Second Saturday Giveaway: Win a Flint Handmade Knuckles Prize Pack!

Posted by Crystal Pepperdine, Founder and Executive Director of Flint Handmade

For our January 2011 Second Saturday Giveaway, we are doing something very special. 

We are taking this month off from featuring the workspaces of local crafters so that we can give away a Flint Handmade Knuckles Prize Pack valued at $40+!

The Prize Pack includes:

One Item of Flint Handmade Apparel (Your Choice of Onesie, Toddler/Youth Shirt or Adult Shirt)

One Flint Handmade Tote Bag

One Flint Handmade Notebook

One Flint Handmade Knit Cap

Three Flint Handmade Buttons (One Each of Red, Blue and Yellow)

For YOUR chance to win a Flint Handmade Knuckles Prize Pack (valued at $40+), just complete steps A and B:

A) Follow Flint Handmade via the blog, Twitter, Google Reader or whatever newfangled "following application" tickles your fancy. Or, if you don't do the whole following thing, email us at flinthandmade@hotmail.com and we will add you to our email list.

B) Leave us a comment in response to this blog post by 5pm on Saturday, January 15, 2011 answering the following 2 questions:

1) How do you follow us?

2) What type of Flint Handmade Knuckles Merchandise would you like to see in the future?

Please be sure to answer BOTH questions to qualify for the drawing.

The winner will be selected at random and posted on the blog within one week after the deadline. We hope to hear from YOU!

P.S. If you are interested in purchasing Knuckles Merchandise, please visit our Flint Handmade Etsy Store.

P.P.S. We will return to featuring the workspaces of local crafters next month, so be sure to check the blog on February 12, 2011 when we will be giving away more fabulous handmade items!

Second Saturday Giveaway: Win a BigHead Ted by Sarah of yarnscratch!

Posted by Crystal

For our December Second Saturday Giveaway, we are featuring yarnscratch by Sarah Richter aka Sarah Mascara!

This is Sarah in her basement workspace with some quilted pieces she has been making out of fabric she got at Flint Handmade Craft Supply Swaps.  I asked her about her workspace:

"Before a few months ago I never had my own workspace. And until about a year or two ago, when I started machine sewing, that really wasn't an issue. Crochet doesn't take a lot of space or time so it's easy to just pull out a few skeins and a hook and relax on the couch... Machine sewing takes up more space and certainly more time.

Sewing with a machine, for me, usually always means I need a plan and I need to know exactly what I'm doing even before I sit down to do it. When I do sew I mostly sew dresses for my 4-year-old daughter, Alpha, or small patchwork projects like baby quilts and sewing machine covers [shown above and below]. When cutting patterns or material pieces I usually just use the floor in front of my craft desk or my kitchen table.

Before I had my sewing desk, though, I had to pull my machine off a shelf, drag it upstairs to the kitchen table (where I might get to use it for 2 or 3 hours before I had to devote all my attention to my children or get out of the way of someone setting the table for a meal) and get to stitching there. It is so nice to have a place completely devoted to organized crafting!

I keep all my material (most of which is second or third or fifth hand) in old diaper boxes on top of my sewing desk.

All of my yarn is kept in further cardboard boxes and plastic bins in a bookshelf.

I have a few more shelving units that hold odds and ends like large plastic bags of safety eyes, ribbon, beads, etc.

Hanging on the wall next to my yarn-shelf are some prints and original art pieces that I have purchased at craft markets or that have been bought/made for me by my family and friends. Honestly, my craft materials and my closets are about the only organized parts of my life. Everything else is fairly scattered."

With all of these various supplies, I had to ask Sarah how she got into crafting:

"I guess it depends on the craft! My grandma taught me crochet, embroidery, and a bit about sewing before I was a teenager. But before I was into crafting I was an artist. I was drawing as soon as I could hold a pencil. My whole family was always very encouraging of me and my sometimes crazy endeavors."

I can definitely vouch for Sarah's skills as an artist.  

Sarah showed me a pencil drawing she did of her daughter, Alpha. 

Then, Alpha showed me one of the dolls her mom had crocheted for her.  After seeing Alpha's photo, can't you just see her resemblance so well in Sarah's drawing of her?

In addition to Alpha's little gray kitty, there are lots of other crocheted dolls in Sarah's workspace and home. 

 

My next question for Sarah was about her favorite craft tool/material:

 

"I suppose the material I have the most success with is yarn. As mentioned previously, I was an artist before I was a crafter and I have always been fairly skilled with a pencil or pen. I do love to draw and there are few things I don't draw with confidence...

