Mix Media Tags - Winter blue By Maansi Vaswani

"Like life,  at times the journey is more important than the destination" 

Hello Crafters,

Maansi Vaswani here, with the new inspiration for you all.

I have lately become fascinated with the art of mix media.  The beauty of this craft form is the fact is there are no set rules.  And that is what makes it interesting.  

Having become a collector lately I have been collecting a lot of things that would usually be thrown away by us...  Bits of paper,  cloth tags, buttons,  tree bark,  bottle caps,  cheesecloth and god only knows what all... 

So when I was told to make a mix media project I had a wide variety of stuff to add and experiment with.   Considering that I was just planning to experiment I decided to do some mix media tags.  

As the summer approaches, I wanted to create something which would give an effect of winter... Cool,  wintery and shiny...  And here is what I have created.  

Image 1

These have been created in old clothes tag which we usually get when we buy clothes.  Most of the time we just cut these and throw it away. But I decided to use these as the base.  

I have painted these white with gesso and have added texture using modelling paste.  Once dry using folkart paint I have created a light blue wash. To this, I have added a bit of color using Memento inks.  

Once my background was ready, it was time to put to put the composition.  For this, I have used some ready made flowers as well as have created some handmade flowers.  

I have created layers using some gauze,  and mdf gears. To that, I have added some fused pearls on a string,  some pollen fillers,  the flowers and a few other pieces of MDF and some buttons and ends.  

Once my composition was ready I have applied white gesso on all the colored areas.  Then I have added the shades of blue using acrylic paints,  some moments inks and cosmic water color paints.  The cosmic paints added a bit of a shine to the entire project and thus added to the wintery feeling.  I kept working on the coloring until I achieved the effect I was looking for.  

Right in the end, I added a few dew drops to bring the project together.

I have created two different tags using almost the same techniques and embellishments.  Thus they are different but at the same time similar.  

Hope you like this inspiration. 

Here are some close-ups of the same.  

Image 2

Image 3

Supplies used

White gesso
Modelling paste
Folkart Acrylic paint 
Memento dew drop ink pads
Gauze
Buttons
Ready flowers
Flower making paper
Pollens
Pearls on a string
Cosmic water color paints
Dew drops 

Wishing you a wonderful day ahead 

Regards
Maansi Vaswani
Artfire Creations

Baby Album By Maansi

Good morning 

Hello , my dear crafty friends. This is DT Maansi Vaswani from Artfire Creation Blog . Today I am sharing a beautiful baby album which is made with lots of love . I hope you will love the album. Do share a feedback with us.

            A newborn is always a cause for celebration and ofcourse gifting to the new one.  So when I came to know that one of my close friends was due, it was a cause for excitement.  And thus began the hunt for the perfect gift for the parents as well as the little one.  

But I wanted to give something which will be of value even after many years.  So I decided to make a handmade gift.  A lot of options were there but I chose to make a baby album to store all the precious memories. 

This album is made in generic colours as we did not know whether it would be a girl or boy and I wanted the gift to be ready at time of the birth.  

Using a paper stack received as a part of my DT kit along with some awesome supplies, and adding some generic paper from my stash, I have created this 14 paged, 8" * 8" with a 4" spine baby album from scratch.  A point to be noted here is you don't need paper from the same stack to create a beautiful album.  I have added some generic paper from another 2-3 stacks that I had on hand. ( I did this as I wanted a lot of paper for the picture mats and inserts). You can add more interest to your album by adding papers with polka dots, small flowers,  stars or even lines. 

I will not go into the details for making each page as there are host of tutorials and info available on the internet.  But as the receiving family had no idea about scrapbooks, I did try to keep it simple for them to understand and use it.  At the same time each page is different in terms of layout. 

Another thing that I kept in mind is keeping additional pockets and picture mats to store all the precious memories.  

As I already mentioned this is a 14 page album with many fold outs and pockets.  It has a capacity of storing many photographs.  Also I did create a ton of picture mats / inserts from all the left over paper.  

The flowers on the cover as well as inside are all handmade using speciality paper.  Also I have used a lot of embellishments from my stash and the DT kit.  Some of the pages even have magnetic closures.  

The ribbons and the name on the cover and inside have been added in the end,  when we got to know it's a beautiful baby girl.  

Here are few of the pics of the various pages and a overview video of the album.  

Supplies used
Chipboard 
Card stock - white
Red tacky tape 
Pattern paper 
Wet glue
Ribbons
Lace
Embellishments 
Wooden frame
Half pearls
Acrylic paint 
Speciality paper for flower making 
Archival ink 
Punches
Glitter

Hope you have enjoyed this inspiration and album.  Happy crafting 

Regards 
Maansi Vaswani 
Artfire Creations