Thursday, June 17, 2010

Today's Featured Artist - Country Crocks By Susan/Burd In Hand Designs

Our featured artist this week is Susan Burd of Country Crocks by Susan and Burd in Hand Designs


Susan has been painting for over 20 years. She started doing craft shows in New Jersey while she was still working as an office manager for an accounting firm. Upon moving to Pennsylvania in 1995, she decided to devote as much time as she could to her painting.

She discovered Prim Mart about 6 years ago, and started her first website – Country Crocks by Susan. She is now working on a new website called Burd in Hand Designs which will feature her prints and will have a wholesale area. Country Crocks features all of her hand painted items, as well as some patterns and supplies.


She got started in ceramics and found that she loved doing that. As she developed her painting skills, she moved on to painting on different surfaces, but with ceramic bisque still being her surface of choice. She especially loved the reproduction crocks and would buy up as many of the old crock molds as she could get her hands on. She was lucky to find a mold maker who was able to reproduce some of these old molds for her.


She doesn’t really have any set hours to work.  As many of you know, working at home takes a lot of discipline, which Susan claims she doesn’t have! She has always been a “night owl” and so tends to work best late at night.

In the past 5 years, she gathered up her self-confidence and began to work on her own designs. It was the best decision she ever made.



In 2005, she had 8 projects accepted by the magazine, Create and Decorate. She has continued to work with them since that time and is frequently featured in their magazine.
  She recently began working with two painting magazines – Quick and Easy Painting and Paintworks which she is very excited about.
 Then  in 2009, she signed a licensing agreement with Capitol Earth Rugs and they feature several of her designs on their braided rugs.


She is  now also working with a candle company (Herbal Star Candles) and they are featuring her artwork on their primitive candle jars. She was also recently featured on the cover of the New York edition of The Country Register.

Susan says, " I feel so blessed that I am able to be doing what I love. Although I am busy with magazine articles and the licensing, I still love to handpaint a one-of-a-kind creation for my website. It still gives me a great deal of satisfaction. I hope to be doing that for many more years to come."

Susan's work can be found here:
http://www.countrycrocksbysusan.com
http://tdipt-countrycrocks.blogspot.com/
Lititz Artisan’s Porchwalk – held in Lititz, PA in October
Keystone Wholesale Market in Lancaster, PA

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Handmade Spotlight - Lets Get Digital

Today's spotlight is on something I'm very familiar with.... Digital Collage Sheets.

I created a treasury on etsy of a few that I found interesting. You can follow this link to get a better look at all of them. LETS GET DIGITAL


If you're a member of etsy, please leave a comment.

Thanks for joining us again!
Deena Davis
www.byyourhands.com

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Tutorial - Felt Flash Cards

With summer upon us it's a good time to do some craft projects with/for the kids in our lives.

While looking for some ideas to do with my kids I ran across this great tutorial on Sew Much Ado. It's for flash cards (or a memory game) made from felt.



I love how she added the grommets so they can be easily attached to the ring and kept track of.

This is something that would be fun to get the kids involved in. It seems like things are always better and more fun if they helped make it. Also, if you don't sew, there's always glue and it works great on felt.

Be sure to check out the complete tutorial on www.sewmuchado.blogspot.com

Thank for joining us!
Deena Davis
www.byyourhands.com

Monday, June 14, 2010

Organizing Your Junk Drawer

Do you have a junk drawer? I do!  I think I have about 30 of them. ;-) Well, maybe not that many but I do have a couple and when they get out of hand it seems like I need about 30 empty drawers to get them tamed down.

My quest today was to scour the web to see what kind of ideas I could find to help me (and you) get the junk drawers under control.

On about.com I found a great article, How to Organize Your Junk Drawer in 5 Easy Steps Great information and I love this idea they have on there with the muffin tin...


Then I stumbled upon the idea of using ice cube trays to organize the little things in your drawer at www.bloomingdesign.wordpress.com. She has her jewelry stored in hers, but why not store paper clips, rubberbands, etc in them.


Of course, you can always buy drawer organizers, similar to this one that I  found at www.merchantcircle.com


Lastly, I found this tutorial at www.orgjunkie.com and she has shown us how to organize our drawers using those small baskets.


I don't know about you, but I'm inspired to get busy with my junk drawers and get them all little more organized.

Thanks for visiting,
Deena Davis
www.byyourhands.com



Sunday, June 13, 2010

Blog Party Sunday, Show Something Handmade for Summer

Welcome to another Blog Party Sunday. Summer has finally arrived and that means barbeques, pool parties, vacations, and for some, trying to find ways to keep children, home for the summer, entertained.

For the crafter it is can be a slow sales time. So today we want you to show us something you have made for summer to tempt your buyers with.

I will start it off by showing one of the entries from one of our previous blog parties.
This is a sweet baby cocoon you can crochet while you are out and about this summer. Find the pattern here on the Creative Crochet blog
The darling baby inside the cocoon is another of Kristine's creations.



Show Us Yours:
So, now it’s YOUR turn for the party this week! What do you have for summer in your Etsy Shop, Artfire shop, or website that you would like to share with us.

Our guidelines:

1. Just click on the Add Your Link button below, and add your Etsy, Artfire, or website url to your shop for the link.
2. Add a picture of your item.
3. If you are a blogger, please add our button to your blog and invite your readers back to join the party.
4. Family friendly items only, please.