Recycling Pots - With Clay - Using Kulfi matkas.

Decorating Small Pots called Matkas with Clay/M-Seal. 

You need - 

• A Small Pot
• Clay/M-seal
• Metallic paints (Acrylic)
• Brushes
• Touchwood (varnish)(Optional)

Different Types of DIY Fabric Painting Ideas

Fabric Painting 

Painting you dull fabrics and transforming them into the master piece is an art of appreciation. Learn this awesome hobby without much effort and money at "Craftopedia"!

Tie and Dye Technique

• Wet the fabric and squeeze the excess water
• Tie the fabric with tie cords/ Rubber bands at required areas using different kinds of ties such as beads, coins or grains.
• Paint the untied area with thick coats using desired shades of fabric colours with applicator brush.
• Allow to dry for 24 hours and then untie the cords. 
• Iron the reverse side to fix colour on the fabric. 

This technique of tying  and dyeing helps to create Fabulous patterns on a plain fabric. 

Blending Technique 

• Dampen the fabric.
• Dilute the fabric colour with water.
• With light strokes or dots apply two or more diluted colours on the fabric.
• Allow the colours to blend with each other.
• Dry for 24 hours.

Stenciling Techniques

• Position the stencil design on the fabric holding it firmly with adhesive tape.
• Prepare fabric colour in a pallet with a little water. Dip your brush in the fabric paint. Dab excess paint from the brush and stipple or apply on the fabric. 
• use different colour combinations and shades by applying different colours in different areas of the stencil.
• Remove the stencil to see the overlay full effect.
• Let dry for 24 hours.

Stenciling allows you to reproduce a pattern or a design as many times as you like. 

Block printing Technique 

• Draw a design such as a flower on the raw surface of a potato. Carve out the design. You can also choose vegetables and fruit having textured surface when cut (eg; lady finger, onions, pineapple etc). Leaves having interested shapes can also be used as block.
• Hold the fabric in the place with adhesive place.
• Apply a thick coat of fabric colour on the block with brush or sponge.
• Place the block carefully on the fabric and press in firmly.
• Lift the block without sliding or tilting.
• repeat the procedure using different colour combination and different types of blocks.
• Dry for 24 hours. 

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Old is Gold - Ceramic Jars (Jaadis) for Home Decoration

Old Ceramic Jars as Decoration for Interiors and Exteriors

It was Early Summer time, perfect time for mango pickles. My family bought a huge amount of raw mangoes and started preparing the world famous – “Aavakaaya”. The pickle was not supposed to be stored in metallic containers as they might react with metal over a period of time. Since ancient times, many of the south Indian families were using Ceramic Jars called (Jaadis) for storing pickles’.

These double colour beauties mostly in white and brown combination are pride of the kitchen few decades ago. They come in various sizes from huge jaadis for storing pickles for the entire year consumption for those large combined families to small ones to store ghee and curds for daily consumption. These marvellous jaadis come in different shapes but invariably in double colours of brown and white. The standard shape is a tall and cylindrical. They come in the shape of yellow pumpkin called gummadikaya jaadi. 

Well after filling the pickle I was left with one small jaadi. Its, 2 coloured glazing appearance delighted me. It seemed to get back the olden days in our modern home. I decided that it would bring a perfect mixture of olden and modern day’s cultural ambience. And so, I searched for more such containers and decorated my table like this –

 

 Bigger jars could be use as planters also. But my small, cute jar was perfect for 2 stems of healthy money plant in water. They bought elegance to my table. I’m still constantly searching for some more such jaadis or old containers for my house. Then what are you waiting for??? Grab such ceramics from you attics or buy some (they really Inexpensive) and adorn you home with these antiques. 

Your garden can just have such jars standing on a stone table. Or you can fix a fountain in it. They possibilities are endless !!!

Making Leaf Skeletons and Painting them.

