Personalize it!

When you are passionate about something, you want the world to know it! Be it your hobby, your work, your interest or even something you dislike :)

I recently worked out a way to express this 'interest' of Sonia by creating a stamp for her book collection. She approached me to make something that would help her manage the big book inventory she has. She often lends her books to friends and acquaintances. ''People tend to keep it for months and sometimes forget which book goes back to whom, making it difficult for me to keep a track of my list'' she says. 

A very simple idea was to make a stamp that would go on each of her book to clearly state that it is 'her property'... of course in a much nicer way :)

So this is what I made -

She asked for a little space where she could write the date or other info about the book. So I gave some space under the design to incorporate the same.

Now she has a huge collection of books, all stamped and ready to go places :)

This is how it looks on the book -

I have made some stamps for my own work as well. I like to add that extra bit of personalized touch to the products I make :)

The products and designs are

and coming your way

So if you want to 'stamp it', you know who to call! 

Feel free to discuss design ideas with me for invitation designs to greetings, stamps, logos or just about anything you need...we'll make it happen :)

Tyre-ing but Fun!

Now this one is my prized possession and I love it dearly!

We had shifted into a rental apartment and as many of you would agree... it is not very easy to set up a rental home. My apartment was brand new, huge, airy and even Vastu approved! And oh the highlight - it was on the tenth floor overlooking the beautiful landscaped city of Pune.

BUT it was rented and that means a lot of compromises!

People who move often will know better that a rented apartment, no matter how new and spacious will have shortcomings like not being able to break down a wall or not having anything permanent made for decorating purposes.

So I knew I had to make peace with reality and give up some great ideas for home decor (at least I thought they were great :p)

 And as if thinking about workable and movable ideas were not enough, hubby darling adds 'budget' and 'low maintenance' to the list! I agreed to the 'low maintenance' part but ahem ahem, budget definitely was a touchy topic. I know all the wives reading this are nodding in agreement suppressing their smiles :)

With all the constraints, I was taking a whole lot longer to set up the house and it was driving my husband crazy. He even gave me an ultimatum that he will go out and buy stuff on his own. WHAT??!! Let a guy decorate the place!!! NOOOO!! 

But I wouldn't blame him for the urgency. Poor guy didn't have a coffee table to put down his coffee mug and it was very inconvenient when the guests came over as we had nothing in the living room to place the snack bowls. ''Think fast darling'', I said to myself at that point trying to avoid eye contact with my angry husband. 

The next day I happened to drive past a couple of garages or tyre shops on my way home from office. I always wanted to do something with a tyre, something creative, something workable but had never given it a serious thought. I really like the form, the rugged feel and thought it had huge potential for up-cycling.

I am a total re-cycler/ up-cycler whatever you want to call it! Hope you have seen my previous posts on this topic.

Anyways, so the next day I went to one of the tyre shops and asked if I could get one of the shabby, useless tyres that were thrown in the corner, all piled up. I actually don't know why these shops keep the useless ones but it worked to my benefit :)

So I bargained and finally got one! How I convinced those boys to help me carry it all the way to my house is a funny story but I'll share that some other time.

Oh by the way, I missed telling you one thing... it wasn't just any tyre... it was a TRUCK tyre! :) Weighing more than a 100 pounds!

I knew that was it! It was going to be my centre table! 

My husband gasped as he entered the house and stared at the dirty, black, round heavy thing sitting in the living room and then looked at me. His expressions read - You better have a plan to make it work!

Of course I had a plan :) I had it all conceptualised. Now it was time for action!

I cleaned up the tyre thoroughly before applying paint on it. I wanted a smooth finish. After almost 4 layers of base paint that took about 15 days to dry, I finally had it ready for the design. 

I used a bold, colourful palette to compliment my living space. Bright pink, green and blue were primary. My living room had a lot of ethnic dominance so I went the semi-traditional yet contemporary way rather than the geometric and modern.

Had my glass cut to place as the table top and now I had to finish the piece with the placement. 

The challenging part was to make it movable. A huge tyre weighing almost 100 pounds was not easy to push around when mopping the floors or pulling closer when sitting on the couch.

So I designed a frame that was made of wrought iron. I placed strong wheels for ease of mobility and got it all put together with the tyre.

Here is how it looks -

Its my very own, one-of-a kind coffee table that I designed from scrap (also scratch :)) 

It has worked beautifully as a prop to display my products -

It has beautified many lively parties, strolling happily from person to person, gracefully serving sumptuous food. And today even though I am miles away from it, it sits proudly in my sister's house who uses it in her own unique way!

You can call me crazy for thinking of putting a rugged piece of scrap from a garage in the middle of my living room but hey... it worked! :)

Do check out my other posts to see my re-cycled, re-used, up-cycled products here and here!

Useful - Useless - REUSE!

Hey there!

Hope you liked my earlier post and are now busy making your own jewellery bowl! :)

Isn't it hard to part with your favourite clothes, kitchen ware, furniture or anything if it gets damaged?
You wish it could be yours forever and remain in the same good condition...

I love some of my furniture dearly but it's no more in a usable condition and unfortunately I am not as lucky as Joey to have Rosita - a chair that heals itself! Sigh!

I couldn't throw my favourite chair away! So I decided to use it differently... I was in my study room, searching for some small note. I searched on the table, in the drawers but nope, I had lost it.
I wanted to buy a pin up board for my table but the idea of a typical board was just not clicking. Something had to be done before I lost more valuable information I had written on small chits of paper...Oh so clumsy me! I thought and turned around only to see my poor little broken chair shoved under the cupboard.

Eureka!! I knew what I had to do next... my problem was solved!

See the transition here -


Before - A beautiful, wooden low-seating chair, finally succumbed to my friend's giant body! i dare not take his name ;P

 After - Make over into a colorful board on the study table

NOW - I finally have something to stick my notes on!
           - My collection of coasters are mounted on it neatly!
           - Interesting knick-knacks also found a place for themselves!
           - And what's best? I didn't have to drill in my wall to put a boring pin-up board!


Hey Joey! My chair doesn't heal itself, it transforms into a better thing instead! :D