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Friday, September 24, 2010

Celebrating the Artists Who Have Inspired me as a Blogger......Inspiration Avenue


Not only was I growing a baby blog this time last year, I was also a newbie to Etsy.  I'd opened my shop that February but felt too overwhelmed to put anything into it until that July.  Some of you might not know this, but I'd put my art on hold for 15 years to be a stay at home mom and then an art teacher- so I really had to relearn the creative process and rebuild my self confidence as an artist.  Enter Etsy teams.....I started by joining VAST (Visual Artists Street Team) and saw that a lot of the artists had blogs of their own- so I started exploring- remember I was also trying to find my way in blogging at this time too.  Through VAST, I found Angie of Artangel 

Artangel

who has a WONDERFUL blog....and her links led me to Maggie's "The Magpie Nest"
Magpie

and Tammy's "Art and Inspiration
Tammy
all of whom have lovely blogs of their own and also had links to their team, Inspiration Avenue.

I started doing IA's weekly challenges and checking out other folks who did them as well....and along the way I discovered Lisa of "The Wright Stuff"  

and Lulu of "Coastal Sisters" 
Coastal Sisters

And Lisa of "Priti Studios"

to make what is becoming a rather long story, short-er, everything about IA seemed bursting with creative energy and inspiration- it was a team that I wanted to be part of- and I HAVE been for almost a year now!  The team has also been growing steadily for the past year, enough so that as much as I'd like to show examples from each of our talented ladies, there really isn't enough room here.  Hop over to Inspiration Avenue to check everyone out- while you're there, check out this week's challenge; "Decide".

Cheers, and don't forget to enter my giveaway (the link's at the top of this page) if you haven't already done so- there are 3 opportunities to enter- go check it out!
Stephanie

5 comments:

Maggie said...

Stephanie, thank you so much for including me here! I'm honored to be in the company of these wonderful artists and teammates! AND to have a mention on your blog! **doing a happy dance** I can certainly relate to you putting your art on hold for years, because I did the same thing. It's a great feeling to be back at it again, isn't it?

Cynthia Schelzig said...

Thanks for giving us links...will go check them out...thanks for an inspiring blog too.

mermaiden said...

LuLu is an inspiration to me, too :D

Victoria said...

Wonderful post..i love everyone at IA team..super talented souls!Beautiful pieces you ahev shown..
Happy Wkd Sparkles!!
Victoria~

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

I have just recently also discovered these talented artists and am having so much fun with the challenges. I am glad to see some of their art you have chosen to show here. Thanks for deciding to do this.