Father's Day

This is one of the last frames I made (on order) for Father’s Day last year. The black damask pattern is velvet. 

The design may look familiar… it’s from an Archies Memories photo album that I bought a while ago.  

Tri-series

… It was that or Hat Trick. Yup… I’m really that unimaginative. And no… I’m not a Cricket person.

I bought some beautiful wrapping paper a while ago in all the colours that were available – cream, pink, purple, blue and green. I loved their versatility and rich colour… until I ran out of it. And now my hunt is on for replacement paper that can inspire me as only these could. I heart you floral shiny paper… and as pathetic as this may sound… I miss you L

Here are the three-of-a-kind frames I made…

 And the other two frames from the deeper coloured papers…

P.S: In case you got this far and are wondering… the green frame neither got completed nor saw the light of day since that picture was taken. All that negative criticism broke its little heart. I really should make ‘Love it, Hate it’ a regular feature. Not that the comments would ever increase from that unblinking ‘0’ that’s always staring back at me… but a girl can hope, can’t she?  

Sugar and Spice

... and everything nice! I know you completed that one in your head.

Little girls just tug at my heart strings. They all remind me of my brat of a niece who I adore. So when I was asked to make a picture frame for a 4 year old girl, I jumped at the opportunity.

There had to be pink of course; with some orange accents.

Ice Man

The funny/ fun thing about customizing photo frames is that it runs from baby names to super heroes. And when I say super heroes I mean even the not so popular ones. A recently engaged friend of mine asked me for an Ice-Man super hero photo frame for her fiancé. I didn’t know there was an Ice-Man superhero but apparently X-Men has one.  

I had to get my sister's help on this one. She painted the Ice-Man. 

Four little photo frames

My sister-in-law bought me a bunch of stickers from Canada. They are just so ridiculously cute and I decided to use them on a photo frame for her soon to be born baby. 

With cuteness and a baby involved, I couldn't stop at just one frame. So I made four little ones instead.

And tied them all together.

Boys, cars and trucks

I made this shadow box for a friend's baby boy last December. Another friend from college wanted the same concept on two picture frames in two different colours for her new born baby boy. I love the hand painted feel on the shadow box, but decided to try something new and used paper cut out shapes instead.

The name is a coincidence :)

Love it? Hate it?

A while ago I received a request for a photo frame in which the prominent theme would be a black TATA Safari Dicor. It’s the most difficult frame I’ve attempted to date. After several designs and attempts, I realized that it was futile to try to re-create a model. I just went with a cut out, colour print out version of the car and let it ride on a road with lush green trees on either side.

I couldn't decide if I love it or hate it and ended up making something entirely different as the final product. Nevertheless my husband loves the frame and I’ll be making some changes to it to incorporate a sketch of his Royal Enfield Bullet.

So my question still is… love it or hate it?

Lemon Tree!

Leaving on a Biplane

Ok… ok… jet plane. I get it!

When I got an order for a biplane picture frame, I had to Google it. Honestly! I’ve seen them in a gazillion movies and documentaries but didn’t know that they were called biplanes. So after I found a few pictures and designs I could work off, I finally made a miniature paper model of it. But keeping with the proportions, the wingspan is huge. And even though I can mount it on a frame, packaging and transportation would be a nightmare. I thought a similar themed frame and the biplane model in front would work. Here it is!

Evolve

Remember those classic black and white picture frames I made last December? I received an order for the same frames for two brothers, but their mom wanted them to be bigger and colorful! So those frames went from classic (for bigger boys) to psychedelic (for kids)! But that didn’t stop the kid in my house (a.k.a husband) from wanting these frames for him. They never really grow up, do they?

Flying South

December and January is such a wonderful time of year, not just because of the weather and festivities but also cause of the migratory pattern of friends. They invariably land in Singara Chennai , especially one little duck that manages to squeeze in an India trip every winter!

As she left back to the US, I thought I’d give her something to remind her of India and maybe make her homesick enough to visit more frequently. (She'd deny needing reminders, but she doesn't realize that her husband and she are more 'American' than they're willing to admit!) She had asked me to make three photo frames for her (5” X 7”) to place her brother’s, her sister’s and her wedding pictures in. I wanted to make something that looked ethnic.  Here’s what I made for her since she told me she had an entire wall to spare!

                                       

Shadow Box

When a friend of mine asked me to make a shadow box for her son I was super excited. I had never made one before but I assumed that it wouldn’t be too different from a picture frame. And it wasn’t! Just needed more depth behind the glass and the shadow box was done!

Merry Christmas!

It is a little too late, but better late than never right?

Here are a few frames that I packed and sent on their way just a couple of days before Christmas.

The weird angle of photography on the second frame is cause no setting on the camera seemed to be able to capture the actual colours and beauty of the fabric. 

