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Varada Sharma Spreading kindness and cheer. One card or paper crafting project at a time.

Varadasharma.com is a DIY blog that features how-to's on handmade greeting cards, home decor and paper crafts.

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09/09/2026

Craft room archaeology at its finest! 🕵️‍♀️✨ Tell me I’m not the only one holding onto beautiful "leftovers" from a decade ago just waiting for their perfect project?

For this shaped "Thank You" card, I challenged myself to mix some classic vintage stash pieces with elegant geometry and a fun colored pencil shading trick! 🌿 When you balance highly textured older elements with crisp, modern die-cut frames, the result is pure magic.

Here is the crafty breakdown of this stash-busting mash-up:

The Base: Make a Wish Arch Labels from for that smooth, nested geometry.

The Foliage: Wild Leaves from , shaded by hand with colored pencils for extra dimension and movement! ✏️

The Sentiment: Layered Mix & Match Sentiments from the Sept 2021 Small Die of the Month.

The Bloom: A gorgeous dimensional home decor flower I’ve hoarded for 10 years! 🌸

👇 YOUR TURN: What is the oldest craft supply sitting in your room right now? Let's play a guessing game in the comments!

08/27/2026

Ever make a card and feel like it’s just… missing something or something is at least slightly off? 🌸✨

Today on the blog, we are talking all about the power of placement! I took the exact same mix of stash-busting supplies and created two completely different layouts to see how it shifts the visual balance. 📐

Here is a quick look at how I brought these two designs to life:

The Florals: I mixed beautiful blooms and sentiments from with a fun leafy stem I scored on Amazon.

The Greenery: I dug deep into my stash to use some delicate leaves from a vintage May/June 2019 Card Kit!

The Shift: I transitioned from a widespread floral frame on a textured A2 card to a tight, bold bouquet on a 4x6 base for better grounding.

💬 I need your help! Which card layout do you prefer: the spread-out frame or the bundled bouquet? And the ultimate question—should I add a bow to the stems of the birthday card? Tell me below! 👇

08/12/2026

Don't throw away those watercolor practice sheets! 🎨✨ Today’s card features a watercolored / ink blended pitcher die-cut made entirely from leftover practice paper from a previous project!

Here’s how this encouraging botanical card came together:

🎨 Background: Deep olive-grey textured cardstock for a rich, organic foundation. I stamped a tone-on-tone tiny letters image on this background using a stamp set and Ombre inkpad with shades of grey
🏺 Vessel: A pitcher die-cut from leftover ink blended practice paper using the new Card Kit! (Love that they included matching dies with the stamps this time around! 🙌)
🌸 Botanicals: Layered white floral blooms and wispy foliage tucked into the pitcher.
💬 Sentiment: A clean, die-cut "you were made to flourish" greeting from the kit, grounded at the base for visual balance.

💬 QUESTION FOR YOU: What’s your favorite way to reuse practice paper or watercolor scraps in your craft room? Let me know in the comments! 👇

Head over to VaradaSharma.com for the full breakdown and craft tips! 💻✨

08/06/2026

Hello everyone! 🌸 Today on the blog, I’m sharing how a total crafting mistake turned into one of my favorite cards! 🎨✨

Swipe to see two cards using Hammermill cardstock blended with Distress Oxides (Stormy Sky, Salvaged Patina, Cracked Pistachio, Uncharted Mariner) and inks (Blue Violet, Island Blue).

The first card features crisp gold heat embossing using one of older stampset from . On the second card? My embossing powder was way too thick for the fine line of a (different set) stamped image and turned into a total mess! 😂 But instead of throwing the panel away, I covered it up with a gorgeous floral die-cut cluster and a scripty "Thank You" sentiment. Craft save for the win! 🙌

💬 Do you cover up your crafting boo-boos or throw the panel away? Let me know below! 👇

07/22/2026

Sending a little extra encouragement today! ☀️ Modern geometric shapes paired with uplifting sentiments.

I blended a full 8.5x11 panel at once using the 3-layer Geo Mod stencil by for in Honeysuckle, Buttercup, and Sea Glass.

After trimming the panel down to leave a crisp white border, I made sure to adhere the leftover strips inside the cards to finish them off— ! ✂️

The sentiments are from 's Heartfelt Encouragement set (stamped in black ink). For a fun twist on the second card, I placed matching sequins over non-matching colors on the background so they really pop!

