Give Aways

Winner of Our First Ever Wee Folk Art Market Place Giveaway :)

First off we want to thank everyone for their suggestions for additional kits for Wee Folk Art Market Place. We have lots of ideas, and as time permits, we will try to put together many of the suggestions. We truly understand so many people's interest in rough cut wood trees. If you don't have the right kind of saw or if electric saws scare the bejeezers out of you, this would be a fun way to have the wood experience without the fear of losing a digit :) I am in negotiations (hehe) right now with Tim... or as Pixie calls him... the Teddy Bear. I'll keep you all posted.

And now... for the winner of our first Wee Folk Art Market Place giveaway...

Submitted by Eddie on Thu, 04/26/2012 - 06:25.

Congratulations on the opening of your store!

If I won, I'd go for the Flower Fairy Wand kit, because I think my 11 year old would love to make it for her only girl cousin.

And to answer your question about the kits, I'd love to see the banners made into kits, especially the fall and rainbow ones. Actually, the wooden orchard would make a great kit too, just in time for apple picking season!

Congratulations, Eddie! Simply email us at weefolkart@yahoo.com with your snail mail address and let us know which color Fairy Wand you would like, and we will get it shipped to you lickety split. If we don't hear from you in the next week a new winner will be drawn.

Again, we would like to thank everyone that entered. We have a lot of exciting things planned and there will be plenty of opportunities to win some awesome things. Remember, Wee Folk Art Market Place will be open again on Monday, and every Monday. If you ever have suggestions, questions or concerns, just drop us a note at weefolkart@yahoo. com.

Submitted by Kimara on Thu, 04/26/2012 - 19:35
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Shop :: Grand Opening and Giveaway!!!

 

Wee Folk Art Market Place is open from 7:00 a.m. Mondays to 7:00 a.m. EST Tuesdays. For the first few weeks, while we get all the bugs out of the system, the shop may close early if we reach the maximum number of orders we will accept.
 
EDIT: This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to everyone that entered :)

Boing, boing, boing, boing! That's the sound of me jumpin' up and down for joy! How very exciting today is for us. The realization of a 4 year old dream feels pretty darn good. Now... fingers, toes and eyes crossed that all goes smoothly... but if it doesn't, we know we are amongst friends and you'll be supportive and understanding, so low stress here :)

Having said that, if you haven't done so already, it's time for you to bop over to our shop... K... I'm going to say that again, bop over to OUR shop (has a nice ring doesn't it?) and check out our modest offerings. We have big plans for Wee Folk Art Market Place, but one step at a time! Over the next several months, you will find new products and ideas being added to the shop... some that you would anticipate... like, oh, gnomes :) and others that may take you by surprise.

But, we are living in the moment, so we are enjoying today's accomplishments. Now, about the giveaway. Since we are trying to tailor our shop to the readers, here's what you need to do to enter. OBVIOUSLY, go visit Wee Folk Art Market Place.

First, choose any item in the store that you would like to receive (not included: the Needle Felting Kit or the 100% Wool Rainbow Felting Yarn Bundle) if you win.

Second, go to our GALLERY of FREE PATTERNS, and tell us what item(s) you would like to see turned into a kit. This will be valuable market research for us!

So... leave a comment telling us what item you would like to receive if your name is drawn at random AND tell us what past project of ours you would like to see sold as a kit in our shop.

Remember, our shop is like a Farmers Market. We are only open one day a week, and we have limited number of items that are for sale during shop hours. Once they are sold, they are gone for the week. Also, in the beginning, we will only accept a certain number of orders during a Market Day. Once we hit that, the shop will be closed. The shop doors will be left open for you to window shop, but you won't be able to buy again until the next Monday.

But not to worry... even if the shop is closed, you can still enter the giveaway. And, although we won't be shipping overseas for a few weeks, everyone can enter the giveaway, and we will gladly ship overseas if you win! 

The giveaway runs from Monday, April 23 through Thursday, April 26 at 9:00 p.m. EST. Good luck to everyone! Over the next few weeks we will be offering more giveaways as we celebrate the Grand Opening. You won't want to miss them :)

Okay... think that's everything. If you have any questions about the Market Place or encounter any problems, please email us at shop@weefolkart.com.

REMEMBER... the Market Place will only accept a certain amount of orders for the first few weeks. We're not sure if we will meet that number in 15 minutes or 15 hours. Also, there is a limited number of any one product. When something sells out, it will not be available again until next week. If there is something you would really like, make sure to visit us early :) And although we do not take special orders, email us if there was something you wanted that was sold out. We will try to make sure they are available the next week. shop@weefolkart.com

http://shop.weefolkart.com/
 
So, off you go. Browse or shop. Share your ideas with us, and enter our giveaway. Next week we will be giving away something I made :) Enjoy!

