Creativity- Color, Color, Color!!

Happy wednesday!

I was cruising YouTube looking for a "How to Felt" guide- a totally different direction from what transpired after watching this beautiful Lakme Fashion Week Video.

Sridevi Wows Lakme Fashion Week Day 5

I love color! whether on canvas or in the fluid artistic expression in Bollywood Fashion..color makes me want to create something new, bold, soft, vibrant..whatever the energy..I drives me;-)


Keeping the eco-conscious theme going, I pulled out my old Scrabble game that we haven't played in YEARS added some beautiful fabric and wire and made these lovely pieces for Fall.




I love the muted blues, greens, reds and oranges that Autumn brings, there is still so much richness in the seasons color change.




I'm looking forward to adding these lovelies to my Etsy shop:-)

This one is going to be a pendant;-) I haven't decided what direction I am going with this one.

Have a colorful Wednesday.

Creativity -My Home Decor Lust

I sooo want these for my house;-)

BLACKFEET INDIAN Beaded Bag Design Hand Painted Turquoise CANVAS RUG or Wallhanging 33 x 57 OOAK Native American Made in Bigfork Montana FOLK ART by FloorArtEtc

Sapphire Bombay Upcycled/Recycled Table Lamp by Rebecca Zhukov of ProvidenceArtGlass

Plain 150 watt Moss Terrarium by SteamedGlass

CLEARANCE Recycled T-Shirt Rug in Black (SMALL)by TalkingSquid

SALE Naughty or Nice Chairs by SpruceHome

Most of these awesome handmade items were created with recycled/upcycled materials to keep the eco theme I want for my home. Now if only I had a million dollars..I wish me would start making recycled paper dollars already;-)

Creativity-Eco Cool for the Home by HandmadebyAnnabelle

Today is too busy a day for me to blog about anything I am doing but I just had to feature another Etsy artist who makes these really cool eco friendly wash cloths/dish cloths.

HandmadebyAnnabelle hosts a beautiful blog and Etsy shop "offering quality eco- friendly handmade rag baskets crochet kitchen and bathroom washcloths and dishcloths, etc. for baby showers, wedding showers, gifts, or just to pamper yourself!"



This beautiful set above is a custom order for a customer Annabelle received that wanted organic washcloths in these beautiful colors. I think her customer will love them. HandmadebyAnnabelle also has a free pattern listed here: http://handmadebyannabelle.blogspot.com/2010/04/crochet-pattern-not-your-grandmas.html

Stop by HandmadebyAnnabelle's Etsy shop, blog, Facebook pages. I know in the future I will be shopping with her;-)

Ashanti for visiting;-)

Balance : Supporting Sweatshop Socials

Sweatshop Socials are amazing free events presented by BagsforthePeople.org that teaches participants how to use a sewing machine and how to construct a reusable bag made from repurposed materials.

"The goal of Sweatshop Socials is to have at least 1000 New York City residents make their own reusable bags as well as donate to a local Greenmarket over one calendar year. If the goal is met, this will greatly help reduce the carbon footprint of plastic bags usage and waste in NYC, salvage wasted scrap fabric from local landfills, and help continue the timeless, energy efficient skill of sewing".


Next Saturday, I plan to attend the May 22nd Sweatshop Social at 3rdWard. But in the meantime I posted this widget on my blog to remind me to donate to the June Sweatshop event. each Sweatshop Social Project is funded by public support and hosted by Kickstarter.com You can donate yourself or go to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/892860272/sweatshop-social-make-plastic-bags-a-thing-of-the-0 to learn more about them and cut and past the widget onto you website or blog to spread the word about this is great group of eco crafty folk!

