Congratulations, Aurora of Foxy Art Studio! You won our Spread the Love contest celebrating our Birthday (which was yesterday!).
You've won $50 to Modishoppe and two weeks of advertising - perfect in time for the holidays! I'll be contacting you with details as soon as I arrange for your gift certificate to be sent to you from Modishoppe.
With deadlines creeping closer, it's time to remind everyone about the contests we're holding to celebrate our one year anniversary! After all, everyone likes to win stuff. Thanks to a great partnership with Jena from Modish, Try This at Home proudly announces two individual contests, for both our readership bases! (And yes, you can enter and win both of them!)
Try This Tutorial Contest
If you're crafty, this one should be a breeze! All you have to do is write and email me ( trythisathome [at] gmail.com ) a tutorial for any kind of craft project you're interested in, and the more unique, the better. Because we don't want people taking other people's tutorials and claiming this as their own, this tutorial should not have been posted elsewhere, even if you can prove it's your own (I'd rather spend time judging between amazing entries than verifying entrant's identities!).
The Grand Prize for this entry is a $50 gift certificate to Modishoppe and one month's worth of advertising for ONE site on Try This at Home, which includes a sponsor write-up. Four runner-up tutorials will also be posted, which will get advertising for the writer's site within their post.
Judging will be based on the following:
Originality
Quality of Writing (you don't have to be Hemingway, just keep your capitalization in line and avoid Internet-speak!)
Photography (not required, but it earns bonus points based on its quality)
Supplier Sources (also not required, but bonus points for listing sources for required supplies)
For our requested format, please see the style in which we've written our own tutorials. Due date is December 1, 2007. Winner will be announced December 10, 2007.
Spread the Love Contest
Another easy one. If you've got a blog or website, you're golden. Between now and December 1, post about Try This at Home on your blog, or link it on your website, then comment back on this post as to the location of where the link or post is visible. I'll check the links periodically between the date of your comment post and December 10th to ensure it's still there to keep you qualified. Qualified entrants will be entered into a database and one name will be selected at random to win the prize. Based on the style of link post and the length of time it's up, entrants have the opportunity of having multiple chances of winning the raffle through extra points scoring. Forum spam will not be permitted.
The Grand Prize for this entry is a $50 gift certificate to Modishoppe and two weeks of advertising for ONE site on Try This at Home.
Scoring will be based on the following:
Length of post: any entries received by November 16th will qualify for an additional raffle entry.
Type of post: any blog posts receive two base raffle entries; text/image links receive one.
Last date for comments is December 1, 2007. Winner will be announced December 10, 2007.
Strange as it may seem, it's almost here: our one-year birthday on December 10th. Time really does fly! In just under one year, 155 posts, 79 comments and 7500 unique visitors - pretty impressive in my opinion, considering I thought I'd be blogging for just myself and my friends!
What better way is there to celebrate, of course, than with contests! Everyone likes to win stuff. Thanks to a great partnership with Jena from Modish, Try This at Home proudly announces two individual contests, for both our readership bases! (And yes, you can enter and win both of them!)
Try This Tutorial Contest
If you're crafty, this one should be a breeze! All you have to do is write and email me ( trythisathome [at] gmail.com )na tutorial for any kind of craft project you're interested in, and the more unique, the better. Because we don't want people taking other people's tutorials and claiming this as their own, this tutorial should not have been posted elsewhere, even if you can prove it's your own (I'd rather spend time judging between amazing entries than verifying entrant's identities!).
The Grand Prize for this entry is a $50 gift certificate to Modishoppe and one month's worth of advertising for ONE site on Try This at Home, which includes a sponsor write-up. Four runner-up tutorials will also be posted, which will get advertising for the writer's site within their post.
Judging will be based on the following:
Originality
Quality of Writing (you don't have to be Hemingway, just keep your capitalization in line and avoid Internet-speak!)
Photography (not required, but it earns bonus points based on its quality)
Supplier Sources (also not required, but bonus points for listing sources for required supplies)
For our requested format, please see the style in which we've written our own tutorials. Due date is December 1, 2007. Winner will be announced December 10, 2007.
Spread the Love Contest
Another easy one. If you've got a blog or website, you're golden. Between now and December 1, post about Try This at Home on your blog, or link it on your website, then comment back on this post as to the location of where the link or post is visible. I'll check the links periodically between the date of your comment post and December 10th to ensure it's still there to keep you qualified. Qualified entrants will be entered into a database and one name will be selected at random to win the prize. Based on the style of link post and the length of time it's up, entrants have the opportunity of having multiple chances of winning the raffle through extra points scoring. Forum spam will not be permitted.
The Grand Prize for this entry is a $50 gift certificate to Modishoppe and two weeks of advertising for ONE site on Try This at Home.
