National Craft Month Giveaway – Around the World With 80 Artists

Enter For Your Chance To Win This Book Of DIY Projects From Around The Globe

UPDATE April 1 – Congratulations, Breanna O of IL – you won! Thank you everyone who entered; I really enjoyed reading all of your responses. :-)

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no cost to you, I may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. All opinions expressed are my own.

Around The World With 80 Artists header over watercolor map of earthAround the World With 80 Artists by Mahe Zehra HusainMarch is National Craft Month! To celebrate, I’m giving away a stunning crafts book featuring dozens upon dozens of step-by-step crafts projects to get your creative juices flowing. Eighty artists from 22 different countries contributed to Around The World With 80 Artists: DIY Projects From Around The Globe. The 220-page book features a huge variety of projects: coloring pages, mandala making, watercolor techniques, origami, mixed media, monoprinting and more! You’ll even find a few of the artists’ favorite recipes scattered throughout the book.

The book was created by Mahe Zehra Husain. She writes, “This book was compiled at a time when narratives of hate, intolerance and destruction pervade the airwaves. Even minor differences have acquired the power to ignite raging fires, and far too many people have become distrustful of anything they find unfamiliar. Around the World with 80 Artists is a message of hope in these testing times, a testament to the richness and strength that lies in diversity… [This book is] an exuberant celebration of creativity – in all the various forms and styles it adopts around the globe.”

around-the-world-various-projectsTwenty percent of the proceeds go to The Malala Fund to help educate girls who might not otherwise have a chance at an education.

The colorful table of contents showcases all the projects in this book:

Table of Contents for Around the World With 80 Artists - DIY Crafts ProjectsYou can purchase your copy of Around the World with 80 Artists on Amazon or directly from the author from her website MZCreates.

Visit MZCreates.com/around-the-world for free downloads of templates and printables from the book.

For Your Chance To Win

As I was one of the first people to help crowdfund this book, I received 2 copies. I’m keeping one copy to enjoy with my mom, and giving the other to a lucky Blue Buddha fan!

Two ways to win:

1 – Leave a comment on this blog post by Friday, March 30. I’d love to get to know you better, so tell me something about yourself! If you’re a chainmailler, I’d love to know your favorite weaves or how you got started. If you do other crafts – what do you make? What are your favorite colors? Why do you craft? Essentially, just tell me something crafts/chainmaille related about yourself! :-)

2 – For a BONUS chance to win: If you purchase anything in the Blue Buddha Boutique Etsy shop from now until Friday, March 30, write “Around the World” in the message to seller section when you checkout, and I’ll add an entry in your name.

Good luck!

Rules & fine print:

1 – You must be 18 or older to enter.

2 – The book can be shipped within the US, all territories included. (If you’re in another country, you can still enter if you have a US address the book can be shipped to, or if you’re willing to pay for 100% of all associated shipping/customs/duties costs to get the book to your country.)

3 – Everyone has 1 or 2 chances to win (depending on if you comment on the blog, or make a purchase with a comment on Etsy, or both). Note to tricksters: Even if you write lots of separate comments, or place multiple Etsy orders for single PDFs and include the message to seller each time – only ONE of each of those will count. Nice try, though. šŸ˜‰

4 – Be sure to double-check your email address, as that is the method by which I’ll contact the winner! (And then remember to check that email. The notification will come from [email protected].)

5 – Contest ends at 11:59 pm Pacific Time, Friday March 30, 2018. Entries received after that time are ineligible to win.

6 – Winner will be randomly selected on Saturday, March 31, 2018 and notified by end of day Monday, April 2. If winner does not respond by Friday, April 6, winner forfeits the prize and another winner will be selected on Saturday, April 7.

Purple Power In 2018!

Limited-Edition Purple Chainmaille Kits Pay Homage To PantoneĀ® Color of the Year Ultra Violet

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no cost to you, I may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. All opinions expressed are my own.

power to the purple banner with ultra violet chainmaille designsInspired by the rich Ultra Violet Color Of The Year 2018 from PantoneĀ®, Blue Buddha Boutique will be launching a few DIY chainmaille kits throughout the year in purple anodized aluminum or enameled copper. (The colors in the kits won’t be exactly ultra violet, especially depending upon the dye lot, but they’ll be pretty darn close.)

Every few months, we’ll release a limited-edition version of one or two of our chainmaille designs featuring purple jump rings along with accent colors or neutral rings in aluminum, brass, copper or steel. Some of the purple kits will be for newly released designs (Mngwa, we’re lookin’ at you!), some will be B3 classics and others will be selected based on popular request.

Keep checking in with this blog post for links to Purple Power kits available in the Blue Buddha Boutique Etsy shop!Ā  Currently available are:

 

elfweave braid chainmaille weave in purple Elfweave Braid
Sleek Cuff weave by Blue Buddha Boutique in purple Sleek Cuff (Purple & Violet)

Sleek Cuff (Purple & Black)

jens pind chainmaille bracelet in purple, violet and lavender Jens Pind
Hepatica
Celtic Spikes
purple, pink and turquoise dodecahedron Purple Dodecahedron pendant
pink to purple to black fade mngwa bracelet on mannequin arm Purple Mngwa bracelet
Zig Zag Byzantine
(purple is a regularly stocked color for this kit)

Which kit(s) would you’d like to see us release in purple? What are your favorite accent colors to use with purple? Leave us a comment below and we might just make your kit!

In the meantime, check out some purple tools & accessories, including purple pliers and a nifty purple tool holder for all your (purple) chainmaille pliers! More purple accessories to come. :-)

Rebeca Mojica’s Interview with VoyageLA Magazine About Starting A Chainmaille Business

Inspiring Stories of Hollywood: Rebeca Mojica, founder of Blue Buddha Boutique

I’m honored to appear in the Most Inspiring Stories: Hollywood section of VoyageLA Magazine.

