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My Journey As A Creative Designer - Woodworking and Beyond #1848: New Pattern and some Changes on the Horizon

Another week has passed and lots of new things are happening here at Sheila Landry Designs. Unfortunately, most of the things that we are doing don’t make very good blog material. It is hard to document some of the day-to-day activities without putting everyone asleep. 



But trust me – I think it will be worth it for everyone… 



As many of you know, while I began my business and website (nearly 20 years ago) as a means to offer mostly scroll saw patterns to woodworkers, I had learned to scroll saw because I wanted to make my own surfaces for painting. I have always had a love of many types of art and I refuse to believe that we can only follow one artistic path at a time. However, when offered a position as Contributing Editor to Creative Woodworks and Crafts magazine, I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to expand my scroll saw knowledge as well as introduce the woodworking people to some ‘light’ painting. 



Many of the projects that I have had published in the magazine(s) have offered some instructions as to how to add some color to wood projects. While I know that this is something that some woodworkers view as taboo, being the 'rebel’ that I am, it left me undaunted. I still kept trying all the way until the magazine folded a couple of years ago. 



Since taking on Keith Fenton as a partner, I felt that he has been a great asset to the company. Not only on a personal level but also his attention to detail and expert knowledge of computers made him one of the best partners that I could have chosen for many reasons. We have been working together for over eight years now and because of his contributions on so many levels, our company is doing better than ever. We are very grateful to you all as well and feel very fortunate.



But growing sometimes requires changes.



Our site has over 600 products on it right now. With two distinct branches of pattern types –  scroll sawing and decorative painting – we find that many of our customers get confused and find it difficult to find just what we want. We are always sorry when some of our painting customers order scroll saw patterns thinking they are getting the cut wood pieces. Even though we try to be as clear as we can in our descriptions, we find that it is sometimes hard to distinguish between which wood pieces are available as cut pieces for painting and those which are only available as patterns. It causes a lot of distress for us and it takes time and energy to correct orders that were done in error. Not to mention the disappointment that we give our customers. We want everyone to have a positive experience here on our site and we want them to be happy. 



So what is the answer? 



For several years now, Keith has mentioned that perhaps it is time to split the site into two separate entities. I initially had thought it was unnecessary, but lately, I have changed my mind. 



This past year has shown an amazing amount of growth on the painting side of the site. More and more customers are coming to the site looking for wood pieces to paint as well as new patterns and kits that I create. It is getting to the point where there are so many new products in this area that it is no longer wise for us to tuck them into a couple of tabs on the main site. They need to have a place of their own so that when people arrive at them, they can easily navigate just to the products they are searching for – whether it be my own designs and kits, wood pieces for other artist’s projects, or even generic wood pieces that are versatile and can be just for just about anything. As usual, there are so many options!



Fortunately, a couple of years ago I had the foresight to purchase the domain name of “tolepaintingdesigns.com”. Since I had always had the intention of expanding the painting side of my business, I saw this domain name was on the block and thought it would be a good idea to hold on to it 'just because.’ Right now, if you type in “www.tolepaintingdesigns.com” it will take you to the Painting tabs on my regular Sheila Landry Designs website. But once we get things moved and fully functional and migrated, it will take you to the new website that will look something like this:

Not only will this unclutter the main Sheila Landry Designs website, but it will keep the painting items organized better and easier to find. I think it will be awesome and I hope you all do as well. 



This is a huge task, as you can imagine. Getting the 'guts’ of both sites to function well is something that will take a good deal of time on both our parts. Keith will be doing most of the main work, but I will be helping as much as I can to tweak products, write descriptions and do other things that I am able to do. We hope that it will be worth it for all of us in the end, and result in less confusion and better ability to find everything and have a positive experience when you come and visit us. I will copy my blog posts on both sites, so they will both have the same content as far as the blog is concerned. We still have to figure out the Newsletter issues. Since we have both painters and woodworking on our mailing list, we may have to have the painting followers re-subscribe to the newsletter on the new site. We are still figuring it out. 



I ask that you be patient with us during this time. Receiving your orders won’t be disrupted at all and you shouldn’t notice any changes until the new site is unveiled. I will certainly announce that in later posts. 



Until then, Keith and I will be pretty much 'business as usual’.  We will bring new patterns to you as time permits and as I mentioned, still be filling orders as normal. 



