A Magical and Crafty Woodland Competition!

It felt about time for another blog competition so I am bringing you something that I'm particularly excited about!

Today we are offering one lucky winner the chance to win one of our brand new Oak Leaf Badge Craft Kits and a brand new copy of Fantastic Fairies by Julie Sharp.

You may have noticed that we have a few craft kits now available at the Angel Eden store. However this is one of our new boxed kits. It has everything you need to make two felt oak leaf badges. How about keeping one for yourself and giving the other to a friend? This is one of several boxed craft kits that we debuted at  fairs just before Christmas and they were very popular with our customers. They haven't yet made it to the website, but don't worry they will be coming soon. If you would like to be added to our waitlist for when they arrive just send me a quick email.

The winner will also receive a copy of Fantastic Fairies by Julie Sharp. You may remember that I reviewed this book last year. I have enjoyed it so much that I felt I had to share it with you all. So to go with your badges you will be able to make some magical fairies. A truly woodland inspired prize.

How To Enter

As usual it's ridiculously easy to enter our comp (open to readers worldwide!):

1. Follow this blog publicly (using either Google Friend Connect or Bloglovin on the right) and leave a comment mentioning you are following the blog (current followers need only comment). Remenber to leave your email or twitter so I can contact you if you win.

Extra entries - for each extra entry leave a comment to let me know:

1. Tweet about the comp for an extra entry
2. Like our page on Facebook (link to the left)

The competition will end at midnight 17th Feb 2011.

Fantastic Fairies! Book Review.

I'm probably not alone when I say that I have always loved the magic of fairies. When I was little I had a fold out pop up book about Flower Fairies that I loved and carried on many trips. So when I had the opportunity to review a book teaching how to make your own I jumped at the chance. The book was Fantastic Fairies and their friends by Julie Sharp.

The book is filled with gorgeous pictures of fairies, mice, toadstools and bugs. But I'll admit I found the prospect of making the fairies slightly daunting. They are made from surprisingly simple components such as pipe cleaners, but in a funny sort of way that made them seem harder (my experience of pipe cleaners is limited to the basic twisting required in primary school).

I would love to claim a huge success here, but this little lady is all down to my husband (who is a bit of a whizz when it comes to wire).

She took one evening (and a bit) to make. I think she is adorable (and have plans for him to make me many more).

Was she a success? You can judge from the pictures yourself, but I think she was very much a success!

Was there any issues or problems during her construction? The book requires you to reference techniques laid out at the back of the book. This means a lot of page turning and can become a little confusing after awhile. We also found that the tutorial told you to make one set of arms when another was featured in the picture.

Would I recommend this book? Yes I would, but it does require a fair amount of patience which I hadn't expected. It's more indepth and definitely more skilled than you might imagine. This doesn't mean it isn't worth having a go at though.

Could the book be improved? As I said earlier the instructions do jump around a bit which is a bit annoying, especially when your trying to master the basic techniques. The book would also benefit from giving you alternatives for some of the materials. We had to improvise with our fairies eyes because we could not for love nor money find any stores that sold ready made pom poms small enough.

I think the fairies and creatures would make wonderful Christmas presents. Perhaps attaching some ribbon to their heads so they could be given as decorations. I am particularly excited to make Bud The Mouse and a fairy toodstool.

Book Details

Title: Fantastic Fairies and Their Friends.
Author: Julie Sharp
ISBN: 9781861084620
RRP: £12.99
Publisher: GMC
Publication Date: Spring 2006.