And the winner is....

Thanks so much to everyone that participated in yesterday's gift give away. The response has been overwhelmingly wonderful. This is the most blog comments that I have ever had and I wish I could send every one of you rice packs and pins.

I typed up all the names, threw them in a hat and Hadley picked out the winner this morning. Congratulations to Goat Goddess you are the lucky winner of a lavender rice pack and pin. Please email me your mailing address.

And for proof, here's a little video of Hadley picking the winning name at 6:30 this morning.



Here were the top 3 Christmas Song Favorites:
1. Silent Night
2. O Holy Night
3. Jingle Bells


Here's a really cute blog I found during the giveaways yesterday and every Friday through this month, she will post about something fun you can make for holiday gifts. Check her out by clicking the picture above.

Give Away Day - Lavender Rice Pack and Pin

We are so excited here at Allbeehive today, because we LOVE giving things away. Especially with the financial crunch, FREE gifts are like finding $10 in last years winter coat.

Today, one lucky person can win not one, but TWO homemade gifts. Give them to someone and save yourself a trip to the store, OR keep them for yourself. To enter, read the rules below and enter a comment today between 7:00am - 8:00pm midnight (MST) and let me know your favorite Christmas Song. Be sure to sign your comment as anonymous entries can't win. At the end of the day Tomorrow morning, I will throw all entries into a hat and let Hadley randomly pick the winner.

Then after you have commented here, go to Sew, Mama, Sew! and find the list of all the other participants in the FREE Holiday Give Away. Go win yourself a bunch of stuff!

FREE GIFT #1 - Lavender Rice Pack

Fifteen years ago, I threw some rice in a muslin bag, made a flannel pillow case for it, and voila I had myself a hot rice pack. To this day, I still use this rice pack every fall when it starts to get cold. Today's GRAND PRIZE is a lavender rice pack. It is 21" X 5" which is perfect to sling around your neck. The soothing moist heat is good for sore aching muscles, back pain, cramps, and clogged milk ducts. You can also use it to heat your toes, bed or a crib. It stays warm for at least an hour, and I personally go to bed with it every night. It's great since we are saving $$ trying to keep the house a little cooler this winter. It also comes with a fleece case that you can remove and wash. It's not like I'm saying you're dirty or anything, but believe me it's going to get dirty with overuse.

FREE GIFT #2 - Healing ArtScapes Pin

DG works with an awesome group of people at the Denver Newspaper Agency and in his department, one of the other designers, Kim designs these incredible pieces of jewelry at really good prices. Her items always fly off the shelves at the craft fairs. She has a line of the cutest necklaces made from decorative paper and scrabble tiles. Please check out and bookmark her Etsy shop here which will be up and running this week-end. The 2nd prize in today's give away is this lovely little pin.

RULES:
Prize will be shipped to U.S. Residents only. (Sorry South Korea!)
One entry per person.
Entries must come through comments on the blog today (12/3/08) between 7:00am - 8:00pm midnight (MST).
Please include a valid email address in your comment.
My immediate family ie. the man who sleeps in my bed at night, his parents and sister, Hadley's Nana, and her husband AKA my father are not eligible. Though they are all welcome to comment with their favorite XMas songs.

Now don't be stingy, email this post to all of your friends too and let everyone play along. I will reveal the winner on Thursday by noon and send them an email.

NOTE: Due to the number of bloggers who are participating, I have extended the contest to midnight tonight.

Craft Fair a Go Go

Today was the big craft fair at the Denver Newspaper Agency. Here are some pics of our table. I was quite pleased with the presentation considering our obvious lack of craft fair experience.


These are the bibs and burp cloths that I worked tirelessly on. Ok, I'm going to go take a nap now. zzzzz.


My mom made the most gorgeous napkins and placemats too.


It's official, the Yuletide can begin with non-stop Bailey's on Ice, Celine Dion singing O Holy Night, and dogs wearing Santa Hats.

Don't forget to stop in tomorrow for our Gift Give Away.

Holiday Homemade

I found this really great blog this weekend while making lavender rice packs. It's called Sew Mama Sew. They have great ideas for DIY presents, and this coming Wednesday, December 3, they are having a big Give Away. Blogs all over blogland will be having contests to Give Away Handmade items including us here at Allbeehive.

Come check us out on Wednesday bright and early to win, and then go to Sew Mama Sew and check out the list of participants and try to win stuff on other blogs too.

Make Your Own Holiday Gift Tags

SUPPLIES
Tag Craft Punch ($16.99 at Michaels)
Small Snowflake Punch ($1.00 at Michaels)
1" Circle Punch - optional ($5.00 at Michaels)
Hole Punch
Cardstock in blue, green, or red - ($.59 at Michaels)
1 Sheet each Red and White Construction Paper
2 Spools of Thin Ribbon in Red and White - ($.50 each at Michaels)
Silver Paint Pen
Small Paintbrush
Elmer's Glue
(NOTE: Don't let this list overwhelm you. With a coupon, the costs for this project are under $20)

I recently received a bee stamp from Joy that came with 3 plain tags to stamp. It was then that I got the brilliant idea to create my own price tags for the craft fair that is coming up on December 2. I ran off to Michael's Craft Store with my 40% off coupon and bought a Tag Craft Punch and some scrapbooking card stock. By the time I got home, my mind was racing with all the fun things I could do. Here is how to make your own fun holiday gift tags.

