Meet the Artist and Giveaway: Shelly from Gingermelon

I'm delighted to introduce you to Shelly from Gingermelon 

who has graciously agreed to participate in a giveaway :)

This talented artist has offered to giveaway not 1, not 2, but 3 sets

 of Color-Your-Own Paper Dolls!

The winners can choose between these 2 sets:

Buy it here

OR

Buy it here

Shelly sent me a copy of the first set and my daughter Eleanor and I had a blast putting them together. The great thing about Shelly's paper dolls is immediate gratification! Since they are sent via email, you can download the images in seconds, print them out at home, and start creating them right away!

You need very few materials: white cardstock, colored pencils, scissors, and brads, how easy is that! Here's a little slideshow of our project:

Aren't these adorable? We're dying to try the Patisserie set now! It has the more traditional tabbed outfits, and a bunch of little accessories, too. 

Shelly is no one trick pony; the paper dolls are only the latest of her crafting adventures. I'll show you more as we go along. Let's get to know Shelly a little better.

Q: Tell us a little about yourself.

A: I live in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada.  Originally, I am from South Africa were we lived till I was 17.  I have always loved drawing, though to tell you the truth, my sewing skills were always terrible!  My mom ended up fixing or finishing anything I attempted to sew, so I like to make everything I create very simple!

Q: I see that you and your mom run myfairdolly together. How did that come to be?

A: I convinced my mom to open myfairdolly because she loves to sew and her skills are amazing!  I had started to collect Blythe dolls and wanted to try my hand at making outfits for them in my spare time.  Unfortunately, I really don't have any spare time anymore, so mom does everything in the shop now and along the way has started a collection of all sorts of dolls, too!
 

Q: I've noticed that Gingermelon is now primarily patterns, whereas at one point you were selling mostly dolls. Why the change?

Buy it here

A:When I began selling on etsy, I concentrated on making the Little Ladies which are cloth dolls with embroidered faces.  After a while, I started experimenting with little felt bears, kittens and bunnies.  I loved making up little stories for them as each seemed to have it's own personality.  As time went on, I created the Sweet Stufflings and that's when I got the idea for creating a pattern for them.  I knew that if I could make them, anyone could!  So, when I designed the pattern, I decided to add hand drawn illustrations so that if a person had trouble reading a pattern (like me!), they could really just follow the diagrams.  I was amazed at how quickly the patterns sold and how appreciative my clients were for the easy instructions!  My head is always full of new ideas and I have a little sketchbook that I keep on hand for rough drawings.  At the moment I'm working on a new project that will be lovely for kids who have a little basic sewing knowledge.  I'm planning on making a kit that would contain a super simple, mostly illustrated pattern, the felt needed to make it and a few embellishments, including the safety eyes.  There will be many to choose from:  a bear, kitten, fox, owl, raccoon and a little doll.  I'm very excited about these and hope to have them ready for my shop before the end of September!

Q: You've been very successful with Gingermelon in a relatively short period of time. What do you feel is the "secret" to your success?

A: I think the key to becoming successful on etsy is to keep being creative!  Constantly challenge yourself to come up with new ideas and most importantly, treat your customers like gold!  I believe that if you are passionate about what you do, it will show in your work.  Every item I make is made with love and attention to detail.  I want people to notice that I have put a lot of thought into each piece and I try to keep each one unique.  Even if I'm asked to make another one just like a particular one I've done before, it'll be slightly different in some way.

Buy it here

Q: What is your favorite medium, and why?

A: I have many favourite mediums:)  Hand woven felt is by far my favourite in the world of felt. I love paper and have oodles of it, pencil crayons, paper clay, Japanese linen, seed beads, mohair, lace, I could go on forever!

Buy it here

Q: What item that you sell holds the most personal meaning to you?

A: My most meaningful items are my cloth dolls, the Little Ladies.  These are what got me started and every time I make one, I enjoy the entire process!  They are very time consuming, but worth every moment spent on them!


Q: Your paper dolls have so much personality. Where do you find inspiration for their features and accessories?

A: I absolutely loved doing the Paper dolls!  In fact I have quite a few more that I've started on, but again, lack of time has kept me from going much further with them.  My inspiration for them comes from vintage/retro cards, ads and children's books.
 

Q: What are your future plans for your work and Etsy shop?

A: Future plans include more sculpted dolls, more paper dolls and lots more patterns!  Just think, we have Halloween, Christmas, Easter - there's a theme for everything!
 

Buy it here

Q: Has your work been featured in any publications?

A: My work was recently featured in 'Stuffed Magazine'.  It was such an honour and I was delighted to be part of their summer edition!  I have also been featured on babyology, a few blogs and facebook fan pages.


Q: Just for fun, what is your favorite Etsy shop?
A: Some of my favourite shops on etsy are abimonroe, Dilkabear, loopyboopy, and sweetbestiary, to name a few. Too hard to just pick one!


After you've run over and bought yourself something nice from Gingermelon be sure to check out Shelly's blog, Facebook page, and Flikr. And, of course, come on back and enter to win your free set of paper dolls:

How to Enter the Giveaway:

1. Follow this blog (Mandatory)

and leave a comment here saying you did.

2. Leave a separate comment here about the fantastic stuff you saw 

while visiting Gingermelon.

How easy is that?

Best of luck to all who enter.

Make sure to visit the Giveaways tab for more great prizes!

Fine Print:

Only 2 entries per household please

3 winners will be chosen September 15th at midnight PST
Winners will be chosen by random.org
Entries will be validated
Winners will be announced here
Winners will have 3 days to contact me, 

after which new winners will be chosen

Must be 18 years of age or older to enter