With that said, I wanted to let you know about a new pattern that is available for our woodworking followers. Keith created these beautiful Gothic Inspired Ornaments for you all to enjoy (SLDK732)

Not only would these be wonderful and elegant for Christmas decorating, but I think they would also look lovely on a Gothic Halloween tree or even a general tree that has classic ornament shapes. The designs are beautiful and while they may not be the easiest designs to cut, they will certainly be worth the time and effort. I hope you like them. 



Another item that was added to the website over the weekend was the accessory kit for my dowel tree that goes with Amy Mogish’s Ornament Club. (You can click on the link to get more information about it.) 



Amy took my basic Dowel Tree (SLDPK159A)

… and she added her magic touch to a custom accessory kit I made for her club (SLDPK159C)

To make this “Spooktacular” display piece:

The tree is shown here with the ornaments from her Classic Halloween Ornie Club on them. There is still plenty of time to join the club if you are thinking about it. There are LOTS of fun perks for joining and we give lots of support and have fun painting together and showing our ornaments at our Facebook Group Page.



You can join the Facebook Group whether or not you are painting the project. It is fun to watch others and encourage each other as we create our “Boo-ti-ful” ornaments and trees! Come and join us! 



Well, that should do it for today. I have already been out and about and I have orders to get to the post office and new things to work on. I am in the process of getting together my embroidery kits for my shell projects this week too and will have that up in my Etsy shop soon. 



I wish you all a great day and a great week ahead. Thank you all for helping our company grow!



Happy Monday to you! 

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My Journey As A Creative Designer - Woodworking and Beyond #1848: #1848 New Pattern and some Changes on the Horizon

Another week has passed and lots of new things are happening here at Sheila Landry Designs. Unfortunately, most of the things that we are doing don’t make very good blog material. It is hard to document some of the day-to-day activities without putting everyone asleep. 



But trust me – I think it will be worth it for everyone… 



As many of you know, while I began my business and website (nearly 20 years ago) as a means to offer mostly scroll saw patterns to woodworkers, I had learned to scroll saw because I wanted to make my own surfaces for painting. I have always had a love of many types of art and I refuse to believe that we can only follow one artistic path at a time. However, when offered a position as Contributing Editor to Creative Woodworks and Crafts magazine, I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to expand my scroll saw knowledge as well as introduce the woodworking people to some ‘light’ painting. 



Many of the projects that I have had published in the magazine(s) have offered some instructions as to how to add some color to wood projects. While I know that this is something that some woodworkers view as taboo, being the 'rebel’ that I am, it left me undaunted. I still kept trying all the way until the magazine folded a couple of years ago. 



Since taking on Keith Fenton as a partner, I felt that he has been a great asset to the company. Not only on a personal level but also his attention to detail and expert knowledge of computers made him one of the best partners that I could have chosen for many reasons. We have been working together for over eight years now and because of his contributions on so many levels, our company is doing better than ever. We are very grateful to you all as well and feel very fortunate.



But growing sometimes requires changes.



Our site has over 600 products on it right now. With two distinct branches of pattern types –  scroll sawing and decorative painting – we find that many of our customers get confused and find it difficult to find just what we want. We are always sorry when some of our painting customers order scroll saw patterns thinking they are getting the cut wood pieces. Even though we try to be as clear as we can in our descriptions, we find that it is sometimes hard to distinguish between which wood pieces are available as cut pieces for painting and those which are only available as patterns. It causes a lot of distress for us and it takes time and energy to correct orders that were done in error. Not to mention the disappointment that we give our customers. We want everyone to have a positive experience here on our site and we want them to be happy. 



So what is the answer? 



For several years now, Keith has mentioned that perhaps it is time to split the site into two separate entities. I initially had thought it was unnecessary, but lately, I have changed my mind. 



This past year has shown an amazing amount of growth on the painting side of the site. More and more customers are coming to the site looking for wood pieces to paint as well as new patterns and kits that I create. It is getting to the point where there are so many new products in this area that it is no longer wise for us to tuck them into a couple of tabs on the main site. They need to have a place of their own so that when people arrive at them, they can easily navigate just to the products they are searching for – whether it be my own designs and kits, wood pieces for other artist’s projects, or even generic wood pieces that are versatile and can be just for just about anything. As usual, there are so many options!



Fortunately, a couple of years ago I had the foresight to purchase the domain name of “tolepaintingdesigns.com”. Since I had always had the intention of expanding the painting side of my business, I saw this domain name was on the block and thought it would be a good idea to hold on to it 'just because.’ Right now, if you type in “www.tolepaintingdesigns.com” it will take you to the Painting tabs on my regular Sheila Landry Designs website. But once we get things moved and fully functional and migrated, it will take you to the new website that will look something like this:

Not only will this clutter the main Sheila Landry Designs website, but it will keep the painting items organized better and easier to find. I think it will be awesome and I hope you all do as well. 