 

Submitted by Kimara on Mon, 04/23/2012 - 06:41
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Armadillo Dreams Giveaway Winner!

First off, we'd like to thank Dustin and Amanda from Armadillo Dreams for this fun giveaway! Their toys reflect the love and devotion they have to their craft, and speaking from experience, their toys are a joy to own. Visit their shop often because they are always adding new lovelies.

And, we'd like to thank everyone that took the time to visit their shop and enter this giveaway. Since we have to draw just one winner at random... the winner is:
 

Kelly:

Submitted by Kelly @ Happy Whimsical Hearts  on Wed, 04/18/2012 - 08:44.

What great toys! You really can't beat beautifully handmade wooden toys can you :-) My son and I are rather 'into' foxes at the moment, so that would be our favorite.

Thanks for the chance!

Congratulations, Kelly. We hope the awesome Space Set is enjoyed by your family. Simply email us [weefolkart@yahoo.com] your snail mail address in the next week, and we will send it off to Armadillo Dreams. If we don't hear from you in a week, a new winner will be selected.

Thanks again, Dustin and Amanda, from Armadillo Dreams, and everyone that entered!

Submitted by Kimara on Sun, 04/22/2012 - 20:54
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Shop Talk :: Grand Opening and Give Away!

Please, take the time to read through our Nitty Gritty about the shop. For all shop related questions please contact us at shop@weefolkart.com. After all the Market Place info, read about our GIVEAWAY :)

It is hard to believe, but after years of thinking about it, months of planning for it, and weeks of preparing for it, our little shop, or the Wee Folk Art Market Place, as we like to think about it, is going to open!

As we mentioned before, we are not starting a "full fledge store". We rather think of this more like an online Farmers Markets... with limited hours and limited wares. So, what can you expect?

~The Wee Folk Art Market Place will only be open MONDAYS, from 7:00 am Monday morning to 7:00 am Tuesday morning, EST.  

~We will only carry a certain amount of items. If they are sold out early in the day, they will not be available again until the following week.

~We will only process a certain amount of orders. Michelle and I are running the shop by ourselves, at least to start, and will only handle the number of orders that we can process in one work day. Because of that, on any given day, our shop may close EARLY when we have reached our max. We hope our online friends will understand that we have family commitments, and although we are excited to share with our readers and friends, we cannot do it at the expense of our families. This experience is meant to enrich the lives of our families, not cause stress :)

~Although we are not planning on taking "special orders", if there was something you wanted, and you were not able to buy it on Market Day, feel free to drop us an email at shop@weefolkart.com. If at all possible, we will try to make sure that we restock that item. Then, hop on early the next Monday, and you should be able to get what you wanted :)

~This shop is for our readers. We plan to do limited outside advertising. Because the shop is meant for YOU, please share feedback with us. If you think there is something we can do to improve the experience for you, or if there is something else you'd like to see us carry, suggest it, and we will do what we can to make it so :)

~Think of yourselves as our BETA testers. If you buy one of our kits, know that we have spent a great deal of time designing our kits, including writing up written directions and putting together the supplies. Two things here... first, I tend to be wordy (shocker, right?). When I do tutorials online, I can use all the words and photos I want, no problem. It's a little different when you are trying to get all the directions on one page with limited photos. If EVER something doesn't make sense to you or is wrong, please let us know. If you don't understand the directions, chances are someone else doesn't understand them either. We will revisit the directions and make changes when necessary. 

And, second... it is our desire to put the right amount of supplies in the kits without being wasteful. Obviously, if your kit is missing something, let us know and we will get the missing part out to you ASAP! But, please be resourceful when using the kits. We've tried to create them with little waste, although you will probably find that there are always some little felt scraps left. Save them for your stash! I've been doing it for years and will, someday, create a wonderful masterpiece :) But, if you find there is something you didn't use (like an extra piece of embroidery floss or way too much of anything) please let us know. We want to include enough materials to make the experience pleasant, but no body wants to see waste. So, please email us at shop@weefolkart.com if you notice a problem with the materials.


  
~About shipping... shipping has been the most confusing part of this whole thing. We have a starting point. As we move forward, we may need to tweak our shipping practices. We want to ship in the most timely manner while still being economical. We will see how this goes. We will ship overseas BUT there is no CHEAP WAY to do this! Know, that we will do it in the most economical way possible, and you can read all about it at Wee Folk Arts Market Place. (Open at 7:00 am Monday, April 23)

NOTE: For the first few weeks, while we are working the bugs out of the system, we will NOT be shipping overseas. We want the opening of the shop to go smoothly, and so we plan to take small baby steps. We will announce when we will begin shipping overseas. In the mean time, come in and look around. Also, you are welcome to enter our giveaway :) Sorry for the delay.

