Scrappy Deals?

Well, if anyone is a digi-scrapper, or fancies a go, this could be for you... I got an e-mail from Amazon about special offers. Wasn't interested in the expensive stuff, but you might like to know that they have Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist for £11.99 (instead of £29.99 - a 60% reduction) and Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate for £32.97 (instead of £79 - 58% off). 

I thought those were pretty good deals myself!  The offers end at 23:59 on 6th December.

Just thought I'd tell you!

Oh, and don't forget to go to my post here and enter my Giveaway! Comment on the post by Monday to be in with a chance of winning the lovely book!  I may not remind you again!

And a quick add-on... take a little look at today's Tummy Mountain post (it wont take a minute!) so cute!

Two Videos!

Whoo-hoo! I didn't realise that my items feature in two videos for the BEST prize baskets!  I forgot I had sent all that stuff!  In the First Prize basket, my mini-album is shown and in the Third Prize basket are some of my little ribbon flowers!  They show them being used as a bookmark too - very ingenious. 

Big Smiles! I really hope the prize-winners are happy with my offerings. They seem quite modest compared to some of the amazing items sent in by others. There is such a great selection. Whoever wins these prizes will be in clover! (Wish it could be me hmm, hmm....)

Prize Reminders, Sales and Nasty Needles

Hello All Friends!

No post yesterday.  I had my Swine Flu jab and felt so tired last night, that I headed off to bed early.  Still feel a bit out of it this evening, but I brought my computer with me this time!  The jab was worth it, if it means I am unlikely to get the 'flu, but the side effects are a bit of a pain - literally, as my left arm is rather stiff and doesn't like being touched, also I've had a bit of a headache this afternoon. Still, I should be fine by tomorrow - my mum had her jab on Tuesday and was fine by Thursday.  A medal goes to the nurse/dr that gave me the jab too, as I didn't even feel it!

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BEST Event

Firstly then, a reminder that my Etsy Team - Bookbinding Etsy Street Team (BEST) have a special event until the end of tomorrow, December 5th.

The Event offers a "ticket" for a prize draw for each $10 spent in participating shops.  Follow the link top right to see the latest post about the prizes or click here to go to the list of participating shops.  

If you are planning on doing some online Christmas shopping, this is really a good time to do it.  The three Prize Baskets are amazing and there are also some $30 gift vouchers up for grabs too.  There are videos posted on the Team Blog, showing all the prize items.  If you were to win one of the baskets, you'd have your Christmas presents pretty well sorted! Failing that, if you buy from any of the BEST shops, I'm sure you will be very happy with your purchase.

Don't be put off by the pricing in US$, if you are not American - this currency convertor can help!  Also, you don't have to have a shop on Etsy to be a buyer - just open a buyer account and off you go.  You can use Paypal to pay - you don't need a Paypal account either - just use a credit or debit card. Your card details are then not revealed to the seller, so it is very secure too.  It's easy, peasy!

And just a plug for me! I am now offering Free Shipping on All items in my Etsy shop, until after the Holiday Season. That includes shipping to any destination.

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My Giveaway

Also, do remember to drop by my previous post and take a look at the bit about the Giveaway.  I am offering a copy of a lovely book of Art Photography.  To qualify, you need to follow the links to the Book preview on Blurb and then leave a Comment after that post. It's not hard, but you may win the book - it was created by my niece, who is really quite talented.  Definitely something worth having, so go and give it a try!

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More Sales, Yippee!

This morning, before I went out, I logged on to my shop to check if there were any sales that I should deal with. No, there weren't. So off I went.  An hour later I logged in again - I had sold both Sock Pets in my absence!  It's great this online shop thing - I don't even have to be there to make sales!

That's all three Amigos in a week! Definitely time to start making more.

Yay!

Prizes, Prizes...

Okay, this post is about winning things... nice things... of the Book variety!

Firstly take a look at the BEST Blog, to see details of all the items in the First Prize Basket for our Seasonal Event (see also BEST Newsflash on the right).  There's even a rather fab little video to show off all the lovely goodies included in the prize. 

This basket happens to include my Circular Christmas Mini-Album, brother to the mini-book I gave away in the Blog Circle the other Saturday. 

So if you think a notebook, journal, diary, planner, sketchbook, photo album, scrap album, or any other kind of book, may be an ideal present for one or more of your family, head over to the BEST Blog, for links to Etsy shops that are participating in the prize draw. 