However, in high school, when I was taking art classes, I found myself at a complete loss when it came to sculpting and carving. I simply can't make clay or wood bend to my will. I would also only consider myself semi-successful when it comes to sewing soft-sculptured items like toys or toyish art.

  

But give me a skein of yarn and a hook and I can crochet anything I see. I can take the yarn, tie it in knots, and make it bend to my will, so to speak. I can make bacon and eggs and buttered toast to display on a plate in your kitchen. I can make a set of eight inch zombie dolls with twisted legs and spurting veins, each carrying a limb or brain or hunk of flesh. I can crochet a cuboid robot with button eyes and a penchant for mischief... or I can go the simpler route and stick with scarves and hats.  

In following that, I suppose my favorite crafting tool would be my yellow Clover crochet hooks. They're ergonomically designed and my hand doesn't get as tired using them as using plain rounded crochet hooks. They seem to slide more smoothly through yarn, too."

Yarn obviously plays a big role in Sarah's life, so I asked how she came up with her company name, yarnscratch:

"Actually, I was filling out an application for one of the Flint Handmade craft markets and it asked me for a company name. Embarrassingly, I didn't have one! Almost everything I had made for the market was crocheted from yarn and most of it was without a pattern and of my own creation so it was from scratch. I just threw it together and yarnscratch is what I came up with."

I was excited to learn that Flint Handmade played a role in naming Sarah's company!

I was also excited to see this pillow in Sarah's living room, because Flint Handmade featured it in the 2010 Festival of Quilts!

Sarah showed me the nifty tool she used to make the knit piping for the edges of the pillow.

The Embellish Knit makes long, skinny knit tubes that can then be felted to make them even tighter. I'm always very enamored with neat little craft devices, so I'm hoping Sarah invites me over again sometime to teach me know to use it. ;)

When I stopped by this time, Sarah was working on one of her crocheted zombies.

Sarah keeps her works-in-progress in this adorable monsta bag from our September Second Saturday Crafter, Steph Bills of Frankenstitch Productions!

   

Sarah also has a burgeoning library of crafting books like Amy Kesley of Made with Luv, our October Second Saturday Crafter!

I took one last look at some of Sarah's darling sewing supplies, including...

...a handmade cupcake pincushion and a pink tomato pincushion...

...and spools of yarn with a fancy pair of Gingher scissors!

Finally, I asked Sarah what craft projects she would like to work on in the future:

 

"More than half a year ago my daughter decided she was done wearing pants and was only going to wear dresses. She changed her tune slightly when the weather got cold and will begrudgingly wear pants outside the house now, but when she made the initial transition from pants to dresses I was inspired. I decided I was going to wear dresses instead of pants as well!

I picked up a few dresses from Goodwill and Salvation Army, some of which are vintage and obviously home sewn. They are inspiring to me as well. While I have made several dresses for my daughter, I've never made one for myself! I'm not ready to start making my own sewing patterns (though that would probably change if I could get enough money saved for a nice dressform...) so I'm still currently looking for just the right pattern to start out making dresses for myself.

I would also like to learn to knit, just because I have seen some really pretty knitted scarves and sweaters. I can knit, in theory... I know the basic stitches and I imagine that, much like crochet, pretty much everything beyond the basics is really just a variation of the basics. However, I find knitting to be much more tedious and time consuming than crochet so it will probably always be one of those crafts whose masters I will simply continue to be in awe of."

Well, we at Flint Handmade think Sarah is already a master crafter...and we are excited to have one of her cutie crocheted creations for our December Second Saturday Giveaway!
 

Sarah provided this description of the adorable crocheted tiny teddy bear she donated:

"The giveaway item is a BigHead Ted. He is part of a line of many other BigHeads, most of which are based on fictional characters. There have been several UnDeadTeds (zombie teddy bears, go figure), a LittleTed Riding Hood, a FrankenTed, a Shaun of the Ted (Shaun of the Dead, anyone?), PatchworkTed... Ahh, you get the point. This BigHead is a remake of my original Ted, the one who got everything started! He's made with acrylic yarn, safety eyes, embroidery floss, love, and polyfil. Good luck to the folks who enter the drawing and congrats to the winner."

For YOUR chance to win BigHead Ted (valued at $8), just complete steps A and B:

A) Follow Flint Handmade via the blog, Twitter, Google Reader or whatever newfangled "following application" tickles your fancy. Or, if you don't do the whole following thing, email us at flinthandmade@hotmail.com and we will add you to our email list.

