Number 4 on the list was a certain Kate Jones, who is now officially Kate Lynch! Kate is a friend of mine from college who got married in Maryland this past Saturday. I knew she was getting married, so I decided her winnings would be part wedding gift & part giveaway gift!
I thought about what I could make that would have added a little extra to my own wedding and quickly found inspiration in a shoe box full of cards. I won't be able to part with our wedding cards anytime in the foreseeable future, so it sure would be nice to have a pretty box in which to store them! (Happily, I will have my own version of this box soon, because I cut out two sets of boards while I was working on Kate's!)
The Lynchs had a color scheme of truffle brown and cornflower blue, so I tried to stay in that color ballpark while picking my materials. The white decorative paper that is inset on the cover of the box is a strip of vintage Royledge shelf paper.
The third winner of my handmade giveaway was Christina, who has a blog called Hall Family Happenings, and a wonderful Etsy shop called Nina Bo Bina. Josh & I purchased a sweet burp cloth set from her earlier in the year when we found out that our cousins would be having a little girl! Check out the shop for all sorts of fun handcrafted fabric items.
This holiday book should arrive in Christina's mailbox today! It is a softback book, measuring 5.25 x 6 inches, full of 24 perforated pages. I thought the Hall family could use this to make a few holiday lists for the upcoming season!
Hope you enjoy it Christina! Thanks for entering my giveaway!
It is fitting that my friend Erin is my second handmade winner, because I was one of the lucky winners of her handmade giveaway! This little book, covered in cotton polka dots and a vintage hot iron transfer iris, is what I sent to Erin as her prize.
It's a good size for a pocket or purse, and has actual pockets inside! Two envelopes are are sewn in with the thick white pages. The pages have complementary blue endsheets and contrasting fabric endbands.
It was made with the very same construction that I came up with for Stacy's books.
All wrapped up! I hope this was a nice surprise in the mailbox.
This awesome necklace was what Erin sent to me for her giveaway. I wear it all the time! She made the lovely pendant out of shrinkable plastic. Visit her Etsy shop for all sorts of fantastic jewelry. You can also visit her blog to learn more about her process.
Inspired by her gift and intrigued by the idea of shrinkable plastic, I did some experimenting and came up with a project for the kids at Carpe Diem Piano Camp this summer. Shrinkable Plastic is great medium, because on one hand you can create striking and professional looking jewelry, and on the other hand, it can be used by to create a very satisfying project no matter what your artistic level may be. Pictured above is a key chain made using Shrinky Dinks.
I printed several measures of each camper's recital music onto the plastic which they then decorated with colored pencil. After they cut their music into squares, I punched holes in them and rounded the corners. The kids then had the thrill of watching them shrink in the toaster oven. After the pieces were cool, I added the jump rings and lobster clasps so they each had a bracelet to wear home. The bracelet third from the right was signed by all of the campers and given, by them, to their wonderful camp director/piano instructor on the final day of camp.
DjStoreRoom was the first name pulled from my virtual hat, when I selected winners for my handmade drawing. Armed with the knowledge that she loves pink, I kept an eye open for rosy combinations.
I found some strips of lovely pink paper that I thought would make great square pieces. From there, I decided that a folded star structure would work, and found the rest of the pieces. The boards of the book are graced with one of my favorite papers from Chena River Marblers. The front cover displays a thin coating of gesso followed by a pink hot iron transferred flower. A sweet size, the book measures 1 5/8 " square and about 1/2" thick.
DjStoreRoom is owned by a woman named Diana, living in Singapore, who makes and sells delightfully patterned pouches on Artfire and Etsy. Visit one of her stores, check out her blog, become a fan on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter!
Two items of note before I sign off. Last night I was delighted to see that I made my first sale on Etsy! My purple perennial miniature book earrings will be on their way to Colorado today!
For the first SIX people who reply to this note, I will make and send you something. You never know what you might get, it could be a doodle, a painting, a t-shirt, a little creature made of clay... It could be pretty much anything, but it will be something creative and something that I will make especially for you.My version of this varies slightly. I will use the True Random Number Service from Random.org to select six people from however many have responded (in the form of a post comment) by March 31st. The other variation is that, while you never know what you might get, you can bet that it will be some variation on the theme of paper, board, thread, and glue!
The rules, as I have learned them, are that if you reply to this note, you then have to post a note like this yourself and make things for the people who reply, thus continuing the chain of creativity, giving, sharing, and awesomeness.My variation on part II is that you should make a similar posting if your post comment is selected, no pressure if your comment isn't selected!
And not to worry if making things is not your particular cup of tea. You can participate by thinking of other ways to pass along the creativity, like writing awesome messages for people, baking, or just sending a cool thingamajig that you found in your closet or under your bed.
The photos in the post are a mix of some Japanese Stab bindings that I made around the time I was living with Erin (center image) and thank-you books that I made for my Swedish friends before I had to leave them and return to the states this past summer. The thank-you books (top and bottom image) are decorated with Swedish papers and imagery from places and events that we attended together. Inside is a recipe for a snack bar that I made to share whilst there, a special note, and my contact information.