Brooch Packaging

Well here is my packaging so far! What do you think? The brooches are in a cellophane bag with this label. Here they are all ready to be taken to the shop.

SRE Brooches

Here are some more brooches I've been creating! My favorite one is the pink with the lace and bouquet with a beaded bow. I've been chatting with friends at Hand Embroidery and have come to the conclusion of $30 for the button cover brooch and $40 for the CQ heart brooch. I can always change the prices if they are either to high or too low. Now to create my packaging! The ladies also suggested going with my Honeybee's Boutique handcrafted original by Melissa with my Etsy link.
AND I've already have an order for 1 heart brooch and 2 round brooches from a sweet lady, Charita, who is in a couple of Yahoo groups with me! Just being able to create silk ribbon embroideries is the icing on the cake so getting paid for it is sprinkles on top of the icing.

Heart Brooch

This is a brooch made from the tiny crazy quilt hearts that Gerard has been sewing up. I embellished it, and I really love how it turned out. It is made by turning under and ironing the edges under and then gluing felt to the back and a pin backing to the felt.
This one is also going to go to the needlework store to sell as well. I need to have a price for this as well. I think it is going to cost a little more because more work and embellishment goes into them. The heart shape is harder to do than just a simple round button cover.

Brooches and Needlework Store

Yesterday Gerard surprised me and took me to a needlework store called 'In Stitches' to check out what embroidery supplies I could find! It's mostly yarns but there was a small section that had embroidery supplies. I bought these threads and some petite seed beads and bugle beads.
The lady who is the owner of the store saw my button cover brooches that I was wearing. I was wearing this one threaded on a ribbon necklace and this one as a brooch on my purse. Anyway she asked how I made them and I told her and she told me that if I'd make some and bring them in that she was sure they would sell since the ladies that come in are always looking for unique pins to put on their knitted purses! So these two 2 inch brooches are to take in to the store.
I have no idea what to price them though and was hoping for some help from you all. How much do you think they are worth? They are made with silk fabric and have silk ribbon embroidery and even some bead embroidery. Each took me about 2-3 hours to complete and the designs are completely my own creation.

My Etsy: Honey Bee's Boutique

Here is another addition to My Etsy Shop. Gerard has been making tiny crazy quilt hearts and I put together some embellishments for a little kit. To me this one feels really elegant. It has a cameo button with the shank removed, gold metallic DMC floss, a bit of lace, pin back, and size 15 seed beads in black and white.

This one is more of a pretty floral feel. It has a butterfly motif and some silk buttonhole twist along with size 11 seed beads, lace, and a pin back.

Monogrammed 'G'

My Mother-In-Law, Gloria, absolutely loved her monogrammed pillowcase that I made her for Christmas and told me that she has 2 pillows so she needed another! LOL So I told her I would make her another! It's not the exact same monogram but I love this one as well and I thought it would make a nice complimentary pillowcase. It is the same pink flannel pillowcase though. The stitches I used are back stitch and satin stitch in 2 strands DMC floss and 4mm silk ribbon in lazy daisy and colonial knots.

Onesie's for Baby J

These are the last 2 onesie's in this size (3-6mo.) that I had prepared to embroider for Baby J, who is now Nathan Marc Johnson. (Still to be born)
I love the little cupcake! I added sprinkles to the design with french knots and straight stitches. On both designs I just used 1 strand DMC floss and worked the design in stem stitch.

In The Garden RR: Jackie's block

I'm almost finished, but I ran into a tiny bit of a problem...I ran out of the ribbon I was using! I was using Ribbonsmyth's 4mm Moss Green silk ribbon which comes in 5 yards...I used the whole 5 yards up! It's big motif because the block is a 12 incher! So the motif is about 9 1/2 inches high by 6 inches across!
I have to say that I'm getting quite good at the Melanie Rose now! LOL I'm getting pretty fast at making it now since I have made so many in this motif. It's really fun!

Tiny CQ Heart

Gerard made this tiny crazy quilt heart. Isn't it cute? He made it by sewing a scrap of red Dupioni silk onto muslin in the shape of a heart and then he added the other bits of fabric over the top. Since it is so small that was easier than making a tiny 5 sided center piece. Then he stitched the heart shape over the top again.

My Etsy: Honey Bee's Boutique

I added more to My Etsy Shop! You know how in Crazy Quilting we are always looking for more texture? Well I always find myself drooling over the specialty yarns but don't want to spend the money on a whole roll just to use a little bit of it. (And they can be expensive) So I got the idea to create fiber packs of it so this way I can have some and share some with you too, without us all breaking the bank!
HoneyBeesBliss.etsy.com

Valentine's Heart Swap: 2nd heart

I think it's pretty neat how people can use the same design and do it in all different ways. This Heart Pattern is meant for redwork but Gerard and I did it in totally different ways. Here is a link to Charlene's version of the heart done in silks! Here is a link to Leslie's done with Brazilian Embroidery.
The pink fuzzy is pink eyelash yarn couched down to the flower shape and also has a Mother-of-Pearl button with a glass heart bead in the middle. I also added glass bead flowers to the heart. I used different shades of floss with different stitches. All the stitches I used are: back stitch, chain stitch, lazy daisy, stem stitch, split stitch, couching, and french knots.

