BLOGMANIA!

Welcome to Living Green In A Colorful World!  You've arrived on the perfect day because today we are celebrating Blogmania!


This blog is number 14 of 123 blogs who are all participating in today's event and each and every one of us are giving away FREE STUFF!


All the work finding these giveaways has been done for you, so just keep track and enter to win at each blog you visit.


I know you'll want to visit as many participating blogs as possible today for this one day event.  If you see something that piques your interest be sure to bookmark or follow that blog and come back for a more thorough read later.

My Giveaway:


For today's Blogmania event I'm giving away a special prize pack including 1 recycled Mini-bag by FatBottomBags.com and 2 crochet pattern books by American School of Needlework.  The first is Crochet Cardigans by Lisa Gentry and Marianne Frits and includes 4 patterns and the second is Skirts! by Darla Sims and it includes 2 knit and 3 crochet skirt patterns. 


To enter, simply leave me a comment at the bottom of this blog post. Be sure to include how I can contact you if you win (if there's an email in your google profile that will be fine). I'll be announcing the winner on Monday, May 3rd.  This contest is open to everyone and I will ship the winners package anywhere in the world.


If you'd like to learn more about living green, recycle projects, wildlife, plants, organic gardening and recipes, please follow the blog.  If you are interested in FatBottomBags.com and our plastic bag recycling program, join us on Facebook and get updates right to your news feed.

A presentation of some recycled FatBottomBags 


Now that you've entered my giveaway, please visit these other blogs  participating in Blogmania!

(Blog- 1 – HOST OF BLOGMANIA) Between The Pages

(Blog -2 – CO-HOST) The Black Sheep Dances

(Blog-43 - CO-HOST) Books, Books Everywhere

(Blog-106) Bitten By Paranormal Romance

(Blog-82) Carpe Libris - www.seizethebookblog.blogspot.com

(Blog-59) Curling Up By The Fire

(Blog-46) Tribute Books Reviews

(Blog-12) Off the Keyboard

(Blog-94) Romance Book Scene

(Blog-56) My Favorite Things

(Blog-63) D.B. Reynolds, Writer 

Have fun with Blogmania and good luck with all the giveaways!

Pay It Forward Giveaway! Celebrating 1000 Facebook Fans

Yesterday I watched in anticipation as the fan count rolled over from 999 to 1000 and as of this morning I'm looking at 1012 people from across the country + a few from around the world who are supporting FatBottomBags and my effort to recycle and repurpose plastic shopping bags and that's just on Facebook! 

So, as you may know, my favorite way to celebrate and show my appreciation is with a giveaway.  You may also know that Facebook administrators have made it now nearly impossible for a little guy like me to host a giveaway through their site.  No problem, we'll just host it here on the BLOG :0)

Here's the details:

The winner of this giveaway will receive 1 bag of their choice from the FatBottomBags online store (I'll be posting more new bags over the course of the next 2 weeks)  The contest will run from today through February 25th. 

   To qualify you must:

1. 
   
   Be a Facebook fan
2. 
   
   Leave a comment at the bottom of this blog and tell us all what you are doing to help in the world. How are you making a difference?  Maybe you volunteer with a non-profit group, feed the homeless, pick up trash from the beach, read to children at the library; I don't know, but anything you do to make the world a better place is valid for an entry. 

I will be choosing a winning entry on February 25th!

This is not a random generated number giveaway. One of my goals with FatBottomBags recycling project is to encourage others to make a difference in the world.  I've learned through my own experience that one person really can have a far reaching impact.

I'm interested to hear how you fans are doing this!  So for this giveaway I will be choosing my favorite entry and making announcement here on the blog and on Facebook.  

I'm so excited to learn all about you and what you care about and how you show that!  Feel free to leave links and plug your causes in your comments.   

Thanks to you all!

To leave your comment and enter to win, click on the pencil icon below this post :0)

and the Winner Is......

There were so many great ideas of how to go Green this holiday season that it was hard to choose one winner based on that alone, so I decided to draw a name from a FatBottomBag

All entries were put into a FatBottomBag and I reached in and pulled out a winner

Carolyn Keys Cutter!

