Giveaway Feature - Meri Greenleaf

This Giveaway Has Been Closed

Check Back Each Monday for a New Giveaway!

And During the Week for Promotions Ideas,

And Lots of Other Fun Stuff!

I'm very excited about this giveaway! Meri is one of my best friends. We've never met in person, but between a thousand and one e-mails, and a few phone calls, she's been there for me through thick and thin.

Jolly Roger - Pirate Cartilage Ear Cuff

1. Where can we find your work and what do you create?
   
   
   I'm on Etsy (http://merigreenleaf.etsy.com) and Artfire (http://merigreenleaf.artfire.com), and I have a shop on Zibbet, too (http://www.zibbet.com/merigreenleaf), but I don't have as much stuff there. I make a random assortment of things, but almost everything is fantasy-inspired: cartilage earrings and ear cuffs, chainmaille, hemp jewelry, geeky keychains and phone charms (multi-sided dice- yay!), elf (and various other creature) ears and dragon horns, fantasy dolls, runestones, and lately I've started making framed fantasy embroidery, too. I have a very short attention span, in case it wasn't obvious. ;)
   
   
2. What's your favorite part about being an independent artist?
   
   
   Being able to make what I want to make- and being able to earn some money. I have health problems so I can't hold a regular job right now, so my online shops and craft shows are my only form of income at the moment.
   
   
3. Where do you find your inspiration?
   
   
   Fantasy (especially “The Lord of the Rings”), literature (need to use my BA in English somehow!), mythology (usually Greek and some Celtic), Dungeons and Dragons... I'm a geek and I'm proud of it! I also get inspiration from nature- trees, forests and the ocean in particular. I'm a geeky elf-girl. ;)

4. What advice would you give to other artists?
   
   
   Make what you want to make- create to make yourself happy, not to make what you think others will like. There will be people out there interested in what you do, even if you think you're the only person who would want it. And where's the fun in not making what you love? Follow your muse, fickle though it may be. :)
   
   
   
   
   
   Asian Zen Cartilage Earring
   
   
   Now for the Giveaway!
   
   
   Meri is giving you an option to pick any earring from her shop! 
   Here's what she says:
   
   
   I'm giving away a chain earring or an ear cuff of your choice from the earring section of my shop:
   http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&sc_id=56488&seller_id=30196&op=new
   For the chain ones, I can replace the pierced post with a slip-on cuff on the top, so don't worry if you don't have your cartilage pierced. I can even make the bottom post a clip-on if you have no piercings, or you can just go with a simple ear cuff earring- anyone can wear those. 
   
   
   So how can you win?
   
   
   

   1. Comment on this entry
   2. Share your favorite item from her shop (scroll up for link)
   3. Plurk or twitter about it and leave a comment with link.
   4. Blog about it and leave a comment with link
   5. Purchase an item from her shop (for 5 entries) (link above)

   
   

   Important: All entries must be submitted by comments on this blog post.

   I'm keeping track of the entries, so telling Meri about them won't help :P

   
   

   Interested in doing an artist feature/giveaway on this blog? Just let me know!

   
   

   And there is still a sale going in my shop! 15% off at Rose Works Jewelry :)

Giveaway Bonanza!

Just let me start by saying, sorry I haven't blogged in two days! I really meant too, but I'm just worn out so it hasn't happened. I'm my brother's secondary caregiver and adjusting to the schedule has had me really run down, but I have a day off today! Woot! And even better? He's doing much better today :D Which means he should have some time to build a little strength before the next chemo treatment. Now for what you want to see..

Giveaway Bonanza

Meri of Elfling Creations offered a second item for this weeks giveaway. She wanted to do something to help support my brother and raise awareness and I love the item she's added to my giveaway :D I think you will too! 

