I'm on a roll

Yet another new Elle Belle product! Linen Water.

I racked my brain trying to come up with a way to add scent to the new sensory snuggly and finally settled on linen water. The only draw back is that it doesn't last that long... so I decided to make my own and sell it in my shop too... problem solved! I found a recipe online that I like and is all natural. I just had to figure out packaging. There are a few places to get bottles and spray lids, but I wasn't totally in love with any of the them except one company that sold them only in bulk. I emailed them to inquire about a smaller order and a sales rep said he'd send me a sample of the bottles for free. I figured that would at least get me started and buy me a little time to find some more. They arrived promptly... without lids :( I emailed him back to please forward some lids and haven't heard from him yet, so we'll see. In the mean time, I found substitute lids that will work if I have any orders before I figure out a permanent solution. I used rub on letters to indicate the scent on the bottle and am pretty happy with how that looks and the picture I took as well:

Let me introduce you to one of life's little luxuries, linen water! Spray on dress shirts, bed sheets, your sensory snuggly (Check out my other listings) or any other material you'd like to add a faint but perceptible scent that gives an enhanced sense of freshness. The application of a hot iron helps to infuse the scent into the fabric, ensuring that the aroma will be enjoyed for an extended period of time.

Elle Belle's handmade linen water is all natural. Choose one of the scents below and be sure to let me know which one you want when you check out. If you're purchasing the sensory snuggly to give as a gift, this is the perfect addition!

Lavender - Aromatherapy benefits: balancing, soothing, normalizing, calming, relaxing, healing.

Vanilla - Aromatherapy benefits: comforting, promotes feelings of love and compassion.Sweet

Orange - Aromatherapy benefits: cheering, refreshing, upliftingBefore applying the linen water,

it is a good idea to make sure the fabric will not react to the product by staining or spotting. Cotton often works very well with linen water, while some synthetics may demonstrate a tendency to spot or discolor as a result of the combination of the linen water with a hot iron.

I'm such a lucky crafter!

Even though we have a teeny tiny house, I have the perfect craft/sewing space. I love to see the spaces other people feel creative in and how they organize, so I thought I'd share mine.

This room is off the living room, so I can keep an eye on my little one and/or whatever is going on in the main part of the house, but the French doors keep the mess confined and little fingers out of everything. Even though the room is only 10x10, there’s surprisingly enough space for all of my supplies, as long as I keep them organized. When I neglect clean up duty, it doesn’t take much for the space to be ridiculously cluttered and nearly unusable. My reward for my hard work on Elle Belle in the last couple of weeks was to clean my space… yep that’s a reward. When encouraged to find their "happy place" some people go to the beach, others maybe a mountain top, but for me, one of MY most happiest places of all is creating whatever strikes me at the moment in my impeccably clean, super organized craft space with female artists (think Nelly Furtado, Pink, Natasha Bedingfield, Tatu) playing loudly on the computer via Pandora.com. I kept my “happy place” in mind as I spent 5 full hours cleaning, reorganizing, and rejuvenating my space this weekend.

This is where the magic happens… my amazing machine, my computer, tools & supplies storage, spool racks, printer, and scale (I’m still struggling with the whole postage thing… not sure why, but I can’t figure out the most efficient and inexpensive way to manage mailing the packages out… any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!). I found pink boxes at Marshalls that fit the storage unit perfectly ages ago, they didn’t have them anymore when I reorganized the cabinet last, so I bought the green ones (see those in the picture above) at Jo-Anns. They fit well too and the outside labels make finding things and keeping it organized easier… don’t love that there’s pink on one side, green on the other, but the door slides closed, so you can only ever really see one side anyway.

Books that inspire me, and sharpies/packing supplies adorn the shelf above my cutting table. This is the best place in the house to take pictures... as evidenced by the pictures in this post... I took them all within 2 minutes of each other. This picture depicts the truest color of the room. My camera loves all the natural light that floods in that window. I use the white mat board that’s next to the table as a backdrop.

This corner of my space is home to some of the only tchotchkies in the house, my Lladro Polar Bears. My husband gave them to me one at a time as gifts for birthdays and Christmas at a time in our lives when they were a pure luxury that frankly, we couldn’t afford. I love them and although there really isn’t space in this room for decorations they make me smile, so there they sit next to a collage of our wedding photos. I have two of those short open shelving units, each flanking the French doors. More of the pink bins hold fabric scraps, and my most ingenious storage solution, a table top metal binder thingy that holds sleeves for all the stickers and die cuts (I was a scrapbooker in another life… the one before sewing) that adorn my packages now. The clothes hanging in the corner are on a wire cable my husband strung the length of the room for me. Right now it holds blanks, and my daughter's wooden butterfly mobile that's in need of repair, but when I’m getting ready for a craft event, and have a large inventory, I hang completed slings & works in progress from it on shower curtain hooks I found.

