Delicious Custard Pudding Creations

The chenille creations of this week's featured artist are just as delicious as the name of her shop - Custard Pudding Dreams.

Chance, so huggable chenille dog

Catherine, owner and artisan at Custard Pudding Dreams, specializes in soft dolls and toys made from vintage fabrics, patterns, and chenille bedspreads. What a great creative mind to find such a happy use for these materials!

Happy Teddy

Imminently touchable chenille is the perfect medium for one-of-a-kind sweet comfort such as this Happy Teddy Bear.

Catherine carefully seeks out and cleans vintage bedspreads for her projects. The she selects the placement of the designs on the chenille fabric to enhance the figure that she sculpts, so every figure is unique and makes an ideal, full-of-love-and-thought gift.


I just love this little duck. Be sure to check out the front and back views of the duck in Custard Pudding Dreams Artfire shop. The placement of the chenille design on this little one is superb. :-)

Quack the Duck

Soft Sculpted D

Just as touchable and meant to be played with are the high quality Kona cotton dolls that Catherine crafts in a Caucasian, Asian, or African version.

Materials for the dolls are new. A bonnet, dress, bloomers and shoes are included with the doll and features are embroidered or sewn firmly to the doll or clothes. Velcro closures make playtime easy for small hands.

These are great items for a baby shower center piece or gift for a mom-to-be. (She also makes a little boy version clothed in jacket and pants.)






Catherine has been sewing as a hobby since she was a girl, having learned her sewing skills from her Nana. (She still has some of the much loved soft toys her Nana made for her.)  Until recently, sewing was a sideline for Catherine. But after many years as a police dispatcher, several bouts of pneumonia left Catherine homebound and on oxygen. She had to give up the police department job that she loved. 

However, difficulties have not kept this resilient lady down. She says, "life has a way of throwing you a curve ball and you have to roll with the punches".  I so admire her spunk!

Gallery of Catherine's Hard Work

Fortunately for us, Catherine has used adversity in her life as a positive force to move her into this new creative outlet. Be inspired by reading more of Catherine's story, view her work, and learn how she named her shop at these places on the web.

Shop: http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/custardpuddingdreams

Website: http://www.custardpuddingdreams.com/

Blog: http://custardpuddingdreams.blogspot.com/
or here: http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/bio/custardpuddingdreams

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CustardPudding1

Make Beautiful Lists and More with Art by Sunfire

Circus Theme Journal Set

I simply love this shop that we have the privilege of reviewing this week in our Featured Artist Series.  There are so many favorites I want to describe to you from Art By Sunfire.


Journals, notecards, and list making supplies are specialties of this artisan, but these are only the beginning of the lovely items offered in Carla's Artfire studio.







Especially highlighted as lovely gift items or to keep as an item of beauty are -The Hand Embroidered Temari Ball.

Pink and Grey Ornament

Kaleidoscope

There are several beautiful Temari balls in Art by Sunfire's Artfire Shop.  Carla, artisan, creator, and owner at Art by Sunfire tells a story about these Japanese inspired art pieces. Beginning as toys for children many years ago, Temaris have evolved into an objet d'art, beautifully embroidered and embellished. Temaris are given on very special occasions as a wish for good luck.

Gift a good wish to someone or display these balls in your own home individually as a decor item, as part of a collection in a pretty bowl, or as an ornament.

Ornament Wishes Good Luck

 
Now, as to making beautiful lists - Carla confesses that she is a person who loves to make lists and so she has a great joy in creating lovely places to keep the lists that she make - stationery, journals, and tags abound in Art by Sunfire's shop,

                                                                          
A lovely personal journal,











                   and how about these post-it note holders,

and a special set of notecards.











                          Special storage containers:




You can see much more of this wonderful shop at:
Artfire Shop 
Art By Sunfire Blog
Pinterest

Dreams Woven in Clay

Heart Treasure Box

With the look of a fabric box trimmed in bias striping, with handstitched hearts, embroidery, and a lovely corsage of briar roses placed atop, this little box (expertly formed of polymer clay) would be the perfect location to store some of the other wonderful pieces from this week's Featured Artist, Jan of Dream Weavers Designs on Artfire.

For example these necklaces

Blue Swirl Necklace

The Heart Within

Mod Cane Disc Earrings

Pearls in the Life Tree

or these mod, fun earrings with small swarovski crystals highlighting the cane discs.  Or this wire-and pearl Tree necklace. This wire necklace brings to my mind pearls of wisdom, joy, and experience gathered in life and treasured in the building of the tree of one's character and memory.


