Blog Entries http://denadesigns.com Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:46:06 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://denadesigns.com/myblog/flea-market-treasures.html <p class="MsoNormal">If you&rsquo;ve read my blog, my newspaper column, or if you watched my TV show on the DIY network, you definitely know that I love a good flea market. They inspire me to embellish and create. So I know I am super lucky to live close to the Alameda Flea Market, which happens every first Sunday of the month. It&rsquo;s Northern California&rsquo;s biggest market &ndash; it takes hours to walk through! Everything sold must be at least 20 years old and you can find some [...] info@denadesigns.com Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:00:00 +0100 Living the Embellished Life http://denadesigns.com/myblog/happi-by-dena-at-crgibson.com.html <p class="MsoNormal">My bright and sunny collection, happi by Dena&trade;, is now available as gift bags and kitchen stationery, made by CR Gibson. Everything looks so great! The bags, recipe keeper, note cards and more are made with special details, like buttons and grosgrain ribbon. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;<img src="http://denadesigns.com/images/blog/happikit_group.jpg" alt="http://denadesigns.com/images/blog/happikit_group.jpg" /></p><p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p><p class= [...] info@denadesigns.com Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:00:00 +0100 Business Announcements http://denadesigns.com/myblog/sleepy-ruby.html <p>Today is a rainy, cloudy, chilly day. But here&#39;s a really cute photo! My tiny poodle, Ruby, has become a studio dog this week. Today she&#39;s sleeping in a little bed I customized for her with some of my fabric made by Fabric Traditions. Super easy to do, and it makes Ruby feel special. </p><p>&nbsp;<img src="http://denadesigns.com/images/blog/rubystudiobed.jpg" alt="http://denadesigns.com/images/blog/rubystudiobed.jpg" /></p> info@denadesigns.com Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:00:00 +0100 Living the Embellished Life Craft Projects http://denadesigns.com/myblog/a-sizzix-wedding-dress.html <p class="MsoNormal">Hello! Today I would like to hand my post over to my assistant Katrina. She was inspired to create a Sizzix floral wedding dress for her wedding two weeks ago! I work for Sizzix creating dies, and I use my machine all the time. The dress is truly a testament to what can be creative with motivation, time, and a little patience&hellip;</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><img src="http://denadesigns.com/images/blog/1-kzdoorsmilesm.jpg" alt="http://denadesigns.com/images/blog/1-k [...] info@denadesigns.com Thu, 11 Feb 2010 01:00:00 +0100 Living the Embellished Life Craft Projects http://denadesigns.com/myblog/leanika-window-display.html <p style="line-height: 150%" class="MsoNormal">Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, there are some cute independent fabric stores. Walking by Piedmont Fabric the other day, I noticed this window display! </p><p style="line-height: 150%" class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p> <p style="line-height: 150%" class="MsoNormal"><img src="http://denadesigns.com/images/blog/leanikawindowblog.jpg" alt="http://denadesigns.com/images/blog/leanikawindowblog.jpg" /></p> <p style="line-height: 150%" class="MsoN [...] info@denadesigns.com Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:00:00 +0100 Living the Embellished Life Announcements http://denadesigns.com/myblog/guest-blog-at-sizzix.com.html <p>Hi everyone!</p><p>&nbsp;I hope you are all staying warm and enjoying the holiday season. It has been raining here in Northern California, but today was a beautiful sunny day.&nbsp;</p><p>I kept busy today by writing a guest entry for the brand new Sizzix.com blog. It&#39;s a sweet project if you love fabric flowers like I do, pictured below.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;<img src="http://denadesigns.com/images/blog/flowers2.jpg" alt="http://denadesigns.com/images/blog/flowers2.jpg" /></p><p>&nbsp;To re [...] info@denadesigns.com Thu, 17 Dec 2009 01:00:00 +0100 Living the Embellished Life Craft Projects Announcements http://denadesigns.com/myblog/reverse-appliqua-cardigan.html <p>Back in April I wrote a blog entry about my favorite sewing technique: reverse appliqu&eacute;. Well, it&rsquo;s November and it&rsquo;s still my favorite! I love the look and the simplicity of this technique.