I'm a Winner!

Today I discovered another benefit of being a member of the Etsybloggers Street Team. I visited one of my fellow member's blogs and left a comment on one of her posts. She had shared a photograph she'd taken with a question about the best way to crop it, seeking comments from her readers. She planned on picking one of those who left comments to win some of her vintage photo greeting cards. Contests are always fun and I really liked the photo, so I left a comment.

And I won! So, thanks to TheFabMissB!

Maybe I'll have a contest of my own here on my blog. I might give away some of my vintage buttons, magnets, thumb tacks, pocket mirrors or tie tacks.

What do you think? Leave a comment about what you'd like to see me give away from my Etsy shop.....

Mother's Day Coming Soon!

With Mother's Day just around the corner, one of my fellow EtsyMoms has blogged about some wonderful gift ideas...and she listed one of the items from my shop. Here are the flower button magnets she mentioned. Take a look at her blog and find more ideas for moms.



You can find these magnets here, in my Etsy shop.

Fall Y'all Giveaway

Today I'm participating in the Etsymom's Fall Y'all Giveaway!

Here's a picture of the giveaway I've provided for today:




Go here to read all about it. And then go here to see what the whole Fall Y'all Giveaway is all about.

Meet Brother Blotz

I want to introduce you all to a new feature in my Etsy shop.

Meet Brother Blotz:



Brother Blotz was born the same year I was, another product of Doug Dillard's creativity, I guess you could say. Yes, my father is Doug Dillard. Throughout my childhood, Bro. Blotz was featured in numerous Baptist publications, as illustrations in books, and starred in a series of cartoon books of his own. To quote my father's website: "Brother Blotz cartoons use humor to poke holes in our pomposity, chide us for our inconsistencies, and hopefully make us want to do better. He first appeared in print in 1961."

Brother Blotz, one of my favorite pastors, taught us all that even in church, we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously.

When I got my first button machine I realized I could finally do something I'd always wanted to do...put Brother Blotz's image on a button.

So I scanned some pages from the first book, "Meet Brother Blotz" and the cover and made the buttons pictured above. My father loved them! A few months later I attended a conference where I knew I would encounter several of my father's old friends and I took a few of the buttons to give to them. Usually, when I attend these events, my dad says "If you see anybody I know, tell them hello", so I thought the buttons would be a nice touch.

Then I recalled the sweatshirts my father had made for the family when I was a kid and decided to duplicate the design on 2 1/4 inch buttons:



When I sent them to my dad he got the idea that I should make these available in my Etsy shop and he would link to it from his website, http://www.brotherblotz.com. And that's what we're going to do.

Brother Blotz now has his own section in my Etsy shop, with buttons, keychains and magnets available for purchase. So, if any of Brother Blotz's friends and family are looking for unique gifts, they'll know where to find them!

Here's to you, Brother Blotz...and thanks, Dad!

EtsyMom Promos

I've been keeping both of my button machines busy making promo items for the EtsyMom Street Team.

I got permission from plainjanedesignz (plainjanedesignz.etsy.com) to adapt the design she did for the banner used by the EtsyMom Yahoo! Group and the EtsyMom Blog and make it fit the round format of a button. Then I made a design of my own using the phrase she had used for that banner. I also adapted the standard orange Etsy button for the EtsyMom group.

Now I have several options posted in my etsy shop. I have 1 inch buttons with pin backs and with magnets. I have 2 1/4" buttons as keychains and magnets, too. And I have these grouped by style and also in mixed sets and the 2 1/4 inch magnets are sold individually.

Now I'm toying with the idea of making some 2 1/4 inch pocket mirrors, too, but I'm waiting to hear from the other moms and see if anybody is interested in those.

When one of the admins of the EtsyMom group suggested that I make these promo buttons I was delighted to give it a try and even more delighted to hear the moms liked what I came up with.

My Dad's Cameras

A few posts back I mentioned my dad and all the pictures he took of my family when I was a kid. As Father's Day approached this year I wanted to make something special for him. I'd been combing through all my old photography magazines I'd collected, looking for small images of cameras and other paraphenalia that I could use to make buttons, magnets and thumb tacks for my etsy site. So I went digging again to see if I could find the cameras Dad used.

I found them.

A beautiful full page ad for the Yashica 44.

A smaller image of the Leicaflex SLR and an even smaller one of the Miranda G from old annual buyer's guides included in the magazines.

Not wanting to take a chance on ruining my only copies of these images during the construction of my projects, I opted to scan these into my computer, tweak the brightness and contrast and sharpen them up a bit. Then I used printouts of them instead of the originals.

For each camera, I carefully cut out the entire image, leaving only the camera itself and no background. I glued these to green cardstock and cut mats for each out of black matboard. The Yashica 44, matted, is 5 x 7 inches and each of the others are the standard ACEO size of 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches, like others I've posted on my Etsy site.

I had called Dad to warn him that his Father's Day present would be arriving late, but he said he didn't mind. We've been spreading out our holidays lately, making them last a long time after letting the dates slip up on us too late for gifts and cards to arrive on time. Mom was the one who always remembered such things and since her death a little over a year ago the rest of us have been trying to play catch-up. Oh, well...it makes those special occasions last a little longer.

I finally mailed these today.

I hope he likes them. I think he will.

Pushing My Buttons

I just love this little button machine! Everywhere I look I see little one inch circles of art and come up with new things to do with them. Pin-back buttons, button magnets, thumb tacks, you name it. Here are some I listed on my etsy site this weekend: