My giveaway surprise prizes revealed

This is the 'surprise package' that the winner of my recent giveaway, Jennybee, received: an aged table and cupid with a little set of mini mail as well as the set of doilies.  

The mini mail was included for everyone who won the doiley sets (I didn't realise until I saw this photo that I'd forgotten to 'age' the edges of the envelope and postcards!).  The tiny photo in the envelope is of my mother as a young girl.  She's now becoming a bit famous in the mini world - oh how she would blush at the thought.

A few of you have noticed that I haven't been very active around Blogland for a while - I've got quite a lot of non-mini projects going on at the moment which are taking my time and attention but I hope to see more of what you're all doing soon - as well as get back to doing some mini work myself!

My 'guilty secret' is that the dollhouse for the little girls hasn't progressed beyond what you see on the post of 25 January :(   If I don't get busy on that again very soon it'll be lucky to be delivered by NEXT Christmas!  I hope I'll be back shortly with some progress to show you :)

And lastly a note to say 'HI' to new Followers, thanks for dropping by!  

Giveaway draw...

Congratulations to new blogger Jennybee!! 

The surprise package and a set of doilies is yours!

Click here to visit Jennybee's blog 

"The Dark Side of a mini addict"

The winners of the remaining three doilie sets are

Debbie @ debbie's mini thoughts and creations

TINK-SONIA @ MINITINK

malu2 @ Malu's Minis

Can you all please email your addresses to me at normabennett@hotmail.com so that I can post your prize packages to you.

As promised here is the link to the online miniatures

store where you can purchase these laser cut paper doilie sets

Fairy Meadow Miniatures

Lorraine presently has two sets on the website shown here with the stock numbers,  the price of each set is AUD7.90 so they are an affordable way to bring a little something special to your miniature setting.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway, and a big welcome to new followers!

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 My humble apologies for the dreadful quality of my giveaway draw photos - they certainly don't do justice to my handsome assistant :)  I have no idea what's going on with the camera today, or is it the photographer??  Next time I think I'd better leave the photography to the expert, my assistant's mummy, Lamina at doabit

500 Followers giveaway is finally here!! CLOSED on 14 Feb - WINNERS ANNOUNCED SOON

At last - my giveaway announcement! 

I have 4 sets of these pretty lasercut paper doilies (1/12 scale) to giveaway,

one set for each of the first four names drawn

PLUS

the first name drawn will also win a small 

The final day to enter is Valentine's Day - 14 February 2012

_____________________________________

As usual this giveaway draw is only open to Followers of this blog

(but it's not too late to become one!)

You may advertise this giveaway on your blog if you wish, but it is not a condition of entry.

Good luck everyone!!

(When the winners are announced I will also tell you where you can purchase these tiny doilies online, so even if you're not lucky in the draw you can still have some in your dollhouse.)

~ this giveaway draw is now closed  ~ 

the winners will be announced here soon 

Giveaway postponed until January - and another 'secret' project

I've decided to postpone my 500 Followers and Blog Anniversary giveaway until January, I think we've all got quite enough on with Christmas just around the corner and it'll be a bit of fun to look forward to after Christmas. 

I expect to have photos of the treestump house next week - it's all finished but I can't find my camera - no doubt it will turn up when I'm looking for something else. 

And now I'm frantically working on another 'secret' project - I'm not sure whether to call it  'Renovation Rescue' or 'Restoration Madness!'. 

A couple of weeks ago it was our local council annual cleanup where you get to put out all the big stuff that isn't allowed in the normal garbage collection.  Near my house I spotted a dollhouse amidst a pile of other stuff discarded at the roadside waiting for the compacting truck to come along (it's the kind of thing that you throw a big old wardrobe in and it crunches it into matchsticks).  It looked like it had been badly neglected for quite a long time but had the potential to be a nice play dollhouse for a couple of little girls in my neighbourhood - after a good scrub and a coat of paint - and I couldn't bear the thought of it getting crunched in the back of the garbage truck. 

After a good scrubbing and a bit of paint it did look better, but I decided not good enough.  That's when the madness set in!  It now has two new sides, a replaced ground floor partition, an additional partition upstairs to create a space for a bathroom, the sizing of the doorways has been heightened and narrowed ready for doors to be hung, it also needs a new base because the house had been sitting on the curbside grass during at least one overnight rainstorm.   There will also be a lot of basic furniture making in the next 2 weeks because I'm hoping to deliver it to the girls around Christmas.  Fortunately I also have some bits and pieces in my stash that I can use but it's still going to be a fairly tight schedule.  More on this project later.  Now back to the workshop ...

                                              

Giveaway winner

The draw was done by my big brother who is celebrating a 'significant' birthday today :)

All the names were put into one of his prized possessions, a World War 1 flying helmet...

Just to make sure he couldn't see any of the names we held it up high...

And the winner is Mona - congratulations!! 



Mona has a lovely giveaway on her blog at the moment, click here to visit her.

