Stitches By Heidi Giveaway!

July 11, 2011 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 79 Comments

GIVEAWAY CLOSED

I’ve been pinning everything girly like crazy on Pinterest…I can’t even tell you how excited I am to have a baby girl! (Okay, the new baby is still freaking me out a bit, but making all the girly stuff is exciting!) Can I show you some of the cutest baby shoes ever?

These adorable shoes were handmade by Heidi (not me) of Stitches by Heidi!!

This daytime nurse and mother of 3 makes these totally amazing crocheted or sewn custom items. Here’s a little more from Heidi:

“Starting my business was probably the most impulsive thing I’ve ever done. I had been having a lot of people tell me for a couple of months that I should sell my stuff and one morning I woke up and decided to do it. After I did it I wondered a little at what I had done, but once everything started going I loved it and I loved the outlet it gave me.

I don’t know if I could pick one thing I love the most. I love the whole creating process (seeing a ball of yarn turn in to a darling hat), I love making people happy, and I love that time of day creating and doing something for myself.”

Check out some other things she’s made:

I love the shoes the most. There’s just something so precious about tiny little shoes that I’m a total sucker for! (Although that baby girl owl beanie is kinda screaming for me too!)

She also makes hooded towels, bags, and more! She loves doing custom orders so cash in on that!! It’s a good time to start thinking about Christmas presents too…I’m just sayin’.

Heidi wants to give away a $40 credit to her shop!

How to Enter:

Visit Her Shop, comment back on your favorite things

Follow Her Blog

Like Her on Facebook

(Comment back for each entry separately)

Please go check her out!!!

This Giveaway will End Friday, July 15 at 11:59 PM

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Cute Valentine’s Birdhouse and Giveaway by JoJoBeanDesigns

February 3, 2011 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 34 Comments

Today’s guest is the uber-talented Joanna from Jojobean Designs!! She is sharing a tutorial on how to build a Valentine’s Birdhouse

AND

doing a giveaway to her fab Etsy shop with 3 winners!!

Hello there! My name is Joanna, also known as Jojobeans, and I’m thrilled to be guest posting at Honeybear Lane today! Heidi has been sweet enough to let me share a tutorial for one of my favorite Valentine’s Day projects, my Little Chapel of Love. It’s a birdhouse I made for my always valentine and sometimes assistant, Egghead. Together we play house in Northern New Jersey, anxiously awaiting the release of our Baby Bean in March. When I’m not crafting up a storm, I’m cooking one up and writing all about it at my blog Go Ahead and Snicker, or working from home on my newest project, my etsy shop Jojobean Designs. I’d love for you to pay me a visit!

Build a “Chapel of Love” Birdhouse!

Supplies:

Corrugated cardboard
Sheet music
Alphabet rubber stamps
Ink Pads
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Mod Podge
Rhinestones
Paint
Wooden Skewer
Tiny Bird
Glitter
Assorted stickers, rub ons, or ephemera
A photo of you and your lovah

How to:

1. Start by sketching the 2 side walls, front and back walls, floor, and roof of your birdhouse onto cardboard. I free-handed this part, but there are many birdhouse templates on Google if you need a hand! The front and back walls must match, both roof pieces must match, and the side walls must match or you’ll have a lopsided house.

2. Cut all walls and roof pieces with an exacto knife. Cut a bird-hole in the front wall to your desired shape or size. (Mine is a heart.)

3. Trace the shapes of your walls and roof onto sheet music with a pencil and cut the shapes out with a quarter inch border, set these aside.

4. Apply a line of hot glue to one edge of floor piece. Attach one wall. Apply a line of hot glue to one edge of the wall piece, attach the joining wall. Apply glue to join new wall to the floor. Continue until all 4 walls are attached. Don’t worry too much about gaps or messy glue, since you’ll cover this up later!

5. Once the hot glue has set, use Mod Podge to glue sheet music to the inside and outside of the structure, folding that quarter inch border over to cover the edges. Let this dry.

6. Go crazy with your embellishments! Stamp on a romantic message, attach your photo to the inside back wall, apply rhinestones and glitter, or whatever floats your boat.

7. For the perch, cut a wooden grilling skewer to desired length and use the pointed end to drill it into the front wall, just below your bird-hole. Remove the skewer, dip it into paint or glue, and then glitter. Once dry you can add your birdie and put the perch back into the hole.

8. Assemble and embellish your roof. If you want it to be a permanent fixture, attach it with glue to your house. If not, leave your roof open so that you can fill it up with love notes or poems, or add an LCD light!

How cute is that birdhouse?! I must make one immediately. Joanna also sells her beautifully Gocco-printed cards and Valentines in her Etsy shop!

Do you want something beautiful and unique to give to your significant other this V-day?

