Hello dear friends!

It's that time.... this post marks the end of my term at Papericious.

Wow... one year....

It's been an absolutely amazing journey but I couldn't just end it without saying thanks now could I? ^__^

Aastha, thank you.
For believing in me, giving me the freedom to experiment and most importantly, trusting me with your brand.

Thank you dear readers. Your feedback was something I absolutely loved going through and I tried my best to revert to everybody who took some time out to go through my blog posts. I truly am grateful for the love and kindness that you have bestowed upon me.

*Big panda hugs.*

Today I've used the MI ESTILO paper pack by Papericious but before we look into that I hope you remember....

Papericious papers now come in thickness of 200 gsm! (That's pretty amazing if you ask me!)

And that's not all!

Apart from the 10 gorgeous designs (10x3 = 30 sheets) in MI ESTILO, this pack also contains 2 sheets full of co-ordinating die-cuts!

Yep, no need to go hunting for matching stuff & embellishments!

So now... for the last time, let me take you through these projects that I've created :

First up is a card I created using the pattern papers with the die-cuts from the embellishment sheet.

Here's a closeup :

I also made a couple of tags to co-ordinate with my card.

The tag at the extreme left is created by using plain white cardstock on pattern paper base. I left it white and added some subtle stenciling to it.

Here's a closeup :

I started with white cardstock for the tag in the center too, only difference here is that I colored it up using violet Color Burst.

The tag on the extreme right consists completely of pattern papers.
(All pattern papers for all the tags are from Mi Estilo paper pack.)

I've used different embellishments in each tag. [Sequins, half pearls and rhinestones.]
Also, I picked different colors for the tags to show you that these fussy-cut embellishments co-ordinate beautifully with a variety of colors!

I fussy-cut the teeny tiny make-up accessories out of this sheet from the pack :

This paper pack is perfect for that fashionista friend or a make-up diva sibling! I had a lot of fun working with it and I'm sure so will you!

That brings us to an end of the post my friends.

Thank you so much for stopping by! Have a fabulous day!

This is Halak, signing off.

Hello hello! ^__^

I'm Halak and today I'm here to share the results for the Moodboard Challenge hosted by Papericious in July.

We loved looking at your work and we really appreciate the hard work and effort that you put in to create such beautiful projects!

Thank you all so very much for your active participation!

Without further ado, here are the winners :

TOP 3

Chiao-Yu Yang (Entry #18)

Chiao-Yu Yang, we loved how you created layers and texture using the Papericious Vintage Attire Paper Pack on your card. It gave your project a wonderful mixed-media feel!

Lekha (Entry #21)

Lekha, we loved your quilling and the use of Papericious Wooden Collection Paper Pack in the card background enhanced the beauty of your work even more!

Mounika (Entry #9)

Mounika, we loved your project brimming with beautiful blooms + leaves and the way you used  Papericious My Golden Garden paper pack! 

And now time to announce the Challenge Winner! ^__^

The winner is.....

Miti (Entry #11)

Miti, we were blown away by your stunningly detailed Shaker Card! All that fussy-cutting is simply wow!! Brilliant use of Papericious My Golden Garden and Papericious Wooden Collection Paper Packs! Congratulations!

Miti, please send an email to papericious@gmail.com with the Subject - Challenge Winner to claim your prize.

The winner and the top 3 can collect their respective blog badges from >>> HERE
We'd love to see you flaunt these on your blogs!

But wait, that's not all...

We also picked a random winner from all the entries we received for our challenge and that lucky person is....

Entry #16 which was by Kriti! A big congrats to you too, Kriti. Please send an email to papericious@gmail.com with Subject - Random Winner to claim your prize.

And that's that!
Before I sign off, I wanted to remind you that we have our August Challenge up and running!

The challenge theme is Anything Goes and we have some awesome prizes up for grabs so check it out >>> HERE

Thank you for stopping by and have a lovely day!

Hello and good morning dear friends!

Raksha Bandhan is just around the corner and how awesome it'd be if you could handcraft something special for your brother? ^__^

I'm Halak and today we're going to be doing just that!

I have a masculine layout tutorial for you folks packed with tips so let's get started.

These are the 4 sheets of paper that I used from The Gentleman Paper Pack by Papericious.

Tip : Once you select the papers, before you begin working on them, always have a rough layout in mind. Call it a blueprint of sorts, it's what helps you move ahead without getting overwhelmed and confused.

I always chalk out a rough idea no matter what project I am doing. Then, I click a picture of it and work step by step.

Here's how I wanted my layout to look :

Tip : We're working with masculine theme so I selected a stamp set that'd go well with it.
Here's a list of stuff that goes perfect with such layouts : Gears (Could be a stamp / stencil / die-cut shapes or even miniature metal charms), Grunge themed stamps, Geometric stencil designs, Colors like black, brown & grey etc.

What I love about these layouts is the fact that it lets your creativity run free. You don't have to be perfect. It's all about having fun.

Once I was satisfied with what my blueprint looked like, it was time to trim the sheets.