Crafting dreams has always been a way of life for Jan even as she pursued a career in nursing and cared for her husband, children, and now, grandchildren. Jan has sewn clothing for her family and also make-up and jewelry bags for a small craft business. She has done some woodworking and painting, made candles and soap and jewelry.  But, "my newest, and probably most favorite thing to do," says Jan, " is make jewelry using polymer clay. I can't believe I never thought of this before! There are so many possibilities, the colors are wonderful." And we can easily see the joy and passion she places in her work in this media.

Pink Swirl in Clay

Great Smoky Mountains from Jan's Blog

Green Tree Pend

As a last piece to highlight in this article, I want to include this picture of the Great Smoky Mountains taken by Jan on a recent trip. She loves the mountains and what a beautiful way to share that love with us in this mixed media necklace featuring the beautiful colors and forms of the forested mountains.






You can find Dream Weavers Designs online at these locations:

http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/DreamWeaversDesigns

http://dreamweaversdesigns.blogspot.com/

Personalized Gifts from Kottage Kreations

Turquoise "Eggs" in a Silver Nest

This week's featured handmade shop from It's Better Handmade guild is the studio with the lovely name Kottage Kreations.  Taking inspiration from the materials that make up the jewelry, from nature, the stories of her clients, or dreams in the night, Kottage Kreations shapes unusual jewelry pieces, often with memories or personalizations used in the designs. Individual and personal are part of the specialities of this shop.


I love this wire and stone bird's nest  necklace with the inspiring "Soar" feather linked to the nest.

Visions of the Southwest Necklace

Beads and thread make good combinations in this unique set.













These earrings are Kottage Kreations original design. Elegant flowers dangle lightly from the ear but are heavy in beauty and style. Garden flowers, 1" in diameter are hand crocheted in satin sheen thread and hung on a steel ear wire. I can just imagine these worn with a tiered long skirt and peasant blouse to an afternoon tea party held in the summer garden.

Garden Roses Earrings

Natural materials feature in this necklace from a recent Twitter post.   https://twitter.com/kottagekreation

Hand Imprinted Metalsmithed Copper Heart

This metal smithed copper pendant is handstamped with a custom personalization which is one of the signature trademarks of Kottage Kreations.

You can find more of Kottage Kreations lovely work at:
Artfire Studio - http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/KottageKreations
Etsy Shop -
http://www.etsy.com/shop/KottageKreations
Facebook -
http://www.facebook.com/kottagekreations

The Creative World of Hippie's Creations

Pyrography Horse Portrait

Several months ago, I had the joy of stumbling across Hippie's Creations shop on Artfire. A Hippie in the 21st Century? Hmmm..... that's an interesting phenomena.  Let's take a look :-)

Hand drawn Doodle Bookmark

Hippie's Creations has a small studio located in the James River Region of Central Virginia, but thanks to online marketplaces like Artfire, even those of us who live far distant can enjoy this studio where all of the products are handcrafted in support of a small family who loves to bring excellent quality to their products.

Rose Woodburned into Tagua Nut

This shop has a lovely range of uniquely designed and handcrafted products, everything from crochet hats, garments, and toys to hand drawn bookmarks and unusual pendants and jewelry and woodburned plaques and portraits.

Hearts Bracelet

As I stepped into Hippie's Creations store, I was looking for some handmade bath accessories for gifts and loved the idea of these little facial scrubbies. 

Set of 4 Facial Cloths

I ordered a set and Hippie's Creations produced the 4 petite washcloths and mailed to me within 2 weeks just as promised. I was so pleased with these facial scrubbies. Both the crochet technique and the cotton yarn are of very high quality. The cloths are double thick and the person who received them as a gift along with a bar of glycerin soap is very pleased with these soft and pretty bath accessories. 



The quality and service of Hippie's Creations was wonderful; I went back for more. Here are a few of the other products I love and have purchased:

Bear Wash Mitt

 

Set of 4 Round Scrubbies

Our grandchildren love these wash mitt puppets

Crochet Laptop Cover

Vintage Deco Art Pendant

 As fascinating and various as the products of this shop, so is the background and life of its owner, Petra Monaco. Growing up in Germany, this creative woman has a diverse background. Petra early looked to crafts and became adept at crochet at a young age. Now she is a very busy Mom of boys - and you guessed it - these boys are also diverse in character and gifts. She holds degrees in Accounting and Mental Health Counseling, and she loves to spend her time fulfilling her longtime dream of owning and operating her own store where "art is created and art is sold."

Learn more about this artist at her blog - http://hippiescreations.blogspot.com/ or on her bio page on Artfire. You can also find her on Facebook, Flickr, Google + and she also has an Etsy shop. You can't go wrong in seeking a product from this high quality handmade artist/artisan.