Check these out!!

Loving this Sign Language Valentine!

I {heart} these Shakespeare in Love gift tags!!! So adorable.

Wouldn’t this “Eye Heart Ewe” Valentine be hilarious to give to a not-so-mushy husband??

Oh and ps, are you so sick of seeing the Disney or TV show character Valentines for your kids to give out? She has these CUTE colorable Valentines packs for kids to give out!!

Little Monster Color Me Valentines

Joanna wants to give away some ridiculously awesome prizes to THREE of you lucky readers!

One of you will win a $25 credit at her shop!

Two of you will win one class set of “Color Me Mine” Valentines!!

To enter, go visit JoJoBean Designs and comment back on your favorite of her items!

For another entry, go check out her adorable blog and become a follower!

For one last entry, go like her Facebook fan page!!

Remember three winners this time!!

And if you don’t win or just can’t wait to find out, she is offering a 15% discount to you all in her shop until February 14!!

(Just type in the code HONEYBEAR15)

This giveaway will end on February 7th at 11:59 PM

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Filed Under: Etsy, giveaway, jojobeans designs, valentines day crafts

Important Life Changing Announcement Here…

January 10, 2011 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 20 Comments

I don’t know how to write this post. This my third try. It’s a hard thing for me to say, since I admitting it to all of you will make it more final. So I’ll just put it out there:

I’m closing my shop. Indefinitely.

This has been something I’ve been considering for quite some time. The fact is, I am enjoying my work less and less. And I feel like I’ve been doing a bad job at being a good mother and supportive wife. My kids need me. My husband needs me. {{And my house really needs some cleaning.}}

And most of what I’ve been giving them is the in-between work moments. If my only job was to work, I’d do it…I’d just focus my energy on it and do a great job. If my only job was to be a mom and wife, I’d do that great too.

But I’ve given myself two full-time jobs and I’m afraid I’m doing both halfway.

I started my Etsy shop to give myself something to do, and a way to share my creativity with the world. For the first six months I didn’t really push it, but once I started making the onesies I started getting really busy. It picked up so quickly that I was not prepared for the huge juggling act that I’d just brought upon myself. And things only got busier with the addition of my second child and my puff quilt promotions. I loved it at first, it gave me a sense of self and accomplishment. And I loved becoming part of the craft blog community.

But I’ve been stretched too thin for too long. My business has grown to a point where I have to decide if I want to be a designer or a manufacturer…and I’ve always preferred designing. So closing my shop will allow me time to design more.

I really feel like I’ve learned a lot and gotten what I wanted from it. But more importantly, closing will allow me the time that I need so badly for my kids, husband, and God.

My family is entering a critical year in our life. For three years we’ve lived in a two-bedroom apartment while my husband attends dental school. But heading into his fourth year will bring a lot of transient changes for us, with lots of travel. My husband has some serious work ahead of him for his career path and will be extremely busy trying to complete the necessary requirements. And I want to do my part to help our family out during this time by being completely present.

My hope is that I can re-open my shop for selling patterns. But I’m not sure if that will happen. Life throws changes at us and nothing lasts forever. I have loved having my shop and part of me is so sad to close. But the bigger part of me knows I have to. And I’m excited to see where my life goes and what I make of it. And to continue to share my journey with you.

I’ll still blog–that’s not going anywhere. And hopefully I’ll have more time to do some awesome crafts and share some great tutorials. And I will definitely still be finishing my current orders (so don’t worry if you are one of my customers with an order!) Please feel free to write me emails if you have any questions whatsoever.

I have loved working with all of my customers and couldn’t have gotten where I am today without any of you. Thank you so much.

Now to figure out what to do with 500 brand-new business cards…

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Filed Under: Etsy, me, new puff quilt design

Custom Fabric Collections for Your Bedding Set

December 22, 2010 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 4 Comments

Are you in the process of designing a new nursery or toddler’s room? Do you have a certain color scheme that you’re thinking about?

Let’s pretend that you are going to have a little girl and the colors you like are Honeysuckle Pink (the hot new color for 2011, btw!) Tiffany Blue, and Chocolate Brown.

And you want a bedding set from Honeybear Lane, of course

Here is what I would create for you:

You can choose any combination of these fabrics to create your bedding and puff quilt!

Or maybe you’re having a boy and you like green, orange, teal, and brown…

There is a ton of beautiful fabric out there that could come together to make some gorgeous custom bedding for you!

Just contact me and ask me for a swatch board for you!

**I also offer a $10-15 discount for purchases of three items or more!**

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Filed Under: chocolate brown, Etsy, fabric, honeysuckle pink, new puff quilt design, tiffany blue

Winner of Better Life Bags Giveaway!

October 25, 2010 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane Leave a Comment

Who is the winner of the Better Life Bags Giveaway???