Making Leaf Skeletons – Painting them 

When the chlorophyll (Green) is removed from a leaf, the skeleton of the leaf is left behind. This skeleton is almost transparent and does not dry up. These skeletons could be painted and could be used for decorating walls. It could be used as bookmarks or on greeting cards and more. Usually, these leaf skeletons are made using the leaves of evergreen trees. For example - Peepal, Jackfruit, Maple, etc. My favorite is peepal leaf. In this post, I will teach you how to make a peepal leaf skeleton and paint it.

Coming soon : I will also show you 4 DIY Ideas with Peepal leaf skeletons.

You need –

·                    10-15 peepal leaves

·                    A Tub full of water (You may take a bowl also if your peepal leaves are small) (Make sure that the bowl/tub is NOT MADE OF METAL)

·                    A Heavy weight (A Stone)

·                    A Cloth/Plastic sheet (To cover the Tub)

·                    An Old Toothbrush.

Procedure –

1.         Clean the freshly collected Peepal leaves from any dust.

2.        Pile them all and submerge them under water

3.        Place any heavy weight on them so that they remain submerged.

4.        Cover the Tub with a Cloth/plastic sheet to avoid smell and mosquitoes.

5.        Wait for 15 days

6.        Remove the old water and add new water (The old water would stink horribly).

7.        Wait for another 10 days

8.        Then, remove the leaves from water. (They would stink horribly)

9.        Take an old tooth Brush and start scrubbing the leaf surface. (You will find that the green layer starts to wear off)

10.     Carefully scrub off the green layer from the both sides of leaf.

11.      After scrubbing, rinse it in clean water.

12.     Let it dry in sun.

13.     If the leaf curls up after drying, keep it between the pages of a big and heavy book (Dictionary).

Your Leaves are ready – 

Painting Leaf Skeletons

Leaf skeletons are easy to be painted. I have used acrylic paints. Keep the skeleton on a paper. Paint it with diluted acrylic paint. This is how to do it 

These are the painted leaves - 
Soon I will give 4 DIY Ideas to decorate your home with theses skeletons - 

Having a Pond in a Container - Balcony Decoration

Making Your Own Apartment Pond

 

 Do you love the idea of a pond, but don't have an actual yard to place one in? No fear — you can cultivate a mini watery paradise on your balcony or terrace with very little effort by creating a container water garden. By selecting a variety of plants and containers, you can create a customized water garden in any outdoor space that receives six hours of sunlight every day (a little bit less if you are using bog plants).

Small-container water gardens are actually a collection of submerged potted plants, which makes them easy to set up and to rearrange at will. You can use just about any container to start your water garden, but pots with dark interiors give an impression of greater depth, discourage algae growth, and make algae less obvious when it does grow. Best of all, most water plants are tough so the garden is low maintenance, and even those of us with a black thumb have a chance because they are generally hard to kill.

Once you have chosen your display container, use bricks or overturned containers submerged below the surface of the water to allow you to vary the height of your plants to create a lovely landscape. Your local nursery can help with selecting water plants- consider varying tall grasses with cascading plants for interest, and definitely select a couple of water flowers for colour. Top up the water in your container every couple of days depending on the rate of evaporation- if you are using city tap water, let it sit first for 48 hours to allow the chlorine to evaporate, or pick up special tablets at the nursery to remove the chlorine. You can plant Lotus or Water lily to enhance the look of your pond.  

Indoor Plant Benefits - Green Decoration

5 Benefits of Houseplants

When you embellish interior spaces with houseplants, you’re not just adding greenery. These living organisms interact with your body, mind and home in ways that enhance the quality of life. Having living plants around will make you come closer to Mother Nature.

 Breathing Easier

When you breathe, your body takes in oxygen and releases carbon dioxide. During photosynthesis, plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. This opposite pattern of gas use makes plants and people natural partners. Adding plants to interior spaces can increase oxygen levels.

At night, photosynthesis ceases, and plants typically respire like humans, absorbing oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide. A few plants – orchids, succulents and epiphytic bromeliads – do just the opposite, taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. Place these plants in bedrooms to refresh air during the night. Careful – do not place too many plants in Bedroom.