B) Leave us a comment in response to this blog post by 5pm on Saturday, December 18, 2010 answering the following 2 questions:

1) How do you follow us?

2) What type of Ted would you like to see Sarah make in the future?  Be creative!

Please be sure to answer BOTH questions to qualify for the drawing.

The winner will be selected at random and posted on the blog within one week after the deadline. We hope to hear from YOU and we hope you enjoyed our December Second Saturday Giveaway!

Second Saturday Giveaway: Win Owl Print Cotton Lunch Bag by Amy of Made with Luv!

Posted by Crystal

For our October Second Saturday Giveaway, we are featuring Made with Luv by Amy Kelsey!  Amy was one of the crafters YOU asked to see featured back in September.

Amy is also the Director of Sales & Merchandising for Flint Handmade and was kind enough to allow me to come over to take pictures on very short notice.  The second Saturday of October just snuck up on me!

This is Amy in her upstairs sewing corner with big windows and gorgeous natural light!  I had to ask Amy about her workspace:

"Last year my oldest son graduated high school and vacated his roomy digs in our basement. He left behind a large storage/shelving unit from IKEA and a roomy, well lit space. I moved in my 3 sewing machines, ironing board, some storage furniture, a retro 50's era metal and chrome table and a couple of desks. I made sure there was a spot for the iPod dock, and computer, two essentials if I am going to work for any length of time w/o going crazy.

I created an ideal workspace-It is spacious, comfortable, private and secluded from the rest of the house. I worked down there for about 2 months, and then promptly moved my machine back upstairs to the heart of the house, and addition that we added on to my old farmhouse about 6 years ago. Crazy, right? I know, I know.

However, I found that the benefits of having a work space that I could walk away from and leave a mess, and that housed every bit of my junk efficiently, could not overcome the disadvantage of being separated from the rest of the family and views of the outdoors and sunshine. I guess that at the end of the day, atmosphere is as, if not more, important to the creative spirit as convenience and organization for me." 

Well, it turns out Amy has two workspaces!  We took a trip downstairs to the basement room that houses the majority of her supplies and finished products.  The entire room is strung with festive colored lights.

I had to laugh when I saw these Expedit cubbie shelves from IKEA!  Not only do I have this EXACT 5 x 5 cubbie configuration in my craftroom, you may recall from our September Second Saturday Giveaway post, that Steph of Frankenstitch Productions also has 4 x 4 cubbie shelves.  Crafters love cubbies!

Crafters also love fabric!  I gasped when I saw how much gorgeous, color-coordinated fabric Amy had on her shelves.  I had to get some close-ups of all the different colors/themes, including...

...pink...

...green...

...blue...

...brown...

...black...

...orange and yellow...

...and kid's prints and polka dots!

But, even more amazing than the lovely stacks of raw fabric are the bags and purses and bibs Amy makes with the fabric!  She has a great system for storing her bags once they are finished.

She keeps a clothing rack with shower curtain hooks in her basement to hang her finished products.  This way, the bags don't get wrinkled, the bright colors liven up the space and she can be proud of at all of her hard work on display!

Amy also has an empty wooden box that she is thinking about using to store smaller finished products.

It was passed down to Amy from her mother, who kept her knitting in the box.  We love intergenerational family craftiness!

Well, with as much space and time as she dedicates to Made with Luv, it was obvious to me that Amy is very committed to handcrafting!  I had to ask Amy how she got into crafting in the first place:

"Crafting sort of snuck up on me. I have always been enthralled with creating things, that high that you get when something comes out better than you imagined it would. My mother and grandmother have always been makers, but of the type who never are willing to admit to being creative; by their own description they "only" followed patterns.

It wasn't until I started making tattoo inspired baby bibs (the first few were gifts, which led to requests, which led to retail sales) that I had the confidence to begin to believe that people would actually pay me for my designs."

And, what awesome designs she creates!  Amy has clotheslines in her basement where she hangs her works-in-progress.  She had several projects featuring her original bag structure and decoration designs hanging on the line when I stopped by, including a handpainted owl bag on green fabric.

I asked Amy where gets the inspiration for all of her cute handpainted and applique decorations for her bags.  She showed me a small glass curio cabinets featuring dozens of charming little porcelain figurines that looked like they could have come right out of a Disney movie.