The winning entry is:  Carolyn Keys Cutter who entered through FatBottomBags fanpage on Facebook!  Congratulations Carolyn!

Carolyn is going Green this Christmas by:

1. Sending everyone homemade fudge
2. Making cards from recycled papers and left over ribbons, buttons etc.
3. Eliminating wrapping paper by giving her fudge in reusable tins

Thank you to everyone who entered the Green for the Holidays FatBottomBag Giveaway.  You all had some great ways to reduce  your environmental impact this Christmas.  Look for tomorrows blog where I'll be sharing all of your great ideas and more ways to Go Green for the holiday!

Green for the holidays GIVEAWAY (update)

This contest is now CLOSED!  Please follow or fan FatBottomBags to stay up to date on new bags and contests.  Thank you to Everyone who participated!

I'm giving away another FREE FatBottomBag and just in time for the holidays!  Have you entered yet?  

 Details:
      To enter the drawing you will need to:  
 
     *Become a fan of FatBottomBags on Facebook 
     or Follow me on Twitter 
     or Follow me on Blogger
         
     *Post a link to the giveaway page at 
      http://fatbottombags.blogspot.com/2009/11/green-for-holidays-giveaway-update.html
      in your status message  

     Facebook users: Post on the fanpage completing this sentence,
     "I am going Green for the holidays by _______________"
           
     Twitter users: Post an @FatBottomsBag completing this sentence,
     "I am going Green  for the holidays by ______________"
     
     Bloggers: Post a blog about FatBottomBags holiday giveaway 
     and how you are going green for the holidays and comment here with a link

One winner will be selected by me on December 1, 2009 and announced on Facebook, Twitter and on my Blog at http://fatbottombags.blogspot.com/

The winner will then choose their free bag from the available bags at the time of the drawing from FatBottomBags On-line Store  Free bag will be shipped by US Priority Mail *(I'll pay the shipping) Winner should receive the free bag in time for the holidays!

FatBottomBags are made from recycled plastic shopping bags.  I recycle for 20 families and together we've kept over 4500 (and counting) plastic bags from going into the wastestream! Each bag is unique and comes with a signed certificate of authenticity. Here's a slideshow of the current bags available as of today 11/23/09

More Recycle Crafts For Christmas

Christmas countdown at FlashBannerNow.com

I love a homemade Christmas. One year I made all of our tree ornaments from fabric scraps turned into "lollipops" another year I crocheted and starched string snowflakes.

Each year I try to do something homemade for Christmas because I think that is what the holiday is really about, sharing the gift of yourself with friends and family.

This year I'm continuing with my handcrafted Christmas tradition with a recycling twist. I'm finding fun and fantastic ways to make recycled decorations and sharing what I've found with you.

Recyled 6pack rings turned into this beautiful snowflake decoration!

Over at About.com, Sheri Osborn will teach you how you and your children can turn those old puzzles into very cute ornaments for your tree

Ehow has a quick and easy tutorial to make a drum ornament from common "throw away items"

Happy Bird's Crafting Haven has a real easy project for recycling your old cards into tags for Christmas.  You could use the same idea to make tree ornaments too!

Use your colorful junk mail or recycled cards to make these pretty tree ornaments

Here's an easy and beautiful way to reuse your old scratched up ornaments

InsidiousNeth shows us a really neat oragami gift box to make in this YouTube video

Have an old computer keyboard?  Try this ornament made from the recycled circuitry.  Suprisingly beautiful!

Turn an old soda can into a beautiful 3 dimensional star ornament

Or you can make the whole Christmas tree out of cans like they did over at http://mdewtree.com/
Here's the video from YouTube



Heres another 3 dimensional star, make this one from recycled Christmas cards.

You can use recycled paper and then follow along with iespila to make a 3 dimensional snowflake



This might be my favorite one.... Recycle a wool sweater into an adorable polar bear ornament from Fun in the Making

You'll never believe these pretty stars are made from recycled plastic bottles!

WOW!  This is amazing. She just used glue, glitter, garland and Toilet Paper Rolls and made gorgeous tree ornaments!



