And the winner is...

The Prize Winner:
Woohooo!! Congratulations, Sharyn, you have won the free magnet give-a-way! Your profile is not public, so if you could please contact me via my website, and give me your shipping address (and preference for catalog magnets or security envelope magnets), I will send you your winnings!

Huge thank you to everyone who participated in our first ever Junk Mail Gems give-a-way! I really enjoyed all of your comments.

The Results of the Vote:
After tallying the votes, it looks like the badge holder comes out on top, being in 19 people's top 3, and #1 favorite for 11 voters! The paper weight came in a close second, being among 18 people's top three, and voted #1 favorite for 9 voters!

Thanks again for all of your feedback and votes...the paperweight and the badge holder will be my next new products, available soon this summer! As for the other new product ideas, I will continue to work on these and get them out there on my site down the road as well. Stay tuned...I'll be sure to blog about them when I have them available for purchase.

Have a wonderful 4th of July everyone!

Contest: WIN FREE Junk Mail Gems Magnets!

As promised, I am going to give you all a sneak peek at some of the many new products that I have in the works that I hope to soon add to my current recycled junk mail product line. But, what is even more exciting, is that YOU have a chance of winning a set of 10 colorful catalog magnets, OR a set of 10 security envelope magnets; your choice! I have 7 new product prototypes below (and probably 10 more in my head!), and need some help deciding which to start offering on my site first!

The Rules:
Here's how you can enter in two easy steps....

1) Help me decide which products to make available on my site first by leaving a comment on this post with your top 3 favorites in order of their favorite-ness! (#1 being most favorite, #2 being second favorite, etc)

2) Post a link to this contest on your own blog. If you do not have a blog, share it with your friends via email, Facebook, or wherever!

The winner will be chosen at random and announced on Friday, July 3rd.

So, here is your sneak peek and the new product prototypes that you have to choose from to tell me your favorites!

The Prototypes:

1) Pencil Cup
This pencil cup is made entirely out of recycled junk mail catalog pages. The base is a sturdy piece of coiled paper and the sides have almost a leather like feel.


2) Coil Earrings
Created in reaction to some of my customers' requests at this year's Craftstravaganza, these coiled junk mail earrings are a perfect complement to my junk mail pendants and pins! They are coated in a high-gloss, clear resin.


3) Badge Holder
This stylin' badge holder is made out of the colorful recycled catalog beads that I also sell as necklaces, earrings, and separately as loose beads. But, now you can use them to display your badge at work in style!


4) Coil Bowl
This bowl is made entirely out of coiled junk mail, and covered in a clear, glossy finish. Certain to make a great conversation piece! Since these take a long time to make, they would likely be offered either as made-to-order, or I would display the current stock of actual bowls up for sale on my site.


5) Collage Bowl
This bowl has an underlying structure made of plaster, and is then covered with a collage of colorful junk mail catalog pages, and sealed with a clear, glossy finish.


6) Paper Weight
This awesome paper weight showcases a colorful catalog page behind a heavy crystal dome, magnifying the design while holding down your papers in style! The bottom is covered with a black velour pad. I would likely be displaying actual paperweights in stock on the site, so that you can snatch up the specific, one-of-a-kind pattern you like!


7) Keychain
These keychains are made with the same technique as my junk mail pendants and the coil earrings above, with a disc of coiled junk mail protected with a coating of high gloss, clear resin.


As you can see, I have my hands and head full of new ideas...please help me out and tell me what your favorites are! I'd love to know why as well, so feel free to elaborate! Thank you!! :-)

Possibilities for Recycled Chandeliers

After doing a little web surfing today on SuperUse and I've noticed just about anything can be turned into a cool chandelier. You may remember my recent post with a plastic trinket chandelier I saw on our trip to Paris. Well, if you liked that one, here are a few more cool ideas!

Check out this styrofoam chandelier:


Umbrella and LED chandelier:


Flashmob Chandelier:


Ballpoint pen chandelier:


Plastic debris "Tide Chandelier":


Banana box chandelier:


PET bottle "Cascade Chandelier:"


CD Jewel case chandelier:


Stainless steel sink drain filter chandelier:


Recycled glasses chandelier:


Craftzine has a couple cool recycled chandeliers here too.
Oh, and check out the neat party popper chandelier on Ecofriend, and this tail light chandelier at Apartment Therapy. It seems the chandelier possibilities are endless!

DIY Office Storage Solutions...Don't Waste your Money!

My postings have been a little sparse lately, due to the combination of a lot of freelance work right now, and a pretty major home remodel project we have going on. This remodeling, however, means that the Junk Mail Gems studio will soon be moving to the room next door, which means I will have more space. Wahoooo! It also means that this is a great opportunity for me to de-clutter and re-organize.

I have always been big on organization since I was little. I'm like a kid in a candy store when I go into a Container Store. However, rather than leaving their store with full shopping bags, these days I've been leaving the store with a lot more ideas to make things myself for a whole lot cheaper.


Take these storage canisters (above,left) for example. You can buy them for$3.99 to $6.99 a piece. OR, you can do what I have been doing in my office, and spray painting the lids of empty food jars with metallic paint, and getting the exact same look for pennies (above, right). Probably not even a penny...fractions of a penny. And I bet you can do it in less time than it takes you to go out and buy them. I don't understand why the same people who toss glass jars into the garbage or even recycle bin, would then turn around and pay for the exact same thing in a store!!