~A word about payments. We are working through Paypal. If you have a Paypal account, you are all set. If you do not have a Paypal account, and would like to pay by credit card, you can do that. Payment is still collected through Paypal, but you do not need to have a Paypal account to charge an order. We do not accept checks or cash. Pretty normal stuff here.

~Finally, please be patient. We want this to be a wonderful experience for everyone. Please don't get frustrated if something sells out before you can purchase it, or if the shop is "closed" before the 24 hours is up. We would rather start out slow, making sure we get everything right, then have a chaotic mess on our hands and have dissatisfied customers :) Please, please, please help us to make Wee Folk Art Market Place a lovely little shop that you tell your friends about and like to frequent :)

~Incase you are wondering. In the past we have always offered our patterns for FREE. We will still offer all of our patterns for FREE. It is a mission with us to make it possible for everyone to craft for their homes and children. We do not feel right charging for patterns. We are hoping, that because you need to buy crafting supplies anyway, you will support our efforts and buy from us, BUT it is certainly not necessary. Continue to use our patterns for FREE. A smiling child will ALWAYS be payment enough :)

IMPORTANT: If there was something in the shop that you would like to buy, but it has sold old, please take the time to send us an email telling us what the item is, so we can try to have more for sale in the future! shop@weefolkart.com


 

WEE FOLK ART MARKET PLACE GIVEAWAY

Now, about the giveaway. Since we are trying to tailor our shop to the readers, here's what you need to do to enter. First, OBVIOUSLY, go visit Wee Folk Art Market Place. It's a small shop, it won't take you long :) Right now, there are 7 kits for sale. As the weeks go by, we will be adding lots of new kits, supplies and some fun wares :) Some of our kits will be new designs, and others will be reworked old favorites. You need to do two things to enter:

First, choose any item in the store that you would like to receive (not included: the Needle Felting Kit or the 100% Wool Rainbow Felting Yarn Bundle) if you win.

Second, go to our GALLERY of FREE PATTERNS, and tell us what item(s) you would like to see turned into a kit. This will be valuable market research for us! 

Note: If we've reach our maximum order acceptance for the day, you will no longer be able to place an order, but the shop will still be open so you can look around and enter the giveaway. Although we will not be shipping overseas for the first few weeks, everyone is welcome to enter the giveaway, and we will ship a winning prize overseas :)

The giveaway runs from Monday, April 23 through Thursday, April 26 at 9:00 p.m. EST. Good luck to everyone! Over the next few weeks we will be offering more giveaways as we celebrate the Grand Opening. You won't want to miss them :)

Okay... think that's everything. If you have any questions about the Market Place, please email us at shop@weefolkart.com. 

IMPORTANT... the Market Place opens tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. EST. We will only accept a certain amount of orders. For this first week, that number will be low. We're not sure if we will meet that number in 15 minutes or 15 hours. Also, there is a limited number of any one product. When something sells out, it will not be available again until next week. If there is something you would really like, make sure to visit us early :)

The shop will not be open until tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. EST but here is the link:

http://weefolkart.bigcartel.com/

  

Submitted by Kimara on Sun, 04/22/2012 - 06:26
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Introducing Armadillo Dreams and An Awesome Giveaway to Boot!

EDIT: This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to everyone that entered :)

With all our shop talk recently, it is nice to take a break and "formally" (as formally as anything CAN get around here :) introduce everyone to Amanda and Dustin of Armadillo Dreams. To help you get to know them and their shop a little better, please sit back and enjoy this interview I had with Dustin. I'll see you on the "other side" to tell you all about the terrific giveaway that they are sponsoring :)
 

Kimara: How would you describe Armadillo Dreams to someone that has never been to your shop?
 
Dustin: A fun toy shop full of handmade wooden toys that encourage creative play and use of imagination. We offer a mix of natural finish toys and painted toys. You will find things like figures, animals, fantasy themed toys, play sets, baby teething toys and toddler pull toys.
 
Kimara: How did you get started?
 
Dustin: During the summer of 2010 I discovered a passion for woodworking while building a backyard chicken coop/run. Once the project was complete I felt disappointed that it was over and starting trying to think up new woodworking projects. Then it occurred to my wife and I that we should try making some wooden toys for our children. We loved the wooden toys that we had already purchased but didn’t have as many as we would have liked for them since they tend to be a little more expensive than plastic toys. Once we had the creation of some toys under our belts we thought it would be fun to turn it into a business that we could work on together. Amanda already had three Etsy shops for about 4 years (and still does) so we combined her design skills, knowledge of product presentation and my knowledge of woodworking and customer service. The rest as they say is history.