Releasing Water

As part of the photosynthetic and respiratory processes, plants release moisture vapour, which increases humidity of the air around them. Plants release roughly 97 percent of the water they take in. Place several plants together, and you can increase the humidity of a room, which helps keeps respiratory distresses at bay. Many studies proved that such humidity helps to cool down the room temperature and reduce cough.

Purifying Air

Plants remove toxins from air – up to 87 percent of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) every 24 hours, according to NASA research. VOCs include substances like formaldehyde (present in rugs, vinyl, and cigarette smoke and grocery bags), benzene and trichloroethylene (found in man-made fibres, inks, solvents and paint). Modern climate-controlled, air-tight buildings trap VOCs inside. The NASA research discovered that plants purify that trapped air by pulling contaminants into soil, where root zone microorganisms convert VOCs into food for the plant.

Improving Health

Adding plants to hospital rooms speeds recovery rates of surgical patients, according to researchers at Kansas State University. Compared to patients in rooms without plants, patients in rooms with plants request less pain medication, have lower heart rates and blood pressure, experience less fatigue and anxiety, and are released from the hospital sooner.

How Many Plants?

The recommendations vary based on your goals.

• To improve health and reduce fatigue and stress, place one large plant (8-inch diameter pot or larger) every 129 square feet. In office or classroom settings, position plants so each person has greenery in view.

• To purify air, use 15 to 18 plants in 6- to 8-inch diameter pots for a 1,800-square-foot house. That’s roughly one larger plant every 100 square feet. Achieve similar results with two smaller plants (4- to 5-inch pots).

Gardening - Balcony Decoration - Petunias

Petunia Seed Propagation: 

How To Start Petunias From Seeds

Petunias are so reliable and have such a wide variety of uses that it’s no wonder it’s one of the most popular garden flowers today. It’s simple to buy a couple of petunia seedlings to fill one planter, but for mass plantings and garden edging, growing petunias from seed is the way to go.

You’ll save money because of the sheer number of plants you need, plus you’ll have a much wider range of flowers to choose from.
Garden centers only carry a few varieties already sprouted and growing, but you can find petunia flower seeds for different sized plants, in almost every color of the rainbow.

Starting Petunia Seed Plants

The most important point to remember when learning how to start petunias from seeds is that these are summer, heat-loving plants. It does them no good to plant them early in the garden, as they’ll just sit and sulk or rot. In order to get these seedlings to planting size at the right time, you need to start them indoors at least 10 weeks before planting time. In the north, this is around the first week of March, and will be even earlier in more southern states.
Although petunias are tough and resilient in the garden, they can be very delicate in the first weeks of life. Start out with a dedicated seed-starting soil mix and new or sterilized planting trays. Of course, you can also start them in eggshells for easier transplanting later.

Sprinkle the tiny seeds on top of the mix and gently moisten them with a spray bottle. Cover the tray with plastic wrap to retain moisture and place it in a bright place out of direct sunlight that averages around 75 F. (24 C.).

Remove the plastic wrap once the seeds sprout and place the trays under lights in a cooler spot, around 65 F. (18 C.) during the day. Keep the lights about 6 inches above the tops of the plants. Use water-soluble fertilizer once every two weeks, and water the plants when the soil dries out.
Transplant the seedlings into individual pots once they develop two or three true leaves. Lift out individual plants with a wooden stick or butter knife, and transplant them into potting soil. Keep the soil moist but well-drained, and return them to under the lights until it’s time to plant them outside.

Pictures of  my growing petunia plants

Well, I got my first flower after 3 months of sowing the seed. The trick is - Petunias need -  Lots of sunlight and adequate amount of water and --------- lots of love !!!

After a month -

Doodling and Its Health Effects

Doodling - a way to let your creativity come out!

A doodle is a drawing made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied. Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be composed of random and abstract lines, generally without ever lifting the drawing device off of the paper, in which case it is usually called a "scribble".

Doodling and scribbling are most often associated with young children and toddlers, because their lack of hand–eye coordination and lower mental development. This often makes it very difficult for any young child to keep their colouring attempts within the line art of the subject. Despite this, it is not uncommon to see such behaviour with adults, in which case it generally is done jovially, out of boredom.