Here's another one. You can spend $8.00 on a piece of metal that you can stick magnets to:

Or, you can go to the hardware store, buy a piece of steel bar stock, and attach it to your wall yourself.


These wood veneer magnet boards are pretty cool looking. Bet you think you can't make this, eh? Think again!

Save the $25.00 and go get yourself a piece of steel from the hardware store, add some peel-n-stick woodgrain shelf liner in oak or pine, and you've got virtually the same thing. You can even try faux leather or granite! Looking for an even better deal that's even more green? Instead of buying a new sheet of steel from the hardware store, go to a local thrift store or yard sale and pick up a few cookie sheets! There's a great DIY cookie sheet message center project here. I've even seen rolls of left-over shelf liner at thrift stores and on Craigslist as well.

Don't forget to spruce up your magnet boards with some Junk Mail Gems recycled junk mail magnets, of course! Starting at just a buck a piece, you won't have to worry about emptying your wallet.

I am eager to get started on making my own personalized organization and storage solutions, once I am able to move into my new office. Once I do so, I'll be sure to post some instructions so you can try it too!

New Crochet Pattern: Rocket Ship!

It's been a little while since I've posted! I've been busy with my list of 14 new Junk Mail Gems product ideas, making prototypes! I just have too many ideas to pick from so in the near future I am hoping to put up some photos of these prototypes and have you all vote on your favorites, for a chance to win some free Junk Mail Gems product! Stay tuned!

In the meantime, I've been back on a crochet kick again, and I'm really excited about my latest original crochet pattern, now available at my design site. It is a rocket ship, which I made for my 1 and a half year old's new space themed bedroom! Check it out...




The flames are my favorite part! :-)


This rocket was made using all left-over yarns from previous projects. That's the fun part about amigurumi figures...you can easily have enough left-overs to make many fun toys!

Book Review: Collapse of Distinction by Scott McKain

I recently signed on as a book review blogger for Thomas Nelson. Basically how it works is, if you have a blog, they will send you books for free in exchange for you later posting a review. It's a pretty cool deal that I found out from my sister-in-law, and I thought I'd give it a try! So, here is my first book review!

For my first book I chose "Collapse of Distinction: Stand out and move up while your competition fails," by Scott McKain. I chose this book because I am a small business owner (three of them, to be exact), and thought it may provide some new ideas to help grow my businesses. I figure we could all use a little boost to our businesses in this economy, and this is certainly one way to start! It took me a little while to get through, being a full time at-home Mommy and business owner, as I pretty much only read in the bath tub! But, this book was a very easy read and Scott kept my attention throughout.

One thing I liked about this book is that it contains advice and strategies that will apply to your business, whether you are the CEO of a major corporation, a low man on the totem pole, or a small business owner like myself. Scott uses great stories and business examples ranging from his own father's small town grocery store to large corporations like Starbucks and Apple.

Scott starts out by explaining the phenomenon of a sea of "sameness" that so many companies today are getting swallowed up in. He explains three things that destroy differentiation, and goes on to talk about what does NOT work to differentiate. I was surprised to find that the things that first came to my own mind for ways to differentiate from the competition were among his list of things that don't work!

There are three levels of differentiation according to Scott. Level one, sameness, is when you are indistinguishable from your competition. When a company reaches level two, "differentiation," they have traits that separate them from their competition. But, it is when a business reaches level three, "Distinction," when you become #1 in your field. Scott goes on to explain the four cornerstones of distinction, and how you can build these cornerstones for your own business.

Every chapter ends with an "executive summary," or outline of what you've just read, which not only makes it easy to retain the information, but super simple to go back and look something up afterward. He also ends each summary with a list of action steps, questions, and ideas, which help to apply his principles to your own business.

Overall I thought this was a great book. For me personally, it reinforced that I have been doing many things right all along, but helped me understand why those things are working. It also made me think about my business and my customers in a new way, which I feel will impact my business in a positive way!

"Innocent Spam" by Janet Nelson

So, here's how this post came to be. Yesterday I posted on my Facebook status that I "just deleted over 1,600 junk emails from my inbox from only 6 days; this is getting ridiculous!" A friend commented with something about how if only I could turn junk EMAIL into something crafty (like I do with paper junk mail). In chimes another friend out in Ohio, saying that he has seen artwork made from spam emails. You see where I'm going here? Anyway, I just had to share the link he sent because it made me smile, and was in some weird way, related to Junk Mail Gems...if only in a distant-cousin-twice-removed sort of way.

We all have gotten those spam emails with dirty subject lines. Well, thank goodness for people out there like Janet Nelson, who finds the innocence within the icky with her fantastic "innocent spam" cartoons. Check it out...you're sure to look at those nasty spam messages in a whole new light!

As I glance over at the now 244 messages in my junk email folder, I see a few that might be fun to illustrate...
"Women will stare at your member like at the museum."
"Never half-staying in bed."
"Ladies crave for bigger chest like the guys crave to be blessed."
"She won't hide her emotions when she sees your proportions."
"Just what your rod needs!"

These lines clearly are not written by people whose first language is English! Especially this one: "hoist your belove sexuality" and "Be sure in your hose." Huh? Well, I guess I can be glad that these forms of junk mail are electronic and not physically arriving in my mailbox, but they are no less annoying!! Thank you, Janet, for your creative and entertaining way to "repurpose" electronic junk mail!