celebrating three years: flower brooch mini-tutorial and giveaway

 Now that was a long title!

Yes, you read right, it has been three years since this baby of mine (sort-of-say) was created.  Three wonderful years of sharing bits of our lives, of sharing tutorials and recipes,  and sharing lots and lots of photos!  Like my babies I have seen it grown, slowly at times, but grown non the less.  Through this blog I have met other wonderful bloggers, some in person others through the never ending cyber world.  Through this blog I have kept a record of sorts of our lives.  And through this blog I have managed to keep myself going and inspired.  I love this little blog of mine, but what I love the most is those of you that continue to come back week after week to see what I've been up to.  Thank you, I mean it from the bottom of my heart. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

To celebrate my THIRD BLOGGIVERSARY  I have some lovely giveaways lined up for you throughout the next few days.  Starting today! But before we continue on with the giveaway, how about a mini-tutorial, shall  we?  

Upcycle Flower Brooch Mini-Tutorial:

To begin, you will need to find some pieces of linen.  Look for some old linen bags, skirts, pants, sacks.  Anything that you can find that you no longer need or use would work perfect (and it'll make you feel good to create something new out of something old. Yey.) 

I happened to have these bags sitting in a drawer waiting for that perfect project.  One of them held a beautiful handmade gift brought to me by a friend from Peru, the other some lovely wood toys for the kids fairy tree house. 

Other materials you will need are thread, needle, die cut machine (if you have one) or a handmade stencil (if you don't), button, and brooch pin.

Once you've gathered all your materials follow the first steps from the simple embellishments tutorial, come back after you've sewn the flower together.  (Click button bellow.)

Once you've gathered your flower and added the button, begin to fray the edges:

Finally, sew the brooch pin on to the back of the flower.

 Done!  Finito!  Listo!

Now you have a beautiful vintage-look-like-up-cycle-linen brooch! (Phew!  What a mouthful.)

(you can also leave the edges untouched)

Wear it on your scarf...

Wear it on your hat...

Wear it where ever you like!

Giveaway is now closed.  Winner will be announced Monday Feb. 6th.  

Now for that giveaway:

One lucky reader will win one of these linen brooches.  All you have to do is leave a comment telling me what you enjoy the most from this blog.  That's it.  I will select the winner using random.org.  Please only leave one comment.  If you make a mistake erase the first comment and re-post.  Giveaway is open until January 31st midnight.  I will announce the winner on Monday February 6th.  Good luck!