April Guest Designer, Ranjini Malhotra

Filed under Art Projects, Grimms' Fairy Tales, Guest Designers, Tutorials

Ranjini Malhotra has created stunning creations that even Cinderella herself would love to have!

The Cinderella Coach was created using an image from the The Ball #1 collage sheet.

Ranjini’s instructions for the Cinderella Coach:
I used a faux carvable pumpkin (the kind that they sell at craft stores around halloween. I ended up getting mine at Michael’s — I think they had orange and white pumpkins after halloween and I picked up a white faux pumpkin. All I did was use a craft (xacto) knife and I traced an opening using a template I had (the reason I used a template is that I wanted to trace an identical opening on the opposite side — so I can pop a strand of lights into the pumpkin if I want to light up the inside. I just painted the pumpkin with pink acrylic paint, let it dry, added a layer of decoupage glue and Martha Stewart clear glitter (this is after carving the openings in the pumpkin.) Then carve off the stem on the top. Using a Fiskars craft drill, drill an opening in the top. The top of the pumpkin that looks like a finial — that’s actually a glass cabinet knob — I picked it up from Hobby Lobby I think. I just inserted it through the top and screwed it in on the bottom. I mounted my pumpkin on a round cardboard base  — it was just the bottom of some roundish cardboard packaging from Target that I covered in paper and lace. I used a screw and bolt to attach the base to the bottom of the pumpkin. After that insert your collage image, cutting it to size to fit the window, hold it in place with small thumbtacks on the inside. Then have fun decorating the outside with trims and ribbons, buttons, tulle etc. For the banner, I used a K&Company gold bar attachment and hot glued it into the top of the pumpkin. I printed out the happily ever after banner on my computer and cut it into the banner shape, then glued it to the bar. The wheels were made with the lids of Maya Road tins — I goldleafed them and then added text punched in a circle shape for the wheel, held that in place with brads. Hot glued the wheels to the coach. I think that’s about it. The Cinderella sheets are so inspiring and I just had to do something befitting of how beautiful they are!

The enchanting Cinderella Secret Box uses the Fairy-Godmother and Pumpkin Coach collage sheets.

Ranjini’s instructions for the Cinderella Secret Box:
Target’s Dollar Spot had these little wooden boxes with sliding tops — the top was a checkerboard and it came with little pegs to use as checkers. Basically, travel sized game boxes with built in storage for the checker pegs. I used one of those to make a “Cinderella Secret Box”. The front of the box shows the scene with Cinderella’s fairy godmother, and it slides open to reveal the coach leaving for the ball with fairy godmother looking on. All I did was cut and adhere patterned paper to the box, trim the collage images to fit on the front and inside, added some text and glittered up the outside edges. I used a sharpie gold pen to color the edges where you slide the top out — I didn’t want to paper those edges where it slides because that could prevent it from sliding easily. I added some eyehooks to the top for hanging, some ribbon and a beaded flower and it’s a sweet little fairy tale box.

The Tussie-Mussie uses the Cinderella Borders clear sticker collage sheet.

Ranjini’s instructions for the Tussie-Mussie:
I made a Tussie-Mussie from a paperboard cone, using stickers from the Cinderella Borders Sheet — I punched the roses out with a scalloped circle punch and layered them on top of vintage text punched with the same punch. I love the effect of seeing the text under the stickers.

Additional photos of the luscious details for all the projects are in the Gallery.