Vani Sodhi Gundara - Creative Tips!

WHO IS VANI SODHI GUNDARA?

Vani Sodhi Gundara; a local Los Angeles designer has been "creating" since her early childhood years. It all began with a crayon striking the walls of her parent's home at the age of 2.

Fortunately for Vani, her parents embraced the signs early on to encourage the artistic, wild-side in her and helped by developing her keen sense of unusual color, form and modern creative development.

After attending UCLA's school of Arts and Architecture, she opened her own design firm; Design By Vani.

Design by Vani blends her flare for the unique with cutting edge technology. She continues to showcase her talent through personalized creative solutions for all endeavors.

Below are sample projects that have been featured on Craft Networks (DIY NETWORK and HGTV)

BAMBOO BOX PURSES
These stylish purses are created with an unfinished wooden box and a bamboo handle as a base. I design each one with an individual flare including a variety of design tactics. Block printing, metallic and wooden embellishments and acrylic paint are some of the few things that I use to dress up these creative pieces of "wearable art."

MINI CLOTH HANDBAGS
I was walking in a local art store and came across these great "do it yourself" handbags. They are cloth pre-stitched and then you choose your handle and decide how you want to decorate it. I printed one of my designs from the computer onto iron on tranfer paper. Then I cut them into shapes that fit each side of the purse. After a bit of ironing, some creative handle picking I had a beautiful, cute, customized Vani handbag in no time!

FUN WOODEN FRAMES
I purchased some unfinished wooden frames and thought...how can I dress these up? Well, I found a block print stamp I had created and first stamped out some paper. I then purchased some wooden shapes and pieces to apply on the center and surrounding borders of the various frames. Some bright paint, and creativity and I had great frames that bring a whimsical flare to any countertop.

BLOCK PRINT PILLOWS
Block printing takes time and dedication. But when you're done you have a beautiful customized stamp that is your very own design unlike anything else out there. When I created the "Om" block print I decided not only to use it in the traditional manner on paper, but I transfered the print onto a piece of cloth which I then attached to a plain toned pillow. It added color, texture and flare to what would have been an ordinary pillow on my couch. I then took the block print I had carved and used it as a freestanding piece of art in my top lit glass shelves for artistic value.

MAGAZINE ART
One day I got bored, and started flipping through my huge stack of magazines. I decided to pull out pages that I could use the color and tones as inspiration for future projects. Before I knew it I had pulled a rainbow of colors. I ended up getting the glue, and some large pieces of carboard and gluing the ripped swatches of magazine pages all over the pages. I ended up with some beautiful pieces of artwork for my walls. Modern, edgy and colorful!

DESIGN BY VANI DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKS

Vani blends her flare for the unique with cutting edge technology. She continues to showcase her talent through personalized creative solutions for all endeavors.

One of her latest endeavors came with her interest in scrap booking. Unfortunately when it came to purchasing all the materials involved to making a truly dynamic and eye-catching scrapbook, her bank account was going to be emptied!

As a result Vani developed a unique blend of her computer graphic digital design with the texture and color layering of traditional scrap booking. After these pages are laid out, Vani sends them to an online printer for professional printing and binding services. The whole showpiece ended up costing under $100!