Weird & Wonderful: Fenton & Fenton

I am so excited to have discovered a unique store called Fenton & Fenton. Fenton and Fenton describe their world as “Weird & Wonderful” which is a good description but mostly I just love their eclectic style.  Based in Melbourne Australia, their website  reflects the quirky and unique style. At fentonandfenton.com.au/ you can shop, follow their blog and get some design advice and ideas. Whilst most of their lovely items are definitely out of my designer price range, their website is so beautiful and their gallery is just so inspiring. Check it out: Fenton & Fenton

30 Days of Creativity – Days 6 – 10

Well this week has been a challenge creatively. Thank goodness for a long (and cold) weekend, that allowed me to hibernate and get creative! I know I am slightly behind with this post but here are days 6 – 10:

Day 6 – These earrings are actually two pairs of earrings that I no longer wore recycled into a beautiful pair of turquoise earrings that I will wear all the time! I was inspired by a pair of earrings I saw on the Bachelorette of all places lol.

Day 7 – I handmade these flowers using silky material singed slightly on the edges. I am not sure what to do with them yet. A hairpin or a headband? Or maybe even a nice finishing touch to a wedding clutch.

Day 8 – Sorry I had to resize this down a bit to fit. Another gorgeous banner design. Love the pink and orange combination. Still have to make the avatar before listing it on my Etsy store.

Day 9 – Ok, so I am the world’s fastest knitter! Hehe not. I am cheating slightly with this scarf. This is actually a gift for a friend that I started knitting three years ago! It was so cold this past weekend, that I felt the urge to get the wool and needles out and finish it finally. It’s so beautiful. The yarn is super soft and I just love the buttery white colour. I now have a new appreciation for knitters who sell their scarves online. Taking a photo of a scarf without someone wearing it, is quite the challenge. I think it turned out ok in the end. So thanks to 30 Days of Creativity, my friend will finally get her present!

Day 10 – I am playing around with the idea of coming up with some sticker designs to sell in my Etsy store. This is just a simple design that I came up with –  I just love the vintage damask pattern. You can buy sheets of stickers on Ebay and print them youself, so I can’t wait to try the idea out.

I hope you’ve enjoyed days 6 – 10. Looking forward to sharing some more creativity soon.

Love MOS x

30 Days of Creativity – Days 1 – 5

Well I am really enjoying the challenge of finding a way to be creative everyday. Here’s my creativity for Days 1 – 5:

June 1 – Loved designing this business package for Tessa. Here is the business card I designed for her Etsy business. I love the vertical design and Tessa was a dream client! (I’m not sure why, but the colours are a little more “vibrant” then on the actual design)

June 2 – I created this Etsy banner to sell in my store. I am so in love with grey.

June 3 (my birthday) – One of my favourite quotes that I turned in to a cute little card design.

June 4 – These are some of the slides from the blog animation I am trying to create for myoriginalsin. So far I am liking the vintage scrapbook look. I just can’t get the animation to load on my blog yet. I am so blog unco.

June 5 – A gorgeous custom clutch that I designed for a customer. The fabric is from India and is just beautiful.

Bring on the next 5 days!

Love MOS x

30 Days of Creativity…

I stumbled across something exciting and interesting tonight on Twitter called 30 Days of Creativity.

30 Days of Creativity is a social initiative encouraging people to create stuff (anything) every day for 30 days in June.  Your brain is like a muscle. When you exercise it, it gets stronger.

After a hectic month, I have decided my creative brain needs a workout and so I am going to pledge 30 Days of Creativity! Will be a challenge for me but I will keep you posted on the results at the end of each week 🙂 Wish me luck!

Featured Shop – Catilla

I recently had the pleasure of customising one of my favourite banner designs for Cat from Catilla. Cat designs gorgeous nature inspired jewellery that consists of many earthy components such as twigs, trees, branches, flowers, natural stones and pearls and even birds. It is sweet and simple yet classy, casual and elegant for all occasions.

What I love most, is that Cat has embraced the softness and colour of my banner design and is now combining that with the photos she takes of her jewellery. Her Etsy shop has a colour combination that is just beautiful – there are so many pieces to choose from. I am one happy designer!

