By contributing columniss Cynthia Nodland aka Puddinpies

Recently while browsing on Etsy I discovered a great little shop that teaches you how to make everything from dim sum to cappuccino to ice cream cones—but no cookbooks are involved. How could that be, you ask? Well, it’s because all the items in this shop are made out of felt!!!

UmeCrafts creates and sells patterns for felt food, toys, dollhouses, and more! I had a chance to interview Jeanette Lin, shop owner, who lives in Singapore. She has her Diploma in Business Administration and opened her shop because she “loved crafts as a kid, but it wasn’t until 3 years ago in 2007 when I was having a difficult pregnancy & couldn’t work that I started making craft items & selling them online to help out with the household expenses.” Jeanette has come a long way, from growing up with a single parent, and being an introvert and poor achiever in school, to now becoming a successful Etsy seller and happy work-from-home mother of a beautiful girl, Megan. Her shop allows her to help support EMCEE and Club Rainbow for the past few years, which are charities that support abused and homeless children.

In addition to Etsy, Jeanette has also recently begun selling on Ebay. Her advice to other online business owners is “Believe in yourself and stay true to your own style. Read up on the useful tips on Etsy’s Digest (Etsy Success). Participate in the Etsy community where you can get advise & support.”

While perusing her shop I also noticed Jeanette offers a free macaroon pattern when you join her Mailing List. When on her shop page on Etsy, just convo or email her with the heading “MAILING LIST” along with your name & email address. And while all patterns and tutorials are created by Jeanette and are strictly not to be duplicated in any form, you are allowed to make and sell items made from the patterns, as long as you give credit to the original patterns at http://umecrafts.etsy.com.

If you have a little one that loves playing chef, and you want them to have play food that lasts that you made yourself, make sure to check out UmeCrafts today!

By Contributing Columnist AmyMark aka AmyOrangeJuice

I had not participated in formal artistic activities for 8 years, until the TRAIL collective was brought to my attention. Now in its 6th year this is an artist collective which exhibits sculptures all along the sea front of Teignmouth (Devon, South West England). The only conditions to exhibit are that the sculpture must be made out of at least 70% recycled materials and have an environmental message. The collective is very inclusive and there are quite well known artists, through to local community support groups, schools and youth groups.

The standard of the work was amazingly high (the Eden Project in Cornwall are currently exhibiting one of the sculptures, by The Hub Outdoor Art Group) and I was impressed with what people who don’t necessarily have an art background can produce when given a non-elitist forum to show their work. The diversity of the work produced is amazing too, from knitted Bees in the gardens at Dawlish, to paper mache sculptures of sea monsters and everything else in between! The fact that the public enjoying a day on the beach can interact with the exhibition by voting on the one they like best is fantastic! There is a public vote prize and a sponsor prize each year, so a real incentive to make something memorable.

This collective really fired my imagination; maybe because my husband is an environmental scientist, maybe because I have always been of a make do and mend mentality. Whatever it was, I embarked on a 120cm square mosaic of a plankton bloom, made from waste glass from my stained glass business and my glass merchant. I was very nervous about showing my work (I had found university had knocked my creative spirit out of me and I had not exhibited since I was 24). But the sight of my piece glinting in the sunshine on the sea front really inspired me and gave me more confidence than I could of hoped for.

I also found that creating one thing lead to other and I found myself back in the creative process. I had used bottle tops filled with shells and sparkly found objects (to represent plankton on the panel) and when a friend suggested I should turn them into brooches my best selling product was conceived (since that date I have sold over 200). I also found a love of mosaic making, which I had never really thought of before and I have developed my own mixed media style of mosaic making; using waste glass and broken costume jewelery and it is this type of recycled art that I am now creating for exhibitions.

I am so thrilled to be part of the recycled art movement and the TRAIL (Teignmouth Recycled Art In Landscape) collective and my enthusiasm seems to be paying off because I have 10 mosaic panels of plankton showing at the Recycling Exhibition at Otterton Mill and a panel depicting 8 plankton and a 45 boat mobile showing at TRAIL Inside.

Both exhibitions are free, so if you are in the area please pop along. And please remember, no matter how low your confidence, never turn down a chance to be creative, or even start your own community art project, what have you got to loose?

