PlanetJune by June Gilbank

Keep reading for the details of the 2011 Christmas CAL and contest!

How can it be December already?! This is the start of my first southern-hemisphere summer, so it’s very hard to believe it’s December – it’s certainly a big change from Canada! This whole year has been a real struggle for me – moving abroad, months of illness, building a new life in a new country, and growing a business – I’ve had too much on my plate for a long time.

So I’ve decided to pause, and to spend this month catching up with work and life-related tasks that have been stacking up, and winding down so that I can have a proper break at Christmas and relax instead of worrying about all the hundreds of emails I have to answer and everything else that I’ve been setting aside for “when I have time” (i.e. never). Then I’ll be ready to start 2012 fresh, with new goals and a new plan.

Review and Win contest

November’s ‘Review and Win’ winner is Kim D, with her Reindeer Antlers review:

I searched for THE PERFECT antler and yours are by far, the best out there! The directions are very clear and easy to understand. Having the tutorial pictures is an ENORMOUS bonus and have helped when my brain just got stuck! I was initially intimidated to try making them, but because your directions are so easy to follow, I am currently working on my third set!! Thank you so much for creating the pattern and having it available for purchase in cyberspace!

Congrats Kim (and thanks for the great feedback!) – I’ll email you to find out which pattern you’d like as your prize

To be entered into this month’s draw for a free pattern of your choice, just write a review of any product in my shop – thank you!

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Christmas CAL and contest

December means it’s time for another Christmas Crochet-Along! This year I’m running everything through the PlanetJune Ravelry group – it’s much more fun as you can chat with other crocheters throughout the month, make friends, ask questions, and actually be part of a group. But I’ll still be doing Christmas CAL prizes like last year, so there’s a little extra incentive to join in

This crochet-along runs December 1-24 and you can join in by making any of the PlanetJune Christmas-themed crochet patterns:

Gift Boxes, Reindeer Antlers,
Christmas Trees, Christmas Baubles,
Poinsettia, PocketAmi Christmas,
Christmas Pudding, Candy Cane

The winners will be drawn randomly from all entries (one entry per pattern you crochet), and there’ll be a runner-up prize for all participants – my Christmas present to you!

The prizes:
First prize: a $10 gift certificate to spend on anything in the PlanetJune store
Second prize: a free pattern of your choice from the PlanetJune store
Runner-up prizes: I’ll send a discount code to all participants, to use against their next order from the PlanetJune store.

Please join us! You’ll find the Christmas CAL 2011 thread in the PlanetJune Ravelry group – I hope to see you there!

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A quick newsy post today, with a new winner, a new name, and a new deal:

Review and Win contest

October’s ‘Review and Win’ winner is Holly M, with her Detail Stuffing Tool review:

I make a lot of stuffed toys (some crochet, some sewn) and this is the only stuffing tool I’ve ever tried that helps me get stuffing into those really small tubes/arms/legs/etc. A chore that used to take literally hours sometimes, now takes minutes with this little tool! I really can’t say enough about it – love love love it! Makes stuffing small limbs a breeze!

Congrats Holly! I’ll email you to find out which pattern you’d like as your prize

To be entered into this month’s draw for a free pattern of your choice, just write a review of any product in my shop – thank you!

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Renamed: Amigurumi Essentials Kit

I realised months ago that having a line of patterns called PlanetJune Accessories and a kit called Amigurumi Accessory Kit was potentially confusing, but it took a suggestion from the ever-helpful ladies (and gents?) in my Ravelry group to make me do something about it. We didn’t have much luck coming up for a replacement name for the PlanetJune Accessories line (as I didn’t want the name to limit the scope of future designs – I think accessories is a good catch-all for everything except graded garments and toys), so we voted on a new name for the Accessory Kit instead.

So, as from today, the item formerly know as Amigurumi Accessory Kit is reborn as the Amigurumi Essentials Kit!

