A Unique Happy Birthday card

SW0045GC
Size: A5

Interested?
E-mail me at gayatrigouda@gmail.com

A very simple CAS card - Generic / Love Card

SW0044GC
Size: 20 cm x 10.5 cm

Interested?
E-mail me at gayatrigouda@gmail.com

Small Photo-Frame greeting cards

I know... I know... I have posted sneak peak of my small cards a long time ago and haven't posted the actual pictures ever since. I am not in good mood and have become very very lazy to do anything in the world. Just want to relax... relax... and relax.

Today I thought enough of this laziness. It's high time that I must post the actual pictures. So, I am uploading all the different cards that I made. Actually I made 2 varieties. Both the varieties have an option to put your own stamping content or print message or photograph in the card. For sample I have just provided my own stamped sheet.

SW0043AGC

Size: 9.0 cm x 10.5 cm

SW0043BGC
Size: 9.0 cm x 10.5 cm

Interested?
E-mail me at gayatrigouda@gmail.com

(Click on the picture or open in new window to see the full size of the card)

Jolly’s Signature Flower - "The Fairy Wings"

It’s a very special day for me - "12th May 2012" as it was my 3rd marriage anniversary. And it was a great surprise for me when in the morning I woke up I saw my sister, Jolly (Suchitra) in front of me holding presents. I never ever expected that she would come from Hyderabad to Bangalore just for my anniversary. I could not stop crying when I realized that it’s truly her in front of me and it’s not just my imagination. All night I was dreaming of what I would present her on her upcoming b’day and here she is standing in front of me with her special handmade gift. 

She brought me sweets, chocolate and her special handmade greeting card. She chose this day to introduce her signature flower to me and to the world. We have given it a name "The Fairy Wings" flower. We have given the name since the flower looks too delicate, just like the wings of a fairy. 

Here’s the card she presented me with her signature flower:

(This picture shows the original color of the card elements)

She packed it in a gorgeous pouch with my favorite Temptation chocolate. She even made this gorgeous envelop herself. 

My Signature Bookmarks - for the Swap

So, I am participating in a bookmark swapping event where in we would be swapping our bookmarks with each other. I registered for it but had no idea what to make and how. All I could remember is Lin’s quilled teddy bear bookmarks. I love those bookmarks. I have seen many other bookmarks. And personally I have a huge collection of bookmarks that range from printed paper book marks to metal bookmarks. I love them. Whenever I purchase books I make sure the shopkeeper gives me a good amount of bookmarks and that too whatever designs he has. 

Now, when it comes to quilled bookmark I always wonder how the quilled designs sustain under the pressure of the papers and the books – don’t they look odd with some pages bulging. Well, that made me to look out for ideas. Initially I thought I would go for a twist with the origami version of the bookmarks. However, I wanted a version where I can implement Lin’s punched bookmark ideas. And thus I came up with my version of bookmark – GG's Signature Bookmark.

Before I prepared these 23 bookmarks, I had experimented with a different design. Here's how the bookmark looks in a book:

Here's how the bookmark looks that I made for the swap:

Sneak Peek - My Signature Bookmark

It's been quite a bit of time that I have sincerely blogged. Failing to have sufficient energy and patience to write or craft. Yeah, I am maintaining my diary of course. I love to use pen than the keyboard :) I broke my camera too so that has restricted me to take pics of my work in progress too. Finally I decided to take pic with my mobile phone. They do not come so well, but it's OK to click pics with it than not clicking pics at all.

Anyway, I have been preparing bookmarks for the National Quilling Swap that I am participating in. Well, this is the first time I am preparing a bookmark so have been struggling for ideas. I finally came up with my version and I call it my signature style. 

Here's a sneak peek of my bookmark work in progress:

First I quilled 24 flowers with 4mm quilling strips of 3 colors that I had bought from Itsy Bitsy.

Tip for Bloggers who post Pictures

I have been facing a common problem while browsing; especially when hopping through blogs. And that is very heavy sites. People now a days very much share their personal pics, pictures of their works and their creations. They click the pictures with mostly digital cameras which obviously captures every details. And obviously thus the picture size increases. Now, it irritates me when a page takes a lot of time to load because of the pictures in it. And honestly I don't have patience to wait to see some picture downloading at snails rate. And I don't want to waste my bandwidth for watching those heavy pics. Thus, most of the time I just close the site without reading anything or watching the pics in it.