To find out more about TRAIL got to www.TRAIL.org.co.uk
‘Recycling’, running from 6th March for 6 weeks, Otterton Mill, Otterton, South Devon, England.
‘Trail Inside’, running from 15th March for 2 weeks, Ariel Centre, Totnes, Devon, England.

Pic Courtesy of www.folksy.com/shops/clothwood

Enjoy a sampling of the creations from “The Trail”

By contributing columnist Nicole Majewski aka Sugar Shox Craft

Move over Morris; this week’s Etsy Spotlight pick shows that cats aren’t just meant to be seen in cat food commercials—not when they can imitate humans so closely.

Instead of burying his face in a bowl of mush or hard brown shapes, a short-haired orange and white tabby cat named Hamlet takes his first whiffs and samples of birthday cake. This tender moment was captured by Etsy seller Cathy Gangwer (“Celticcatphotos”), and is sold in her shop
as the Birthday Cat Greeting Note Card.

Taken on Hamlet’s first birthday, the image perfectly personifies an animal’s life. It shows an animal acting completely human in the context of the mostly- human situation of a birthday party. Hamlet is shown at just the right moment conducting himself in a reserved, thoughtful manner like any person would when first taking in the sight of their birthday cake. The picture also shows some human body language with the way the cat curiously leans toward the cake to examine it.

Surprisingly enough, Cathy said the card’s image was a lucky shot, as she was only able to get this one image from the party.

“It was Hamlet’s birthday and so I bought a small cake and tried to see if he would pose with it,” she said. “I only got one good frame of him, and none of his [feline] brothers.”

Cathy said she turned this image into the Birthday Cat cards about six to seven years after it was taken. The card features a cut out window for the image, a simple thin-lined border around the image and, of course, the image of Hamlet, which is professionally printed. They are also blank inside so buyers can write in their own message and give the card for either a birthday or at any time.

This card happens to be Cathy’s favorite card—its image says it all.

“It is simple and needs no text,” she said. “You also know that it is a birthday card, or you can just give it to a cat lover.”

Cathy is approaching her 20th year of selling her photography. She attends numerous art shows from late May to early December in southeastern Michigan (she is from Detroit), and also sells her work online at both the 1000 Markets and Etsy websites.

She has been involved with photography since her girlhood, and has used many of the various technologies that have popped up in the field in that time.

“I have been taking pictures since I was a young girl. I remember my first camera, my first 110 camera, and then my first SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera,” Cathy said. “I wasn’t sure about stepping up to digital, but on a trip to Newfoundland a roll of film was damaged, so I switched to digital and kept a film camera only for panorama captures until I learned to do a pano in Photoshop.”

Is beautiful as the Birthday Cat card and her other animal images are, she prefers to photograph a very different kind of subject even more.

“I think of myself as more of an architecture photographer,” she said. “I love capturing lighthouses, old barns, farms and old buildings in Detroit and Ireland.”

Whatever she will be photographing, count on seeing much more of Cathy and her unique work. Her future plans include expanding the number of shops she has online, to keep selling at art shows and to get into even more creative photography that is “outside the box.”

LindaGJ aka LindaGJ

Becky Brocato: “…without goals, an artist has nothing to work toward.”
When I first had the privelege of seeing a watercolor piece from this fascinating Texan artist, Becky Brocato, I thought it was a photograph!

Becky deserves to be introduced to those that have never seen her awesome work! Most of her subject matter is very Texan and you can just feel Texas in most of her work. She says about one of her landscape paintings,”A rusty tin roof, a split rail fence, big Live Oak trees, a dusty rose sky. And a field of dew-covered Bluebonnets. This is a sight that is all too familiar to early morning travelers who choose the backroads and farm-to-market byways in the Texas Hill Country.”

I personally own several of her very high quality cards and have framed them and they are displayed all over my apartment brightening up many areas that needed a bit of sprucing up! So, I get to enjoy them everyday!

I asked Becky for a bio and asked her a lot of questions. I thought I’d be writing this article myself, but what Becky wrote in her own words found me not wanting to change a thing!

Here are the words she wrote about herself, and I couldn’t have written it better.
Becky Brocato: “I am a Watercolor Artist and freelance Graphic Designer living and working in Houston, Texas USA. I’ve been drawing and painting since I was a child, and I received my BFA in Graphic Design from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.
Although I took a couple of watercolor classes in college many years ago, I didn’t really do so well. It was the most difficult of my classes, and it really frustrated me that I could not control the medium. My artistic style is realistic, and I wanted to be able to have as much control in watercolor as I did in my drawings and my oil paintings. So I pretty much gave up on watercolor back then.

