November Featured Members and Giveaways!

This month, please give a warm welcome to Amanda from Twinkle Star Art and Bel and Em from EmBelISH, as they give us a sneak peak into their fabulous worlds of crafty goodness, and give away some of their wonderful handmade items to two lucky readers. To enter is simple - just leave us a comment at the bottom of this post. For more info (and to find out how to score an extra entry) read The Rules at the bottom of the post. Good luck everyone :)

Introducing BrisStyle member...

NAME: Amanda Francey
ETSY SHOP NAME: Twinkle Star Art

1. Can you please describe the items you are giving away to one of our readers?

Paris Art Collection - set of three 8 x 8 inch (20 x 20cm) art prints.


Paris 'POODLE WALK' and 'GIRL'S ROOM' art prints, featuring a parisian girl wearing her mother's oversized shoes which have an uncanny resemblance to her pet poodle. (You can request any colour you wish for the little parisian girl's hair.)



The third art print, Paris POODLE 'letter art' name print. Personalised with the child's first name and initial. (This may also include the child's birthdate if requested). A gift card in the matching Paris design will be included.


2. How would you describe your work?

Sweet illustrations of childhood with a spoonful of yesteryear and pinch of today for good measure. Each artwork begins as a traditional graphite pencil drawing on paper. Then completed with a mixed media of watercolour wash, digital colouring and vector illustration.

3. How did your Etsy shop come into being?

My husband passed me an article about Etsy in the Financial Review just over two years ago. I was so excited, I don't think I even finished reading the article before setting up my own Etsy shop that very same day.

4. Who or What inspires you?

My three children inspire me everyday. I have a drawer jammed with pages of ideas from the funny, cute and crazy things they do. I would need ten lifetimes to transform all my scribbles into illustrations and/or children's books. Whenever I go digging around in that drawer, I find myself procrastinating for a very long time. I tend to avoid it whenever possible.

I'm also inspired by Enid Blyton's classic children book stories and childhood from yesteryear. A time when backyards were larger, streets safer to play and a child's day was filled with wonder, adventure and daydreams. A time before computer games and cartoon connection interrupted young imaginations.

5. Can you describe your studio / work area?

I work from our postwar home in the old laundry room converted to art studio. It's a very tight workspace and still looks like a laundry room with it's frosted glass louvered windows.


There's no room to actually draw in my overcrowded studio, so I tend to do all my drawing out in our dining room where there's more space, air and I can actually see out a window. We're hoping to extend our house in the near future and include a good sized room to be my new art studio. I would love to have a large art bench in the middle of the room with shelving underneath to store all my papers and materials. I try visualising this frequently in the hope it will actually come true.

6. What is your favourite thing in the shop at the moment?

My Aviator collection, although, I'm really happy with how my Butterfly Catcher preliminary sketches are going for my latest girls collection. I'm sure this will be my new favourite once it arrives in my Etsy shop.


7. Do you have any other places that people can view your work?

website: http://twinklestarart.com
blog: http://twinklestarart.typepad.com
made it shop: http://www.madeit.com.au/TwinkleStarArt
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Twinkle-Star-Art/77541206562
twitter: http://twitter.com/twinklestarart

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Introducing BrisStyle member...


NAME: Em and Bel
ETSY SHOP NAME: EmBelISHhairclips

1. Can you please describe the items you are giving away to one of our readers?

A set of keyboard magnets in a sliver gift tin, a set of fabric button covered push pins and a tea bag wallet.


2. How would you describe your work?

Ever changing. Neither Em nor myself can ever stick to just the one thing. We are constantly coming up with ideas to bounce of one another and trying out new things to make.



3. How did your Etsy shop come into being?

We both had baby boys, a love of craft and lots of friends with little girls that we couldn’t find anything cute for them for presents so we decided to kill two birds with one stone, gain a little crafting time for ourselves and make some beautiful unique presents for all the cute little girls we knew.


4. Who or What inspires you?

Everything and everyone I guess, our boys are constant sources of inspiration plus just looking through ETSY and seeing all the amazing creations everyone comes up with and of course catching up with all the crafty BrisStylettes and Brown Owls girls.

5. Do you 'reduce, reuse, recycle' as part of your creative process?

We both love to use vintage buttons that we have collected from family and op shops, and our new keyboard push pin and magnet range as well as the car magnets are made using recycled goods that would otherwise be thrown away.

6. Can you describe your studio / work area?

I have a little section in our garage that I like to go and hide in (it’s not usually this tidy especially when I am in the flurry of creating) and Em has a special craft cupboard in her dining area and uses her kitchen table and breakfast bar, its super big and great for cutting out fabric.



7. What is your favourite thing in the shop at the moment?

It’s hard to pick just one but at the moment I would say the Russian Doll Magnet set, not only are they functional they are super cute too (I am also a sucker for Em’s Tea Bag Wallets too they are just so handy!). We still have so much extra stock still to photograph and list so if anyone has seen anything they like on our blog etc we happily accept custom orders and will try and meet your requests and will hopefully find some time to list lots more things over the coming weeks.


8. Do you have any other places that people can view your work?

Etsy Shop: www.embelishhairclips.etsy.com
Blog: www.embelish.blogspot.com

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Thank-you Amanda and Bel and Em!

The rules:

Simply leave a comment on this post to be in the running to win one of these two fabulous giveaways. Be sure to leave a way for us to contact you. If you don't have a blog, please include your email address. Only one entry per person. You may enter twice if you mention this giveaway on your blog. If you choose to do this, please pop back after posting to your blog and include the url address to the post it was mentioned on here in the comments. This will count as your second entry. International folk are welcome to enter. BrisStyle members and their immediate families (ie: husbands/partners, dependent children, and their computer savvy pets) are excluded from entering all BrisStyle giveaways. A name will be randomly drawn on the 25th of this month and the winner will be announced on the blog on that same day.