Friday, January 13, 2012

Look What I Did With a Leaf!

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I shall leave you for the week with these sweet images of animals made of dry autumn leaves by kokoko Kids a great blog with tons of fun projects. Gather some leaves and make your own owl, squirrel and elephant. It's a great project to do with kids over the weekend or for a party. If you are looking for more inspirational projects there an entire book about this called - "Look What I Did With a Leaf!"

You can make this mask and faces using hand full of colorful leaves from your back yard. Happy weekend!

Kidsonroof: Totem Birds

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Kidsonroof is a brand of two talented Dutch designers - Ilya and Romy who are known to offer beautiful creative toys combined with an ecological approach. I absolutely adore their totem collection made from recycled cardboard and are biodegradable. "Totem Birds on Tree" comes with a tree and 15 charming birds like an owl, a kingfisher, a magpie, a nuthatch and more. It's makes a great decoration when not being played with.

Other products from the Totem collection can be found here and here.

DIY: Owl Bunting

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Belinda is the author of Hosfrkjensen where she shares DIY projects for both children and adults. I came across this tutorial on her blog on how to make an owl pram/stroller chain which looks easy to make and doesn't need the use of a sewing machine. I think by adding a few more owls on the string it can be used as a bunting for a themed party, to decorate mantle or a kid's room. Find step-by-step instructions with pictures on her blog.

Freebie: Digital Paper

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Good morning, everyone! Today's freebies is "Little Owl and Buterflies" digital paper by Erin Bradley in cotton-candy hues. The paper can be used for scrapbooking, photography, stationery, invitations etc. The folder consists of 1 digital paper and a bonus image for creating your own tiling template on websites, blogs and desktops.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Jonathan Adler: Owl

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Jonathan Adler created this owl atwork using simple pencil shavings for an organizastion - Pencils of Promise that uses pencils as a means to raise money for children's education. This piece was sold for over $1,000! This hefty price tag is instantly justified if you know that the funds are used to educate 10 children for a whole year. Kudos for those who make a difference!

P.S. Don't forget to enter the giveaway to win three prints by Suzanne Carpenter. Click here to enter now!

Zoo Bus

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This adorable illustrated Zoo Bus wall sticker by Dicky Bird will look great in a nursery or a kid's room. 

Story Wooden Blocks

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I recently stumbled across Matt Bray's website and instantly fell in love with his work. My favorite from his creations was this vintage-feel toy that consists of wooden blocks illustrated with characters from the classic story 'The Owl and the Pussy Cat'. It's a three-in-one piece which works as a toy, a story and a puzzle. I adored it so much that I sent an email to Matt asking if he was selling the toy online. He informed that he is working on the process to make it available for purchase for his fans and I'll be one of the first one to know. Yay! I promise to share the release of the toy with you all. Because I have a feeling that many of you would like to get your hands on it.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Giveaway: Suzanne Carpenter

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I am so excited about today's giveaway by Suzanne Carpenter an illustrator and designer from Wales "with birds on the brain!". Her birds are full of vibrant and bold colors that'll make you happy everytime you look at them. Today you have an opportunity to win a flock of her birds and bring them home. She has offered three prints from "Owl Eyes" series for a giveaway to My Owl Barn readers. The giveaway will have one winner who will win all the three prints. The international readers are welcome to play.

Make sure you visit her store to see more of her work. There are prints, wrapping papers and cards.

1. To win, you must be a follower of My Owl Barn (click here to follow My Owl Barn)

Make sure you leave a comment here letting me know that you are a follower and have liked and shared.

I'll announce the winner on January 19th!

Update: Some of you were not able to share the giveaway on Facebook. I have found the issue and fixed it.  All the links are working!
The problem was - Facebook blocked one of the blogger servers (2.bp.blogspot.com). I was able to change the images in my blog which were being served from that server and was able to resolve the issue. 
A technical side note for fellow bloggers. If your blog also have some content being served from that server, then it's possible that you'll be impacted by this same issue. You can replace all occurences of 2.bp.blogspot.com with 3.bp.blogspot.com (make sure first that your URLs are still working) in your widgets and template to work around it for now.
Thanks for your patience. 


Update: Unique2wh0 is our winner!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Plastic Birds by Jane Gillings

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{images via here

Have you ever thought about the amazing things that you create from discraded plastic? Well, I had definitely not conceived of something so delightful as these bird sculptures made from something so mundane as plastic straws and bags. Australian artist Jane Gillings makes these amazing, colorful and intricate birds from discarded plastic. These beautiful birds are a result of a long meticulous process of going through mountains of plastic objects, stacking them into ordered boxes and pianstakingly combining them into colorful shapes. She says "I just can't throw anything away" and "I come from an entire family of hoarders". Sometimes it's good thing. Right?

To know more and for a closer look at her work, watch the video below.

Wooden Owl Clock

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Wooden owl clock designed by french designer Stéphane Clivier who started his own company in 2003 Reine Mère  committed to producing eco-friendly products. This owl clock is made from solid birch wood from sustainable forests in Jura, France. The owl will look great perched on this branch that doubles as a coat hanger.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Rustic Owl-Inspired Baby Shower

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Whoo doesn't like owls and rustic theme for a party? This owl-inspired party mixed in with rustic feel is suitable for both boy and girl baby showers. This party has lots of wonderful details and inspiring DIYs like hootie's library filled with owl books, hand crafted owls perched on the tree made with twigs, sandwich station and quirky owl treats. For more pictures go to Hostess.com.

Owl Hot Bottle with Flax Seeds

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I am loving this sweet owl hot bottle hand made by Les Pommettes with linen and filled with aromatic flax seeds. Toss it in the microwave for a few minutes and snuggle to enjoy the soothing warmth! If you have questions about the product or want to place an order send an email on the address given on this page.