The Balance: It makes me feel good be a proactive part of helping the environment by crafting something for others and supporting organizations that do the same as a collective.I will blog about this event again next week. If you are in NYC, maybe you could stop by , make a bag or two and party on! ;-)

Thanks for visiting

Ashanti

CosaVerde and Modish Earth Day 2010 Giveaway

In honor of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, Cosa Verde has partnered with ModishBlog.com to bring you this FABULOUS earth-friendly giveaways! With over 40 Cosa Verde artists, all working in sustainable materials, there are over $1600 worth of prizes to win!

The giveaway will run all the way through Earth Day, April 22nd. 4 winners will be chosen randomly from the comments and notified by email the following day!

Visit MODISHBLOG.COM to learn how to enter! Have fun!

Creativity-From Bulge to Belt-DIY

Well, since I haven't lost the weight bulge I wanted to before the Spring came, I decided to make some good use of an old belt I had to give to my toddler- Repurpose!





My little sweetie is growing straight up like a weed BUT is slim for the clothing sizes of his age- 2t is too short but 3t is tooo big and wide. So I took a standard pair of scissors and cut the belt from 35 inches to 20 inches.

The leather was kinda thick which was good for durability. I carved some tiny holes about an inch apart with an exacto blade.


Tried on the belt for size with my baby wearing size 3T shorts.

Perfect fit--not too tight or too loose;-) With room for him to use up to 4T size;-)..Eco-friendly and FREE;-) what frugal mom doesn't love that! Let me know what you think and feel free to share the link or another cool way to repurpose clothing for children.

Oh yeah, what am I going to do with the leftover strap..you'll see....;-) Tune in next wee & thanks for visiting.

Green Creativity - DIY Sock Gloves

Here is a quick tutorial on how I turned a pair of size 9 knee high socks into arm gloves for my daughter. These are a pair of cotton stretch socks that wore down at the toes and heals. The rest of the sock was in perfect shape and quality..why throw them away.Repurpose!


First: I washed the socks,then measured the length of my daughters arm from her elbow to the midsection of her hand.

Then, I cut off the toes section of the sock, and cut out the section of the heal that had worn down.




Next, I slid the sock up over the length of her arm to her fingers. With a permanent marker,I placed small marks on both sides of the sock material in between the fingers.


Next, I removed the sock , took a standard sewing needle and thread, pinched the clearly marked points together with my thumb and forefinger and carefully sew both pieces together to make a finger hole.

To make sure the holes fit properly, I slid the sock back to test the fit of each finger hole then proceeded to the next finger , repeating the sewing process until I reached the heal section-this is where the thumb section was saved for last. I didn't sew the thumb whole closed so the material around the thumb rests nicely.

That's it!


If you want the thumb hole to be tighter you can sew a little piece of the heel hole closed- I also I found it easier mark the fabric sections of one finger at a time to make sure each hole fit just right without bunching up.I am sure this can be done with a sewing machine but the pieces of fabric are so small I thought it would be a waste of electricity & much faster to complete by hand.


Let me know what you think. Have you done be before? Are you going to? Post share with me with a link to your blog, Flickr(if you posted them there)

Thanks for visiting.

Saturday Blog Shopping Event #2

Greetings! and Welcome to the Saturday Blog Shoppers event created by Quilts Galore and More.

Today, I am featuring my Paper Goods Section of greeting and note cards made with post consumer and plantable recycled paper.

I am offering a BOGO sale:

Buy one item from my Paper Goods Section,Get the second at 50% off. Just enter "SBS" in your NOTES TO SELLER notes to seller and I will refund the discount via PayPal. If you would prefer an invoice please make a note of this request in your notes at checkout BEFORE sending payment. This sale is only valid from March 20th until 3am March 21st EST(12am PST)

Don't forget to put that "SBS" in Notes to Seller so I can report results to the QGM blogger group. Please take a moment to leave a comment as visit the other participating Saturday Blog Shopping Members by clicking this link here;-)

Happy Saturday and thanks for visiting.

