Kindergarten Auction Art Project: Fabric Tree

Hi Angel!

I finally finished the auction art project for Ben's class and wanted to share. I am really happy with how it turned out!

I wrote a whole behind-the-scenes post on my shop blog Jenny Bartoy ~ Handmade Designs where you can see a bunch of photos and read details on the process. Meanwhile here are a few pictures of the finished project!










What do you think? I sure hope it will bring in some money at the auction. Fingers crossed!

Handmade for Newtown

Have you guys heard of Handmade for Newtown? This is an online auction organized by my friend Rachael and From The Heart Auctions to benefit the parent community in Newtown, CT after the horrible massacre that happened there a few weeks ago.




I donated an original piece of burlap art to the auction to help raise money for the cause. It's called Sunset Birds. It is handmade with fabric designs appliqued onto a piece of upcycled burlap from a coffee sack. The artwork is stretched onto a wooden frame, professionally finished and ready for hanging!

You can see the auction listing for it here and if you'd like, bid on it!




There are a ton of fabulous handmade items, along with supplies like fabric, patterns and more up for grabs. Go check out the auction album and bid generously, it's going to a good cause!

Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what's open for bids:








Pretty awesome, don't you think? Go check out the auction album and bid away!

You can "Like" From the Heart Auctions on Facebook here.

And here's my artwork again, just because I took a bajillion pictures of it, ha ha!




You will find the how-to and rules for bidding when you go to the auction album. It's pretty self-explanatory. You bid by leaving a comment with a higher dollar amount on whatever item you'd like.

Bids will be accepted through Friday, January 18 at 10pm EST. Go bid!

My Latest Burlap Art

Hi there!

I'm emerging from craft fair prep to say hello for a bit! I have been creating a lot of burlap art lately and realized I haven't shared any photos in a long time.

This is a bit of an easy post for me, but hopefully you will enjoy looking at photos of my latest creations! ;) I've branched out a little for some of them, it's been fun. (You can read more details about that on my other blog here.)

Here they are:














These last two are in my shop on Etsy, just click on the photo to get to the listing.

I will be participating in the Holiday Arts + Crafts Open House at Red Square Yoga in Seattle, WA this coming Saturday afternoon (December 8, 12:30-6:30PM). I would LOVE to see you there if you're local (I'm so nervous, it's my first craft fair ever!!). There should be lots of beautiful handmade gifts for sale. Here's the flyer.




For timely updates on my business-y projects, you can "like" the Jenny Bartoy ~ Handmade Designs page on Facebook here. It takes me a while to share recent projects on Stumbles & Stitches sometimes.


What are you working on these days? Ornaments, gifts, decorations? Do you have tips for success at craft fairs? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

Learning Lessons

Hi Angel!

I wrote this post last night, thinking we were finally emerging from what we have lovingly dubbed "Barf Fest" around these parts. My poor babies have been sick with a vicious stomach bug for the last 4 days. I have gotten intimately acquainted with my washing machine, as you can imagine. Blech. So done with this yuckiness! The boys seem to feel better this morning (knock on wood) unfortunately, just in time for me to get sick! Noooooo! Cross your fingers that this is short-lived. How are the sanding and painting and packing going on your end? I bet you can't wait to move back into your beautiful "new" house!

The past few weeks have been a bit disheartening business-wise. Opening a shop on Etsy right before the holiday rush last fall, I got sucked into a whirlwind of hand-making, selling, connecting, creating. It was so exciting. And then, of course, things settled down for this new little business and the pace of projects and interest in my work has mellowed out. It is both a blessing and a curse. I miss the excitement but I also welcome the lowered levels of stress. However, I have also encountered some unhappy firsts recently -- challenges and lessons.

I mentioned the other day that my little sheep nursery artwork was never delivered by the post office. It remains a mystery (the USPS website tracked it as delivered but it never made it to its recipient) and it was heartbreaking. I finally finished the re-do, and it is quite close to the original though it was hard to muster the same enthusiasm in the creative process. The irony here of course is that I had not insured the first shipment. Why not? I don't know, But it was a lesson learned the hard way!