Which quote speaks to you today? 👇

07/15/2026

More than just paper... it’s a paper hug. 💌✨
Sometimes the best reason to create is simply to let someone know they aren't alone.
Today I’m sharing a set of encouragement cards designed to spread sunshine and "happy vibes" into the world. By using a consistent technique across the whole set, I was able to focus on the intentional design of the sentiments while making my stash work for me! 🦋🌸

Project Elements:
🎨 Main Collection: Butterfly Blossoms (Stamps, Stencils, & Dies) by .
🖋️ Sentiments: "You Got This" set by .
🌈 Ink: Distress Oxide Inks for that perfect blended look.
✨ The "Varada" Touch: Signature chunky glitter and glitter pen accents for maximum sparkle!

Which of these messages do you think the world needs more of right now? "Don't give up" or "Everything will be okay"? Drop your favorite in the comments! 👇
. .

07/08/2026

Can you believe it if I said most of this card came from my leftover stash? ♻️✨

For this 4x6 card project, the only elements I freshly die-cut and stamped were the top-left banner and those bright green and yellow flowers. Everything else—the gorgeous white focal flower, the white leaves, and the vellum accents—were piece leftovers just waiting for their moment to shine!

To create a dramatic, high-contrast look for all those white elements, I used a deeply textured dark grey cardstock for the card base. I added a little black ink blending right around the edges to give it some extra depth and frame everything beautifully.

Here’s how the pieces came together:

The Banner: An die topped with a delicate floral stamp from Recollections brand and a sentiment from an older kit.

The Florals: A mix of vibrant die sets.

The Accents: Muted white leaf clusters from an older Luxe Peony die.

I love a card that continues the story from the front to the inside. 🥰 The inside sentiment is from another older kit.

What do you think? What do you like most about this card? What would you change? Let me know in the comments! 👇

06/25/2026

Hey crafty friends! 🌸 Let's chat card design. When you step away from traditional rectangles and work with shaped cards, balancing your layout can get a little tricky! 📐✨

Here are 5 simple design rules I followed to keep this oval card looking balanced and intentional:

1️⃣ Depth without clutter: Before adding flowers, I did tone-on-tone silhouette stamping onto the dark blue panel using Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink. It adds a subtle "shadow" layer that gives the background massive interest without screaming for attention!
2️⃣ Unify contrasting finishes: I mixed a heavily embossed background, smooth cardstock, and shiny gold glitter paper. To keep them from clashing, I repeated the exact same core shape (nested ovals!) across every single layer.
3️⃣ Break the grid line: To break up the repeating nested oval lines, I made my sentiment strip an oval too, but mounted it completely perpendicular to the rest of the layout. It's a fun geometric twist that draws your eye straight to the greeting!
4️⃣ Blend with foliage: When mixing leftover flowers from different die families like I did ( Garden Cosmos and Geranium), anchor them with a hybrid mix of greenery. Blending botanical leaves with soft, wispy grasses blends distinct elements into one cohesive bouquet.
5️⃣ Give eyes a place to rest: Highly textured backgrounds—like this deeply embossed pattern from —look gorgeous, but can overwhelm a card. Layering a crisp, smooth panel right on top keeps the texture behaving like a frame rather than a distraction.

Mixing supplies from different companies is my favorite way to stretch my stash! This card features , , , , and . 🛠️🎨

💬 LET’S PLAY A GAME: Leave a comment below with your best guess for which product came from which company. Let’s see who gets it right! 👇😉

06/17/2026

Want to make 5 unique cards without spending days in the craft room? {I know we all love to spend days in the craft room, but let's be real, sometimes we need more output with little time!} Let’s talk about the magic of batch processing! 🛠️✨

In my latest project, I put together a set of 5 encouraging cards by batching each step of the process. I did all my gold heat embossing (using ) at once for the sentiments, prepped my gorgeous floral focal points (using washi tape) in one go, and played with a mix of stencils from , , and using Stencil Butters! 🎨

Keeping the techniques the same while varying the designs let me create a cohesive set super quickly. (And yes, I even share how I covered up a little stenciling 'boo-boo' on one of them—swipe to see how it became a 'feature', not a bug! 😂)

Check out the full breakdown and tips on the blog today! Link in bio. 🌸

06/11/2026

Hey guys! 💛💙 Sharing a simple but cute encouragement card today using one of my absolute favorite color combinations—yellow and blue!

I started with a hint of stenciling in the background for a little extra interest, then combined a few different styles of die-cut flowers and leaves (some layered, some flat) to create this fun, dimensional cluster. Finished it off with a sweet "Hang in there, friend" sentiment.

I’m planning to share more encouragement and support cards soon, so stay tuned! I hope this gives you some inspiration for your next project. Enjoy! 👇 Let me know what your favorite color combo is in the comments!

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