Measurements :

Outermost Sheet = 22 cm x Original Length

Middle Sheet = 18 cm x Original Length

Central Sheet = 16 cm x 30 cm

(Papericious papers are a little longer than 30 cm so when I mention original length / size, it means I did not trim down that portion.)

I cut these two pieces from the 4th sheet (extreme right in pic #2) because I wanted to layer them among the other sheets.

This is how I wanted to layer :

The basic look of the base achieved, I moved on to the next bit.

I wanted a rough look so I went with random stitched border stamps and abstract stencils.

Tip : If you don't have grunge themed stencils and stamps, think outside the box. Think of all the day to day objects that you can use like bubble wrap, a fine tooth comb, generic white and grey shirt buttons or string dipped in black paint!

After the background was done, I moved on to decorating the page.

The sentiment and those really cool glasses are from the Die-cut sheet which is provided with The Gentleman Paper Pack. (Yep, the awesome folks at the product designing end over at Papericious really do think of everything!)

I used a geometric pattern stencil with the classic gears stencil + assorted bunch of stamps to add detail.

Apart from that, I have also used three clock images which are from the Papericious Circular Collage Sheet line. (Product name : Vintage Time)

And there you have it folks, one layout which would make a really nice present!

Tip : I used the sentiment as the focal image but if you want to personalize it you can adhere your brother's picture and elements that he likes. Example : Miniature sports embellishments, pictures of places he likes to visit or even his favorite dessert!

Tip : Just because it's a masculine layout, it doesn't mean you need to lose the bling completely. Just make sure you don't go over the top.

In the above two images, you can see a few elements that I covered in black glitter.

Signing off with my favorite closeup.

The Kala Chashma! (Dark Glasses) ^__^
I covered up the fussy-cut image in glossy accents! The picture does not do it justice but I tried my best to capture that glossy look.

Thank you so much for taking time out to check my tutorial!

Have a lovely day! *Hugs*

Hello! I'm Halak.

Remember we had a fun little giveway over at my post earlier this month on the Papericious blog?

It was a tutorial on a chipboard mini-album with a giveaway. The giveaway is over but the tutorial is still relevant, so if you'd like to have a look, you can check it out >>> HERE

I know, we were supposed to announce the results yesterday but hey, better late than never, what say?! ^__^

So, without further ado, here are the two lucky ladies who've won this paper assortment :

1. Karthikha Uday

2. Neelima Gady

Congratulations ladies!

To claim your prize, please send an email mentioning your complete address AND phone number before 2nd August 2016 to :

halak.shah@gmail.com

We had over 30 entries and I wanted to take a minute here and thank you all for your participation.

It means a lot to the Papericious family, thank you all so very much!

Have a lovely day dear friends!

*Hugs* 

Hello and good morning dear friends! ^__^

I'm Halak and today's project features a chipboard album that I created out of a single sheet of 12" x 12" chipboard by using the stunning GREY BLOOM paper pack by Papericious.

Yep, one single sheet.

The idea started with the paper pack actually. I saw it and went woah... it's beautiful, how did ever I miss checking out this paper pack!

I wanted to be able to show the versatility of this pack and I ended up using the whole pack (all the designs from the pack) for this project.

Before we delve into the project let me warn you that this post is LONG and picture heavy. So, sit back, relax and check this project out at leisure.
It's a tutorial, but constructed a little differently so as to enable to impart as much info as I can.

Let's get started!

Here's the chipboard sheet.

I broke down this 12" x 12" sheet into 6 parts that formed the base of my album.

After that I selected 6 designs (12 pieces in totality, 2 of each design) and cut them to chipboard size.

These are the 6 designs I selected for my base.

Now here's where the tutorial differs. Rather than teaching you how to make an album which requires the skills of cutting and gluing down papers and is pretty basic, I will teach you how to select papers and make your project.

Note the 6 papers that I selected. I deliberately chose 3 sheets that were all grey and the other 3 that had red.
I did that to maintain a design balance.
I could have taken 12 different sheets of pattern papers (one sheet on each side) instead of taking 6 designs, but I picked 6 designs for my base because out of the remaining designs I wanted to create embellishments for my album.

Let's have a look at all the 12 pages. I removed the pages out of the binder ring to be able to photograph them better.

The cover image :

Pages 2 and 3

Pages 4 and 5

Pages 6 and 7

Pages 8 and 9

Pages 10 and 11

Back cover (Page 12)

You must have wondered what are the odd bits like tags, rhinestones, die-cut pieces et al.

Well, it's a present for a crafty friend so along with designing some fun pages I added in a bunch of crafty stuff that she could use.

It's a fun idea and makes a beautiful present for your crafty friends!

Note
When you saw the album, did you notice the colors I used?

I used : Black, white and red cardstock. At some places I used a couple of pink (light and dark) rhinestones.

Why?
Because, when you look at the pack closely, you will see that apart from grey, these three colors are what you can see in the designs.

