Giveaway from Upcycle Books

Oh, did I find a treasure when I found Upcycle Books! This is a treasure that will hopefully be around for a very long time. Our daughter is 6 and she loves to read and to draw. I went on a search for journals on Etsy one day and never even thought of getting a journal for my 6 year old until I found Upcycle Books. They have these wonderful upcycled journals made from old Little Golden Books. The journals are priced from only $8-$13.

Upcycle Books sent me one of their precious journals and our daughter was so excited. As her mom I am excited because at only the age of 6 I can have her journal about her day or special events by either drawing or writing. I can encourage her in something she loves and at the same time have something to treasure for a long, long time.

I had her go outside and we talked about how sometimes artist will go sit outside to dream or draw what they see or what's in their heart. We talked about how journalist like to go to special places sometimes to just write all the things going through their head. Can you tell she loves her journal?


This is what Upcycle Books had to say about their shop?

When did you open your Etsy shop? We joined Etsy in October of last year with the name "UpCycleJeans" when we had the idea for repairing old blue jeans (and selling mom's huge collection of vintage patterns and craft books). But when our serger machine broke, our blue jeans plans were put on hold. Then last month we started a second store called "UpCycleBooks", and now hopefully our ring-binding machine will continue working!

How did you start making upcycled journals? Our family crafting team currently consists of myself, my sister, and our college-aged niece (my wife is 8 months pregnant so she will join the team a little later). All three of us are artists living in the Seattle area; Mom passed away last year and in her honor we are continuing with her passion for crafts and vintage items. I've been unemployed for many months and we're about to lose our house from foreclosure, but our spirits are high and we're ready to meet all the challenges that lay ahead. These handmade crafting projects help with income AND help keep me busy and creative during these global struggling times.
Our whole family has always been full of crafts people and collectors. I personally have a large collection of Little Golden Books going back about 50 years to when my parents were kids. Many of my books have broken spines and worn covers that were simply packed away due to their condition. Recently my niece moved out here from Virginia to attend art school, and she brought with her a small favorite sketchbook with a worn-out cover that she wanted to have re-bound with new blank pages, while saving some of her artwork pages too. She wanted a nice thick chipboard for the new cover, so I decided to use one of my old broken Little Golden Books--actually my original plan was to re-cover the chipboard with new fabric. But as the book was coming together we all realized how cool the new sketchbook was with the classic "Cinderella" Golden Book cover showing as it was. And it was my sister's great idea to keep all the original 12 storybook pages in the back of the new journal book.

Can you explain upcycling in case some readers don't understand what it is? We use the term "upcycling" because, by definition, we are preventing the wasting of potentially useful materials by making use of existing ones, or more simply put, we love giving new value and new life to old products!
How many pages are in the journals? In keeping with our upcycling credo, each of our handmade journal books contain 50 or more new blank pages made of 100% recycled paper produced from 100% post-consumer waste. Using 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper means that it used to be someone else's copy paper, billing statement or magazine that has been repurposed to live another life. Many other papers that claim to be made of recycled materials do not save trees because they are made from the waste generated during the manufacturing process (PRE-consumer waste). Only 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper is produced completely from discarded waste paper from offices and homes across the country, that did not involve cutting down a single tree, and uses less energy, waste water and chemicals to produce.

If someone is looking for a specific book for a cover do you take custom orders? We do offer custom-made orders, so anyone can convo us on Etsy and we will work out the details of making a handmade journal to their personal specifications and/or using materials that are supplied by them. We also have a big stack of Little Golden Books available to choose from that haven't yet been bound into new journal books. We're a small busy family but you can always ask about custom orders and we'll do our best!

In the next few weeks we will be introducing many new handmade journal books as we discover new materials and methods to go along with our wealth of ideas. We'll be making new journals and sketchbooks with covers made from grocery product boxes, postcards, DVD slip covers, VHS and video game boxes, other used books, and more. Please check back often and see what's new in our store!

Buy It - When you buy one of these journals for the low price of $8-$13 you are buying something that you can treasure for a very long time. During the 2 weeks of this giveaway Upcycle Books is offering free standard shipping to any new order shipping to any U.S address, and half price shipping for Canada and everywhere else. Make sure to mention in comments to seller that you found them on my blog.

Win It - Upcycle Books is offering one of my readers your very own Little Golden Book journal of your choice from their shop. They are willing to ship to ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!!!

Mandatory Entry (this must be done before you can gain any extra entries) - Visit Upcycle Books and tell me your favorite item in her shop.

**YOU MUST LEAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS WITH YOUR COMMENT SO I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOUR THE WINNER.

Extra Entries (must have mandatory entry completed before you can gain extra entries) -
If it say (3) comments you must leave 3 separate comments.

1. Follow my blog - (3) entries

2. Grab my button and leave a link of where I can find it - (5) entries

3. Blog about this giveaway - (5) entries

4. Heart Upcycle Books on Etsy (add as favorite) - (1) entry

5. Enter any of my other giveaways - (1) entry for each giveaway

6. Email 3 friends or co-worker telling them about this giveaway and make sure to give them the link (I'm trusting you on this one) - (3) entry

7. Purchase anything from Upcycle Books and come back letting me know what you purchased - (10) entries


This giveaway will end on April 3, 2010 and is open to all readers including US, Canada & International readers. I will select a winner using a random number generator and I will email the winner. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to my email before I select a new winner.