Let me know your green holiday ideas and don't forget to enter the Green for the Holidays FatBottomBag Giveaway

Free Mini-bag recycling exchange program

Today I'm cutting up a stack of colored bags and sorting them to prepare for my 4 ferry ride trip tomorrow.  All that time on boats will be good time to work on some new bags for the upcoming holidays.

I finally finished another Mini-bag!  This one is going to Mattie in Washington who sent me 60 bags in yellow, dark brown and a couple of different blues.  It's so exciting to open a package of those colored bags and get my inspiration flowing for my next FatBottomBag!

If you want to exchange bags with me for a free Mini-bag here's the details from my website:

A lot of FatBottomBags fans have approached me with requests to send in their own bags to be recycled.  I'm currently recycling for 20 different local families.  This keeps me well supplied in white and tan bags with an occasional colored bag or 2.  

It didn't really make environmental sense to have too many bags sent to me from across the country.  Hopefully everyone has access to drop those bags off for recycling in their local area.  If you don't know where to take yours check on the recycle finder at the bottom of the blog. 

After receiving repeated requests I decided it was important to come up with some kind of incentive program.  So I've set up this Mini-bag recycling exchange.

If you send me 60 clean, colored plastic shopping bags I will send you 1 Mini-bag by FatBottomBags.com 

Mini-bags are great for reusable lunch sacks or use it as a small handbag to carry your keys, wallet etc.
 
Each Mini-bag will be a unique handcrafted creation with a signed and  numbered certificate of authenticity and each Mini-bag will be similar in size and style, but coloring will vary.
 
To participate:
   *Send only clean plastic bags in any color except white (If you're including tan bags, please only send up to half of them in tan and the rest in other colors).  The bags should be of similar weight as your typical plastic grocery bag. Overly stretchy or thick bags are very difficult to crochet with.    *Include your name, email address and shipping address
   *Allow up to 2 weeks to receive your Mini bag.

I will send you an email when I receive your contribution for recycling  and another when I mail out your Mini-bag

Mail your bags to:

                        FatBottomBags
                        c/o Christi Spangler
                        2843 Aiston Creek
                        Lummi Island, WA 98262

Green for the holidays - a free FatBottomBag giveaway

Here come the holidays!
It's only October 13th and you may not be ready to face the fact that the holidays are right around the corner. I know I was shocked to see the holiday lights and ornaments already out for sale at my local department store. That got me to thinking, even though there are still 75 days until Christmas, a lot of us are already working on our gifts for friends and family. With the economy what it is and all of us tightening our belts I wanted to run another giveaway for a free FatBottomBag. It's a perfect gift for your eco-friendly friends.

The Details:

I will be running this giveaway through December 1st. To qualify for the drawing you will need to:

1. Become a fan of FatBottomBags on Facebook or Follow me on Twitter or Follow me on Blogger
2. Post a link to the giveaway page at www.FatBottomBags.com/id18.html in your status message on either facebook or twitter mentioning the free bag giveaway
3. Facebook users: Post a comment on the fanpage completing this sentence,

          "I am going Green for the holidays by _______________________"

          Twitter users: Post an @FatBottomsBag message completing this
          sentence,

          "I am going Green  for the holidays by _______________________"
         
          Bloggers: Post a blog about FatBottomBags holiday giveaway
          and how you are going green for the holidays and email link for
          your Blog to mailto:info@FatBottomBags.com

It's that simple to enter to win a free FatBottomBag in time for the holidays! One winner will be selected on December 1, 2009 and announced on Facebook, Twitter and on my Blog at http://fatbottombags.blogspot.com/

The winner will then choose their free bag from the available bags at the time of the drawing from FatBottomBags On-line Store Free bag will be shipped by US Priority Mail *(I'll pay the shipping) and should arrive to the winner with pleanty of time for holiday gift giving.

FatBottomBags are made from recycled plastic shopping bags.  I recycle for 19 families and together we've kept over 4000 (and counting) plastic bags from going into the wastestream!

Here's some of the bags that I've made and sold in the past.  Each bag is unique and comes with a signed certificate of authenticity.