So here's how it works! I'll be drawing two winners for this weeks giveaway when I get up on Saturday - and you can get an extra entry! Just go check out her shop and then visit the giveaway post  and leave me a comment there to get an extra entry into the contest! There were 27 entries when I went I got of the computer last night - and I'm headed to check that email as soon as I've update the original giveaway post with the new item :)

Here's what Meri has to say about the earring: The earring dangles about 1" from the ear cuff, which is silver-plated and 3mm wide. The sun bead has a crescent moon on the reverse side. That bottom bead is a cats eye- that's hard to see in the photo, so I figured I'd mention it.


Now go enter! 

Awesome Knitting and Crocheting

The Blogfire Guild's current them is showing off awesome knitting and crocheting! Well it just so happens that I have friends in both of those camps, and so I thought I'd show of their work!

Meri makes all sorts of fun things to put in her shop, but I have a special place place in my heart for these dolls she makes. The one shown is the Chess Black Queen Fairy. Not only do I think her work is very impressive, she was sweet enough to make me a purple fairy for Christmas! I was sooo suprised - and excited! My fairy, Lira, sits on my desk and watches over me while I work :)

Yvonne of Handerbeitskram is another artist I've had a lot of fun getting to know! We've both done a trade, and she ordered a custom order from me, and both transactions went wonderfully. We also talk on plurk all the time and have many of the same interests (like sci-fi). I've been learning to knit - and I really admire her handiwork. She also has bunch of great yarns in her shop so make sure to check it out. I picked these fingerless mitts to feature because I love all the bright colors in them!

Places I've Shipped

Have you ever wondered what a map of all the places you've shipped to would look like? I have! When one of my friends (Meri of Elfling Creations) mentioned she'd made one I jumped on the idea! And since my other projects for the night kept failing... I made my own! Interested in making one for yourself? Just go to google maps, look up the different sites you've shipped too, and save them to your own customized map :) You have to zoom out for it to show anything...

View Places I've Shipped in a larger map

Last Bazaar of the Season

Yesterday was my last bazaar of the Christmas season! I didn't think I was going to get to go because of my sprained ribs, but my wonderful Mother in law offered to come along and help out with carrying and setting up, so we went for it! For some strange reason I didn't get a picture of her though :(

La also came with us this week - and she was sitting there writing when bored :) Oh yeah...um... we were bored a lot. There were hardly any customers!

This was La's table. She's one of the people who really inspired me to start following my dreams and start selling my jewelry. She's a great friend/sister and we have a lot of fun!

This adorable little fairy that you see on my table is named Lira - and she's my crafty muse :) My dear friend Meri over at Elbit Enterprises made her for me as a Christmas present :D During the normal week she sits on my desk next to my laptop (Jack) where she watches over my work. And then she went with me to the bazaar - and she'll be doing that in the future too!

I also FINALLY remembered to put a sign up sheet for my newsletter this time! Hopefully that will be a regular feature from now on. I only got one sign up - but hey - that's one more reader!

I really need to learn to sit down and let other people help when I'm hurting! Even though my mother in law was there to help I still did too much yesterday - so my ribs are rather mad at me today. Oh well. At least we all had fun (and a couple of sales) and I got a bunch of crafting done :P

Friday's Featured Artist - Meri GreenLeaf!

One of my favorite parts about being an on-line seller is that I make all sorts of wonderful friends! Susan (who goes by Meri on-line for the most part) has fast become one of those friends. We have many of the same interests and spend a lot of time talking on plurk! So it is my great pleasure to introduce her to you as this week's featured artist :) Click on any of the pictures you see below to be taken to the listing.

1.What type of art work do you do?

Name it, I probably do it. ;) I crochet, make jewelry and chainmaille, sculpt, paint (usually on fabric) and draw, make dreamcatchers, spin (and sometimes dye) yarn, and sew (handsew- I don't know how to use a sewing machine). My main one is the crochet, though; even a lot of my jewelry is crocheted. Most of what I make is fantasy-

related, but I also make things inspired by nature.

2.How did you get started doing art work?

