On to the giveaway! I’m so glad you all enjoyed it. I find Sharon’s photos to just be the essence of cool. So if you are what you hang on your walls, one of you just got a whole lot cooler. And that lucky one is…

Congratulations Allie! Random.org likes you today. I’ll be in touch about claiming your prize.

To everyone else, if you feel like you can’t live another moment without one of Sharon’s prints to call you own, don’t jump! You can buy one for yourself at her Etsy shop by clicking right here.

Today it is an honor and a privilege to share with you the sheer delight that is Sharon Montrose‘s animal photography. Permit me to dazzle you.

YES. That just happened. While you all stare in wonder at the incredible coolness of these photos, let me tell you a little bit about Sharon. First of all, although Sharon does sell some of her prints on Etsy, she is also an established commercial photographer and published author. You can check out her website and her blog too if you enjoy stalker tendencies like me.

So Sharon obviously knows how to work those picture-taker machines and has a way with animals. Which means we have a lot in common because I’m trying to learn how to work those picture-taker machines and like to think I too have a way with animals (although I did once gradually fall off a pony at one of those pony rides at my parents’ company picnic. Yes. You read correctly. I GRADUALLY FELL OFF A PONY. That was probably traveling about two miles an hour. In a circle. Being led by someone! Sad thing was, I felt the saddle slipping and kept falling further and further, but I was too shy to say anything about it.)

Anyways, is it just me or do I always seem to go off on wild tangents during these things? Even the word “anyways” didn’t help me get back on track just then. ANYWAYS. Sharon. Is amazing. Her bio on Etsy reads,

“I am a commercial photographer and author.
I love photography.
I love animals.
I love french fries.
I love my husband.”

I love french fries too! I mean, they’re pretty good, though I usually opt for a side salad. And my husband (to-be) well, let’s just say I’m very fond of him! Sharon, we so totally have so much in common, you’d think we were separated at birth. Heh.

Okay, kidding aside, I don’t know her, but Sharon seems cool. And her work is so unique, it quite simply blows me away. I love art series that have a similar structure to each piece but vary slightly. Allows me to focus more on how each piece makes me feel.

Like the bright blue macaw makes me think of energy and light and youth.

The tiny chick makes me think of vulnerability.

And the kitten and feather reminds me how maddeningly playful cats can be. Milo would chase his feather toy until he literally dropped to the floor panting, if we’d let him.

What’s even cooler is the fact that Sharon has agreed to give one of YOU FILTHY LUCKY PEOPLE one of her prints for FREE. God, this is so totally unfair. All you have to do is:

1. Go play in Sharon’s shop for awhile and find a print that you’d truly love to call your own. This might take awhile, fair warning.

2. Come back over here and leave a comment on this post telling us which print is your favorite and WHY. Yes this time, I’d really like to hear why. Because, come on. Baby animals.

3. Don’t take your lucky underpants off all week cause this one is so worth it. That doesn’t mean stop showering though.

And that’s it! Check back here on Friday. We pick a winner at noon so get your entries in EARLY.

Actually, I’m itching to go get my lunch and read in the park, so I’m not going to waste any time revealing the winner of our too cool for school giveaway from Claudia Varosio‘s shop on Etsy.

Congratulations…

Eee! You have won a print or poster of your choice from Claudia‘s shop! I’ll be in touch soon with details on how to claim your prize.

Thanks to everyone else who entered this week. I’m sorry you didn’t win. Next one! Promise. (ps. Wicked excited for the next giveaway. Should be coming up in the next couple of weeks or so. Depends on whether or not they have wi-fi at the beach.)

But we’re all here now and that’s what matters. So! My question for you today is, what do you get when you cross an amazing illustrator with an indie movie fanatic? Why, the retrotastic beauty that is Claudia Varosio‘s shop, of course!

Claudia’s shop is one of those truly unique Etsy shops that you stumble upon from time to time (if you’re lucky). It is filled with her gorgeous, illustrated movie posters, along with some prints of her other artwork as well. Personally, I’ve never seen anything quite like it, which is why I was thrilled when she agreed to do the giveaway.

I talked to Claudia a little about her process because at first I thought the movie posters were just illustrated versions of the official posters – which would have been cool too. But no. Alas my friends, for the first time in my life, I was wrong. (ha!)

Claudia told me that in fact, all of her prints are “based on [her] own original artwork and the movie posters are inspired by some of [her] favourite movies, but not really based on the real posters; just imagined”. And can we just pause for a moment to point out that Claudia is from London which makes her exponentially more cool than any of us silly Americans, in my book anyways. Just look at the way she spelled favorite. Just look! *sigh*

Anyways, if movies aren’t your thing, check out her other prints, like the Milk print or the Vespa prints or, dear God, the London series. (lovelovelove) Her work is just so aesthetically pleasing with its simple shapes and primary colors, and of course the retro vibe that I love. Methinks I’ve found another shop to pillage once we move into our new place.

