Kreativity and Me!!

Posted by Smita Lakhotia in ParentSpeak | 5 comments

Smita Lakhotia is a stay-at-home mom to a charmingly naughty little boy, Aaryan, and lives with her family in Mumbai. Aaryan is the inspiration behind her blog and her search for creativity. Smita has been making cards actively since 2008, though she has always loved everything handmade, from books to embroidered clothes. Smita undertakes customized orders for her beautiful work. Mail her now at smita.lakhotia@gmail.com to place an order and check out her work at http://kreativityandme.blogspot.com/

I was on maternity leave from work in 2007 when I found that I had plenty of free time in the afternoons while my baby was asleep. I used that time, much to my maid’s amusement, to catch up on cartoon shows and episodes of Art Attack and MAD (on Pogo). Both these shows were art and craft based shows for kids. I watched the episodes and made something or the other after that on most afternoons. I had a little pin up board in my bedroom then and I put up my “artwork” on it every evening.

After my leave period was over and I got back to work, I kept in touch with this “creative” side whenever I could. Having been a terrible art/craft student in school, I was quite amused by my work in my late 20’s. I had finally begun to believe that though I couldn’t embroider or stitch like my mom and grandmom, here was something that seemed to be my calling.

Soon after I quit my job (when my son was a little over a year old), I enrolled for a hobby class in miniature punchcraft (a Papercrafting technique). This class had me spellbound. I learnt the names of loads of new products and a brand new hobby was soon becoming my passion. In July 2008, I finally started to put my work and life in print on my blog.

Here began the true addiction! I “blurfed” (blog surfed) a lot, made loads of new friends in India and abroad through my craft work, and, MOST importantly, discovered a new side of me! Papercrafting is, till date, a much underrated hobby here in India though it has pride of place elsewhere in the world. When I started off, I hardly knew of any other papercrafter cum blogger in India. Now I know a large number and we even have an online community of craft enthusiasts from across the country. In 2008, we did not get Papercrafting supplies easily in India and I got a lot of my supplies from the US (paying heavy duty, pleading my family to get me things… lol). Now things are a lot easier with all supplies being quite readily available through crafters in India. Starting with a shoebox full of supplies, I soon started filling all my spare space with craft supplies; I anyway had a penchant for hoarding itty bitty things like ribbon and buttons (lol) and I borrowed supplies from my mom too.

Scrapbooking and cardmaking are interesting hobbies for both moms as well as kids. My 5 year old son, Aaryan, is usually party to my crafty adventures. He has been watching me craft since he was a baby and for a long time, he didn’t even know cards were sold in shops too, because I always made them at home for our friends and his. Cardmaking is a very satisfying hobby for kids and adults alike. It is easy to find cards and generic scrapbook albums in stores, but a handmade product is different and gives the recipients a feeling that you thought about them!

My favourite projects are mini albums. They are easy to create and you can make them for any occasion or non-occasion, to gift or to keep, to store away memories of your life or to create new memories!

All you need to get started with Papercrafting is: paper, glue, knick-knacks and a wild imagination and you are raring to go! Introduce your kid to the wonderful world of paper and see what they can come up with!

Now, let me give you a Helping Hand by through this short tutorial:

Altered Notepad

One of the easiest and my most favourite Papercrafting project is an altered notepad. These notepads are ideal for gifting and for personal use too.

You need:

A notepad/notebook for altering

Scraps of colourful patterned paper/old greeting cards/calendars

Embellishments for decoration – buttons, flowers, lace, ribbons, doilies, fabric scraps (anything you have lying around actually!)

Adhesive – I have used Fevicol and Gluedrops for this one; it is nice to have double sided tape too

How to go about it… Well, it is so simple that I don’t think I need to write much:

1. Measure the dimensions of the notepad and cut paper to size. You can also use strips of multiple sheets of paper/card/fabric.
2. Use your imagination to arrange the embellishments and place them on the paper before adhering.
3. Adhere the embellishments – in this case, I have strung two floral buttons to a twine and used a paper doily on top of the paper.
4. Paste alpha stickers to customize your notepad. I will be using this as a To-Do notepad that I can take along with me when I go shopping .
5. Use a pencil as reference and adhere a ribbon to the sheet such that there is a tiny loop just enough to hold a pen/pencil so you can carry it as a set in your handbag.
6. Adhere the panel onto your notepad using strong glue – fevicol or a good quality double -sided tape.

 And…we are ready to go!

Hope you enjoyed this burst of creativity! Parents, if you wish to write for us or have something to say about this post, drop a comment below or send us a mail at feedback@kiducere.com.

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2. Helping Hands
3. Mathematricks for Toddlers- Part II