Although Amy often creates her own patterns for her bags, she also has a small library of crafting books in her basement workspace for more inspiration.  She keeps the books in an old wooden crate turned on its side, which creates a really cozy display.

Did you notice the adorable mason jar diorama above?  Amy bought it from Koliye of The Living Thread at a Flint Handmade Craft Market.  We love when crafters support other crafters!

In fact, Amy is very supportive of other crafters...especially her business partner and friend, Stefanie!  I asked Amy about how she came up with the name Made with Luv for her crafts:

"The company name was actually the idea of my business partner, Stefanie. She is also the one who encouraged me to begin trying to sell my things and started the website/blog for Made with Luv. The company is really her baby, but I have been so happy to share custody! She lives in San Diego, California, and came up with the idea for Made with Luv about 3 years ago. I send my things to sell in CA, she sends me what she creates to sell here in MI, and together we maintain "stefaniewithluv," our Etsy store."



Amy mostly makes bags and bibs for Made with Luv and Stefanie mostly makes pillows and pouches.  One of Amy's favorite materials to work with is vibrant glitter vinyl.

Because glitter vinyl is so thick, Amy had to buy a special heavy duty sewing machine on Ebay to work with the material.

This is Amy's glorious vintage Kenmore named Stella.  I about died when I saw this beautiful piece of machinery.  The color, the finish, the silver scroll design by the needle...SWOON!

Amy has already made so many gorgeous projects with Stella, but I had to ask her what projects she would like to work on in the future:

"I would like to someday make aprons, but they are a little cost prohibitive right now. I design my own purses, and some of my future designs are chomping at the bit to become reality. One bag will be a bowling bag inspired purse made with the glitter vinyl that I love so much. I would also like to do more with the handpainted designs that I have been experimenting with.

Most of my the ideas in my head are bags and purses...I have never really been thrilled with choices that are available in stores, so my mind is always whirring to come up with something that incorporates features that I like in store bought bags but displays some individuality and personality at the same time."

Amy and I went back upstairs so she could show me one of her newer purse designs.

At first, I thought it was just a vinyl and floral print bag.  Then, I realized it was a Day of the Dead print...with glitter, no less!  It reminded me of a Day of the Dead quilt that Flint Handmade featured in the 2010 Festival of Quilts.  It appears to be a popular theme with crafters!

The sunlight just looked so beautiful streaming in upstairs that I had to grab a photo of her thread in front of the window.

Doesn't it just look so picturesque and inspiring in her backyard?!?

I wanted to see more of Amy's crafting tools, so she showed me her bobbin holder, magnetic pin holder and scissors.

Look closely and you can see that the pin holder is in the shape of a cute birdie.  Amy loves her little animal inspirations!

I wrapped up with Amy by asking about her favorite crafting tool:

"Right at the moment, my favorite crafting tool is my pair of thread nippers from Gingher. They weigh 2 oz, and are very small, so that I can sew along with them in my cloth-guiding hand and they never get in the way, they are waiting to nip threads at the end of every seam. In addition, they are razor sharp, very pointy, and swiftly remove seams and boo-boos. At $20, they are a little pricey, but are very high quality, and with a half off Joann's coupon, quite a deal!"

Personally, I think Amy is the real deal...and I am super excited to have one of her creations for our October Second Saturday Giveaway!

We are giving away a brand new style of bag from Made with Luv!  This 100% cotton lunch bag features a velcro closure and carrying handle.  The charming owl print is perfect for everyone!  The bag measures 6 x 6 x 10 inches and can fit tons of delicious food.  It's reusable, eco-friendly and sooooo cute!

For YOUR chance to win the Owl Lunch Bag (valued at $10), just complete steps A and B:

A) Follow Flint Handmade via the blog, Twitter, Google Reader or whatever newfangled "following application" tickles your fancy. Or, if you don't do the whole following thing, email us at flinthandmade@hotmail.com and we will add you to our email list.

B) Leave us a comment in response to this blog post by 5pm on Saturday, October 16, 2010 answering the following 2 questions:

1) How did you follow us?

2) What is YOUR favorite name for a sewing machine?  It can be the name of a machine you own or dream of owning or is owned by a friend...we just loved that Amy named her machine Stella and we want to hear more great sewing machine names!

Please be sure to answer BOTH questions to qualify for the drawing. 

The winner will be selected at random and posted on the blog within one week after the deadline.  We hope to hear from YOU and we hope you enjoyed our October Second Saturday Giveaway!