In the years since college, I concentrated on my freelance graphic design business and also stayed busy volunteering for my son’s many activities. So when my son was a senior in high school in 2005, I was looking for a creative outlet that I could enjoy just for me. That’s when I decided to revisit the idea of learning watercolor painting.
I started taking classes and workshops at the Watercolor Art Society-Houston, and I was very surprised to find that I had much more control this time around. I’m pretty sure it was because I have more time to devote to practicing what I was learning, instead of having my attention divided among so many other classes, as it was in college.

In the last five years, I feel like I’ve come a long way with my watercolor skills. And I am very excited to share the fact that one of my paintings, “Teamwork,” has just been accepted in the Watercolor Art Society-Houston (WAS-H) 33rd International Exhibit 2010 (a juried watercolor competition), which means I will receive Signature Membership status when the awards are given out at the Opening Reception on March 12, 2010.

A watercolorist receives Signature Membership after being accepted in this Exhibit three times. The WAS-H International Exhibit, which takes place every Spring in Houston, is a high profile Exhibit in the world of watercolor painting, as it attracts several hundred entries from around the world each year, with less than 100 paintings usually being accepted.

I set a goal four years ago to enter as many WAS-H International Exhibits as possible in order to work toward my Signature status, and I am very pleased to have accomplished that goal. I love exploring new techniques and subject matter in watercolor. It is a challenging medium to master, so I look forward to many years of learning and growing as an artist.

When advising other artists, I have to recommend entering juried shows as much as possible. It keeps you focused on accomplishing goals, and without goals an artist has nothing to work toward.”

Thank you so much Becky for spending your time to share yourself with us. I feel your story is so inspiring and proves that it is never too late to learn something new and master it!

Here is just a tease to show yall just a few pieces of her work! Yall must go visit her shop to see her other fabulous watercolor paintings!

She’s on Etsy! http://www.beckybrocato.etsy.com
Here’s her blog: http://www.beckybrocato.blogspot.com

Photo courtesy of http://dnauqram4zil1.Etsy.com

LindaGJ aka LindaGJ

I have always wondered, who is that Wizard behind Indiesmiles? I’ve gotten to know her as Sue Rosen in the past couple of years, but all I really knew was that she was an extremely nice person that made me feel like I had something special as a person and as an artist. The 1st time I met her, she was a customer. Sue mentioned she had a cat that looked very similar to my Peanut. We would talk about cats and she stated that she admired my work.

Then Sue opened up Indiesmiles and wrote an article about me and my work. Before I knew it, I was writing articles for her website and now I consider her a good friend.

I finally asked her one day, “Could I write an article about you?” Well…you know I must have gotten a “yes” answer, or I wouldn’t be writing this article!

Sue is a very complex person as she is into so many different things. I think that is why I love her so much. She has been into art ever since she can remember, yet she would give anything to be able to draw, so art is a passion of hers along with being creative herself! She thrives on collecting art and would love to own an art gallery.

She also spends a great deal of time researching her family tree, which has taken her on a trip to UK, a very small town known as Bridgnorth, and found that her great grandfather had a trust fund and was extremely wealthy when he passed on!

Of course, real life sets in and she’s worked in sales, bookkeeping, and sold vacation packages where she had to get her real estate license in order to sell timeshare.

Now, let me go back in time to where she was a bookkeeper most of her career. During that time she was in a major car accident and she had to learn how to walk all over again! It was difficult for her to even sit for an extended amount of time. Good grief!

Then she literally fell into the vacation packages job where she was whisked away to Atlantic City, New Jersey working on the Atlantic City Boardwalk! She was provided with a month’s stay in a condo on the ocean. Now that is the life! She surely deserved that fabulous break after what all she had been through! Then she moved to Delaware, where she lives now in a waterfront community with her man Don. Here’s the romantic part of her story….which I personally love! Sue and Don met at work and they both sold homes in this community where they both lived. They’ve only been together slightly less than a year and life has already been an adventure for them both!

