A catch up on my first giveaway

Today I'm finally sharing photographs of the custom cross-stitch samplers I made for my first ever giveaway. It was so long ago I almost need a lift from Michael J Fox to remember it happened.

My first giveaway winner was Alice, my utterly excellent real-life friend who was also my Ideal Home Show adventure buddy. Thankfully, Alice forgave me for taking months to hand her prize over, and it actually worked out in the end because she'd forgotten which designs I was doing; so they were a surprise!

Alice had eventually settled on two designs containing phrases by the excellent Emergency Compliments. Yes, I know, the prize was for one cross-stitch, but I was feeling generous; and text is much faster to stitch than pictures. The "cereal" one only took me a few hours. 

By the way, if you haven't heard of Emergency Compliments before, you should definitely go and check them out. These are three of my favourite pieces:

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Available here

Alice opted for these two (although this one was a close runner up):

I also whipped up a third sampler, with a phrase of Alice's own:

Complete with cheery cross-stitched tea cup:

Just in case that wasn't enough to make amends for my tardiness, I made Alice a card using a rather appropriate illustration from the used Babar diary I picked up in Oxfam. 

The top and bottom edges are finished off with this panda-tastic deco tape. 

I cheaply re-used craftily upcycled an old envelope with a bit more sticky tape, from Tiger of all places(!) Shocking.  

Then popped in a couple of extra treats from one of my favourite recent finds; a box of assorted McSweeney's Postcards entitled "Greetings from the Ocean's Sweaty Face". 

I knew that Alice, a librarian by trade, would appreciate this card about the Dewey decimal system:

And I thought this postcard about how C. S. Lewis dealt with writer's block was absolutely hilarious. I might try this next time I visit Ikea. 

Oops - I almost forgot about this vixen! Alice and I were admiring some rather foxy cushions at the Ideal Home Show but decided to restrain ourselves as we had already bought lots of random crap invested in a number of exciting homeware-related business ventures. So when I spotted this lovely lady in Primark's home section a week later I knew it was fate. Alice's boyfriend has named her Vera the Varmint, and I've been assured she's very happy in her new home.

I'm very glad Alice has finally received her prizes; mostly because I was worried the samplers would somehow end up covered in chocolate stains. Which obviously never happens in this house...

Right- I think it's about time I organised another one of these giveaway things. Although I'm not making any promises the prize will be ready until 2047. 

Katie xxx