Colorado Catnip Toys

The proof is in the photo! Your feline friends will do kitty rolls for these cute catnip toys! Even better still, they use organic catnip in them! Colorado Catnip Toys also offers handmade dog quilts and cat beds, too cute!

Giveaway Enter to win a bag full of vegan handmade samples from around the world

There is still time to enter our blog giveaway here, I will use a random number generator to select the winner in the beginning of October! So get your entries in now.
I would also like to announce that we have reached 35 contributors for our holiday bags and are still accepting more!

You can sign up to promote your shop in our holiday bags by going to our website and signing up under "get in the bag". Please also feel free to check out our FAQ, forum (where purchases can leave feedback for each individual shop), friends, press (reviews of our bags)
We would love to have some new handmade artisans involved, but time is running out to get into our huge holiday bags!

Be sure to check out our little interview in VegNews Magazine, which comes out at the beginning of October, perfect timing for a little extra press for our bags!
Followed by a giveaway of one of the holiday bags on their website.

This is really exciting, and a great opportunity to share our handmade goodies with people and encourage them to shop handmade!

Heart of glass, heart of stone, however you put it, you arent alone!

Sometimes when I am bored I search for hearts on etsy, I just so happen to love hearts! This handmade heart of glass necklace by The Jewelry Pitt is right up my alley!

Show your love for those cute little doggies with a bad rap, with these super cute "I heart pit bulls" pins from Healing Heart

Go all anitomical on someones ass with this anatomical heart handmade card from Vegancraftastic

When it's cold outside, I shop etsy!

It has been cold and miserable here in upstate NY recently, and there's no better time to lurk around on etsy, looking for some retail therapy!

I was searching vegan candles, because I am always on the quest for a good vegan candle. Not too chemically, not too stinky, not too plain....so I am constantly trying new sellers and new scents.

I stumbled upon:

Simply Pure Soy Candles

Lemon Lollipop

Dreamy Pleasures

and I think I am going to have to give them all a shot!

We are putting together a nice little gift basket for my grandmother, since she is very ill, and I want to get candles from a handfull of sellers on etsy. Then gramma can test them out, and let me know which ones are keepers! These candles might not be tested on animals, but they will be tested on gramma!

Thank you card, note card, old fart card, any card!

My Zoetrope sells some of the cutest little cards that I have seen on etsy!

Whether you need a card for a certain superhero you know,

that sassy friend who loves burlesque,

your good ole dad who is still rockin the mustache,

or just a cute set of cards to make you giggle!

Nature Captured Without Cruelty

3Am Art shows that you can admire and appreciate the beauty of nature and its beings without capturing and exploiting them, in these gorgeous photos. Adorn your house with beautiful butterflies and bees without hurting a single one!

What's all that HOOTin' and Hollerin?

I was diddling around on etsy today instead of cleaning the house and getting some sewing done(as always). When I found this super cute pouch by DangArgyle

Their shop is chock full of cute little pouches with animals on them!

Vegan Craft Samples August 2009

We have sold all but 5 of our vegan craft sample bags, raising over $100 for For The Animals Sanctuary! If you havnt ordered your bag, now is the time, we only have a few left.

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade VeganSamples.etsy.com

Now it is time to start getting crafters/artists together who would like to be in the second bag! The second round of vegan craft samples will go on sale August 16th, and all samples are due to me by July 30th. If you are interested in being in the next bag, please email me at ecosampler@yahoo.com. Many people who dont have small items, or items they can make into sample sizes send in business cards and coupons or gift certificates as well. If you need help coming up with ideas for samples, I am sure we can brainstorm!

Voting has begun for the next sanctuary to receive our donation, please check out our blog and vote!

We recently added a project wonderful ad section to our blog, if you are interested in advertising on the vegan samples blog, it is cheap and easy! We are always willing to trade ad space with people as well, as long as your blog or website is vegan oriented!

Check us out online:

Myspace

Blog

Vegan Samples Website

Twitter

Forums

Facebook

A big huge vegan thank you to all of the vegan etsy members who sent in items, blogged about us, spread the word, and helped us raise money for animals!

Our Etsy Mini!!

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade VeganSamples.etsy.com

If you want to put our mini on your site, please let us know!!

Review done by Bright Design

Bright Design posted this review of our bags on her blog today:

I got my Vegan Samples bag today! And it is the awesomest thing ever!!! First of all, my cool lil' tote bag has a LION on it. Can you believe it? A freakin' lion! How awesome is that? So awesome. The awesomest, even.

OK, then there's the contents. There are so many wonderful smelling things in it that I could smell them before I'd even gotten the box open. Inside, there were an unbelievable number of goodies - in the form both of samples, and of various coupons and special offers to be redeemed when visiting shops on Etsy and elsewhere.

What did the samples consist of? Soaps, earrings, pins, a fancy flower hair clip, a cool cuff, a lovely sachet, a great puppydog postcard, a cool little crocheted thingamabobber... pulling it all out was like digging into the seemingly endless well of a fantastic Magician's hat. Each item elicited a new "ooh" or "aah" or "yummy!" or "pretty!". Who was I talking to? Umm... well, myself. Whatever, you do it too.

For the variety of surprises alone, the bag was so totally worth the price! I'm just sad we have to wait until August for Sample Bag Numero Dos to appear. But never fear, it's already in the works!

Looking for crafters, for the next bag!!

No fear, you havnt missed your chance at getting one of the super awesome vegan craft sample bags! I am just starting to plan the next one, which is due to go on sale August 1st!!! Are you a crafter who wants to explore new ways to promote yourself? Do you love animals and the idea that 10% of the profits go to an animal sanctuary? Please email me at ecosampler@yahoo.com if you are interested in participating in the next vegan sample bag!!!!

Our website is up!!!

After a lot of hard work and possibly losing half of my head of hair....the vegan samples website is up and functional!!! Any critiques and tips are appreciated, please email them to ecosampler@yahoo.com
It is getting very hectic and exciting on this end, getting all of the samples in the mail and getting them ready for the bags. The bags are almost all stitched now, and came out really nice. Please remember to vote for the animal sanctuary you would like to see the money go to! And under current contributors we have folks whose items we have already received up and ready to peek at!
Interested in signing up to send samples? Please email us at ecosampler@yahoo.com

Boxes we dont need no stinking boxes!

Today I got all of the flat rate priority boxes delivered to my doorstep! They seem pretty small, so we shall see, whether they are going to work out or not. I maybe just end up making my own funky boxes and painting them all pretty or something :) I will keep you posted. In other news we had 4 more people sign up yesterday! One person already has their ad up on the sidebar, welcome SkinEssentials

I am hoping to get the other ads within the next couple of days!