And then, there's this new custom order for a Kindle cover, for a lovely lady in Alaska! She selected the modern owl print and the green coordinate. I got it cut, assembled and sewn. It was coming together beautifully and then, as I was top-stitching around the cover -- the very last step! -- the thick layers got stuck in the feed dogs of my sewing machine. The thread got horribly tangled so I had to use the seam ripper then try stitching again a few times. Even though I was careful, this process scratched the fabric at both corners of the front cover! The horror! Obviously, this cover no longer meets my quality standards, so I now have to re-make it for my customer.






I am so annoyed with myself but I'm not sure what else I could have done. I changed the needle on the sewing machine after the layers got stuck, but it didn't change a thing. Perhaps I should have used an even higher number needle...? For the next cover, I am definitely removing the seam allowance from the interfacing to reduce the bulkiness of the layers.

Thank goodness, there have been successes too. Recently, I completed this piece of custom burlap artwork for loyal customer Alli. She requested a piece featuring 2 birds to commemorate her 5th wedding anniversary with her husband, plus a 3rd smaller bird to represent their daughter. I had been wanting to do a birds-on-a-wire design for a while and love how this one came out!! You can read more about it on my website.


And finally, here's a happy first: I'm SO excited about getting to work with gorgeous Marimekko fabric for a custom project. A girlfriend of mine from grad school is back living in New York after several years in Norway. She asked me to create a custom cloth pad for a special antique desk she inherited from her father's best friend, using a red Marimekko print. Here's the one we agreed on:



Isn't it gorgeous?!

Tell me, have you learned lessons the hard way while building a handmade business -- or any business for that matter? I'd love to hear. And how about that Marimekko fabric? Would you be as giddy as I am?

Lovely Hearts

Hello there!

I am not usually one to be inspired by Valentine's Day. I tend to find this holiday commercial and kind of cheesy -- or maybe I still hold some resentment from my lonely single days! In any case, this year has been different and I've embraced the kitshy red-hearts-for-everyone lovey-dovey aspects of V-day. Ben and I made some Valentine's decorations and I created some artwork for my shop. I thought I would share some photos with you!

Last week we had a crafty playdate with friends and made needle-felted heart ornaments. Angel, we used your tutorial but since the kids were involved, we skipped the embroidery. This was such a fun project! And with a lot of supervision and reminders about the sharp needles, the kids (aged 4.5-7) did great!

One Really Crappy Rose

Well, sometimes things don't exactly work out the way you envision them. I've been wanting to experiment with designs for my burlap art and thought I would try out a rose for Valentine's Day. I love roses.


Ahem.

WIP: Valentine Burlap Art

Both kids are napping (someone pinch me!) and inspiration suddenly struck me to make some burlap art pieces for my shop for Valentine's Day. Here are my works in progress.






"Put a bird on it!", I know, I know. But they're love birds, get it?

What are you working on today? Happy Tuesday!

Working Away!

Hello there! I can't believe how fast time is flying lately. It's almost the middle of January already, two weeks into the New Year, aah! I've been meaning to post here all week. Well, here I am finally, whew!

I've felt weird about sharing the stuff I make for Etsy or custom work on here, I don't want to turn Stumbles & Stitches into a place for pimping my business. But then I thought, wait, I've always shown Angel and our lovely readers what I'm working on, why is this different? I've been making SO much stuff the last couple of months and am antsy to share it all with you. (For more details on specific projects, you can click over to my website where I post more pics, info, etc. I don't want to double-post for those of you who follow me there.)

Before the holidays, I made a custom e-reader featuring owls for the 10-year-old daughter of a friend. I loved how it turned out and made a couple more for my shop. (I used a pattern by Birdiful Stitches, you can read about my e-reader covers here.)