</p><p>Last year I bought this simple cream knit cardigan on sale. Unfortunately I&#39;ve never worn it. I think it was one of those &quot;great deals&quot; that&#39;s hard to pass up - a perfect candidate for embellishment! I added reverse appliqu&eacute; flowers on one side using my ne [...] info@denadesigns.com Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:00:00 +0100 Living the Embellished Life Craft Projects http://denadesigns.com/myblog/leanika-fabric.html <p>My newest fabric collection with Free Spirit Fabrics / Westminster Fibers is called Leanika. It&rsquo;s coming out this month to a fabric store near you! (And many online shops.) The Leanika collection was inspired by my love of vintage textiles. Combining vintage inspired prints with more mod hip prints gives this collection the modern twist that I love.</p><p>Last month we had lots of fun with the photo shoot, once again involving a white poodle. This time it was my own dog, Ruby, sitting i [...] info@denadesigns.com Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:00:00 +0100 Announcements http://denadesigns.com/myblog/poodle-fashion.html <p>Whenever I take a trip, I love to bring back things from that place. While I was in Japan earlier this month, my husband Danny and I quickly popped into a bookstore. <u>Poodle Fashion</u> by Hitomi Kusunoki was the first thing I saw and I had to buy it! It&rsquo;s a sewing book that teaches you how to make clothes for your poodle &ndash; and the photo shoots and captions are hilarious! I think my tiny poodle Ruby is going to need a fashion makeover soon. Then I can walk around with her in Har [...] info@denadesigns.com Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:00:00 +0100 Thoughts from Dena Living the Embellished Life http://denadesigns.com/myblog/boo.html <p>Happy Halloween, everybody!</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><img src="http://denadesigns.com/images/blog/rubyhalloween.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>xo,</p><p>Dena &amp; Ruby&nbsp; </p> info@denadesigns.com Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:00:00 +0100 Living the Embellished Life http://denadesigns.com/myblog/harijuku-girls-in-japan.html <p>Hello!</p><p><br />Last week I returned from ten days in Japan! I was there for some business meetings, but I also spent a lot of time soaking up all of the visual inspiration in the streets of Tokyo. </p><p><br />One day I went to the Harijuku area of Tokyo, famous for its shopping and street fashion. The girls that live in this area dress to impress &ndash; and that&rsquo;s putting it very mildly. I got out my camera and took some photos of the style that stood out the most: &ldquo;Lolita F [...] info@denadesigns.com Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:00:00 +0100 Thoughts from Dena Living the Embellished Life http://denadesigns.com/myblog/happi-by-dena-at-expressionery.com.html <p>&nbsp;Hello everyone!</p><p><br />My summer of travels isn&rsquo;t over yet -- last week I was in Las Vegas and Texas for more trade shows and meetings. And in two weeks I&rsquo;m leaving again! Who knew the life of a painter could involve so many airplanes.&nbsp;</p><p><br />I wanted to give you a little update on my happi by Dena&trade; line of products. Expressionery.com has created a wonderful selection of happi stationery which you can personalize and buy from their website. There are fo [...] info@denadesigns.com Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:00:00 +0100 Announcements http://denadesigns.com/myblog/mary-engelbreita-s-home-companion-workshops.html <p>I am so excited! My friend Barbara Elliot Martin, former editor of Mary Engelbreit&rsquo;s Home Companion, called me a little while ago to see if I wanted to be a part of a workshop she&rsquo;s been putting together with Mary Engelbreit. Home Companion was my favorite magazine. Of course I said yes to Barbara&rsquo;s offer!