Giant flower

Last week I was contacted by a lovely lady from Australia interested in my stupid huge flower. She had a request - she wanted me to make her an even stupider huge flower, measuring 12 inches wide! Whew! She will be using it instead of a bouquet at her wedding!

I've noticed the trend now of carrying a single flower as a wedding bouquet down the aisle. Here is a paper one that I've been swooning over for quite some time. I never even thought I could do the same with fabric!

The lovely buyer is going to be handling the stem and bottom support to hold the flower up. But that didn't stop me from trying to help her figure that out! I had the idea of using a funnel as support to hold it up, and a wooden dowel or branch could be secured in the funnel hole, then covered with more felt. I hope it all works out for her!

It has 27 lovely petals & weighs exactly 3 ounces. But it's not finished yet, I still need to sew the petals together and cut out some leaves out of felt. What do you think? :)

Winner!

And the winner is.....

Chelsea Guerrero!
I have sent you a message!

Thanks so much, everyone for all the new fans and your support!
For those of you that didn't win, don't worry! I still have a little offering for you: use the coupon code: LUCKYYOU10 at check out for 10% off your order at either of my stores, Valerie Paperie and Bloempjes!

I will have another giveaway soon!

Giveaway extended!

Since I didn't get too many referrals, I'm extending the giveaway for a few more days. For more details on how to enter, go to my previous post, or here to check out the rules.

Contest ends on Thursday, September 29th, at noon CST.

Good luck!

Fall bloempjes giveaway

It seems that fall has already arrived here in North Dakota. So I thought I would brighten someone's day with a flower from my bloempjes store! :) Just like last time, this one will be a "design it yourself" flower that I will custom make for you. With the chilly weather coming, wouldn't you love to dress up that winter hat or coat with a fun bright flower?

I'm doing this contest a little differently than last time. I'm gonna make you work for it. That's right. Here's how to enter:

1. Go over & become a fan of bloempjes on Facebook (if you aren't one already)

2. Refer your friends to my Facebook fan page & be sure to have them write your name and that you sent them to my page.


That's it! I'll tally up the results to see who has the most referrals and I'll announce the winner here on my blog in one week. Comments on this post will not be counted, only comments on my FB fan page. This contest is open to friends, family, anyone. I'll ship internationally too!

You've got until Saturday, September 24th
Thursday, September 29th at noon CST.
Aaaaaand, GO!

Paper Goodies Giveaway!

The sweet and lovely Debee Ruiz from Inspire Lovely is giving away a delicious paper kit with embellishments on her blog! Go on over to her Facebook fan page and "like" her, then follow further instructions for entering on her blog. I would really, really love to win this! :)

Artistic Integrity

Hello everyone. It's been a while since I've written. Sorry! Still trying to work on that.

I recently ran across an awesome DIY on Pinterest that I immediately fell in love with. It was a tutorial using lace trim, gold paint and modpodge, and magically turning it into beautiful crown. I immediately bought some lace trim on Etsy and counted the days for it to arrive. 

Later on that week, I ran across a little company on Facebook that makes their crowns in a similar fashion and sells them. They were gorgeous! Then I had that nagging feeling that it would look like I was copying them. I didn't want to be one of those people that jump on the bandwagon of something that is "cool" to cash in. (ie - all those Keep Calm posters) I just told myself that I would put my spin on it, to make it unique. It's still hard for me, though. I don't consider myself an artist, I'm more of a crafter/hobbist. I pick up little hobbies here and there, to try different things. It's hard for me to define the word artist, though. I suppose it's someone that eats, drinks and breathes their art all the time. They are constantly creating something. That's hardly me. I can go for weeks without creating something.

I would love to hear your take on this, internet people. :) I guess in the end, there aren't really any truly unique ideas anymore. You borrow from different things and ideas that you encounter throughout your life and eventually make it your own.

Here are some of my crowns. They measure 4 inches wide, perfect for babies or toddler heads. I plan to make some more when I get more trim in the mail! :) 

Driftwood horses

Just ran across these gorgeous life-like sculptures by Heather Jansch on Pinterest. They're made entirely out of driftwood. Aren't they amazing? See more pictures here.