Typical examples of doodling are found in school notebooks, often in the margins, drawn by students daydreaming or losing interest during class. Other common examples of doodling are produced during long telephone conversations if a pen and paper are available.

Popular kinds of doodles include cartoon versions of teachers or companions in a school, famous TV or comic characters, invented fictional beings, landscapes, geometric shapes, patterns and textures.

Its Health Effects –

According to a study published in the scientific journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, doodling can aid a person's memory by expending just enough energy to keep one from daydreaming, which demands a lot of the brain's processing power, as well as from not paying attention. Thus, it acts as a mediator between the spectrum of thinking too much or thinking too little and helps focus on the current situation. The study was done by the School of Psychology, reported that doodlers in her experiment recalled 7.5 pieces of information (out of 16 total) on average, 29% more than the average of 5.8 recalled by the control group made of non-doodlers.

 

Zendoodles and Zentangles

Zendoodling is the art of drawing designs using structured patterns or 'Zentangles’.

When you draw a Zendoodle, you’re creating a work of art, but you’re also deliberately creating a mood, focus, and state of mind.

Concentrate on drawing small blocks of patterns at a time; going with the flow lets your mind get into a calming zen state. This allows you to follow through on impulsive thoughts, so your doodle won’t be restricted by expectations, giving you an unexpected final design and a glimpse into your subconscious!

Benefits of Zendoodling

·         Is Intuitive

·         Is Fun

·         Relaxes

·         Leads to inspiration

·         Teaches patience
         Inspires creativity

Pottery for Home Decor

Let’s Paint Pots for Home Decor and ......... some Creativity !!!

From India to Netherlands, from Egypt to Japan, Pottery and pot paintings had a deed relation with home decoration. Having richly crafted Crafts pottery would enhance the classic look of any house. The ancient ‘Pietra dura’ floral designs would give a traditional appearance while Abstract patterns provide a modern arena to your pots. Thus, for people looking for a hobby which is economical and which would improve the look of your interiors is – Pot Painting.

Painting pots and decorating your home with them, gives an artistic relaxation. It would be a perfect leisure activity for all age groups. The Icing on the cake is that, it is highly cost efficient. That is – You can purchase an earthen pot for 0.5 dollars, paints and brushes for 2 dollars and other materials for another 1 dollar. Maximum cost for a perfect designer pot would be – 4 dollars. The Fact is that, In most of the novelty shops, the price of such designer pot may range from 5 – 7 dollars. So, isn’t it a cost efficient Craft hobby for you? Yes it is.

Look at some of my creations –

Aren’t they Delightful?

And believe me when I say – that I made all those 3 pot for 3$ only! Yes, only for 3$ (almost Rs. 200/-). I’m sure that it may take 5-6 dollars to purchase those kinds of designer pots from shops. Then, what are we waiting for? Lets get Started –

Making Abstract Designs on a pot using enamel paints -  

Paints such as enamel, glass paints and oil paints are not soluble in water. That is, they will float on water. Using this character of enamel paints can produce awesome design on water surface which could be transferred to the pot. This post will teach you how to do that technique to get a fantastic abstract pot for home decor.

You need - 

• A pot (Painted with white acrylic/enamel paint)
• Enamel Paints (at least 2 colors)
• A Tub full of water. (The diameter of the tub should be slightly greater that the height of the pot.)
• A Stick (To make patterns on water)
• Gloves (optional)
• Newspapers (To avoid mess).

Procedure - 

Fill the tub with water. Pour 2-3 colors of enamel paint in the water. (you will notice that the enamel paint will float on top on the water surface).Take a Stick and stir the surface of water to get abstract patterns of Enamel colors. Then take the pot and hold it on the water surface. Then slowly rotate it on the water surface to transfer the design onto the pot. If some part on the pot is left without design, pour some more paint into the tub and repeat the process until the pot is covered. Then let it dry for 48 hours.

Click here to view the Video on this Pot Painting -