terbearco

Many of us know Teri of terbearco on Etsy as the go-to person for handmade rubber stamps.

But she's also a crafter.For as long as I can remember, I have been crafting, says Teri of terbearco. One of her earliest memories of crafting was the enjoyment she got out of creating little dioramas out of wood scrap, knick knacks and dried flowers as a teen. "Those were pre-glue gun days!" she says. She discovered a passion for quilting about five years ago when her husband bought her first sewing machine. "At the time, I hadn't touched one in over 25 years. I was so afraid of it, it remained in its box for three months. Now, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't get on that machine and create something."

TeriI stumbled on Etsy "by mistake." She was shopping online for a special reward for herself. When she couldn't find what she was looking for on eBay, she decided to try Etsy. "I found just what I was looking for, and signed up and bought it. Being a salesperson by nature, I found a few supplies that I thought would sell well on Etsy and listed them within the next few days. I was very surprised when I got my first sale within only a day. I was hooked. I found it was a place for me to be creative and a place for me to sell the things I create. I get inspired every day seeing all the wonderful things the other Etsians create. I have so many projects floating in my head I am sure one day it will explode." Surprisingly, she still hasn't gotten up enough courage to sell one of her quilts on Etsy-- "it would be like selling one of my children."

Teri's son, Joshua, a self-proclaimed quilter, also has an Etsy shop. "One day, we sat down and make sock monkeys together. We both put them up on Etsy for sale. His sold right away…and he too was hooked. We decided to make smaller items from the pictures we took of the sock monkey, and currently that is what he is selling in his store. During winter break, he is planning on making some ATC's to sell. We followed all of Etsy's rules about minors and I basically run his store for him under his direction." Teri's favorite item from his store is his first sock monkey, whose face can be found on magnets and buttons that he sells in his store.

Like many of us, Teri has creative phase: her newest project is fabric embellished notebooks, and she also has wallets & coin purses in the works. "I have been collecting darling fabrics so that I will have a nice selection to work with." In a year, she hopes to have more sewn products in her store, because sewing is her passion.

Her favorite item in her shop is her Kleo flea market bag. Her favorite selling experience was when one of her super hero sock monkey dolls was sold to the editor of USA TODAY and was auctioned off at the APME (Associated Press Managing Editors) Foundation Auction. "It was really exciting for me!"

Jenngee

Sewing may just run in her genes. Although both of my grandmothers are superb sewers and quilters, Jenn George, known on Etsy as Jenngee, grew up a great distance from both of them and wasn't lucky enough to learn directly from them. She dabbled with sewing and needlework off and on as a kid, but became serious as a freshman in college where she had a design school student for a roommate. "I was fascinated with the things that she made with her sewing machine. I asked for my own machine for Christmas that year and that is when Bertha (my straight-stitch-only, loud as a freight train, workhorse of a sewing machine) came into my life," she says. "At that point there was no turning back."

She learned everything her roommate would teach me and then bought or borrowed every book she could find that would teach her new skills. "I became obsessed with the quilting show that Georgia Bonesteel was doing at the time (she was the first TV quilting diva as far as I know) and decided that quilting was my calling. I spent all my extra money on fabric yardage or quilting notions. That was almost 13 years ago and I continue to learn new things almost every day," Jenn says.

These days, she finds real joy in making smaller items like the Coffee Corsets she sells on Etsy since she gets all the pleasure plus the added bonus of finishing them quickly, but she still loves making quilts. She also enjoys creating her own fabric with inks/dyes/paints, carving her own stamps (for the same purpose), painting and embossing metal hardware, machine needle felting, cross stitching, and hand embroidery.

What inspires her? "I'm very heavily influenced and inspired by the work of others." She became a craft-show junkie way back before the craft shows on HGTV, PBS, and the DIY Network became popular, and the DVR in her sewing studio works overtime recording every show that is even remotely craft-related. "I enjoy watching these shows to learn new techniques and to see the work of other artists. I also have a huge library of books and magazines to reference and I make a special effort to visit traveling quilting/textile exhibits whenever they come to my town. When I see something that makes me say 'WOW' it just renews my creative spirit all over again and I want to make more and more."