A Visitor to the Gypsy Camp!

As part of our new blog features we will be inviting a guest gypsy to join our camp for the month~ someone we've met along our travels or who inspires us to create in new and different ways. We met this particular gypsy girl last year at the Gypsy Caravan event in Manhattan Beach and she's been on our radar ever since because, quite frankly, we love what she can do!

Meet Ranjini Malhotra...

A little bit about Ranjini in her own words:

What I want the readers of the Gypsy Journal Blog to know about me first of all, is that I fell in love the day I set my eyes on 7Gypsies. I can't express the excitement I felt when I saw their products and packaging. I was smitten and it's been a long lasting love affair! I still cherish my "Gypsies in Paris" book and refer to it constantly for inspiration.

I describe myself as a fairy godmother, magical glitter dust keeper, story teller, dreamer, tea-taker and artist. Of course, I am a gypsy at heart too! I love combining vintage finds with new products to create something unexpected. My favorite activity, aside from savoring a hot cup of tea and curling up with a book or a magazine, is to comb flea markets and antique stores for the perfect treasure to utilize in my next project. (sounds like our kind of girl!) What appeals to me about the paper arts is the journey - I find ultimate satisfaction in the process and act of creating art. The world is an unlimited source of inspiration and creativity, and like a gypsy, I keep my eyes open for inspiration everywhere I travel.

I am mommy to a very cherished little girl, Alekha and an adorable goldendoodle puppy named Murphy. Bobby, my husband of 15 years - good-naturedly puts up with "the scrapbook stuff" overflowing in every room of the house.

Ready to see some of Ranjini's creations? We sent her a box of assorted 7gypsies products and papers and told her to create what inspired her... no rules (hey it's the only way for gypsies!!) We anxiously wondered what she might be able to do with her stash of goodies but what she sent back blew us away!!

Here is a photo of one of the projects using our medium portfolio...

We love the funky combination of papers including our NEW Barcelona (red dots) and several patterns of the Victoria collection papers. She also does a great job of incorporating vintage and new. Here's what Ranjini had to say about her portfolio.

I used muted colors for the cover then with the Victoria papers on the inside, it bursts into color. I love using pieces of vintage jewelry on my work and added a paste brooch on the front for an elegant look.

This next Cabinet of Curiosities was one of our favorite projects for many reasons. We smiled when we saw how cleverly she incorporated the packaging from the products into her project... a longstanding gypsy secret of ours!! We also couldn't help but notice what a stash of 7gypsies products that Ranjini has because she added so many of our favorite vintage 7gypsies products to this that we didn't even send her.

This was inspired by the work of Artist Joseph Cornell, who was an American artist known for his assemblage art. I basically took an unfinished pine compartmented box with a hinged glass lid, painted it, and filled it with gypsy treasures. One thing I love about 7 Gypsies product is that the packaging is as old-world appealing as the product itself and can be beautifully displayed on its own; I admit that for me it has lent itself to a bit of hoarding. I look at the products and packaging as little pieces of art in themselves, and I wanted to show off how lovely they would look as an imaginary collection of treasures amassed by a wandering gypsy, a cabinet of curiosities gleaned from her visits to far off places.

The inspiration for this last piece entitled "Birthday Fairy" was a vintage image I have of an actress in theatrical costume - she almost looks like a circus performer to me. I took one of the parenthesis shaped chipboard pieces and covered it with various papers from the NEW Barcelona collection. I painted gesso over the paper to tone the color down a bit. I then cut out the vintage image, glued it to the chipboard on top of the paper and added details and journaling with a pen. I sanded over the pen. I covered chipboard pieces from the ATC decoratif chipboard in silver glass glitter and added those as well. My favorite part of this piece though is the fabric flower I hand cut from a dinner napkin printed with phrases in french. I fashioned a flower from it with just a few stitches, I added a beaded center and then positioned a miniature silver frame from 7 gypsies over the center (vintage product~ no longer available) and stitched it in place (I loved using the frame for something other than its intended use!) I then brushed glue onto the flower edges and sprinkled silver glass glitter. I added one of the velvet brads to the top of her hat and also added some seam binding ribbon.

Ranjini also created a few other fabulous projects that we will be posting along the way. But you can follow her work or download her vintage images at her blog: http://www.scrapologie.blogs.com

Thank you Ranjini for stopping by the gypsy camp and inspiring us all!