Shopo Diwali Fever Wishlist

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As soon as I saw this post by Patricia on Colours Dekor, my brain went into overdrive.

Shopo + giveaway= I HAVE to make a Diwali Fever wishlist for myself!

Here’s my wishlist:

For My Home:

For Me:

  • I’ve been a collector of handmade journals and notebooks for as long as I can remember. Sometimes I never use the book for fear of “spoiling” the beautiful pages :P I just can’t stay away from this beautiful mauve leather journalfrom Kaagazi.

    Mauve Leather Journal

    Mauve Leather Journal

More about the Shopo Diwali Fever Wishlist Giveaway:

Shopo & Colours Dekor are hosting this giveaway in which 3 winners will be gifted one item from their Shopo Diwali Fever wish list for the value of Rs. 1000.

There are 3 ways of entering the giveaway:

1st way:

Post a Shopo Diwali Fever wishlist oon your blog of any (any three items) and link back to Colours Dekor and Shopo. The linky party is open till Sunday – 30th October 2011 so you have enough time to link your wishlist posts :)

-OR-

If you don’t blog, comment on the Colours Dekor blog or Facebook page about your wishlist or on the Shopo Facebook page.

2nd way:

Tweet about the give away and let Patricia know by email or with a comment.

3rd Entry:

Follow the Colours Dekor blog or Facebook page.

The winners will be announced on Monday – 31st October 2011 so you better make your wishlist and check it twice before then ;) In giveaways, you never know when you will get lucky :)

More Diwali reading:

How to Paint a Diya

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I asked a few of my Hindu friends and found the procedure to paint terracotta diyas :) So I thought I would blog about it so that I don’t forget in future and so that it may be helpful for others who don’t know much about Diwali like me.
First, a little note about the most popular Diya shapes available:
  • Covered diyas
  • Traditional round diyas
  • Shankh diyas or Conch shaped diyas
  • Tulsi diyas
  • Mandir shaped diyas
  • Ganesha diyas (I like a lot of them as seen in my previous post!)
  • Leaf shaped diyas
  • Star or Sun shaped diyas
  • Flower shaped diyas
  • Lotus shaped diyas
  • Matka diyas or small pot shaped diyas.
New diyas of different shapes

New diyas of different shapes

So how do you paint a diya? What paint should you use?

How to Paint a Terracotta Diya

1. Start with a clean Diya

I bought my diyas from a road in Kodambakkam, Chennai that has pottery lined up on the pavement on either side. As the diyas were kept on tables on the roadside, they were rather dusty.
Clean the dirty diyas

Clean the dirty diyas

Nothing that a quick cleaning with an old toothbrush/rag can’t fix!

2. Soak the diya

Soak the diyas in water for 15-30 minutes. Dry them in the sun or under a fan. This helps make them receptive to paint.

3. Paint the base color

Choose acrylic or fabric paint in bright colors to paint the diyas and use a wide brush. Light blue, green, yellow, orange, red and pink and traditional favorites. Acrylic and fabric paints don’t fade too much even after lighting the diyas.
Blingy blue, red and gold diyas

Blingy blue, red and gold diyas

TIP: Try a bit of each color that you plan to use on the base of a diya. This way you can check how dark/light the paint will be and whether you can get an even coat on the terracotta. I tried out the different color combinations that I had in mind just to check that the colors went well together and the result was what I was hoping for!

4. Choose the accents

You can add accents to the diyas by decorating them with one or 2 more colors. If you like solid color diyas, the best way to accent them is by adding a line of gold paint along the rim using a thin brush.
Red, gold and blue diyas

Red, gold and blue diyas

5. Dry those Diyas

Dry the painted diyas for 3 to 4 hours.

6.Embellish- bring on the bling!

Stick tiny mirrors, zari thread, small shells, sequins, beads or glitter on the diyas to pack a decorative punch.
Red, white and silver covered diya

Red, white and silver covered diya

Peacock inspired butterfly diya

Peacock inspired butterfly diya

I hope you liked my painted diyas. It was my very first attempt at painting them so I hope the next time I’m steadier with a brush!

Have you painted any diyas for this Diwali? What colors did you use?

More Diwali reading:

Painted Diyas for Diwali Decor

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I’ve been lurking around some fabulous interior decor and craft blogs, online shops and websites and seeing some awesome painted diyas. I want to share some of the lovely diyas I came across so far.

I almost immediately fell in love with this handmade terracotta Ganesha surrounded by diya holders where you can put in tealights.

Ganesha with Diya Holder

Ganesha with Diya Holder

Most of you won’t be suprised that I headed over to Shopo to look at more gorgeous handmade diyas. Being an Etsy addict, I can say that it was really easy for me to fall in love with http://www.Shopo.in. I have lots of items in my Shopo wishlist that I will be buying soon and this diya is probably at the top of the list!

Ganesha hugging diya

Ganesha hugging diya

I’ve never seen such a pretty covered diya like this shimmering green one from Aikya. It will appeal to all green, aqua and teal lovers for sure!

Red and Green Covered Diya

Red and Green Covered Diya

I seem to be including a lot of blue diyas in my inspiration files today-hmmmm- that probably means I will be painting my diyas blue when I buy them! :) But, isn’t this blue handpainted urli gorgeous?

Decorated urli for diwali by PoiDoi

Blue handpainted urli for diwali by PoiDoi

Out of all the unique diyas, I like this handpainted one by Urvee a team of environment-friendly enthusiasts. I love the colors and the shape of the diya itself.

Handpainted diya from Urvee

Handpainted diya from Urvee

While sharing about handpainted diyas, I’ll be really off the mark if I forgot to mention Reshmi. She has a beautiful crafts blog filled with her colorful and beautiful art and craft work. These dark blue diyas by her are my ultimate favorite blue diyas.

Dark blue diya handpainted by Reshmi

Dark blue diya handpainted by Reshmi

Seeing all these beautiful diyas – I feel like getting out my acrylic paints and glitter and painting some lovely diyas myself (though they will be a far cry from the ones I have shown today!

What color diyas have you used this year? Which color do you keep thinking of when you plan your Diwali decor? Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions for decorating diyas. I would love to hear from you.

Note: All images used in this post are the property of the respective owners to whom I have linked. I have not clicked any of the images myself – though I wish I could also take such good photos :)

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