 
Kimara: Tell us about the creation of your toys and the materials you use.
 
Dustin: All of our toys start from a board of poplar lumber. Amanda draws patterns (she is the real artist) that I trace onto the boards. They are then cut and sanded in my wood shop using my power saw and three different power sanders. Then each toy is hand sanded to eliminate any sharp edges and get each toy buttery smooth. Amanda then uses a 1000 degree F wood burning pen to draw details on the toys. The toys that are painted get a wash of AP certified non-toxic water color so that the wood grain can still be seen. From there we seal the wood with a natural baby/kid safe beeswax polish. We both do the painting and polishing. That’s about it! There are some specific trade secret details I have left out, but this gives you an overview. Most people don’t realize all the work we put into our toys until they get them in their hands and feel the difference in our toys. It’s hard to capture everything through pictures and descriptions when we do so much.
 
Kimara: You are a husband and wife team. Do you each make your own toys from start to finish or is there a division of labor in each toy?
 
Dustin: Overall Amanda handles most of the artistic side (drawing patterns, wood burning) while I handle most of the manufacturing side (cutting, power/hand sanding, packaging). There is some steps of our process that we both do as well (painting, polishing). It works out really well.

 
Kimara: Where do you think Armadillo Dreams will be in 2-5 years?
 
Dustin: Our goal is to really grow our business and bring our wooden toys to as many families as possible. Over the next month or two we will be launching our own website/blog on http://www.armadillodreams.com/. We are going to be putting a lot of work into the website to make it even larger than our current Etsy shop. In the next few years we would like to get a new home on acreage that has room for a large garden, pasture for some animals and room for a much larger wood shop for Armadillo Dreams. In five years I can see having a small staff of helpers that help in the wood shop and home office, but we always want the business to keep the feel of being personal and selling toys made with love by caring people, not robots/machines.
 
Kimara: Finally, I have to ask... Armadillo Dreams... wonderful name. Who came up with the name and is there any significance to it?
 
Dustin: Great question! Amanda came up with the name. The name does have very big meaning for both of us. It’s a bit of an inside joke that would cheer us up when times got tough. In essence it represents our dream of freedom, both in the sense of financial freedom and freedom to be independent in our lives.

Awesome! I have dreams that some day Tim and I will be able to work together. Perhaps one of those 2nd career, retirement things :) Anyway, I have long been a fan of Armadillo Dreams. When they contacted us about sponsorship, I did a little happy dance :) YAY! I love it when we share things we are so excited about.

Now... on to the giveaway. Armadillo Dreams is giving away this ultra cute, ultra awesome SPACE SET COLLECTION. This fun space play set is sure to provide out of this world adventures for your children! The set includes a robot, alien, rocket, UFO spaceship, a planet and three little stars. The robot measures 5 inches tall, rocket measures 5 inches tall, alien measures 1 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches, spaceship measures 2 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches and the planet measures 3 1/4 inches wide. including a Space Robot, Alien, Rocket and UFO Spaceship Toys. 


Here is Armadillo Dreams' statement on their toys and safety: Our wood toys are handmade with lots of love! They are perfect for imaginary play, learning, display, or for adding to your seasonal nature table toy collection. Our wood toys are also great for Montessori education or Waldorf education. We believe it's important for children to have high quality, natural, simple toys that they can dream, imagine and play with. Please do not give our smaller toys or painted toys to children who are still putting things in their mouths. Our paint is AP certified non-toxic and the wood is sealed, but there is a small chance that the watercolor paint may run when wet. Painted toys are not for use in water.

So, how do you enter to win? Simply visit Armadillo Dreams, wander up and down their virtual aisles, then come back here and tell us what toy catches your fancy the most. While you are doing that, keep in mind, that besides the giveaway, Armadillo Dreams is offering Wee Folk Art readers a 10% discount that will be good through the end of the month. The discount code to use during checkout is "wee0412". This is a perfect way to purchase your first Armadillo Dreams toy. I guarantee you it won't be your last! I already know what I plan to use my discount on :)

The giveaway runs from today, Wednesday April 18 through Sunday April 22, at 9:00 p.m. EST. A winner will be drawn at random and have 1 week to contact us at weefolkart@yahoo.com or a new winner will be selected. So hurry over, but don't rush through their site. And, thank you, Amanda and Dustin for your generous giveaway. Good luck all :)

Armadillo Dreams will happily ship internationally so everyone is welcome to enter!

BTW... if you'd like to stay connected with Armadillo Dreams, they give you lots of opportunities. Here's a bunch of their contact info:

Submitted by Kimara on Wed, 04/18/2012 - 06:20
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