Craft Supplies in India

When I started trying my hands at different crafts, the one main deterrent was the lack of supplies. There were so many things I wanted to try out but did not have the materials for them. I used to manage to get hold of some from relatives and friends visiting from the US but it still did not meet my requirements. 5 years back, at a point when I was about to give up on crafts, I saw an ad of a craft shop opening its branch near my house in Banaglore. It was ItsyBitsy. I could not wait to go visit the shop for all the promise it showed in the ad. And it did not disappoint. For a materials-starved crafter like me it was heaven. ItsyBitsy soon became my regular craft shop and I had fun crafting away.

As I generally do not stick to one craft for long, soon I realised I was not getting what I wanted in ItsyBitsy. So once again crafts took a back seat in my life. Now and then I used to make something with whatever I had.

One of the things I missed most in craft stores was Stencils. I love using stencils for my painting - easiest way to create some beautiful art. About a year back when I was searching for stencils to buy in India, my search results for the first time in many years gave me a few online craft shops in India. I was over the moon - felt like I had struck gold. I was stunned by the products these shops had. I had no idea these were available in India. These shops import the products from across the world and materials that you could not get your hands on were just an order away. Some of them even have the Pre-Order option to get specific products of certain brands.

So from then on there's been no stopping my Crafting Journey! :)

Back to the main aim of this post! To increase awareness of the various shops/websites where you can get your craft supplies. There's stuff out there for every type of crafter! :)

Listing down the websites from where I shop (in no particular order)

1. Itsybitsy - they have physical stores in some cities - online shop has more items. Have their own brand products as well. Excellent for school projects
2. The Craft Shop - have a good collection for different crafts. Prompt service and delivery. Have the PreOrder option. Have seen them introducing their own products too.
3. Crafter's Corner - a lot of brands and a lot of products. Prompt service and delivery. 
4. CraftAdda - Love their PreOrder option and a good collection.
5. Diecutsandmore - have their own brand as well. Good for Die Cuts and Stamps
6. Lulupu - Good Collection - have checked out mainly their stamps only.
7. Amazon - now with the Global Store we can order the products sold in Amazon.com!

Whats good about these is that all of them put together you get an amazing collection. One of the sites will definitely have what you are looking for! :)

A few other craft websites that I have not tried yet are Krafters Cart and Himalaya Fine Arts

These are my go-to stores for craft supplies. Am sure there are many more  stores and other different mediums to order craft materials. Would be great if you drop in a comment on any other stores/websites that you are aware of or use for craft supplies.

Will keep updating this post based on my own experience and also with updates from you guys!! 

My First Card - for Maya

My daughter Maya was turning ONE on Oct 14th this year and I thought I'd put my latest craze to use to make a card for her. It was a point when I had bought the Silhouette Curio die cutting machine. I had bought it to primarily make my own stencils but I realized that the possibilities were endless. What I got hooked onto most was Card Making. One thing led to another and soon I ended up furiously reading upon various mixed media techniques. What caught my fancy most was the wonderful Distress Inks! I was in love with what all you could do with them and Tim Holtz, the man behind Distress Inks was my new Hero.  I was so glad to see most of the  online craft stores in India had these in stock and I ordered my first few set of distress inks - mini ink pads (More on the craft stores and various products in another post!)

So back to the card I wanted to make for Maya. I wanted it to match the color theme I had planned for the birthday - White, Light Pink, Lavender/Lilac and Gold. So I started with the background for the card. I had planned to have circles in the shades above and a big heart with a watermark effect and so created my own stencils with a simple pattern of circles and hearts using my Curio.  I then taped the heart stencil onto a white cardstock of 5x7 inches and started blending in with distress ink using the mini blending tool. The color I used for the heart was the lightest pink I had - Spun Sugar. I didnt want it to pop-out so I made it as light as possible while blending. I then taped the circles stencil and blended in with more colors - Spun Sugar, Milled Lavender and Dusty Concord.

The initial background looked liked this. I later added more colors and also added a bit of gold here and there to adhere to my color theme.

I then began to work on the front panel of the Card. I designed the panel using the Silhouette Studio software and used some existing studio files purchased from the Design Store and customized it to my liking. I then cut it out using the Curio. I used Distress Inks to color in various objects - additional colors used were Picked Raspberry, Festive Berries, and Seedless Preserves.  I also used small foam adhesive squares to mount a few cutouts of balloons and gifts to give a 3D effect. I then added a touch of gold using the Deco Art Gold marker - I drew a border around the panel with Gold and added some designs in gold on the different objects. I also used Ranger's Liquid Pearls - Gold to create small gold pearls on the circles. I finally adhered the panel to my background using some craft glue and my simple Card was ready.

Here is the finished card.

I didnt dare give it to Maya yet as she would've ripped it into pieces in no time :D I plan to make cards for her on every birthday and hand it over to her when she's a little older :)

Here's a look at Maya on her birthday!

Supplies used

1. White Cardstock
2. Silhouette Curio - for stencils and designing and cutting out the front panel
3. Rangers Tim Holtz Mini Distress Inks
4. Ranger's Mini ink blending tool
5. Deco Art Gold Marker
6. Ranger's Liquid Pearls - Gold
7. Masking Tape
8. Craft Glue

I'll write a detailed blog on the Silhouette Curio and the Silhouette world in a different blog and will also have one on Distress inks later.

Hope you enjoyed my first post on something I made.  Since I made this 3 months back I did not take sufficient pics to show the step by step process. Will ensure I do that next time! :)

Please do leave any suggestions for improvement in the comments!

How it all Started

Not being much of an artist but having the urge to Create something on my own, I stumbled into the simple yet beautiful, easy yet elegant world of DIY art and craft. This allowed me to create some wonderful and fun artefacts while satiating my creative urge. As I got drawn into it I explored a wide range of mediums and techniques and was amazed at the infinite possibilities.
What made this possible were the numerous informative articles and blogs by crafters around the world. Finally I decided to do my bit as well in the hope of being useful to many others out there like me to get started into this wonderful world of arts and crafts!