Before getting to the “good” stuff, I’d just like to thank everyone who visited my blog, left comments both effusive and terse, and especially thanks to those who signed up for my feed, FriendConnect, or email subscription. It’s been a wonderful experience again (this is my second year participating) and I’ve found several blogs I’ll be visiting again and hopefully made some new online friends along the way.

I also want to thank Lisa Swifka for her tireless effort in hosting this blog event and organizing all the details, not to mention how she visited every participant herself.

Onto the giveaway–

Last year, I had my children draw names out of a hat (literally). This year, I really didn’t want to cut out 178 little pieces of paper, so I went with the Random Number Generator for the winners. And the winners are:

Serendipity Handmade: the pig notepad

Tara: the star notepad

Lyndy Ward: little black notepad

AJ from the Phillipines (no blog): the heart notepad

Zan Asha: I Heart Ewe Sheepicle

Congratulations to all the winners! If you’d like to find out a little about these winners, you can click on their names and visit their blogs (you may recognize some of them from the magic carpet ride).

I will be contacting the winners today by email (or through their blogs). If I don’t receive a response by midnight on February 16, I’ll have to assume they are no longer interested in the items and will draw a new winner for that particular item. Items will be mailed by the end of the week.

Thanks again for all the visitors and my new subscribers!

Visit A Whimsical Bohemian for other One World One Heart participants.

For this part of the ride, you’re visiting me (Eva Buchala, Lady Artisan) here in Texas. It’s been a balmy 60 to 70 degrees here in San Antonio for the past several days and most of us South-Central Texans are happy to be in shorts again! Take your jackets off, kick your shoes off and dangle your feet over the sides of the carpet as you join me for some bookbinding and sculpting fun. We’ll be servin’ up some ribs, tamales, chili and refreshing iced tea (sweet or unsweet, your choice) for refreshments.

Rules for the giveaway are simple:

1. Leave one comment on this post to receive an entry into the drawings (yes, that’s plural).

2. Make sure your comment includes your name and contact info so I can find you if you win.

3. Wander around and check out my other posts, Flickr, my website, etc. Feel free to leave comments on other posts, too

4. Send your comment in before midnight CST on February 14 (Happy Valentine’s Day!) so you’ll be included in the drawings.

5. Enjoy yourself! Don’t forget to pick up your snacks before the Magic Carpet heads off to it’s next location.

Entry into the drawing must be submitted before midnight Central Standard Time on Sunday, February 14, to be included. I will be drawing the winners (yes, that’s plural) on the morning of Monday, February 15, and announcing them during that day. I’ll probably use a random number generator this year.

Now to the good stuff–the giveaways. I’m offering up four leather matchbook notepads (refillable) and one Sheepicle–a small sculpted sheep, this one is ready for Valentine’s Day. I will randomly (of course) pick a winner for each item and post that information on Monday, February 15. If the winner of an item doesn’t respond by midnight on Tuesday, February 16, I will choose a new winner for that item. On to the items:

First up are the matchbook notepads. I came up with this idea one day looking at the smaller pieces of leftover leather from making books and wondering what I could do with them. I’d seen the matchbook notepads on Etsy, usually for promotional purposes, but thought it might be neat to have a nice, mini leather notepad to carry in a purse, pocket or bag (I’m always searching for note paper in my purse). The downside to making a matchbook notepad out of leather is that the materials cost way too much to sell them as inexpensively as the paper ones, of course. Plus, I can’t make one without wanting to carve, decorate, dye, etc., so the time involved would be a bit more. Solution? Make them refillable. So, paying more won’t matter because you can simply get one and refill it over and over.

The first matchbook is a cute little Piggy on a Spring green background. The notepad is made from hand-dyed leather and has a cute little pink piggy brad on the cover with two matching pink brads in the back. Filled with 16 pages of scrap drawing paper.

The second matchbook is Patriotic. This one sports a white start with red dots on it gracing a deep blue background. Again, the leather is hand-dyed and the brads on the back for this one are red stars. Paper inside is also scrap drawing paper, 16 pages.

The third matchbook is this Little Black Notepad–a simple and classic black leather with lovely little pearl hearts trimmed in gold (not real pearls, not real gold, just in case someone wondered). The paper included is 16 pages of scrap drawing paper.

The final matchbook I’m giving away is a perfect Valentine’s item, although it’s never out of style to carry your heart with you. This matchbook is a thicker leather with a hand-carved heart on the cover, dyed red on a pink background, the back sports two sparkly, glittery red hearts for brads. The paper inside is, once again, 16 pages of scrap drawing paper.