Finding Etsy was the best thing, besides Don, that has ever happened to Sue. Her cousin introduced her to Etsy and since Sue lives near the beach and loves anything handmade and Beach related Sue opened  Sea Star Dreams, she is in the midst of adding a new line which will include wire wrapped Sea Glass.  She also dreams of offering prints of her paintings on Etsy one day.

Sue started Indiesmiles with a partner El, one of the team members of Etsy for Animals, they both had put together a huge Birthday Bash using “Sale Coupons” as the basis for the bash. It was a huge success, hundreds of store owners participated and it brought in a great deal of revenue for all of the team stores involved; in turn those stores donated a portion of their sales to help Animal charities of their choice all across the globe.  El and Sue brought their combined creative energy, together to build Indiesmiles. Owning an online website requires a great devotion and medical school took up too much time for El and she was no longer able to continue with Indiesmiles. Sue took over in October of 2009.

Funny, Sue had thought that perhaps that was the end for Indiesmiles. She even started to work for a very large competitor as a contirbuting columnist! After so much frustration with that large website coupled with a “light bulb” realization, Sue decided that this type of information sharing could work on Indiesmiles! At that point Indiesmiles was awaken from the shelf and she brought on a few contributing columnists (I was one of them)!

I help Sue in various ways, one of them is to be a team leader, of sorts, for a group of columnists. Those of you that don’t know me my Etsy shop is LindaGJ Tracy of Cinnamon Jewellery has taken on the same responsibility for the Folksy group. Barbra of Allaboutthebuttons is Indiesmiles Assistant Editor and Andy of Incredible Angels is our technical liason. To top it off we have 3 marketing agents that take on the responsbility of promoting Indiesmiles on a daily basis! They are Jamie of Shesbattydesings, Lea of Lajewelrydesigns and Nikki of Gleefulpeackock Our columnists and their story can be found on our columnists page.

 Sue really wants the columnists, marketing staff and the readers to enjoy every part of the “SMILE” concept. After all, it’s important that everyone is happy or why become involved?

She loves to to help other shops become noticed. The way Sue feels about it is, if she helps one shop get a sale, then she has done her job!  She also enjoys sharing the world of handmade items with her readers.

We all thank and appreciate you Sue for all you do for us handmade artists!

Oz Image courtesy of Sweetheartsinner

By Contributing columnist Kate Sibley

Comment from the Publisher:
I was delighted to see an Etsy artist written up in “First” magazine, at last a mainstream magazine that notices handmade. Imagine if they all would write up Etsy, Artfire and Folksy artisans, what a wonderful world it would be! So contact “First” magazine and let them know how much you appreciate them featuring a handmade shop!

Kate volunteeered to interview Hiboucards she was the gal interviewed by First magazine in Nov. 2009. What was behind the artist that mainstream wanted to talk to?

Here are some interesting facts about the artist:
Artist name: Anne-Claire Regan aka Hibou (“eeboo” = owl in French)

Business name: HibouCards
Etsy Plush Team member
Global location: Boston MA – USA
Nationality:French

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hiboucards/

My artistic influences, what inspires me:

My childhood memories and my art history background are a big source of inspiration for me. My son’s imaginary world, his storybooks and his “obsession of the day” spark my imagination too (his love for owls had me call my shop “Hibou”). My environment is also very influential; New England’s nature is so beautiful!

My own native country (France) and its culture also inspire me. I always have postcards and books of my favorites painters, illustrators, photographers and sculptors surrounding me (here is a non exhaustive and not in order list: P. Gauguin, F. Vallotton, P. Cezanne, E. Manet, O. Redon, G. Moreau, Van Gogh, M. Ernst, Turf, A. Rackham, Claude & Francois-Xavier Lalanne, Joseph Cornel, Picasso, Man Ray, Gregory Crewdson, Dr. Seuss, my crafters firends…).

One common trait artists I love have is their color choice. I am fascinated with colors (often bright colors even though I myself enjoy dressing in black most of the time) and I use it in my work every chance I get. A new idea for a craft project is often sparked by one color or color combination. Looking at colors assembled together truly makes me happy.

Last but not least I don’t think I’d be doing what I do if it weren’t for my grandma and my mom who inspired me to use my hands to create objects, toys and art.

Why is making plush important for me:
I really started my shop by making and selling greeting cards. However, discovering felt was a small revolution for me. The material’s versatility allowed me to express my creativity beyond what I could do with paper.

