Leanne's Journal

Applique of leaves with screen printed satchels

2012-02-23T21:43:00.002-05:00

These are some satchel bags I am working on with a silkscreen printed peony flower and a little bird. I've added some applique of faux leather leaves in black. The flower satchel is a large bag measuring 17 inches on the bottom, it has four large pockets inside. This would be a great laptop messenger bag or a hip diaper bag. I've added a layer of fleece to make these bags sturdy and for added protection of devices one may carry. I still have to complete them with adjustable straps so that they can be worn as a cross-body bag. I hope to have some up in my shop next week.~ Leanne

A sunny February Sunday

2012-02-13T21:39:00.000-05:00

A nice crisp sunny day out in the country to take some pictures with my new camera.

For gadgets

2012-02-11T12:49:00.000-05:00

Some new square pouches in a cool winter palette. I really like the cupcakes in grey and blue-teal, these would make great gifts! They are 7x6 inches and will fit gadgets well or makeup..and they are padded for protecting those special things.

I woke up to a snowy freezing morning and went off to the warm pool for Ashlynn's swimming lessons. She is doing so amazing, starting to swim on her own with her head under and full of confidence. We are soo proud of her, she is growing up so fast...can't believe she will be turning five this spring!

Have a wonderful day, I'm off to do my buns of steel workout!! ~ Leanne

New "half moon" zippper phone pouches

2012-02-06T22:03:00.000-05:00

Some new small zipper padded pouches for carrying some essentials. They have linen on one side with the silkscreen, some vintage black lace, and denim and canvas on the other. More pouches of this sort in a square shape coming later this week.

Is it spring yet?

2012-02-04T13:43:00.000-05:00

Here are a few of the purses I've been working on. This is the direction I'm going in with my new work. I like the demin for it's durability and it's neutral look, it will go with everything for everyday wear. When I was last at a local fabric shop there was an interesting brown and a grey denim... next on my list of new materials. I have sooo many ideas for new items- large totes with pockets, linen and cotton table napkins and dish towels, diaper bags....the list could be endless. Now is the time to prioritize, and family always is #1 which can cut into my creative time..c'est la vie.

I bought a great new Canon DSLR camera that I am learning to use. I'm just waiting for an led camera light I ordered on ebay so that I can shoot pictures properly inside. I will post some new pics next week hopefully I can acheive the look I want. Is it spring yet? I'm so longing for spring to come, I tend to get the winter blues a bit.

~ Leanne

New pouches with silkscreened prints

2012-01-25T11:11:00.000-05:00

These pouches are almost complete, I just have to select buttons and sew them on. These are small foldover button pouches great for carrying makeup, ipod, phone... great as gifts for wedding party participants. I will list items like these in my etsy shop within the next few days.~ Leanne, have a great day!

New Prints

2012-01-20T10:04:00.000-05:00

Here are a few of my prints on canvas and linen. I tried to add more color and dimension by layering them, but most of the prints will be in single color. Next week I will complete some bags and post some photos of my progress. Ashlynn is quite sick with a cold and cough today so I'm not going to get much done....

Have a great day, hope there's no more snow today I had to shovel about 2 feet off the driveway because it was blowing so much yesterday it all ended up on ours!~ Leanne

A fresh start to the year

2012-01-13T10:53:00.000-05:00

With a new year comes a fresh new look and fresh ideas! Hope you all are rested and recharged as I am. My shop will feature new work later this month with an emphasis on my silkscreened drawings. I've been busy setting up my new space in my home to do the printing. We've built printing tables, had a screen custom made with six images on it to start me off and I have the basic colors of non-toxic inks to begin. My drawings are nature inspired with the exception of some cupcake drawings that are great for children's items, as well as for those adults who have a sweet tooth for such cute items. Please stop by my etsy shop in the next couple of weeks to see what's new! Have a wonderful snowy day- the first real snow storm of the season here in Ontario. ~Leanne

Happy Holiday!

2011-12-25T11:54:00.000-05:00

Have a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends! Here we are, Ashlynn and I making homemade cards with whatever craft materials we had around.

Gifts sets

2011-12-06T12:51:00.000-05:00

A set of four clutches I made for a customer on Etsy turned out great! These are for her bridesmaids as gifts. They are so cute with the vintage bridal lace, they would look great worn with a pair of heels and jeans or a little black dress!

It's been a moderately busy holiday shopping season for my Etsy shop, lots of browser's I guess that is a sign of the times, I'm trying to not spend to much this year either- handmade all around from me! My shop is a bit bare as I sell off stock. I'm not making anything new aside from custom orders right now. My mind is racing with ideas for my new line of silk screened items. In the next few weeks I'm going to be working on drawing, designing, cleaning up my studio and home for that matter, getting my screens ready and printing!Yeah!! I look forward to presenting my new work on Etsy in the new year and preparing a wholesale catalogue for local shops.

Santa Claus came to town!

2011-12-03T12:46:00.000-05:00

Today was a beautiful day to get up and go to the Whitby Santa Claus parade. It was a bit windy but nice and sunny. Ashlynn really enjoyed it and it was only an hour and fifteen minutes long and a 5 minute drive from our home! Beats going to downtown T.O. for the big one. Now I have some time to complete some orders before going out for a family holiday dinner.

Picking the perfect pumkins

2011-12-03T12:37:00.000-05:00

I found these on my camera only a month late!!

A larger Urban Satchel design for my shop

2011-11-23T20:50:00.000-05:00

This particular bag was a custom order in which I made my current Urban Satchel pattern a bit larger and deeper. I was really pleased with how it turned out so I am making a few for my shop in different fabrics from the one shown. This will be a perfect bag to sell at Funktional Art & Design in the new year.