So, let’s do this! Get ready everyone…

Claudia is generously giving one lucky winner the print or poster of their choosing from her shop. All’s you gotta do to enter is visit her shop, find something you’d like to call your own, then boogie back over here and tell us what tickled your fancy in the comments.

A winner will be chosen at random on this Friday (8/14) at noon ET so get your entry on, groove things.

(Side note: I’m kidding. Winner-to-be-shortly-announced-after-I-quit-rambling, I love you. Yes I do.)

(Side side note: Any So You Think You Can Dance fans out there? I’ve picked up Mary Murphy’s annoying habit of re-affirming everything she says right after she says it. “You looked lovely out there, yes you did!” Also, frowny face for last night’s results. Melissa and Ade were two of my very favorites. And Evan? Does not belong in the final four, imho. But I digress. Naturally. Yes I do.)

Roll & Tumble Press! Winner! Let’s do this!

Congratulations…

You are our winner! Angela will be sent one print or poster of her choosing from our friend Christie and Caleb at Roll & Tumble Press. Yay!

Thanks to all who entered. Another fantastic giveaway is coming up on MONDAY. Yes. That soon. Can you handle it?

I never really missed “pressed” when it graduated from my uber-hip teenager lexicon, but when it comes to letterpress stuff, there’s no other way to put it – I’m pressed. Super pressed. Not obsessed, just pressed. I l.o.v.e letterpress stuff. The thick, inky, fibery-ness of it. It’s so substantial and permanent and full of old-school loveliness.

And Etsy is overflowing with marvelous letterpress artisans, which is why I’m kind of surprised I haven’t featured any of them in a giveaway yet. That all changes today, kids.

Please give the very kind Christie and Caleb from Roll & Tumble Press a warm welcome! I’m very happy have them here.

Based in Little Rock, Arkansas, Roll & Tumble has been featured on some of my very favorite design blogs, like Decor8, Design*Sponge, and of course, The Bright Side Project, plus so many more. Impressive? Uh, ye-ah.

And it’s not hard to see why. Roll & Tumble’s use of bright colors and old fashioned fonts and graphics in their posters and cards just floors me. And everything is done by hand using traditional printing methods. I mean, these guys are the real thing. I’m sad to say I’m not a proud owner of any of their prints but I’m sure that’ll change very soon. (So far, I think Home Sweet Home is my personal favorite, with Smile in close second.)

According to their Etsy profile, Roll & Tumble Press was born when a charming painter turned letterpress printer and an art school dropout turned tattoo artist bonded over a love of music, quirky collections and dusty junk shops. One, big, drafty house, three rescue dogs, and a chance meeting with a true old time printer. I love it! Don’t they just sound like the kind of folks you’d want to hang out with?

Well, now you can! Err, sort of. Maybe you can’t hang out with Caleb and Christie and their three rescue dogs in their big, drafty house in Little Rock but you can enter for a chance to win one of their prints to hang in your own house, big or small, drafty or… em, not, because…

Okay, we all know how this works by now, right? I’ll review anyways, ’cause hopefully we have some newbies in the audience.

So first, you mozy on over to Roll & Tumble’s Etsy shop and pick out the print or card you’d like to win. You can choose from any of the active listings in their shop.

Once you’ve picked something out, you hightail it back over here and tell me what you want and maybe a sentence or two about why.

Then, you pray that the letterpress gods smile upon you because we pick a winner on Friday (July 31st) at noon ET!

Good luck, everyone.

What a fun one it was! I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I freaking LOVE Jenni Penni’s work. Did I mention that? I. Jenni. Love. Mucho.

So you can imagine the partial heart attack I had when I discovered her Flickr photostream last night. (!!!!) She’s got all her work there, grouped together in fun ways like the Hearts set, or even the self portraits set (you can’t look at those and tell me my girl crush is unfounded!).

Anyways, a few things to note before we get to our winner (I’m a sadist, I know).

One is a clarification on my original description of Jenni. As she noted in the comments, she is NOT a beginner with photography, rather with DSLR cameras. Big difference! Sorry, Ms. Penni. Beginner or not, your photos are amazing.

I also got a question from reader Jennah in her entry comment. She asked if I partner with the artists for these giveaways, or if I’m footing the bills myself. As much as I wish I had the funds to do that, Jennah, these giveaways are the result of the artists being very generous and me being very good at saying, “Pretty please?”

Okay, finally! Winner time.

I’m proud to announce the winner of one Jenni Penni print of her choosing is…

Yay! Molly is an old friend of mine from my college days. We actually sang in an a cappella group together. Molly always kept us laughing and is genuinely wonderful person – which is why I’m so glad she won!

But I promise, this was a truly random drawing. Proof:

Congratulations, Molly! I’ll be in touch.

