Not your ordinary Baby Ornament Giveaway! OOAK

The Hand Print Lady! n

 I posted the video above because I was thinking...why the Hand Print Lady?  I can get one of those kits form Micheal's....and then I saw this video and I totally agree with the second lady on here.  My prints turned out lame like that for my kids!  Bummer.  Wish I knew about the Hand Print Lady 4-6 years ago.  :)  I have posted some of my favorites from her Etsy Shop  

http://www.etsy.com/shop/handprintlady

The Hand Print Lady does have a name....Monica Lasich.  She is lives in my home town of So Cal (Southern California for you non So Callies).  How I miss Orange County...Irvine...Fashion Island...Newport....Huntington Beach...ahhhh.  I digress, back to business.  The Hand Print Lady sells boutique quality Heirloom Ceramic Hand and Footprint Keepsakes for families.  Oh and get this...you don't just have to live in So Cal...she has this awesome new Prints by Mail Kit!! 

 As far as what she can make...well just about anything you can get your hands on....haha yes a pun.  She makes hand/footprint ornaments, plaques, frames, vases, wind chimes, and garden stepping stones as well as hand print mugs, plates, and tiles.

Monica opened a ceramic studio in 1997 in Southern California. It was a paint your own ceramic shop, but she wanted everything handmade in the shop, so she made it all.  She taught pottery making on the wheel, hand building, sculpting, and painting.  One day someone asked if she could do some hand and footprint plaques of their baby.  Of course, she did.  

She eventually had to close the studio because she kept having more children, and needed to stay home with them (must have been the footprint she made for that baby...good omen).  She still felt the desire to touch clay.  After moving to a 2 bedroom apartment, all she could do was just baby hand and footprints, since many of her things were packed away.   She went full speed ahead from there.   She had been on Etsy since 2005 with a pottery shop.  {WAIT! How come it took me sooooo long to hear about ETSY??????!!!!  So many wasted years...lol.  Ok I digress again).  

Monica received so many requests from across the country and even worldwide about hand/footprint plaques.  When her sisters and extended family started having babies, she had to devise a technique to do the prints by mail since they all lived out of her area.  Finally she got the system down perfect.  She wiped her store clean fall of 2009. From that point on she offered only hand and footprint ceramics.  She says, "It's been the best thing I ever did."  {They always say...find one thing you do well and capitalize on it!  You go girl! }

I asked her what inspires her art and she said, "Families inspire my art.  That, and my love for clay (my husband said it was worse than a heroin addiction once)."  That's ok Monica...I love designing and sewing so much my husband says I am my own sweat shop since I make no profit at the end of the year.  :)

Monica's says, "Clay will always be my favorite medium.  I'm so obsessed, when I visit anyone's house, all I do is look for ceramics and I have to pick them up and touch them."

I asked Monica how she juggles being a mom and a business owner/artist.  She told me she is a mother of 6 (yes, 6) children.  {uh, what? wow.}  "They've been my hand print "models" for 21 years now.  It works perfectly having a 3 year old at home and having moms, dads, grandparents, and families into my home to do the prints.  My mail order work is done in the early am after the older ones get to school, and then I can work right next to my 3 yr old daughter when she is playing beside me.  She's really good at not touching mommy's stuff now.  She likes all the kids who come over to 'visit'."  Now I am wondering....how her lil one will grow up seeing all that.  I think a future Picasso is being molded.
                                                                                                         LOVE THIS!!! SO SO CAL

When asked about Etsy, "I love being part of a community on Etsy.  Relationships are built, even more than a sale for me, due to the nature of my work." 

When asked about the music that inspires her she said, "I love working to Cobbie Callait, Jason Mraz, John Meyer."

"I am 46, and didn't discover my calling until I was 32.  I tell everyone it is never to late to discover your talent!" - Monica  Lasich

 She also didn't mention that she does not look a day over 30 and is so pretty!!!  :)

BTW She didn't mention, but I will, that she is also in the business of helping other moms and people start their own hand print business.  What a way to give back!  You can find out more about that on her blog here:http://handprintlady.blogspot.com/p/own-your-own-business-doing-handprints.html

Monica has been VERY generous to giveaway a FREE Hand print Christmas Ornament!!!  Something like this: 

 

This would be an amazing gift for someone or just to adorn your tree with memories of your lil one when they were lil.   http://www.etsy.com/listing/48685568/ceramic-handprint-or-footprint-ornament

Monica wants to make sure you get this before Christmas before the holiday rush really picks up, so this giveaway will end on Oct. 1, Saturday and will be done by random.org.  I will announce the winner Saturday after 10pm Eastern

How to enter:

After you do each thing below...come back and comment on this post about what you did otherwise we can not keep track.  Thanks! Remember: the more entries you have, the better your chances of wining.

1. please follow my blog here....one entry

2.  Follow her blog .... two entries  http://handprintlady.blogspot.com/

3.  Like her and me (if you have not already) on Facebook... three entries   

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lil-Lollipops-Designs/114328484791

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Handprintlady-Ceramic-Plaques/80443629762

4.  Tell us your favorite item in her shop....four entries

http://www.etsy.com/shop/handprintlady 

5.  Buy something from her shop or webpage and you can get  EIGHT ENTRIES!!! ( if you got all the others too you would have 18 entries..if I did my math correct!)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/handprintlady

http://www.handprintlady.com/