Four Amazing Years to Celebrate!

It probably sounds a little cliché with the idea that when I began my work, I never intended it to grow this much nor did I see it being what it is now. The truth, however is... that it's a fact! Firefly was a very whimsy attempt during a spring break in my 3rd year at Indus and I don't think I've really looked back since then. My vision for Firefly has grown. It's definitely broadened, and for a fact we've achieved several milestones. All I can say is, ALHAMDULILLAH! Isn't He Awesome?!

Every Year Allah Kareem grants me a few gifts to celebrate Firefly's birthday in March.
Here's what we've done this year...

-Managed Giveaways for PepsiCo for Pakistan Idol
-Produced handmade flowers and marble magnets for Daaman's Press and Media Kits for Fashion Pakistan Week 2014
-I, the Firefly Girl was awarded with Young Entrepreneur in the Spotlight at the 6th Annual Ladiesfund Women's Awards (that, too on 1st March!)
-We're at 18,000+ fans on Facebook
-We have 500+ loves following us on Instagram



That's probably the most remarkable bit to my journey. The unknown is beautiful... and the surprises are always breathtaking. Alhamdulillah! :)

I've been a bit of headless chicken.. my attention's been all over the place.. and it's been a lot of work trying to ground myself to life and routine here. Slow and steady wins the race, no? :)

I request each of you to make dua for me, and those of you that pray for me, I appreciate it and cannot thank you enough.

The Give Away!




Without further delay, I want to celebrate 4 years of my precious Firefly. I've been writing in it often, will think about sharing some of my writings with you all :) To party it up with our confetti, I'm rolling out the Giveaway. Given it's Crafts Month, let's celebrate by gifting one lucky crafter these gorgeous gifts to help them kickstart their crafting and inspire them to create <3

 

What's Included?

-12x12 Café Mediterranean Stack by Die Cuts With a View

-Tim Holtz Ideology Trinket Pins

- K&Co Birthday embellishment stickers

- Making Memories ornate frames

- Prima Mulberry Blooms

- TPC Studios Calendar Stamp Set

- My Mind's Eye Kate & Co Stamp set

- Acrylic Block

- Fiskers flower punch

- 4 solid color washis

- 3 patterned washis

- 1 set of bottle caps (metallic)

- 1 set of hand dyed mini pegs

- Perfect Pearls

- 4 packs of Basic Grey embellishments, canvas tags, pieces, etc

- 2 packs of Journaling cards/Pocket Pages made easy (chalkboard style)

- My Mind's Eye Collectible Wooden buttons

- mini vial packed with diamond dust

- mini vial packed with shaved ice

 

These items are all valued at over Rs 10,000!

 

How do you take part?
1- Go over to the Firefly Page on facebook. (Fb.com/whimsical.firefly)

2- Visit our product archives and go through the photos. Pick out ONE Handmade project done by me that you love.

3- Share that photo and write what you love about it, and what makes it stand out for you on your Profile Page (make it public)

4- Leave a comment here on this post once you do with your Facebook Profile Link :)

5- You can share multiple projects you admire, but do write constructively in your feedback.

6- Last date to share is the 30th of this month (March)

7- Winners get announced here on the blog on the 31st! InshaAllah.

8- All participants must have a Pakistan based postal address to ship the goodies to!

WINNER SELECTED! :D

I wanted to take out a moment to say thank you to everyone that took part in this giveaway. Reading through some of these posts and shares, I could see some very genuine feedback and appreciation, and it means a lot to me to have you share those thoughts out loud.

Out of all the entries, I fed a count into random.org's generator... we have Zain  Saleem as the lucky winner of our Craft Month and Birthday give away! :D Congrats love! inbox me your postal address so I can mail out your crafty treats!

From the shares, it's quite evident everyone loves the Romance Novel mini albums I did! :D

I have compiled the entries I had visible access to. :) It is always a blessing to be able to inspire and help others grow... and encourage them to learn. Thank you everyone for giving me that opportunity :) xx

 

Birthday Variety? a Competition!

So, I posted earlier today that with our Birthday celebrations being quiet with the weirded out processing arrangement and me being abroad, I figured I'd offer something to our crafty folk especially since it's Crafts Month too! I still have the Smile Sunshine Campaign happening for my fans, but I figured I'd go bigger on the 'giveaway' part to actually be of benefit to 3 individuals. :)

Are yall wondering where this is going? Keep reading.

Now we hope to conduct the Crafter's Expo in December this year InshaAllah. And as we work out all the details. We want to take the opportunity to put up a healthy and crafty competition for ALL our vendors that look forward to exhibiting with us this year!

New to all this jargon? Read some more! :)

The Crafter's Expo
The first of its kind event was coined in September last year as an initiative by Varah, me and some of my crafty friends. The idea was to exhibit together, to interact and engage specifically at the nd of my Ultimate Crafter's Workshops in Karachi. The idea grew to massive collaborative event coordinated, arranged and executed by Firefly.

The expo intends to cater to the passion behind crafting and promoting crafts of all kinds in Pakistan. The exposure is groundbreaking, and the response is larger than life! The Crafter's Expo has a turn out of over 2500 visitors, over 2500 visitors who have come forth because they LOVE crafts!

• Publicity reaches an audience of over 10,000 people.
• One day event, craft minded folk, craft minded taste, and craft minded pockets.
• The expo caters to craft enthusiasts and hobbyists of all ages.
• The event is open to families.
• Publicity is via social media, posters and press.
• Event has extensive media coverage and documentation.
• Locale is secure and safe.
• Clientele and crowd is from all parts of Karachi, inluding vicinity of Clifton and Defence. Pre event meet and greets are arranged to discuss concerns and address points by booth vendors.
• All booth vendors will be met with in person before finalizing their booth.

Affiliations for the Expo include intl manufacturers of Craft and Scrapbooking products.

Last years sponsors included Die Cuts with a View and Graphic45!

We do not discriminate between our booth vendors and look forwrad to interacting with new crafters, and helping them with a platform to exhibit their talent! :)

TENTATIVE DETAILS:
Venue: Royal Rodale, Phase 6 DHA, Karachi
Date: December

The Competition

To commemmorate Crafts Month AND celebrating 3 years of Firefly we invite all of you to come forward and participate. What do we have to do?

Each participant must complete a Firefly themed project to be included as an entrant.
The projects must be original, out of the box, and must comply with the project guidelines.
The competition is open to all our fans, friends and fellow crafters across the globe! YES! across the globe!
There is no minimum age requirement, under 16 need their parent's consent to be on board. :)

The prizes?
*drum roll please*

The grand prize winner of the competition receives the following for their efforts and dedication:
- a FREE exhibition space at Crafter's Expo 2013, standard 2x4 ft table setting.
- a Rs 5000 cash prize to go towards your exhibition preparation!* The cash prize is an allowance provided to you for your expenses towards the expo. You will be reimbursed for expenses you incur for preparation which includes, banner printing, visiting cards, paper, display, pamphlets, etc. A receipt and account of these must be submitted at the end of the expo.
- a FREE listing at Firefly's website under the Crafter's Expo
- surprise gifts to be revealed on the Expo day!

Second Place:
-receives a 40% discount on booth booking!
-a FREE listing at Firefly's website under the Crafter's Expo for a year.
-surprise gifts to be revealed on the expo day

Thurd Place:
-receives a 20% discount on booth booking!
-receives FREE listing at Firefly's website under the Crafter's Expo for a year.
-surprise gifts to be revealed on the expo day.

OHMG! Now how do I participate? What is the project?

GENERAL GUIDELINES:

-create an art piece no smaller than 6x6 inches in size and no bigger than 15x15 inches in size.
-the art piece can be made of paper, felt, clay, ceramic, textiles, wire.. metal, so forth.
-the art piece can be 3D, 2D, a card, a textile item, a canvas, a painting, a sculpture, a box, a scrapbook, a wall hanging, an album, anything!
-the piece must reflect your original ideas and your creativity
-the art piece must reflect Firefly, the brand. Either symbolically, conceptually, or metaphorically
-the art piece must be prepared and submitted for entry by the 15th of October. via post to the provided Karachi address. If you are abroad, you may dispatch this submission sooner.
-along with the art piece, the entrant must submit a 200 word description/paragraph describing their crafted art piece and the concept they implemented in depicting Firefly.

JUDGING CRITERIA

Given the theme is based on Firefly and is open ended to an individual's interpretation. We will look into details such as execution, dexterity, neatness, innovation and creativity. How original and thoughout your project is, will show through in the final result.

Who gets to decide?
I, Varah Musavvir the Firefly girl will review each project submission for that Firefly energy.

The results to this competition will be announced on the 29th of November. inshaAllah.

Final details, stall applications and other information regarding the Expo will be carried out in October. If you intend to take part in the expo, gear up :)

If you are abroad and take part in this competition, you will need to ship your entry to us. If you get selected as an exhibitor, you will be represented in Karachi at the Crafter's Expo 2013. You will be sending us an inventory list and your products to display. Shipping of remaining items after the expo are expenses to be covered by you.

What happens to the artwork after that?

All artwork will be displayed, exhibited at Crafter's Expo 2013 and further kept with us, at the Firefly Studio. The day we have an outlet, we will display these pieces with your name :) So make an impression guys! :)

Question.
ask! :)

Why are we doing this to start with?
We love what we do and love giving others an opportunity to explore similar avenues. In Pakistan, crafting has taken on a new market. And with so many talented folk out there, we'd like to give em that stage to put on their best show. :) Wishing you guys heaps of luck. Rock it! :)






 

The Smile Sunshine Campaign.

March is around the corner, and every loyal Firefly fan knows what that means, it means we celebrate smiles and gift giving with Firefly's birthday! inshaAllah :) We turn 3 this year. *man time flies* And as I do every year, I wanted to do something for my fans. Apart from the special offers and promotional sale, I will be hosting the Smile Sunshine Campaign... and I need you all to support it. Don't think pockets right now, thinking happy thoughts. Items available as part of the campaign are at Pot of Gold prices.

The idea is to promote an exchange of gifts... It's not quite the Secret Pal, but hey, you may not know what your best friend, your mom or your brother are getting you. :) I drafted this to help everyone understand how this works.

 

 

 

1. Find a Campaign Partner (friend, parent, cousin, significant other, grandparent...)

2. Order gifts for them, (we'll ship them over)

3. They order for you (we ship the gifts to you)

4. You share your sentiments upon receiving, and photograph your gifts...

5. Share them on the Campaign Event Page

6. On the 25th, we select 6 of you, (3 paired up campaign partners) and send you Goody Bags, worth over Rs 2500 each! :)

7. Smile Sunshine!

Even our Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihe Wasallam encouraged gift giving and encouraged bringing together people in good spirit. :) So let's keep the smiles going... and the joys of gift giving going! InshaAllah.


The event is here...
https://www.facebook.com/events/346391925479955/


The campaign deals/prices/purchases are open til the 12th of March :)
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.568308413180996.128750.170622579616250&type=3


We draw out 6 names (3 pairs of campaign registrants) for Firefly Goodie Bags (valued at over Rs 2500 each)

Happy Shopping!

Keep me in your duas everybody, and thank you for keeping Firefly as such an important part of your lives <3