Darren’s Zen Samurai

Bethany’s “Ahhh…decaf” Penguin

Allyson’s Woodland Fairy

Exciting news: We’re branching out our product line in our Darcy Place Studio Etsy store to include 1-inch pinback buttons.

So far we have about 24 different designs including funny sayings, my cute animals in different poses, billiard and dart designs, and unique art by my brother Darren and my niece Allyson.

It’s not easy designing for such a small space and I must admit that the designs appear to be quite small when printed on my printer at home. But the final buttons look amazing and the designs actually look great even from a few feet away. We’re currently working on more designs and really enjoying the collaborative creative process.

Sheep Loves Tulips Journal

I’ve recently developed a new animal character: a sheep.

In this scene celebrating spring, the sheep holds a bouquet a orange, pink, and yellow tulips next to a basket of cut tulips.

Right now, this cute design is available on a blank journal/notebook in my etsy store. We just recently started offering our designs on journals…they are about 4.25″ wide by 5″ high and have 50 blank pages made from 100% post-consumer recycled pages.

It’s been fun working with our new binding machine. It definitely takes some practice to have everything line up properly.

"With Love Cow" & Heart Printable Stickers

My little cow friend wants to shower everyone with love in this cute new design in my etsy store. On some of the 1-inch printable circles, the little cow is throwing hearts into the air. Other circles feature large hearts with the phrase “with love” in 5 different languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian and German).

This is a new design in a new line of products I’ve been working on lately: printable 1-inch circles perfect for printing as stickers, creating bottlecap arts, or as little embellishments for scrapbooking.

More designs and sizes coming very soon!

Bear in My Stocking ornament

I’ve introduced a new embroidery pattern in my etsy store: “Bear in My Stocking”.

It features my animal friend, Bailey, the Brown Bear, hanging out with a candy cane in a Christmas stocking.

The photo shows an ornament I am making. I stitched this cute design in red, green, brown, and white using raised satin stitch and outline stitch. The fabric is a square 6×6 hem-stitched piece of 60/40 linen I purchased from one of my new favorite online stores All About Blanks (look for hem-stitched table linens…these are the 6×6 cocktail napkins).

To finish the ornament, I’ll add a second napkin as the back, sew the two pieces together, stuff with poly-fiber, and weave a ribbon through the hem-stitching holes.

For instructions on how to make the ornament, you can download a pdf at All About Blanks.

Embroidered Eye (Allyson Mitchell's Eye #3)

I’ve been doing a lot of embroidery projects lately and here’s another new one.

This is a “shades of pink” embroidered eye I stitched from a pattern my niece designed for our etsy store (Eye #3 by Allyson Mitchell of Pink Tea Design).

The fabric is a cotton kitchen towel and I used the following stitches: split stitch, french knots, raised satin stitch, outline stitch, and stem stitch.

It was a quick project, taking about 3 hours to complete. I’m working on other eyes in her pattern series now.

New Design: P is for Penguin

I’ve been thinking lately of new designs for my little penguin and here is the first of many: “P is for Penguin”.

In the sample, I appliqued the letter P and the little penguin in soft flannel in baby colors. Then embroidered some details with seed stitch and outline stitch. This will become part of the quilt I’m designing/making for my new nephew or niece.

I envision developing animals for each letter of the alphabet…it will be a fun challenge!

I’m also working on other animal friends including a cat, zebra, rabbit, cow, bear, panda, and others as the inspiration strikes. As always, my designs are available as PDF patterns in my etsy store.

New Design: Peeking Penguin

I’m busy working on new patterns featuring my little penguin friend. In this design, the little penguin is peeking in to say “hello”!

The sample pictured is a burping cloth for a new baby. I stitched this design using outline stitch, seed stitch, and stem stitch in only two colors: black and gold. The fabric is a cloth diaper; this presented some challenges as the fabric’s fibers had a tendency to separate as I stitched.

The PDF pattern for this design is available in my etsy store.

New embroidery pattern: Hug Me Penguin

I recently finished a new embroidery pattern design: “Hug Me Penguin”.

This design is part of a series of animal patterns I’m developing.

My niece, Allyson, stitched this cute purple version as a gift for a friend. She used outline stitch and satin stitch on the pink background. The overall design she used is approximately 4 inches tall.

The pattern is available for sale as a black and white downloadable printable pdf in my etsy store (darcyplace.etsy.com). It also includes a reversed version for iron-on transfers.

I think the pattern would be perfect for appliqué on a baby’s quilt or painted on a child’s tee.

Look for more penguin and other animal designs coming soon. I’m working on some holiday designs now.