In the article I discuss starting, growing, closingā€”and then re-openingā€”my chainmaille supplies business, Blue Buddha Boutique as well as the challenges of continuing to stay creative with my own jewelry line, Rebeca Mojica Jewelry while I grow a third brand, LinktĀ® Craft Kits, the first line of DIY chainmaille jewelry kits geared toward kids 8 and up.

Some of my students and customers have asked these same questions, so I hope you enjoy reading my responses. Plus, there’s an answer to a question I don’t think I’ve ever been asked in an interview: What were you like as a child?

Read the full in-depth article in VoyageLA Magazine to find out more.

Rebeca Mojica in VoyageLA magazine article

100+ Chainmaille Designs Back On Our Website!

chainmaille weaves from blue buddha websiteBrowse Chainmaille Patterns For Sale, For Free Download, Or Just For Eye-Candy & Inspiration!

I’ve started resurrecting the Designs section of BlueBuddhaBoutique.com to showcase all the classic Blue Buddha patterns developed by myself, our guest designers and our amazing chainmaille team over the years.

If a PDchainmaille tutorial pdfF tutorial for a particular pattern is available for sale, the end of the description will include a link to purchase in the Blue Buddha Etsy shop. And, as before, most of the patterns in the “Introductory” section are available for free download, woo-hoo!

There are still a couple dozen more patterns to add, so if you’re looking for something that’s not there, check back in a few weeks/months.

I’ve started reaching out to guest designers whose projects have been repeatedly requested by customers to negotiate new contracts with them (since their old contract was with Blue Buddha the corporation, not Blue Buddha the sole proprietor, heh). Trinity is already available; Dragon’s Eye and Mngwa should be following soon!

In the meantime, there’s plenty of eye candy to check out in the Chanmaille Patterns area of the Designs section:

screenshot of blue buddha boutique website chainmaille designs page

 

You can click the tabs within the section to scroll through the projects in the various levels, or you can look at everything at once by clicking the “view all patterns on one page” link near the top right.

Additional Updates

In case you missed the announcement in last month’s newsletter, I’ve also added the old Stats and Uses page for base metal jump rings to the “Knowledge Base” section.Ā  (It’s not pretty, but it’s there, heh. I know many of you missed this page … so, enjoy!)

There’s still lots of work to do and probably plenty of broken links to fix. If you have comments or suggestions on what you’d like to see next, please leave a comment below or email me [email protected]; I can adjust my priority list based on your suggestions!

LinktĀ® Craft Kits Win Multiple Awards!

ASTRA Best Toys for Kids 2017 and Oppenheimer Toy Portfolio Gold Seal 2017 Awards

The five introductory LinktĀ® Craft Kits from Neat-Oh! International make it easy for children, tweens and adults to make professional artisan-quality jewelry. In the few short months since we launched, LinktĀ® Craft Kits have already won several industry awards:

BubbleLoops-ASTRA-awardWe are honored to have received a Best Toys For Kids 2017 award for our Bubble Loops kit!

This award comes from ASTRA: American Specialty Toy Retailing Association. Products are nominated by toy store owners around the country, so this award means a great deal to us. These shop owners are experts when it comes to selecting quality toys and gifts, especially for the hard-to-please tween market. We greatly appreciate this support from specialty retailers and love that they believe in our product!

Thank you store owners and thank you ASTRA! We’re thrilled.

 

 

Hoops and Loops Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award boxTwo LinktĀ® Craft Kits now in stores have also been awarded the prestigious Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal. Both our Hoops & Loops Kit and our Spinning Halos Kit received this honor.

In writing about our Hoops & Loops kit, which makes 20 pairs of earrings, the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio website proclaimed: “Our 12-year old tester gave this a 10, the highest possible score in our rating system!”

Read the full review of Hoops & Loops on the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio website.

 

 

Spinning Halos Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award boxThe review of the Spinning Halos kit mentions that the rings are easy to open and the instructions clear. They also found our YouTube videos helpful, so be sure to check out the LinktĀ® Craft Kits channel as you start to work on your kits!
We worked so hard to create a tween craft kit that makes stunning, real jewelry while providing a fun, engaging challenge–and we’re thrilled that our work is being recognized. Thank you, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio!

Ā 

Linktā„¢ Craft Kits was created by Neat-Oh! International, a successful specialty toy manufacturing company, and Rebeca Mojica, founder of Blue Buddha Boutique. Driven by a desire to make this artform accessible to all, Rebeca and Neat-Oh! developed new tools and materials to revolutionize this craft. The product was also named one of the top 5 Innovations Center finalists at Creativation 2017.

Each kit, priced at $20, has everything you need to complete multiple projects in a single box. You can make up to 20 pairs of earrings, or 5 necklaces, or 5 braceletsā€”mixing and matching metal and silicone rings in a variety of colors so every single piece is different.

Support small businesses! Purchase LinktĀ® Craft Kits at specialty retailers across the US/Canada or in the Blue Buddha Boutique Etsy store.

For updated information and to find out when new designs for
Linktā„¢ Craft kits are available, follow LinktĀ® Craft Kits on Facebook!

Have fun, get LinktĀ®!

buy now shopping cart button for Linkt

Buy Linkt Craft Kits on Amazon.com:

Bubble Loops

Spinning Halos

Bonding Bracelets

Hoops & Loops

Maille Bonding

LEGAL NOTE: Some of the links in this article are affiliate links, which means I earn a few pennies for any transactions you make on Amazon after following those links. Any little bit helps keep the lights on, so I appreciate your clicks and purchases very much. Thanks for supporting independent artisans and small businesses! :-)