First Embroidery: Hubby's Heart

Here is Gerard's heart all finished! Isn't it wonderful?! I love the frayed edges. The embroidery stitches he used are french knots, back stitch, and lazy daisy. See he made lazy daisy leaves in 2mm silk ribbon! I think it's a really cool heart!

In The Garden RR: Jackie's block

I worked on Jackie's block today starting a climbing rose motif. I used Ribbonsmyth's Buttonhole Silk Twist for the feather stitch. It was my first time using it and I loved it! It's also on sale right now as well as her silk ribbon. I used Ribbonsmyth's 4mm silk ribbon in Moss Green and Honey Gold for the lazy daisy leaves and the Melanie Rose. I used a fly stitch for the base of the rose.
***Updated photo added on 22 Jan. 2007

Work In Progress: Jacket

I worked some more on my jacket adding 5 petaled ribbon stitch flowers. I also added some clear Swarovski crystal beads to the middle of the roses and amber seed beads to the middle of the light purple flowers.
Here is a link to my first steps on the Jacket.

My Etsy: Honey Bee's Boutique

Here is a packet of yarns I put together and have up on Etsy. I always look for ways to vary my stash but I don't always want a whole ball of the yarn so I cut some 1 yard pieces of some yarns I've bought for my stash.
I love using the fuzzy ones for french knots they add such nice "wanna touch it" texture!
HoneyBeesBliss.etsy.com

My Etsy Shop

A few months ago I had gotten a really good deal on Dupioni Silk and I stocked up. I got much more than I'll ever use so I decided to open up a Etsy Shop and share it. I have no idea what would be the best way to bundle or what sizes would be the best for projects but I started out by creating 2 different bundles of six 10x10 inch squares of 3 fabrics. I just thought these colors were delicious!
Click Here to take a look. I think I created a nice and tempting deal!
If you have any suggestions let me know!
HoneyBeesBliss.etsy.com

Hubby's Embroidered Heart

Here it is! My Hubby's first embroidery work in progress! So far he's done the french knot and the back stitch. You can click on the photo to see his stitches better. They are so neat and well done, I'm so proud! His idea was to couch the little fabric bits down with embroidery and let the raw edge be showing and frayed. I love it! He's going to put a cool looking button in the middle of the flower with seed beads in it's holes too.

Valentine's Day Heart Swap

These are going to be my hearts for the Valentine's Heart Swap. I got the pattern for the unfinished one Here, and the red one I made up my own design. What I did on the red one was cut out a heart shape in white lace and then couched it down with the colonial knot heart motif in 4mm white silk ribbon, then I added bead embroidery hearts to the middle of the colonial knot hearts with silver lined clear seed beads. I added a running stitch between the lace and the edge of the heart with 4mm white silk ribbon and then made a "bow" at the top by making a large loop and taking my needle up the middle of it and doing a french knot. I added a little silver bee with seed beads tassel to the bow.

First Embroidery

Over at the Hand Embroidery Yahoo Group Gerard was voted in as an honorary member by proxy. So Gerard decided he better learn a little embroidery! LOL I told him I had to take a picture or no one would believe me! LOL He had an idea using this pattern and I love it! I'll show you what his idea is later. So he wanted to learn a knot that would do for the little dots and since he picked out a size 5 Perle cotton I showed him the one wrap french knot. These are his very first ones ever! Aren't they really, really good?! I also showed him the back stitch and I tell you his back stitching is so neat and even! I showed him how to do the Quilter's Knot for the end of his thread and how to end off when he's done with a section. I am so impressed! And wait till you see what his idea is! Can you guess from the look of the fabric?
Click Here for the heart design he used.

Valentine's Heart: Part 3

For the 'Love' I used a disappearing ink pen and wrote love on the fabric. I find it best to practice writing it out on a piece of paper first and then writing on the fabric. Also if you just don't like your handwriting you can use your computer! Just open up a program that you can type in and type the word you want and then play around with changing the font and size of the word. You can then print it and transfer it with your preferred method.

I stitched in the 'Love' in the medium colored pink DMC floss in 1 strand using the stem and outline stitches. I switch depending on which way the curve is going. I also find it easier for me to do the stem stitch without a hoop even with loose tension in a hoop. For me I need to move the fabric to get the best looking stem stitch and I just can't do that if it's in a hoop.

Next I pinned my leaf design in place and embroidered that in the same way I did on the larger rose motif. With the darker shade floss for the stems and the lighter shade floss for the rest of the leaf and veins.

Then I removed the tracing paper. This time I just used the blunt end of a needle to help get the little bits out instead of the tweezers.





I basted the heart shape with the pink floss so that it will be easily visible for finishing and can be pulled out without scarring the fabric after sewing over it.




After rinsing out the water erasable ink with cold water I let it dry and cut it down to a nice size to work with. I'm keeping it square and giving it enough room around it because it is easier to finish the heart that way.

All finished! Now I love it so much I don't know if I want to swap it! So much hard work and detail! I could applique it to some clothes because it is washable...humm. It's totally "Me" so it's really hard to decide if I should just keep it or swap it. Wouldn't it look totally cute on the bottom leg of some jeans?