Etsy Pop-Up Shop Sydney

It's been very busy around here lately... lots of things happening especially as Christmas is just around the corner.

I am so excited to be apart of the first Etsy Australia Christmas Pop-up store in Sydney which is on between 28th November to 12th December at 74 Castlereagh Street Sydney!


So there has been a lot of screen printing, sewing and making frenzy going on around here and I'm loving every minute... writing lots lists and crossing lots of things off them! Love it!


I just love the whole process of making something for my little Etsy shop! Cutting out panels for screen printing... so much satisfaction in a big pile of cut fabric! I can never get sick of screen printing... I still hold my breath a bit when I lift the screen to see the print underneath... I think it's a miracle every time :) Sewing and more sewing... sooo satisfying when they are complete! Love it!

So these little darlings went for a trip to the Etsy Christmas Pop-up store.

:: Aqua Cats tea towel - Copper Seedling pouch - Fuchsia Poppies pouch

Then I went along to check it all out... it looks just lovely! So many gorgeous things made by some amazing creative people! So much inspiration!

:: Etsy Christmas Pop-Up Shop
74 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, Australia

:: Aqua Cats Tea towel in the Esty Christmas Pop-Up Shop

:: Copper Seedlings in the Esty Christmas Pop-Up Shop

Not everything got displayed as they had so many things sent in but they do change the displays around so hopefully my Fuchsia Poppies pouch gets a showing!


I was so thrilled and proud to see my little things in the shop... it really made my day! :)

Find out more about the Etsy Pop-Up Shop here!

made by hand: my rope vessel obsession

Last weekend I attended a little rope vessel making and decorating workshop by the super lovely Gemma Patford at Koskela. Gemma was so generous with her knowledge and gave us loads of tips and tricks! It was so lovely to sit around and have a little chat while crafting! SO much fun!!

:: before craft attack... so inviting!!!

:: crafting attack in progress... that's me in the black and white spots
with a cool Koskela apron on :)

:: my "Gemma Patford" inspired little painted and gold embroidered rope vessel

I think I may have a new obsession! I couldn't wait to get home and have a go myself! I had my fingers crossed that my sewing machine was up for the job! Phew lucky it was!

:: rope vessel No.1 -attempting my first rope basket...
a little tricky at first but easy when you know how!

:: rope vessel No.1-  so happy with my first little attempt! It's now being used by
my little man to house his found coins in!

:: rope vessel No. 2 - painting rope with watercolour

:: rope vessel No. 2 -  completed - I just love it!

: I bought 100 metres of rope... Yikes!!!

:: rope vessel No. 3 -  painting newly bought rope with bronze paint
...totally experimenting
 
:: rope vessel No. 3 - sewing... sewing... sewing!

:: rope vessel No. 3 - 15 metres of rope later...
I am so thrilled with my new rope basket!

I have a feeling there will be quite a few rope vessels being made around here! LOVE it! :)

Hope you had a wonderful and creative week!

Check out what others have been up to here at "Made by Hand".

made by hand: screen printing goodies

This week I went to a fantastic little get together "Sydney abcd Social" meet up at the 3 Weeds Hotel in Rozelle which is organised by lovely ladies, Steph from Bondville and Lisa from The Red Thread.

I had such a wonderful evening catching up with, and meeting other lovely creative women! It was so much fun talking and chatting about all things creative. We also got to contribute to the goodies bags, which everyone received at the end of the night! I decided to do some little fabric packs for everyone! So I got stuck into some screen printing... any excuse!!! :)


:: I just had to screen print some fuchsia seedlings!

:: folded up 28 little lovelies

:: packed them up!

I had so much fun screen printing, folding and packing up these very special little fabric packs for the goodies bags!

:: Oh My Gosh the gorgeous contents of the goodies bag!

The goodies bag is such a wonderful way for everyone to share what they do! I just love it! I was blown away with the contents of the goodies bag I received... soooo many lovely and creative things! It felt like Christmas! The delicious food treats didn't last long at all, they were very quickly gobbled up by my little boy and my partner. I have a terrible dairy allergy so I was happy to hand it all over to them! They were very happy chappies :)

It was such a lovely evening spent with so many talented, creative and inspiring women! :)

Hope you had a wonderful and creative week!

Check out what others have been up to here at "Made by Hand".

Made by hand: lately I have been...

I'm linking up with Christina Lowry Designs "Made by Hand" weekly creative, show and tell! I need a little kick up the creative blogging butt :)

So lately I have been busy....

:: cutting 158 slightly rough (on purpose) rustic spots

:: screen printing my lovely rustic spots in fuchsia

::  I am slightly obsessed with fuchsia and copper together... soon to be cushions!

:: screen printing lots of custom orders for  lovely customers... Love!
I am loving fuchsia at the moment... just can't stop screen printing with it!

Hope you are have a lovely creative week :)

Check out what others have been up to here at "Made by Hand".

my creative space: screen printing and making

There are some new little babies around here! I have a new little niece and a dear friend had a little boy! So I have been doing a bit of screen printing and making! Too much fun!

For my gorgeous new little niece I screen printed a seedlings onsie and a fuchsia cats onsie! You forget how small they are in the beginning! So adorable!