Mona, please email me your address so that I can post your prize to you - normabennett@hotmail.com

Some of you will be familiar with my brother already as he's appeared here before :)

400 Followers giveaway draw

To say "thanks for following" I'm offering these pieces in a giveaway draw,  you must be a Follower of  "make mine mini" to enter.  The new option of  'follow by email' complicates this somewhat -  it doesn't seem fair that only those registered with 'Google Friend Connect' can enter.  So if you Follow by email please email me to be entered into the draw, otherwise please leave a comment here.

The last date to enter is May 25, I plan to make the draw in New Zealand on my brother's birthday, May 26.  I'm flying over on the 25th to stay with my him for a few days to celebrate his birthday and as a bonus I hope to get to meet up with Carolyn (Carolyn's Little Kitchen) and Mercedes (Liberty Biberty).

Good luck everyone!! 

PS If you wish to post about this giveaway on your blog you are welcome to do so :) 

For Maria Jose ...

Maria Jose (marivigano) - this little table and chair set is YOURS - you have probably given up hope that I'd ever get it made but here it is and it'll be in the post tomorrow.  Thank you for waiting so patiently for so long :)

Congratulations to Maija and Caterina!

Congratulations to new Follower Maija (winner of the French set draw) and old friend Caterina (winner of the Vintage set draw). Can you both please send me an email (normabennett@hotmail.com) with your address so that I can send the packages to you next week. I hope you will enjoy these little pieces.

Thanks to everyone who entered this giveaway, and for all your nice comments. I wish all of you 'better luck next time' :)

And a big welcome to all the new Followers of my blog!

Blog birthday giveaway

This giveaway is closed
- it was drawn on 4 December 2010

My blog is 1 today!!

Let's have a party - the best kind of party - one where you get the gifts ;)

Just leave a comment and tell me WHICH SET you would prefer -

the French set with the French style 'burlap' cushions and shopping bag

OR

the Vintage set with the faded (but not quite as faded as they look in the picture!) tapestry style cushions and vintage mail

Drawn on Saturday 4 December (by the way, you must be a Follower to enter)
Draw procedure: A few of you haven't made a choice of which set you prefer (and I didn't make it clear either that I would do 2 draws, one for each set). SO I'm going to copy Marit's draw procedure, those of you who have indicated which set you prefer will each get 2 chances in the draw for that set, those who haven't indicated a preference will get 1 chance in each draw. (this postscript added 23 Nov)



Credit: The French 'burlap' style cushions are miniature versions of a 1:1 design by Michelle at Petite Coterie. Michelle generously gave me permission to reproduce her design in miniature (personal use only). Michelle has a link to her Etsy shop on her blog, be sure to drop by and take a look, she's got some gorgeous new designs.

Congratulations to giveaway winners Nina, Maria Jose and Mini Pig!

Congratulations to Nina (Minimum)- the winner of the outdoor set first draw :) Because of the amount of interest in the giveaway I decided to do a second draw and the winner of that is Maria Jose (marivigano). I hope you are a patient woman Maria Jose because I haven't made the second set yet (I'm sorry that it won't include a flower vase because the one in the picture is a "one-of-a-kind" that I made a few months ago).

The winner of the little couch is Mini Pig (The Flying Piglet) - congratulations! The Flying Piglet is a fairly new and interesting blog well worth checking out :)

The draw was done by my Japanese houseguest, Mikie, sorry there are no pics of the 'action' because I'm still technolgically challenged (the built-in memory card reader on my laptop isn't working and I can't find the external USB one for the desktop).

Thanks to everyone who entered this giveaway, it was fun to do it for you and I really really appreciate all the positive comments. For those who entered but didn't win, better luck next time ;)

Giveaways (1:12 & 1:16) and welcome to new followers

Firstly thanks to everyone who has decided to follow my blog recently. I hope that from time to time I'll have something of interest to share although once the new university semester starts again in three weeks my free time will be very limited again and my blog will probably go into a state of semi-hibernation. Please bear with me during that time!

And of course a big thanks to all my blog friends, old and new, who make the whole exercise worth while. You're a great bunch of people and I appreciate you all!!! So now I'd like to give something back and have at last completed a few little things to offer in two giveaway draws, one for the 1:12 scale outdoor set and one for the 1:16 scale sofa.

For this little outdoor set (1:12 scale) I used the tutorial on Lea Frisoni's blog to make the chair, and extended the idea to construct the table. They're not perfect, and are still to get another coat of paint, but I hope they have some measure of charm ;) - and don't worry - the little table isn't really leaning like it's about to fall over the way it looks in the picture! :)


This 1:16 scale backless sofa could perhaps be suitable for a 1:12 setting also. Approx dimensions are: height 2.75cm (1 1/8"); width 10.5 cm (4"); depth 4 cm (1 3/8"). I wanted to include something in 1:16 (3/4) scale because I know that several of you have houses that are that size.

Entry is open to all followers who leave a comment on this post. Those of you who were kind enough to leave a comment on my May 28 post about what to do with the side window in the Brocante have a bonus entry as promised, and Ira gets another two bonus entries because she was the first to spot that I'd mistaken the bottom of Marit's birdcage for a work of art - which of course it is :) If you wish to publish this giveaway on your blog sidebar that's fine by me but it's not an obligation.

