How Come No One Told Me - Winning Stuff Is Fun

I swear I have never been lucky at carnival games, raffles or any games of chance really but since I started entering blog giveaways my luck has changed immensely.
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Already for the year I have won four giveaway prizes, two I have blogged about here and the second one I blogged about here & here.
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The other two are the newest ones which I'll share with you now.
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First I took part as an international entry for a bead grab giveaway hosted by the fabulously gifted artbead creator HumbleBeads.

Thanks Heather

The beads arrived yesterday aren't they fab, receiving these are extra special because my wallet doesn't allow me the opportunity to really use designer produced artbeads at this time and so I am really looking forward to incorporating them into my designs. If you want a piece of her magic in your designs too, then visit her shop to see what goodies she has available.
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The most recent was the blog candy blogoversary giveaway from Devotion To the Dream Blog.

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Thanks Emma

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I had taken photos of my giveaway prize when I received it but blow I can't seem to locate them anywhere on my computer, so I have used Emma's photo (hope she doesn't mind) to show you what I received.

• Beautifully double tip felt markers.
• Vintage buttons.
• Paper and felt flowers.
• Gems.
• Vintage ribbon.
• A tag making kit.
• A collection of rubber stamps.
• And some inspirational word stickers.

This package has been a welcome injection to my paper crafting supplies, so watch out for some new paper crafted products in my Blogshop in the future.

Besides blog giveaways I also truly enjoy receiving blog awards, they are extra special because it means I am not talking to myself but that what I write about is actually being enjoyed by others. I appreciate and enjoy reading all the comments that are left by those of you who do leave them (its like getting a piece of cake with a cup of tea, so please feel free to leave me LOTS comments :)

Well a blog award is like the icing upon the cake (I am not trying to canvas awards I'm just explaining how it feels to receive one). They always come as a surprise and always add a bit of feel good factor to my day.

Here is the first craft related award I have ever received and it is the first I have received for this blog as well , so thank you Fabi of the blog Con Tus Manos, please check out her blog and her Etsy shop. Her polymer clay creations are out of this world and she is equally talented in other mediums as well.
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Roughly translates to: Award Friend Craftsman.

The rules attached to the acceptance of this award is to link back to the person who gave you the blog and then pass it on to five other creative bloggers. Now I follow a lot of crafting bloggers and would love to pass this blog on to all but I'll just pick five as specified plus a cheeky one more ;)

• Maureen of Crafts and Recipes from Allotment Heaven.
• Shannon of Missficklemedia.com.
• Ali of Hooked!!
• Marie of maridodd.
• Jane of The Seventh Magpie
• Eve of Eve's House.

Now there is no obligation to receive it, I just wanted to let you know I'm inspired by your craftiness and creations.

So that is just a little bit about what has helped to add sunshine to my life over the last few weeks. Thanks for reading and I'll catch you all soon in blog land.

PS life has been extra hectic in my life of late especially as this is the active growing season in the garden. So If you aren't hearing from me through your blog's comments, don't think I am not reading, it just means I may not have time to leave comments. I am also trying to commit to creating an item a day towards my Blogshop along with a daily bike ride, I gotta shift 11lbs, ugh!! So bear with me or with my lack of comments.

Toodles for now,

Blogshop: http://kellascreativewishes.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.storenvy.com/CreativeWishes
Twitter: http://twitter.com/CreativeWishes
My Gardening Exploits: http://kellasvegeplotandothermusings.blogspot.com/

A Cool Blog To Follow

I just stumbled upon this blog via a twitter link and I so love the idea, thought I would share it with you all.

Clicking the picture will take you to the blog.

The following info was taken from their blog's 'About Page':

• Anonymous handmade gifts for perfect strangers
  The Toy Society is a world-wide collective of toy makers – of varying skill levels– who make toys and leave them as gifts for perfect strangers.
  The project was started in Australia in June 2008 by a local crafter, Bianca, as an attempt to create a ‘something for nothing’ experience for anyone who discovered a toy.
  What started as a small personal project has now spread around the world and become known as a Random Act of Craft.
  There are more than 2500 members throughout the world who have collectively gifted more than 1200 lovingly handmade toys to perfect strangers since the project began.
  When a member leaves a toy gift it’s called a “Toy Drop” and is posted here on the blog and assigned a drop number.
  Each toy is safely sealed, with a note to the finder, inside a press seal bag – to protect from the elements. The toy is then left to be found with a tag attached inviting the finder to “Take Me Home I’m Yours”.
  Finders are invited, but not expected, to let The Toy Society know they have found a toy, and these notes are also posted here on the blog. But it’s not expected to hear back from finders; The Toy Society is about giving someone something and expecting absolutely nothing in return, which is a real rarity these days.
  Drops and finds can be tracked on the blog, either in numerical order as they are posted, or by country tags (see left column) or by themes (also see left column). The blog is maintained by a team of volunteers from around the world.
  Membership of The Toy Society is open to anyone, who wants to contribute and believes in the spirit of the project, and is easily attained by completing a brief sign up form on the blog (see left column on the main page.
  Crafters of all levels are welcome to participate – even beginners and kids.

