Recycled Ecofriendly birth announcements with a twist from RecycledIdeas...

RecycledIdeas is a fellow Etsian I respect and admire very much. She is dedicated to preserving animals and their habitats and - of course - recycling. She has found ways to reuse every day objects that many people throw away. They are not only functional, but beautiful as well. This next find is so cool and so ingenious on so many levels I don't even know where to begin. It's a birth announcement made of recycled paper and embedded with seeds, so the recipient can cultivate a variety of seedlings. It's symbolic of the whole birth and growth process and while it announces a new footprint onto this planet, it helps reduce our current carbon footprint. I am just astounded by her depth of creativity that I am truly at a loss for words. Please check out her shop: http://recycledideas.etsy.com/

-Wendy Baylis

Dharma Designs

http://dharmadesigns.etsy.com/

Meet Etsy Photographer: jennifersquires

Canadian photographer Jennifer Squires was born in Toronto, but now lives and works in London, Ontario. She is inspired by her surroundings and uses photography to "search for simplicity and meaning in the everyday." She finds beauty in everything - and elegantly captures it in her work. "I’m a very creative person and I tend to think outside of the box in almost everything I do," she says. "I grew up in a very small hamlet so I was always looking for ways to make things more interesting." Since she always had a camera in hand, she decided to study photography in high school and college - and has turned her hobby into a full time job. "I’d like to be the person people come to when their walls need to be refreshed," she admits. She recommends her fellow artists "spend at least as much time advertising off Etsy as you do on Etsy." Please check out her shop: http://jennifersquires.etsy.com/

-Wendy Baylis

Dharma Designs

http://dharmadesigns.etsy.com/

Meet Etsy Artist: SankyBlue

I stumbled across this beautiful print of an original oil painting the other day while searching for "sushi." It's absolutely stunning, so I checked out the shop - SankyBlue. To my surprise Nancy Hyer just joined Etsy a few days ago on April first. Her inspiration comes from nature, which is beautifully showcased in her floral works. "William James says it best for me," she explains, "'I am done with great things and big plans, great institutions and big success. I am for those tiny, invisible, loving, human forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water, which, if given time, will rend the hardest monuments of pride.'" Eloquent, just like her art. "This quote speaks well to wonderfully inspiring networks such as Etsy, which offer opportunities to share the basic human experience of creativity and possibility." Please check out her shop: http://sankyblue.etsy.com/

-Wendy Baylis

Dharma Designs

http://dharmadesigns.etsy.com/