Archive for July, 2010
Ah August!
The month of celebrations!!
The month of Goodwill!!!
Check out the list of celebrations we have this year in August
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Onam (Monday, (August 23rd)
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See what I mean? This is just the general list. Apart from all the birthdays / anniversaries of loved ones etc.
What better way to celebrate these days than to give gifts? And how cool will it be if you can come up with ‘personalized’ gifts for each occasion!
That’s the theme of my new ‘service’ which I’ll be ready to offer in just a couple more days.
Almost all of us have digital photographs these days. Some sweet memories linked with our friends, colleagues, spouses, parents, kids and other loved ones. But what do we do with them?
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Stack them away in some forgotten folder on our lappy?
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Write them out to disk and keep them for ‘one day’?
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Or go find a photo store, take prints and pile them into albums.
We watch our memories transform from
to something like
That’s it?
How about something like
or
??
Like it? Read on, there’s more 
How about transforming some of your images into photo books (like the ones above) or canvases or mugs or tote bags ?
Exciting?
I am planning to offer to design these things for you. At 0 (yes, that’s a zero) cost of designing! *
All you end up paying is what ZoomIn** will charge you for printing and shipping. No extra dime. In most cases these items will cost you comparable (or even lesser) than your local photo print stores.
You can click here to take a sneak peek into the products and prices and here for some of the special offers.
I am onto the last bit of puzzle finalizing how we are going to do it. You know, the technical details you wouldn’t like to hear about. And then bang! I’ll be at your service! Designing cool stuff from your photographs to be used for yourself or your home or to be given as gifts.
For sure you do not want to miss a thing like this! Keep watching this space or better still, sign up here so you get updates in your inbox. You don’t want to get left out of the “0 cost” thingy, do you?
Sincerely,
Yours in celebrations,
~Varada
* Let me make it clear here that this 0 cost is a limited time offer and may not last long.
** ZoomIn ships to any doorstep in India, US, UK and Canada for now. Rest of the world will have to wait – either till ZoomIn starts shipping there or I find another provider to do something similar. Extremely sorry, rest-of-the-world!
Progress check:
Ever found a beautiful box – with sweets, clothes, gifts, toys but don’t know what to do with it? Let me share one of my ideas…
I found this lovely pink box that my friend had stacked away in her office drawer because it was too beautiful to be thrown away but she could not think of anything to do with it…
This one had a transparent rectangle right in the middle on its face. If the box you are trying to work on, does not have one, simply carve / cut it with a sharp cardboard cutter.
I added another transparent pocket behind and gave it a border on the front.
For the pocket, use transparency sheets as show below.
The border I cut out from an old greeting card.
I had this beautiful poster of Kanha (Indian Deity) drawn on a dried Banyan leaf:
Inserted it into the pocket I had created on the box and the final outcome came out to be…
I did not add many embellishments simply because I wanted to keep it simple. You can add beads, stickers even ribbons or other craft paper cut outs to decorate the photo frame.
The trick is to stay focused on one idea and add things that come to mind with that theme.
Here are some examples:
- Suppose you want this to be your handmade dad’s day gift. You could decorate the box with some stickers related to dad’s day. Embellish with some square buttons or something. Keep the look such that it fits your father’s personality.
Similarly for mom’s day. Add some stickers, some beads or buttons, tie a girlish bow / ribbon.
- For a valentines’ day you could decorate this with red hearts cut out and dried rose petals.
- For someone’s birthday you could add birthday stickers and some confetti.
- To give a gift as a remembrance of a holiday, recreate the magic of those days.
If you went to a beach, decorate this box with shells and may be a dried star fish. You can also add a couple glass fishes (click here for instructions).
If you visited mountains, stick together some pine needles or dried leaves or even some nuts!
- To add a little personal touch, cut out hearts or stars or any other shapes you like from some colored papers, write your thoughts-good wishes-messages on them and put them inside this box.
Alternatively add chocolates / toffees / cookies inside the box.
The possibilities are only limited by your imagination!
Like this entry? You can also create cool stuff from everyday things… Just think out of the box… 
Update:
I am sending this entry to Shruti’s Arsy-Craftsy Challenge from Mindful Meanderings. Wish me luck!
It was from Shankari’s blog that I heard about IHM’s tag thingie. It’s about doing a little introspection and listing out your ‘sins’. The things that you do that’s considered ‘unconventional’ for your gender. Like a girl picking gum over a chocolate or a guy eating chocolate instead of drinking alcohol. Got it?
I modified this exercise just a little bit here and there to make it more like the ‘W’ in SWOT analysis.
So here’s a list of my top 10 vices that irk (some sinless) women…
1. I prefer the company of my lappy, my digicam and books to the TV.
2. When there are plumbers or carpenters or painters in our house, I am the one asking them to do things differently. Often experimenting with their tools.
3. I don’t like to wait for some male member to come over and change the light bulb. Or fix the plug. Or carry my lappy around for me.
4. I do create jewelry (and yes, it is quite beautiful) but don’t like wearing jewelry myself. I also feel uncomfortable carrying any artificial colors on my skin and nails. I like me just the way I am.
5. I like to shop but only for others. I am extremely lazy when I’ve to go get a new dress or shoes or anything for myself. The same is with beauty treatments or haircuts. Buying books is a different ball game, though.
6. I love big bikes and tall cars even SUVs. During my first US visit I was in awe of the 12 wheeler trucks and seriously envied the truckers.
7. My favorite TV channel (once in a few months when I do watch it), is Disney and not Zee TV or Star Plus. Also I can’t sit straight for 3 hours and watch a typical romance unfold in front of me with predictable twists and turns. I would rather create another pair of earrings.
8. Love to watch car racing or horse racing or even wrestling. (Yeah, John Cena!)
9. I can (barely) manage house work. But please, NO ironing. And no keeping a tab about how and when I do the cleaning and cooking.
10. I hate sitting and yapping about what’s happening in whose life. If it ain’t concerned to me, I don’t care how they do it. At the same time, if it is about me, I get involved without waiting to be asked.
11. I speak my thoughts, often thinking out loud, not really getting worried about who will think what.
12. I’ll try to do everything myself until the last moment. Only give up when I know I’ve exhausted my ways of dealing with things. (Yeah, I am working on this one! High time!!)
There. My sins. Laid bare for the whole world to see.
I am trying to change the last one, since it is causing nuisance to my own peace of mind.
Other than that, I think I am perfect! I love being me.
So, friends who have blogs, go list out similar vices for yourself and may be a couple action items. If you want to do it in the original style, head over to IHM’s blog and ask her to tag you.
Or, you could always list them out as a comment to this post! Well, why not?
Have fun!!!
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