Sponsor Feature & 10 Giveaways

[ETA: Winners announced here. Join us again next month for another big giveaway.] Every month, Freckled Nest promotes a great collection of shops, blogs and artists in the right sidebar. This month, I've invited my sponsors to share about one of their favorite recent craft projects. Each sponsor has also contributed something special & cool to our big giveaway!! Yeee! To enter the big giveaway, leave an encouraging comment on each sponsors blog (links below), then write your name and email address in the comments of this post and we will draw one person who wins everything! BONUS GIVEAWAY: I've added a new regular giveaway from Freckled Nest to the monthly feature post :) A separate winner will be drawn from the Followers section every month and win a Small Ad spot on Freckled Nest for the month ahead :] Note: regifting allowed if you don't have a blog or shop. See left sidebar to follow. * Blog & Etsy This is a mini album that I made about my trip to Bali, Indonesia. This was a trip of a lifetime, the kind of trip that kinda changes the way you see the world and people. Anyway, I wanted to work with colorful elements, texture and make some kind of treasure box... I love photography and it was pretty difficult to choose from around 900 photos the ones that I would use for my album! So I simply picked a few of my favorites and used them in my album. I played with Distress Inks, embossing, stamping, painting, paper, wood, plastic. I love to mix things together in a mini album. Giveaway: Remember... TRAVEL mini album kit giveaway * Blog & Studio Hello! I'm Elle from Elle's Studio and I'm super excited because we just launched all our brand new designs for Valentine's Day! The line is appropriately named XOXO and is full of pink, red and turquoise! One of my favorite color combos :) You can also check out our blog for some fun and crafty ideas. We have some fun things in store for our blog for this fun holiday! Can't wait!! Giveaway: Winner gets to pick any 3 items from our store! * Blog Hi! It's Hannah from B's Wig Shoppe! Over the holidays I found myself doing a lot of sewing and embroidery for various gifts and decorations but anytime I needed a break, I worked on knitting a scarf for Husband. I *love* the way working with yarn feels; I had no idea is was so therapeutic! Well, over the past few days I've become quite obsessed with the idea of learning to crochet... it's portable, there are a lot of different designs you can make with all those stitches, and I'm less likely to impale myself doing it on a bumpy road in the car :) Anyway, one of our friends came in over Christmas who will be leaving for Afghanistan soon, and I've promised to make him something before he does. The plan is learn to crochet this week and then eventually work up to making him a blanket to meet him when he gets there as a little reminder of home. Today, however, I'm practicing by making these little flower pins (SC CH3, 5 times in a loop; SC CH3 9 times in a loop; connect 2 parts with a bead and yarn!) Giveaway: Tea-to-Go Pouch * Blog & Shop Lately, I had a blast making some limited edition Letterpress/Linocut prints with the cutest scallywag pirate girl you've ever seen on them! The print set is called "Pirate Betty", and the prints were all entirely handmade and hand printed using vintage presses in a very small print run. First, I carved the illustrations out of lino, and combined layers of linocut prints with Letterpress words to form a unique design. I also hand-dyed the edges of some of the prints to resemble old maps - it was definitely a super-fun project, all around! (view finished prints here) Giveaway: I'm still scrapbooking my Christmas photos, and I hope you are, too! These cute, colorful "Cheery Ornament" illustrated, hand-cut stickers will help you out in that department! :) * Blog, Tiny Bazaar and Kitschy Digitals I most recently designed a Valentine's card and envelope free printable download for my blog readers. I wanted to create a little something to say "thank-you" for being so supportive! I knew I wanted to create something Kawaii-inspired, very japanese, so I knew I needed some cute animals to illustrate! So I started out searching through Flickr to find reference photos of actual pandas and foxes (who doesn't love a cute panda or fox? I recently saw the Fantastic Mr. Fox, so I've had foxes on the brain.) So after perusing many a Zoo photo, and several hours of creating in Illustrator and Photoshop, I came up with this. Giveaway: Four Kitschy Digitals {Goods} Cut-Out Sheets, my Washi Tape Frames digital kit, my Woodgrain Frames digital kit (instructions for digital frames here) *

Blog & Shop I love nothing more than re-inventing fairy tales and nursery rhymes. My latest project was the rhyme, "There once was a man with a beard, who said, "It is just as I feared. Two owls and a hen, four larks and a wren, have all built their nests in my beard." I elaborated on the rhyme to give the man a wife and to show how their relationship progressed over time until in their old age, they shared the birds. The finished portraits were entitled, "Birds of a Feather" and "Flock Together".

