Latest Makes (Summer Edition)

Summer is in full swing!

In between quick trips to the beach, park and farmers market or hanging out in my backyard, I've been very busy in my studio. With my youngest going to day camp for the first time, I was suddenly blessed with big chunks of time during the day. So, I've been pretty productive - filling orders and working behind the scenes to promote my little handmade business.

******

Would you like to see a peek at what I've been working on?

Here are a few things I've made in the past few weeks which will find their way to the shop really soon. If you see something you want, let me know!

1. "Yay" banner hoop. This 4-inch hoop can be customized with any short message or name! Oh the possibilities!
2. Rainbow bouquet baby name sign. A custom hoop with a rainbow of flowers and the name of baby and birthdate hand-embroidered. What a great baby gift!
3. "Ditto" hoop. I made this one for my hubby on Valentine's Day, but I made a second for the retail shop, So There, which recently started carrying some of my items :)
4. Felt flower pin. A felt flower with a pin sewn on the back. This felt bloom is now easy to attach to a card, a shirt, purse or a fabric headband.
5. Flower cards. This bud's for you! These could be customized with any message - for party favors, gift tags or just because gifts.

Thanks for stopping by today!

p.s I'm trying to reach 500 likes on my Facebook Page by September. Totally do-able, right? I'll be having a giveaway when I reach 500, so I hope you will visit Catshy Crafts' Facebook page and LIKE it if you like what you see :) And if you really want to help, please share my page on your Facebook page, blog, Twitter, Instagram or social medium of your choice. Thanks so much!

hello flowers!

I'm experimenting with some new flower styles this week. These are a combo of my fringe or loopy flowers with the rolled roses layered around them.  I'm in love with aquas and teals, but the possible color combinations are pretty endless. These blooms are available here.

And here's a few more flowers - this time in teal and mustard mixed in.

If you're wondering what you would do with these little blooms, think hair clips, headbands, wreaths, clothing and even paper crafts! If you have a little hot glue, these are easy to attach to basically anything. Or if you're handy with a needle and thread -- you can sew them on directly to fabric or to a pin back or brooch pin.

What would you do them?

oh! And please check back in the shop often -- I'll be adding new flowers soon! (And if you have a color request, leave me a comment and I'll see what I can do :).

Giveaway at Rinne's Bliss!

As a scrapbooker and now Etsy shop owner, I've made many friends online - all connected through our love of creating and sharing our art.

Corinne is one such friend. She's been supportive of my scrapbooking (back when I was Fashionista at ScrapinStyleTV.com) and now of my Etsy shop.  Because she is such a sweet person and one of my very best customers, I thought it would be a wonderful idea for her to host a giveaway of my felt flowers.

To enter the giveaway, please visit Corinne's blog here.

Felt Flowers in Action

Corinne has used my flowers on some of her gorgeous cards that she creates.  Here are a few of my faves.

I loved seeing how my felt flowers are being used! And if you have ever purchased one of my flower sets from Catshy Crafts, please link me up to your projects! I'd love to see them. I do have a couple of photos that my customers have shared with me. I'll post those on a future blog post.

Giveaway!

So now that you've seen how some of my felt flowers are being used, would you like to win a set? I am giving away one set of ten triple-layered flowers as shown here. These flowers are hand-cut and hand-stitched using high-quality wool-blend felt. These have a slim profile so they are perfect for adding to scrapbook layouts, cards and home decor projects.

Here's a scrapbook page I created using similar flowers.

I attached the flowers using a glue dot. You could also use a liquid adhesive. If you were attaching to a home decor project, such as a yarn-wrapped wreath, I recommend using a hot glue gun. Oh, the possibilities!

If you would like too enter the giveaway, please visit Corinne's blog for all the details. Good luck!

Thanks for stopping by today!

fresh from the garden: hand-cut bouquets

With summer almost here, my garden is full of color. Poppies, love-in-the-mist, pincushions, chive blossoms, english and spanish lavender and peonies are all in bloom around my garden. They are a great reward for all the planting I've been doing! Some flowers like the peonies and camelia were already here when we moved in, but everything else has been planted by us. Some from seed or bulb or tuber, some as plantlings.

One day last week, after our walk to the library, the girls and I decided to cut some flowers for a bouquet to put on our dinner table that night. Both girls are pretty proficient with scissors, so I let them cut a few blooms for their own bouquets.

Zara cuts a poppy for her bouquet. I planted these from seed last spring. They came back lovelier than ever.

After the tulips faded in early spring, these poppies were one of the first flowers to bloom. They are on their way out, but they've lasted a few weeks already.

Love-in-the mist overtaking my English lavender. My girls are ready to cut some for their bouquet. (Sofia pronounces it  "bo-kwet"). I also planted these last year. 

Such an usual flower, love-in-a-mist is a wildflower that I planted from seeds last year. After the flowers were spent, little seedpods remained. On the advice of a neighbor, I crushed the pods and sowed them again. It worked!

An aerial shot - can you see the English lavender mixed in?

And here are their beautiful bouquets.

 

Lovely! And here's what they looked like in a few recycled jars on our outdoor dining table that night.

I love hand-cut flowers, don't you? But of course, I also love them in the garden. Would you like to see more flowers from my garden?

A closer look at the English lavender. Smells so good!

Apparently ants on peony buds are a common thing.

I can still see some ants on this peony bloom. These are the easiest flowers to maintain! I don't really do a thing to make these bloom. 

Wide shot of the peonies which I recently staked with bamboo stakes. Otherwise, the would be laying on the ground, the blooms are so top-heavy!

I believe this is a camelia. It has white petals, yellow stamen and evergreen leaves. It's bloom on the side yard in a fairly shady area.

This is Spanish lavender. We have 4 or 5 bushes in the backyard. Bees love them.

Foxglove. Adds height to the garden! We borrowed these from a trail. So far, they survived the transplant.

I have more than a dozen daylilies in the front and back yard. They are really easy to grow. This yellow one is one of the first to bloom.

 I bought these geraniums last weekend from our local nursery and haven't planted them yet but I have them on our stone bench for now.

I have 3 varieties of these pincushions - two shorter purplish ones and a taller pink one that hasn't bloomed yet.

Hope you enjoyed the little garden tour of my home!

Believe me, I am still amazed that all of these flowers are blooming. I never really had a green thumb.....until I moved to a house of my own. It helps that we get our fair share of rainfall here in Washington so I don't have to remember to water them all the time.

Anyway, if you have some garden photos to share, I'd love to see them. Please leave me a link.

As always, thanks for stopping by!