Sponsor Giveaway and Tutorial from Armadillo Dreams

Today I am bringing you a lovely post and giveaway from our wonderful sponsor Armadillo Dreams. Dustin is going to share the steps of his creative process with us. He is going to show us how he creates a beautiful and magical treasure form wood.

Now in Dustin's words...

Step 1 - Trace the design on wood from a pattern that Amanda draws and cuts out.

 

Step 2 - Cut out the design on my scroll saw.

Step 3 - Drill the holes for the wheel axles and the hole for the pull cord.

 

Step 4 - Sand the front, back and sides super smooth.

Step 5 - Hand sand all edges to round them so that there are no sharp edges for little hands.

 

Step 6 - Wood burn details into the wood using a 1000 degree wood burner.

 Step 7 - Paint using AP certified non-toxic watercolors.

 

Step 8 - Apply beeswax cream and then polish off.

 

Step 9 - Attach wheels to axles.

 

Step 10 - Measure and attach pull cord.

  Finished.

Dustin and Amanda, your wooden creations are just gorgeous! Thank you so much for sharing this tutorial with us.

Links for Armadillo Dreams:

Email

Website

Armadillo Dreams Etsy Shop

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Giveaway:

Dustin and Amanda are very generously offering this beautiful wooden Pirate Ship that was made for the tutorial, to one blog reader!

They are also offering a 10% discount in their shop, Armadillo Dreams, just use this discount code when making a purchase, "NATURALSUBURBIA"

Such a wonderful giveaway item!

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment in this post.
If you are reading this post as an email from a reader, please could you visit this post on Natural Suburbia and leave a comment to have your entry counted by the Random Generator.

To gain more entries:
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Each time you share about the giveaway, please return here and leave extra comments so that I can enter you more than just once. (Leave extra comments for each share).

The giveaway will close on Wednesday the 9th of May and the winner will be announced here in this post.


Congratulations to:

Melissa B (melissamberry@hotmail.com)May 6, 2012 5:14 PM

I like Armadillo Dreams on Facebook

Have a lovely weekend.

Mamma4earth Giveaway

I have a couple of things that I would like to celebrate today, the first is reaching 500 sales on my Mamma4earth Etsy shop this past week and the other is that I have over 600 followers on my blog! Yay and Thank You so much to everyone who visits my shop and another great thank you to all those who read this blog and leave such warm comments:)

 

I thought a giveaway would be a special way to show my gratitude to all of you:)

One reader will receive:
1 hand cut and sanded acorn that I made on my scroll saw.
1 skein of naturally dyed cochineal yarn, you can choose which shade you prefer.
1 hand knitted Easter chicken.

WINNER:

Honey Pumpkin Mama said...

Congratulations!!! We love your work! (The kids love their Easter Bunnies you made last year for them!) This is a very nice giveaway! Thank you. Maria Weinert


Congratulations Maria!! Please could you send me your postal details:)

All you have to do is leave a comment (one comment per person) and I will announce the winner on Wednesday:)Wishing you all a week filled with inspiration,
Linda 

Our Weekend Activities...

Hello Everyone,

We had a lovely long weekend, yesterday was a public holiday and we also celebrated our Autumn Equinox early in the evening. Everyone sat down at our craft table and made little paper lanterns and paper chains to decorate the area where we were to have our bonfire. Almost everyone has recovered for the flu that has been rampaging through our house since last week, it is just poor Jen that has tonsillitis but she is recovering well.

We have all been eating plenty of gooseberries because of their high vitamin C content and our trees are full of fruit at the moment, so yesterday Erin and I collected all we could find...

Caiden working on his bird house...

His finished project, he will just seal it and then up it will go into a tree for a sweet bird family:)

My latest custom order of a long haired mini Daschund is off to Singapore this week...

Erin and Jenna have been adding little treasures to our family Etsy Shop. They have called it Pigglywigglys and I help them with all the admin, posting off of orders etc...  This is Erin's latest creation, he is called Misty... They have had 3 sales so far and are so excited about it all:)

Happy Tuesday everyone,
Warmly
Linda

Portrait Saturday and Woodwork...

Richard and I were sitting outside today under our Oak tree when we heard these little ones calling to their mama:) It was the sweetest thing! I immediately went and found my camera and lay down on the grass and waited for ages for their mom to appear. She did several times with a tasty morsel for her young, but she was so fast that I was unable to catch her on camera. I did however manage to capture her babies hanging out the nest waiting for her next visit. She seemed to return to the nest every 5 minutes... They are Yellow Weavers...

This is Caidens latest woodwork project, a tug boat, he really enjoyed making this, we have sealed it with the first coat of oil a few more are needed and then it should be seaworthy...

A few years ago I used to make wooden toys and wooden puzzles with my scroll saw. I haven't made anything for quite a while, but now that I am busy with a woodworking block with Caiden, it has inspired me to once again start creating with wood! Today, after we measured and cut out pieces for his bird house project, I drew an Easter Spring rabbit and cut him out, sanded him until he was really smooth, looked at him and smiled... I think this will be a new facet to my creativity, I am so inspired... I have listed him in my shop

Meet Jasper, my custom listing for Joanne, he is a fawn colour, Angora Easter rabbit, I will also be listing another one in my shop today:)
Have a wonderful weekend everyone:)

Wonderful Garden Mama Giveaway on now, pop over and have a look see:

Warmly
Linda

Woodwork with Caiden, my Dear Son...

This is my dear son Caiden, the sweetest boy:) He has just started a 3 week practical woodworking block. This is so exciting and I will be learning so much as well. Yesterday we started our first woodwork project, a wooden toolbox! It was such fun. First Cady marked out all the measurements for all the pieces of wood, which is important work for his maths as well!

He cut out quite a lot of the wood with a hand saw and then we used the scroll saw to cut the rest. We followed the instructions in our wonderful carpentry book, Woodworking for Kids a fantastic book with so many amazing projects. I was continuously amazed at how conscientious he was, taking his time to saw and glue the pieces together, really enjoying the process. (Only mom cut with the electrical saw!)

Then came the glueing and hammering part, we lined up all the pieces, glued each one and Caiden hammered in all the nails, he loved this! He was so alive and active in the moment, it was like it awakened a part of his soul, tremendous to watch...

And there we go, his finished woodwork toolbox! I am so very proud of him and he is so very proud of himself for finishing this project:) Now he has a place to pack all his carpentry tools.

I have been busy with Easter knitting for my shop and this is my latest creation, he is called Fred, the Easter Rabbit and he is knitted with pure Angora yarn that I handspun myself. I will only be stocking a small amount of these as I have knitted up all the Angora that I have spun:) He is exceptionally soft! I will be listing him in a few hours.

Shop Talk: Discounts :)
I do accept Paypal, but I am discounting orders that are paid with Monster Pay:) The banking fees are lower for me and I can receive payment faster with Monster Pay as I live in South Africa and therefore I am offering a discount to customers that will pay this way. All I do is email you an invoice and you click on the links to pay. Monster Pay is very similar to Paypal and so easy to use, I promise:) If you would like to pay with Monster Pay and receive a nice discount and pay exact shipping, just send me a conversation on Etsy and I will create a special listing for you at a reduced amount:) Otherwise, please feel free to continue to use Paypal:)

Happy Monday everyone:)
Warmly
Linda