I have been planning on having a giveaway for ages but at last I have sat down and gathered a pile of items for the prize.( I will also add a few other crafty goodies in the package and try to tailor them to the winner’s interests/crafts.) At the moment there’s a print, letterpress card, pins/badges, silver necklace charm and other items looking for a good home. There’s no particular reason for the giveaway but at a push we’ll say 1) today marks 100 days till the wedding. Yup, tomorrow I hit double figures!! and 2) it’s the season of goodwill.

That said, I don’t want to stand in a Post Office queue over the festive season and everybody needs a pick me up after Christmas so I’m leaving this one open till Midnight GMT on January 4th.  All you need to do is leave a comment on this entry telling me what the best gift you ever got was. Those who post about this giveaway on their own blog will get an extra entry (just leave a comment to let me know).

Good luck (Note you must register to leave a comment – see here)

Posted: December 11th, 2008 under Competitions, Freebies.
Comments: 12

For the knitters out there (no, I still haven’t got round to learning!), you can download a free festive santa and snowman pattern from knitting pattern resource Knit Pat. Simply register for their newsletter to get your free download.

Posted: December 3rd, 2008 under Freebies, Knitting/Crochet.
Comments: none

There’s a number of reasons letter writing has been on my mind the past few days. The first is that Christmas is steadily approaching and each year I do my best to write a letter to slip inside my cards, telling the recipient how much I value their friendship etc. Secondly, I eventually got round to replying to my penpal from the Letter Writers Alliance (hi Monique!) and, lastly, when I picked up my painting on Tuesday Adam had included some airmail envelopes in it as they apparently remind him of me (awww shucks).

So with all this on my mind I was excited to stumble upon Letterfu. It looks like it hasn’t been updated in a long time but the site has some cute little printable templates for letters you can fold to post without the need for envelopes – great for the environment and your wallet. I particularly like the Spring design but the Christmas one is obviously more apt right now.

Posted: November 27th, 2008 under Freebies.
Comments: none

I must admit that when it comes to saving money I can take things to extremes but I’ve very much a believer in the old saying that if you keep an eye on the pennies the pounds will look after themselves. One of my habits is holding out until February (sometimes even March) to buy my calendars/diaries but this year there seems to be so many great free calendars available I may not have to wait until then.

First is a nice little printable desk calendar from Amanda at Vintage Glam. Each page is designed to fit into any CD jewel case and you can customise it with your choice of backing paper (you all know my need for colour co-ordination).

The next was brought to my attention by Holly at the always inspiring Decor8. You have to join the 2Jane mailing list to be able to download the free calendar but the bold graphics mean that, once used, each month can also be cropped and used as print or whatever else you crafty kids can think of. The fact the images involve birds also gives it an extra star from me.

These are just a couple of the free options out there but the sheer volume of gorgeous calendars available for 2009  has even me getting out the cheque book with a smile on my face.

Check out the great round ups on these sites:

Decor8

Paper Crave

All Things Lovely

PoppyTalk

Or you could go for something totally unique and special and get some quirky portraits of you and your loved ones in a calendar over at Kiki & Polly.

So many choices I think my poor wee head’s going to burst!

Posted: November 25th, 2008 under Art/Illustration, Freebies, Inspiration.
Comments: none