Featured Artist. Elizabeth Wise of 3elizabeths on Etsy

Want to brighten up your day?

Pay a visit to Elizabeth Wise's shop, 3elizabeths on Etsy.

Elizabeth sews market bags, wristlets and tiny bags out of the most colorful, eclectic and quirky fabrics imaginable.

She describes her fabric art pieces as “unique, one-of-a-kind confections”.

Elizabeth embellishes many of her bags with vintage crystal and rhinestone buttons from Bumbershoot Supplies - that is how I came to learn of her work.

I love the sense of fun and playfulness that Elizabeth communicates with these designs. The cheerfulness of these bags spills over into how they are presented. I don’t know what those eyes are but they make me smile. And take a second look.  So do the penguins.

I've focussed on her smaller bags in this blog post. In addition to these bags, at 3elizabeths you will also find handmade aprons, bows, collages and collaged blank journals. So for a pick-me-up and some wonderful design, color and pattern inspiration, consider a visit to 3elizabeths on Etsy. Say hi to Elizabeth while you are there!

Featured Artist. Liz Hammel's Hoop Dreams

Welcome to Liz Hammel’s Hoop Dreams.

I learned about Liz’s art when she sent me a link to her website. Liz has used the vintage mother of pearl sequins available at Bumbershoot Supplies and kindly shared her designs with me. I was pretty excited because Liz is the first featured artist I have located who is using our vintage supplies to embellish stitched canvases.

Liz is a retired art historian, in her words “happily creating whimsy in thread and objects”.

There is a strong presence of nature in Liz’s work, both in the materials she uses (silk, mother of pearl, linen, jade, amber, and many others) and in the designs she draws with her needle.

Some of the pieces with heavy threadwork remind me of the grain in the bark of trees. They also remind me of the heavy swirls of paint impressionists like Van Gogh laid down on their canvases.

I found lots of inspiration in these beautifully stitched meditations on color, line and texture.

I hope you will enjoy a visit to Liz’s website for a view into her world of stitched whimsy, her Hoop Dreams.

Featured Artist. Stacey Yacula of Stacey Yacula Studio on Etsy

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas over at Stacey Yacula's store,

Stacey Yacula Studio on Etsy.

There you will find beautiful hand made limited edition ornaments featuring Stacey's original designs, some embellished with vintage beads from Bumbershoot Supplies. This one has a gorgeous ruby red glass drop.

The ornaments are double sided, with original illustrations on each side. It's like getting 2 ornaments! I have taken one soldering class myself, and I am in awe of Stacey's technical skill, it takes a lot of work and practice to get soldered edges that look like hers.

I am also in awe of her ability as an artist to move between dimensions.  These delightful snow people are sculpted out of paper clay in limited editions.

They may be just the right addition to your holiday mantle.

Stacey's charming and whimsical designs are also available on cards, gift tags and calendars, and as prints, for Christmas yes, but for other occasions too.

Such as this one celebrating Halloween...

And this one for birthdays....

And this one for "a magical day".

Stacey hand embellishes the cards with just a few embroidered stitches, a small touch that elevates her cards and adds to the intimate feel of her designs. 

Stacey is located in Canada near my hometown, but note that shipping on her cards is the same rate for both US and Canadian customers.

I hope you will consider a visit to Stacey Yacula Studio, and even more, I hope you have an opportunity to experience Stacey's positive and cheerful energy.  Head on over for a dose of holiday cheer, and for inspiration and happiness any time of the year.  If you do visit, feel free to say hi and tell Stacey that Sharon from Bumbershoot Supplies sent you :)

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, "this too is love" Art Journal Page

"this, too, is love" art journal page

Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

~William Shakespeare from Sonnet 116

The Pleasures of a Long Weekend, Art for Fun

Art for fun. For no purpose whatsoever. Just to be creating something.

With Bumbershoot Supplies and Bumbershoot Designs, I am surrounded by things artistic all the time. It is a true blessing. Most days are very full, and that's why I love long weekends, because there usually is some open time to just potter around the studio.

When I want to create for fun, for no good reason, I usually turn to mixed media art, where I began.  I love the lack of rules.  I love that anything goes. It feels like me.  

This past long weekend, I wanted to use some of the wonderful supplies I received from Sarah Elder at mysocalledjunkylife on Etsy.  You may remember her as our featured artist a few weeks ago. I love her trim tags and other wonderful vintage art supplies, and I treated myself to some. 

The heart, lace and seam binding are from Sarah.  I tea dyed the tag, stamped it with gesso, and collaged with some painted, stamped and foiled vintage sheet music. Stitching, that makes a piece feel complete for me, plus some rhinestones, the little ones are from Bumbershoot Supplies.

I didn't begin with this in mind, however, this tag is going in the mail to London today, a birthday gift for my greatest friend Susan, who never reads my blog, so the secret is safe here :) 

Three Muses. Relationships. Love the One You're With

This is my entry for this week's challenges at the Three Muses, "relationships", called "Love the One You're With".

This is a 6x6 inch art quilt made with more of my stash of hand dyed fabric, which I sun printed, then wrote on with white pen, stamped, stitched with metallic thread and finally foiled.

