Category Archives: Giveaway

Art Therapy Books – And the Winners Are…

Art Therapy Giveaway…

What a lot of wonderful comments arrived for the Art Therapy Book Giveaway review from last week! Jacqui Small Publishing had kindly offered a copy of each of these books to two lucky winners. I asked you to tell us about favourite places to relax and they all sound lovely!

Gardens and water feature strongly, several people like the beach. Summer houses were mentioned and hammocks (the hammock under the cherry trees is my own particular haven) and craft rooms, crafty corners and sofas. Makes you just want go off and curl up, doesn’t it?

In the end I couldn’t possible choose only two and turned to the Random Number Generator to decide, and the winners are Sarah Ellis, who chose the Mandalas book, and Janice Perkin who plumped for the Stained Glass Designs.

I really hope neither of the ladies actually need Art Therapy as it were, but find the books as relaxing and fun as I have.

I’ll be back soon…x

Art Therapy Colouring Books – Review and Giveaway

When I was approached the other day to review a couple of Art Therapy books I wondered if someone had been peeking in my office, because I have this picture pinned on the wall beside the monitor…

…and I have had a wonderful excuse to do just that with the two books which arrived a week or so back from Jacqui Small Publishing, Art Therapy Stained Glass and Art Therapy Mandalas.

Stained glass colouring book, art therapy

There is something very relaxing about letting someone else worry about the lines and the shapes: when all you’ve got to do is think about what colour crayon to pick up next, or washing your paint brush ready to mix another shade. And now it’s official, we’re not wasting time, we are relaxing, it’s therapy!I’ve been scribbling away happily over the past few days and after all the worries about my mum it’s been lovely to switch off that part of my brain. This was my favourite from the Stained Glass book…

I’d rather like this next design as wallpaper, wouldn’t you?…

With this one I went to town with the paints. I may get round to finishing them but I actually rather like the colours set against the black and white.Having shared my adventures on Facebook and Instagram I was not surprised to have lots of positive comments about the whole idea of colouring in. Such positive comments in fact from both my daughter and daughter-in-law that I shall restrain myself from further scribbling so I can pass the books over to them. As my daughter is soon to embark on Teacher Training and my D-in-L is a new mum I think they need all the relaxation they can get!

And I’m pleased to say if you feel in a need of a little Art Therapy and relaxation there is a Giveaway! I have two more copies of these lovely books lined up to give away to the even lovelier Planet Penny readers!

All you have to do is to leave a comment telling us about your favourite place to relax and get away from it all, and which of the two books you would like to take with you.

The winners will be picked on Friday 8th August, I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

(Thank you to all who took part. The Giveaway now closed, winners to be announced very soon)

Inspiration, and Going With The Flow

Anyone who has been visiting Planet Penny for a while will know I sometimes struggle with inspiration, as I’m sure we all do from time to time. I thought I’d share some of the thought processes which have wombled through my head over the past weeks. From my point of view it might just help to put it down in writing to come back to when I next get stuck. Or it might just reveal to the world the scarily weird contents of my brain! Who knows?

Anyway, I know it all began with the disaster zone which was my studio. I was struggling to make anything because every time I needed something specific I wasted half a day looking for it and getting cross, with myself and everything else. And while I was making excuses to myself about how I didn’t have the time to tidy the studio because there was so much else to do, I wasn’t doing any of the stuff – because the studio needed tidying!

Add starting the New Year with losing poor old Henry, and then the fun and games with the fire…need I go on?

So gradually I got to grips with the chaos. And started looking at the sheer amount of things I have got squirrelled away which rarely if ever see the light of day. And that’s where the idea of sharing some of this treasure via the Box of Delights came into being. Sliding off on a tangent from this we come to the stack of magazines. I know I got bogged down by the feeling that you have to buy the magazine that everyone else is reading to keep up with what is going on but there is so much out there now and I realised that Mollie Makes just wasn’t pushing my buttons any longer. It’s the magazine I would have loved when I was in my 20s and 30s, but that was then. So, in the market for something completely different via a series of happy accidents (all my best things seem to arrive via a happy accident!) I discovered Flow Magazine. Now Flow is published in the Netherlands but produces an International version in English four times a year. I loved the look of the Paper edition, such a pretty cover… …and was very excited when it arrived.(Ed to add: it may be out of stock but it’s worth contacting Flow via the website to see if it will be reprinted) It’s full of postcards, envelopes, wrapping paper, gifttags, pop-up landscapes, paper bunting and lots more. It was this little project which took me off in another direction… Matchbox covers from Flow Magazine

…covering and lining matchboxes. The projects in the book started me off although I had to be a bit inventive as Dutch matchboxes are a slightly different size to UK ones. Once I’d made my own template I was off. (We have so many loose matches in our house now I think I’ve become a fire risk again but I’ve now bought a supply of blank boxes!)

I now have a tray filled with the wherewithal to create a little box whenever I have a pause in whatever else is going on, or a sticky patch in the creative flow. And not only does it ease me through the stickiness but I have yet another little box…

…which is perfect for filling with a miniature selection of little treasures for the promised runners up prizes for the Box of Delights giveaway.

This is just a snapshot of what has been going on, very often the contents of my brain are as chaotic as the studio was, but like the studio, it pays to tidy up!

