Lady Luck is Smiling

I don't have much of a history of winning things--contests, giveaways, freebies, raffles, anything of that sort.  But lately, Lady Luck seems to be smiling upon me, and I've won some fabulous blog giveaways.

First, I won a copy of Stampington & Company's new publication, Mingle, from Quinn at Quinn Creative. 

The subtitle is "Creative ideas for unique gatherings."  There are articles about retreats, birthday parties, dinners, and anniversaries.  The photography meets Stampington's usual high standards of dreaminess and fun detail. 

The articles provide information about the organizers' backgrounds and planning efforts.  There are also details about decorations and foods. 

There were references to crafts and other projects, but not a lot of details about what was created; that's the type of thing I would be most interested in reading about!

My second "win" was a copy of the first issue of Gina Armfield's Artful Purpose zine, provided by Kate, the Queen of Creativity. 

Though I've heard so much about zines, I haven't really had much of an opportunity to check one out.  I sat down and devoured it in one sitting! 

Gina's focus was art journaling, and she included interviews with Juliana Coles, Deb Trotter, Nina Bagley, and Patty van Dorin.  There were also lists of inspirational quotations and prompts, as well as her favorite art journaling supplies. 

A fun read!  I can see the appeal of zines.

Last, but certainly by no means least, I won a custom journal from Natty at Awkward and Beautiful. 

She gave me a choice of covers, and I selected Gift from the Sea. 

She also let me decide if I wanted her to include some interesting papers in the journal along with the mixed media paper (yes!). 

Finally, she let me know that she would include collage materials, and she let me choose whether I wanted something thematic, or just a random fun selection of things (random, please!).

What a generous giveaway!

I suppose, statistically-speaking, it was only a matter of time for me to win something, but--wow!--what a fun streak this has been!

What's New from Studio 791

Everything! 

Very recently, I decided to give an "official" name--Studio 791--to my creative endeavors, before participating in a holiday bazaar in November.

Over the course of a few posts, I thought I would share some of the things I will be selling at the craft show.  I have collaged birdhouses, embellished bottles, all kinds of cards, holiday gift tags, magnets, tag books, framed collages--all sorts of varied goodies with the hope of offering something of interest to everyone who comes by!

There are actually several pieces that are not technically "new"--things I crafted over the past couple of years just for fun, without any clear plans for selling them.  Now that the bazaar is happening, I think it's time to find them a good home. 

For example, here is the front of one of the birdhouses I will have for sale. I used Diamond Dust on the rooftop to give it a little bit of a wintry look. The text page you see on the left there is a piece of handwritten text from the 1850s, part of a great find from an auction several years ago:

And here are the other two sides of the same birdhouse, collaged with many of my favorite things:  maps, text pages, music scores, photos, and stamped images:

Here's another birdhouse I will have available at the bazaar:

And the back:

It doesn't suit my usual style, but I really love pom-pom fringe!  And I love the color of that flower, which is just a magazine image, but makes a huge impact on the back corner of the house.

I am also going to try to sell my Christmas tag canvas:

I love each of the individual holiday collages on each of these tags.

I am also putting my embellished vintage bottles in the sale:

I have made tons of magnets.  Some are little collages on wood pieces, and some are even smaller collages showing through from the back of accent gems:

I also have an on-going love affair with Scrabble tiles, and have made a number of different fun magnets from them:

I also have some pieces made from Scrabble tiles set onto Scrabble racks.  They can be used as magnets, too, or simply as shelf decor:

One thing I am learning as I share my work and think about offering it for sale is that I could definitely benefit from improving my photography skills!  There is a big difference between trying to capture cute snapshots of your kids for a photo album, and trying to capture a piece of artwork or a craft item to the best effect! 

I have many, many more things to share with you that will be available for sale at the Mom-Hosted Holiday Bazaar on November 11.  Stay tuned for future Studio 791 posts!

What do you think?  Do you see anything here that you like?







Harry Potter Days

What better way is there to spend a gorgeous, sunny, windy fall day than to celebrate Harry Potter Days?

We took the girls (who have no idea who Harry Potter is, by the way) to Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia to enjoy this special weekend event.  It was "open to Muggles," but the streets were filled with little wizards in black robes and yellow/burgundy striped scarves.

The absolute highlight for me was meeting Boo, Hedwig's sister, outside Stagecrafter Theater.

What an amazing creature!

She is 9 pounds, but can lift three times her weight with her talons.  She is 12-years old, and has been with her owner since before the age of 1.  And her life expectancy is 50 years, so as this falconer said, they will grow old together. 

The falconer lives in the Catskills, and apparently has several different birds, which she takes hunting around where she lives.  What a different way of life that would be!

We also visited the Hay Maze at Woodmere Museum, but were too cheap to pay the $8 per person tickets, so we just hung out on the periphery. 

Ahh, the joys of having 2- and 3-year olds who don't know any better!  (Well, truth be told, Katy was a little put out at not being able to enter the maze, but she enjoyed the giant sofa, chair, and coffee table made of hay off to the side, just the same!)

What have YOU enjoyed on this gorgeous fall day?