I'll do the draw on Sunday 19 July to allow plenty of time for all who are interested to take part as there seems to be an issue of late with followers not receiving all notifications of new posts - I've seen mention of it elsewhere and I know that I'm not receiving notification of all new posts on blogs that I follow.

Remember - please tell me in your comment whether you wish to be in the draw for the outdoor set or the small sofa.

Tues 6th - comments left here today by me, Flor, Minilisa and Sagrario have been forwarded to my email, but they're not showing here. However you can be sure that I'll keep these email notifications and will make sure you are all entered in the draw whether or not your comment appears here :)

(It will be interesting to see if they mysteriously re-appear - Blogger is an unpredictable beast!)

Design credit - the image used to print the little cushion is from Janet McCaffrey's blog Primrose Design. Thank you Janet for kindly giving me permission to reproduce it in miniature. Janet also has a website featuring pretty handcrafted gifts for sale, be sure to pay her a visit :)

100 followers mystery giveaway prizes revealed at last

Manoli (El Costurero de Manoli)and Paky (paquicheli), both Spanish bloggers, were the winners of the mystery giveaway prize draw held on 6 March to say "thank you" to 100+ Followers who had joined Make Mine Mini. (Original draw post is here.) As I mentioned at the time the prizes were a mystery even to me as I had decided to wait and see who the winners were before choosing appropriate gifts because of the diversity of interests of MMM Followers. Now that Manoli and Paky have received their gifts and posted about them on their blogs I can share them with you all here.

Manoli is an arty crafter who paints lovely flowers, has a collection of thimbles, and wishes to make new friends through her blog. With these things in mind her gift package contained an artist's notebook that I decorated using friendship as a theme, a Sydney Opera House souvenir thimble, and an Australian wildflower pen. After what seemed like a very long time 'in transit' Manoli received her package a couple of days ago. This photo of the contents is taken from her blog



Paky is a popular miniaturist with projects featured on her blog that include a small shop, a pub and a big house, all full of great minis so it was quite hard to think of something to add. Eventually I decided to make a nightgown and boxed underwear set and a small travel case to add to a bedroom. Also included was a small corked bottle of very tiny Australian seashells, and a pair of little sandals (thongs/jandals/flip-flops) for her house outdoor setting. This pic of the gifts is from Paky's blog



Congratulations again to my Spanish blog friends Manoli and Paky. Now I'm starting to think about the next giveaway....

Thank you Ana!

Amazing artist Ana of Arts and Miniatures recently offered a giveaway of the most beautiful little silver filigree jugs and I was one of the lucky recipients. Ana's generosity didn't stop there though, she included a lovely little handworked doily


AND a tiny oval box with a selection of Decopatch papers. I'll post about the box and the papers later when I've had a 'play' but click here to go to the Decopatch.com website, it's fascinating stuff!

Thanks again for your generosity Ana :) Click here to visit Ana's blog, there is some truly fabulous art and photography to enjoy there.

Giveaway on a new blog (now closed)

Ana at 'A Journey Through Arts and Miniatures' is soon to a give away these wonderful silver filigree jugs to celebrate approaching 50 Followers. Ana is an artist whose handpainted miniatures are truly amazing. Pop over and have a look! Click on her blog name or here.

The Giveaway winners are drawn!

My 'assistant', birthday boy Max, contemplates the entries...


It's hard to choose just one, Grandma...


But eventually he did... "What does it say Grandma?"


It says "El costurero de manoli" Max!

Max's friend Cara wanted to be in on the draw too so we have TWO giveaway draw winners!!!


It's Paky!

Max says CONGRATULATIONS Manoli and Paky!!



Manoli at El costurero de manoli has a lovely blog, she is a multi-talented crafter and artist. A couple of recent posts feature some of her flower painting projects. In her introduction Manoli says that she hopes to make new friends through her blog, I encouage you to visit her.

Paky at Paquicheli's blog is a popular and passionate miniaturist known to many of us. There's always something fun going on over at her blog.

(click on their blog names to go directly there)

Congratulations again to Manoli and Paky. I will contact each of them and then decide on what the two little gifts will be - in the meantime this remains a 'mystery' giveaway :)

Thanks to everyone for your interest in this little bit of 'giveaway' fun, and especially to Max and Cara (and 'official' photographer for the occasion, Max's mummy) for their help :)

Welcome and Giveaway Draw Countdown

A sincere welcome to

Nat @ Love 'n Light
dana mocan @ http://3dayswedding.blogspot.com/
Nuria, Rossana y Norma @ Casitamini
Margaret @ My Petite Partere
Shellagh @ Ticking & Toile
Sonya @ cannellaemelograno
Brenda @ Cozy Little House
angeles @ El Rincon De Baldu
(blog names are 'hot links' to the blogs - click to check them out if you don't already know them, or it's been a while since you visited)

and Cindy and mimusdoll - there are no blogs showing on your profiles. If you do have blogs or websites please leave a note here so that we can come visit you :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Less than 24 hours to go to the 100 Followers celebratory giveaway draw!! (See post below for details.)