:: blocking off what I don't need on the stencil for the screen print

:: a very cute little "Seedlings" onsie

:: "Fuchsia cats" onsie
 
For my friends sweet little boy I screen printed a "Paper Planes" onsie and I had to make him a funny little Mr Sock Monkey!
 
:: "Paper Plane" onsie
 
:: funny Mr Sock Monkey

I am so happy to have some little people to make for again... love it!

Hope you have had a wonderful creative week... check out what other creative people have been up to at my creative space!

my creative space: daring to be messy

I am currently doing a six week online painting course "Daring adventures in paint & life" with Mati Rose McDough, which has been amazing so far! I really needed to get out of my comfort zone and embrace a bit of painting chaos!

I have to say, it has been a real challenge for me to let go of my total need to be precise, neat and tidy which screen printing demands!

The first few weeks we have been working on making lush backgrounds. The first week I wasn't really getting it at all... I was "over thinking" where I was putting the brush and paint and getting quite frustrated! Luckily you can just paint over what you are not happy with! Phew!

:: practice panel - mustard and pink

But once I started using the other techniques such as a scraper and brayer... it was so much better, as I had no real control on how the paint was going to turn out! I like that the control was out of my hands! I've started really enjoying getting messy and not thinking to much about where the paint was going.. just going with the flow!

DAP2013 - blue white green background
:: Background one - Turquoise, white and emerald acrylic paint

DAP2013 - pink white yellow background
:: :: Background two - magenta, white and yellow acrylic paint

After quite a few more layers of paint... I accidently dripped paint water on the wet paint and dabbed it off with a paper towel which revealed previous layers of paint... I did a bit of scratching too! I love it!

Dap 2013 week two
:: background one - more layers of yellow, blue, white and fuchsia

I then had to get a bigger canvas (20" x 20")! I NEEDED to make a mess on a bigger scale... of course! This one has still a long way to go but I'm really loving it so far! :)

:: a large canvas of lovely painting messiness (20" x 20")

I am really happy with my efforts so far... after quite a lot of layers of paint! It has been a really interesting process for me and I am so happy that I have finally let go of my perfectionism and embraced messiness! Hooray!

Hope you have had a wonderful creative week... check out what other creative people have been up to at my creative space!

Lovely lovely fabric swap

I was so excited when I received some lovely packages in the mail from my hand printed fabric swap III swap partners this week!

:: Love this woodlands print and card from Kerry-Anne - Ameliorate v. to make better 

:: gorgeous print form Kelsey - lovely and enough

:: Lovely triangle print and card from Melissa - a happy stitch

:: very cute print from Amy - Crafty Shenanigans

I feel very lucky to have received such gorgeous fabric from my talented fellow fabric swappers! I can't wait to make some wonderful things with these lovely prints... just need to find some time now :)

my creative space: hand printed fabric swap III

I just love the Hand printed fabric swap III that Leslie Keating from Maze and Vale organises! It's so much fun to participate in! I love designing and screen printing a special design for my fellow swappers!

I had this little "Seedlings" design (thanks to Steph from Bondville for the name x) whirling around my head for a while and scribbled it down in my sketch book.


I then created the "Seedlings" design in Adobe Illustrator and printed it out, so I could cut out the stencil! It was a little bit tricky to cut out all those stem parts! I do rather love cutting stencils! :)


Once the stencil is cut out, I got stuck into screen printing it... I just couldn't wait! There is nothing like seeing your design screen printed for the first time, it always gives me such a thrill! I had so much fun screen printing these fat quarters, two in emerald green ink, on off white linen/cotton...


...and two in charcoal ink, on oatmeal linen/cotton.


They turned out just gorgeous! I was so excited to pack them up and send them off to my swap partners who live in New Zealand, UK and two in the USA! I hope they like them :)


I couldn't help myself... I screen printed some seedlings for me too and I made a cushion! Love it :)



Hope you have had a wonderful creative week... check out what other creative people have been up to at my creative space!

my creative space: kitty luvs bear on show

Oh dear.... it's been a few weeks since I've posted... it seems I have been on a little bit of a break :)

A few weeks ago I created my "kitty luvs bear" Gocco print at a Gocco workshop at Sweets Workshop for  the Gocco exhibition at Sweets Workshop!  I also Gocco printed some plain, one colour kitty luvs bear prints, with the intention of painting them with watercolour!

:: one colour Gocco print of "kitty luvs bear"

:: playing and testing out watercolour ideas
I really enjoyed playing with watercolour ideas for my Gocco prints! I printed out kitty luvs bear on plain card so I could have a good old play without wrecking my precious Gocco prints! Once I was happy, I watercoloured the good Gocco prints... holding my breath :)

:: "kitty luvs bear" in watercolour frame and prints packed
I am so happy with how they turned out and was so proud to see my little print hanging up in the Sweets Workshop Gallery!

:: "kitty luvs bear" hanging out with Gocco friends

:: lots of gorgeous Gocco prints

:: Sweets Workshop Gocco window display


:: kitty luvs bear cushions
I also made some "kitty luvs bear" cushions for Sweets Workshop too, using my new screen from my emulsion workshop I did a few week ago! Love it!

It is such a great little exhibition and so many wonderful Gocco prints on show! I am so proud to be apart of it! The exhibition is on until 16th April!

Hope you have had a wonderful creative week... check out what other creative people have been up to at my creative space!