We held an interesting event called Pin It & Win It on Pinterest from April 28^th to May 4^th, lasting one week.

At this event, we encouraged Pinterest  users to find interesting photos in our Baking Supplies category and pin them on Pinterest. These users are basically baking fans or even baking gurus themselves. Their followers or fans would re-pin the photos to their own likings.

These who pined the photos and had the most re-pins would win gift packages from us. We do it as a reward to the crafter community as well.

The 6 winners of this Pin It & Win It event:

Top  1: Elizabeth Langston

Reward: a gift package worth of US$30 from WholePort

Top 2: Elaina K, and Marybeth Mank

Reward: a gift package worth of US$20 from WholePort

Top 3: Alex Butterfield, Shannon Singleton and Tameka Dunn.

Reward: a gift package worth of US$10 from WholePort

Congratulations to them!

We already emailed the winners and asked for their shipping addresses. The gift packages will be shipped out shortly after. We sincerely wish them enjoy baking with our supplies!

Please keep an eye on WholePort Pinterest and WholePort Facebook. We will continue to launch interactive events like this. Just stay tuned!

Merry almost Christmas, WholePort fans!  With Christmas shopping coming to a close, it’s time to relax a little and make the most of the holidays.  We here at WholePort hope that you are all having a wonderful holiday season and enjoying time with friends and family.

Just in time for Christmas, we want to showcase these adorable little Santas!  These tiny Father Christmas bells are the perfect addition to your holiday decorations.  These bells are extremely versatile and can be used in a variety of things, including decorations for the house and parties as well as DIY crafts and jewelry.

The bells are all made of copper and have special pricing.  The more you buy, the more you save!  How are you decorating for the holidays?  Share with us your favorite tips or photos in the comments!

And again, have a very happy holiday from everyone on the WholePort Team!

The holiday season is a time of colder temperatures, delicious food and fun gatherings with family and friends.  All this closeness can have its downfalls, though, in the form of germs and colds.  Young children can be particularly at risk, so make sure they learn the best way to keep germs at bay with good hand-washing habits.

Make staying healthy and germ-free fun for your little ones with these adorable refillable soap bottles and carton soap dishes.  Taking the time to thoroughly wash hands can be a pain for kids who are always on the go, but these cute character bottles and dishes will make them happy to make sure their hands are clean and fresh.

Other tips for good hand-washing habits are to sing songs while washing, like “Happy birthday to you.”  This ensures that kids scrub for long enough to be thoroughly clean.

What are your tips for staying happy and healthy this winter season?  Share them in the comments!

The holiday season is full of travel of all kinds.  Whether you’re flying across the world, the country, or just driving a few minutes down the road, being mobile is key to surviving this time of the year.  WholePort is here to help with that for those of you heading to the airport.

With travel sets ranging in size to larger lotion and cream containers to the ever-so-important 100ml/3 oz.-sized smaller bottles, you can hit the road knowing you have everything you’ll need safely stowed in your bags.  Don’t worry if your shampoo bottle doesn’t fit; take what you need in one of the smaller travel bottles in your carry-on baggage and say goodbye to checked baggage hassles.  You can even take one of the 100ml spray bottles for your favorite perfume or fragrance without worrying if your original glass bottle will spill or break.

There’s no need to fight the crowds at the drug store before your next trip.  Let WholePort help you out during the holiday season and all year-round with our convenient travel containers delivered right to your door.

What are your favorite tips for making holiday travel easier?  Let us know in the comments!

Making learning fun can be a challenge for any parent.  Every caretaker wants their child to find joy in learning, but often it’s hard when there are so many other things to compete for your child’s attention.  That’s why disguising learning with fun activities is a great idea to make education exciting for your children.

A special crafting project can be just the trick for helping your young children focus on learning shapes, numbers and colors.  As they work to make their piece of artwork the best it can be, simply repeating keywords can be great practice for your child’s development.

These great number beads from WholePort are a great way to help your child work on counting and colors.  Come up with a special project like a wall dedicated to documenting your child’s growth throughout these years.  These colorful numbers can dress up your wall, or be made into refrigerator magnets.

