Deja-vu!

Hiya! I'm sorry to be so repetitive and boring, but I've just created my first Instructable and wanted to show it off! If you haven't yet discovered Instructables.com, then you are really missing a treat! It's a site FULL of tutorials, tips and just interesting things from crafty folk, geeks and clever-dicks the world over! Plus they have lots of competitions too.


Cute Sandcastle Flags - More DIY How To Projects

Best wishes
Joey xx

Put the Flags Out! Freebie and Contest

Flag Day!

Hiya! I hope you're all well and happy. "Long time no blog" I hear you say! I'm sorry for my absence, I've been getting over winning the Feeling Stitchy contest!  Yes it's taken me this long... winning something is rather a shock to my system, you see.  Oh and catching up on things that I've been meaning to do for a long time... like making some little printable flags for sandcastles!

The beautiful Carbis Bay... ahh, what I'd give to be there right now...

A couple of years ago, I made a few little flags for sandcastles on the train down to our holiday destination, the lovely Carbis Bay (pictured above) near to St Ives. If you like Cornwall, I thoroughly recommend a visit as the beach is wonderful, the sea so clear and there's some great walking on the easier bits of the coast path (I'm a real pussy when it gets a bit steep and rocky!). Anyway, here's some pictures of those flags in action:

Since then, I've been meaning to make some for you good folks to download and print out... Finally, I've gotten around to it!  I think this would be a good activity for children to keep them occupied when you're packing for your holiday. Then again, you might want to make yourself a little flag and wrap it around a pencil.  Click on the images or links below to download the flags (you have a choice of ready coloured, or blank for you and/or your little 'un to colour in)

Summer Pals' Sandcastle Flags - ready coloured
Summer Pals' Sandcastle Flags - blank for you to colour in


Joey's Dream Garden Sandcastle flags coloured in version_ not for commercial use


Joey's Dream Garden Sandcastle Flags_ outlines version_ not for commercial use

I made them with our little long-term visitors, Little Tiger (who else??), Cotton Carrot and Bunny Giraffe in mind. Of course, the ever modest Little Tiger demanded a flag with his "beautiful" fizzog on it and nothing much else... Cotton Carrot didn't really mind as long as there was a carrot featured somewhere; so I've put lots of carrots coming out a happy sun to reflect her sunny disposish. And Bunny Giraffe, the most musical and rhythmic of the pals, gets a singing bunny in a rainbow of music! Which he's very happy with. :-)

Health and safety note: please ensure young children are accompanied by an adult when using sharp scissors, and please keep craft knives out of their reach. If your youngsters are using bamboo skewers, please cut off the pointed end for them first.

To make the flags, you need:

A print of the flags

Scissors
Glue

Clean lolly sticks (or bamboo skewers, cut in half, or pencils)

Here's how you put them together

1. Download the sheet you want, and print it out. If it's the blank ones, colour them in and decorate if you wish.

2. Cut out along the dotted lines.

3. Get your stick ready. Apply glue to the back of one half of the flag.

4. Place the stick on the centre of the flag.

When I used a lolly stick, I decided to position it halfway up the flag, as it's quite short.

5. Fold the flag over and make sure that both sides line up neatly. You now have a double-sided flag, ready for some sandy constructions!

Unfortunately, I'm not going to the seaside this year... (sob!) But because I still want to see LOTS of sandcastles with these flags in, I'm offering a prize to the most impressive and imaginative sandcastle bearing one of these flags!  If you want to have the chance to win an exclusive Joey's Dream Garden brooch, here's what you need to do:

1. Make at least one of the flags

2. Make a sandcastle (it doesn't have to be on a beach; in a sandpit would do if, like me, you can't get to the seaside)

3. Take a photo of your creation

4. Add your photo to the Flickr group http://www.flickr.com/groups/sandcastleflags/ - if you've made lots of flags and sandcastles, please add as many photos of them as you wish! 

The closing date is Monday, 13 September 2010, 00:00 on Howland Island (i.e. GMT -12 hrs; click here to find your timezone's equivalent time:  http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html ) and I will contact the winner via Flickr soon after.

UPDATE 14 JULY: Blogger is currently having technical problems, meaning people sometimes cannot leave a comment. If you cannot leave a comment (please try first, I love getting comments!) please e-mail me and tell me what time you tried to comment. My e-mail is jramone@toucansurf.com.  Thanks!

Take care in the sun (and the sea, if you're going to the seaside!)

and Have Fun!

Joey x

Spring Soft Beauty: an Etsy Treasury... and my Giveaway Results!

I've just made a treasury on Etsy! Click on the image above to take a closer look at the items.  I picked these things because they all look so soft and delicate and make me think of woodlands... lovely.

Giveaway Results!
The day is finally here, what you've all been waiting for... who will win Kitty 1000?

Here's the number drawn from the virtual hat... (i.e. the random number generator)

So number 16 is.... Sweepstake Lover!  I'll be in touch to get your address, so Kitty 1000 will be flying your way very soon!  Thank you to everyone else who entered; please keep watching this blog because I will be doing another giveaway soon!

Best wishes
Joey x

A Celebratory Giveaway!

Kitty 1000

I hope you've been having a good weekend.

I had a lovely surprise this morning when I went through my usual daily bad habit of checking my Etsy stats (yes, I am very sad!) on the "Heartomatic" bit on Craftcult.com...

I was very happy to find that 1000 people have now hearted my shop, Joey's Dream Garden! I can remember way back, when the number of shop hearts reached 100, I was so pleased, but never thought I'd reach 1000 hearts!  Good things come to those who wait... ;-)

I've had so much fun since I set up my Etsy shop, back in September 2007. The first thing I listed in my shop was a little yellow bunny brooch (pictured below). I'd made a few little bunnies from felt like this a while before, but not as brooches.  So when I discovered Etsy, I decided that I just wanted to join in with the crafting fun!  I'm really glad that I did.

Anyway, I think this is a good opportunity to celebrate with a giveaway! I have made a special commemorative Kittypip brooch, called Kitty 1000 (pictured at the top of this post), in golden yellow felt, with lots of metallic thread stitching. To win her, all you need to do is leave a comment to this post, by 17:00 BST, Sunday 18th April 2010 (so if you don't live in the UK, check here for your time: http://www.timeanddate.com/)

I'll be using the random number generator to pick out the winning comment at random (the first comment will be number 1, the second number 2 and so on) and then post the result very soon after!

Only one comment per person please.

Good luck!
Joey x