Giveaway Day! Bonus Gift Certificate Added on!

I am happy to announce that I am taking part in the Sew, Mam, Sew Giveaway Day!

The BEST part is that there are 2  items I am giving away!

One Handmade Item - Earrings

One $10 Gift Certificate

Why? Because I'm generous! I love having giveaways.
How does one enter and what exactly will someone win, you may ask. Well look below and find your answer!

First, the Handmade item...

Mint and Antiqued Copper Earrings - Lovely fire-polished faceted mint glass beads with copper bead caps and 4mm red-violet swarovsky crystals. Measures 2" from top of the kidney earwire to the bottom of the gem. Gem itself measures .75".

Next....  A gift certificate

$10 Gift Certificate good for both my shops! 

Now here is how you enter:

Visit PeanutEnvy OR CrankHeartPony and simply tell me which item is your favorite and why. Also say which prize you'd love most!

I will randomly pick two winners from the comments.

Some more details -

• This is open to the world, so I will ship anywhere and everywhere!
• This offer is open until midnight (Chicago time) on December 17th.
• The winner will be announced on December 18th and the item will be shipped no later than December 20th.

Please feel free to use the coupon code SNOWDAY for 10% off your order at both my shops...also feel free to Heart my shops, Follow my blog, Like my facebook page or Follow me on Twitter!

My man is offering 15% off his shop VintageOnTheMake with coupon code MANLYVINTAGE Go check out all that manly goodness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I ♥ Snow - Here's a Coupon Code!

Image via creativereview

 Hey all! In honor of the first snow of the season, I'm feeling generous and would like to present my readers with a coupon code good for BOTH my Etsy shops!

Get 10% off with the code 

SNOWDAY

So shop to your heart's content at 

Crankheartpony 

and PeanurEnvy

Enjoy~

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Black Friday Cyber Monday Sale

Check out all the shop deals! Ends soon so HURRY!

Jewelry     Vintage Decor     Retro Kitchen

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Before & After: Transforming My Kitchen

Its amazing what a little paint can do. Here is Before. Ugly. Hideous. No me gusta. Also, notice the ancient refrigerator. It worked great but couldn't sustain a family of 5.

 

At this point we painted the walls and took all the doors off the cabinets with the intent of refinishing them. Yeah...we didn't end up doing that.

Here we have the south wall, crammed with junk.

 NOW for the AFTER!

Ahh....Much better! We painted all the cabinets, windows and doors white and spray painted the hardware black. I think this entire transformation cost about $50-$75. Not bad, eh?

Now it looks like a real kitchen. I'm happy.

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Upcycled Gift Box Tutorial

 

One super fast and easy way to wrap up some last minute gifts is to dress up some boxes lying around in the pantry. Here I used some small stamps to create a pattern and used some embossing powder ( just cuz I love sparkly stuff.)

What you will need:

•  Boxes from cereal, crackers, pasta,etc. It can be any size, as long it has no damage or grease spots.
• Stamps, stamping ink, glue (Stick is best, but I was out).
• Ribbon or twine depending on how you want to finish it off.
• Optional: Embossing powder and gun - its up to your tastes. You can just stamp it and leave it at that.

 

Now lets start. First you want to find the seam of the box

Place your finger -or letter opener, butter knife (non serrated side) between where the box is glued and gently separate them. You have to use caution at this part - the glue can be stubborn and you can rip the whole box apart if you're not careful...not to mention getting a paper cut!

Once that's done, open the box up and fold back all the creases, especially the small tab you just separated in the last step.

Now get out your stamps & ink and add your design.

If adding embossing powder, do it as soon as you finish stamping, otherwise if you wait long enough for the ink to dry, the powder wont have anything to adhere to. I recommend placing a large sheet of paper  underneath where you are working, that way you can shake off the excess powder onto it and funnel the powder back into the jar. 

Get your embossing gun, turn it on and let it heat up. Then slowly move over each image and you will see the colors and texture shifting as it becomes a finished embossed image. Don't stop on an image and heat it because that can burn your box.

 

Once that's cool, get your glue and glue the seam. A glue stick really works best because you wont get any bubbling like you would with liquid glue.

Join the seams, pressing firmly. I suggest laying a heavy book on top once you finish gluing to ensure a good bond.

Now when its dry, close up one end/opening by either gluing it or taping it, whichever you prefer. Then add your ribbon or twine. Put a gift in there and its ready to go!

