Mother’s Day Gift Guide + GIVEAWAY

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If you are still looking for that perfect gift for mom, why not give her an ETSY gift card?

After you treat her to a delicious meal she can spend her day browsing the beautiful handmade creations that ETSY artisans offer!

To make shopping easier for her, here is a gift guide with some fabulous finds:

  1. Katrinreifeiss
  2. TamaraGarvey
  3. SdVDesigns
  4. LifeIsBalance
  5. LoellaMedina
  6. JqLovesu
  7. Katrinreifeiss
  8. SdVDesigns
  9. JqLovesu
  10. KnittingGuru
  11. LoellaMedina

Also, this month we have a special Mother’s Day GIVEAWAY!!

Tracey Toole, owner, maker and designer of etsy shop traceytoole is generously giving away this beautiful handmade apron and bandanna scarf. She designs and sews all her products in her Brooklyn studio and specializes in custom aprons for commercial use.

How can you win one of these fabulous traceytoole creations?

It’s simple – all you have to do is “Like” her page on Facebook and write a comment with the hashtag #MayGiveaway and you’ll be entered to win – it’s that easy!

Hurry, contest ends on May 23, 2014, two lucky winners will be selected!

Giveaway by TraceyToole
Giveaway by TraceyToole

https://www.facebook.com/TraceyTooleDesigns

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Rekha Krishnamurthi  //  DivineNYCo

Finds From Our Team

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Team Finds: Special Finds for Mother's Day

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Etsy Mother's Day Cards

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Those who know me well know that I'm a huge stationery fan!  I love to find the perfect card for that special someone for each occasion.  Mother's Day is about a month away, but that doesn't mean it's too early to find the perfect card for your mother!  There are so many fantastic options on Etsy- take a look below!













How-To: Gum Wrappers, Mom, and Me

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the big one!

When I was a little girl, my mother taught me how to make folded paper chains from gum wrappers. This humble paper craft introduced me to the concept of making something decorative from what would otherwise end up in the trash. It was like learning a magic trick. There was a lot of treasure-from-trash activity going on in the 70s -- my grandmother's crocheted kitchen mat made from plastic bread sacks, my mom's Christmas tree made from spray-painted tuna fish cans! But the gum wrapper chain was my first attempt at upcycling, and it's still my favorite.

We took gum wrapper chains seriously in our house. My mother was the Gumkeeper and Chain Maven that made it all possible. We had a drawer in the kitchen that she always kept stocked with gum and loose wrappers to work on when the mood struck. At the height of our wrapper-folding enterprise, the chain stretched from one end of our house to the other (and beyond!).

Sadly, the chain we made got lost in a move, but I have a chain of my own now, which I started making when I was 17 years old and living away from home for the first time. I was an exchange student living abroad, at times terribly homesick. I'm sure that repeating that same sequence of folds my mother had taught me years before must have helped a little at easing the sadness of being so far away from her and dad.

Here are the instructions for making your own Gum Wrapper Chain. I usually work in stages: tear a big batch of wrappers in half, then fold all the halves into links, then assemble the links at the end.


step 1 step 1b
1. Fold gum wrapper in half lengthwise. Give it a nice, firm crease, then tear wrapper along fold line. Each half-wrapper will eventually become a link in your chain!


step 2 step 3
2. With blank side facing up, fold each half-wrapper in half lengthwise and crease.

3. Open the fold, turn the edges in toward the center crease, and refold. You should be left with a nice thin strip.



step 4 step 5
4. Fold strip in half, forming a large "V."

5. Turn both ends inward toward the center fold. You will now have a link that resembles a small "v."



step 6 finito
6. Now it's time to assemble your little links! Grab two links and insert the tabs of one link through the slots of the other link. Repeat and repeat and repeat until you run out of links. And there you have a gum wrapper chain!

(NOTE: If you're not a gum chewer, you can use other types of paper to make a chain. Skip step 1 and instead cut paper into 1" x 2 5/8" ( 2.5 cm x 6.7cm) pieces, which is the same size as one-half of a wrapper. Also note that paper that is too thin or slick will make chains that are prone to getting twisted and tangled.)



Happy Mother's Day and happy folding!



Lisa H.
parallelbotany.etsy.com

Wardrobe Refashion: Thanks Mom!

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We learn a lot of things at our mother's knee. And I learned pretty quickly from my friends that they didn't learn the same things from their mom. I was secretly happy about this. But maybe that's another story.

This story is supposed to be about handmade things. First and foremost, my mom made a lot clothes for me growing up. She knits, she sews, she even macrames. I loved going to the fabric store. I could touch everything and somehow from just an idea my mom could make an entire outfit. It was magic.

Although there came an age when I thought I was too cool to wear clothes that my mom made, luckily I grew out of that.

Going to a Father-Daughter Dance, my mom made both the shirt and skirt. That was one of my favorite outfits for as long as it fit. My mom reminds me that there was a vest that matched the skirt too. I was really into vests.

My first knitted hat. We can't remember if my mom made it when I was 4 or 5, but it was ... ahem... a little big. It and the matching scarf served much better when I left California for Upstate NY. I'd grown out of the mittens by then though.

Still one of my favorite skirts that I wear almost all summer.

This was my wedding dress (we're not so traditional). I was so honored when my mom offered to make this for me. And then I was amazed that it fit perfectly despite the lack of fittings since she lives across the country from me.

So thanks Mom! Besides a love of handmade you encouraged every project and creative endeavor. I'm so happy to follow at least a little in your footsteps.

And thanks to all the rest of the moms out there who are giving their children things they make with their own hands. There's no substitute for it.


- Karen
Karen's Monsters