free embroidery pattern

This time I want to share with all my blog visitors and readers this embroidery pattern. I made this drawing for my Illustration Blog and I thought that this same drawing will make a beautiful embroidery design.



You can use the design for a pillow, a quilt, a dress or whatever comes to your mind. I embroidered this one for the center of a pillow. I will add a border with different fabrics (patchwork) that match the embroidery thread colors.

Here is a tutorial created by Floresita about how to use a transfer pencil. You are going to need Floresita's tutorial in order to trace this free pattern onto your fabric. LINK
Make sure to visit Floresita's blog because she has wonderful ideas, patterns and nice crafty and embroidery articles (she runs a couple more blogs too).

I hope you enjoy this pattern and if you have any questions, just leave a comment and I will answer right here.

Click the picture to get the pattern



The pattern is a jpeg file. If you want to make it smaller or bigger, you can reduce or enlarge it on a photocopy machine OR use a picture program like photoshop to resize it.
Another way to enlarge or reduce the pattern is to open your print preview option from your browser window, there you will have a little window on the top that says "shrink to fit" click on the arrow next to it and you will have a series of percentages and even a custom size option. Select the desired percentage and you will be able to see the desired size of your pattern.

zakka style

This is a brief post just to show a couple new items I listed at my etsy shop. I will be adding more and I am still working on that tutorial OK?

swap softie

This is actually the 3rd soft toy I made. It is for a swap and it's not perfect but I think I am improving. I want to make some for gifts and in different colors and fabrics; maybe floral. Thanks everybody for visiting. If you are interested in the FAA swaps just click here, it is a lot of fun. If you want to know what FAA stands for, just visit the group's page and you will understand why I am a member :)

close to school days

Hello dear readers.
Well, last couple weeks have been about drawing, photography and a little bit of sewing. I am organizing my sewing items and as you can imagine the mess around does not give me much space to expand and start different sewing projects. My hands and camera are itching to finish that tutorial that is in progress; it is a surprise by the way (nothing special, just keeping it secret).
We have been getting out of the daily routine by taking short trips and visit some small towns up north here in the midwest. We took a ride to Upper Michigan and I loved the scenery of Lake Superior, absolutely love it. I wish we had more time to stop and take more pictures of the old mines and lighthouses, these are the kind of trips I like to take.
I love black and white photography so as a beginner I just wanted to share a few photos that I have been capturing in the last weeks. I am having some fun before going back to normal, before days of school and summer. I am anxious for the fall and to see the beautiful colors on the trees.

illustration greeting and note cards

Today I start selling my illustrations printed on greeting cards and note cards. The address to get them is: www.cafepress.com/tapazolli. There in cafe press they have a lot of products that can be customized with personal illustration. I really think that is a great idea, I myself got some greeting cards with my own illustrations. I will be adding some apparel and baby stuff too, so keep checking. I am working on some new very beautiful illustrations too and some photography.

I too have been working on some new bags ZAKKA style for my etsy shop, I love all the Japanese style handmade goods so I am working and making some really neat goodies. So as I said before keep checking.

I forgot to mention that I got some special promotion at my ETSY shop too. I am giving free shipping on some items so why don't you go and take a look for more details. OK enough for today. have a great week and thanks to all my readers for such nice comments and for visiting my blog.

P.S. Got a new tutorial in the oven and is coming soon :)

my new illustration blog

OK, as I commented in the last post I finally started my new Illustration Blog. It's name? Tapazolli, which is a Nahuatl word and it means "bird nest". Nahuatl is the most spoken Indigenous language in Mexico, just in case you don't know what "Nahuatl" means.
I think it will be way more practical for me to keep my illustrations and artwork separated from my crafty posts and pictures since I want to continue adding tutorials and show my latest creations on this blog.
In my illustration blog I will be more concentrated on creating a particular style as well as a way to promote my Illustrations for custom work, banners, headers, logos and so on.
Here is the link, take a look.

coming soon

In the near future I will be adding a new blog with some of my drawings. It's a project that I have been planing some time ago. I will feature digitalized hand drawn designs and I will be taking custom orders for websites, banners for blogs and ETSY shops, and avatars.
I am planning to feature some aceos, and atc's as well as custom prints for greeting cards, business cards, etc.
I will give more details in the near future. In the meantime if you have something in mind about a design for your banner or blog header, don't hesitate in dropping me a line to my email. I do custom work.

doodling around

Today I was playing with the pens that my hubby gave me as presents while my daughter was trying to imitate what I was doing. We were waiting for the plumber (the water heater broke)and in the meantime we were doodling around together. I wanted to try photoshop and doodles for long time now. And since I stop sewing for a little bit, I wanted to finally give it a try to photoshop. Here is what my doodles ended up looking like.

I have been looking on the Internet a nice tutorial about photoshop and hand drawings but I could never find anything helpful. I have to admit that I have been afraid of photoshop before. It was to confusing for me to use at times, and I did not want to get frustrated. I do photoshop some pictures and that has been a good way to practice and get to know the program a little bit (I know, I sound sort of photoshop illiterate).
I do have drawing skills and I want to make it more fun with photoshop. lets see what else I come up with...I am getting ideas now (oh no!).

printed labels and card holders

These are being added to my ETSY shop. Take a look.

The wonderful iSew blog has a great idea on how to make your own labels for your crafts or sewing projects. I really had to give it a try and I was very pleased with the results.
I made a batch of cardholders for my ESTY shop and I love the fact that the labels make the cardholders look nicely finished. I thank iSew for sharing this great idea with others. If you want to know more about how to make your own labels, visit the iSew blog following this LINK. Make sure to visit her online store or Etsy shop because she makes beautiful quilts and wonderful handbags.

another one

one more for the store

Work In Progress

Finally I have some extra time to write on my blog. With the sizzling weather and running all over from place to place I ended up without much energy to come and write all this week.
But what's more I have been crafting (very unusual, right?). I have been sewing some of those patchwork wristlets even when tired from the everyday chores because they are so much fun to make.
I love making color and pattern combinations but when the color schemes get crowded in my head I definitely have to write down my ideas, otherwise you usually see me looking at my color wheel. It is a good tool thought, but it gets me confused sometimes.
Here are is a picture of the work in progress:
And here is a picture of one of the wristlets that I finished and I will be adding to my ETSY shop. So if you are interested just check it out