Thanks to everyone else who entered. I don’t have any more giveaways lined up at the moment but as soon as I do, come on back. And if you happen to know any more truly stellar Etsy artisans – point them in my direction!

A few months ago, I won this lovely print from The Bright Side Project and since then I’ve become a serious fan of Jenni Penni, the artist behind that gorgeous photo.

Jenni is a 21-year-old gal from Finland who claims to be a “total beginner” at photography. I’m like, seriously?! But she swears she’s only been shooting with her digital SLR camera for a year now. Which makes her a total natural and that much more awesome.

(Sidenote: This is hugely inspiring to me as I just got my first DSLR last month for my birthday and while it takes gorgeous photos, I find myself a little intimidated by how powerful a camera it really is – and how little I know about it. I’ve been meaning to blog about it and will soon – promise.)

Anyways, back to Jenni, aren’t her photos just so gorgeous and haunting and heartwarming and achingly beautiful all at once? Sigh. Just choosing four photos for the artist preview was practically impossible for me. Every time I visit her shop she has something new for me to feast my eyes on.

Like The love song.

Or My heart is yours.

Or, or.. gah! There are too many. They’re all wonderful.

I have to admit, I’ve got a little girl crush on Jenni. Or maybe it’s an art crush? A photography crush? Bottom line, I adore her. That’s why I was all smiles when she agreed to give one extra lucky The Spotted Duck reader one of her beautiful prints.

That’s right…

All you’ve got to do to enter for a chance to win one of Jenni’s prints is:

1. Check out her Etsy shop and choose the one print you’d love to win. (Honestly, I don’t know how you’ll choose just one but try.)

2. Leave a comment on this post telling us which print you ended up choosing (after the hours and hours of agonizing).

That’s it! Due to the holiday weekend here in the U.S. (and the fact that I’ll be out of town for most of it), we’ll run this giveaway from now until Monday 7/6 at noon ET (can you believe it’s JULY already?!).

Best of luck!

This was our second giveaway on The Spotted Duck and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the sheer volume of entries we got! Anna has quite a following on Twitter and Etsy, so it’s no wonder that folks really came out of the woodwork for a chance to win her amazing paper goodies.

But alas, only one can be the winner. Congratulations…

Anna will be in touch soon with details on your $15 gift certificate and to get your address for the postcards!

Now some folks have asked me how I pick the giveaway winners and because I am an absolutely stickler for fairness, I wanted to make sure you know that the process is 100% random.

When you enter the giveaway, you are assigned a number based on when you entered. So the first to enter is number one, the second is number two, and so on. Then, when it comes time to pick a winner, I just use the ever handy random.org to randomly choose a number.

Here’s how Star of the East won today:

See? No favorites, no nothing. I’m hardcore like that. (Though if you wanted to slip me, like, a cupcake or a burrito or a tiny kitten, I might be able to see what I can do.)

Thanks again to all those who entered. And stay tuned for our next giveaway coming not THIS Monday but NEXT Monday (June 29th).

We’re both Australian. (No wait, that’s her.)

We both currently live in Athens, Greece. (Oops, her again.)

We both make eco-friendly paper goods and accessories. (Damn!)

Okay, obviously Anna Ruby King is way cooler than I am. But we do both have a thing for birds. For me, its ducks, for her it’s sparrows and canaries and all other manner of cute fowl.

I discovered Anna last Christmas when I bought a set of her super cool multiple occasion gift cards for my co-worker. Even though she’s nearly half the world away, the shipping was prompt and her customer service excellent. She even included a set of her hand-drawn postcards that I (naturally) kept for myself.

Since then I’ve been a fan of her work, often including some of her items in treasuries I’ve created on Etsy. I love how she took her drawing talent and used it to create a whole host of items to sell in her shop. She sells the drawings themselves, of course, along with ACEOs, but also, jewelry, buttons and paper goods.

Not a fan of prints? Snap up these cute little bird little tree studs. All set on writing paper? How about these hand printed recycled map envelopes?

She even has stuff for the guys too.

Now lucky for you, dear readers, you stand a chance to gain from me and Anna’s casual interest (read: obsession) with birds. Why? That’s right…

Anna is giving one lucky Spotted Duck reader a $15 gift certificate (or voucher, as she so charmingly calls it) to her Etsy shop and is throwing in a pack of of her neat-o postcards to boot!

If you haven’t already, take a spin around Anna’s Etsy shop here and pick out an item you’d love to have hanging on your walls… or from your ears… or sitting in your writing drawer. You can pick from anything in her shop but please note this doesn’t include the items in her jewelry shop, Lila Ruby King.

All you have to do to enter the giveaway is tell us which item you’d like to receive in the comments, and that’s it!

We’ll run this giveaway from now until Friday (6/19) at noon ET – so get your entries in early!

Good luck!