My 100th post! Bird wall art - Tutorial

Yay!! This is my 100th post and it feels great writing it :) Wait, lemme quickly check the fact again before I make an announcement in error..... Yes it is! I am so HAPPY. When I started the blog I couldn't have imagined today and now that I am here I feel inspired and all the more eager to reach the next milestones :)
And the announcement - Keep a look out for the 100th post giveaway coming soon!!

For this post you can enjoy these birdies sitting on trees.

I was very inspired by Becca from Blue Cricket Design. She made this bird wall art here. Check it out, it even has a video of her TV interview explaining the process. I have been trying to attempt this since ages and finally could complete it last week. My guest bedroom walls were bare and with family coming down for a visit it was the perfect time to get this done.

The raw materials used are - 2 canvases of the same size (mine were 11x14), fevicol, permanent markers in black - one thin to outline and one thick tipped to fill in, a pencil, the local yellow pages directory (which was free by the way) and printed bird images off the internet.

I chose the pages from a yellow pages telephone directory. Like Becca suggests you can choose any material - newspaper, pages from an old book, scrapbook paper, gift wrapping paper etc. Let your imagination go wild!
I started with mixing 1 part of fevicol with 1.5 parts water. You can thin it out further if it seems too thick. Thin is easy to spread with a brush.  Next I tore out random pages out of the telephone directory and spread the fevicol mixture on one side with a brush. Then I stuck the pages on the canvas in any shape and manner that you want to. Random is good. Overlap, overlay and cover the sides of the canvas too.
Once both the canvases were done I kept them overnight to let them dry out completely.

The next day I started with drawing branches on the canvas freehand with pencil. Make sure that you continue the branch from one canvas to the other to get the illusion of one single branch across. Once the branches were done I outlined them with the thin marker.

Then filled them in with the thicker marker.

Once the branches were all done I placed the bird images at different places and traced the outlines. For the bird images I googled birds on the internet and printed them out. You can also stick the images onto a harder paper like card stock and cut along the outline. This will make it easier to transfer onto the canvas.
Then I filled in the birds and added the details like leaves and small branches. After this I coloured in the images one last time to ensure an even colour.

It looks lovely on the guest room walls, haven't been able to take pictures of that yet. But here are some more pictures. I already got some great reviews from the guests :)

Linking this in to Patty's Weekend Wrap Up!

Would you like some tea?

Like Patty in her Weekend Wrap up, I had some tea on one fine Saturday morning. I usually don't have tea or coffee on a daily basis. Neither does S. Tea is made in our house only when guests, who drink tea, come over or it is a rainy or very cold day. This Saturday was a nice, pleasant and calm day (N wasn't up yet). I decided to do something to make myself feel special and here is how I spent my Saturday morning -

With a warm cuppa of tea and some good books! 

I love the print on the tea cups and the tea pot.

The chairs are my latest acquisition, courtesy my parents. They had these lovely Assam cane beauties and they gladly passed them on to me :)

The seating pair is comfortable and durable at the same time.

The rug was also sent by mom. It is a traditional hand woven rug from Punjab, more like a durrie than a rug I would say.

Linking this to Patty's Weekend Wrap Up. Hope That you guys had an awesome weekend and wil have an even better week ahead!!

Ranga Shankara

I like watching plays and have always been drawn to this aspect of art and creativity. So finally after a year of being in Bangalore I got to go to Ranga Shankara. An English play called "The Interview" was on and I went along with some of my girl friends. This was my first visit and I wasn't disappointed at all!!
I loved the place, the ambiance, the food (they have an awesome cafe) and the feeling of being in an artsy world! Being there made me feel fresh, excited and in love with the whole experience. It was as if I found something that I loved. I was like a baby who gets a new toy - exploring it, absorbing the details in, happy about having it and looking at cherishing it for a long time.
The play - well that is a different story entirely. It wasn't exactly up to my expectations. I felt that the play was trying to touch so many different topics and it failed to make an impact about any of them. But I am sure I am going to watch a lot more plays there and good ones at that.

Here are glimpses from this beautiful place...

The name board at the entrance. Simple yet it makes a statement!

The Warli Art on the cafe wall. This little cafe serves mouthwatering stuff. Even if you don't want to watch a play go for just the food!

The painted pillars. Art everywhere.

The beautiful cafe with the hanging paper lanterns.

The cafe tables were simple stone slabs supported by cement blocks for legs.

One of the many art works/posters around the place.

The stairway to the auditorium.

More art on display.

Me (on the left end) with Nidhi and Pallavi.

Outside the ticket counter, me (in the center) with Arundhati and Nidhi.

I love taking pictures 'coz I believe life is made of beautiful moments and pictures are a great way to capture them. Memories may fade or be replaced but pictures will be there to tell stories :)
Happy Friday!!

Butterfly artwork in picture frame - Tutorial

Let the curtains rise!! [Drum roll please]
I was surfing around on one of the blogs on my blog roll - Blue Cricket Design and liked an idea where Becca uses a silhouette of birds across a range of products - to decorate a book cover, make a photo frame wall art and a canvas wall art. I was working on the bird canvas wall art when I decided to decorate the photo frame on my console table as a quick mini-project. So I chose some butterflies instead of birds.

I had this beautiful frame (gifted by a friend on Christmas some years back) and a very pretty Japanese scrapbook paper at home.

I googled for butterfly images and found some pretty ones.

via  

via

I traced the images from a print out onto card stock paper  which is thicker and used that to trace onto the Japanese scrapbook paper. You can draw freehand if you are those talented kinds ;) I used a couple of different sizes of butterflies.

I used a thin permanent black marker to outline the images and then a thicker black one to fill them in. Once all the butterflies were done I coloured them with the thick marker once again to even out the colour and give it a thicker sheen.

And here is how the frame looks like -

I love it after the makeover and it looks great on my console table :)

I am linking this to Weekend Wrap Up on Colours Dekor! Have a great week ahead.

Update - I am also linking this to Show and Tell Wednesdays on Blue Cricket Design.

Peek-a-boo

Here is a sneak peak into what I have been upto.

I promise I shall open the curtains soon... after this weekend!! *wink wink*
Happy Friday!

I'm back from my pre-summer hibernation

I have been away from the blogging world for a long long time now. Multiple reasons - some fun, some boring. Took a vacation, did some shopping, attended parties, met friends and have been catering to a summer-camp-going 2 and a 1/2 year old. But I am back now :) And this is what I have been upto... well these are pictures of some of the stuff I have been doing.

Enjoyed a trip to Calicut via the beautiful Mudumalai forest

Watched a beautiful sunset in the Arabian Sea from the Kozikhode Beach

Enjoyed a birthday party on Martin's Farm, saw ducks

And roosters

N had fun in the tire swing

And he enjoyed a pony ride on Copper the pony!

I am linking this to Patty's Weekend Wrap Up. What have you been upto in the summer holidays?