Sugar Skull Winners!

Thanks to everyone who entered the Sweet Sugar Skulls Giveaway.
We have three winners:
Raw Bone Studio Sardine Tin Skull- Lyndsay from Made by White
Sister Outlaws Sugar Skull Coin Purse Kit- Shara from Shara Lambeth Designs
Betty Jo Day of the Dead Brooch- Vic from Punky & Me
Congratulations! Can you email me your mailing addresses so we can get you your prizes!

Sweet Sugar Skulls

As I'm a bit skull crazy at the moment, and Halloween and The Mexican Day of the Dead festivities are just around the corner, I thought it was high time I did a feature on fancy decorated Skulls.
First up is the colourful and detailed felt and wire skulls from RawBone Studio's Halloween and Day of the Dead folk art shop! Robin's whimsical and playful decor is perfect for your own altar of the dead or spooky October home. Robin loves primitive, naive and colorful folk art with a little humor slipped in. And where did the name RawBone come from? According to Robin " my nickname is Rawbone... and it stuck."

RawBone's fancy skull garlands.

plush skulls and brooches,

and these fantastic bent wire skulls. Love these!!

There are also some clever recycled sardine can skulls in the RawBone Shop made by an artist high on omega3 fish oil. Why? Because Joe (Robin's friend and schoolmate who’s art she adores) had to eat all the sardines to get the can!As a special treat there will be one of these most excellent tin can skulls up for grabs to one lucky commenter. But wait...there's more giveaways to come!

Next up are the craftiest gals in town...the Sister Outlaws and a selection of their cool sugar skull kits. They have very fancy and decorative sugar skull bag tag kits available to buy full of buttons, doily bits, lace, ric rac and felt, not to mention a pattern, instructions and a needle and yarn. And just about to be released are the sugar skull coin purse kits. How cool are these!
Re-Sew- Cool! And we are lucky enough to have a kit to giveaway. So that's two great giveaways so far.

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And finally, because it's my blog and I'm feeling all inspired by these generous giveaways, I am throwing in a Betty Jo skull brooch as a final giveaway item.So just leave a comment if you want to be in the running. I will choose three winners.
The giveaway will run till November the 1st....when the official Day of the Dead festivities begin.
Good luck and tell your friends!

Snail Mail

After much consideration and tireless research*, I declare SNAILS to be the new critter trend for 2011. I can back this prediction up with these cute and clever snail goodies I've found poking their heads out of their shells around craftyland.Jodie from RicRac's cheeky racing snail made from recycled jumpers. Tutorial here.

This amazing snail shaped ukulele is hand made to order. And check out the other cool ukuleles in this very talented craftsmans shop.
Cute amigurumi garden snail by Hansi Singh Snail hand Shadow t-shirt by Zazzle
Shelby Lino Snail

*Research based on the fact that I was asked to make a snail brooch and figured that is a good enough reason for them to be trendy......and foxes are so last week!

It's about Time!

As I seem to be totally engrossed in assembling clocks, I have collected a few of my favorite time pieces assembled from recycled materials from flickr. From the simple vintage plate to the tin robot assemblage, adding a clock movement takes the item from decorative to functional.

1.Spork the Clock 2.Atomic Eggbeater Clock
3. Willow Clock 4. Scottie Clock

I love Kim from the Sassy Crafter's fantastic repurposing of egg beaters to make her version of the Atomic Clock.

Vintage trays also get a makeover in the Sassy Crafter's etsy shop.
Kim says "The trays in my projects are hand collected by yours truly from estate sales, flea markets, and other dusty treasure troves. I take them home, clean them up, and turn them into clocks. You can feel good knowing that this is an upcycled product!"...........

Upcycling=saving stuff from landfill = warm fuzzy feelings!

And for all you Recyclers, Re-users and Re-purposers out there, you might be interested in checking out this website called ReTrash
They are compiling a database from all around the world of ways in which different people are reusing waste and reducing landfill. This database will be converted into a comprehensive book “retrash” which will categorically list all of the different materials that have been given a second life and turned into something of value. Submissions are now open.

Watch the Birdie!

