjoyed using these beautiful bright colours on the cards..I think kids would like them too!

For more inspiration...

We have La Von Hall over as our guest designer this month! 

La Von and I became friends through Flickr, 

where she runs an awesome group and challenge every month. 

Do drop by and leave her some love!

I am so very honored to be chosen as the guest designer this month for Paru's Card Making Challenge. Thank you very much, Paru!  The theme for this card is children because the birthday of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is celebrated as Children's Day in India. India's first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, was born on November 14. Apart from being known for his skills as a statesman, Nehru was also immensely fond of children.

The card I created for Paru's Challenge is a shaker card.  I think children of all ages like shaker cards.  The wonderful sponsor that Paru has chosen for this month is MHK designs. All of the digi images, sentiment and even the patterned papers are found at the MHK designs.  I used the "Hardy Party" digital paper pack and "Eat Your Cake" digital stamp set.

Making a shaker card is simpler that it may look.

• I colored the image with Copic markers and added a touch of shimmer using a bit Multi Media Matte with clear glitter.    
• I cut the frame 6 times, 5 times from plain cardstock and one time from the patterned paper.  The five cardstock frames are glued into a stack to create the well for the shaker mix.   
• Place the stacked frame over the colored image where you like and trim off any excess.  Glue the frame over to the image using the Multi Media Matte. 
• After the glue is dry you put in the sequin mix.  
• Next you will cut a piece of plastic or acetate cut to size and adhere this over the window.  I like to use a strong double sided tape like SCOR-tape to adhere the acetate to the frame and the patterned paper.  It seems to work the best. 
• Then adhere the assembled shaker to your card.  

I was have such a great time with the pretty papers from MHK that created two tags for the challenge.  After making both I couldn't really decide which I liked best so I am sharing both here.   Both of my tags use a die from Hero Arts.  I will list my supplies below.

I was have such a great time with the pretty papers from MHK that created two tags for the challenge.  After making both I couldn't really decide which I liked best so I am sharing both here.   Both of my tags use a die from Hero Arts. 

I hope that you are inspired to join in the challenge this month to celebrate children.   Thank you, for stopping by my blog.  Your comments, questions and suggestions are always welcome.

THE PRIZES

As always, we have  fabulous sponsors lined up for this month.

Up for grabs are...

 3 items of the winners choice from 

MHK designs

and 

a $25 gift card from So Suzy Stamps

(They are offering free shhipping from 1st to 5th November 2016)

We hope you have been inspired to create some beautiful cards for CHILDREN!

Can't wait to see your creations!

I will announce the winner of this challenge on the 28th of November, so don't forget to stop by!

You can link up your creations below.

To be eligible to win a prize, please follow all the instructions carefully...

you will find them above and in under 'how to play' in the right sidebar.

Thanks so much for stopping by...

Have a great day!

Paru Mahtani

An InLinkz Link-up

October Challenge winners

 Hello!!

Thank you so much for playing the October 'Hint of Gold' Challenge.

Here are the winners!

For  the Rs.1000 gift voucher from CraftAdda

Hussena (Quill and Punch works)

The gold frame is a the perfect accent !

And

For Two 6"x6" paper packs from Nakshatra Designs

Swapna Patil (Dream Pages)

The gold embossed sprig is a perfect hint of gold!!

Many many congratulations to the winners!!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Remember...

a new challenge will go live on Tuesday November1st at 12 am IST.

Don't forget to drop by and play!

October Challenge

Hello everyone! 

Welcome back to all of you who have played my challenges before 

and a big welcome to those who are stopping by for the first time! 

I hope you have great fun playing  along!

October is a month of festivities here in India...we have the 10 day festival of Dussehra (which celebrates the victory of good over evil ) and the festival of lights, Diwali, 15 days later!

All month we celebrate by wearing bright colours which will always have a 

hint of GOLD!

So taking this celebratory theme forward, our October challenge is to make a card or a tag which has just a HINT OF GOLD!

HOW TO PLAY

Make a card or tag using the theme given. 

Take a photo of your creation and link it up below.

If you have a blog, write a post about our challenge and link it back to our challenge, including photos of your card or tag.

Please display this storyboard prominently in your blog post so that others may be inspired to play.

ALSO, please display this logo prominently on the sidebar of your blog so that others may join us.

FOLLOW/JOIN  THIS BLOG

 FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM AND TAG YOUR SUBMISSIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA WITH THE TAG

#PCMCHALLENGES

If you don't have a blog, post your photos on social media and TAG them with #PCMCHALLENGES

If you don't tag them, we will not see them on social media.

