New project

It's always great to get custom requests, they challenge me and most of the time lead to even more new ideas and new creations! This time I'm hand embroidering this custom text for a banner, it's the cutest thing I've seen! So far it has turned out just as good as I imagine it would :-)
Hope you have a lovely week,
Aleka

Yay!

A happy little banner, this one is hand embroidered with black thread for the Yay and colorful cotton threads as confetti. I do like to have pretty things around me when I work, it's a nice distraction when I feel stressed or uncertain, so this one is hanging right above my desk!
Hope you have a lovely weekend :-)
Aleka

Greek summer in thread

Fall is officially here! It's been only a few days into September and the weather has changed a lot, it's been raining since yesterday and it seems it will continue like this for a few more days.
I didn't get to travel anywhere this summer but I did a bit of mental traveling by starting an ambitious embroidery project. I made these hoops as a reminder of my travels in past years, the dovecot is from Andros island, the temple is from the temple of Poseidon and the windmill from Santorini island!
Each hoop took a few days to finish and is one of a kind! I loved this project so much though I was a bit uncertain when I started and there were a couple of moments where I had to rip stitches and do them over. But overall it was a very fulfilling experience so much that now I'm trying to find another idea, something new that I can create with thread on these little hoops :-)
Wishing you a lovely day,
Aleka

Embroidery work

I always wanted to try a more free style of embroidery, it is more demanding but the result is so worth it! I picked one of my photos as inspiration for this hoop, it's part of the temple of Poseidon against a blue sky. This is a one of a kind embroidery hoop, part of my "inspired by Greece" series :-)

Wishing you a lovely day,
Aleka

Soft colors palette

Rainy and then sunny, it's a bit like spring in the summer but I like it :-)
Georgia is working on a cross stitch project, I'm loving the muted, soft colors she picked!
Hope you have a lovely weekend,
Aleka

Spring cleaning

On my working table, small felt hearts.
And finally sorted my embroidery threads, I'm in spring cleaning mood :-)

Line logos, love the simplicity.
xoxo
Aleka

Be cool!

It's a bit hard to stay cool in the summer :-)
Georgia has been working on cross stitch hoops, "Be cool" and "love" are already in the shop. More will follow!

Hope you are having a great week,
Aleka

Embroidered photos

Yesterday the Etsy Greek Street Team organized a craft party, the theme was "bring new life to photographs". In other words we used thread, sequins, beads to give color to our photos! My photo is the first one, it's my mom with my brother and me. Georgia did the second one, she's the little baby trying to escape from her big sister! (that's me hehe)
You can see more photos from the event here.

Wishing you a lovely week,
Aleka

Threads

It's quite fun using colorful threads :-)
Looks a bit messy but it's just the back, the front is all neat and tidy.

Watch the "Big Green Idea" , a fun little clip :-)
Have a lovely day,
Aleka

It's a puzzle

Hello there!
It's been almost two months since my last post but I've been busy (and sometimes a little lazy too!).
Here's a project I finished for the Etsy Greek Street Team: it's a puzzle piece with a positive message embroidered on it. It's part of the craftivism project, to help spread happiness around us!
I met with other team members and we crafted together, it was super fun and it helped me get some more creative ideas too.

Happy April and don't get fooled today :-)
Aleka

Sunny and working

The sunny days are here, it's like spring in the middle of winter :-)
And I have a stack of hearts to make for the weekend, hopefully I'll stay concentrated long enough to finish them!
I've been working and finishing a couple of new things too, I've been busy with the gloomy weather.
Now all this sunshine makes me want to go out :-)

Wishing you a great weekend,
Aleka

New year's hoop art tutorial

Hello!
This is a project I had in my mind for a while, it didn't take me a long time to make it and I do love the result. I've used white fabric mounted on an 6 inch embroidery hoop and black felt numbers to "write" the new year. I've used a font called twinkle and after I printed my template I cut each number from paper and then used them as templates to cut the felt. A nit little trick I did to cut the insides of the 4 & 0 is this: I used blue chalk to mark the cut out on the felt, as you can see in the second photo and then used my pointy scissors to cut it out.