Why didn't I use grey?
Of course I could use grey too. But I decided on using the grey patterned paper from the Papericious paper pack (the one with the white leaves) because it looked a whole lot more prettier than the generic grey cardstock so I went with that and the remaining 3 colors. ^__^

Top tip
If you select  colors that are on the patterned papers it will make your album color co-ordinated and the effect will be more eye pleasing than slapping down any random color that you fancy.

What all can be done with Papericious patterned papers?

Actually, a LOT. Papericious patterned papers are very versatile. You can adhere them as-is, die-cut them, make fun tags or envelopes, the choice really is yours!

Did you know?
Papericious papers have gotten a whole lot more AWESOME!
They have upgraded in quality and are now available in 200 gsm!

Here a few of my favorite pages from the album where you can see the versatility of this gorgeous GREY BLOOM paper pack.

Made some fun tags :

Made a mini-envelope that I filled with die-cut words.

Note the die-cut words. They are... yup, red and white.
Now look at the envelope color.
Red and white.

See what I mean? Always think color co-ordinated.

I also die-cut these papers and paired them with words to create pretty pages.

This brings us to an end of this post.

For adhering paper I used red tacky tape and for small embellishments, I used generic PVA glue. (Fevicol)

I hope you are feeling inspired and will give this project a try! ^__^

GIVEAWAY

To help you start out and as a motivation to try out this project, I'm giving away a sampler pack of 6" x 6" papers from the GREY BLOOM paper pack and from the Pattern Collection Volume 1 paper pack (a total of 32 sheets, 8 designs per pack and 2 sheets of each design) to 2 lucky ladies.

Along with these beautiful papers, you'll be getting a card from me along with a little surprise! ^__^

To participate and for a chance to win, you only gotta do these 2 things :
1. Follow Papericious Blog

2. Join Papericious Facebook Group
    To join, click >> HERE

Once you are done doing the 2 things, just write "done" on this blog post via comment.

Entries close 25th July 2016 (midnight).

Winners will be announced 29th July 2016.

Till next time folks! Have a lovely day! *Hugs*

Hello and good morning! ^__^

I know it's a Monday but on the positive side, no scorching sun! The weather is cool and pleasant!

I'm Halak and today's project features an altered notebook cover.

Here's what the notebook looked like before altering :

Yeah... pretty weird...

It had been lying with me for ages so I thought... hey, let's alter that ghastly cover! Lol!

I used the super pretty Pattern Collection Vol 1 paper pack by Papericious to create a new cover for my notebook.

Here's the finished product :

What say? A total transformation, kinda like those before and after ads. :P

I love the designs in this set! Pattern Collection Volume 1 is a paper pack that's complete by itself. It's got a stunning assortment of beautiful patterns featuring these classic colors : pink, white, grey and black.

The reverse of the notebook was kept pretty simple.

And that's that! I really enjoyed altering the notebook. My sibling was thrilled on receiving it and decided to make it her everyday journal. ^__^

I hope you liked it and thank you so much for stopping by! *Big Panda Hugs*

Hello and good morning! ^__^

It's the weekend and I hope you are also chilling and thinking of catching up with all that crafting!

I'm Halak and today I'll be taking you through a tutorial using the vibrant Pretty Basics paper pack by Papericious. (A fun project to try out this weekend, what say?)

Let's get started!

It all began with the layering of papers.

Pretty Basics is so colorful and gorgeous that I simply couldn't help myself! I wanted to use all the pattern papers from this one! So I came up with a background that uses 5 different sheets.

Check it out :

First, I arranged them loosely in this manner for my layout.

After this, I took a piece of white cardstock and stamped a sentiment.

I wanted an uplifting motivating sentiment that I could frame, so I went for this one.

Next I did a little stamping around it followed by some stenciling using blue and purple inks.

Notice that I added a few bits of washi tape too.

After this step, I wanted some more layering so decided to use pieces from Pretty Basics sheets for that.

With all that thinking, hand-tearing the paper and gluing this is what my base looked like :

So colorful!

Tip : Notice that I adhered all pattern papers to right hand side (RHS) top and bottom edges.

Why did I do that?
To maintain balance.

The design strips on my layout background are focusing towards the LHS.
If I didn't balance it out by building up layers on RHS, the project would not be visually pleasing.

Remember, whenever you create a project, think of the background and tie-in your elements with it while maintaining balance.

Once this was done, I arranged and glued my pattern papers in the format shown in the second picture and adhered based over it.

Here's the picture :

I wanted a tiny portion of the pattern paper towards the RHS bottom too, so I cut up a few strips and glued them.

Also added a red butterfly punch out.

Finally gave the butterfly a coat of sparkle and adhered a few sequins to finish it off!

That's how I did it!

Tip : I used a whole bunch of colors because I wanted my project to be all colorful but if you don't want that, you can pick a color scheme you like and work with that.
Example : Warm colors like red, orange and cool colors like blue and green etc.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and will give it a go! ^__^ In case of any difficulty, feel free to ask about this project in the comments below and I will most certainly reply to it!

Signing off with a close up, till next time dear friends!