As if playing around on etsy isn’t dangerous enough already, the other day while poking around I clicked ‘shop local’ and stumbled onto some pretty neat stuff. My favourite was JewlezyBug so I’m sharing her first! Julie has created some really cute characters and uses some interesting materials. She paints on rocks to make neat pendants and uses pages from old books and phone books as the canvases for her whimsical paintings!

I sent her a message on etsy and she seems really fun and agreed to do a GIVEAWAY!!!!! Soooo free stuff to someone who’s in need of cuteness! Julie is willing to giveaway one of her prints, see them all here in her flickr pool, just leave a comment here telling us which one is your fav (they’re numbered 1-90). I like this little guy.

I asked her a little bit about herself and she sent this little blurb, thanks for sharing!

“I have always doodled and painted for as long as I can remember. I am drawn to bright colours and happy motifs that catch the eye and make you smile. I like my art to make you feel good and brighten your day. I use old books and phone books as my back drops because they visually stimulate the eye and provide texture to the art. I feel my art is a reflection of my inner child just wanting to play. I take inspiration from colour, from my day, nature, from the people in the my life and from my furbabies (4 cats and 1 dog: Jewels (hence the name!)”

She also has a blog where she shares her new creations, fun crafts and her cute animals. I love these ribbon curtains she made.

I’ll do some magical random winner picking Sunday night and announce Monday morning! Ohhh the suspense, I’d better set my iphone alarm . . .

]]> http://www.sewtara.com/2010/07/16/friday-find-jewelzybug-designs-giveaway/feed/ 16 http://www.sewtara.com/2010/06/22/im-not-really-this-slow/ http://www.sewtara.com/2010/06/22/im-not-really-this-slow/#comments Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:45:16 +0000 tara http://www.sewtara.com/?p=1282 So while it seems I haven’t been very crafty lately I have been working on stuff, honest! The sad part is some of the projects are secret gifts so I can’t share my progress, which is icky. So I’ve been puttering on other little things as a break from the bigger crafts. I finally used my lovely bookplates and stuck them in my crafty/sewing books. Now that Handmade Beginnings has arrived I’ve only got 1 bookplate left! Time for another visit to Cabin and Cub.

I was almost afraid to actually stick them somewhere, they’re so lovely. Now that I’m a bit addicted to collecting fabric I’m noticing that sometimes I can’t bear to cut a piece! It’s so silly, why have it if you’re not going to use it?

Thanks to Ravelry I started a cute little apple cozy only to discover (after taking it apart 3 times) that I crochet really tightly and I’ll need to use a bigger hook so that it will actually fit an apple and not a plum!

So is it ‘cosie’ or cozie’ or ‘cosy’ or ‘cozy’? I think I use a different one every time.

There were 10 neat cards inside.  I was really fun to see what everyone made and some of the techniques they used.

Here’s a closer view of some of my favs.  Loving the little monsters from Cat, I have to find this stamp set!  The little girl one is just super cute  (pleeeeaaaaase tell me who made it someone!).  I love the idea of making a pinwheel out of double sided paper, simple and neat.  The flower card was made on fabric complete with beads and stitching.  The last one was just so nice and colourful, complete with sparkles, thanks Lorrain!

Thank you Cynthia, I’m embarrassed to say I don’t remember which card your info fell out of!

I should have taken a photo of the ones I sent out.  I did get an email from Robin telling me she liked my card.

The little poem says, “On Mother’s Day at 1/2 past three, make yourself a cup of tea.”

My hubby pointed out that the tea bag is actually glued into the little pocket, hehe oops. It’s still super cute.

Have a fantastic day ladies!

I have returned from my weekend away!! It seems like it went by in a blink.  I arrived on Friday night, a tad late, at 7 and joined everyone for dinner and then off we went back to the huge room where all 11 of us were set up on our own huge table to work on our projects.  Somehow I’ve come home totally exhausted!  All I did was sat in a chair all weekend!  The first night I climbed into bed at 2am then got up at 9 and rushed to grab some breakfast, which was at 8:30.  Last night I went to bed at about 1:30 and woke up at 9.

I completed over 30 double page layouts, so over 60 12×12 pages! I finished a book of our Christmas trip. From start to finish I got it done, journaling and all!  This page with the kids at the playground is my favourite part of the book.  I love the photos and the lettering.  There were so many neat little gadgets, like the wonderful lovely Cricut which I need to have.

It was loads of fun. I’ve never been to something like this and it was great to have so much time to focus on layouts and have a big work area. It was also nice to have a break from being mommy. Big thanks to Kelly who set it all up.

OOoooohhh and the bestest part was that I had taken some of my taggie blankies to ask the crafty ladies present what they thought was a fair price, just to get an idea before my show.  The 3 ladies I showed them to each bought one!!  It was great.  Thanks ladies!

There’s a bit of a shine to the binder so it was tricky to get a shot without a glare, but you get the idea. My only available tools were the Lightening McQueen coloured pencils my son had from Christmas. So all things considered, I think I did very well.

By the way, if you’ve never been to London and would like to scramble your brain for a few minutes take a look at the map for the underground. If you live in New York City, never mind the link, you have your own brain scrambler.

The buttons are just fun and all about sewing, scrapbooking and cardmaking. The ’1 in a million’ is a heads up for my Dad, who was one in a million! I found some vintage looking fabric with little boys on it and cut and framed those little pieces, to represent Wesley and baby Nate. The alphabet blocks are for the boys’ names and Mom and Dad, that’s who I am right now so I used that and not T for Tara. I made a little SewTara banner, in honour of my new little addiction. The K is for our last name and I added the little globe for our travel fever.

It was loads of fun to make and surprisingly difficult to think about items to represent myself.

Last year I sat down and made multiple copies of the same card and sent those out to everyone.  This year, with 2 little ones underfoot, I haven’t had time to be that creative so I resorted to digging through my stash of previously completed cards.  I did manage to sneak away to a card making workshop this year so I had 2o new ones to pick from.  These are some of my favourites.  I particularly like the little trend of choosing colours that aren’t traditionally associated with Christmas.  It’s a nice change from the usual red and green!

I don’t remember about each individual card but I know some of them are made with Stampin’Up supplies and some are make it Close to My Heart.

ABC cover

I used a hinge bound 7 x 7 scrapbook, it was from Creative Memories ages ago so I doubt you can still get one. There are so many school themed books out there I’m sure one of those could work.

ABC poem

I found the little poem online, not sure where but you can download the document here. (as soon as my techie hubby helps me)

An easy letter to fill up, B. Here's the 2 page spread.

I made each page a 2 page spread for the letter, except near the end I used 1 page for those less likely to fill up, like W, X, Y, Z. In hindsight I should have done that for Q as well, other than quilt I’ve been stuck on that one. I used a bunch of different coloured alphabet sticker sets, again from Creative Memories, but you could just by I sheet and use it for your entire book. I just had a lot of alphabet bits and pieces.

S is for sunglasses, smiles and snowmen!

You can use scraps and bits of paper to decorate the pages. If you have punches it’s even easier.

C is for cookie

This is also a great way to make use of sticker odds and ends you have lying around. I also find it handy for using up photos I printed but didn’t scrapbook, I have a bad habit of overprinting. I also print a lot of wallet sized pictures for this project, since the pages are smaller and I can fit 9 of those photos on a sheet it works out well.

I started writing the words next to the pictures as well. Depending on your child you may want to add words.

Guess I’d better get updating!