Holiday Gift Guide 2017: jewelry, clothing, accessories and home decor

Are you looking for some great gift ideas for the coming holidays? We are glad to offer some ideas! Take a look at these and see more by typing " rusteam2017 " in the search window on Etsy (or click here).

The eternally best-dressed

Grandmother mother daughter necklace from SilverJewelryElena

Men's fingerless gloves by socksandmittens

Men's necklace "Ancient sword" made of bronze by ModernancientShop

Felted flowers necklace by VeronikaWoolFlowers

Zodiac constellation stainless steel necklace by MagicGlowJewelry

The vintage time traveler

Vintage sugar bowl by J B Rogers Silver Co from agardencottage

Vintage warm dress with long sleeves by anothernewbreath

November is a great time to shop on Etsy so please enjoy!

Holiday Gift Guide 2017

The holiday season is almost here, everyone is looking for gifts and Russian Artists Team is happy to be a part of holiday campaign on Etsy.

Here is what we have to offer for a Holiday 2017:

The electronically inclined:

Crochet Case iPhone 6 by SavushkaDesigns

iPad Pro 10.5in case iPad Pro 9.7in case by LaCigogne

Fox case for the iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus by EthicStyle

 The spirits sipper

Vintage coasters with wooden box from agardencottage  

 

The kitchen dweller 

Laurel Burch vintage ceramic coffee mug Siamese cats from agardencottage

  

The cubicle buddy

Crochet cotton tote bag by socksandmittens

 Red tote bag Cats by LaCigogne

 

See more great gift ideas by typing " rusteam2017 " in the search window on Etsy.

Holiday exchange 2016

Yearly holiday gift exchange has become a tradition for our team. Last year 19 team members from 8 countries  participated in this fun event. There were 7 team members from Russia, 3 from USA, 2 from Latvia, Bulgaria and Israel (each) and 1 from Iceland, Ukraine and Check Republic (each)

Every participant was assigned a person to whom she (he) anonymously gives a gift. Participants also did not know from whom they will receive a present so it was a lot of fun to unwrap those packages. Albina Manning (aroundbeads) was the hostess for this event.

So let us show you the chain of Holiday gifts of 2016! (to enlarge the picture, click on it, right click View image)

Annual Holiday gift exchange 2014

The yearly Holiday gift exchange* application process is on!

The rules are simple. There is a large group of people participating but you will send just one gift and you receive one gift. Your gifts should be pretty and fun to open. They should be as good as you would like to receive yourself. Try to get a gift within your recipient's wish area.

How to know what to send? Albina (albinasjewelry), our exchange curator, will send you all the details on a gift for your recipient. Don't forget to include a greeting card with your name, shop name and contact info!

Remember, how busy post offices are in December? Send your gift early so that it would get there just in time for the Holidays!

*To participate you have to be a member of Russian Artists team on Etsy. Please visit our forum for details.

Yearly holidays exchange

Holidays exchange between Russian Artists team members is on and going! 

If you'd like to participate in our exchange please visit our forum or contact Albina AroundBeads for more info.

Please hurry, the dead line for applications is November 15th.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Interview with a Star, Kimuka shop on Etsy

 

If you are looking for a cute unique gift for a friend, family member or yourself take a look at Kimuka shop. You will find very special handmade toys, jewelry, passport covers and so much more. All the items are made by two sisters who own a shop and all the items are made with a lot of love.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself
We are two sisters, Ira and Lena, and we are originally from Ukraine, Lviv.

Ira: I came to Israel first, in 1998. At first I took a totally different direction in life and went to study Mechanical Engineering. I graduated in 2005 with first degree (B.Sc.). I tried my luck in the field but very soon I understood that it wasn’t the right path for me. I re-qualified to QA, as something that provides food on the table. It also cleared some more time for my hobbies, photography and making handcrafted items. I’m happily married to Stas and we have two cute dogs.

Lena:  I graduated with MA in Graphic Design in Ukraine and moved to Israel in 2008. Here I work as a graphic designer at a photography business. I’m happily married to Evgene and we also have two great dogs.

How long have you been creating? How did your journey in art and creativity begin?
Ira: My mom taught me to knit as a child so I knitted when I lived in Ukraine. I started making toys and all the other things after graduating the University.

Lena: While living in Ukraine I took a great interest in photography and when I came to Israel, I joined Ira’s hobby of handcraft. After a period of time we both created many toys, accessories and handbags just for ourselves and for our close friends. Soon we realized that our hobbies required a lot of money and space so if we want to continue with it we had to do something that would return the investment and free up space for the new creations.

We started our joint business "Simsisters" in Israel and  "Kimuka" shop on Etsy.

What items do you carry in your shop?
We have many different styles and sizes of toys, handbags, passport covers, jewelry and fashion accessories.

What would you say makes your shop unique?
All our creations are invented from our own imaginations and with our own graphic design. Of course we get a lot of inspiration from other artists but we always insists on doing everything with our touch and twist.

Do you take custom orders?
We love custom orders! We always like to get new ideas and challenges, even if they come from somebody else.

We even encourage people to send us something special to them, like a painting made by their children to get a new idea for the toy. The painting should be an image of something, not a scene. We'll work with that image and create a new toy, tailor-made!

Russian Artists Team holiday gift exchange

The Etsy Russian Team held our annual Holiday gift exchange during the last holiday season. This year there were 41 team members from 16 countries participating. We had a lot of fun picking the gifts, packaging them and sending to the recipient but we were also waiting impatiently for our pretty packages from our secret Santas.