I placed my numbers on the fabric and then started embroidering them. I did the little twinkles first to secure the number in place then used scissors and tweezers to remove the paper. Then I just traced the number with white thread. I followed the same rules for the rest of the numbers, first I embroidered the little stars and after removing the paper I embroidered the outline.
And when I finished I had my new year's hoop all done, I love the contrast of the white fabric and black felt!

Wishing you a great day,
Aleka

Linked to Homework, LizMarieBlog, PersiaLou & Whipperberry

Work work work

Waking up to hear these news.

And working, working and experimenting. My latest experiment is using gold metallic thread, it's really difficult to use but it does look great! I've tried making french knots as well but they just don't hold up, I guess I'll try something else. And Georgia making a bead necklace, in green and brown, a very autumn color combo.

Autumn has been good so far, the temperature has dropped but the days are sunny :-)

Wishing you a lovely weekend,
Aleka

Fishes

Yep it's fishes :-)
I have this great (well in my mind it looks great) idea on what to do with these fishes. I'm trying to figure out the details as I slowly progress and finish them. Hoping to get everything sorted by the weekend :-)
See more creative people right here!
Aleka

Today

I'm actually quite determined to make use of my new work space, it's been finished for almost two weeks now and after the big move I haven't been in the mood to use it at all. But this will be the day!! I'm going to finish this brooch that's been left half made for a few months now.

Today is the last day for the raffle, over 50 prizes to be won and the money will go to a good cause, it would be wonderful if you could help!
Wishing you a great day,
Aleka
ps You can see more creative spaces right here!

Embroidered brooches

Colorful stripes embroidered brooch

Embroidered color block brooch

Square stripes embroidered brooch

Triangle embroidered brooch

I haven't posted any of the new things added to the shop lately, so here's a peek at the new line of embroidered brooches. Simple embroidery with many colors, creating nice geometric patterns. You can find them all here!
Have a great day,
Aleka

Things are coming along

You can see we've been busy, the necklace from last time is finished along with the green one too but I forgot to take a photo :-( I love the metallic blue, it's such a sparkling color, makes the beads really pop!
Slowly making rings from little pieces of felt, I needle felted them and then wet felted them to make them more sturdy. With needle and thread they are attached to a ring base, I've got a few more to go but I like the way they look, so it's keeping me motivated. It's interesting but when an idea in my head works out well in reality it makes me happy and very productive! 
As a side note don't forget to sign up for our monthly newsletter. You can win a cute heart brooch, it will be lovingly packaged and sent to you completely free :-)
See more creative spaces here!
xoxo
Aleka

Last ones

Listed the last of the Christmas decorations, four garlands , seven sets of retro ornaments, one snowman and boot set, the clay trees tags and the small green and red hearts make it a total of fourteen on our holiday decor section! I've been busy with these and now that I'm done it's time to find something new to work on.
I'm thinking of entering this year's feeling stitchy contest, covered in stitches. I need to go through my books, find a cover I like and begin! This may be a bit tricky as I have lots of books and choosing one may be difficult, if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them! It's quite a challenge, especially since I haven't done any serious stitching since the rainbow of stitches contest from last year.
Exciting new things to follow :-)
xoxo
aleka

Feeling Christmassy

I know it seems a bit weird listing Christmas ornaments in September but this is our second year on Etsy and last year we learned a valuable lesson: Shipping after the end of November is an absolute nightmare. So this year I'm listing my Christmas ornaments early, hoping to avoid the long delays that are linked with Christmas shipping. There are two more felt garlands and different color combinations of retro ornaments on the way, I'm hoping to list them all by next week :-)

Linked to zsazsazu's blog where you can see more beautiful things!
xoxo
Aleka

Finished

Well it's finally finished, I really like the color combination especially the yellow-blue and purple-turquoise. The pattern is here.