Featured Sponsor and Giveaway: Penney Klaproth

I am thrilled to introduce you to multi-media artist and blogger,

 Penney Klaproth. 
Upon recently moving from sunny Arizona to the mountains of southwest 

Virginia I find myself inspired by my new environment.  
Now at home with more time to pursue more pleasurable activities (than lesson planning!), 
my passion for creating drives my days.  

You can find me shooting nature photographs either from my deck in the woods or 
on a long walk, baking home-spun meals and delicious goodies, reading, 
or most often creating in my upstairs studio.   
I've had the urge to create from my youngest days of embroidery and 
hand sewing doll clothes through macramé with the Girl Scouts, Cabbage Patch and 
Barbie clothes, up to my present  addiction of making books and journals.  

Along the way I have dabbled in paint, crochet, embroidery, 
book making, beaded jewelry, sewing, dyeing, surface design on paper and fabric, 
basket weaving, quilting, and card making.  I consider my current art style rustic, 
eclectic, and shabby. I love raw edges, fibers, inclusions, hand sewing, found objects, and the colors pink and green! Oh, did I mention fibers?  I love fabric, ribbon, and thread.

Using materials that are at hand is a challenge I love to take on and usually do. I have created books in boring meetings, while traveling, and in my classroom. There is always an interesting answer to the question,“What if?” and mistakes sometimes reveal something often better than the original. One of my greatest joys is infecting a budding artist with enthusiasm for seeing raw materials in a new way and creating a new type of art. Ultimately I would love to own, run, and teach at an Art Retreat/Bed & Breakfast in the area. My short-term creative goal is to create at home to fill my soul and offer my art to others to fill my coffers so I will feel no need to re-enter the work force.

I'm on my way to reaching that goal with my recent inclusion inSew Somerset Summer 2010 issue and upcoming publication in the spring Somerset Life.check out her etsy shop for more of her journals.

Giveaway:

Penney is offering this lovely fabric journal as a giveaway item.

to enter to win: leave a comment/your name. The random generator will pick the winner and I will post it on Friday, May 6th

Comments are now closed.

Featured Sponsor:Mary Ann SellofSticks and Broomstraws

I am thrilled to introduce you to our Featured Sponsor, Mary Ann Sell from Phoenix Arizona.

She runs a lovely and creative etsy shop at:
Sticks and Broomstraws
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After years of making other people’s patterns, I decided to create and sell my own.  I wanted a name for my business that was whimsical and fun. I also wanted it to be a bit unspecific, so that my product line could evolve as my focus and interests changed.  

Sticks and Broomstraws represents my building/creating drive in the word “sticks,” and my organizing/tidying mode in the word “broomstraws.”  These words also represent both sides of me—the creative and the practical.

Because I am a typical Capricorn, I am very good at details—a skill that’s handy when writing quilt pattern directions.  I am also logical.  I think through the steps of construction, 

whether in fabric or wood, to create a plan of attack for my projects.  

These skills come naturally to me. Being creative also comes naturally, but my Muse arrives wearing a belt AND suspenders!   One of my current goals is to make art more freely, with a little less emphasis on the outcome and a lot more on the process.

My latest pieces are vignettes on wooden panels.  I learned the technique from artist Alma de la Melena Cox, and it involves burning, painting and adhering fabric to wood to create designs. 

I’ve always loved working with wood, so to combine that with my love of 

fabric and design suits me perfectly.The pieces I create capture a moment that I want to share with others.  

I am learning to really SEE when I produce a design for someone else to view.

check out the website at:

www.SticksAndBroomstraws.com

Featured Sponsor: Carmi Cimicata: Art Girls Guide to Paris

I am thrilled to introduce you to our new Featured Sponsor,

Carmi Cimicata from artgirlsguide.blogspot.com

I am a full time artist that specialized in handmade greeting cards, altered books, resin embellishments and wearable art pieces.  I hand make over 2000 cards a year in order to meet my clients demands at the Toronto One of A Kind shows.

I attained a visual arts degree from Ryerson University that provided a formal foundation for my art pursuits. 

Upon graduating from Ryerson, 
I founded BACCHUS and The Student Life Education Company;

 a highly recognized charity for young Canadians where I was executive director for sixteen years. 

I credit the charity experience for inspiring me

 to create handmade inexpensive 
promotional and educational materials. 

I believe you can be cost conscious and effective while still making items that are elegant and professional. 

Blogging for me is the perfect way to communicate ideas and images quickly. I have written, mailed and distributed many, many newsletters for most of my life beginning with a comic book style yearbook when I was at elementary school. 
Blogging and the internet just made it so much 
easier to get my ideas out into the world fast.

About my Paris book and blog:

This is the guide book to Paris I wish someone had written for me ten years ago when I first started going to Paris. 

I have managed to learn more and more about Paris each time I visit. Like any grand city, it could take a life time. For those of you who have followed my travels to Paris on my other blog I hope you will be happy to hear that I have pulled

 all my research and tips into this guidebook!

This book began as a quick email. 

The email turned into a memo. 

Then the memo turned into a blog series. 

All because ten to twelve times a year I 

get a message which always begins with

 "Hi Carmi, I know you go to Paris every year, 

do you have any recommendations for us?"

Paris, my Paris blog and the guidebook reflects some of the best moments in my life. It is my escape, my inspiration and I believe it will continue to be the place I visit the most.

I walk and look at windows all day in Paris.

Occasionally, I do go inside to shop as well! 

 I showcase a lot of those windows on my Paris blog.

I visit Paris annually in April, 

but I do get the occasional trip in 

at different times of the year.

Friends and strangers write to me after my trips. They want to know where I stay, where I go, what I eat and most importantly where do I get all the great things I show off on my blog? 

I hope this book answers many of those questions!

I think of going to Paris as a workshop. 

It is my opportunity to see new colours, 
new embellishments, new designs. 
This is what inspires me.

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Read more about Carmi here
and visit her delightful store  HERE.

Featured Sponsor: Nelly Eisenhower from Nelly's Junk Drawer

I am thrilled to share with you a bit of the art and life of
Nelly Eisenhower from Nelly's Junk Drawer.

I can tell you all the things I am; 
wife, mother, daughter, friend, accountant.  I have always been “crafty” so to speak.  
I have scrapbooked, collaged, knitted, sewn, you name it.  
I love making things and try every “craft” that comes my way.   

 I came across the blogosphere about 3 years ago searching out new things to make.  
In doing so, I discovered the wonderful world of mixed media.  
From that point I began taking classes by mixed media artists, Suzi Blu, 
Julie Prichard and Willowing online.  
I began falling in love with painting and mixed media. 

In 2010, I traveled to Seattle to attend Artfest.  
It was here that I discovered women living widely creative lives.  
Women making a living through creating and selling art.   
I could finally put into words what I truly want 
to be when I grow up….a full-time artist.   

2011 is the year I will begin to live out my dreams.  

It is time for me to make the micro movements necessary to bring my dreams to reality.  
Stop talking the talk and finally walk the walk.