I have always lived in a bubble, away from news, from politics. Instagram, which was an outlet for me to connect with crafty people, is now full of news from friends

Hi everyone, hope you all are having a good week so far. As you might have guessed, today's post is for our Instagram hop for our latest collection - 'Blooming For You'. If you don’t follow me on Instagram, please do so here. I would love to welcome you in our little tribe. We do share lots more inspiration (and entertainment) over there, than we do here on the blog alone. It’s a fun place to be and yes, every month we have giveaways too :) As I was crafting for this hop, my mind was full of thoughts of Ukraine. My heart goes out to all the people who are suffering not only in this country but across several different parts of world under oppression. And despite all the gloomy, scary, horrifying images one thing stands out for me and that is the indestructible spirit of creatives, the human spirit. One such creative I have admired for years is Yana Smakula. She just dazzles in the crafting world - her color choices, her quirky ways of using supplies and her detailed YouTube instructions. I am a fan. During this time when she and her country is struggling I just want her to know that she still inspires me. I stand with her and other creatives like her. I am so grateful for her. For today's card I used one of her older creations and re-created it in a slightly different way. My card: Yana's creation (from 2014! Yes!!) For my card, I did the background as well as created the frame + sentiment cluster in PowerPoint. Will share video soon. Then I cut out my frames using my trusted Brother Scan and Cut and the background panel using Memory Box Wrapped Stitch Rectangles dies. I colored my frames in similar colors. One more thing I did differently was that I assembled my frames with foam tape instead of keeping it one layer. Hope you liked this twist on Yana's original idea. :) Instagram Hop We are hoping along starting from my feed @VaradaSharma. Do drop by to check out the full list of participants. We will pick 3 winners to receive $10 store credit each, from comments across all the stops. So, what are you waiting for? SUPPLIES LIST For your convenience, I am sharing links to the supplies I’ve used or the ones you can use for making similar cards – click on the picture or link to go directly to the product. Wherever available, I have used affiliate links, which means when you make a purchase, I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) which I use to run this blog. I truly appreciate your support!

Silvia ’s here today with a new card featuring Varada Sharma’s digital stamps from latest release. This time I decided to make a happy New Year’s card. Key Ingredients: “Happy New Year” digital stamp “Holly and Mistletoe” digital stamp Gina K Designs Onyx Year” sentiment from the “Happy New Year 2021” digital stamp with my inkjet printer, I colored them I wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year, full of love, joy and health.

I heat embossed ‘2018’ and ‘Happy New Year’ sentiment. The ‘Happy New Year’ sentiment from Hero Arts Nov My Monthly Hero card kit. Over the center I foam mounted one of the black circles which has gold heat embossed ‘2018’ and ‘happy new The stamp set in this kit has all the great sentiments for Winter / Holidays / Christmas / Hanukkah / New Wam hugs and best wishes for a grand sparkling new year 2018!

Hi friends, wish you all a very very happy new year. companies) For the background for this card, I used the Faux Stitch embossing folder that came in the May 2022

