Featured Artist: Joy of JoyfulHandKnits

Joy and her husband Pat last spring on their 33rd wedding anniversary

I'd like to introduce you to Joy who is a team mate of mine on the Christian Artist Street Team on Etsy. Joy has a great Etsy shop called JoyfulHandKnits and I love to browse her latest handcrafted creations. Joy specializes in handknit cable beanies, ruffled scarves, socks (I can personally vouch for the socks ☺ ), little girl's ponchos and more.

Ruffle Scarf - Mohair Wool Blend - Turquoise Red Green Blue Yellow

Handspun Knitted Cable Beanie Hat -Tuscan Delight

Little Girl's Poncho - Lightweight Cotton in Pistachio Green

 

Hand Knit Socks, Wool Blend - Dusty Aqua

Wool - Soy Knitted Cable Beanie Hat - A Beautiful Pink Rose

Be sure and visit Joy's shop.  She's now taking custom order requests for Christmas and she's even looking into making special Christmas ornaments that are knitted--be sure and check back (if you can get them before I do).

Featured Artist: Karen of Chocolate Dog Studio

Since I started my shop on Etsy, I've met a lot of wonderful artists from participating in the artists communities there. Karen is a fellow member of the Christian Artists Street Team (CAST) on Etsy. Her shop is called Chocolate Dog Studio.

Karen makes all sorts of items many of which are made from upcycled materials. In her shop you will find beautifully crocheted scarves and shawls, cup cozies, hats and pincushions, but my favorite items she makes are definitely the one of a kind purses!

Envelope clutch, black and white squares

Purse, jean, quilted cotton

Linen embroidered purse

Wine, Cranberry, twirly, curl scarf

Brown twill tote

You know you want one of those purses for summer ☺

You can also find Karen here:

Facebook

Winkelf

Karen's blog

Twitter

Featured Artist: Amanda Stephan

I met Amanda on Etsy.com on the Christian Artists Street Team forum. She has a shop called homemomma on Etsy. Lately, she's been concentrating on writing and publishing a Christian Romance novel called The Price of Trust.




Carly Richards is on the run. For the last two years, she's skipped from town to town, ducking her dangerous and well-informed ex-fiance every few weeks, never settling anywhere for long. With the death of her parents, Carly's vulnerability made her trust a man with an attractive facade, now that same man tracked her across the country, always nipping at her heels, preventing her from reaching out to anyone other than her God.

You can get AUTOGRAPHED copies of The Price of Trust from Amanda and find out more about her and her novel. Check out her Blog.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thepriceoftrust
Twitter: http://twitter.com/amandastephan

Featured Artist: Nicole of Nicole's Homemade Treats

If you are looking for a great source for edible gifts this is it!

Nicole is a team mate of mine on my Homefront Team on Etsy. She sells amazing edibles she makes in her immaculate, dedicated, licensed kitchen in her basement in Central New York. She ships world wide in carefully packaged boxes, with an ice pack enclosed when necessary, so your items arrive freshly made with the best ingredients and in great condition.

pecan clusters

Nicole is a mother of two adorable boys. She's a foodie extraordinaire who loves to cook HUGE meals for lots of people.

Belgian chocolate and colossal cherries

caramel and Belgian chocolate covered apple

Check out the energy mixes and granolas.

Nicole makes awesome sauces.

Nicole runs a full service shop. In addition to her other edibles, you can purchase sampler boxes in various sizes as well as gift certificates. Everything is beautifully packaged.

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Nicole has a great blog. She shares incredible recipes on it all the time. If you are a foodie, you'll absolutely love her blog. My favorite post of hers is the Lemon Cookie recipe. I've made them twice now and they are totally awesome. Below is my photo of how my cookies turned out with her recipe:

my food photos aren't as good as Nicole's, but I think they still look yummy

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Nicole's Etsy Shop (which is called Nikid)
Nicole's Blog
Nicole's Facebook
Nicole's Twitter

Featured Artist: Julie of Julieandco

carousel ribbons

I discovered the traditional Japanese art of temari several years ago and have always wanted to try it, but never found the time. It is an art with a rich history and great decorative appeal. Julie, a team mate of mine from the Christian Artist Street Team (CAST) on Etsy, makes and sells temari in her shop. I encourage you to visit julieandco on Etsy to see more.

Julie

I purchased a temari from Julie and I just want to show you how well it looks in my home on the fireplace mantel.

Julie has these in many different colors and patterns and even makes Christmas ornaments (I have one Julie made that was given to me as a gift). She does custom work as well.

cocoa and sage duet

petals

If you would like to learn more about Julie and the art of temari read this on-line article in which Julie was recently featured.

