Featured artists: Anastasia, Scandiroom. Handmade home decor for children.

I would like to introduce our team member Anastasia who runs the Scandishop on Etsy. It is filled with great children decor items. All of them are made with love and it shown. Here is her story about her inspirations.

Hello everyone,

My name is Anastasia and I am 31 years old. My family and I live in Suktuvkar, a small northern Russian city.

As with many artistic people, my creative roots became stronger when I became a mother. My children are my inspiration. When they were born, I wanted to surround them with natural eco friendly toys so I started to make them with fabric, wood, paper and yarn.

It started with my children's room when we wanted to add some light and style to it. The northern nights are long and the days are short so we wanted to add some sunshine to the room. For a start, we painted the walls with a happy light yellow paint. Then I started to decorate it. 

It is such a great feeling when you cover your baby with a cozy handmade cotton blanket, giving him a little bear pillow to hold through the night and whisper to  him: I love you to the moon and back. Your baby feels that you care and grow stronger.

I am a spontaneous creator. I walk into a store, see a great quality yarn or fabric and it's just screaming to me: make something from me! I am listening and that's how my ideas are becoming live. 

I love what I do and I am happy that people love my designs. I am happy to say that my creations live in many places around the globe now. 

My shop is constantly developing and pretty soon you will find more adorable little things for your children. Soon I am planning to team up with the other artists, Tatiana, who is also all about handmade, natural materials and style. So please visit my shop often to see if there is anything you want for your child!

Interview by Tanya (socksandmittens)

Lavender lemon bath salt #etsycraftparty

Here is a great recipe of lemon & lavender aromatic bath salt for you from Tanya (socksandmittens). It is easy to make and it is perfect for a lukewarm bath of a feet soak.

If you pack it nicely it can be also very good gift for a friend.

So, here is how to make this.

In a large bowl combine 1 cup of Epsom salt, 1 table spoon of dried lavender bath and 3 drops of lemon essential oil. Mix it thoroughly and transfer to a pretty, air tight glass jar. Label and decorate as desired.

To use, simply add it to your warm bath water. Enjoy!

How to make a nautical knots bracelet #etsycraftparty

Today Katrin from katrinshine will show how to make a wonderful knotted bracelet nautical style. She choose a pale pink color to make hers but you can always make it in traditional white, red and blue nautical colors. 

Materials you need:

• pliers
• cord about 0.5-0.7m/20-30"
• cord ends
• 2 jump rings 5mm/0.2" diamete
• lobster clasp
• if it's possible, the chain-extension
• ruler
• scissors

So, lets begin. Take the cord and divide it into two halves. Then, from one half make out the knot shown in the figure below.

Pass the second cord besides the first one. Here's what you should have.

Tighten the knot.

Measure your wrist. Cut out this length from the the cord with knot wrapping the place before with scotch tape. You can put a drop of glue. Do not be afraid that the bracelet will be small - we are still going to add the lobster clasp and chain extention, at the end the length increases.

Attach cord ends to both ends of the bracelet.

At one end attach the lobster clasp, at another end - the chain-extension.

Your bracelet is ready! Happy crafting!

Cable knit cup cozy to give away! #etsycraftparty

This cute hand knit oatmeal cup cozy from socksandmittens shop is great to protect your fingers from the heat of a hot cup of tea or coffee. It can be yours if you will participate in our giveaway!

The entry period for this giveaway is from June 18 through the June 19th. The lucky winner will be announced on June 20th. This giveaway is for US residents only.

Please do any (or all) steps below to enter. The more you do, the more chances to win!

Leave a separate comment on each entry and don't forget to leave your email address here in comments or send it to us throughconversations on Etsy so that we can contact you if you win!

1. Visit and heart  socksandmittens shop, browse Tanya's collection and leave a comment here on what you like the best (1 entry)
2. Follow / subscribe socksandmittens blog (1 entry)

3. Like socksandmittens page on Facebook (1 entry)
4. Follow/ subscribe this blog (Russian Artists blog) (1 entry)
5. Share this giveaway on your social medias ( pinterest, twitter, facebook, instagram, your blog) - 2 entries

Good luck, everyone!

Our giveaway, washcloth & eco soap nuts! #etsycraftparty

Here is another great giveaway by Nataliya (NataliyaMalik ) ! This great set of felted washcloth & eco soap nuts is all about natural materials! 

The washcloth is made of wool. The soap nuts contains saponin, a natural alternative to chemical laundry detergent and cleansers. When in contact with water, it creates mild suds, which is similar to soap.

Please do any (or all) steps below to enter. The more you do, the more chances to win!

Leave a separate comment on each entry and don't forget to leave your email address here in comments or send it to us throughconversations on Etsy so that we can contact you if you win! 

The entry period for this giveaway is from June 17 through the June 19th. The lucky winner will be announced on June 20th. This giveaway is for US residents only.

1. Visit and heart  NataliyaMalik shop, browse her collection and leave a comment here on what you like the best (1 entry)
2. Follow / subscribe Nataliya's blog (1 entry)

3. Like Nataliya's page on Facebook (1 entry)
4. Follow/ subscribe this blog (Russian Artists blog) (1 entry)
5. Share this giveaway on your social medias ( pinterest, twitter, facebook, instagram, your blog) - 2 entries

Good luck, everyone!

Felted brooch to give away! Etsy Craft Party 2016

This lovely felted brooch can be yours if you will participate in our giveaway! It is handmade by Nataliya (NataliyaMalik ) and kindly offered for our virtual Etsy craft Party.

This aqua blue and apricot brooch made of soft wool, fiber silk and cat eye beads and is approximately 8" in diameter. A lovely accessory for a coat, jacket, scarf or handbag embellishment!

