Hi, I'm Cathy from Sleeping Fox Stitchery on Etsy! First of all, thanks so much to Erin for running a great blog and Etsy store and for inviting me to write this guest post.
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| Sleeping Fox Stitchery |
I sell hand-embroidered greeting cards and other embroidered items. I actually got into making cards on a whim. After one Christmas, I had some free time on my hands, and I was sick of doing the regular old bland thank you cards. I'm a constant user of Pinterest, and I read a lot of craft blogs; I had somewhere seen a tutorial on embroidering on paper, so I grabbed some leftover cardstock and started stitching. The cards turned out so well and were so fun that I started thinking about making them en masse for a possible Etsy shop.
Now, here I am, running a new and steadily growing Etsy shop. Thanks to the awesome Etsy community (including our lovely blog hostess, Erin), I'm really enjoying being an Etsy seller. It's a ton of hard work, but it's a nice complement to a day job, and hard work is never quite so hard if it's something you enjoy.
My designs are inspired by everything all around me. As you may notice, a lot of my designs are cute fuzzy animals. My pets include two cats and a chinchilla, so they provide plenty of inspiration. I'll also credit David Attenborough's seminal nature documentaries for filling me up with a delightful combination of knowledge and squeeeees involving cute fuzzy animals. Also my boyfriend and I both have cute fuzzy radar, so if anything is in my general vicinity I'm pretty sure to take note and sketch it down for a future card.
I certainly also try to keep trends in mind. I am, however, quite picky in my own tastes. Therefore, I don't follow trends just to follow trends. I draw inspiration from popular trends and make them my own. I take note of trendy color combinations quite a bit, because I've always felt a little uncomfortable with my ability to combine colors. I'm an incredibly avid Pinterest user (you can follow me at www.pinterest.com/cslove01), and I make good use of that site for inspiration and organization.
Finally, the medium makes a big difference in my designs. Paper is too fragile to accept as much detail as fabric. Luckily, I tend to work better when I have a bit of a challenge ahead of me. When I'm sketching out my designs, I have to keep in mind that I won't be able to make the designs very detailed. I've tried to make this as a bit of an aesthetic in my shop – I hope that my designs convey a pleasant simplicity.
So there you have it, a basic idea of how Sleeping Fox Stitchery designs are born. As you can see above, and the answer to the most frequent question I'm asked: “you punch the holes first.” I love all my cards and embroidered gifts, and I'm happy to continue giving them to my own friends and loved ones, just as I first started out. My main goal with my shop is to spread the joy I get in giving out these simple little gifts. I hope you'll stop by and take a look. I'm always designing new items and adding them to the store, I'm so excited to see what my future on Etsy will bring. Thanks!
Cathy S. Love
Please find all of my pertinent internet contact info below. I'll be pleased as punch if you stop by!
Thank you for sharing. Good luck!
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