It doesn't flash/buzz/play music/integrate, it's Count and Spell beanbags with color recognition

As promised, here are the pics of the count and spell color recognition beanbags. They're finished and I really couldn't be happier with them! Since my last post, I filled them with what else... beans!... dry navy beans to be exact (they give them the perfect good ol' fashion bean weight, sound, and feel) pinned them all, and stitched them shut with invisible thread on top and black thread in the bobbin (see post below).

I'll post the listing in my shop tomorrow morning for sets of 6 and a full alphabet and then head to the post office to ship these 26.

I heart invisible thread!

I wasn't 100% happy with the finishing stitch on the sensory snuggly... I missed how the decorative stitch from the tag blankets gave the blanket a really polished/finished look, but I didn't think I could incorporate a top stitch on the snuggly because of the variety of texture, naps, and color of the quilted pieces. But I was talking it over with my friend and partner in crafting crime, Anne (who makes all the delicious Elle Belle quilts) and after discussing about 3 other possible solutions we had an "A Ha!" moment... invisible thread!

I've used invisible thread in the past on the one, and very likely only, quilt I made. It was an I Spy quilt, so there wasn't one color that would've worked throughout the variety of fabrics on the top and I didn't want to take away from the novelty prints, so I just used the "stitch in the ditch" method to quilt it with invisible thread on the top. Side Note: I have pictures of that quilt in process and had every intention of posting about it on my blog, but just making it was such a process (I have a problem with instant gratification!), I have felt justified in not "working" on it in any way, shape, or form since. It's been a year though, so the frustration level is finally waining and maybe I'll actually post about it sometime this week.

So, here are the pictures of the new design. I was already aware that this first test snuggly wasn't perfectly square (all snugglies since have been... again in part due to the quilting genius of Anne), the camera angle didn't help, but the top stitch draws even more attention to it, so consider yourself forewarned. Other than that, I really love how it looks. I like that it's a simple clean line that adds another dimension to the geometric/linear design of it. Since the top is invisible thread, it almost makes it look embossed. The bottom thread is pink or blue depending on the snuggly. I'm off to make a boy version (fittingly, for Anne's new son) so I can add pics of the new way to the listing. What do you think?

I broke out the invisible thread again tonight when I finished the count and spell color recognition beanbags. Yes, they're FINALLY done (again with the lesson in patience)! After my patience and instant gratification comments tonight, I bet you can guess that I avoid hand sewing at all costs. I leave a 1 1/2 inch opening at the bottom center of each beanbag and top stitch them closed after I fill them. I would've gone completely mad trying to exactly match the color of all 12 fabrics with thread that I would've used to top stitch a 1 inch hole closed with... never mind the expense. Invisible thread to the rescue! I used invisible thread on the color side and black on the print side, they look perfect! I literally just finished them and will post the pictures tomorrow after I've had a chance to take them in natural light.

Special Delivery from the Storque!

The Storque is Etsy's electronic newsletter of sorts. They post articles on a regular basis and feature sellers. The articles scroll at the bottom of the home page with little links and pictures of the featured sellers appearing next to the teaser. The Storque has been doing an ongoing series called Handmade Kids. They've put together a lot of great articles on finds on Etsy, being a Mom and running an Etsy shop, they're having a contest for the best handmade kids stuff on Etsy... lots of everything pertaining to kids. I've been keeping up with the articles but was a little behind and read a few days worth yesterday. Lo and behold, my little man tie onesie was featured in a Storque article. I didn't actually get to see it appear at the bottom of the home page, but I'm still super stoaked about finding the article! Here it is:

Treasury

YIPPEE! My Etsy Orphan shirt made it into a Treasury of other wonderful Etsy Kids stuff. It's such a treat when someone (like MaryElizabeths - check out this awesome dress of hers!) picks one of your items to promote :) View the Treasury by clicking on it below.

Beans Beans the Musical Fruit...

Why is it that silly stuff like that gets stuck in your head forever, but you can’t remember some of the important stuff to save your life?!? ANYWAY.