Clutch bag obsession…

People always think it’s funny that I can sew clutch bags but I still buy them from other places. As much as I love making my bags, I am obsessed with collecting clutch bags in general. Like any good collector, I search far and wide for hidden, clutch bag treasures to add to my stash and what a collection I have!

It’s a challenge for me to find a gorgeous, handmade clutch bags, complete with cute lining. I’m a sucker for cute lining every time. So, when I saw this bag made by cindymars7, I knew I was in love! My clutch arrived today all the way from Colorado, USA and I have to say, the photos do not do it justice – it is lovely!

Of course, it was the lining that won me over in the end…

Vintage & gorgeous: custom Etsy banners…

My latest hobby obsession is creating these custom Etsy banners. I love filling each tiny 760 x 100 pixel canvas (teeny!) with gorgeous, vintage inspired designs. An easy way for Etsians to update the look of their shop and build a brand identity. Available at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/wharfie79  (my Etsy lurker ID).

From Me To You…

A friend sent me the link to the most amazing photos.  Created by a very talented new photographer named Jamie. She and her fiancée create these unique images she calls “cinemagraphs” – more than a photo, but not quite a video.

Seamless, subtle and beautiful. This takes photography to a whole new level. Be sure to check out Jamie’s blog: From Me To You.

MOS, moving & more…

MOS is moving house. So from now until late November I sadly can not make any custom orders. Just to give you a little tasty morsel, here is a recent clutch bag I created to match a wedding outfit:

Feel free to place orders now. Christmas is just around the corner and I will get your order sent out to you in early December. Just in time for the silly season!

Although I love where I live, the exciting thing about moving is that I can finally set up a studio/sewing room. MOS, up until now, has been completely run from my office/lounge/dining room. I have always dreamed of a room, with cupboard space and a little bit of creative atMOSphere, to get the creative juices flowing!

Update time! If you haven’t visted myoriginalsin.net recently, please stop by and check out all the gorgeousness. Tis the season to be fascinated, for weddings and the races. You can follow us on Facebook and now on Twitter! MOS has 317 FB fans, which is fantastic but I am aiming for 500 in the new year, so please suggest to your friends. I’d love you to follow me (in a non-stalkerish way) and remember to leave a comment. I heart comments.

Take care lovelies!

Chantal xxx

A blog hiatus…

Well, life has been crazy for me of late. It started with my long anticipated holiday to the South Pacific and has been a whirlwind ever since. I have quite a bit to share, so expect a few blog posts this week.

My holiday was awesome. Seven days cruising the South Pacific, to celebrate my friend’s 30th birthday. We enjoyed cocktails, food, beautiful beaches, martinis, cocktails, food, culture, cocktails, met some fun ppl and in case you were wondering, drank a lot of cocktails! The food was spectacular and honestly I would cruise again just for that!

Here is just a taste of what I saw, on one of the most memorable days, a tour to the secluded Lucelia Beach:

Paradise was very hard to leave!

Since returning (and gosh did that take some adjustment) I have been trying to balance real life with my dream life. Real life has been winning 😦 but dream life is doing its best to keep up. At the moment my digital art seems to have taken a bit of  back seat to my obsession with sewing. Sorry to those people that love it.  I have been getting creative with my clutch bags and even set up an online shop to sell them. Here are a couple of my latest designs:

This white flower clutch is so gorgeous! I had a vision of creating a beautiful white clutch with handmade flowers. Perfect as a wedding clutch or even just to dress up your jeans. I found this great tutorial by Mrs Priss that helped me to make the flowers. First attempt almost resulted in me burning the house down, so I’d advise having a bowl of water nearby if you try it out!

This is my ruffled, pleated clutch. I love this gorgeous script fabric! Actually it’s inspired me to make more things with beautiful old script. Stay tuned for that.

Finally, I have been busy setting up an online shop to sell my bags. Please stop by and check out all my other bags too. Pass the link on to your bag-loving friends – http://www.myoriginalsin.net and I’d love if you became a Facebook fan [click the link].

I hope you are all fabulous, happy and healthy.

Love MOS xxx