Have a heart

Last summer, I was asked to submit a beginner-friendly polymer clay project for the upcoming Craft Hope book. The book will feature pairs of projects and charities, the idea being that you can make the projects and then donate them to the charities.

I was honored to be included, and so I set to work and designed a heart pendant that was attractive yet simple, and then sent it off happily to the publisher.  A few weeks later, I was disappointed to find out that the charity my project had been paired-up with was not interested in receiving polymer clay jewelry.  They wanted “glass only.”

That was a really big bummer, of course, and it might have been nice if the charity had let their preferences be known up front, before I spent all of that time working on my project, but what can you do?  On the bright side, I now had this tutorial written up, and all of these photos taken, and I only needed a place to use them.  Well, last week (five months later), it hit me:  these hearts started with Craft Hope, why not use them in that way now?

In case you haven’t yet heard, Craft Hope has opened an Etsy shop for Haiti.  100% of the proceeds from every sale will be donated to Doctors Without Borders.  The shop is stocked with handmade items from all over the blogosphere (they’ll be accepting more items after they’ve had a chance to catch their breaths, if you are inclined to donate something yourself).  As of this writing, there are nearly 170 items listed, and over 1500 ($27,000+) sold.  In just a few weeks!  I think that’s just wonderful, don’t you?

So I spent last Tuesday morning putting my instructions and photos together into a 6-page PDF, and am now pleased to announce that 20 copies of the Polka Dot Cottage Hearts tutorial are available for sale through Craft Hope. Please consider this little splurge, particularly if you’ve thought about playing with polymer clay, but were intimidated by long supply lists, or were put off by a need for expensive equipment.  You can make these hearts with nothing more than a few colors of Sculpey III, an old kitchen knife, and a toothpick.  Everything else is optional.

Alternately, I stumbled across Hearts for Haiti on etsy a few days ago, and since a heart tutorial seemed like the perfect fit for such a shop, there are now also 20 copies available there.  Both shops are donating to the same charity, so please just feel free to purchase wherever you prefer.  You may also get your copy directly from me at Polka Dot Creations below, but I do hope that you will check CraftHope and HeartsForHaiti first and buy through them for as long as they still have copies.

Even if you’re not intrigued by these hearts, I urge you to head over to either shop and see what else may be of interest.  Buy yourself a little something special and help make a difference in the world at the same time.