Wow Factor Wednesday!

This is the first article for a weekly feature called Wow Factor Wednesday... These articles are going to introduce you to an artist from etsy or artfire.

Todays artist is AmiKami from Etsy.com

Her beautiful knit and crocheted items can be found at www.etsy.com/shop/AmiKami

A little about this amazing creator

My name is Victoria and I'm a mom to three wonderful little boys. We live in a small town nestled in the San Bernardino Mountains.

AmiKami means "knitting spirit" --- through the time and concentrated attention that goes into this craft, I believe that handknitted articles possess a special quality that no manufactured piece can have.

I have a deep appreciation for handcrafting and feel that over the past decades we have been losing that sense of personal human connection through an ever growing dependence on commercial manufacturing. It thrills me to have found a community here on Etsy that provides the world with an opportunity to rediscover the wonder and beauty of items produced by loving hands instead of machines.

I have always had a great interest in history, particularly the period between mid 1800's to early 1900's. I enjoy reading books written in that time, studying the fashions and styles, learning the fine art of various "dainty work" and watching old movies - with a special fascination with Silent Films (I can get lost in them for hours!)

Having been collecting antique knitting & crochet books and patterns for years, I have acquired a vast library where I find endless inspiration for my work here in my Etsy shop. I love finding ways to incorporate past aesthetics with a hint of modern styling. Fiber is my medium of choice and knitting still never fails to enchant and challenge me

We would like to thank Victoria for the info and for allowing us to feature her on our blog. We hope you stop by her shop and take a look around. We're sure you will fall in love with her gorgeous creations, we sure did!

Trends & Techniques Tuesday! Tear Bears

Todays featured technique is Tear Bears. Those of you who scrapbook know all about tear bears and their current popularity. They are by far one of my favorite paper goodies to make and to decorate! The possibilities for these little guys are endless.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with tear bears, they are fuzzy, handmade teddy bear paper piecing that are so cute you will want to hug them. With sparkly eyes, fuzzy limbs and adorable clothes, these bears make sweet page accents for any occasion. Their limbs are poseable so they can be positioned in a variety of ways!

What will you need??

•Chalk
•Lightbox
•Black pen
•Water pen or cotton swab
•Quick drying glue
•Brown mulberry paper
•Toothbrush
•Black cardstock
•White paper
•White pen

Step by Step
Select a piece of light brown mulberry paper, which is a handmade paper with fibers in it. When torn, the edges remain fuzzy. You can find mulberry paper at ACMoore or online at a variety of scrapbooking sites.

Step 2
Draw a pattern for your tear bear on a white sheet of paper. If you need a pattern, you can download and print one from About.com (just search tear bear pattern). It should include one large pear shape for the torso, one medium round circle for the head, four medium rounded rectangles for the arms and legs, five small ovals for the hands, feet and muzzle, and two small half circles for the ear. These can be sized up or down for a small, medium or large bear.

Step 3
Place your mulberry paper over the pattern sheet.

Step 4
Trace a line around one pattern image, using a water pen or a wet cotton swab. You should be able to see the pattern paper through the mulberry paper. If you cannot see the pattern, use a light box to help illuminate the image.

Step 5
Tear on the wet line to remove the shape from the mulberry paper. Repeat this process until you have torn out all 13 body parts.

Step 6
Stipple the edges of the body parts with a toothbrush to help them appear fuzzy.

Step 7
Apply chalk to the edges of the body parts. Make sure the paper is dry first. A slightly lighter color of brown is best. Use pink chalk on the cheeks.

Step 8
Assemble your bear. The hands and feet should lay on top of the arms and legs. The ears should be behind the head and the muzzle should be near the bottom of the face.

Step 9
Glue the body pieces together using quick drying glue.

Step 10
Cut out two small circles for the eye and one small oval for the nose from black cardstock.

Step 11
Glue the eyes over the muzzle and glue the nose in the top center of the muzzle. Using a white pen, add three small white dots on each piece as the sparkle in their eyes and the wetness of their nose.

