Artist Spotlight: Part Ninety-One

You've met the talented Kris here before, but now she's got two shops at Handmade Artists!  The one from which I've shopped is Reflections, where she's got all her wonderful glasswork, ornaments, paperweights, wind chimes, vases, suncatchers, candle holders, and crazy amazing art.

Getting ready for Valentine's Day!

 

I love this tetrahedron!  I have one like it, but this is beautiful.  They're just so fun to look at and definitely a conversation piece for your desk.

I just love these wind chimes! 

The other is lisianblue, where she makes available her amazing knitted and crocheted items, quilts, and some other amazing things.

How cute is this snake?  It's a necklace, a toy, a lariat... all at once!

This piece, quilted, beaded, and collaged, just absolutely blows me away.

To keep up with Kris, be sure to follow her blog.  Never know what she'll create next!

My Handmade Holidays

I did a lot of creating this season.  A lot.  I'm tired, but still truckin' along.

I suppose I should start with Chanukah, which also happened to pretty much coincide with one nephew's birthday, so I include the birthday in this post too.

Both nephews, for Chanukah and Christmas, got these cute magnetic fishing games I made.

Eric helped too; he cut down the dowels for me to make the fishing poles!

And I knitted each one a fish like this one.

But not all the crafts were mine, and I really should back up.  First, there was one gift exchange with a group, and for my recipient, in addition to giving her my own candles, soap, and one of my washcloths, I gave her a beautiful bear ornament from Reflections, like this one.

And Kris, the shop owner, was so wonderful that she sent one for our tree too!

And no, we don't have a fake white tree, we get the real thing from the local EMS, generally.  It just doesn't show up as well on the dark green in a photo, so that's Kris' shop photo.  Here's how it looks in our house:

I also gave the same person this cool hot/cold pack in a racing fabric from Lil' Bit Sassy.  My recipient's favorite sport is NASCAR, after all.

Then in another exchange, in addition to one of our bath salts and one of our candles, I gave my recipient these incense sticks from Delightful Scents.

My office is also REALLY big on Christmas, so we had all sorts of gift exchanges.  For my boss, I got this terrific print of a watercolor painting, which I then framed for her.  It was from StartsArts.

It looks even more amazing in person, and Eric and I kind of want one for ourselves too.  The colors are so bright and vivid!

For the associate with whom I also work, I got this really pretty hanging tealight holder from Reflections.  Fall is her favorite season, so I thought it was perfect.

And for our office white elephant exchange, I got this awesome mug from River Rock Arts, and gave it with some homemade chocolates and a Dunkin Donuts gift card.

That mug is called "oversized" in the description, but believe me when I tell you it's HUGE and gorgeous, and I will own some at some point!

And to everyone in the office, I gave handmade snowman lollipops.  With 14 people in the office and three pops per person, 42 pops took me quite a while to do.  I admire chocolatiers, for sure.  But at the end, everyone got one dark chocolate, one milk chocolate, and one white chocolate pop.

For each other, Eric got me some amazing teas and other stuff, and I got him a dehydrator and some books and things.  It was a great Chanukah and Christmas all around!

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Artist Spotlight: Part Sixty

Wow, I've done quite a few of these, haven't I?  Well, I've got a treat for you this week, something different.  Glass (and clay) artist Kay, of Kayz Kreations.

Kay has been doing stained glass and mosaics for several years and enjoys both, especially her ability to create unique and charming items for home and garden.  Hailing from Killeen, TX, she definitely has an affinity for items with Texas themes.

Like so many of the artists I bring you, Kay is multitalented.  She started with a stained glass class at a community college and was hooked.

(Have you started your holiday shopping yet?  How perfect would this be to decorate your home for your holiday dinner or party?  Or as a gift for someone you love?  Find it here.)

A year later, Kay took a mosaics class and started to run with that too!

I love the humor in that one.  So cute for a kid's bedroom or clubhouse door!  Or heck, there are days I'd love to hang it on my own door!

About 2.5 years ago, Kay took a fused glass class and added that to her talents too.

As a lover of gardening, a lot of her items and themes are for the outdoors, like these fun garden stakes in stained glass and clay.

Or these great birdfeeders.

And this really pretty birdhouse.

She used recycled bottles for this fun wind chime.

And she's even expanded into the world of jewelry!

You can read on her blog how she won a contest with this cool and interesting necklace.

And you can shop her wares in her Etsy and Zibbet shops.