giveaway for the girls

March 3rd is Girls' Day in Japan. A few years ago I did evening classes in embroidery and there was a really sweet Japanese girl called Shoko in my class. On Girls' Day, she said it was traditional to give all your female friends a present and she gave us all some fabric from an antique kimono (which she hacked to pieces in front of our horrified eyes!) and some writing paper. I thought it was a really lovely idea and have always meant to adopt that tradition, but usually remember sometime towards the end of March. Well, this year I have remembered! In order to celebrate Girls' Day, I am having a little giveaway for girls only. (Boys, sorry about that. You will just have to organise your own giveaway for Boys' Day, which is in May sometime, I think.) I've made up three packages of goodies to give away and have stuck with Shoko's theme of fabric and writing paper mainly. Here's what three lucky girls could win.

Here we have a selection of eight of my favourite vintage fabrics. It is causing me some pain to part with these (hence why there are now three winners instead of the intended five!) but I am determined to be a little bit generous. Each square measures about 20cm on each side, except the brown flowery one to the left, which is a tiny bit smaller.

Here are nine smaller pieces of new fabrics. These squares measure about 12-15cm on each side. These are all fabrics that I bought quite recently and they are all so pretty that I keep coming up with new little projects just in order to use them. Hopefully the winners will be inspired by them too.

And here we have a selection of about 10 different writing papers, notecards etc. Yes, that is Elvis Presley you can see peeking out :) There's a bit of variety from parcel to parcel in the selection of writing papers, so you might find your package contains a different Elvis or a different cat etc.

Each winner will also get a bundle of postcards. I think there's about 15 there. Most of these are freebies I have picked up over the years. I have a big box of these (hence why I could spare 45 without batting an eyelid!) and find them very handy for jotting little notes and popping in the post, but you could also chop them up and recycle them into business cards or gift tags or whatever. I'm sure Lynsey is hatching a plan or two right about now if she is reading this!

I've also popped in one of my buttons cards (a different one in each parcel) as well as some pretty ribbons and a bit of green ric-rac. I might add a few more goodies throughout the week, possibly some stickers and whatnot/any fun things I find lying around in my craft room.

Phew! I think that is a very fun prize and useful too if you are a crafty type who likes snail mail. That description probably fits about 99% of the people who read this blog, so I am hoping for plenty of entries. Go on, you know you want to. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this blog post. I'll pick three winners at random on Girls' Day, which is this Thursday, March 3rd. I'm happy to ship internationally, so do feel free to enter even if you are not based in the UK. Friends and previous winners are very welcome to enter too. Remember to leave your email address or a link to your blog/whatever so I can contact you if you win.

Just one last thing before you go... You've got to ask yourself one question - do I feel lucky? Well, you should (punk). So that everyone can share in the fun of Girls' Day, I have set up a discount code for my etsy shop which will give you a massive 20% off absolutely any purchase. (My first ever sale - woo hoo!) This means...

*pinwheel brooch kits usually £4, now £3.20

*large EastEnders embroideries usually £20, now £16

*bunting in a box usually £9, now (hold on - this maths is a bit tricky) £7.20

*3 retro recipe cards usually £5, now £4

and so on. And remember I have free postage within the UK too, so those price includes UK delivery. Wowsers! To claim your discount, simply enter the code IAMAGIRL at the checkout. This code will be valid until 8.00pm (UK time) on Girls' Day, which is this Thursday. Everyone's a winner... except for boys.* Happy Girls' Day :)

*Boys, I joke - you feel free to use the discount code too.