Hi there, my crafty friends! I am super excited and grateful to be guest designing for Spellbinders today. I will be sharing three projects created using the gorgeous Oct Glimmer plates collection. For all the projects today, I pretty much stayed with a basic sketch of having a patterned paper panel that was slightly narrower than the card front and added focal points on it. I often do this when I want to make multiple projects. It simplifies things a lot. For my first card, I went with a Fall theme. After foiling some flowers on yellow cardstock with Champagne gold glimmer foil, I die cut all of them with matching dies. I also foiled and die cut the word ‘hello’ in the same way, but used white cardstock this time. I wanted some really delicate, small leaves so I die cut some of the tiny ones using dies from Glimmering Butterflies set and dark green cardstock. I arranged my flowers and leaves around the foiled hello and that was it. For some added interest, I went around the patterned paper panel with Tsukeniko Delicata Golden Glitz ink and added gold confetti to the flower centers. My second project is also pretty much Fall themed and uses the same basic center-panel style. This time I foiled and die cut the flowers as well as leaves. I used some paper with yellow-orange watercolor pattern on it and used the Crimson Stars foil color. For my sentiment, I used the thank-you one which I had foiled at the same time as the hello sentiment above. This one doesn’t have a matching die, so I die cut a fancy edged circle around it. To give it a little something-something, I went around the edge with Tsukeniko Delicata Golden Glitz ink and sprinkled some matching sequins. My final card came together in as simple as three steps. First, I picked a patterned paper from one of the previous kits, taped two border plates and foiled with Pink foil. Second, I repeated the same on the other edge of my rectangle. Finally I foam mounted one of the fancy stickers that came in Spellbinders Card kit for Oct 2019. For that extra something all I did was edge the border of my panel with Delicata Pink Shimmer ink and sprinkled several confetti pieces (might have gone a little bit overboard with this). I did end up with several leftover negative pieces of foils which I will use in other cards / projects. I also did a boo-boo where I accidentally added gold foil upside down while foiling. This made my plates get foiled, but when I used them with other colors of foil, this gold foil is not transferring to the paper. I love that about these supplies – they are pretty forgiving in most cases and so much fun to create with. SUPPLIES LIST For your convenience, I am sharing links to the supplies I’ve used or the ones you can use for making similar cards – click on the picture or link to go directly to the product. Wherever available, I have used affiliate links, which means when you make a purchase, I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) which I use to run this blog. I truly appreciate your support! I hope these creations inspire you to create more than cards with your glimmer foil plates. I am sure I will be playing a lot more with these beautiful designs. Have a blessed day! ~Varada #glimmerhotfoiling #neverstopmaking #Spellbinders #teamspellbinders

Two more of my stamp sets are being released today for Maker Forte! I am super excited. The Flower Cluster stamp set is actually the first ever stamp set I designed for Maker Forte. It’s just that it’s getting released now instead of earlier. I made two cards with this set – both similar but slightly different. Key Ingredients: Flower Cluster stamp set Altenew watercolors and waterbrush Derwent inktense pencils Gina K Amalgam ink black (card 1) Simon Says Stamp Fine Gold embossing powder (card 2) Card 1: Steps: For my first card, I stamped the image with Ginak Amalgam black ink (this is watercolor as well as copic friendly). I made sure to dry this completely before doing anything on top, just in case. Next I watercolored the image as well as background with Altenew watercolors and waterbrush. For details, I used my inktense pencils and added detailed lines on top. I stamped the sentiment, added a thin stripe of blue on the left and several clear droplets to finish off my panel. At the end I simply mounted this panel on an A2 card base using blue craft foam. Card 2: Steps: For this one, I just changed it ever so slightly. I heat embossed using Simon Says Stamp Fine Gold embossing powder, ink blended with matching Altenew pink ink on the left side, added a thin gold washi tape on the side and switched up the gems to matching ones. At the end I simply mounted the finished panel on an A2 card base using pink craft foam. Hope you like these cards and try something like this. I sincerely appreciate your support of my small business :-) SUPPLIES LIST For your convenience, I am sharing links to the supplies I’ve used or the ones you can use for making similar cards – click on the picture or link to go directly to the product. Wherever available, I have used affiliate links, which means when you make a purchase, I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) which I use to run this blog. I truly appreciate your support! Hugs! ~Varada #createwithVS #makerforte #FlowerClusterstampset

Hi my crafty friends, I am thrilled, excited, happy to share that my latest release (collection of 6 stamp sets) is live with RubberStamps.com. Here's a quick video which shows the sets and also inspiration using those stamps: Do check it out and let me know what you think! I will be sharing the individual cards, having Instagram giveaways and also an Instagram live in the next few days/weeks, so stay tuned. In case you don't already follow me on Instagram, here's my handle: @varadasharma Talk soon, Hugs! ~Varada