On Display

2011-11-21T22:14:00.000-05:00

A picture of my table display at The Beyond Craft Show

The Beyond Craft Show went well, I sold many of my smaller items which I expected to do. My husband made me a great stand made of pine with hooks attached so that I could hang up some of the larger bags for display. Overall I was pleased with the show and I look forward to doing it again next year! Now with the show behind me I am busy making Petite Purses for girls, larger messenger bags, and a new item- Lap Top bags. Visit my Etsy shop to see what's new, I will have new items posted every few days.

Artisan Show & Sale Thursday November 10th to Sunday November 13th, 2011.

2011-11-02T09:06:00.000-04:00

If you live in the Toronto area come out to a great Holiday show and sale "Beyond Craft" that I will be participating in! It is in The Lebovic Centre for Arts, a beautiful historical building in downtown Stouffville. The past two years I was in this show selling my pottery and this year I will showcase my new bag collection. This is a great show to find unique gifts in many mediums like fine jewellery, glass, wood, metal, soaps, ceramics, note cards, textiles, and now handmade bags and accessories. The show runs for 4 days, the opening is on Thursday evening and then there are three full days to experience the show. Volunteers and artists run the show, I will be present only on Sunday but my work will be on display for the whole show, so if you would like to meet visit me then.

New Applique and Silk Screen Print

2011-10-23T21:25:00.000-04:00

Just finished these bags this weekend. I really like the applique with the faux leather... stay tooned for more of these I have some new canvas print fabrics that will go well with the applique designs.

2011 Satchels

2011-10-22T09:12:00.000-04:00

I Love these types of bags that can be worn cross-body or as a shoulder bag. This is a smaller version of my Urban Satchel- it's more square in shape and is an ideal size for everyday outings. I've added 2 slip pockets with magnetic snaps, and made the adjustable strap long enough to be comfortable on most women. One has already sold! This is a design I will continue to make but I do need a bigger messenger bag that could also second as a diaper bag. These particular satchels in the photos have accent fabrics applied on top of the canvas flap by designers Joel Dewberry and Amy Butler. Soon I will use some of my own silk screened images and cut out designs in faux leather and suade as applique.

Measurements in inches: 10 top x 11 bottom x 10 Height

2011 Collection -Totes and Metropolitan Cross-Body Bags

2011-10-21T09:18:00.000-04:00

Some of my bag designs I've recently sold. These are available by custom order, I may remake them to sell in my Etsy Shop when the holidays are over.

Beautiful Thanksgiving weekend

2011-10-18T09:01:00.000-04:00

It was a beautiful Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, the weather was so warm and sunny, one we will remember for years to come. Michael, Ashlynn and I went for a hike in the nearby wooded trails to collect colourful leaves and found things for decorating Grandmas Thanksgiving table. We also visited a local farm and ran through the corn maze.

Bridesmaid gift sets

2011-09-23T11:40:00.000-04:00

I have made a set of Makeup Pouches that would make great gift sets for bridesmaids or gifts for your best girl friends. More to come in my etsy handbag shop and of course custom sets are an option. I'm working on some new cross-body bags, I will post pictures this weekend.

Cross-Body Bags

2011-09-09T13:25:00.000-04:00

These are the finished bags from the previous post, it was a beautiful morning to do the photos outside. I love the charming feel from this setting with the chair by the fern.

Pretty Packages

2011-09-06T14:33:00.000-04:00

I love getting packages in the mail- don't we all? So I thought I would take a more personal approach to my etsy sales and wrap them like gifts.

2 of my bags I mailed to the U.S. today

Another First

2011-09-06T00:10:00.000-04:00

Well September is finally here! Hurray! I have been waiting a long time it seems for this "first" to arrive. The beginning of school for my four year old daughter Ashlynn is upon us this week. It is one of those bitter sweet moments that comes along when I don't want to be too excited because even though I will gain some more alone time to work I am going to miss out on a lot of the experiences that Ashlynn will take part in. Ahh.. the woes of parenthood...

This past week has been a bit slow for me in terms of completing my sewing projects... seems that family life and lack of sleep gets in my way. I was able to sneek away for a few hours this morning to work on four new bags with a fall flare to them.

These will be small cross-body bags with adjustable straps that can be worn shorter as a purse or longer on the hip similar to the one below.

Well it's after 12am if I'm going to be any good tomorrow I need to go to sleep.

Farm Fridays

2011-08-19T13:33:00.000-04:00

freshly picked

Well it's Friday again so off we went to pick up our weekly veggie bag full of lots of fresh goodies. Once upon a time I was such a city girl but since my daughter came along and we moved to the outskirts of town I LOVE the country. The farms are so close to our community of Brooklin, it's just great.We joined a CSA program this year (community supported agriculture) that is open to city dwellers as well as people in local areas. The produce at our farm - Svetecs is all organic and features some less familiar veggies. Here are some photos of Ashlynn and the free range chickens.

A summer revisited

2011-08-18T22:51:00.000-04:00

Wow the summer seems to have flown by so quickly. The Toronto CNE opens tomorrow which usually in most peoples minds marks the end of summer. So I decided to post some of my favorite photos of my summer. Hiking in Uxbridge's forest trails with Michael and Ashlynn and picking our first carrots from our garden.

Wild Columbine on the trail

Welcome to my blog!

2011-08-16T15:05:00.000-04:00

This is my first journal entry on my new blog. Welcome ! Just back from camping with my daughter and husband at a lake in Ontario.

My new Etsy shop is now open here are some photos of some handbags I've created. You can also visit my website for more info http://www.leanneryanjordan.com/