Countdown to Christmas Giveaway Extravaganza~ Day 3!

You still have time to enter our first two Countdown to Christmas Giveaways~ and now you have another chance to enter and win our prize for Day 3!

Since today is usually Sustainable Sundays and Bee from The Wooden Bee so kindly features our members, we will be featuring her instead! And she is generously offering a set of her DIY wine cork coasters kits! I was lucky enough to win a set on her blog, and I loved them. They are easy to put together in their well-crafted wooden frames and a wonderful way to reuse wine corks!

Bee and her husband hated to see the waste of precious scraps of beautiful wood from maple, cherry and other species and decided to do something about it~ they partnered with a cabinet company and began upcycling these scraps into beautiful one-of-a-kind, handmade creations for your home. The Wooden Bee set up shop on Etsy, the perfect venue for artfully made goods, and have been successfully selling their wooden decor and wine cork kits for over a year now!

Upcyclers, our Etsy team whose members Love 2 Upcycle, are proud to have Bee as one of our leaders and value her efforts to further the upcycling movement. Her articles on "Greener Shopping" are packed with valuable and well researched information for every consumer. She also posts upcycled tutorials and, as mentioned earlier, her weekly series, Sustainable Sundays, which have become one of our most popular features. Her constant guidance and support on our Etsy discussion threads are a source of encouragement for everyone!

The Wooden Bee has several creations made especially for the holidays and others that reflect their love for family and the home! Here's a little peek~ be sure to check out their other products too!

It's simple to enter our Giveaways and you can enter each one if you'd like!

First, be sure you are a follower of this blog, Love 2 Upcycle~ not a follower? Just look to the left and click. Voila! You are a follower. But you haven't entered yet.

Now, you can choose 4 of the following ways to enter, up to 4 times!

1. Check out The Wooden Bee favorite her shop and add them to your circle.
Then tell us here in a comment about your Favorite item in her shop!
2. Follow Bee's blog: The Wooden Bee
3. Become a fan of The Wooden Bee on Facebook!
4. Tweet or share this Giveaway!
5. Pin one your favorite items from The Wooden Bee to Pinterest!

Remember, only 4 entries count, and each one must be left in a separate comment! If you don't have an email listed on your bio, leave it here in one of your comments. Deadline to enter is Midnight, December 22nd!

Winner will be randomly drawn using Random.org's generator.

Good Luck and Merry Christmas!

Would you like to Sponsor a Giveaway on Love 2 Upcycle? You don't have to be a member of Upcyclers to be a sponsor, all Etsy sellers of upcycled or eco-friendly products are welcome! But of course, we'd love for you to join the team!

Weekly Giveaway: Pine Branch Designs

Our sponsor this week is Cindy from Pine Branch Designs, a mountain girl from Western North Carolina where lots of pine trees grow! But first let's announce last week's winner~

#9~  The Wooden Bee! Congrats and Enjoy, Bee! You are in for a treat with this hot/cold cherry pit pack, it's like an organic at-home spa treatment to take your stress away! Thanks so much to all of you that entered and to Andrea from Saved by Grace Designs for sponsoring last week's Giveaway, YAY! And don't worry if you didn't win this 'Cheery Pack', Andrea has more and and you can purchase them in a variety of colorful patterns. Just browse her shop where you'll find other beautiful upcycled creations too! Andrea likes to blog, too~ Follow her at Whispers in the Silence...





Now back to this week's Giveaway!

Cindy enjoys the tranquil setting of her home in the mountains of North Carolina, where she has been teaching children with special needs for 16 years and counting! And she has more wonderful children to offer her tender loving care~ several grandchildren! Perhaps Cindy will inspire some of these young minds to follow her path and help our planet by upcycling waste materials into wonderful treasures like the ones she sells. Inspired by elements in nature- gardens, the forest, waterfalls, ice crystals...each item she creates is one-of-a-kind, unique and beautiful- earrings, bracelets, necklaces, watches, spa soap dishes, frames, beaded bookmarks and ornaments~ rustic animal prints, adorable snowman, primitive pumpkins, and zany reindeer! And upon request, each gift can be sent with an ORIGAMI GIFT POUCH made from renewed materials~ old magazines, calendars, wrapping paper and catalogs, her husband cuts and folds each one by hand!

Cindy would love to help you extend the life of your handmade and store bought soaps with natural cedar or pine soap dishes. The design of these soap dishes help absorb water and promote quick drying. They are GREAT in the shower! They are also useful for drying sponges at the kitchen sink or airing out steel wool. You can win a set of 6 of these natural soap dishes in your choice of pine, cedar or a combination of three of each from Pine Branch Designs this week by just browsing, sharing, tweeting or subscribing to her "tiny" newsletter!

It's easy to enter!

Just browse, follow, tweet and share~ Here are the details:

First you must be a follower of Love 2 Upcycle to enter~ not a follower? Just look to the right and click on the 'Follow' button!

You can submit up to four entries, each must be entered HERE in a separate comment.

1. Browse Cindy's shop, Pine Branch Designs, and tell us which item was your favorite.

2. 'Favorite' and 'Like' her shop on Etsy, Pine Branch Designs. 

3.  Subscribe to Cindy's "tiny" newsletter or follow her on her Facebook page.

4. 'Tweet' or 'Like' this Giveaway using our Like or Tweet button or Share a link to our Giveaway on your Facebook fan page.

Deadline to enter is Wednesday, June 15th at midnight.

The WINNER will be randomly drawn and announced with our next giveaway~ Thursday, June 16th.

Good Luck!

Would you like to Sponsor a Giveaway on Love 2 Upcycle? You don't have to be a member of Upcyclers to be a sponsor, all Etsy sellers of upcycled or eco-friendly products are welcome! But of course, we'd love for you to join the team!

Email us at: teamupcyclers@gmail.com Tell us about the item for the giveaway and provide us with a link to your shop.

Love 2 DIY on the Weekend: Anatomy 101 from Inside Utopia

Anatomy of a Custom Sign

Recently I stumbled across a beautiful piece of antique furniture and was so impressed with the amount of work that had gone into creating it I wished I could strip back all of the layers to see how all of the different techniques and skills of the artist had come together to create the finished product.

Then it got me wondering...if I was thinking this about the work of someone else, had any of my customers ever wondered this about my products and an idea was born...to create a demonstration piece to show anyone who had bought or was thinking of buying one of my signs just what goes into making them.

Another bonus of doing this was that it allowed me to see if there was any way I could streamline the process or improve things.

I can highly recommend giving this a shot with your own products, it brought back all the memories of when I was working all of these techniques out, the frustration of not getting it right and the pure joy of figuring it out and seeing the end product and knowing all of those long long nights had been worth it.

Check out the processes involved in making one of my custom signs on MY BLOG!


UtopiaUF is a member of Upcyclers! You can see more of his upcycled furniture, housewares and signs on Etsy!