we need patches!

i heart...


post a patch.

incase you don't know already, post a patch is our current community project. we're looking for people around the world to knit/crochet squares & post them to us so we can make them into blankets for two amazing charities - Starter Packs Glasgow & So Go And Run Free.

so far we've had a few patches come our way...

(thanks to Elaine, Christopher, Joanne's Mum & Anthea for the patches we've received so far!)

but as you can see we need LOADS more. so please get knitting or crocheting pronto!

why not spend your sunday catching up with friends whilst you knit. can't knit? invite your granny or mum round to give you a wee lesson. or switch the tv off, put the kettle on & have a relaxing knitting session on your own. sundays were made for knitting!

send your 10cm x 10cm patch to:

i heart...

21 burnside ave

aviemore

PH22 1SE

thank you so much.

xox.

pom-pom project.

i heart...

pom-poms.

so when i came across the Pom-pom Project organised by Natalie Jones, I was very excited about getting involved. i was sent a lovely little package with instructions, a pom-pom template & some yarn which i made into a lovely multi-coloured pom-pom. if you don't see yourself as much of a crafter then making pom-poms is a great place to start - it's lots of fun & takes only a couple of minutes to make!

today i went for a wee walk with my mum & her dog to find a perfect place to put my pom-pom...

for more information on the Pom-pom project click here.

& remember we've go a couple of our own projects on the go just now too!

more info here.

more info here.

go on, get involved!

xox.

music to my ears.

i heart...

music.

and i've been dying to organise a music-based project for yonky donks. for a few months last year i was very lucky to be part of Glasgow PodcART & through this got to hear loads of talent-ridden new music from bands & musicians around scotland. after moving up north i've unintentionally fallen out of the loop when it comes to music & want to rectify that. Glasgow PodcART does an amazing job at being a platform for new music via it's podcasts, reviews, interviews & gigs, something i'm still a strong believer in. so, here's our first music project...

every month we'll pick a song to be played on our website (you can have a peek now & listen to a lovely song by esperi) along with a link to your band site/bandcamp/myspace, allowing your music to be heard & enjoyed by lots of people & hopefully give you a helping hand to get your music to get out there.

all you have to do is send your tracks to our SoundCloud dropbox...

Send me your sounds

...and we'll pick a track once a month to will be featured on our website. as with all of i heart...'s projects, it is open to ALL. whether you're an established artist or just sing in the shower, we would love to hear your music.

xox.

post a patch update.

i heart...


post a patch!

so after struggling to find just one charity that wanted our community-made blankets, we now have two!

Starter Packs Glasgow & now So Go And Run Free - a charity that offers support to bereaved parents in the highlands, who lose their babies before, during or shortly after birth & provide them with memory boxes. our blankets will be used to wrap the babies in whilst the parents say their goodbyes & can take it home with them to remember their special wee one.

both charities really need our help, so get your knitting needles & crochet hooks out & get making patches! and spread the word, the more the merrier :)

for more info on what to do & where to send your patch, click here.

xox.

post a patch.

i heart...

when a plan comes together.

after struggling to find a charity willing to accept the donation of our community-made blankets (read more here), thanks to your help we've now found one!

Starter Packs Glasgow is a charity that provides starter packs of basic household necessities for homeless households in glasgow. our blankets will be gladly received by people who don't have much & are striving for a fresh start.

so let the knitting commence!

all you need to do is...

• knit/crochet a 10cm x 10cm patch, in any colour or pattern you wish - be as creative as you like!
• send your patch to:

i heart...

21 Burnside Avenue

Aviemore

PH22 1SE

• we will then sew all your beautiful patches into lovely blankets & send them to Start Pack Glasgow, who will pass them onto people who will benefit immensely from them.

there's no deadline on this as i would like it to be an ongoing project which could hopefully help other charities as well, but the quicker you get knitting the quicker the blankets will be made & enjoyed by people in need around glasgow.

go get your knitting needles out!

xox.

project help.

i heart...

community projects.

and so far we've concentrated mostly on collaborative zine projects (have a look here & here) which have been so much fun to organise & have introduced me to some very talented people.
however, this project is going to be a bit different. it's far from a new concept, but i think it's a lovely one.

introducing, post a patch...

now, i've been thinking about this project from waaaayyy before xmas & have been contacting charities to offer them the donation of these proposed blankets - something i didn't really see being a problem. i mean surely children's charities that help orphanages, charities that help people in 3rd world countries, homeless charities that help people on the streets, would jump at the chance of the donation of blankets, right? wrong.