Scoring will be based on the following:
Length of post: any entries received by November 16th will qualify for an additional raffle entry.
Type of post: any blog posts receive two base raffle entries; text/image links receive one.
Last date for comments is December 1, 2007. Winner will be announced December 10, 2007.
It's that time of the year again - somehow an entire ten months have slipped past us and once again our pockets will ritualistically empty while we all partake in the gift-giving crazyness that is called "the Holidays". This year, I'm excited to say, I've signed up to be a participant in the Second Annual Holiday Ornament Swap, sponsored by freshlyblended and cake & pie. I hope you'll join too and make it a runaway success! You're asked to make between 8-10 ornaments. Since my plan is to letterpress them, I'll most likely be making more, perhaps as a contest giveaway. We'll see!
I've been finding a lot of local finds in Minneapolis and the state in general, so I thought I'd just compile them all together into one bigger post about my (still relatively) new home base state.
Various Opportunities
Letterpress Internships Available at Lunalux: The local mother of all letterpress studios is looking for some interns who are interested in getting their hands dirty while learning about the beauty of letterpress. Located nearby me in the Loring Park neighborhood, it's easily accessible, and well, it's a chance to get on a press!
No Coast Craft-o-Rama Vendor Applications Now Online: Unfortunately, I didn't hear about this festival until (sigh)) two weeks after it had happened last year. I plan to be there this year with camera in hand, ready to blog! If you're in the area or ever wanted to see what the Twin Cities was like (because, you know, I'm sure it's every kid's dream, along with one day becoming a fire fighter...), it's a great opportunity to sell and get exposure! Let me know if you'll be there, and I'll definitely make a point of stopping by!
Notable Etsy Shops from Minnesotan Crafters
Papered Together: I think it's blatantly obvious by now that I'm a big letterpress fan girl. I just found out Papered Together is run by a local gal by the name of Krista. I had been planning on writing about the Etsy shop for some time now, but being that it is me we're talking about, I forgot (oops!). Here's the opportunity! Very cute stuff.
Pink Sparrow: The credit on this one goes to my boss. She came in with the most adorable felt owl pin the other day, and I scoured Etsy until I found the gal she bought it from - no easy feat when all you have to go on is that the crafter's from Minnesota and that it was, well, a felt pin. The Pink Sparrow stock is dwindling down, however - not surprising considering how cute the pins are - so I cruised through a bunch of sold items, and I think my boss may have started a trend. I probably will be sending her a convo to see if she can recreate some of the super cute stuff she's made in the past.
With Remote: Pretty cool graphic silkscreen prints.
I am very pleased to announce Bright Ideas week at Try This at Home. Bright Ideas is a launch for us (which we plan to continue annually). It is a week of inspirational resources and will
feature interesting product, informative books and websites, and
interviews from people in those fields in the craft community about
their process and their inspiration. Each day during the week will be dedicated to a different industry (or a combination of two related industries), and all posts will fall under that area. It's definitely a week to watch!
What's the schedule looking like? Here's what's mapped out:
June 17th: Blogs and Community June 18th: Jewelry June 19th: Accessories and Clothing June 20th: Paper Goods June 21th: Bath and Body June 22nd: Home June 23rd: Other Crafts
Soooo... WHAT? Four years in Providence, Rhode Island, and I never saw or heard of Providence Open Market? What kind of craft fanatic/RISD student was I? Someone please tell me this is the first year they're doing it. Please. Someone. I mean, I can't even excuse it by saying, "Well, I wasn't there over the summer!" because I was on multiple occasions for the weekend, and it runs into October. Whatever. Either way, here's to Cianci (yo Buddy! I hear you're out!) or Cicilline, or whichever of those snazzy mayors gave this the thumbs up.
On the bright side, I'll redeem myself this summer. Devon and I have been severely craving some Bob and Timmy's (dinner) and Pastiche (ohmygoodness dessert) on Federal Hill, so we're going back to the East Coast to indulge. Oh yeah, and see my family and his sisters, too when we swing down to New York. Now that I've found out about this amazing little bit of yumminess in downtown, I may have to schedule an extra day in. If you're in the area, definitely check it out for me, and give me a report!
Many of you may have heard the heartbreaking story of the Kim family in the news, but many do not know that James Kim's wife, Kati, is the owner of Doe, the San Francisco-based indie-friendly shop. In response to this tragedy, the indie community is returning the support by donating items - including the featured bag by Casey Brown - from a very diverse group of crafters and is putting them up for auction on eBay. Auctions will start tomorrow, January 3rd, to benefit the James Kim Memorial Fund. For more information, see the official auction website.
What's in the Try This at Home Reading Room this month? Here are our May recommendations, powered by Amazon.com!