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Tutorials and Free Printables

 

Springform bucket at Badskirt

Mushroom Pincushion Tutorial at FAntastic Toys

 Recycled paper bunting at Making It Lovely

Free Printable Holiday Card at MufnInc

Printable Christmas Gift Lists at Atypical Type A

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Decorating with Ebroidered Wall Art

Some people may think of embroidery as "old lady art" to keep fingers and joints nimble. They are so wrong! It's quite a beautiful art form that I am currently enamored with. It does take skill - even when you have a pattern guide. I embroider the faces on my dolls and let me tell ya' it is not simple. It is but it isn't. I love the embroidered wall art especially, at the moment. There are tons of great patterns and embroidery art out there. I recently saw this one above in the pictures of an estate sale. All I saw was this folded on top of a dresser. Even though it was folded, I knew it beheld awesomeness and I told my husband " See that? Go there and get it for me!" And being so kind and doting, he did. Now...where to put it....

So here are a few ones I currently love and would love to possess if possible.

Pretty Girl in Window by luckyjackson

I love this style...very intriguing!

smiths please please please... cross-stitched by chezsucrechez

I love the Smiths so naturally I had to include this even though it is cross-stitch.

Red Fox Vulpes Vulpes Embroidery by Naiomicayne

I love foxes. Nuff said.

 

 Oiseau - bird embroidery by MariaDryden

Ummmmmm...Adorable!The whole shop is adorable actually.

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HOLIDAY HANDMADE GIVEAWAY by Gifts Define!

Not long ago, I stumbled upon a super cute site with super cute handmade birds, mobiles, party favors, personalized gifts and more. At first I saw the GiftsDefine blog and then their Etsy Shop and it was over. I have a soft spot for uber-cuteness...which I think evolved after having children; I would see things that we're so adorable and instantly want them even for a 1 year old who would just chew, gnaw and drool all over it. So now they are having a giveaway for 2 lucky people who will win their Baby's First Christmas 2010 keepsake you see above (no Santa hat, though). But you can also find them on Facebook where they give great updates of all that they got going on. You will not be disappointed! 

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Slightly Transforming the Dining Room.

Since we moved in, we've painted, repaired and are slowly decorating the place. Our dining room looks like a marriage between a viking's lodge with a 19th century apothecary. Not exactly my style but my husband has his ideas...We have a large old ornate dark wood table with mismatched viking-ish chairs, coupled with an Admiral from the 40's that we converted into a display / storage with a former built in cabinet on top.

All the wood is dark and it drains the potential life out of the space. Even with the light form the 3 large windows there is this darkness haunting that room.
SO my bright idea is let's add an accent wall. Something to take the dismal out and a bit of fun in. I looked for wallpaper on Ebay and lo and behold I found some that was perfect - to me anyway. Since I love the color in the room, I wanted to keep that. (we will eventually strike a good balance with the furnishings...one day)

 

 
I found some Hygge & West Daydream wallpaper for a steal...$40 a roll! That stuff is originally $105 a roll. So I'm pretty proud of myself. My plan is to cover this bland wall that doesn't have much going for it.

 

I'd like to get this covered and hopefully it will inspire us to change the rest of the decor in this room. Hopefully.

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Giveaway Winner Annoucement

Keeping track of participants for a giveaway can be a daunting task especially when there are several ways to enter..but I did it and a winner has been chosen! The lucky winner is.....

KRISTEN O.  who entered via the Facebook fan page. Congrats to you, Kristen!

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Giveaway: Nest Egg Ring!

Yes! It is Giveaway time! This time around I am giving away this loverly silver and blue adjustable Nest Egg Ring. Men - win it for the lucky lady in your life. Ladies-win it for you or a special gal pal.
How do you enter? Well, there are a few ways: you pick which one! AND the more ways you enter, the better your chances!

1. FOLLOW: Be a follower of this blog and leave a comment stating so - if you already are a follower then choose another option

2. TWITTER: Tweet this phrase: @CrankHeartPony Enter to win a Nest Egg Ring . Enter here http://crankheartpony1.blogspot.com/

3. TWITTER: Tweet your favorite item (with the link) from my NEW shop Peanut Envy making sure to mention @crankheartpony.

4. FACEBOOK:Become a fan on my facebook page and tell me on there you are entering the I Dare Say contest.

Easy enough, right? Now - this is open to the world so even if you live on some obscure island in the tropics you can certainly enter! Good Luck too all y'all. Ends on Halloween @ midnight cst.

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Giveaway Imminent .

I'm thinking of having a giveaway. It could be handmade, vintage or supplies. I'm still deciding...stay tuned.