This is a huge task, as you can imagine. Getting the 'guts’ of both sites to function well is something that will take a good deal of time on both our parts. Keith will be doing most of the main work, but I will be helping as much as I can to tweak products, write descriptions and do other things that I am able to do. We hope that it will be worth it for all of us in the end, and result in less confusion and better ability to find everything and have a positive experience when you come and visit us. I will copy my blog posts on both sites, so they will both have the same content as far as the blog is concerned. We still have to figure out the Newsletter issues. Since we have both painters and woodworking on our mailing list, we may have to have the painting followers re-subscribe to the newsletter on the new site. We are still figuring it out. 



I ask that you be patient with us during this time. Receiving your orders won’t be disrupted at all and you shouldn’t notice any changes until the new site is unveiled. I will certainly announce that in later posts. 



Until then, Keith and I will be pretty much 'business as usual’.  We will bring new patterns to you as time permits and as I mentioned, still be filling orders as normal. 



With that said, I wanted to let you know about a new pattern that is available for our woodworking followers. Keith created these beautiful Gothic Inspired Ornaments for you all to enjoy (SLDK732)

Not only would these be wonderful and elegant for Christmas decorating, but I think they would also look lovely on a Gothic Halloween tree or even a general tree that has classic ornament shapes. The designs are beautiful and while they may not be the easiest designs to cut, they will certainly be worth the time and effort. I hope you like them. 



Another item that was added to the website over the weekend was the accessory kit for my dowel tree that goes with Amy Mogish’s Ornament Club. (You can click on the link to get more information about it.) 



Amy took my basic Dowel Tree (SLDPK159A)

… and she added her magic touch to a custom accessory kit I made for her club (SLDPK159C)

To make this “Spooktacular” display piece:

The tree is shown here with the ornaments from her Classic Halloween Ornie Club on them. There is still plenty of time to join the club if you are thinking about it. There are LOTS of fun perks for joining and we give lots of support and have fun painting together and showing our ornaments at our Facebook Group Page.



You can join the Facebook Group whether or not you are painting the project. It is fun to watch others and encourage each other as we create our “Boo-ti-ful” ornaments and trees! Come and join us! 



Well, that should do it for today. I have already been out and about and I have orders to get to the post office and new things to work on. I am in the process of getting together my embroidery kits for my shell projects this week too and will have that up in my Etsy shop soon. 



I wish you all a great day and a great week ahead. Thank you all for helping our company grow!



Happy Monday to you! 

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gute Idee für einen sicheren Verschluss

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Convertible Bench in

Convertible Bench into a Coffee Table

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Personalised Luxury

Personalised Luxury Leather Wood Keyring luxury beauty products - amzn.to/2hu7dbB

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My Journey As A Creative Designer - Woodworking and Beyond #1847: Five Little Sheep - Finished

In trying to keep my promise to myself and also to you all, I am doing my best to catch up on posting about some of the things that I have been working on that I haven’t yet shared. Yesterday was a good day, as we finished getting the site updated and all the new patterns and products are now available. 



For those of you who liked the new SLDPK164 Autumn Leaf Beveled Ornaments,

they are now available to order on our site at this link:  SLDPK164 Autumn Leaves Beveled Ornaments Wood Kit.



I was really thrilled with the response that I had in showing them the other day, and I hope to see many other designs on them. I will be designing my own painting patterns using them as well in the near future. I have some online classes to design for and I also want to get some autumn designs out there as soon as I can. Before we know it, summer will be over and everyone will be looking to create autumn and holiday projects. Sometimes I feel there just aren’t enough hours in the day. 



The wood kits come with basic painting instructions so that you can see the process I used to get the beautiful metallic finish on them using DecoArt’s Extreme Sheen Metallic paint. The Extreme Sheen Metallics are a new line of paint, and they have much more pigment than their regular metallic paints. I really do love them. I hope to see others use these pieces with their own fall and Halloween patterns. It will be fun to see what others do with them. 



The other thing that I really wanted to post here was that I DID finish my “Five Little Sheep” embroidery exercise. 