On the Button

I’ve always loved buttons and have found a ton of cute button designs on the web. Since a friend asked me to create a frame for her and left the choice completely to me, I thought I’d  experiment with buttons. Here it is!

Classic

Over the past week I had to come up with picture frames for two brothers - one in college and the other working. One brother plays the guitar while the other plays the drums.

What do I make for big boys? You can never go wrong with black right? And white? So I came up with these. A 3-D guitar frame and a silhouette drums frame.

Something Blue

Finally I got to work on something not pink! A friend's baby boy was born last week and I knew I had to use this opportunity and make that evasive blue picture frame. Another first Christmas ornament, but for a baby boy!

Silk Route

A few weeks ago on my usual trip scouting for fabric and ribbons, I stumbled across the prettiest ribbon ever! It’s beige tulle (net) with a satin trim in the same colour. I just had to create something worthy of it. I finally decided to experiment with silk (which I had been avoiding because of how expensive the fabric is) and an opportunity came up as I had to make something extra special for a friend.



The beige tussar silk frame is accessorized with three ribbon flowers and some dried teak tree flowers stalks.



I used creamy white handmade paper for the backing of the frame.



And doesn't pretty things in pretty packages make everything so much better?

Tickle me pink!

If I were a man, Harry from SATC would’ve described my life best – “It's my lot in life to be surrounded by beautiful women.” Man or not, it still describes my life!

Every beautiful girl I know seems to be giving birth to the most gorgeous baby girls in the world. It seems like my life has turned into shades of pink- A colour that I never particularly warmed towards until three years ago when my niece was born. And now I dream in pink.

Of three of my pregnant friends, two have scans confirming that they’re going to have baby girls (they live abroad) and the other one in India is keeping her fingers crossed and hoping that she’ll have a baby girl and can dream pink the rest of her life too!

So with Christmas around the corner I decided to make two first Christmas photo ornaments - one for Baby K and the other for a friend’s yet to be born baby girl who’s expected to make her debut in the first week of December.

Soul Sister

This is a long one. Hope you have the patience!

Girlfriends are sisters you get to choose. And if you’re lucky (or unlucky) enough, you get to actually have a sister! I have one. It’s just the two of us.

Luck and good things aside, boy have we fought! Even to this day I can hear her screaming, “I wish you die!” and in revenge I may have pushed her and fractured her hand (*grinning sheepishly*). And then there was the favorite’s game we played with our parents. I’m sure they must’ve had times they wished they could’ve disowned the both of us.

I actually did something as cliched as Google “Sister Quotes” and look what came up! Truer words were not spoken.

Big sisters are the crab grass in the lawn of life. ~Charles M. Schulz

If you don't understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly and want to wring her neck at the same time, then you were probably an only child. ~Linda Sunshine

If your sister is in a tearing hurry to go out and cannot catch your eye, she's wearing your best sweater. ~Pam Brown

I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones. ~Author unknown, attributed to a 4-year-old named Lauren

All us younger sisters have been there 4 year-old named Lauren, and only growing up can put you out of that misery.

And then there were some sweet ones too…

A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves - a special kind of double. ~Toni Morrison

What's the good of news if you haven't a sister to share it? ~Jenny DeVries

I know some sisters who only see each other on Mother's Day and some who will never speak again. But most are like my sister and me... linked by volatile love, best friends who make other best friends ever so slightly less best. ~Patricia Volk

‘Volatile love’. Could we ask for a better description?

And the ultimate!!!

A sister smiles when one tells one's stories - for she knows where the decoration has been added. ~Chris Montaigne

Just one more. I really think my sister wrote the following quote under a pseudo name–

If sisters were free to express how they really feel, parents would hear this: "Give me all the attention and all the toys and send Rebecca to live with Grandma." ~Linda Sunshine

Oh well… there are a million more and I seriously may never finish writing this. So we eventually grew up and the fighting dwindled. It hasn’t stopped though and I doubt it ever will!

And then there were all those matchy-matchy clothes. Yeah, you heard me right. Don’t pretend to not know what I’m talking about. Especially if you have sisters! Looking back at pictures it seems like my mum’s only and ultimate goal in life was to put us in matching clothes and my father's was to photograph us in those. I remember roaming the corridors of Cizons Complex, Egmore and going to meet tailor aunty to get that perfectly matched outfit ready. Even on our birthdays! We matched on birthdays!!!

Here’s me, creating a photo op to show you my kiddy pics ;) And in matching clothes of course!



Even in matching night clothes...



All this and a gift of die cut paper in shapes of dresses from a friend in Bangalore got me thinking. Here’s my picture frame tribute to sister’s everywhere. You girls maybe single and living with your parents like we were or married and living in different countries like we are now. But hold onto her tight, you know she’s the bestest friend you’ve got!






This one’s for you Ruthie!!!



A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost. ~Marion C. Garretty