Interview with Mypapercrane and giveaway!!!!!!!!!!!

Interview with the wonderful Heidi Kenney owner of Mypapercrane www.mypapercrane.com!

Hi Heidi, thank you for taking the time to do this interview with us:)

1. You are one of the most productive artists i've ever seen, you seem to have boundless energy and focus and have so much fun with what you do, what is it that motivates you?
Thank you so much, that is really kind of you. I think a lot of my drive comes from the fact that I just really truly love making stuff.

2. Take us through a typical day for you.

Well I have two boys so lucky for me my husband gets up early with our oldest and helps him get off to school. Then we usually take the youngest one swimming for a bit, and come back home to do a little work. We have a studio that is the entire third floor of our house so I share that with my husband. We'll usually spend a bit of time upstairs each working on projects before he leaves for work.
Once he is gone the youngest and I will do things before he is off to school.
Once everyone is gone it is down to business for me and I try to spend every minute working in the studio. Some days that sewing, sometimes its writing, and other times it is really boring stuff like printing mailing labels and packing orders.
When the kids are out of school we will stop at the post office to ship things, run typical family errands and then come back home for the evening. Then its dinner, we try and always do family dinner. Then they go off to bed and I work until Tom gets home. He is a tattoo artist so his schedule is more afternoon to night, its not the typical 9-5 but we make it work.
Then we might watch a movie, work, or just read in bed. If I have a big deadline, insomnia, or urge to make things I can sometimes stay up till 3am working...but that is not every night.

3. I love your style, you can see it in everything you create, from your plushies to what you bake, what has influenced your well loved style?
Thank you! I think its because I love toys, and vintage cartoon-themed things. I have always loved anthropomorphic characters and the idea of every day objects having lives of their own, so I think that plays a big role in it.

4. How did you get into selling your creations, how did it all begin?
Over 6 years ago I started a website just for fun. I had just had my youngest son and wanted a place to keep track of all the stuff I was making. I made a blog and would post things and people started asking to buy things. I made a lot of purses, and then one day had a scarp of fabric that looked like toast crust. I made a toast plush and things kind of went from there.

5. What is your favourite thing to make and why?
Right now I am really enjoying making one a kind pieces for shows. I love the challenge of coming up with something new, and being able to spend a longer amount of time on it. When I am making new plush for my website I have to think about being able to make multiples and still create something people can afford. Working on plush for galleries there is not that sort of restraint.

6. I know that your work has been featured in books etc but would you like to create a Mypapercrane craft book?

I am actually working on a book now with Chronicle Books. It is all about crafting with kids for the holidays. Really fun stuff too like the normal holidays, but odd ball ones too like Squirrel Appreciation Day. I am not sure how I would feel about making patterns of my plush for a book, it feels a little weird, but I am enjoying coming up with ideas for this book.

7. What is your favourite movie of all time and why? Oh this is hard, one movie? I'd say its a toss up between Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle.

8. If you could invite 5 people to dinner tonight, alive or dread, who would they be and why?

Mary Blair, I just love her work, and think she would be a really fascinating person.
Roald Dahl, again totally fascinating and what an amazing story teller.
Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) because he would be brilliant.
Mister Rogers because he seemed like a genuine good person, and he loved kids so I am sure he would be good fun and appreciate the other guests.
and of course my husband, because he is awesome and no dinner would be complete without his company!

9. What other artists inspire you?

Oh so many, that's the great thing about the internet is I have been able to actually meet so many amazing artists who are just great people too. I love Jen Corace, William Schaff, Carson Ellis, Susie Gharameni, Sarah Neuburger, Jenny Harada and all the amazing people I have meet at all the shows I have done...seriously there are so many.

10. You have already achieved so much but what goals and dreams do you still have for your life and work?

Thank you for asking me :)
I'd love to get more into licensing my designs for things. I'd like to try working a bit bigger with plush too (size wise), and just to always love to make stuff.


Thank you so much for taking the time to do this, you are are huge inspiration to women and crafters out there and your creations bring a lot of joy to the world!!

GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

Heidi was kind enough to offer one of her adorable fortune cookies as a giveaway!!!!!

This giveaway is open worldwide!

How to enter;

-You must go to http://www.mypapercrane.com/ and leave a comment here with what you love the most. Don't forget to leave a contact email addy!!

Additional entries can be made by;

-following this blog and comment to tell me that you follow this blog!

-Make a blog entry about this giveaway and leave a comment here with the link to the blog entry!

That's it!

This giveaway ends May 16th, the winner will be announced via a video that I will make, yay!