i contacted Oxfam, who replied saying it would be too expensive to get the blankets overseas (which i can understand), Barnados who replied saying they already have a local ladies group that provide them with handmade goods, Action For Children who never replied, Shelter who passed me onto Crisis, Crisis who said they already have bedding... it goes on.

i never, ever imagined it would be so hard to give something away to charity. some have suggested to sell the blankets & donate the money to them, but that's not what this project is about. it is about one community giving something to another. a blanket doesn't just keep you warm, it makes you feel safe & knowing that it was made by people from all over wanting to help, i would hope would make the receiver feel wanted, loved & less alone.

so before we even get our knitting needles out, i need your help. do you know of any charities that would welcome our blankets with open arms? do you live near a nursing home/homeless shelter/orphanage that would benefit from these blankets? any suggestions would be very much appreciated. and if all else fails you will see me handing out blankets to homeless people on the street myself!

xox. 

'my favourite place' zine launch!

i heart...


our 'my favourite place' collaborative zine.

& today is launch day! the zine consists of artwork & sounds of 10 different talented people, depicting their favourite place. And yes, you heard right. The zine has sounds! not only will you be able to see what the artist's favourite place looks like, you'll be able to hear it too!

From New York to Newport, swans gaggling to magpies cawing, a cosy cabin to a spider skull mountain where the spider skull monkey lives, you can safely say there's a huge range of different places, sounds & techniques included in the zine.

With pieces from...
Murray Somerville
Barbara Ana Gomez
Helen Macdonald
Melanie Chadwick
Gillian Gibson
Natalie Hughes
Emma Cowley
Sarah McGarva
Matt Ellero
Daria Hlazatova

...the zine is full to the brim with talent from around the world!

To get your eyes & ears a copy, click HERE. & be quick! it's a limited edition of only 30!

xox.

projects, projects, projects.

i heart...


community projects.

& i've got quite a few buzzing around in my head just now. first of all there's our 'my favourite place' collaborative zine. at the end of last year we called for people around the globe to submit an artwork & sound that depicted what/where/who their favourite place was. we received an amazing range of submissions & after trying & failing to get funding to get the zines printed & a very busy festive season, i've finally managed to save up some pennies to get the zine finished & they will be ready for you to get your hands on soon. hurray! part of today was spent figuring out what to put on the front cover of the zine. i like making the front covers to our zines a bit different - our last zine, 'i heart...zines!' has a concoction of paint, photos, illustration & sewing on it's front - & came up with this embroidered piece...

unfortunately it's too big, but if you like it you can get it here. (if you would like me to do any custom embroidery pieces just drop me an e-mail at hello@iheartdotdotdot.co.uk)
so, i'm back to square one, but i'll think of something!

now to a project that i've taken part in myself, the 100 million stitches project which is part of the celebration of the centenary of international women's day. they are calling out for knitted patches which will be sewn together to make a huge art piece to raise awareness of the estimated 100 million women that are missing in the world today due to gender discrimination.
this is my patch...

if you would like to get involved too, you can find more info here.

this project has inspired me for our next community collaboration. so watch this space & get your knitting needles at the ready.

xox.

i heart...my favourite place announcement.

i heart...

all the submissions i have received over the last wee while for our next collaborative zine project - 'i heart...my favourite place.'

and i am very happy to announce that the 10 very talented creative people that will have their artwork & sounds featured in the zine are...

Barbara Ana Gomez

Matthew Ellero

Emma Cowley

Helen Macdonald

Natalie Hughes

Melanie Chadwick

Murray Sommerville

Gillian Gibson

Daria Hlazatova

Sarah McGarva

the zine will be available to purchase from my online shop in january, after the mayhem of the festivities are over. but i'll be sure to keep you up-to-date on how it's all coming along.

can't wait till then to feed your collaborative zine desires? a few zines from our last project are still available here.

xox.

i heart...my favourite place - update.

i heart...


being busy.

however, i've been so busy organising workshops, doing freelance work & getting ready for my upcoming stalls that i've unintentionally put the latest i heart... zine project on the back burner.
so.... you'll be happy to hear that i've extended the deadline to the 20th november so you have plenty of time to get your submissions ready :)

if you didn't know already the theme is...