I am really enamoured by the idea and hope to take part in this most feel good project in the future.





Blogshop: http://kellascreativewishes.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.storenvy.com/CreativeWishes
Twitter: http://twitter.com/CreativeWishesMy
Gardening Exploits: http://kellasvegeplotandothermusings.blogspot.com/

Blogshop Update

Hi Ho,

The Blogshop has been updated


Blogshop: http://kellascreativewishes.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.storenvy.com/CreativeWishes
Twitter: http://twitter.com/CreativeWishes
My Gardening Exploits: http://kellasvegeplotandothermusings.blogspot.com/

Necklace Round Robin Swap Update

So its time for that Round Robin Swap post I briefly mentioned previously. The swap comprises of myself and two others and it is more of an collaboration than a swap. We each started necklaces (in varying degrees as you'll see further on in the post). All the pieces then came to me the swap's host, I then proceeded to put my stamp on the other participant's items before sending all three pieces onto the next designer, who would then send it on to the other participant, who would intern send the finished necklaces back to their origins. I am looking forward to owning a fabulously unique piece of jewellery to where this summer.

Anyway it is time to introduce the other participating designers of this my first Round Robin Swap.

Victoria of GiddyStuff

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Victoria drew inspiration for her piece's start from the sea, she blogs about it here and shares further about this RR journey she has embarked on here and here.

This is her starter piece, don't you just love her wired fish focal.

Upon see her starter I immediately thought of a teal blue cotton ribbon I could use which I doubled and attached to some links I made with wire and clear seed beads which will tie n with the larger clear beads Victoria used. I also doubled the ribbon over a blue glass bead and contrasting pinkish coloured craft wire was used to keep it all in place.

Trying to keep to Victoria's sea theme I placed at the bottom of the ribbon an iridescent shell fragment which I have had in my stash now for 16+ years, it felt good to finally put it to use.

I desperately wanted to add another fish element but I had no fishy charms and nor did my local craft store. I had already given up the search for this element but then I came across a practice piece of friendly plastic which made me think of waves and while I was trying to figure out how I might use it in the piece, when the patterns suddenly spoke to me and I saw fish scales. A little while later after a visit to the scissors I had my fish which I added a tiny faux pearl seed bead link too.

I though I was all finished but when I woke Saturday something felt like it was missing and my mind kept going back to the pearls in Victoria's inspirational collage images above, so I created and attached a string of faux pearl seed beads to the piece creating another strand element to the item.

Here is Victoria's piece with all the elements I added, she didn't specify a length so I have tried to keep it somewhere in the middle range, I do hope she likes it.

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Jane of Hooked Yarn

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Look at this pendant Jane put together.

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Jane's only specifications was for a long necklace and that her tastes lent to a more vintage vibe and though she liked colour she didn't want anything too colourful.

Immediately upon seeing Jane's pendant both myself and my eldest thought of Japan but as I had nothing in my stash that lent to that style it was onto plan no:2. the colours in the pendant made me think of some more fibre elements in my collection, this time it was some roughly woven mixed fibre cord I purchased a month ago at a craft fair I visited.

I used some upcyled brass elements from a charity store purchase at either end of the mixed fibre cording and some brass wire was used to wrap and attach some beads and charm elements to the cording.

Lastly I added a length of brass linked chain (another charity shop upcycled item) to create a double strand element to the piece, which besides tieing the piece together it helps the middle link at the top of the pendant to stand up.

And this is Jane's piece with my added elements, although the cording has many colours I think they blend well and do not stand out harshly but complements the pendant, well at least I hope it is perceived this way. Jane I hope you like yours too.

So you are probably wondering where is my starter...

Well here it is, I used scrap copper wire from my hubby's work and hammered some strips flat (I hammered them on concrete which gave them a distressed look) and wrapped them in some roughly homespun wool I got from a freecycle member in my area. I then wrapped on with a finer gauge wire some faux turquoise beads. I got inspiration for this idea from a most talented jewellery designer Mariedodd.

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With the finer gauge wire I also created some jump ring links for the pendant which I attached a scrap of material I cut in to a ribbon and dyed with food colouring (after rinsing out the strip of material I allowed it to dry all balled up to help give it an aged look).

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On the other end of the doubled up fabric strip I attached a larger link made with the thicker gauge wire and using one of the smaller jump ring links I hung a small ceramic bead.

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It was hard to not complete this piece and I was most tempted to do so and start something else but I forgo temptation and I look forward to seeing what Victoria and Jane adds to it.