The first piece I made was a soft sculpture mixing felt and needle felted roving wool.

I fell in love with needle felting and continued to make little needle felted owls.

That’s when I came up with the “Feltscapes,” which is a term I use to describe my framed felt landscapes. They are made with both felt and roving wool, always have some 3D elements, and of course an owl, which is my signature.

I’ve always loved making things with my hands and assembling colors. Seeing a creation take shape and seeing the result is deeply satisfying. Making plush keeps me in touch with the child in me.

My favorite plush related experience:
When I created my first “Feltscape” (see pic above) and I was able to mix 3D plush elements with flatter parts, creating a plush felt landscape… I had created with my own hands a little window into a whimsical world within me; some sort of time traveling tunnel into my childhood universe.

When I was a little girl I was always attracted to “miniature worlds”. I cherished more than anything the dollhouse my dad had made for me and all the miniature things in it (from the miniature silverware to the food and pets, furniture and paintings…) I saw this as something so beautiful and perfect.

As a fellow crafter said beautifully, “Plush is about nostalgia and comfort, but it’s also about innovation and magic. Often plush art represents real-world things but in a surreal, softly perfect way” (Stuart Bloomfield, a.k.a. Sewdorky, forward of the Plush You catalogue 2008)

I continued to explore imaginary miniature worlds by later inventing a playset that is composed of a small plush owl and a tree trunk. This design as become so popular that I can barely make them fast enough now J
This design made it to Etsy’s front page numerous times and I started to get more and more exposure. That’s is probably how the people from Frist Mag found me. The editor really liked my first feltscape and she asked me to make something custom for her (pic bellow).

All my feltscapes are hand sewn and needle felted. I do not use glue anywhere. It is very time consuming (not the “done under an hour” time mentioned in the article!) but so enjoyable to make. From hunting for the frames to choosing the color palette, from sketching to cutting and assembling the parts…

I will continue to explore all the possibilities with the Feltscapes and have fun with it.

Design philosophy:

I love to re-use and recycle materials as much as I can. I use a lot of fabric, lace, ribbons and buttons that come from my grandma and my mom back in France. I like to mix old and new.

My favorite techniques and/or materials:
My favorite materials are felt, roving wool, DMC cotton perle #5 thread and buttons.

Current/future projects / news:
First let me say that I contributed to my team’s effort (Plushteam: www.plushteam.etsy.com) to raise money for the Red Cross’ relief fund for Haiti. The scale of the devastation is so great that we all need to contribute with a little help and buying a cute plush is just a great way to do so.

I am currently working on making a few new creations to submit to the magazine Stuffed. I am very excited about that and hope to be selected.

am also trying to get my work shown in more galleries around the US this year. My first show was in Seattle and it’s always great to have exposure in galleries as you can be even more creative with the pieces you submit.

By Contributing Columnist Devin aka Oooohshiny

While Etsy is filled to the brim with jewelry stores, vintage sellers, children’s hair bows, stores like Sleepy Robot 13 are true diamonds in the rough. Lisastarchild creates robots, zombies,and other adorable creatures out of polymer clay, and tries to find them happy, loving homes. As her shop’s tag line says, these are things you never knew you needed until today……

Tell me about yourself.

I was born and raised in Cleveland, OH. From the age of 15 I was always trying to start my own businesses. I think my inspiration was to not have to work for someone else. Many crashed and burned quickly. I was young and very, very stupid. I tried making jewelry, clothing, you name it, and always got frustrated when I wasn’t making money immediately. It took until I was about 21 to really have the patience to stick with something to really make it work.

How long have you been crafting? How did you get started working with polymer clay?

I have been crafting since I was about 8 or 9. My mom did ceramics and made her own molds so I got started that way. I loved making and painting my own figurines, but the firing process before a piece was finished was just too long for a kid to wait. Eventually my mom bought me my first Sculpey®

sample pack and I fell in love! I think my mom kind of instilled the DIY lifestyle in me. She was on disability most of her life with a serious case of lupus (that later in life my sister and myself both inherited) and could not work a regular job because of the crippling joint pain. She got a monthly check from the state but it was barely enough to pay the bills, so crafting became the family’s main source of income.

Is crafting your full-time job?