There is a wonderful selection of items available, at a good range of prices (and many shops sell stuff other than books too).  Each $10 you spend will earn you a ticket in the prize draw (it doesn't matter if the spend is on one item - if it costs $30 you will get 3 tickets). 

Also if you mention the words "BEST Holiday" in the "Message to Seller" on your order, you'll get an extra ticket.  See the BEST Blog post here for all the information and the links you need.  Some shops are also offering other seasonal incentives, such as free shipping. 

I believe in Buying Handmade! You get a great choice of items, each one is unique and hand crafted. The prices usually compare well with machine-made, mass-market, store-bought items, but you get something so special.  I've been shopping on Etsy myself this year and have bought some lovely things. 

So, that's my plug for the shops of me and my Etsy Bookbinding Team colleagues.  Do take a look - you may find something very special.

NEXT!

If you read my blog sometimes, you may have become aware of my niece, Keri-Anne Pink.  She is a photographer, who sells her work through a shop on Etsy, has a blog, a Flickr, Twitter etc... She has also had work featured on several popular art/photography blogs and in a number of online magazines, so she's doing very well. 

Her work is dreamy and fairytale-like. The light quality is very important and she spends ages planning and carrying out every shoot. We're all very proud of her success.

I  have also made a bit of noise about her book.  Recently she has published a small book of her work, including a photo-shoot that was planned specially for the book, with images that have not been published elsewhere or offered in her shop. 

The book is available from Blurb here (7"x7") and a larger (10"x8") version here. 

There are actually 3 different cover versions for each size, ranging in price from £10 to £26, depending on size and cover type, so it's very good value. Shipping starts at £3.99 in UK, € 5.99 and $6.99 US, for up to 5 books of 7x7ins.

THE NEWS

So, I plan a Giveaway of one copy of Keri-Anne's book.  I have a softcover, 7"x7" version, still in its wrapper, worth £10.  I will give it away after the weekend. 

To qualify for entry to my Giveaway:

Leave me a Comment on this post (usual thing!), BUT I would like you to take a look at the Book and see its preview on Blurb. 

In your Comment, tell me something about the book, that you have found out for yourself and is different to anyone else's comment.  There, that is the challenge, do your research!

On Monday next week (7th December) I will go through the comments and enter all that have followed the challenge rules in a number draw.  I will list them in the order they were entered and use a random-number generator to select the winner.

Have a look at Keri-Anne's book, leave that comment on my post and see if you are the winner of the lovely little book!

The First Project, a Sale and a Purchase

Last night I sat down at my New Desk and completed my First Project in my new workroom (time I stopped using capitals for those words)!

This is a traditional-style design photo album. I have made it as a Christmas present for our neighbours' family, as they recently had two lovely kittens.  I hope it's ok to admit it was a bit of a practice-piece for another present I want to make for my mum... that will use more expensive materials and I wanted to try a few ideas out.  However, this is largely successful and will, I hope, make a good present that they will all like.  I can give them some "new kitten" photos too, as the kittens were from a cat that my sister was fostering. 

I'm quite pleased with how the book has turned out.  It has 12 double-sided pages, made of stiff card, but faced with some brown packing-paper (courtesy of DoCrafts online shop!).  I had the idea for the album before my last shopping expedition, so I found the orange "Meow" cats paper, by gotmoxxie.com.  The rest of the cover is Electric Blue Canford art paper (smooth surface) and Mandarin Murano art paper (textured finish).  I inked the edges of the orange papers, to make them stand out.  Each of the brown sheets inside has little stamped pawprints, in either brown / orange or blue / white.  Each page is slightly different, which makes it nicer, I think. I made it look as if kittens had just wandered about over each page!

Then today I returned home to find an order in my Etsy shop.  I sold this -

There seems to be something about these cats that people find very appealing.  I have sold several now - two in my shop.  My baby niece has one and plays with it regularly.  They are just "friendly" and people love them. I am very pleased that this one will have a new home for Christmas.  Time to make more! There's a rabbit one on the go at the moment, so I will finish that - maybe tonight.

And also, in the post I got this:

I bought this from an artist who lives and works at "Tummy Mountain" in New South Wales, Australia.  I have followed his blog for a while - it's my very favourite - and wanted some of his artwork. I couldn't resist when he produced this calendar and bought it for my new workroom.  It really couldn't have arrived with better timing! No room to show you all of it, but it has lots of the work shown in his etsy shop - http://www.tummymountain.etsy.com/ . The link to his blog is in my favourite blogs-list on the right...

Must go and let J. in... he'll be home soon and wanting his tea! 

Back later to look at all the "17 Again" blog posts...