Giveaway Goodness

My friend, Sasha, from TheGildedBee is having a giveaway!

Check it out here: IAmTheBee

Featured Etsian

My featured seller for the week is dragonhouseofyuen. What funky, fabric animal sculptures! They would be so retro/mod hanging from a Christmas tree, strung on a piece of twine and hung around a window, or just sitting on your dresser. Btw......I just love how the artist community calls these "sculptures" now instead of plain old stuffed animals. It fits them better, since these really are pieces of art and not cheap children's toys.

My favorite sculptures here are the squirrels, but there are so many different styles and patterns to choose from, that you'll have to stop by the shop and decide for yourself. :)

Excerpt from dragonhouseofyuen's profile page:

"Annette Tait of Dragon House of Yuen

I grew up in Zambia, the Highlands of Scotland and Outback Australia surrounded by animals. I am inspired by nature and have a great love of all animals. My art is animal oriented and comes from the heart. All my work is originals and has been designed and created by me. (Please see)My fine art website: www.dragonhouseofyuen.co.uk"

Homemade Christmas

Here are the Holiday ornaments that I've been making to decorate the archway between our kitchen and dining room. They are all completely made from scratch, using cardboard, velvet and Victorian clipart found on the internet. I've also incorporated some clear glitter and gold thread.

6 Velvet backed ornaments with glitter edging:

Shown front and back:

Two-sided ornaments with cardboard sandwiched between the layers:

Handmade velvet leaves: I glued various colors of velvet to the backs of store- bought fabric leaves. Press hard to get the indentation of the stem and veins. Then set a heavy book on top until dry. I think they turned out beautifully, and for a much more reasonable price than velvet leaves from the store.

More velvet backed ornaments. The same ornamet, shown front and back. Also shown are some small velvet leaves that I cut from a vintage roll of ribbon. The viens were made by dragging a skewer, pointed side down, across the back.

Approx. 19 yards of homemade fabric ribbon. I bought 2 yards of blue/green fabric from Walmart, and transformed it into wide ribbon by sewing long strips together and serging the sides. I never realized how much it would make, but it turns out I needed almost the entire batch to decorate my kitchen archway.