So let me reveal the secret Santas and show you our wonderful gifts.

Follow the arrow to see what gift each participant received. Click on the pictures to see them larger.

 

 

My best wishes in 2012,

Albina Manning

Winter fashion, scarves

Nothing is better than a warm scarf in a winter! Something to cuddle with. Something to look gorgeous in.

Here are our scarves from the Russian Artists Team - to you!

  Enjoy our collection of scarves!

Scarves from (left to right):
1. manonknits 2. cozyseason 3. baymut 4. janebofelt
5. vitaltemptation 6. maliposha 7. citycrochet 8. lanadearg
9. lasunka 10. crafts2love 11. allmadewithlove 12. galafilc
13. mailo 14. Muza 15. frenchfelt 16. proninA

Free graphic Snowflakes and Christmas alphabet

There is nothing like a white Christmas! We'd like to see these sparkly white little miracles flying in the air while we are warm and cozy around the Christmas tree!

Here is some more snowflakes for you. You can use them for gift tags or winter scrapbooking. Whatever you do they will always look gorgeous and will never melt!

To add that special touch and make your gift even more personal use these free Christmas alphabet:

 The person you give a gift to will thank you with all his heart!

Thank you, Katrin (karisagraphic) for sharing it with us today.

Have a happy Holidays and let it snow!

Are you ready for Christmas?

What a time of year! It is not enough time in twenty-four hours!

Yes, I’m talking about Christmas. If you are like I am, I mean if you like to make presents with your hands, it would be better to start work on them in the summer time! What could be better than a gift which was made with love, with fantasy, or with hope?

I’m not a very good organized person and what would I do without my lovely Etsy where I can find everything what I was going to make by myself but I didn’t. Just allow me to guide you there or let me share how happy I’m with my purchases for my friends and relatives for Christmas.

First of all I need to tell you I have been a knitter for more than 30 years. But, if you are a full time working mom and wife it is not easy to make something like Muza does in her shop.

Or look at TatianaOrlova shop, where Scandinavian knitting designs are combined with Russian warmth. Wow, this is really a knitter’s winter fairyland!

 
If you are looking for warm gift don’t hesitate to visit these next shops where my friends are making very artist items!

          From left to right: CozySeason, woolsolution, SocksAndMittens

Maybe because I live in Alaska I prefer wool and natural materials. They keep you warm and comfortable on cold winter days. But could you imagine how beautiful and soft wool could be in a scarf which was made using nuno felt technology? Look here and I’m sure you can’t go without a purchase!

From left to right, from top to bottom: YanArt, manonknits, JaneBoFelt, galafilc

I can’t be quiet when we are talking about embroidery. This is my new passion and I’m just in the beginning of my study. That is why I strongly recommend you visit Lana’s BelleCoccinelle shop! There you will find amazing art work! Look around and enjoy!

Also I would like to introduce you the shop of talented Ukrainian artist Natalka and her skrynka shop. You can find a lot of choices for gifts there.

And to end, I just want to tell you that I’m a proud member of Rusian Artists team on Etsy. And if you want to find something really unusual and made with love of high quality just type RUSTEAM in search column of Etsy website and you will be surprised how many talented people belong to our team.

Yes, Christmas is almost here. Don’t be sorry if you are late with buying presents for this great holiday. Just think of the future and I’m sure you will be back!

Allow me to wish you a Merry Christmas from my Rusteam’s friends!

Happy shopping! Happy holidays!

Sincerely,

Happy Frog,
a proud member of Russian Artists team on Etsy

Celebrate Hanukkah

December is such a special time of the year here in Israel when the air is fragrant with the smell of the holidays.

Hanukkah is one of the most loved holidays for adults and for children. There is gold wrapped chocolate coins-candies, potato latkes and delicious sweet donuts on every corner, there is gifts for kids and lively bright spinning dreidels but most importantly, the lights are filling our houses.

                                   Menorah by FleetingStillness

Hanukkah is the holiday of light. Light the first candle on your menorah as soon as the sun will go down on December 20th and light the rest, one each night until the night of the Hanukkah. Light your last candle, say the hallel and let your hearts to be filled with the light.

Let's celebrate!

             Photos from left to right: visart, reginao, CrystalFrog, aniutik

By Regina Reginao and Tanya Socksandmittens

Winter fun

Winter is a beautiful time of the year.

The snow is covering many parts of the country and it is a fun time of year for us all with lots of activities.

It is great to be able to ski during the weekends or just have a snowball fight.

It's also nice to play chess with the friend by the frosty window and to look out at the quiet white field.

It's is also cozy to sit in front of a fireplace with your knitting  and a cup of steamy coco that will cheer you up and make you feel warm.

Winter is always an inspirational time for the painters and photographers.

And for us crafter's souls it is also time to get cozy, think of what inspires us the most and make some little cute gifts for the coming holidays for ourselves or the people we love.

Don't say you are too busy, there is always a time for the holidays in our hearts!

Get crafty!

By Tanya Socksandmittens

Christmas gifts for her

Congratulations to Russian Artists contest winners! Thank you so much for taking part in our contest, for voting, commenting and sharing. All the items submitted to the contest could be viewed at Russian Artists Facebook page

1. Necklace - Blue Butterfly from LovelyBijou


2. Grey leopard felted shawl from Baymut


3. Hot Red from Lulya


4. Crochet hat from Lasunka


5. Silk and wool felted scarf DRACO from Manonknits