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Halloween Story not on Halloween

I was looking thru my MySpace blogs (do people still go there?) and I found this post I wrote in June of 2006. It has a Halloween-ish theme and it was fun to relive that - in my mind of course.
Enjoy

When something screeches across the room and latches on someones neck, I gotta laugh because what is that thing? - Jack Handy


Its a Bat
And speaking of bats, i have a story....Last night Morgan went to teach a partnership class so Maddy and I hung out at he house. I'm on the computer doing whatever i feel like and Maddy's asleep in the swing. If anyone's been in our house, they know that we have  mirrored closet doors  in the front room. the computer is next to those doors so i can see part of the room behind me. From the corner of my eye I see something whirling over and over again. I thought it was the mobile from the swing going back and forth...from as far as I could tell by a glance at the mirror. So then I hear flapping and completely puzzled, I turn around to see what i thought was a baby bird flying in circles in my living room. I freak out! this thing is swooping and diving everywhere, so I'm Army crawling on the floor trying to hide, I rip off this sheet covering a chair and put it over Maddy so she didn't get any guano on her or get bit. I am so freaked out at this point...i crawl to the door, open it and knock on my neighbors door. She comes out and I tell her "a birds flying around in my house, what do i do? Im freakin out!" So she comes over and the thing is flying like crazy, not until it landed on the blinds did we know it was a BAT! So of course I freak out even more, hiding out the doorway while she tries to save the day. She was courageous enough to put a sheet over it and try to release it out the window...but that failed cuz it jumped right back in onto the table..that we eat on! It screeched and took off flying and then dropped on the floor. Erica was afraid that she hurt it, i was like to hell with if its hurt, kill it or get it outta here! So after she thinks its hurt she tells me to call 911 (she's an animal lover, my baby coulda got bit and DIED! NOW lets call 911? But we were so frazzled,  we didn't think of it sooner) So this thing keeps swooping and landing on all my stuff, vases, picture frames, my couch, ewwww. it was so gross. So finally it dropped by the window and she scooped it out and quickly shut the window. Then of course, when we fixed the problem, the cops show up. perfect timing is what they probably thought. So I was relieved and thanked her as much as i could for getting a screeching rabies infested bat out of my house. So as soon as its all over , the minute exactly, Morgan strolls thru the back door totally oblivious to what just happened 3 seconds ago. I'm still paranoid Batty will come back for revenge. I have NO idea how it got in, NONE! So now after this incident, its time to call the landlord and try to haggle the rent down a few hundo. I'll tell him to get the rest of the rent from the bat.

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Sufjan Stevens, I will see you if its the last thing I do!

Sufjan Stevens mock gig poster by Emilydove on Etsy

.................And I missed him yet again! He was here in Chicago and I didn't even know he was even touring - my bad. I've seen all of my favorite music geniuses; Morrissey (many times over), Depeche Mode - even met Dave Gahan, Les Savy Fav, DFA 1979, The Cure, Jamiroquai, U2. The list is probably into the hundreds of bands I've seen; yet Sufjan constantly eludes me...that sly fox. Though I did hear that is tickets were in the $100 range. That's too rich for my blood...and his.

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Free Moo Cards anyone?

I love free stuff. I especially love FREE Moo business cards! For $6 (shipping) you can get 50 of the most high quality cards - that I've ever seen, anyway- for your business, as tags for gifts, whatever. Moo has a few good ideas for what to do with them. So of course I got some for my new shop PeanutEnvy - which needed some business cards. I love that you have options even with the free cards - you can upload images from Flickr, Etsy, Facebook, Picasa & Smugmug...because a lot of times you see "free" but you only get the most basic and generic option that really doesn't showcase anything except how bland you are. Not YOU, but how you are portrayed an said bland "free" item. You can also pick pre-made templates that are super fun and modern..unlike some free images, these ones you will actually be proud to display with your name on it. They even give you a "green" option to pick the paper you want. Anyways, the one thing you get  in exchange is a promo bar that Moo puts there for its own advertising - this makes your card slightly bigger, but hey they're free!

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My New Shop: PeanutEnvy

For 2 whole years I've been waiting to open this shop! For now I'll be selling these plush Matryoshka dolls til I try out some other patterns I've worked on. I was SO angry to see that someone out there jumped on my idea to make a certain something. An idea I've been sitting on that I thought was so cool which now won't be considered my original idea. I guess its a ya snooze ya lose kinda thing. Though, I swear someone is out there stealing ideas from my head! Do you ever think that there really are mind readers out there JUST to steal and sell your ideas. I think big businesses have them and exploit the heck out of it. Anyway, enough of my conspiracy theorizing...Peanut Envy is open! I've got more to list and 8 more in the making so in due time, the shop will be a bit more plentiful in regards to merch.

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