</p><p>&nbsp;The workshops will be held April 29 - May 2, 2010. Registration starts September 1, so keep a close eye on the website! This is going to be a wonderful event a [...] info@denadesigns.com Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:00:00 +0100 Announcements http://denadesigns.com/myblog/newspaper-shelf-edging.html <p>&nbsp;<img src="http://denadesigns.com/images/blog/dd-newspaper%20edging-blog.jpg" border="0" alt="" /> </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I have no idea where you can find a lovely variety of shelf edging paper. The look was once so popular in the 1950s &ndash; and for good reason: it&rsquo;s absolutely charming. So until this product becomes popular again we can have a great time making our own. </p><p>I like using the classified section for this project because the words are close together and there are [...] info@denadesigns.com Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:00:00 +0100 Craft Projects http://denadesigns.com/myblog/one-of-a-kind-paperweight-project.html <p>&nbsp;<img src="http://denadesigns.com/images/blog/july09%20paperweight%20-%202sm.jpg" border="0" alt="" /> </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I have been collecting glass paperweights for several years now. I usually find them at our local flea market in Alameda, CA. They&#39;ve always seemed magical to me. Miniature worlds encased in glass. When I saw a tiny glass bowl at an import store (probably used as a salt cellar or condiment bowl) I got the idea to turn the bowl upside down, fill it with baubles, s [...] info@denadesigns.com Mon, 27 Jul 2009 01:00:00 +0100 Craft Projects http://denadesigns.com/myblog/see-me-on-the-jolly-jabber.html <p>This week I was a featured designer on The Jolly Jabber, the blog of The Fat Quarter Shop at fatquartershop.com. </p><p>They&#39;re an online fabric store that carry my fabrics. The blog entry is about my Christmas Snowflower collection, already out for purchase! Plenty of time to start creating holiday gifts. </p><p>Below is a photo of my paintings before they were scanned into the computer and turned into the fabric collection.<br /><br />Click here to see the entry!</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><img [...] info@denadesigns.com Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:00:00 +0100 Living the Embellished Life Announcements http://denadesigns.com/myblog/another-exciting-trip-to-ny.html <p>Remember when I wrote that I had a lot of summer travelling to do? It&rsquo;s not over yet! That&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;ve been away from writing blog entries for the past couple of weeks. <br /><br />I just got back from another week in New York City. Aside from business meetings, window-shopping, and museum going, my family and I wanted to complete another routine NYC stop: Veniero&rsquo;s Pasticceria! <br /><br />This Italian bakery has been around since 1894 - in the same family and the same [...] info@denadesigns.com Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:00:00 +0100 Thoughts from Dena http://denadesigns.com/myblog/become-a-fan-of-my-facebook-page.html <p>Hello! </p><p>This week I created not just a facebook page, but a facebook fan page for Dena Designs. I&#39;m brand new to facebook.com, but hopefully you&#39;re not and you can become a fan of my page! I hope to keep it updated along with this blog as much as possible, and the great thing is that you can add comments and links, as well. If you&#39;ve been waiting for a really good reason to join facebook - this could be it! That&#39;s why I joined. </p><p>The Dena Designs fan page on faceboo [...] info@denadesigns.com Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:00:00 +0100 http://denadesigns.com/myblog/nyc-inspiration.html <p>I&rsquo;m back home! The Surtex Show in New York City and the Licensing Show in Las Vegas were big successes. But my travels are not over yet; I have meetings all over the country for the rest of the summer.&nbsp; </p><p><br />I want to share with you some inspirational furniture I saw last month in NY at my favorite home department store in Manhattan: ABC Carpet &amp; Home. This store I a must see! I took my camera inside and captured what&rsquo;s new and hip in the home dec world. </p><p>&n [...] info@denadesigns.com Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:00:00 +0100 Thoughts from Dena Living the Embellished Life http://denadesigns.com/myblog/quick-check-in.html <p>Hi everybody!</p><p>Sorry I haven&#39;t written in a couple of weeks. I&#39;m still not home in my sunny studio. I&#39;m now in Las Vegas for the Licensing Show! Surtex in NY was a big success, and I plan on writing more about both when things settle down again. and it was so good to see my daughter Rachel! In the meantime, check out my photos on my flickr page.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;xo,&nbsp;</p><p>Dena </p> info@denadesigns.com Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:00:00 +0100