Hi friends! Today I made two cards with a cool little trick. I actually painted using acrylic blocks – yes, those tiny little transparent hard plastic things we all use to stamp with. I painted one side of it with a paint pen (yes!) and then used that like a stamp to stamp on the card panel. Read on if you want to find out how you can get these yummy colored pens for free!) Key Ingredients: Merry Little Christmas Clear Stamp Set Wonderland StoryTime Paint Pens from Artomology by Jane Davenport Acrylic blocks MISTI Steps: Die cut rectangle panel. Use MISTI to line up the stamps and very light ink to get some light impression on the rectangle panel. Paint one side of the acrylic block with a paint pen and then directly stamp off that ink onto the panel. Repeat with other two colors. Put the panel back in the MISTI, use dark black ink and stamp the images + sentiment. I used Memento Tuxedo black ink. Embellish with gems and mount on a top folding card base. SUPPLIES LIST For your convenience, I am sharing links to the supplies I’ve used or the ones you can use for making similar cards – click on the picture or link to go directly to the product. Wherever available, I have used affiliate links, which means when you make a purchase, I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) which I use to run this blog. I truly appreciate your support! Hugs! ~Varada #neverstopmaking #Spellbinders #janedavenport #teamspellbinders

Hi everyone, I have a fun mixed media project to share today using some new foil plates and dies from

Today we are celebrating the new release from Simon Says Stamp – SimonSaysLove.

Layering stencils are a rage right now, isn't it? I did jump on this band wagon myself and created a layering + rotating stencil. Maker Forte released it during their last release and you can grab it here. This is a 6x6 stencils that creates a 3x3 floral cluster with 1 large and 3 smaller flowers and several leaves. At $6.99 it's a great way to start playing with these layering stencils trend. I wanted to show you two different ideas for using these layering stencils: Fussy cut / die cut the finished design and use it as an element and Use the stencils several times to cover entire border of the card front. To get more out of the design, selectively tape certain parts off while stenciling so that you are not limited to repeating the exact same design over and over. Card 1: Using the first idea, I created a shaker card: I started by stenciling the whole cluster of Pretty Petals using Altenew inks and cutting out the cluster. For the shaker piece, I cut a frame using the largest two dies from Fancy Edged Circle dies. I also cut two more pieces using only the largest single die from same set - one acetate piece and another piece of matching cardstock as the backer for my shaker. I find having a baker for my shakers makes it easier to manipulate instead of creating the shaker directly on the cardbase. I stamped a sentiment from Simon Says Stamp Friendly Flowers stamp set using Maker Forte's Eclipse Black ink inside on the backer, before assembling the shaker. For inside, I added several sequins in matching colors. Finally I dry embossed the card front using one of my stencils - Diamonds in a row - for some extra dimension, and assembled it as you see here. :) Card 2: Using second idea, I really went to town with ink blending. I had too much fun with this one. To make it easy, I added the full clusters on opposite corners first. I wanted these two corners to have the largest full designs and rest of the card to have all the filler pieces. For the main pieces, I went with the way the stencil was originally designed to be used - start with the leaves layer and add other pieces. Having the leaves in place makes it easy to line up the flowers. But for the other designs, I added the flower first. Around it I added leaves and other flowers by selectively taping parts of the stencil. In fact after I had the whole design done, I realized that one area was too blank. I added a leaf at the end in the same way - by taping other areas on the stencil: I wanted this to be just a one layer card, but I messed up a tiny bit on the edge. As usual washi tape to the rescue! :) In the center of this I stamped a sentiment from my other stamp set Flower Cluster, also from Maker Forte. A generous sprinkling of matching gems and this card was done :) Supplies List For your convenience, I am sharing links to the supplies I’ve used for these cards – click on the picture or link to go directly to the product. Wherever available, I have used affiliate links, which means when you make a purchase, I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) which I use to run this blog. I truly appreciate your support! Hugs! ~Varada