I’m very behind with my blog posts (I’m blaming our awful internet connection amongst other things) so I hope to be back very soon to catch up. I have an important announcement about the Planet Penny Cotton Colours amongst other things, so…

See you soon…x

Box of Delights – The Results

Good Morning! I hope your morning is as beautiful as ours is today…
Very frosty first thing, but gorgeously bright and sparkly.

So it’s a good day to be awarding prizes. Firstly I have to say thank you again for the wonderful comments, it really has been heart lifting, and makes me feel another 500 posts may well be possible. I wish I could write to each and every one of you but there were 100 entries!

And I always feel bad when I do a giveaway because I can’t give something to everyone so I decided to add in four extra runners up to spread the delight a little further. In the past I have used my trusty helper to draw a winning name. We used a basket once…

…and of course the hat…

…but it involved a lot chasing around to find out who’s name actually came out of the hat…

…and it’s awfully damp and spitty. Also, there were so many this time…

…that I used the Random Number Generator which involves no chasing, and no chewed paper. So without further ado, and a big drum roll I am very pleased to announce that the winning number was 96 and the Box of Delights goes to Pennie, in East Sussex. The four runners up are number 14 – Sue Cambell in Alabama, number 15 – Cindy Wilson in Canada, Number 46 – Toffeeapple of Buckinghamshire and 48 – Linda Thorpe of Norfolk.

I shall share the runners-up prizes as I create them, it’s sparked another idea! Thank you all again for taking part.

And thank you too for all the supportive and concerned comments regarding our adventure with the fire last week. Everything is tidy and soot free in the room now and I’ve pinned a dust sheet over the fireplace as we await builders’ estimates. It’s not going to be a quick job, alas, Higgins and I are both snuggled under blankies in the evening now!

See you soon…!

Filling the Box of Delights

It’s just a little bit scary how the time gallops away, isn’t it? I’ve got a camera full of photos and so much to say, and yet every day this week I’ve failed to get the necessary time at the keyboard to write a post.

Never mind, I shall tackle one thing at a time and this is very overdue news about the Box of Delights that I have been putting together for the 500 posts giveaway which I wrote about here. I have felt overwhelmed by the lovely comments which have been left, I do thank you so much. And I have been particularly touched by people who say that they haven’t been following for long but have read their way all the way back to the beginning. Whenever I have a blogging lack of confidence I shall go back and read those posts to motivate myself to keep going!

Because I have readers from all over the world I wanted to make the Box of Delights of a size which would make it possible to post it to anywhere with a reliable postal service so I have customised a box especially. It’s been so long since I exercised these particular crafting muscles that I was a little unsure of myself, but I have painted and lined and glued and created a little repository for all manner of small things.

The inside looks like this.

I’ve lined it with may favourite of the Planet Penny Cotton fabrics.

And in it I’ve put a butterfly…

…crocheted with the PP cotton yarn. A mini needlefelt sheep…

…because sheep are a bit special on Planet Penny! There’s a reminder of the Dolly Peg Dolls with this length of vintage lace…

…A fat quarter of the cotton fabric…

… a string of the beads I love to use…

…and some vintage Mother of Pearl buttons…I’ve had a fascination over the last couple of weeks for covering match boxes (more of that in another post) so here’s one with some covered thumb tacks for your pin board…

…and this one which I had a lovely time painting. If you are wondering what’s inside, I’m not saying! It’s a secret…

…and finally there’s a crochet heart, as a reminder of the Hearts and Flowers Mobile…

…and if you would like some flowers there’s a length of Planet Penny Cotton in every one of the rainbow shades so you can crochet your own!

So everything fits in perfectly…..and it just requires a lid…

All it needs is a home. Would you like it? There is still time to enter the Giveaway by leaving a comment on this post, it’s running till next weekend.

I’m off now to do some cooking. I have my chum Kit coming round for supper and I’ve been delving through my cook books to find something delicious and fuss free, Nigella has come up trumps with a roasting tin filled with chicken, chorizo and other yummy things. I’ll let you know if I manage to channel my inner ‘domestic goddess’!

See you soon…x

And the Winner is…

I’ve just picked the winner for the Buttonbag Advent Calendar Giveaway and it was SO hard! So hard in fact I gave up trying to choose between all the wonderful Christmas traditions which so many people had told me about and went for the trusty Random Number Generator…

So the winner is Frances, who has a great family tradition which I would like to copy myself…

“Our Christmas tradition is that my husband and I buy each other a pair of pyjamas and a pair of slippers/or cosy bed socks, we give each other the gift on Christmas Eve so we go to bed and wake up Christmas morning in our new PJs. This is a tradition carried on from when my husband was a kid and his parents would give him and his brother new PJs on Christmas Eve, and has been carried down to our two children (our daughter nearly 3 years old and 7 month old son), as since my in-laws have had grandchildren they have sent a PJ parcel in the post to be opened on Xmas eve. There are so many things right about having new pyjamas at Christmas!!!”

Congratulations Frances, I hope you and your family have years of fun and Advent anticipation with your calendar…

Thank you all so much for taking part. As always I wish I could give everyone a prize. Do take the time to visit the post to read the other entries, they are lovely, really bringing home the family spirit of Christmas. The shops may be full of ‘stuff’ and consumerism, but the heart of Christmas is really about being with the people you care about…

I will be back before long with news about the pattern testing from the last post, so see you soon…x