And the final giveaway item this year is a little sculpture in a series I’m calling the Sheepicles. This little guy is terribly cute and he’s holding a heart that says “Love” on it. It’s called “I Heart Ewe” and is a hand sculpted sheep in air-dry clay. I painted it with black, white and red artist acrylics. He’s looking forward to sharing his love with you…

Leave a comment. You’re welcome to tell me which item you’d prefer if you win but I can’t guarantee to accommodate everyone.

If you like the Sheepicle here, don’t forget to stop by the Art Dolls Only blog where the team is giving away 17 (yes, SEVENTEEN) doll and art items. I made a Sheepicle for that giveaway as well called “Smooch.”

Comments are moderated for those posting for the first time so if you don’t see your comment right away, it probably still needs to be approved.

Looking for something you can buy to get your name into the BEST drawing this holiday season? I’ve just added some new personalized journals to my shop.

I’m also working on another Steampunk journal–this one a little larger than the last. It’s coming along nicely and I’m hoping to be able to list it sometime this weekend. Here’s a teaser:

Journal: Syeda, comment #162

Barry, the Grixie art doll: Sarahle, comment #131

Both winners have been emailed. If I don’t hear back from them by tomorrow night at 8p my time (Central), then I’ll draw new names.

Thanks everyone for participating!!

I’ve decided to join in on this awesome event. I’ll be giving away two items–one art doll figure and one blank journal/sketchbook.

The Stars Blank Journal/Sketchbook

Barry the Grixie Close Up

Here’s how it works. If you’d like to win one of my items, leave a comment on this post. Make sure you include some way for me to contact you (my blog requires that you include an email address that itsn’t posted publically but I can see; this will work as long as it’s a valid email address that you check). My giveaway is open to everyone, whether you have a blog or not.

The giveaway will be open until February 12.  On February 12, I will be drawing two names–one for each item–and contacting the winners for their shipping info so I can send their items out.

The Stars open

The items I’m giving away are The Stars blank journal/sketchbook and Barry the Grixie. The Stars journal is a hardcover, handbound book that measures 6.75″ x 5.38″ (170mm x 135mm) and has 128 pages (64 sheets) of Arches Text Wove (a great paper for a wide variety of media). The cover is a patriotic blue with gold stars fabric. The spine is a soft, red sheepskin leather and the endpapers are deep red to match. I used a matching fabric to make the headbands. The binding is handsewn using red, Irish linen thread. The paper inside is a text-weight paper but works well with almost every kind of media, wet or dry. I didn’t try oil paint on it and markers bleed through but pencils, charcoal, pastels, watercolor, and acrylic all worked well. The sheepskin on the spine is feel-me-soft and a wonderful contrast to the glue and gold star fabric.

Barry the Grixie was originally sculpted for our ADO: Art Dolls Only Etsy team Broken Hearts

Barry the Heartbreaker

challenge. I’ve decided to give him away here instead since he seems appropriate for an around-Valentine’s-Day-giveaway.

She trusted him with her heart, even though their kind isn’t known for being faithful. He might have felt a quick pang of guilt but he couldn’t help it…it’s just his way.
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Created for the Broken Hearts Challenge for ADO: Art Dolls Only team. Barry is sculpted from Apoxie Sculpt, including his eyes and teeth. The heart he’s destroying is hand sewn from a velvety type red fabric stuffed with polyfill. The polyfill has been attached as best as I could but I don’t recommend tugging on it. The heart isn’t permanently attached–it fits snugly in his hand or can be removed. He is just under 3 3/4″ (94mm) tall to the top of his raised hand, 2 3/4″ (69mm) to the top of his head. He would be just over 5″ (121mm) standing. He is initialed and dated on the bottom of his foot.

Barry is a sculpted figure intended for adult collectors and is NOT a toy nor is it intended for children.

One World-One Heart is a yearly blog giveaway with participants from around the world and is the brainchild of Lisa Swifka of A Whimsical Bohemian. It’s a wonderful way for bloggers around the world to meet other bloggers and celebrate making new friends. Please be sure to visit OWOH blog to see who all is participating.

UPDATE, 2/11/09:

Comments are now closed for the giveaway. I’ll be dropping everyone’s name in a hat (or bowl or other vessel) and having my two daughters draw the winners tomorrow. I’ll email the winners directly and post their names in a new blog post. Keep your fingers crossed!