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Another thing I noticed while I was working on the pieces was that some how I seem to have developed a theme of using fabric/ fibre and it has unconsciously featured itself in all three pieces. This was not my intention and I had no preconcieved ideas on how to embellish the pieces that were going to be sent to me but I simply acted on my first thoughts when I saw the two pieces sent to me. Ah well I must be going through a fibre moment, who am I to argue with my current muse, I quite like the outcomes.

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All the packages are all safely packed up in this magazine page decorated padded envelope and will be posted off tomorrow.

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Watch the video below to find out who its going to next...

Blogshop: http://kellascreativewishes.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.storenvy.com/CreativeWishes
Twitter: http://twitter.com/CreativeWishes
My Gardening Exploits: http://kellasvegeplotandothermusings.blogspot.com/

A Little Bit of This A Little Bit of That...

OK where to start….
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Ah yes I’ll start with info about a new group I have started on the ning site UK handmade forum. It’s a Round Robin group, which aims to create a space for other artisans to work on collaborated projects together.

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It has attracted quite a few members already and has two RR swaps in progress at the moment, one started by me which is jewellery based (I’ll go into more detail in another post when I reveal the pieces I am working on with two others designers). The other RR is based on the fabric creations of stuffed creatures, I look forward to seeing these. The group has a flickr group, where you can view the collaborated works of the group's members.
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I got the idea from reading a fellow jewellery designer’s blog, her name is Lorelei and she is super talented, so check her out. I approached her about basing my groups rules and guidelines on the ones she set out when she hosted a similar RR and she graciously gave me the go ahead to do so, thanks again Lorelei.
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And just for a little more info I have created a static page (see above) which will tell you about any groups I belong too in more detail, so feel free to have a read.
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I have also played a little with one of my recent purchase ’Friendly Plastic’ (blogged about here). I think I kinda got the hang of it but was not completely happy with the shape of the earring I made. My mum liked it though so she has them now.
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Lets see, the other crafting news I have would be the receiving of some commissioned felted beads from a UK based felt designer Vivienne Riddoch. I fell in love with her pebble like felted beads and asked her to create some for me.
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I look forward to using them in my jewellery creations in the near future, which you should see soon when I update my Blogshop later this coming week.
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My eldest is still off from school and the spring weather is favourable, so outdoor activities are a must. I took the girls to visit a local farm. We haven’t been there for at least two years but this is the perfect time for visit as there are lots of baby animals to see and to pet.
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Feeding the lambs


Feeding the calf (notice the big grin on my daughter's face, that was because the calf had just licked her up the arm, blech! my eldest refused to feed the calf after seeing that) :)

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The establishment has been busy over the last couple years and have added lots of play areas as well for the kiddies to run off pent up energies.

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Making Sweet Music

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Thrill Seeking

What a great day we had, they still didn't go to bed early though.

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I have also updated my gardening blog and you are more than welcome to come on by for a visit.

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Blogshop: http://kellascreativewishes.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.storenvy.com/CreativeWishes
Twitter: http://twitter.com/CreativeWishes
My Gardening Exploits: http://kellasvegeplotandothermusings.blogspot.com/

Women Can Be...

I grew up watching videos like these and believed I could be anything I wanted to be. I don't see this so represented now with my girls, so I search out the vintage stuff and show them myself.

This one though was found by my sis, so thanks for passing it on sis.

Blogshop: http://kellascreativewishes.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.storenvy.com/CreativeWishes
Twitter: http://twitter.com/CreativeWishes
My Gardening Exploits: http://kellasvegeplotandothermusings.blogspot.com/

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!

Happy Easter

Everyone.

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Wishing you and yours lots of blessings.

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As you can see from the rain droplets on this primrose,

it is a wet day.

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Wet day or not the Easter bunny duties are still to be done.

(Please ignore the state of my garden, like I said in some of my comments left on the gardening blogs I follow my garden of late has been terribly neglected, which I hope to rectify this coming week).
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The girls donned their warm outer clothing over their pajamas and proceeded to find their treasures hidden for them by the industrious Easter Bunny and this year he had a friend called Lamb-bee to help. He normally leaves them a map but this year his helper left tufts of wool to mark where the treats were hidden.
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Back inside the warm house, with their treats (Grandmummy is relaxing on the sofa).
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I normally read the bible story but this year my eldest read the story of Jesus death and how he rose from the dead.

Most of this goes over the little one's head but my eldest is finally understanding what it all means.
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Time to enjoy the hot cross buns Grandmummy made for the Easter weekend (I would like to interject here that I have no recollection of having home baked cross buns at Easter when I was small, hmph!!).

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Listening to the hymns and sermons on the telly during their breakfast followed by the chocfest rounded out the morning for my girls.

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Hope you are having a splendid Easter in your home too.

Blogshop: http://kellascreativewishes.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.storenvy.com/CreativeWishes
Twitter: http://twitter.com/CreativeWishes
My Gardening Exploits: http://kellasvegeplotandothermusings.blogspot.com/