Tuesday, July 12, 2011

More Etsy Favorites

I'm still loving the activity feed on Etsy! The thumbnails of new items and of the favorites in my circle grab my eyes and lead me to discover new artists that give me a burst of inspiration whenever time allows. I would love to share a few of my newest discoveries with you:




Hope you check out these artists and their wonderful shops!
Visit Made by SwirlyGirl, too!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Back to the Beginning

When I began creating cards for myself and for family, I did so with handmade papers I had purchased at a local art supply store. I fell in love with their paper section and loved how I could use small pieces of large sheets and make a big impression, making the beautiful paper last seemingly forever. My sister's mother-in-law lives in Nepal and makes yearly visits home to California and for several years would bring back these beautiful papers to give to me, for which I was extremely grateful. Not only was she able to bring me colors that I couldn't find here, but even the bags they came in were made from handmade paper which I found uses for.

After several years, I moved on to photo art and stopped pulling out my papers except for personal card use. Well, for the last few months I have been looking at those papers and hearing them call me and finally sat down yesterday for a little play time with them. I loved working with them---beautiful colors, textures, prints...it's been too long. So, for as long as this is satisfying my creative urge, I will continue to make my cards using these beautiful treasures from near and far and have reopened the section in my shop called "Threads and Shreds". I have a feeling my piles of fine fabric remnants will be calling to me soon, too, and the results (Threads) will be joining these paper creations (Shreds). I hope people enjoy them as much as I enjoy making them!