I have a wonderful customer who had an idea for some revisions to the count and spell bean bags. I’ve been working diligently to make her and my vision a reality and am most of the way there, but decided to share the process. If you’re not familiar with Elle Belle’s count and spell beanbags, they’re beanbags that have numbers embroidered on one side and letters embroidered on the other. I personally love educational/not buzzing/sans flashing/good old use your imagination type of toys. The count and spells definitely fit into that category, but they’re cutesy too, lots of mommies get them to spell their little one’s names. This customer ordered an entire set of the alphabet and asked about incorporating color recognition as well.

Soooo, I busted out the color wheel, polished up my vocabulary, and set out on a mission to find solid fabrics in the primary, secondary, and tertiary (hence the vocabulary lesson… I’m sure I must have run across tertiary colors at some point in grade school, but it really didn’t set any bells a ringin’) colors. I was so pleased that I only had to make 2 stops to pull all the colors together. I also found a great black with multi color dots print that looks fabulous with all the colors (and is gender neutral).

I had some number stickers lying around, so I put stickers cooresponding to the numbers to embroider on the colors, used a block font to embroider all the numbers and letters and waaa laaa.

Well, almost waa laa, I still have to stitch them up and fill them, but all the fabric is found, cut, and embroidered. I'll post more pics and a link to the listing when they're all done.

Now my biggest question is whether to keep the stripe fabric bags in the shop to cover the more decorative use for the bags (I still need to take a picture of how cute they are all lined up on a shelf) or just go the educational route. Weigh in if you’d like, I’d love to hear your opinion!

Couldn't Wait

to post this T! I usually try to space my postings on Etsy out. But it's dreary and rainy outside, my little one and I are having a lazy morning, and it hit me that it's the perfect time to take pics of a funny shirt I made a couple weeks ago. So here it is, my little one, with spastic bed head, sitting on my sewing table amidst the scraps, pearing out the rain fogged window... the cutest little orphan ever! Click on the picture to check out the listing.

Another New Elle Belle Item

Can you believe it?! Another new Elle Belle product! My new nephew inspired the "Little Man Tie Onesie". Isn't he an adorable model?! Just admit it :) Click on his picture to check out the listing.

Drum Roll Please!

Taa Daa! The newest arrival at Elle Belle, the SENSORY SNUGGLY. The description pretty much says it all, so I'll post that below. But it doesn't say that I'm so excited about adding the dimension of scent to the blanket (read to the bottom of the post to check that out)! AAAANNND, I posted the first ever listing for the sensory snuggly at 4:58 this afternoon and had a convo from a customer at 5:21 who wanted me to make a separate listing for her so she could purchase 2. Also, as of right now, only 14 people have viewed the girl Sensory Snuggly and I already have 1 heart. How great is that?! Love it!?

Minky, Chenille, Satin, Printed Micro-Suede, Corduroy, Crinkle Material, a ribbon loop, and a hint of scent OH MY!

The Elle Belle Sensory Snuggly is designed to sooth little ones while engaging them in tactile, auditory, visual, and even scent exploration. They are the perfect cozy alternative to the larger crib sized comforts they know and love. Will they be jealous of your super cute handmade gift at the next shower? ©

• Hidden crinkle material gives one corner a curious crunchy sound & feel

• 6 snuggly fabrics (including unbeatably soft genuine Minky) combine for a super cute design and add a variety of texture and color

• At approximately 12x12 inches square, they’re just the right size for the diaper bag and convenient for car seat playtime

• The ribbon loop is great for attaching to toy rings and the perfect landing spot for curious fingers

• A subtle hint of scent in one corner of your blanket engages little noses and makes opening this special gift a treat for Mommy too

• We’ll personalize them to your hearts delight!

When you check out, please put the following info in the notes to seller and I'll get busy making your custom design:

1) Embroidery – Please let me know what you'd like embroidered and in what thread color (if no thread color is indicated I'll use the color shown in this listing).

2) Scent - One corner of the blanket will be infused with all natural linen water which adds a hint of scent without being overpowering. Select Vanilla, Lavender, or Coconut. NOTE: If no scent is chosen, your snuggly will be unscented. Linen water adds a fresh mild scent to fabrics, but is not permanent. The scent will likely fade in a couple of weeks or after the first washing. Elle Belle has you covered though, purchase a separate bottle of our handmade linen water and freshen up your snuggly (and any of the other fabrics in your home) any time you choose.

Please see my other listings for the girl sensory snuggly.

machine wash cold, air dry

Your Sensory Snuggly will ship within one week of your order