Featured Artist: Laura Evans of levansphotography

laura

love. laugh. believe

laura evans/photography - capturing life

That line is the first thing you'll see when you visit the Etsy shop of Laura Evans and it is fitting. I've so enjoyed watching Laura's shop truly blossom over the past months. Browse for a few moments and you'll soon feel like you are walking through a gallery and appreciating the world through Laura's eyes.

vintage shutters

Laura currently lives in Germany and travels around taking photos of some amazing places. She manages to capture those allusive atmospheric qualities of each place.

a moody view of the Eiffel Tower

She also playfully captures the charms of every day items like clotheslines, road signs or a blade of grass. Take a deep breath. You can almost smell the oranges, the sea air and the snow.

blade of grass

all the fun of the fair

winter's dew

Laura's Etsy Shop

Laura's Blog
Laura's Facebook
Laura's Twitter

Featured Artist: TC of Totally Crosses

wire cross magnet

TC Cunningham of Totally Crosses is a team mate of mine on CAST (Christian Artists Street Team) on Etsy.com. Her unique wire work crosses are simply fascinating. She makes them in a diverse range of styles and accepts custom orders. She's also a super sweet person and wonderful to work with.

TC began sculpting her crosses after the death of a friend's son. She says:

"After attending the funeral, I came home and just sat alone with God praying for the comfort of my friend and his family. I reached for a spool of wire and started sculpting it into a cross without much thought of what I was doing. I then got some of my jewelry beads and added them. I gave that first cross to my friend.

You see, this spool of wire had been lying around our house for months before I did anything with it besides just bending it and flexing it. When I was young, my dad had this type of wire in his work room because he worked in electronics. I loved messing with it because of it's flexibility and feel. Unfortunately, if you messed with it too much, it would break, so I was discouraged from playing with it. But sometimes I just couldn't help it.

One day while in a hardware store I saw a spool of this wire and the memories of my childhood experiences came back. I bought a spool of it knowing that I could make something out of it sometime, I just didn't know what.

One of TC's rustic nail crosses.

After seeing that first cross, my husband, Les, encouraged me to make others. He believed they were truly inspirational and that others would love to have one. He took them to a local gift shop, and was immediately encouraged because the shop owner bought several of the crosses he had with him and ordered more.

Our family and friends kept us busy for months. Meanwhile, during this time, Les designed a manufacturing mechanism enabling him to wrap the crosses (still by hand) but in a way that speeds up the process before I do the final sculpturing. It still takes a long time to produce a cross, but that helped tremendously.

So now we have a small business that keeps us both very busy. We have been blessed most of all by our family and friends that are still encouraging and supporting us as we grow our business. . . God bless all of you!

And I thank God for allowing me to use my artistic gift in a way that glorifies Him, supplements our income, and allows me to work out of our home while our youngest son is still in school."

The cross on the right above is a cross that TC custom made especially for me with a crazy horse stone bead in the center. It's unique and lovely. TC's style of twisted wire is fascinating and reminds me of grapevines.

What colors will you be wearing this summer?

What color will you be wearing this summer? When you think of long, hot summer days what wardrobe and jewelry color pops into your mind first?

Do you gravitate toward those warm bright colors to reflect the season? Do you like to keep a cool countenance with sand, surf and sky tones? Are you a nature girl preferring forest greens and browns? Do you like a touch of the dramatic and opt for black? Or do you prefer classic, breezy white?

Vote in my summer color poll in the column to the right -->

Becky from SimplySweetShoppe on Etsy.com let me use the image above to illustrate this post. Check out the adorable tutus, hair accessories and other items in her shop.

I've Been Featured

I've been featured on the DZ Fantasy Blog!

Meet Rachel of Rachel's Aprons

In my new blog I want to regularly feature some wonderful artists of hand-crafted goods.  I'm happy to introduce you to the first of these:  Rachel of Rachel's Aprons.  I found her wonderful, swirl pattern, spa facial scrubbies and pretty crochet washcloths in her store at Etsy.com.   They are 100% cotton, hard-wearing and eco-friendly as well as beautiful and functional.  You can read a little more about Rachel and her shop below:

"My name is Rachel and I am a mom to 3 girls. I have been married 10 years and along with my Etsy shop I have a Blog  where I share ideas I use to home-school, cook with the kids and, of course, what is new in my shop.

I was 12 or 13 when my Aunt Gloria taught me to crochet. I love crocheting, but more importantly, I love creating functional and pretty things. It is my joyful time in the evening when I can crochet. My husband taught me the basics to sewing. I took it from there, but he can make quilts. I'm in awe. 

All the items in my shop were first inspired and made for someone in my life: the key fobs for my Aunt as she helps my disabled Uncle, the aprons for waitress friends who got tired of theirs' falling apart because they were made of thin material, the earrings for my daughters as Christmas presents, the crochet washcloths for myself and my kids to use both in the kitchen and bathroom, and the spa facial scrubbies for me as I suffer from adult acne and have sensitive skin.

Behind everything in my shop, there is a person it was made especially for: a person that gave it life. I hope that when people visit my shop they find something that is made especially for them or the person they are shopping for. I try to price things so that everyone can find something. That means I buy a lot of my material when it is on sale. I want everyone to be able to have something for themselves, even when times are tough."

Rachel

Visit Rachel's Shop