Link your blogpost/social media post to the linky below.

Now for some inspiration...

This month, I have made a set of 6 notecards with a Diwali theme.

I have used the brand new Diwali stamp set from Craft Adda, Henna Elements stamp set from AveryElle, Gold and white embossing powder, and Tim Holtz distress inks, and Sakura Koi watercolours.

To make this card, I first gold embossed the rangoli pattern on the card. Then I masked off half the card and used Tim Holtz distress inks to colour the other half. I added the paisley design from Altnew's henna elements stamp set. I finished the card with a gold embossed sentiment from Craft Adda's diwali stamp set.

 For this card, I stamped the rangoli design in black and and coloured it using sakura koi watercolours.

I have used the same stamp for this card too..heat embossed here with clear embossing powder and watercoloured using Sakura Koi watercolours. I finished the card with a gold embossed sentiment on a vellum panel.

Here I have gold embossed the lantern on one half of the card and masked and blended the other half.  I used one of the elements  from Altnew's Henna Elements stamp set on this card too.

I have used the emboss resist technique for this card. After the watercolour dried, I ironed off the embossing powder to create a soft look. I finished the card with a god embossed sentiment on vellum.

Here, I heat embossed the lanterns and then blended Tim Holtz  distress inks. I splattered some water on the distress ink to create some interest.

I finished the card with a god embossed sentiment on vellum  and some burlap string from Mayarts ribbon.

GUEST DESIGNER

Please say hello to our fabulous Guest Designer this month

Priya Sondhi

Hi all! This is Priya from Priya-N-Papers. I am super duper excited to be invited at Paru's Card Making Challenges. I am a software engineer Team Leader by profession but at heart I am a full time paper crafter. I am from India but currently living in US for past 4 years because of my job.

From the childhood I was into crafts. I used to craft with my super talented sister. But during collage, I lost my touch and fell totally into academics. Roughly 6 years back when I was sitting idle in office, I stumbled across Martha Stewarts crafts. That's how I was introduced to paper crafts. I found it very interesting. Slowing I discovered craft blogs of many talented crafters from India like Tejal, Kavitha, Bhavana, Karuna and many more. I was totally inspired by them and followed their blog and started crafting myself. One fine day I started to blog to share my crafty process.

My all time favorite craft technique is creating backgrounds using heat embossing and distressing with distress inks. Now a days I am hooked to watercoloring.

For the October challenges, the challenge is to add a hint of Gold. There are alot of ways to add Gold into your creations like foiling, embossing, Gold paper/washi tape/sequins and even using gold watercolors. For my inspiration, I have used gold foiled paper for card and Gold embossing powder for the tag.

Diwali Card :

I love making Diwali cards! Since it's already October I took it as an opportunity to make one. I used Fringed die from MFT and die cut strips of cardstocks in warm colors. I also diecut a strip of Gold foiled cardstock and added in between to add a touch of gold. Then I adhered all the strips to create an Ombre effect.

I also heat embossed Diya Stamps from Mudra's new Diwali release. The sentiment is from Varna's Diwali stamp set which they released last year.

Here is a closure look at the gold + Ombre effect. 

Best Wishes Tag :

For the tag, I diecut a watercolor cardstock using Avery Elle Bookmark die and then used Gansai Tambi watercolors for some rainbow effect. I heat embossed the Lacy circle stamp from Waffle Flower using white embossing powder.  For the gold, I heat embossed Honey Bee's Zen Floral Stamps on vellum with gold embossing powder from Ranger and fussy cut the images and created my own bouquet. I added some sentiment and Twine to finish off my tag. It's an any occasion tag which you can use for birthday's, anniversaries, Diwali, etc.

A closer look at the gold effect. The gold embossing on Vellum looks fabulous!

That's it from my side. I hope I inspired you a little today to make some festive projects with a pinch of Gold. I can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

Have a great day!

Happy Crafting!

Priya Sondhi

THE PRIZES

As always, we have a fabulous sponsor lined up for this month.

 A Rs.1000/- gift voucher from CraftAdda

and 

Two 6"x6" paper packs from Nakshathra Designz

We hope you have been inspired to create some beautiful cards with a HINT OF GOLD!

Can't wait to see your creations!

I will announce the winner of this challenge on the 28th of October, so don't forget to stop by!

You can link up your creations below.

To be eligible to win a prize, please follow all the instructions carefully...

you will find them above and in under 'how to play' in the right sidebar.

Thanks so much for stopping by...

Have a great day!

Paru Mahtani

An InLinkz Link-up