At the current moment crafting is my full-time job. In 2009 I lost my job at an air rifle company. At first it was just a way to keep the rent/bills paid until I found a new job, but quickly it turned into my job, but in a good way. Prior to this I hadn’t picked up a pack of clay since I was in high school. I had forgotten how much I loved it! Though it’s a full time thing now, I always have in the back of my mind that sales could slow any day and that I may have to get a 9 to 5. My goal is not to have to, but I think it’s good to always be aware of it.

What is your daily routine?

I usually wake up around 9:00 am (or whenever the dog wakes me up to go out.) I check/respond to emails for about 45 minutes. Next I copy and paste all of my Etsy orders from overnight into graph with the customers’ name, address and item(s) they’ve purchased. I usually do this about three times a day. I then go on to social networking. I check/respond to direct messages on Twitter, tweet a friendly good morning to everyone, and then check tweets from some of the people I follow. I like to retweet posts by other Etsy sellers; it helps them and it gets the word out more about Etsy in general. After Twittering for a bit, I check my Myspace and Facebook (I’m a little more fond of Myspace than Facebook.) I round out my morning online routine by re-listing items on Etsy. By that time it is a little after 11:00 am, so I make some coffee and cereal and I begin packing orders from the previous day. Once previous orders are packed, I begin working on custom orders. I try to make 2 new items a day. Some of these items may make it to Etsy that evening, but some end up on a shelf in my living room, because my boyfriend likes them too much to let me sell them! I check emails a few more times and update my Etsy order graph. At around 6:00 pm, I print my Etsy order graph for the day and get started packing or making items for those orders. I usually try to stop at 10:00 pm but more often than not I work past 4:00 am.

How do you balance crafting and the rest of your life?

Even though I am crafting full time currently I still have several other responsibilities to take care of throughout the day. Also my robots have become quite popular. Though I love making them, I really want to work on making new characters as well. I’m still trying to find a happy medium.

What is your favorite piece that you’ve created?

That’s a tough one. I have new favorites all the time. I think when I master making something that has a lot of detail that I previously wasn’t able to do, it instantly becomes my favorite. But if I have to choose a favorite I’d probably say “Zombie Toast”. I love zombies and I love toast!

Name your…

Top three websites:

plasticandplush.com, buffmonster.com and thedirtycream.com

Top three books:

Extras by Scott Westerfield, Once Dead Twice Shy by Kim Harrison, and The Bad Art Collection by Jhonen Vasquez

Top three musical artists:

Nonpoint, Smile Empty Soul, and Adema

Top three movies:

The Nightmare Before Christmas, Super Troopers, and Kamakazi Girls

looshies, rockythezombie and loveandasandwich

Tell me about your blog. How did it start, and what do you tend to write about the most?

My blog (http://lisastarchild.blogspot.com) started as a place for me to post my most recent figures and slowly grew into a place where I post contests, selling advise and exchange ideas/opinions with other crafters.

Other than Etsy, where do you sell your creations? How do you promote yourself?

I also have a small shop set up on bigcartel.com (http://sleepyrobot13.bigcartel.com/), although I have not seen any sales from this site just yet. I usually promote myself by joining forums outside of just the Etsy community. I love the website diyscene.com. I also sign up for any craft/art shows that I can that have more of any indie crowd. I wear my robot jewelry everywhere I go and I always have business cards on me; I always take business cards with me to the post office. At least one person always asks “What are you shipping so much of?” and I’ll hand them my card. My biggest tool for promotion is probably Twitter.

What is your favorite thing about being part of the Etsy family?

That’s just it. It’s a family. Like a family, sellers help each other out and like a family, you may have one or two bad apples. Without Etsy I wouldn’t have been able to do what I love for a living in the short amount of time that I have. I also may have never found some of my favorite new artists. I love that if people see your shop and really like your work, they let you know and they let others know. I only hope in time I can do more of the same.

If you could be anywhere doing anything for the rest of your life, where would you be and what would you be doing?

I don’t think I could ever completely move out of Ohio, but if I could afford it, maybe buy a winter home in Florida? I would love to have a few small runs of vinyl toys based on my designs under my belt and possible start a yearly handmade toy convention.

Please check out Lisastarchild’s shops (www.sleepyrobot13.etsy.com / www.sugaredwithspite.etsy.com) and blog (http://lisastarchild.blogspot.com).

You can follow her on twitter at @lisastarchild