Are you ready for the New Year?

Can you believe that some of us have been connecting here for four years? You’ve seen me grow, change my look, excepted my silence from time to time, celebrated, and inspired some of my creations with your comments, and likes whenever you dropped by to see what’s happening at LaCartera!  We’ve supported each other in our creative quests and shared our knowledge in this little community.  Some of my friends will tell you that I was so afraid when I first started and I thought that no one would take a moment to stop and read my little blog about my passion of creating handbags. I quickly gained 100 followers that turned into more than 2,000 here and I have the same amount of followers on Google+ not including my other social media outlets.

Over the years I’ve upcycled placemats, curtains, and pillowcases along with mixing multiple textiles to share my take on  mixed media handbags, I follow a lot of mix media artist and some of them inspired me to paint and to use different textures. I’ve joined groups, experimented with blogging tips and social media.  Most of all I enjoyed receiving and sharing sewing tips , your crafts in the Design-O- Rama link party- creating tutorials and exchanging ideas and connecting with so many creative people like you!

Now I’m More Excited Than Ever to Live in the Possibilities of 2017!

Combining all of the adventures from 2016, like designing textiles, learning Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign to create PDF patterns has forced me to take a look at which path I want to take. So to review the year ahead I’ve been planning a new look to my handbags and limited editions to update my Etsy shop, the release of free PDF patterns and some for sale, and I plan to create new coordinating fabrics. I’m going back to my original focus of creating a unique handbag this time using my very own textile designs. My curiosity never ends so I plan to focus on the  tools I need to work with leather and different techniques to improve my textile designs. For those of you that sew… I’ve also made connections with a company on Etsy to create a bag hardware kit that will be available for purchase with the PDF patterns too! A bag hardware kit would limit the time you spend searching around town to find everything you need to recreate the look.

To Celebrate my Blogiversary Tradition and Most of all YOU!

I’m planning several GIVEAWAYs  during January to show my appreciation to my followers here in the U.S. and Internationally….Boy it’s tough to keep a secret, but I’m going to try!