Step 12
Draw a black line down the muzzle from the nose for the mouth and add two eyebrows.

Now that your tear bear is complete, you can dress them up and try different poses before gluing!

Trends & Techniques Tuesday! To Temper or Not Temper??

Welcome to Trends and Techniques Tuesday! After much deliberation we have finally figured out a format for our beloved blog. Make sure you come back tomorrow for Wow Factor Wednesday; we will be featuring an artist from either Etsy or Artfire!

I decided to make this first article about something that is near and dear to my heart...CHOCOLATE!! I love chocolate and it is fun to work with, once you have the proper techniques. Chocolate is a funny creature as it can go from silky smooth and cooperative to rigid and frustrating in a matter of seconds.

So, what is "tempering chocolate" anyway? Well, tempering is a method of allowing the crystals in the chocolate to be distributed and suspended evenly throughout the final product. Correctly tempered chocolate will produce a shiny, bright and crisp chocolate, while incorrectly tempered chocolate will appear streaky and dull.

There are a couple of different methods of tempering, my personal perference is the "seed method".

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler while stirring to ensure unform temperature.





Once the chocolate has fully melted and reached a temperature of over 105°F (41°C), remove it from the heat. At this temperature, all the crystals, loose or stable, should be melted. Add a piece of unmelted chocolate to provide the seed crystals. This piece can be as big as 2 ounces (if you're melting a sizeable amount of chocolate) or can be chopped up into a few smaller pieces.





Stir until the chocolate's temperature enters the tempering range, 88-90°F (31-32°C). The chocolate should be kept at this temperature until used.




Specific Tempering Temperatures
Depending on the cocoa butter content of the chocolate and introduction of other ingredients, the tempering temperature of chocolate varies. Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking provides these values for the three broad categories of chocolate:

Type of Chocolate Tempering Temperature
Dark (no milk content) 88-90°F (31-32°C)
Milk 86-88°F (30-31°C)
White 80-82°F (27-28°C)

Note that although white chocolate does not contain any cacao solids, it is still subject to the same tempering procedures since it is made of cocoa butter.

Storage
Tempered chocolate can be stored for several months without blooming at constant cool room temperature, 60-65°F (15-18°C).

Now you are ready to make a confection creation to die for!! Hope you enjoyed this little chocolate tutorial and come back to see us soon!!

Feeling a Bit Down Hearted

I'm feeling a bit frustrated today. I recently opened an Etsy store as well as an Artfire store and I'm finding it rather difficult to get things moving! I have opened a twitter and blog account, built a facebook fan page, I'm listing everyday and I'm posting in the forums. I even joined a team; but nothing is working. My views are up but my sales are stagnant. I know it's only been a little over a month but I'm getting impatient.

On top of all that I'm ready to pull my hair out because of the technologic difficulties I've been having! Something like adding a picture to a post should not be a difficult thing, but I'm finding that it is.

All in all this experience is becoming a bit ball of frustration and stress!

Ok well I'm sorry that one of my first posts is nothing but a vent session. Promise I'll get better at this. Thanks for hangin in there with me!

Thank You for your support!

Thank you to those who have become followers. I am ashamed to admit I have been trying to spruce up my blog by adding links to my etsy store but I don't seem to be able to figure it out. Oh and what the heck is a "widget"???? I never thought I was that far out of the loop... Well guess I'll keep plugging along. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Welcome! A Little Introduction..

Hey, I finally figured this out. Not nearly as hard as I thought it would be! Well, to tell you a little bit about us.. we are a small company specializing in whimsical paper goodies & more. We have a real passion for handmade treats of all kinds! We currently have a shop on etsy.com, artfire.com and ebay.com. This blog is not only for self-promotion but also for education, awareness and promotion of incredible artisans. Over the coming weeks we will be including informational articles, newest trends, hot artists and more; in not just paper but all things handcrafted! We hope you enjoy what we bring to the blogging table!