& this zine is one with a difference. not only will it have pictures, it will have SOUNDS too!

entries are open to EVERYONE & ANYONE. i heart...  strongly believe that EVERYBODY has the ability to be creative, so it doesn't matter one bit whether you are a professional artist or someone that just doodles in their spare time, an art student or someone that's never picked up a pencil in their tod. ALL submissions are welcome.

all you have to do is CREATE an A6 piece which represents your favourite place. it could be the seaside, at a gig or even at your folks house watching corrie. then RECORD a sound that goes with your place (the sea, the crowd, ken & deirdre having yet another barney). then SEND these to:

iona@iheartdotdotdot.co.uk

OR

lodge 8

mains of garten farm

boat of garten

ph24 3by

successful submissions will be featured in a limited edition zine which will be sold on my online shop.

can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

xox.

i heart...my favourite place.

i heart...


organising another collaborative zine!

whilst taking submissions for the last zine project i organised ('i heart...zines!' grab yourself one here) i had the idea of having the awesome RM Hubbert record some of his amazing guitar playing onto one of those sound chip things you get in greetings cards & putting it into the zine so that when you opened it you could hear his music. but unfortunately recordable chips were quite expensive & majorly bulky so that idea was scrapped...

...which made room for this idea! to organise another collaborative zine where every page of artwork would have a corresponding sound, not through horrible big expensive chips, but through a website link. the idea being that you can look at the artwork whilst listening to the sound that goes with it at the same time! pretty cool huh?

i've decided that the theme for this one will be 'my favourite place.' as you can see...

if you would like to send a submission, think of your favourite place. maybe it's the seaside, or at a gig, or at your folk's house watching corrie. create an A6 size piece using whatever materials you choose & then think of the sound that's incorporated with that place & RECORD IT! use your phone, your computer, a mic - anything that can record .wav files.

then all you have to do is:

post me your A6 size art piece to...

lodge 8

mains of garten farm

boat of garten

ph24 3by

(because i love getting post & people should most definitely send more things in the post).

then e-mail the .wav file of your sound to...

iona@iheartdotdotdot.co.uk

& bob's your auntie!

xox.

i heart...zines! are here!

i heart...


i heart...zines!

after transforming a little idea in my head into a reality, a month of getting excited about the submissions the postie would bring me in the morning & finally collating them all & stitching them together, the i heart...zines! collaborative zine is here!

the zine includes work from a whole array of creative lovelies & each of them has created a piece that depicts what they 'heart.'

it is a limited edition of 30, so be quick before they all go!

you can purchase one HERE.

xox.

website launch!

i heart...


my brand spanking new website!


finally, after about a month of teaching myself how to use the horror that is html i have persevered, not thrown my computer out the window & somehow managed to conjure up a website which includes a blog, an online shop, info on workshops & a portfolio of projects i've organised.

here are two of my favourites from the online shop...

meet these two handsome hand-sewn creatures - rita the racoon & olive the owl.

feel free to take a gander at the website & let me know if your thumbs are up.

xox.

i heart...zines!

i heart...

zines!

i heart...collaboration.
i heart...creative people irrespective of their experience.
i heart...giving people the opportunity to showcase their work.
i heart...fun projects!

so after a weekend of the cogs in my wee head turning, i came up with this idea.

to celebrate the launch of the i heart... website on 18th september 2010, i would like to produce a collaborative zine which will be sold in my online shop.

i'd like the submissions to be as diverse as possible, from as many different disciplines as possible & using as many different materials as you want.

most importantly i'd like the submissions to come from ANYONE. it doesn't matter if you've studied art or not, call yourself an 'artist' or not, are 5 or 95, create things professionally or just doodle in your spare time. this project is inclusive of EVERYONE.

and all you have to do is...
tell me what YOU heart.
send me an A6 piece with the caption 'i heart...' on it somewhere & write, draw, paint, photograph etc, what you heart.

successful submissions will be included in a limited edition zine & their details (name, website/e-mail addresses) will be featured also. you will also benefit from lots of free advertising from myself via social networks, blogs etc so people can find out who you talented lovelies are & get your work out there for all to see :)

any questions drop me a wee e-mail to:
iona@iheartdotdotdot.co.uk

i don't think people send post enough these days so all submissions should be popped in a postbox & sent to:

Lodge 8
Mains Of Garten Farm
Boat Of Garten
PH24 3BY

i think that's everything, so get making!

xox.