My blogs do have a lot of pics, be it my personal blog or my creations blog. And I make sure my website always open faster. To make it happen I always make copies of my pics that I want to upload in a separate folder. And then I open those pics one by one in Microsoft Paint and simply save it. Now, this reduces your picture size to a great extent. And since the pics are digital pics, if there is a certain bit loss in picture quality it is unnoticeable. Now, I do the same thing with the collage pictures too. When we create a collage picture the picture size usually becomes much more; and when you save it with MS Paint it reduces it to almost half of its size. Since I make copies of the pics, I delete the copies after I upload those to the web.

Thus, my tip to the bloggers is make copy of your pics and save it with MS Paint before uploading those to your blogs. If you are watermarking your pics after you save the pics with MS Paint, save it with MS Paint again. You would notice that the size is reduced even more.

Now, this also applies to other websites which you use for business purposes. If its really necessary to show high quality pics then uploading the high quality digital pictures is fine.

Hope it helps you get your website stream faster and thus helps you get more visitors.

Thanks for visiting my blog!!

P.S. People who have a good broadband speed do not face much streaming problem, however, people who use the stick the pic size obviously impacts your bandwidth.

♥ ~ GG

Sneak Peek - Some small greeting cards

I have been planning to make some small cards for a long time now. For I have some friend who are looking for small but gorgeous cards. I am in process of making those cards.

Here’s a sneak peek of the card that’s in progress at the moment.

Would post the pics once the cards are fully done.

Thanks for visiting my post!!

♥ ~ GG

Beehived Heart - a Love Card

SW0042GC
Size: A5

Interested?

E-mail me at gayatrigouda@gmail.com

Sneak Peek - My next quilled heart greeting card

I have been idle and resting for past few days now. And thus passing time by quilling some flowers and cutting my card stocks. Not much hard work is done. Yeah I have been thinking some technique for the bookmark swap I am participating in. However, got bored of thinking and thus thought I would do some quilling. Wanted to beehive something for a long time. And a heart is something I wanted to quill. Actually wanted to see how the heart turns out with beehiving technique.

And here's a sneak peek of what I have done so far:

Here are some other angles of the heart:

Got some new products from Itsy Bitsy...

Got some good stuff from Itsy Bitsy recently. I had been to the newly opened shop of Itsy Bitsy in HSR Layout, Bangalore. It has good collection of punch craft, colors, painting tools, stamps, rub-on, quilling and embossing supply. I absolutely love the Kaiser Craft clear stamps. I was planning to buy some clear stamps from some other websites. However, I found some stamps at the shop for very less price than the one that shows in other websites. So, I am very happy. The other thing that I was looking for was a bone folder and yes, I got one pink one there. :) I also bought some glue, quilling strips 4mm, a double sided embossing tool. 

I felt the price of the stuff were quite reasonable. The only thing that I am looking forward to is a wide range of color strips for quilling, which I felt is very limited at the moment.

Hope you liked my review of the shop and would enjoy your crafting.

Thanks for visiting my post!!

♥ ~ GG

Fringed Flowers...

I am not feeling so good for while now. So, was thinking of passing my time by doing something small and less tedious. I have not done fringing for a while now and thus thought I will make some fringed flowers. And here's what I have done with fringing:

Without Camera Flash 

With Camera Flash

I have cut these with scissors and not a fringer, as fringer allows max up to 10 mm strips and these flowers are made with wider strips. I love these flowers very much. It's been a long time I have made any card with fringed flower. Would make some later.

Thanks for visiting my post!!

♥ ~ GG

I love my new tools...

Things become very easy with professional tools. They save a lot of your time. Also, you feel satisfied with your work when it of best quality. That’s how I feel these days, as I now own a Cricut Paper Trimmer/Scoring tool, a Martha Stewart border punch, a self-healing cutting mat. I have other tools help me too like various other punches, embossing pad and embossing pen, some stamps, the quilling tools like the tweezers, quilling board, quilling pens, quilling comb, a small Fringer, fine tip Cutters, a crimper, a quilling coach etc. However, the trimmer, mat and the border punch have taken my work to a greater quality level. Somehow these have increased my confidence level. My wish list still has some more items to be bought. However, budget issues are restricting me to move further at this moment. Anyway, I am loving my tools as they increase my confidence that I will be able to fulfill my dreams.

Thanks for visiting my blog!!

♥ ~ GG