The contents is unchanged; you’ll still get:

• 1 Detail Stuffing Tool
• 5 Stitch Markers
• 2 pairs black 6mm safety eyes with washers
• 2 pairs clear 8mm safety eyes with washers
• 2 pairs black 9mm safety eyes with washers
• 2 pairs clear 10mm safety eyes with washers
• 2 pairs black 12mm safety eyes with washers
• 2 pairs clear 15mm safety eyes with washers

If you do want to order one (or more) as Christmas gifts, please be aware that mail from South Africa takes about 2 weeks at the best of times, and I imagine it’ll get slower as we approach the holidays, so please don’t wait too long if you want to make sure you’ll receive your package in time for the big day.

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PlanetJune Accessories Custom Set of 3 Patterns

I launched this a few weeks ago, but just realised that I forgot to announce it! Thanks to another suggestion from my amazing Ravelry group, I’ve launched a PlanetJune Accessories Custom Set multipack (following the successful model of my AmiDogs Custom Set): any 3 patterns of your choice from the PlanetJune Accessories line for a special price.

If you’re considering joining the November Accessories CAL, maybe this is the incentive you need to get started..?

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Let’s get this out of the way first: I was given a copy of this book to review. But I’m not being compensated for this review in any other way, and the following is based on my honest opinions!

Overview

Microcrafts: Tiny Treasures to Make and Share, compiled by Margaret McGuire, Alicia Kachmar, and Katie Hatz, is a craft project book that includes 25 miniature craft projects that use a variety of different methods and materials – and each project is no larger than a spool of thread!

I love tiny craft projects – they can be fast to make, use hardly any supplies, take up no space to display, and have a huge cuteness factor just from their size alone! So I really looked forward to seeing this book, and I wasn’t disappointed.

It’s a hardcover book, with very nice, understated styling. It’s fun just to flip through – the photos are large and clear (larger than life-size!) and the projects are well-displayed. Project instructions are broken down into numbered steps, with illustrations, templates, and tips. It’s all well laid out and easy to follow.

Embroidered felt pendant and a felted planets mobile

The included projects cover a range of styles and difficulties, from the very basic (nutshell boats, miniature paper bunting) to more technically demanding (tiny books, miniature macrame), and a range of materials including paper, felt, fabric, polymer clay, and more. Every project is very different, and there are some original concepts that I haven’t seen anywhere else before, so you really get your money’s worth, and plenty of scope to spark your imagination.

Miniature books

My Experience

I fell in love with the miniature houseplants and macrame hanger but, not having a mini plant pot or access to any live plants, I decided to make all the components myself. I followed the Macrame Hanger (p44) instructions (see below). I also liked the Wire Plant Stand (p45) idea, but not the look of the finished stand, so I came up with my own very simple version. And this is the real beauty of the Microcrafts projects – they are based on such simple concepts that they lend themselves to customizing.

If you’re not already familiar with macrame, the Macrame Hanger is one of the most advanced projects in the book. I’ve never tried macrame before, or any knotting craft other than basic friendship bracelets, so I really put the instructions to the test. Each knot had an illustration that, after a few seconds of study, allowed me to complete it successfully. The concise instructions did leave me puzzled at a couple of places: how thin exactly is “thin cord or embroidery thread or string” and how do I “hide the ends of the knot”, for example, but I think I was overthinking it: I used size 20 crochet thread, as I had it on hand; it looks a little finer than the example, but it still looks great – the exact thread thickness obviously doesn’t matter.

I only found one mistake in the directions: the instruction for the 4 cords that hold the plant hanger says to make them 1/4″ long – that’s far too short. From the picture I assume that should actually be either 1″ or 1 1/4″, but the exact length is something you can decide to look good with your pot, so it doesn’t really matter; I just continued until mine looked long enough.

As for the macrame, it might have been easier to practice the knots at full scale before going micro, but it worked! My plant hanger looks exactly like the picture (above), so I must have followed the instructions correctly:

Genius idea – as you can see, any kitschiness you may associate with macrame totally vanishes on this scale. Isn’t it adorable? Oh, hang on, maybe you don’t appreciate the scale without anything for reference… Here you go:

This is a super-sized pic – in reality the entire pot is less than 1 inch (2.5cm) diameter!

I was inspired by the polymer clay projects in the book to create my plant pot and a tiny succulent garden from FIMO. I love how this project turned out, and I had a lot of fun making it

Peeves

I’m happy to report that I don’t have any major gripes about this book!