I call this an “exercise” because to me it was kind of like a ‘warm up’ before I jumped into designing my first kit. With completing my “A Perfect World” embroidery kit from Di van Neikirk, it had used over 60 different stitches and techniques, I believe. I embroidered the sheep to kind of brush up on the basics and decide which direction I wanted to head with my first needlework kit. Besides that – it was fun to see how differently I could make the same simple pattern. 



During the past couple of weeks, I did complete all five sheep. I believe I showed the first three and was in the middle of the fourth when I dropped off blogging. In any case, I will show them all here today . . . 



Sheep 1 was created using beautiful thread from Valdani. This one was done with a variegated #12 Perle Cotton and consists of loads of “Bullion Knots”:

The second sheep was created again with Valdani thread, but this time a #12 solid Perle Cotton. I used glass pearl beads surrounded by Bullion Knots to make this wool pattern:

Sheep #3 was created using all glass pearl beads and a glass cabochon in the center. I wanted to try encasing the large glass cabochon using the smaller seed beads. The surrounding pearl glass beads were various sizes and shades of white to make an interesting, glamorous piece:

Sheep #4 was half done when I left off. I decided to use 1/8" silk ribbon and fill the 'wool’ in with a ribbon stitch. He is so fluffy and fun! 

And finally, sheep #5 was done in a cut turkey work stitch. First, though, I hand-dyed some pure wool yarn using Jacquard textile dye. 

It gave me a chance to try a product that I had from Jacquard called  "Airfix" which is a liquid that is added to the dye to instantly set it without having to iron or use heat. I used their Black dye and figured that would tell the tale of how this product worked the best, as anyone who has dyed fabric knows how much it bleeds out typically. I must report that I was highly impressed with this product, as after the initial rinse, there was absolutely NO bleeding of the black into either a fresh bath of water or even on a white paper towel. This is significant for me because I intend to dye some of my own silk ribbon for use in my kits and I want to be sure that the ribbon I dye will be completely colorfast. I was really happy! 



And here they all are in a group… 

I don’t know what I am going to do with them yet. I may make them into pins or use them as stumpwork pieces to add onto a larger piece. For now, they are happy as they are and I will hang on them until I am ready to use them. They served their purpose well. 



I look forward to seeing how this part of my business develops. As with anything new, we never know. But I am from the school of thought that believes “nothing ventured, nothing gained” and I feel the need to give it a try. There is always room for more creativity, isn’t there? 



So that is where I am today. I have orders to cut this weekend and I am going to be working on some new designs. Keith and I are planning some big changes on our website so that those of you who like a particular part of our business can stay focused on that area. We are going to be dividing everything up and possibly go to two separate websites – one for the woodworking aspect and the other for the painting part. It is a huge step for us but we believe it will make things better for all of us. We hope you agree. I will talk more about that as we get things settled. 



I wish you all a wonderful weekend. It is a beautiful, sunny and warm day here in Nova Scotia. Not hot at all. I couldn’t ask for better. 



Happy Saturday to you all! 

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My Journey As A Creative Designer - Woodworking and Beyond #1846: Catching Up

The longer I am away from blogging, the more projects keep piling up and the more overwhelmed I feel about writing again. It is funny how that works, isn’t it?



I didn’t realize how long my break from writing was until I received several emails from some of you who were somewhat concerned about my absence. I very much appreciate being missed, and I promise I will do my best to try to post more regularly. It is just that sometimes getting back into a routine can be tough. 



I certainly have been busy. Even though it is only mid-July, as I designer I realize that the autumn and holiday seasons are quickly approaching. That has always been our busiest time and while I feel I have a little bit of a start on some new designs for the upcoming seasons, there never seem to be enough hours in the day (or days in the week, for that matter) to accomplish everything I set out to do and keep up with ideas. I always say that is a good thing – and it is – but it is hard to fend off the feelings of being overwhelmed sometimes and keep my thoughts as organized as I would like. It takes a great deal of practice. 



One of the main reasons that I have been absent in the past couple of weeks was that I had a visit from a fellow artist and friend from Virginia. (VERA!)

I ‘met’ Vera at the beginning of last year when I started the Facebook group for Lynne Andrews 12 Days of Christmas ornaments. Vera instantly stood out because she was such a huge help with keeping that group going. Along with our friend Lynn, Vera and I were the ones who answered questions, encouraged others, and overall, kept things running smoothly. Vera painted SIX sets of the ornaments herself and was a wonderful inspiration for others. We came to chat with each other almost on a daily basis and found we had so much in common that we could have been sisters. When Vera said she wanted to visit, I was thrilled to have her. She spent a full week here in Nova Scotia with us and you would think that we had been friends our entire lives. 