Creativity-Making Paper

Teddy Bear Tags by PulpArt-Etsy.com

I saw this great tutorial link on Etsy's "The Storque Blog" How To -Tuesday Section: on how to make plantable paper: CutCardStock. featured the tutorial created by Martha Starke of PulpArt.etsy.com

Well, I am going to try out some paper making myself. I have wanted to try this for a long time but never got around to it. though I have purchased many recycled paper supplies on Etsy to package and ship my orders in.

So, right now I have a stack of used brown wrapping paper and old newspapers of all types....



A blender that I will devoted SOLELY to paper. You should never use the same blender for food that you craft with-even if it's been cleaned out.

This is a bouquet if flowers from Valentine's Day- I am going to incorporate them into the paper mixture and see what happens. I will probably make a half picture blog/half video blog making the paper. All I need is the paper screen and I'm ready.

Tune in next Friday to see what happens;-)

Thanks for visiting

Saturday Blog Shopping #1

I came across a fun promo thread in Etsy's Forums called the SATURDAY BLOG SHOPPER, a blogging network created by Quilts Galore and More. It's a great opportunity promote and link Etsy shop owners who blog, so I decided to participate;-)This will be my first official "sale" since opening SwanRiverStone so do stop by check out my new handmade modern and eco-conscious creations.

***TODAY'S SPECIAL*5% off All items listed in my Glass /Polymer Clay Section** at Swanriverstone.etsy.com Sale ends March 14th at 3am EST(12am PST)As always, free domestic and worldwide shipping on all items every day!***

In order to participate ,you MUST mention Saturday Blog Shopping code in seller notes in order for me to refund the difference OR send me a Etsy Conversation with the code in the title with your desired item(s) link so I can create a reserved listing for you with the adjusted price before payment.



Feel free to follow my blog to learn more about me and what I am up to or Follow me on Twitter and Facebook Visit every Saturday for more Saturday Blog Shopper Specials now until April 3rd from SwanRiverStone's Etsy Shop.

If you would like to join this network please visit the link at QGM for details! There you will find a list of all the Etsy bloggers who are participating. Happy Shopping!

Thanks for visiting and happy Saturday shopping.

Colortime-snow go away!

As much as I love the peace and serenity of Winters calm.. I am itching for my senses to be awakened by COLOR!! Orchids and Mums and Carnations



Violets and Pansies


Chrysanthemums and Tulips



Sea blue skies...

fields of green.......

oranges and marmalade jam....mmmm

I couldn't wait. I posted these colorful, vegan friendly peacock feathers in my shop. I can make earrings with any of these colors listed. Wait, did I say vegan and peacock in the same sentence? Yes, because these are synthetic , faux, fake..non-animal based.Though I do use natural peacock feather in some of my feather creations. I clearly indicate if they are natural or not.

I love peacocks and started out working with the birds natural feathers since they shed naturally after the mating season and are still alive and kicking afterward, so to me it's like recycling a sustainable material that won't be used anymore.However, I started to use the man made ones originally it's dead ringer texture and beauty and organic processing but also for those who may be allergic to plumage, I had no idea they would be a hit in the vegan community.

These man made feathers are very well made,long lasting and specially dyed with old traditional dye process derived from the color pigments of flower, fruit and vegetable juices and oils and plants.

Humans have been using organic paints for years, there is just a better way to process the dyes, drying them, crush them up sanitize and set them without worry about running, smearing or staining.


The Grace: Finding Alternative Ways to Create with Natural Beauty.

Namaste,

A

Sea Glass Galore

I am excited about these beach glass pieces
at first I thought beach/seas glass was some kind of sediment of sea floor,sea salt and pigments from the coral reef. I thought that collecting them harmed sea the sea environment.
not at all!!! Sea glass-also known as beach glass or mermaids tears, is actually NATURES's way of recycling tossed glass bottles and glass based products that were dumped in the oceans many years ago--way before recycling became a campaign or law.

I can't wait to show you what I make with them...stayed tuned.


Namaste,


A.