Sunday Stash #24

I seem to have lost my blogging mojo lately so have resurrected Sunday Stash to give me a gentle push in the right direction.

This is a screen printed fabric I bought off etsy.

Sunday Stash #19

I bought this fabric off etsy from twogreenchickens. It's going to be clothing I think.

Vote for Me! Please!

I found my Cross Stitch Rose brooch on etsy's latest Voter page for where you can vote for your favourite Eco Friendly item. The brooch is one of 60 items you can vote for. If you look in the photo above it is bottom row, second from the right. The top choices from the vote will be featured in etsy's Gift Guides so if you want to help my brooch get into the Gift Guides please send a vote my way.

You do have to be a registered etsy user to vote and you can only vote once per user name. The voting ends in 7 days so you have plenty of time to vote if you wish to.

P.S. In case you were wondering etsy have classed the brooch as eco friendly because I made it from a vintage napkin.

Dreamy

Penny from Pocket Carnival on etsy has featured my Come Fly With Me brooch in her latest treasury called Dreamy. Thanks Penny!

EDIT: the treasury made it to the front page of etsy! Thanks again Penny

Finished Bird Cushion

I finally have a finished bird cushion in my etsy shop.

I just got the hang of photographing my brooches and now I have to learn how to take good cushion photos. This one's not so great but I really wanted to get it listed. Taking good photos is one of the hardest things about selling online.

I have fabric to do about 4 more cushions so this week will be getting the screen out to have another go screen printing on the linen. I have bought a smaller squeegee which seems to have helped when I did some practice on calico.

My Come Fly with Me brooch seems to be popular at the moment. The brooch made it to the front page of etsy on Sunday and I was lucky enough to see it for myself.

This brooch has been on the front page before. It is interesting finding out other peoples likes and dislikes when it comes to my stuff because they don't always correspond with mine. I have sold more of the bird brooch than anything else. And while I like it, for me it isn’t close to being my favourite at all.

Etsy Down Time

Just letting you know that if you try to go the Bushfire Appeal shop or my shop from this blog you won't get very far. Etsy are doing site maintenance and won't be back on board for at least another 3-4 hours.

It a good time for me to get some actual work done with no distractions.

OZ Bushfire Appeal shop

The OZBushfireAppeal shop on etsy is up and running with permission of etsy admin. You can find an article in their blog about it here.

ALL proceeds from the shop go to the red cross and will help those affected by the Victorian bushfires.

Items have been generously donated by etsy sellers from Australia and the rest of the world. All the items have free International shipping and in many cases free shipping for within Australia.

Now is the chance to buy something for yourself and not feel guilty about it because the money is going towards a worthy cause.

Funds raised will be sent to the Red Cross every Friday and you can keep updated here.

On the Front Page

I logged in to etsy this morning and was lucky enough to see my Summer Grass brooch on the front page. I didn't even know I was in a treasury so it was really unexpected and of course exciting.

Thanks to laurasloft who curated the treasury. It's a nice way to start the day. Your can check out her Leaves of Grass treasury here.

Another treasury

Thank you to Huismus for including my brooch in her "My heart is in your hands treasury"

UPDATE Sunday 18th January
Would you believe this made it to the front page of etsy? That is twice in as many days I have been on the front page. I guess as they say it never rains, it pours. I expect that means I won't be on the front page again for quite a while.

Treasury Feature

Thanks to Vanilla Pixie for choosing one of my brooches for her King of the Bush is He treasury. My Rusty Rose brooch is bottom left and I am surrounded by other Aussies from DUST (Down Under Street Team)

Vintage Buttons

I am still on holidays in sunny (and hot) Western Australia, so as they say on TV - here is one I prepared earlier...

Here is my latest button purchase, a set of beautiful plastic vintage buttons still on the original card. I have no idea what year they might be from. They are 2.5cm in diameter and feature a lovely pierced design. They are a little dirty, but look like they will clean up very well. Now that I have them I don’t think I have the heart to take them off the card.

Melbourne Etsy Swap

I am taking part in the Melbourne etsy swap. It’s a little like Kris Kringle, only you have to make the gift you send out. Melbourne etsy sellers participating were randomly given the name of another seller to make a swap present for. None of us were told who was making our gift. The theme for the swap was red and green, which meant we could make pretty much anything that was red or green or both.






So the reason I am telling you this is because my swap present arrived this week. I got a lovely surprise in the mail on Monday, an adorable little denim pouch from etsy seller NeverEver. It’s got cute red and white polka dot lining and closes with a red button. She has also appliquéd a kite design on the front. I wonder how she knew I loved red? You can see more of what NeverEver makes in her etsy shop. If you have little ones to buy for you have to check out her Dressed for Dinner Bib and if you don't, you might like her Supermarket Chic Shopping Bag.


I sent my swap gift out in the mail this week also, I won’t give away any details, but you can see what it looked like all wrapped up and ready to send out.

What to call them...

I finally finished some pink and purple brooches made out of pink Liberty Tana Lawn and some purple kimono silk from Kimono House I had a lot of trouble with the fabric covered buttons, they refused to co-operate with me and I battled with them for days. In the end I had to glue the backs on just to make sure they don’t unexpectedly come apart while someone is wearing them. If I make anymore I will have to come up with a better solution.



The hardest thing for me is working out what to call the stuff I make. I am not particularly good with descriptions, in fact I suck at it, but I understand that it is more exciting to have an imaginative name for something rather than just “pink fabric brooch”. As soon as I figure out some half decent names for the brooches I will divide them between my etsy and made-it stores.

The Start of an Addiction

I bought these vintage buttons off ebay and they arrived in the mail last week. I had never bought vintage buttons before so I wasn’t sure what to expect, especially since it can be hard to tell what they are like with only one photo. Well I think I am officially addicted, they are beautiful. The colours are really bright and they are in excellent condition. I plan to use some of them for my brooches. I am also waiting on some more vintage buttons to arrive from America that I bought off etsy.

What kick started this all was my plan to go to the latest Buttonmania sale. I have not been before but from written reports it sounds exciting. It only happens twice a year and the latest one starts on the 24th November and lasts for a week. Apparently you are given a tray to pick through the buttons and you pay by the kilo. When I rang up to enquire about the sale I was told they were sending out email reminders so I was put on the mailing list but I think they might have written my address down wrong because I haven’t heard anything from them yet. I will let you know how it goes.

They're Not Red!

Meet my latest brooches.

I am discovering my inner earthy, nature loving side. I forget sometimes that not everybody is obsessed with the colour red like me . A lot of my brooches which so far I have made out of Japanese fabric either have red fabric, red stitching or red buttons.

So I have put together some brooches in colours that are more earthy for those of you who don't want to wear red or some other bright colour.

Two of the brooches are made out of Liberty fabrics that cost me $52 a metre. They are definitely worth the money because they are so beautiful, even for a red obsessed girl like me.

I will be dividing up the brooches between my esty and Made- It stores so if you don’t see the one you want let me know.