Who is #173?

Congrats! I need you to email me by this Friday to claim your prize!

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Filed Under: Etsy, giveaway

Better Life Bags Giveaway!

October 18, 2010 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 174 Comments

***** GIVEAWAY CLOSED *****

Today’s sponsor is my oldest Etsy friend. I actually found Rebecca on Etsy and noticed that she and I had a lot in common in business. So I contacted her and we started chatting about various business things and soon turned into friends. She runs the Etsy shop: Better Life Bags.

I have to tell you guys, her bags are SO great. She just made this beauty for me:

(Mine’s the one in the middle. I love, love, love it!)

HBL: How did you get started with your craft?

BLB: When I was pregnant with my son, I couldn’t find a diaper bag that I loved. They were either too expensive or too boring. So, I decided to learn how to make a diaper bag using a fabric combination I wanted. I loved the thought of having a one-of-a-kind bag that I had designed myself! Luckily, I had just gotten a great sewing machine for my birthday and had sewn a little in my “younger years”. I had a dear friend help me get through the first one and teach me the essentials of bag making. Now I can’t break away from my sewing machine. It’s my better half.

Freitas Ruffle Clutch…I absolutely HEART Amy Butler’s fabric, don’t you?

HBL: What do you love about your craft?

BLB: I love taking pieces of gorgeous material, cutting it up, and sewing it back together into a fun bag creation! There’s something satisfactory about creating something from nothing. I also love that each bag I make is different and unique. My customers get to design their own by picking out fabric for each part of the bags I create. This makes for many different combinations and versions of the same style. It’s never boring!

Lovin’ these checkbook covers: I bet she would even add some slots for credit cards if you asked her!

HBL: Why did you decide to go into business with it?

BLB: Well, I never planned to open a business with my craft. It sort of happened by accident. Like I mentioned before, I made myself a diaper bag and then posted pictures of it on Facebook. Within a week, I had a request to make one for a pregnant friend and she paid me for it! After posting the picture of that bag, I had another request for a large tote bag. And the Nicole was born. People kept ordering, so I kept sewing!

The Carla: Design Your Own!

HBL: Why did you decide to have it be charitable?

BLB: I’ve always loved ordering from companies that help others with the profits, and I wanted to do that from the very beginning – which is why we named it Better Life Bags (“making lives better one purse at a time”). My brother had just introduced me to www.kiva.org and I thought it would be an awesome idea to donate 10% of the bag transaction to a low-income entrepreneur in developing countries. Each of my customers receive a print out of who their bag went to help and what they are going to do with the money. The cool thing about Kiva is that the money is only loaned out and gets repaid back to me over a few months. I can then reloan the money out to someone else. So it’s like your bag never stops giving back!

How awesome is this diaper bag?! You can convert it to have backpack straps too!

HBL: Tell me about your family.

BLB: I have a wonderful husband who I fell in love with 5 years ago and married 2 1/2 years later. We have an adorable son who turned one at the beginning of this month. And much to our surprise, we have a little girl due in January to make us a family of FOUR!

The Maggie Ruffle Purse

HBL: Describe a typical day for you.

BLB: My son wakes me up at 8am and we snuggle in bed while he drinks his bottle of milk. Sometimes we stay there for an hour – sometimes 10 minutes. Either way, it’s my favorite part of the day. Mornings are usually busy for us and it’s good to wear my son out before his nap, so we run errands, go to Bible Study, play outside, go to library story time, etc… Naps are golden for me as I get some time to myself. Since my husband works part time and goes to school part time, he often has a few hours every day or so to spend with our son while I get caught up on bag orders. I’m very thankful for him and for his support for our small business!

The Nicole: Design Your Own!

HBL: Where do you hope to see your business go in the next 5 years?

BLB: This one makes me excited! We just recently moved to a poor area of Detroit, MI where there are a lot of 1st generation immigrants from Yemen. These Yemeni women rarely leave their homes and can’t get jobs out in public because their families are very conservative Muslims. I hope to be able to hire some of them within the next five years to not only give them something to do at home but to also help them out financially. I’m so inspired by stories I hear of businesses hiring women overseas to make quality products and then providing a market for them to sell to in order to earn income for their families. I’m going to start highlighting some of these companies on my blog in the next few weeks… Christmas gift ideas! I REALLY want to use this business to help others profit like they do.

She is seriously such a great person and dedicates her life to helping others. What a great person to support in business! And you can be so happy to know that part of your money is going to help someone who is starting up their own business.

Today she is going to offer you all $75 to her shop!

To enter this giveaway, just go to her shop, look around and comment back on what you love!