The one you are always with is yourself.  I've always found that my relationships with others, be they humans, animals, and even the plants in my garden, are so much better when I am in good relationship to myself.  This art quilt is my reminder of this personal reality.

Three Muses. Legs. Kitten Art Quilt.

This is my entry for this week's theme of "legs" at the Three Muses.

For over 8 years now, we have fostered kittens for the Seattle Animal Shelter.  We do not do this all year round, just during kitten season.  I thought I would honor all the four-legged creatures who have passed through our home and blessed us with their presence.

Hand dyed fabric, photo transfer, vintage charms, stitched transparencies, stamping.

It's so much fun to watch the really tiny kittens find their sea legs. Their legs are so tiny that we have to teach them how to use the litter when it is in an old cookie sheet on the floor - they can't handle anything higher. The bottle babies have to practice just walking at first.  And they walk through everything, litter, food, water, it's pretty messy for a while. Pretty soon, though, they figure it out and start tearing around the room we reserve for our fosters, and then it's just crazy fun to watch them slip and slide on the hardwood floors.

Our family came to this choice after losing our 17 year old brown tabby, Alu. She was really my cat - I got her when I was in graduate school. I really did not want another animal, but my children really did want a pet, so we compromised and decided to try fostering, and it has worked out wonderfully well for us. To see one of our foster babies, see this Monday in Seattle post.

Seeing Stars in Seattle. Artist Trading Card (ATC). Three Muses

This is my entry for the Three Muses challenge this week, "Seeing Stars".  It is an artist trading card (ATC) made with my hand dyed fabric, sun printed with stars, stitched and embellished with handmade paper, vintage dictionary paper, sequins and my latest vintage delight, rose montees - tiny crystals set in metal settings that can be glued, or wired or sewn through the channels on the back of the setting.

I am always astounded at how many stars we can see in Seattle, just from the back porch. You'd think that the lights of a big city would wash out the night sky, but (when it is not raining!) I see lots and lots of stars. It always makes me wish to be somewhere well and truly dark, where the city light would be removed, like a curtain lifted, and the true radiance of the heavens revealed.

Triangle. Think Monday Think ATC

This is my entry for this week's challenge at Think Monday Think ATC: triangle. This is an abstract fabric ATC made of a collage of my hand dyed fabrics and denim (from old jeans). It is both machine and hand stitched. Lots of triangles in here.

When I make these types of ATCs, I usually make a large pieced fabric, then use a template with an ATC-sized hole cut in it and move it around the fabric until I find a section that I like. Then I mark and cut out that section.

Since this is an abstract piece, I thought it would be interesting to photograph it in each of the 4 directions in which it could be viewed. See which you like best.

Three Muses. You Are What You Eat

This is my response to this week's Three Muses challenge, "you are what you eat".  And I eat a lot, A LOT, of chocolate. I have a studio chocolate bowl... I love just about everything that is chocolate, including the chocolate wrappers...

This is an ATC made of fabric paper - where I have collaged layers of paper chocolate wrappers onto muslin, added metallic threads, put on an overlay of netting, then burned, stamped paint circles, stitched, and used some vintage embellishments: ribbon, beads, and a mother of pearl button turned to show the mottled shell on the back. Like a little white chocolate, with drizzles.

Luckily, Seattle is home to a number of great chocolate companies, such as Seattle Chocolates, Fran's Chocolates, and my favorite local company, Theo Chocolate.

If you visited my post for last week's Three Muses challenge, you know I also love tea.  With tea and chocolate together - oh my, life is fine indeed!

Three Muses. A Nice Cup of Tea

This is my first ever posting for the challenge blog Three Muses. I absolutely had to create for this theme since tea is so very, very important to me.  We live in Seattle, home of Starbucks, and there is no coffee in our house. None. Nada. Zip. Only tea.  And only the good stuff...

For this 6x6 inch art quilt, I've used tea stained fabric, overstamped with a beautiful teacup stamp from Stampington, a strip of my hand dyed fabric, used tea tags, ribbon that I trimmed to mimic tea leaves, teacup and teapot buttons.  And one bit of vintage: the celluloid carved roses with vintage brass headpins in their centres.

Spring. Wednesday Stamper

These tags are my offering for the Wednesday Stamper challenge blog, where the theme this week is "Spring".  Luckily for me, I had been playing with some vintage French seed packet labels and stamps and last Sunday I made a few tags that fit the theme!  I also used these seed packet labels in a Spring-y tag for Art Creations Friday, and you can see that tag on my blog here.

These are tea stained tags, stamped with script and flower stamps. Copies of the seed packet labels were stitched on top, then the cards were stitched and embellished with vintage goodies: lace, mother of pearl, enamel flowers, and some of my hand dyed fabric.

Vintage Children. Art Creations Friday

This is the first time I've participated in Art Creations Friday.  I could not resist these two beautiful children, especially as the image is French and I have been working with some recently purchased antique French seed package labels. 

This is a tea stained tag, with stamps and rubons, over which are laid a copy of one of my French seed packet labels, trimmed around the flowers.  Also stitched, and embellished with vintage French ribbon (from 1943) and vintage flower cabochons.