As I'm still embracing the bird motif over at Lino Forest I thought I would share some more pretty birdies made with recycled or repurposed materials.
Bird brooch made from recycled vintage biscuit tin by Adelaide based Lolalayla.Saw pierced by hand, not laser cut - totally old school & cool. Yay for saw piercing, it's the true crafty production method that is done by the hand of the jeweller and not a machine!
These bird brooches are cut from recycled biscuit tins & riveted onto perspex for strength. Unique to you, no two are the same!New Birds 3 deluxe recycled paper postcard pack by Inalux. All printed on gorgeous matt 100% recycled card. It doesn't matter what Kristina Sostarko draws, it is all totally stunning and just throbs with beautiful hues and dynamic graphics! Female Huia Bird cut from a recycled Little River Band Greatest Hits Record by Record Breaker. Claimed by many to be one of New Zealands' most beautiful native birds,the now extinct Huia is being brought back to life with the 'endangered' vinyl LP record in the form of wall art.
What a blessing this Little River Band record will never be heard by human ears again!
Deep Cherry Red Bird Bag Made of Recycled Leather by Bonspiel .This is a one-of-a-kind shoulder bag made from beautiful deep cherry red leather that used to be a coat. I am seriously coveting this bag, and I defy you not to be tempted by all the baggage at Bonspiel.

Focus on Art

I wandered past Robyn Stewardson's owlie assemblages at the last Abbotsford Makers Market, and had to immediately backtrack to have a better look. Robyn constructs her Kitchen Owls from all manner of discarded metal kitchen bric-a-brac. If you ever invite Robyn over for tea, I'd keep a close watch on your strainers and saucepan lids!
Every owl has it's own name and personality as well as the scratches, scrapes, dents and other marks that serve as signs of the earlier use of the recycled parts.
According to Robyn "as well as being ultra cute, these owls could serve to scare away any unwelcome avian thieves in your fruit trees until you're ready to pick them."
And it's not hard to tell Robyn's other love- photography. She has recorded every owl she has made in a fantastic photo gallery, and is soon to release a range of 2011 calendars with her snappy images.

Robyn says "I have many loves, but the most all-consuming at the moment are these quirky little assemblage sculpture owls. They manage to fulfill a number of needs that I have: a creative urge and something to do for ME (I'm a stay at home mum of two gorgeous girls) as well as providing a new lease on life for numerous metal objects that have outlived their original purpose. I LOVE saving things from landfill!"

Due to their popularity Robyn's parliament of assemblage sculpture owls is fast taking over her time.

Find them for sale on Etsy and Madeit, or at The Very Curious Kitten , In.cube8r and the Rose St. Markets.
For updates and information visit the Focus on Art Facebook page and Robyn's blog.

Map 29

Ann Marie Holt is the creative woman behind Map 29. The business was born when she was looking for a quirky, one off gift to give a friend in memory of their childhood friendship and where they lived. Her friend loved it and told her friends who told theirs…….....Ann Marie's customers can nominate a Street or Map Number and she will turn it into a custom made fabulous fashion accessory using Ausway and UBD Maps. That's right, you can get your own street from the Melways or other cities, on your very own purse.

Ann Marie has signed a licensing agreement with Ausway and UBD publishing who produce the Australian Street Directories and is free to use their maps as she chooses. This avoids any copyright issues and allows her access to all their maps.

Getting nostalgic for that romantic trip you made to Paris or that exciting cultural experience you had in New York? These purses will help you remember every moment!

And for the fellas, there is "Garth the GPS case who is a very well padded gentleman. He is very protective of his precious GPS cargo and likes to keep it safe."

As well as the awesome map fabrics, Map 29 sells gorgeous decorative fabric purses.
You won't find this "Foxy Loxy" fabric (or purse for that matter) anywhere else because the fabric was designed by Ann Marie.
All these goodies are available from the Map 29 shop or check out all the stockists here.
Keep up with the Map 29 goings on at Facebook and now in blogland!
A little bird told me Ann Marie is busily expanding and designing a new generic map range which will be available in her shop as of the 1st September. So stay tuned.