While we spent some time playing 'tourists’ and looking around our area, we spent much of our time brainstorming and talking about creating and what the next projects would be. It was wonderful to have someone here who shares my passion for making things, and it really lit a fire under me. It was a great time and lovely to have someone to share my excitement about creating with. We have so many great new ideas that we hope you will all enjoy. 



But she had to eventually go back, and last Friday we took her back to the airport in Halifax. But I feel that I have a new sense of dedication and purpose, and couldn’t wait to get started on some new things. 



I did finish my “Five Little Sheep” embroidery designs. As I mentioned in previous blogs, they were what I consider to be a kind of warm up exercise in working on my embroidery skills. I do want to branch out and create some unique needlework kits, as I have looked and the types of projects and kits I have in mind are not to be found. I think I can tap a new area and hopefully bring something to people that they can’t really find anywhere else. This has been something that I have wanted to do ever since I worked on my “A Perfect World” sampler two years ago. There was so much interest from people and so many requests to create patterns and/or kits that I feel it is something that would be well-received. But I wanted to take my time and do things right. I have been spending many months getting things ready in preparation for launching this line of patterns and kits. 



The first subject that I chose to create was a Nautilus seashell brooch. 

It is created using high-quality threads, glass pearls, and glass seed beads. There is a pretty crystal bead in the center, too. When I first showed it on Facebook, I was overwhelmed by the response. It was very encouraging and there is even a shop that wants to order my kits wholesale.  It will be a fun, new adventure. 



Of course, after the initial piece was done, I needed to recreate it in order to take step-by-step photos for the pattern and put the steps in logical order. As a designer, I often start with an idea and build on it as I progress. I do this with my painting patterns as well and thus I usually need to make everything two times when creating a pattern. But that way I feel very comfortable in the process and I feel it qualifies me to teach it properly. As those of you who purchased my patterns in the past know, I like to have full and complete instructions. I think this stems from working for the magazine for over 20 years. I don’t know how to write patterns any other way. 



So I am working in that direction to make sure things will be clear and have the high quality that everyone is used to with my work. More information will follow soon on that in later posts. 



The other thing I did this week was that I created a new set of painting surfaces. This set of autumn leaf ornaments is really fun and versatile:

They are my 'signature’ bevel-cut, two-piece style and I can think of so many wonderful autumn and Halloween things to put inside them to make them unique. 



I decided to paint Lynne Andrews’ “Candy Corn Crows” (painting pattern for the crows are at her website at www.lynneandrews.com) and use DecoArt’s new Extreme Sheen Metallic paints for the leaf frames. I think they came out really nice. 

This was kind of a crummy picture, as I finished them last night right before bed, but I posted it on Facebook and have had a wonderful response. I think they will be well-received. :) 



So you all see, my laziness in writing isn’t really because I have been lazy. It has been because I have been so busy working on new things that I have found it harder and harder to keep up with you all. I promise I will try to do better, as I don’t want to feel overwhelmed and make my blog posts so long that you all don’t have time to read them. I will aim for short and to the point posts until I can really be caught up.



We are planning a site update in the next couple of days. I will have the leaf surfaces available then. I invite you to join our Mailing List if you haven’t already.  That way you will surely see our new projects. 



Keith has three new projects as well …



… A second Rustic Welcome plaque – this time a moose (SLDK729) :

… a new Biblical plaque (SLDK730) : 

… and finally, a new Wall Art or Overlay plaque (SLDK731 - Sweet Dreams):

So you see, there is plenty of new designs for everyone. 



Thanks to those of you who missed me. It made me feel good that you care. I hope that you enjoy all of our new ventures and that both Keith and I give you all some ideas and inspiration so you can enjoy being creative as well. 

Happy Thursday to you all! 

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Ryden's Block Box

My son turning 1 year of age, I decided to make him something for his birthday. I thought a set of blocks would be a basic and useful addition to his collection, and that then led to the idea of making a storage box so as to keep them conveniently all in one place. Not that it is likely at any time soon that such a semblance of order will emerge in our household.

Anyhow, I have been working to make a short video, and this really is a dry run of sorts for a much longer video to come in the near future on the assembly of the Ming-Inspired Cabinet.


I hope it was informative and not too much of a pain to watch. My son is enjoying his blocks-  thats the main thing!

All for this time on The Carpentry Way.

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