The entry period for this giveaway is from June 17 through the June 19th. The lucky winner will be announced on June 20th. This giveaway is for US residents only.

Please do any (or all) steps below to enter. The more you do, the more chances to win!

Leave a separate comment on each entry and don't forget to leave your email address here in comments or send it to us through conversations on Etsy so that we can contact you if you win!

1. Visit and heart  NataliyaMalik shop, browse her collection and leave a comment here on what you like the best (1 entry)
2. Follow / subscribe Nataliya's blog (1 entry)

3. Like Nataliya's page on Facebook (1 entry)
4. Follow/ subscribe Russian Artists blog (1 entry)
5. Share this giveaway on your social medias ( pinterest, twitter, facebook, instagram, your blog) - 2 entries

Good luck, everyone!

Etsy Craft Party 2016

There is a great tradition invented by Etsy to celebrate creativity, an annual Etsy Craft Party. This summer it is going to be on June 17th through 19th. This is a great event to connect and share ideas with your community and we at Russian Artists Team love to do it.

Since our team members are scattered around the world, we decided to hold a virtual party this year. So next weekend we will publish some tutorials and giveaways on our blog to celebrate handmade spirit. 

We will also share them on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 

Visit us to see what we have:

Russian Artists Team blog

Russian Artists Team Pinterest

Russian Artists Team Facebook Page

Free cross stitch pattern, Spring birds and flowers

Here is a wonderful spring birds and flowers stitching for you from Maria (LaMariaCha). If you love to cross stitch, it might be a great way to make it during last winter nights and turn it into something spectacular, like a tote or a purse.

 This design has a very nice folklore feel. It will look great on contrast with black canvas cloth with its bright colors. Or stitch it on natural linen for the coming Easter decor.

You can download this free cross stitch pattern here or here. 

Maria is a cross stitch designer from Kursk, Russia. If you'd like to see more of her work, please visit her LaMariaCha shop on Etsy.

How to make a felted ghost for Halloween

Some of us will most probably decorate our homes for Halloween. I would like to share an idea of a DIY project of making felted ghosts for Halloween.



We will need white and black felting wool, a glass to use as a form, soap, water and a piece of bubbled wrap paper.



On a piece of bubbled wrap paper put an empty glass upside down. Slowly start to cover it with white wool. It makes sense to water the surface of the glass beforehand so that our pieces of wool could stick to it. Once the glass is all covered with wool it's time to wet our wool with soapy water. It makes sense to water it slowly so that our wool doesn't fall off the glass and stays there covering it nicely. Once white wool is wet we can start making our ghost's "face".



With a piece of black wool make an eye and attach it to our white ghost. It's much fun to experiment with sized and eye position as our ghost's face expression will change dramatically depending on what shape and size ghost's eyes will be.

Once all the wool pieces are at place we can start the felting process. Carefully wrap bubbled paper around our glass and start rubbing it. Be gentle so that our wool doesn't fall off the glass. Once wool fibers become inseparable and our white form turns into a firm piece of felted wool it's time to rinse it.

To dry it well I let it sit on a glass overnight. Thus, the original form of the glass will be preserved and whet our ghost is nice and dry it will stay firm and round. I've attached a thread on top of it so that I could hang it anywhere in my room or outside. My little white ghost turned out to be not scary at all. But it's all in your own hands. Designing the ghosts face is the most creative part of the whole process!


Story By Tonya (CityCrochet)

Galafilc feauture at the handmade tapestry exhibition in Bydgoszcz, Poland

Congratulations to our team member Gala (galafilc) being featured at the bi-annual non professional handmade tapestry exhibition in Bydgoszcz, Poland!

 Non professional weavers from all over the country submit their works. Only 120 tapestries from 200 sent were exhibited this year.

As always there are tapestries made in traditional Polish weaving style from Podlasie area. But most of the works are hand made gobelin tapestries. Those take a long time to produce. One gobelin sized 1 by 1.5 meters takes a year or even two to weave. Main yarn is wool or wool blend, but sisal, strips of textiles, small branches and herbs are used to embellish it as well.

One of the favorite inspirations and tapestry themes is of course nature. You can see flowers, trees, birds and whole landscapes on the gobelins. Every artist chooses their yarns and style of work. There is jury that takes into account not only quality of weaving but the art value of the pieces. This year first place was taken by lovely tapestry which used semi precious stones for embellishments.

High recognition is given to pieces woven from fine yarns with good color gradients and details in the picture.
This year some felted art (unwoven tapestry) were exhibited as well.

Here are some of the pieces:

 

 

 Story by Gala (galafilc)

Translated by Nadia (LuNaViFelt)

A doll's world

The doll houses are trendy this Fall but did you know that dolls have fashion, too? Just like us, humans.

Miniature knit doll clothes for 5" doll by CreativeHook

Our team members took doll fashions seriously so there is lots of miniature clothing and accessories for you to choose from or we have patterns for your own creative enjoyment.

Baby carriage miniature figurine by AnnaToys

Blythe doll yellow sweater by VolnaDollsClother

Oversized turtleneck for Granado Lads by ThreeMice

Just search the assortment by our team tag rusteam in the Etsy's search window.

 

Beaded Barbie dress tutorial by AroundBeads

Brushed mohair for doll hair by LaFiabbaRussa

Cat amigurumi crochet pattern by lanadearg

So welcome to a dolls world and have fun browsing!

Mini crochet umbrella by FancyKnittles

 

Pigtails wig for Littlefee (or similar dolls) by NataLitun

Blythe stockings by BlaBlaBlythe