I've always been into art; in elementary school I'd stay in at lunchtime to help in the art room, and in high school I stayed after school almost every day to work in the pottery classroom (pottery was my obsession back then, but I haven't had a chance to work in it since). I also used to make a lot of plastic jewelry when I was a kid. For the things I do now, I started crocheting about four years ago all because I wanted a Hufflepuff scarf from Harry Potter, and I haven't put down my hooks since. The rest of the art I do I've picked up in the few years since, mostly teaching myself

and winging it as I go along.

3.Do you do any other crafts?

I think I already answered this- yes, I do a lot of them. :)

4.Is there a story behind your shop name?

Both “Elfling Creations” and my Etsy shop “Elbit Enterprises” (although I may be changing that one to match at some point- I just haven't done that yet) come from the race of my alias/persona (and old roleplay character) who is a half elf/half halfling (or hobbit); I combined those races and got “Elbit” originally, but lately have switched over to using the combined “Elfling” instead. I go by “Meri Greenleaf” online (and sometimes in real life, as well); that was the name of my old roleplay character that has become my alter-ego (nope, I'm not a Legolas fangirl, just a huge fan of Mirkwood; “Thranduiliell” [the original second part of the name] would have been too hard for people to find me with. Besides, “Greenleaf” fits me well because I'm obsessed with the color green and forests).

5.What's your favorite piece in your shop right now?

Oh geez, that's a hard one! I love making everything I do! I think it may be Wynmaeg, my crocheted renaissance wench plushie.

(featured at the top of the post)

She's one of my older plushies, but I had so much fun making her and coming up with all the accessories for her outfit- and I love dressing up for the Renfaire, so it was fun getting to make a costumed doll.

But then again, my favorite could be this faerie cat, named after my own black kitty Clarabell. (featured to the right)

That doll isn't perfect (it was my first attempt at making an animal pattern), but I think it's adorable. Then again, I may be biased because it's based off my fur-baby. ;)

6.Where do you sell your work?

I'm on a few random online craft selling sites, but my two main ones are Artfire and Etsy:

http://merigreenleaf.artfire.com

http://merigreenleaf.etsy.com

My website is http://elflingcreations.com but I don't actually sell on that site; I use it to link to my other shops.

7.Do you blog?

Yup- I love blogging! My art blog is in two places- the main one is on blogger (http://merigreenleaf.blogspot.com) but I also crosspost most of the entries to my art livejournal (http://elbit-blog.livejournal.com).

8.Are you on any social networks you'd like to share?

I'm on a whole bunch, but Plurk is my favorite. :) These are the ones I use most:

http://twitter.com/MeriGreenleaf

http://www.plurk.com/MeriGreenleaf

http://www.ravelry.com/people/merigreenleaf

http://www.myspace.com/merigreenleaf

http://www.facebook.com/MeriGreenleaf

http://www.flickr.com/photos/merigreenleaf

http://merigreenleaf.deviantart.com

9.Do you watch or listen to anything while you work? If so, what?

A lot of the time when I'm working I'll listen to audiobooks (literature, mostly- I love http://librivox.org because that site has free audiobooks that are in the public domain) or comedy (usually Eddie Izzard- I love him!) on my iPod, but sometimes I'll also try to read at the same time (that one's a bit hard to do, lol) or watch tv (also distracting). When I'm listing and editing photos I'll often listen to music- usually Blackthorn, Enter the Haggis, Hanson, Spin Doctors, Jimmy Eat World, Goo Goo Dolls, and Tonic, as well as the occasional filk or video game song (yeah, my playlist is pretty eclectic). I've recently started streaming Pandora Radio, too, so I get to listen to all sorts of fun Celtic and Celtic rock bands that I hadn't heard of before. :)

10.Tell us one random fact about your self *wink*

Just one? Hmm... well, besides being an artist, my main goal in life is to become a professor of British Literature, hopefully being able to focus on the Renaissance- I have a thing for Renaissance plays. Besides art, books are my obsession.

I recently won a cartilage chain earring like the one you see above from Meri in a blog contest! Pictures will be coming soon :)