Step 1
Using the craft punch, cut out as many tags as you can from the card stock. In order to get the most amount of tags out of one sheet of paper, I turn the punch around so I can see the cut block. You should be able to get around 20 tags out of each sheet.

Step 2
Use the hole punch to add one hole in each tag for the ribbon.

Step 3
Cut pieces of ribbon to 6 1/2" in length.

Step 4
Use the snowflake punch to cut snowflakes out of paper. If you just got one sheet of cardstock, you will need about 20 snowflakes. I used red construction paper and 28lb. white Hammermill that I had on hand. If you want to get really creative, go back with a circle punch, center the space with the empty snowflake and cut a circle around the snowflake as seen in the picture above. You can also cut some plain red circles and add white snowflakes to the middle of them.

Step 5
Squirt out some Elmer's Glue onto a scrap piece of paper, use the paint brush and spread glue on the snow flakes to add them to your tags. Scrapbookers feel free to comment here and tell me if there is a better way to glue. I thought a glue stick was too cumbersome for these delicate little snowflakes.

When gluing the snowflakes, you can get really creative by going all minimalist modern and adding one snowflake per tag, or adding a snowstorm of flakes. Whatever floats your boat.

Step 6
Use the paint pen and on the back of the tag, write To: and From:

Step 7
Add the ribbon to the tag and voila, lovely gift tag.

Crafting Mania

Can't talk now, in crafting mode. I just realized I haven't blogged in a week, shame on me. I have loads of fun pictures of our visit with Joy last week and lots of updates on Hadley's walking progress. We are in countdown mode. Every day, she learns something new. It is blowing my mind.

Crafting in the Beehive

We've been busy little bees here lately as David signed us up for the Craft Fair at his work. If you are a long time reader, you will remember at the inception of this blog, we entered our first Craft Fair, in which I became a one person sweatshop making a measly 7 IPOD covers.

We've expanded our collection here to Baby Bibs, Burp Cloths, Gift Tags, and Rice Packs.


I was inspired to make bibs after we went to Connecticut and my mother had thrown together a bunch of bibs for Hadley and they were so cute and fun. I made my pattern this week using a brown paper bag. Then I decided to use Amy Butler fabric which is all the rage right now. Her midwest modern line is so hip. And how can you go wrong with a fabric that is shaped like a beehive? In addition to the colors shown, I got the blue/green versions as well. My biggest excitement was that I finally got to use a snap tool that I had inherited from my Nana when I got her 30 year old Viking sewing machine. Adding snaps to the bibs have really given them a finished professional look.

Here is my first "packaged" sample that I made for a baby shower this week-end. It includes two burp clothes, one bib, and a gift tag stamped with a pink bee.


In the "I went crazy at Michael's" category, I also bought a tag stamp to make my own tags for the Craft Fair, and then I realized that other people might want gift tags too. So I've been cutting out a bunch from fun card stock and adding ribbon. I've also made some Christmas tags as well.

I haven't made my rice packs yet, but they will be scented with Lavender essential oil and have a fleece snuggly pouch. I made myself a rice pack over 13 years ago and we still use it. With our recent cold weather, I whipped it out and use it daily to heat Hadley's crib up and warm our bed. I have not decided on official pricing yet, but I'm thinking about 8 tags for $3 and 2 diapers or 2 burpclothes for $12. Any thoughts?

I'm a Whore for Yarn

What a girl won't do for a skein of some awesome yarn.

I have a new ad on the blog for Vickie Howell's podcast about all things craft and knitting. Remember when I talked about her here? I just downloaded all the podcasts from ITunes and can't wait to listen to all of them myself.

If you enjoy knitting, you need to check out her blog too. She has tons of free patterns and recently has been giving away lots of fun knitting accoutrements.

Urban Girl Turns into SubUrban Scrapbooking Momma

I guess I knew it may happen some day. That I may turn into the person that is not as cool as they think they are. I just didn't know it would be quite so soon.

I've been wanting to make a journal for the baby, so that some day she could look back and get a glimpse of what DG and I were going through these nine months and take a peek at popular culture in 2007. I've been saving ticket stubs from Baby's first concert and Baby's first movie etc. I just thought I would get a cheap little blank book and write notes to her and glue stuff in it. But isn't that really called SCRAPBOOKING?

So last week, I found myself at Michael's when after grabbing the Jordan Almonds, I entered the scrapbook aisle. One scrapbook and a kit later, I am documenting each month.


I have learned that Scrapbooking is an art that I have not yet mastered. March is a bit rough. Apparently it is a necessity to have the proper tools and a good set of Markers.


April gets a little better when I whip out the stickers.


Finally by May, I am starting to get the hang of it. I used a snowflake punch to turn the shards into flowers. At this point, I am a bit addicted and can see how this can turn into an obsession to buy more scissors, prints, and punches.


That's as far as I've gotten. Hopefully it will get better.