WayneCoeBlacksmith on Etsy

WayneCoeBlacksmith forges items in iron, steel, copper and brass. Here is a keyring and bowl from his shop.



Mandie

FunEmbroidery on Etsy

FunEmbroidery will embroider just about anything for you. Her prices are negotiated according to the items you want. Here are a couple of examples of her work:



Mandie

LBArtworks on Etsy

Great little bags by LBArtworks:


Mandie

Thepaintedpoppet on Etsy

Dolls and puppets with loads of personality. Thepaintedpoppet creates these dolls for decorative purposes. Love the robot!




Mandie

DECAcandle on Etsy

Candles, lip balms, soaps and "melts" are what you'll find in DECAcandle's Etsy shop:

That's sandalwood soap!

According to the listing description, each melt will scent a medium to large room for approximately 8 - 10 hours. "Breakaway melts are highly scented wax chunks meant to be melted on a tart/melt warmer."

The colours look so good!

Mandie

Vidalbuttons on Etsy

Vidalbuttons stocks craft supplies, mainly buttons. I love an interesting button.



While I like buttons and even enjoy making button holes, (with a sewing machine, of course!) I'm not so fond of sewing missing buttons back on.

Mandie

Cupcakeperfumery on Etsy

Cupcakeperfumery sells delicious sounding perfumes and beauty products, yes, sounding, because I haven't tried them. I'm guessing that Marzipan, Coco Noir and Vanilla Truffle perfumes must smell amazing!


Yummy!

Mandie

Bags2di4 on Etsy

Cute bags from bags2di4:



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KAPARA on Etsy

These might be useful. KAPARA makes these paper tags from left-over paper from printing houses.



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GlassGlam on Etsy

I'm going through a colour phase at the moment. Maybe next week I'll hit a monochrome streak, but for now, I want bright, pretty, vivid colours. GlassGlam sells postage stamp necklaces that fit the bill:


GlassGlam has several other items in her shop that made me go "ooh!". I like the stamps, though. I don't get to see a lot of pretty stamps nowadays, what with everything being emailed. So thank you, GlassGlam (her real name is Dionea), for making me consider the little stamp again.

Mandie

DefiantDamsel on Etsy

Oh what fun! I had to laugh when I saw DefiantDamsel's Etsy shop. If you haven't seen the movie The Big Lebowski yet, you won't understand my love for The Dude. But DefiantDamsel knows:


These are all magnets. This next one reminded me of the flying toasters screensaver from After Dark, minus the wings, of course.

And I just had to share this "Angry Milk Carton of Doom" one, because the idea of a threatening milk carton greatly amuses me:


DefiantDamsel says she stitches things that make her happy. I think that's the best way to craft. She's got some more great things in her store, including an astounding Edward Scissorhands portrait.

Mandie

HendersonArt on Etsy

Art appreciation is so subjective that I am hesitant to share paintings that appeal to me, because I might just be chasing away half our audience with my boorish tastes! For example, I recently read an article on Hitler's art and I thought "hey, it's not half bad!". However, Hitler was denied entry into Vienna's Academy of Fine Arts. Twice. And Richard Westwood-Brookes, who clearly knows his art, because just look at his name, feels that the pieces "are at best the standard of a reasonably competent amateur." So it is with some risk to my reputation that I present to you some paintings that appeal to me, but I was taught that it matters not one jot what critics say, as long as you like it. HendersonArt on Etsy created the following two colourful abstracts with oil on wood:



And here is another piece that is not abstract:

HendersonArt happens to have a degree in Fine Arts from the Emily Carr Institute of Art, if you care about such things. Me? I just like the pretty colours.

Mandie

Coffeeandclutch on Etsy

Her photos could do with some lighting editing, but her designs are solid. Coffeeandclutch makes bags and "the original coffee and clutch" - a coffee cuff and mini card case (I lightened the first image a bit) :

Here is a clutch wallet:

And an "oooh, I want!" clutch organizer:

A very handy item and pretty, too, click on the image to see the rest of the photos, because you will want to look inside that one.

Mandie

CreatedByClare on Etsy

Stuck on paper today, but these are sweet. Cards...CreatedByClare.




All her cards are hand painted originals, painted on 300gsm watercolour paper. Envelopes are included.

Mandie

DotDotStitch on Etsy

I'm intrigued by this Etsy shop. I love the name - DotDotStitch - and I love the choices of embroidery images. I mean, look at this: an anatomical heart on an apron. Why not?

More traditional images on the kitchen towels, though:


Her listings, policy and profile entries are very detailed. I like the clean look of the embroidery, all made from Sublime Stitching patterns.

Mandie

Fullyhooked on Etsy

Recently some wooden earrings caught my eye on Etsy and the main reason I chose not to feature the seller on the blog, was because I couldn't figure out how the earrings worked! Maybe someone could explain it to me in the comments? Seems I'm still stuck on wood, though, because I found a new pair by fullyhooked and I think I could figure these out:

I really like the snaky effect of the hanging hearts. Here is a pretty, shiny shell necklace:


And another pair of earrings:


These items are not representative of Fullyhooked's shop, I just chose earthy, natural looking pieces for this post. She currently has 37 listings, so go have a look at the rest of her items and see if anything tickles your fancy.

Mandie

Cloud9dsign on Etsy

We've established that I'm a fan of cute, but I'm also a fan of squishy. Winter is on its way here in South Africa, so I'm starting to think about hot chocolate, warm blankets, fuzzy slippers and all sorts of cozy things. What I really like about Cloud9dsign's items is that they are cozy things with cute faces. Cute and cozy, can't beat that:

That's Mike, the travel pal. He doubles up as a travel pillow, as does Oliver:

Levi, made from denim, has a pocket smile! You can put things in his smiling mouth.

Wonky eyes, sticky-out tongues...I can't resist.

Mandie

MirkaDesign on Etsy

Mirka Kalmanova designs all her own patterns, then creates her items with beautiful fabrics. Look at the great fabric on this foam padded laptop sleeve:


Here is an unusual bag to carry over your arm (great dress, too) :

She also makes covers for books and will create a custom cover according to your specifications.

It all looks so fresh!

Mandie

Jrehnke on Etsy

When I come across old birthday or greeting cards during spring cleaning, I always feel a pang about throwing them away. But I throw them out, because I have seen what happens when you don't - you get featured in a tv show about the dirtiest homes in the country and end up on Oprah explaining you never meant to let things get that bad. Jrehnke creates greeting cards with a gift included, so that you can throw away the card, but keep the gift. Here is one of her cards, next to the necklace included:

The card is an original watercolour and comes with a red envelope. The necklace is acrylic on canvas. Here is another one that I really liked:


I liked this cherry necklace, too (it doesn't come with a card) :

She also makes other jewellery items that are worth a look.

Leave a comment if you have a great idea for using greeting cards in a useful way. Displaying them on the mantelpiece doesn't count!

Mandie

HeartandSoilBaskets on Etsy

I found these handmade baskets by HeartandSoilBaskets. Here is a sweet little one for a flower girl to carry at a wedding:


And a beautiful vegetable basket:


It looks even better filled with incredibly good-looking veggies.

I saw this quote on Twitter, posted by StickFigureMan: "Container Store Syndrome: The conviction that if you just buy enough plastic file boxes, your life will become organized." Yes I suffer from this, and while my plastic containers are very adequate, I say baskets are prettier.

Mandie