Craft Enthusiast of the Month : Monishka + Mixed Media Inspiration

Hello Craftpreneur's,

We bring you another behind the scenes story of another "Craft Enthusiast of the Month : Monika Shukla" .... hailing in royal city of Rajasthan, made her way to crafting by getting into making a carrier of Fashion Designing. Being a very loving and caring human being has always managed to take care of her loved once as well as crafting her heart .... Let's quickly scroll below to know more about the crafting journey of our featured crafter for the month...

Here's what Monika speaks about her journey, some of her favourite projects done in past...and about her creative journey so far...

This is Monika aka Monishka from a small district Bhilwara of Rajasthan. Monika Shukla is the name which is given by my parents and my relatives but I never liked my name so I decided to make my own identity so I converted my name in Monishka which is the fusion of Monika Shukla.

I  am the creation of two beautiful souls because of them I got this beautiful life and a chance to make mine and others' lives beautiful. I have done my graduation in art's stream and I have been in top 3 ranker of MDS University in my graduation batch 2012. I have done my post graduation in "philosophy" so basically you can say i am a philosopher too

I have been crafting since my childhood and I love doing it, I always used to participate in drawing competitions in my school time and always used to win prizes.

But I never thought that it would become my passion for life.

How it’s all started? (My crafting Journey)

It all started when I was doing my fashion designing course in 2014, one of my classmates had made a card for teachers day and that was very nice, when i asked her the process she didn't tell me how she made that, but i was very curious to learn that so i decided to make a much more beautiful card than hers. And I finally did it and I was very happy and then I started to make explosion boxes and pop up cards.

In the beginning I used to give those cards to my friends and cousins on their birthdays. I noticed people are liking my work so i opened my own craft classes and used to teach some students at home, but i was not serious about that I was just doing for fun and getting money also. In 2016 I got married and my life had changed totally. I was not having my mother in law but having a grandmother in law so she was too old so I had to take care of her.

So I didn't used to get enough time for crafting, time goes on but in 2018 I decided to do crafting again and I made my social media handles I made my Facebook page, Instagram page, name Monishka's Art Gallery, I made my youtube channel Monishka's Art&Craft World and started uploading videos and tutorial.

But I couldn't make consistency, but I had decided that whether I am not getting enough time but I have to do this work only. In 2018 august I started taking craft classes and orders too. Everything was going good but I was not aware about this craft industry and it’s vast platform. 

In august 2019 I got to know about design teams and many more craft brands and I was literally shocked because I always used to think about scope of this field but never got answers. But after knowing about that I decided to convert my passion into my avocation.

But in 2020 on the very first day of new year’s evening my grandmother in law got a heart attack and everything got stopped again because she was very close to me so i left all the work and decided to take care of her anyhow but after struggling 20 days from many diseases she got passed away. But still she is alive in our lives because she was a wonderful lady. She always used to encourage me for my work and would tell all people about my work. She was the big inspiration for me. So now I am a full time crafter and really loving it. 

What Inspired me?

I always take inspiration from everything whether it is nature or people. If I take one thing then this craft industry inspired me a lot to go further in this field. I am inspired by many crafters who are doing amazing work. 

I am inspired by Shalini Mittal Ma'am Owner of Crafters Corner India and Dress my Craft. She is really a fantastic soul. I am inspired by you too, the way you talk to people and me I love that. 

My Most favourite crafts of all?

I love everything which I make whether it is beautiful or not. 

My first scrapbook is very near to my heart:

Some more paper craft projects:

I recently started mixed media so I love my these projects:

My style of crafting?

I love to do all types of crafting because I don't want to bound myself to do only one style. But if I have to tell my particular style then I will say it is paper crafting and mixed media I love the most. 

My Future Plans?

If I talk about future plans with crafting so there would be craft, craft and only craft. I want to open my own gallery “Monishka's Art Gallery” and classes in one place. I want to do work with many brands as a design team member and want to grow more and more. Conclusively I want to make my identity as a well known crafter in this industry. 

Message for all Craft Buddies!!

I am not that much big to give tips but yes if anyone wants to make their career in crafting field then don't think just go for it. Because I always believe that, If you make your profession which you love the most. Success will be yours, and everything needs time to build up. We can not get success in a day. Consistency and passion is the key to success. So keep doing what you love to do, success will be yours very soon. 

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A quick Inspiration : "Mixed Media Layout"

I have made a mixed media layout because I recently started mixed media so I am not having enough supplies of mixed media so I have made this project using acrylic colours.

Step:1

I took one 8*8 inches chipboard. 

Step 2:

After that I attached some small chipboard pieces on 8*8 chipboard for giving a brick effect. 

Step 3:

Then I applied white texture paste using a stencil.

Step 4:

Then I applied black acrylic colour on all over the chipboard. 

Step 5:

Then I gathered some wooden embellishments and applied black acrylic colour on all the embellishments. 

Step 6:

Then I glued all the embellishments and two black rectangular cardstock piece's on 8*8 chipboard. 

Step 7:

Then I applied ultramarine blue acrylic colour on all over the chipboard. 

Step 8:

Then I mixed a little ultramarine blue and sky-blue acrylic colour and applied it all over the chipboard and after getting dry again I applied the last coat of only sky blue acrylic colour.

Step 9:

Then I applied golden acrylic colour specially on the embellishments and where I had given a brick effect, and also I have glued some micro mini golden pearls.

Step 10:

In the end I have glued some blue mulberry roses and green leaves for decorating my mixed media layout. 

So here is the final outcome. I hope you all would like it. 

Acrylic colours which I have used:

Some final picture of my project

You can reach out to my crafty venture " Monishka's Art Gallery" for more inspirations on below social media platforms:

Facebook 

Instagram

Blogspot

Youtube

In the last I just want to say a big big thank you to priyanka dee, Prika All about Crafts for giving me this opportunity to show my work and journey, you are such an amazing person who is helping people to grow in their field. 

Thank you so much.