The introduction to Microcrafts says that microcrafting is “all about putting odds and ends to good use”, however, a few of the projects are a bit limiting because they rely on specific products in order to make them. For example, the fabric buttons project requires a fabric button covering kit; and I was very intrigued by the temporary tattoos project but was disappointed to find that it requires “clear temporary tattoo inkjet waterslide-decal paper” – you can’t get much more specific than that, and I didn’t feel it really fit with the “odds and ends” claim.

This only applies to a couple of the projects though: the bulk of the Microcrafts projects use basic craft supplies (paper, felt, yarn, glue, string, etc) that you probably already have in your craft stash, or could easily buy from any craft supply store.

And I was surprised to see a book about tiny crafts that doesn’t include a shrinkydinks project – such a missed opportunity! Note to the authors: that’s my suggestion for Microcrafts 2, ladies

Final Thoughts

Microcrafts: Tiny Treasures to Make and Share is a great concept, and well-executed. There’s a wide range of projects ranging from very simple (fun to make for or with kids) to more advanced projects that any crafter will appreciate. The various contributors provide a variety of styles and materials used in the projects, so you’ll definitely find at least a few that appeal to you, and the others may just provide a spark of inspiration to create your own original microcrafts!

If you appreciate cute and tiny, and enjoy crafting, you’ll love Microcrafts. It’s a must-keep addition to my craft book reference shelf!

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Today is my first Thanksgiving as a Canadian, and I’m not there to celebrate it… But I am thankful that I’m a Canadian citizen and I’ll always have that, wherever in the world I may be. As it’s not a holiday here, I’ll catch up on some PlanetJune admin instead, and give away some free stuff – yay!

Review and Win contest

September’s ‘Review and Win’ winner is Judy C, with her Kingfisher review:

I LOVE the kingfisher that I made from this pattern and am getting a lot of compliments on it. I followed all instructions for the neatest color changes and now I do have a self-standing, perfect kingfisher of my own! All instructions are clear and easy to follow. I highly recommend this pattern-especially for bird lovers like me!

Congrats Judy! I’ll email you to find out which pattern you’d like as your prize

To be entered into this month’s draw for a free pattern of your choice, just write a review of any product in my shop.

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PlanetJune Affiliate payments

The end of September also marked my first quarterly payments to my affiliates: you’ll all have received your earnings in your PlanetJune account by now, and thank you for referring new customers to my shop!

If you’d like to join the PlanetJune Affiliate program too, you can earn 5% of the value of any orders that are placed using your unique ID code.

Some of my affiliates have yet to generate any sales through their links, so I thought I’d offer some advice in case you’ve done something wrong and are missing out on your commissions:

• You can link to any page in my shop (not the blog)
• Don’t forget to generate your own unique URL for your links from the Affiliate Marketing Tools page (you can find it under My Account when you’re logged in)
• If you’ve put a banner on your site, remember to use your link to my shop

All your links should look like this (except not split onto 2 lines): http://planetjune.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&referrer=PJ_1234567890

1. They link to a page in my shop
2. They include your unique referrer code (in this case, PJ_1234567890 – yours will be different!)

And a little tip: a lot of people ignore adverts, so you’ll probably have more luck if you e.g. post about something you’ve made from one of my patterns (with a photo), and link to that pattern using your unique link – that’s what my most successful affiliates have been doing, anyway!

If you have any questions about the Affiliate program (or anything else), please feel free to email me.

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Wow, what a contest! I so enjoyed reading all your comments on my interview with Liz and Zontee from YarnCraft, and seeing which yarn colours are your favourites.

I had an overwhelming 170 comments to go through, so I did it the technical way so I wouldn’t be working on it all night:

• downloaded all the comments
• stripped out any duplicates
• stripped out any entries that arrived after the end of the contest
• used random.org to choose the winner from the remaining 164 entries

And the winner is:

#15, Chrisie Merriman! Congratulations, Chrisie! I’ll email your Fruit Bat pattern to you, and pass on your details to Zontee at Lion Brand, and she’ll hook you up with your Vanna’s Choice yarn (in your choices of Espresso, Toffee and Scarlet).

No losers at PlanetJune…
Now, I know this means I’ve left 163 people disappointed, and that makes me feel bad, so I’m going to send you all a little something to make you feel better. Check your email

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