Busy, Busy... and a Giveaway Winner Announced!

Hey Everybody, can you believe it's the first day of September already?! Summers should not be allowed to go by that quickly. Oh well, I'm getting over it by staying busy, busy, busy. I'm currently working on an order for the typewriter, and a custom piece. Any guesses what it is?

I'll show it to you when it's finished. I've also been working on a couple pieces for fun (I'll show you those soon too, jeez who knew this post was going to be so mysterious?) and I'll get to start working on the giveaway piece soon.


Speaking of the giveaway, I should probably announce a winner! Okay, here it is, not going to keep you waiting anymore, nope no waiting here, the winner is ...  Kara !

Congratulations Kara!!!

Kara, please email at averlygetscreative@gmail.com to figure out the details!

I really really want to thank everyone that entered, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. I put off doing a giveaway for awhile because I was worried nobody would enter, I'm so glad I didn't wait any longer because it was so much fun! I can't believe there were 66 comments, you guys are awesome!

Thank you so so much, and I hope you have an awesome first day of September!

It's a Giveaway!!

Hey Everyone, I am so excited to announce that I'm having my first giveaway for my papercuttings! Here's a  post if you want to read more about them and my Etsy shop.

One lucky reader will win their choice of any one papercutting from my shop!

This giveaway is open to Averly Gets Creative subscribers. Please take a moment and subscribe using Google Friend Connect or Bloglovin before entering the giveaway. Thanks!

To enter all you need to do is visit my Etsy Shop, then come back and leave a comment telling me what you'd get if you won the giveaway. Please make sure there is a way to contact you if you win!

For additional entries, please do the following (and leave a separate comment for each entry):

• Follow me on Twitter
• Tweet about this giveaway. Be sure to mention @AverlyCreatives in the tweet. 
• Share this giveaway on Facebook, Tumblr or your own blog. (Make sure to leave a link so I can come visit you!)

This giveaway will end Monday, August 29th at 10PM Central Time.

Winner will be randomly chosen and announced shortly after.


If you don't want to wait you can use the coupon code GIVEAWAY to receive 20% off your order right now!

I Totally Made That Tuesday -- New Shop Announcement!

I am so excited to announce my new Etsy shop Averly Papercuts!

I discovered papercutting awhile ago and instantly fell in love. I spent a few months practicing on any scrap piece of paper I could get my hands on and then I bought some proper materials and really started cutting.

Finally, I felt ready to open the shop and so I did, exactly two weeks ago today. And to my amazement I sold my first silhouette within a week of opening the shop. It was a custom silhouette of Gone With the Wind. I had so much fun making this piece and my first customer was the sweetest, most perfect first customer I could have wished for.

Here it is:

For those of you not familiar with Papercut Art, it is an art form that involves hand-cutting an entire image from a single sheet of paper. All of my pieces are made of one continuous piece of paper, which means that all parts of the image are connected to each other (there are no “floating” pieces added later).

Each piece is made using an Xacto knife and acid-free archival black silhouette paper, and then mounted onto white mat board.

Here's a few from the shop:

I hope you'll come check out the rest of the shop and let me know what you think!

And the Winner is...

Thanks to everyone who came and checked out my new blog and especially to those that entered my first giveaway.  

I really appreciate your visits and sweet words so.... I decided to give a pattern to everyone that entered!!!

I'll email you shortly to get the details worked out.

Congratulations and Thanks again!

My First Giveaway!

Thanks for checking out my new blog, I hope you take a look around and check back often.

To celebrate the new blog and the Grand Opening of my new Etsy store: Averly Patterns (formerly Purple Cow Patterns) I decided to have my very first giveaway.

What am I giving away? 2 cross stitch patterns!

How to Enter:

All you need to do is follow my blog (preferably using Google Friend Connect) and just check out Averly Patterns and leave a comment below, telling me your favorite pattern from the store.

The giveaway will end in one week on Sunday, May15th at 7:00 pm CST and 2 lucky readers will be chosen at random.

You don't have to, but if you wanted to tweet/blog etc. about the giveaway I'd really appreciate it!

Good Luck and thanks again for stopping by.

P.S. If you don't want to wait you can use the code GRAND to get 25% off right now.

A Quick Intro to My Etsy Store

As I mentioned before I have an Etsy store that sells cross stitch patterns. I thought I'd give just a quick intro here.


My goal is to offer cool, fun patterns you won't find anywhere else. I like to think my patterns are a little arty and funky.

I started with some old Hollywood classics: Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and of course, Elvis.

Then I found some chandeliers and became obsessed with them, which began my love for silhouettes in general. What I really like about them is they only use two colors so they're great for beginners, but they also let you customize them by picking which two colors to use. (I keep envisioning a series of 3 or 4 of one of these chandeliers in different colors as a headboard. I will get around to it someday.)

I also fell in love with these floral patterns. They just have such a cool, vintage feel to them. I originally pictured them as wall hangings, but I think they would be really cool as throw pillows too. What do you think?

Okay, that's my quick intro, hope you liked it. I have a bunch more patterns in the store if you want to come check them  out. I'd love to hear what you think of them.

How I Got Here

Awhile ago I decided to make cross stitch patterns for myself. Then I created a website called Purple Cow Patterns to offer custom patterns for sale. Shortly after, I opened my first Etsy store: www.etsy.com/shop/PurpleCowPatterns which had patterns I had designed.

Well, I really liked my website, and I had a lot of fun making it. But, once I was finished I was bored. I realized I didn't really want a website, I wanted a blog. I wanted to be able to change it and add to it as I pleased. I wanted to talk about cross stitch patterns, but I also wanted to be able to talk about a thousand other things that had nothing to do with cross stitching. But, most importantly I wanted to talk to people, and hopefully have them talk back to me.

So, I decided to start fresh. I ditched the website and decided to start this blog instead. I debated whether to keep the name Purple Cow Patterns, but decided it just didn't incorporate everything I wanted this blog to be. Hence the name Averly Gets Creative. I am not Averly, my name is Stacey. Averly is a combination of my kid's names; Ava and Riley (and I just think it's pretty).



Ava + Riley = Averly



I also closed up my old Etsy shop and renamed it Averly Patterns, (it can be found here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/AverlyPatterns). It has all of the patterns from before (plus new ones when I get the chance) but also offers custom patterns too.

And that's how I got to this point. I'll definitely be posting about cross stitching, but I'm very excited to be able to talk about my family and our daily life, as well as all the other arty and crafty stuff I love like photography, painting, papercutting, scrapbooking, and jewelry design.

I've very excited to be starting this new blogging adventure. I have a ton of ideas and am eager to explore many of them, and hope you'll come along for the fun.