For more ways to enter (comment back each time):

Go visit her BLOG and follow her!
Like her on Facebook!
Follow Honeybear Lane’s Blog (this one)

This giveaway will close on Friday, October 22nd at 11:59 PM

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Filed Under: Etsy, giveaway

Dirdy Birdy Giveaway

September 27, 2010 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 57 Comments

So this one time I was looking for ‘bee’ jewelry (cuz bees are my thing…check out my header) and I randomly discovered this amazing, amazing Etsy shop, Dirdy Birdy. I contacted the seller, Leah, and asked her some questions. If I thought her jewelry was amazing, it’s nothing compared to her! She is one talented lady, and I’m so excited that she is sponsoring this giveaway!

HBL: How did you learn your craft?

DB: I’ve been making things as long as I can remember. When I was a little kid, I carried around a giant bucket of crayons with me wherever I went, and to this day my younger sister still hates the smell of crayons I became serious about art and craft in high school, and went on to study painting and printmaking in college. Jewelry was always something I did on the side, because it allowed me to calm down from a day of intense painting. I soon learned that I could combine my love for thrifting & antiquing, crafting, and creating special things by putting more time into jewelry making. There’s been a lot of trial and error involved, but it’s been a blast!

Orange Flower Collage Pendant

HBL: What is your favorite thing about your craft?

DB: The best thing about jewelry is that unlike a painting or a sculpture, it’s worn and moves with you throughout the day. Jewelry gets out there; people see it and want to talk about it. Though I must say, my absolute favorite part about my craft is the initial hunt; I spend hours and hours at antique stores, thrift stores, rummage sales, etc., digging for pieces to use my jewelry, and that is always something I’ve absolutely loved doing.

Original Peacock Painting by Leah

HBL: What are other crafty areas you are interested in?

DB: As I mentioned before, I’m also a painter and printmaker, but besides that I love getting my hands messy with clay, and I also do a little sewing and photography. I’m also very big on furniture upcycling—besides making my jewelry and art, I have an awesome job upcycling amazing pieces of vintage furniture. I like working with a variety of mediums because if forces me to approach whatever ideas I have moving around in my brain differently. It’s easy to get comfortable with one thing, so I have to trick myself; I’ll paint for three days straight and on the fourth day go back to jewelry with a fresh perspective and lots of excitement.

Garden Creatures

HBL: Tell me a little about your family…married? kids?

DB: I’m very newly married! My husband and I are high school sweethearts, and even after all the years spent together I still think he’s the funniest person I know. We have to insane cats that we could spend hours watching (they do a lot of really hilarious stuff), and I’m currently trying to convince my husband that we need a dog, preferably a boston terrier.

These Flowers Keep On Bloomin’

HBL: How do you balance work and family?

DB: Balancing work and family can be tricky because my work doesn’t feel like work, so I really do have to remind myself to shut off the computer, put my materials away, and focus on non-work things. Sometimes my husband gets a little persnickety and has to remind me that my work day has ended, but I try to get all my work done when he’s at work so we can operate on a similar schedule.

Peacock Blue Peony Pendant

HBL: What is a typical day of work like for you?

DB: I roll out of bed around 7:30, and before I even make it to the coffee maker I’m making lists in my head of what I need to accomplish for the day. I check my emails and Etsy pretty quickly and then start photographing the items I made the previous afternoon; morning always has the best lighting for jewelry photos. Then I get to work on listing new items online, which goes quick some days and so so so slow other days. Depending on which day of the week it is, I either begin making new pieces of jewelry in my studio or I head into work and play with furniture, paint & upholstery and my other Etsy site Fabulous Pieces.

You’re gonna want to remember Leah because she’s coming back to teach us about some of her other amazing talents!

But today she wants to give away this beautiful and unique piece to one of you!

To Enter:

Visit her shop and come back and comment

Follow Honeybear Lane on Twitter!

Tell me your favorite memory of Autumn

This Giveaway Will Close on Friday, October 1st at 11:59 PM

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Filed Under: Etsy, giveaway, jewelry

Hot Hot Hot Pink!

September 22, 2010 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 16 Comments

Here’s my latest and greatest…

Each bedding set is so special to me, because they are all so unique. Kind of like a baby!

Can you tell it’s for a girl?

The minky sheet is soooo soft and cuddly! I want one on my bed.

I think my favorite thing is the changing pad cover. I added piping…

…and it just looks so streamlined!

And now that I’m done, my house isn’t covered in a pink minky dust!

By the way…I’ve been spying on some of you and have seen some of the puff quilts you’ve made. I’m SO impressed! You are all amazing. If you don’t think you can do it, you can! Just take it one step at a time and don’t be afraid to email me for advice or help because the more I make them, the more addicted I become!

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Don’t forget to enter the Mustard Seed Dream Giveaway HERE!!!

Linking to