BUMPER Christmas Giveaway!

Since starting Find, Make, Do in March, I have found dozens of amazing, creative, local and international artists and designers.
So here's a big thank you to all the readers and followers who have joined in ..... you deserve some presents.
As it's been such a busy, productive, Findin', Makin' and Doin' year, some kind and crafty folks and I have offered up a selection of cool handmade and locally produced goodies for the Find, Make, Do BUMPER Christmas Giveaway!
So ring the bells, pull the crackers and stuff the turkey...... it's getting to be alot like CHRISTMAS !

First up is a Betty Jo Designs Rainbow Orb brooch. There's a green and red one pictured in the Xmas collage, but you get to choose your own colour!

These colourful rainbow hued brooches are crafted from recycled Linoleum and laminex discs and a mixture of pre-loved buttons.

Robyn Stewardson from Focus on Art makes adorable owls from salvaged household bric-a-brac ( I should know, I am the proud ownwer of a Kitchen Owl called "Big Night Out"). You might remember Robyn"s individually named and numbered handmade owls from an earlier post on Find, Make, Do. We are lucky enough to have this cute little fellow called "Hoyt's" to giveaway. He would be perfect hanging in your garden or kitchen to keep an eye on things. Make him sleepy or awake!Thanks Robyn. If you would like to find out about all the cool products from Focus on Art check out the blog.

Crafty lady Shara Lambeth makes the sweetest lasercut wooden brooches and you could win this cutie.The sweet little Fawn will love to sit upon your shirt and keep you company all day long :-)
This brooch is laser cut from sustainable Rimu wood and has a silver tone brooch pin at the back. See Sharas other gorgeous creations on etsy and check out her blog.


The extra generous Justine from Mixtape Zine has provided us with some copies of the latest issue (and the 2nd last ever) to give away.
Issue 14 has double cover action, Christina Gordon & Amy Karol !
Mixtape is a craft maga(ZINE) about making time for the small things! A collision of craft, eco-cool and pop culture kitsch. If you already have yours, this would be perfect to give to an uninitiated friend!

Leigh Wagner is a Brisbane based Visual Art & Design teacher who, in recent years, has turned her attention to jewellery making. Leigh uses recycled kitchen laminate in her jewellery, and we are lucky enought to have this very snappy Kookaburra brooch as a giveaway.The brooch has been cut from two sturdy layers of laminate and has a sprung pin attached at the back. He’s been cut from a decorative charcoal and blue patterned laminate in keeping with his natural Kingfisher coloring. Go and visit Leighs etsy shop for more broochy goodness!
Kristie from Rouke and Henry and Coco's Closet has given us this cute "Live Your Life Bunting".Consisting of three cool hand drawn images and inspirational words, laminated and sewn onto ribbon, this is totally one of a kind! Kristie uses old books to draw on, giving them new life and creating a great decorating item for a kids (or a kid at heart's) room!
The lovely Kirsten from the brilliant crafty online store Miss Milla's has donated a wonderful square glass pendant kit for crafty readers that like to DIY!You can make these gorgeous glass tile pendants yourself! This Glass Pendant Kit has everything you need including a professionally prepared tutorial with photos and tips to make 6 pretty pendants like this. Wow!Go and check out Miss Milla's for lots of crafty goodies.

To enter the Find, Make, Do BUMPER Christmas Giveaway just leave a comment.
I will choose a winner for each prize in three weeks! So spread the word!

Beach Combing

I'm a bit in love with these cute beach plastic collages by Athens designer Psarokokalo (meaning fishbone in greek). It's great to find a beach combing kindred spirit across the sea.

They can be found on flickr in the set "heady and me" and made up as cards in the yourdoll esty shop,BUT WAIT....Psarokokalo also creates fantasic jewellery made from beach plastic "gathered from a deserted beach in Rhodes island the summer of 2008, the edges are beautifully smoothed by the sea." These can be found in la.trap. A sweet crafty gallery/shop in Athens.

Loving the "cool" fridge display .

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.