Giveaway: "Birds of a Feather" and "Flock Together", 5x7 prints.

* Blog & Shop I am Jane Heinrichs, a writer and illustrator. I divide my time between London (UK) and Winnipeg (Canada). I love children’s books, especially vintage ones. I recently wrote and illustrated a children’s book called “Magic at the Museum”. It is about a young girl named Anne who visits an art gallery on her birthday. Anne falls asleep, the paintings come alive, and they have a magical birthday party. I was inspired to create this book after studying in a beautiful art college in London. At the time I fell ill with mono, and I needed something to keep my spirits up. The whole message of this book is love and courage: I hope all my readers get courage from “Magic at the Museum.” I created my own publishing company to self-publish this book. Within one year of publication “Magic at the Museum” was short-listed for a major Canadian illustration award and spent two weeks on the bestseller list in Winnipeg. This is a testament to the power of confidence and the chutzpah of an indie-business! Giveaway: Two handmade greeting cards designed and published by Jane * Blog My name is Gillian King (aka Gillian Giggs) from Winnipeg, Manitoba and I'm sharing a 'How-to-Scowl' pattern! Along with my passion for painting I am always itching to learn to make new things. This past summer I attended one of Studio Lune's knitting tutorials and was taught to knit and purl by none other than Ms. Dizzy Dame! Since then I have started my own Stitch and Bitch, where once a week I meet up with fellow peg city knitters and over wine and snorting laughter we share patterns and teach eachother new techniques. One of my first projects was something I called a 'scowl', which is a mix between a scarf and a cowl. It can be free-styled quite easily, meaning you can switch up the type of wool you use or the number of rows you wish to knit. I would highly recommend this project for brand new knitters! It is a very easy and fast way to master your knit stitch and come away with something you'll be proud to say you made!

How-To-Scowl: Tutorial from Gillian Giggs

Materials:

1 skein of fairly bulky wool (I would recommend wool that says it requires needles sized 6-9mm)

1 set of corresponding needles (ex. if the label on your wool says it requires 8mm use 8mm needles)

3 big buttons

*To learn a basic knit stitch and how to cast on and off visit http://www.knittinghelp.com for free how to videos

Step 1: Cast on 20 stitches

Step 2: Simply knit the next 62 rows

Step 3: Cast off, tying a knot at the end so it doesn't unravel

Step 4: You will now have enough scowl to wrap around your neck once - place onto flat surface and connect the two ends with one side overlapping by 1-2 inches - decide where you will like your buttons to sit on the scowl

Step 5: *With your excess wool cut off a 5" strand and loop it through your button holes so the two ends are hanging below the button - place on overlapped scowl and pull strands through holes in scowl until you have both strands through the two layers - tie into secure knot and cut off the excess

[Repeat from * for remaining buttons]

You will now have a scowl that will slip over your head like a neckwarmer and will be warm and funky for cold days (which are 2/3 of the year in Winnipeg)!

Giveaway: a pair of 'puff' earrings made of wool. * Blog & Shop

I am so inspired by the color yellow lately. I don't know if it is because of the gray skies and slushy streets...or maybe the urge to go someplace tropical. So to bring a little bit of sunshine into my world, I took a vintage pillowcase with the prettiest yellow flower pattern and chopped it up! I made all sorts of fun embellishments for my scrapbook pages and even turned the beautifully detailed trim of the pillowcase into a BIG hair accessory. I accordion folded & stitched the trim, and then paired it with some dreamy white tulle, a couple of big pearl beads, and one of my great-aunt's vintage yellow rhinestone clip-on earrings to make an oversized pretty for my oversized hair! Super easy and fun!

Giveaway: Little Miss Sunshine crafty kit... * Blog & Studio & Etsy

One of my new year's resolutions for 2010 was to give back through doing what I love. Lune Vintage's Project Recon was born - and it really has me excited about using my skills to make positive change. The first Project Recon dress was born from a lemon yellow thrift store peasant dress. Read about the entire transformation here.

Next month a new artist will offer her skills with another awesome Lune Vintage Project Recon, donating proceeds to a charity of her choosing. Check out Issue 1 at ilovelune.etsy.com. 100% of proceeds of this recon go to the Canadian Womans Foundation.ca Giveaway: Blue Afternoon Vintage Scarf Cuff by Love Lune * Interested in becoming a sponsor in February? Info here. Note: February's XL spot is sold but future months can be booked ahead :] Good luck and enjoy visiting these new blogs and inspiring women! Love Leigh-Ann