Holiday Burlap Art

Hi Angel! I hope you're well and keeping your head above water as we enter the final stretch toward Christmas. I am officially Overwhelmed, with a capital O. I have been so busy making gifts as well as items for my Etsy shop and custom orders, along with the regular routine of raising 2 small children and running a household, plus all the typical holiday craziness. You know how it goes. But can I just say: AAAHH!!!!!!

All right, deep breaths. Since I can't show you the handmade gifts I've been working on, because recipients might be reading, I am going to show you a custom project I worked on last month. I thought it might be fun to share, since it's a holiday project. (Apologies if you visit my personal website, as I already posted photos there!)


I was contacted by a lovely lady named Christina back in early November to create 4 holiday pieces for her family members. They exchange unique holiday gifts at Thanksgiving and she wanted to wow them. After some back and forth with sketches and ideas, we settled on 4 burlap art pieces: 2 with stockings and 2 with snowflakes. Along with the grey snowflakes above, here are the other 3 pieces I made for her.

Birch

Hello there and happy Friday! I've been working away, as time (and kids!) allow, on new things for my Etsy shop. Time is flying and the holidays are a-comin'. It would be nice to create and finish a few things that have been living in my head before then.

Yesterday I finished a new piece of burlap art inspired by the leaves turning yellow on the birch trees in my neighborhood. The light playing in the foliage was just gorgeous when we took a walk the other day. Here it is. (And it's now listed in the shop here!)


Embroidering the bark onto the trunk fabric made me want to research interpretations of birch trees in the arts. And that led to my creating a "Birch" treasury on Etsy. There's such beautiful stuff out there!! Here it is, after the jump. Enjoy!

Guest Post on Whip Up!

I'm so excited to be featured on Whip Up today with a guest post: a tutorial for making your own birdie burlap wall art!

I know, I know, it's all about the burlap art for me lately with the launch of my Etsy shop. What can I say? I'm a little obsessed. But isn't it pretty? I love how this project turned out!


This burlap art is made from an upcycled coffee bag and a mix of colorful fabric scraps. It features two birdies having a conversation across the woods at sunset. It was inspired by my neighbors, who found each other and fell in love despite hailing from Alaska and Mexico respectively. They told me their story in our backyard in Seattle on a lovely day at sunset.

Pumpkin Burlap Art

I don't know about where you are, but here in Seattle, autumn has firmly landed. Rain is back, there's a chill in the air, leaves everywhere and the light has changed. As much as this weather doesn't thrill me (especially after a much too short summer), I love the wealth of activities this season brings with it (Leaf collecting! Acorn gathering! Pumpkin picking! Pie baking! Cider drinking!) and the anticipation of the nearby holidays.

As I was creating items for my new Etsy shop, I decided to try out a few seasonal things. I love the shape and color of pumpkins. I always get a kick out of seeing them at the stores and markets, and on all our neighbors' stoops this time of year. They pop up here and there randomly as if growing overnight out of steps and porches. Ben gets so excited about seeing the latest jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin collections around our neighborhood. So, I got out my sketchbook and a few days later...


I am so happy about these pumpkin pieces!! I think the style is really different depending on the background -- boldly stamped coffee bag or plain burlap. I love both for different reasons. (They are for sale in my shop now, click on the photos above to go to the listing).

I thought I would share a little bit about my process for creating these, in case you want to make a similar project. I'm also assembling a few kits for my shop with the template, instructions, burlap and fabric to make these. I'll update here when they're ready and listed (probably tomorrow at some point). Kits are in the shop now! Here's one. Update: I've also listed the PDF pattern for this pumpkin art in my shop here.

Sneak Peek!

Launching an Etsy shop is way more time consuming than I had ever imagined. I keep pushing off my opening date. I think I should finally be able to launch it by this weekend. I think. Don't quote me on this.

I am so excited though, I wanted to show you what I've been working on! So here's a little sneak peek. Let me know what you think!!