They’re also great for teachers in classrooms since you receive discounts for higher quantity orders.  So make learning fun with WholePort!  Let us know how you use your number beads in the comments!

The holidays are the perfect time to don a new dress or top for all of your festive parties and seasonal gatherings.  Be sure to stand out from the rest by designing your own fabulous outfit, and maybe even making something for a one-of-a-kind gift!

To help out with all your fashion needs, WholePort is featuring a fantastic chiffon fabric that is sure to fit the bill for whatever look you’re going for.  The soft, seafoam green with red and white polka dots brings in the most popular colors of the holiday season in a subtle, understated way that can easily be worn any time of the year.  The chiffon material offers a little extra glam over a heavy knit sweater or plain cotton, as well.

So, break out your favorite new pattern and channel your favorite fashion designer for a unique ensemble this season.  You can find even more sewing supplies, such as needles and pin cushions, here.  Show us all of your creative designs in the comments!

With temperatures only reaching the low- to mid-30s each day, winter in Beijing is now well under way, making us reach for anything and everything warm.  That’s why our new arrival candles are a fantastic treat to make your home smell delicious and add that extra touch of warmth you need this winter season.

With fresh citrus scents like orange and lemon as well as a fruity pear scent, you can blast those winter blues away.  Burn the candles in the morning to wake you up, or at night to help soothe you as you relax with the family.

In addition to smelling great, these candles also make for lovely coffee table decorations or fun accents around the living or dining room areas.  Make a family dinner more special with a little candlelight, or keep them on hand for winter storms when the lights go out.  So many uses make these candles a must-have for winter.

While you’re at it, be sure to check out all of the new arrivals WholePort has to offer.  We add items every day to make sure you have the widest variety of crafting supplies at your disposal.  Let us know how you like to keep warm during winter in the comments!

Start your morning off right with a spectacular omelet!  Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so why not make it a little more fun to eat?

WholePort’s star-shaped omelet frying pan is perfect for making a fun breakfast for the whole family to enjoy.  Even the most discerning taste-testers are bound to get excited for a meal like this.  Mix in your favorite veggies, cheeses and breakfast meats for a delicious meal, any time of day.

The iron pan is easy to clean and the perfect size to keep you full until lunch time.  Make more than one for less, too, with fantastic WholePort savings.  The more you buy, the more you save, and they’re a steal to begin with at $3.59 each.  So make one of WholePort’s most wished for items your own.

Tell us your favorite omelet recipe in the comments!

Andrea Currie has more than her fair share of talents, and she’s taken them to a variety of different outlets.  From software to business to dominating the crafting world, this Craft Wars champion has creativity to spare.  Read on to find out her philosophy on finding inspiration and her newest project, Paint Chip Pals!

1) Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you started crafting.

I have been creative entrepreneur from a very young age. I still vividly remember setting up artwork stand where I sold my unicorn and rainbow drawings for 25 cents and I never turned down the chance to learn a new craft. EVER. We didn’t have a craft store so it’s no surprise that each and every holiday was covered in intricate paper sculptures and garlands. You know the type of stuff you see in Anthropologie store windows?! Yep that’s what I did when I was 8!

Fast forward 20ish years and nothing much has changed except that I passed through college and grabbed an Advertising degree and a creative husband! I did use my degree for a short time but seeing that we lived in the technology hub of the world I felt compelled to get into software, where I spent 4 years pretending to be a grown up.

Eventually this wild journey landed back in my creative roots where I happily live in a world of colorful characters called the Paint Chip Pals and I spend my days inspiring others to create. It is the most fulfilling and hardest thing I’ve ever done!

2) Who or what has influenced your crafting style, techniques or even philosophy?

My style philosophy is to create things that make my inner 8 year old smile. For that reason have fun with bright colors and simple shapes which is how I came up with the Paint Chip Pals!

When it comes to design I pull from the retro-fabulousness of the 60’s – a time when everything including color theory was a wondrous experiment mixed with modern yet playful lines!

3) Where do you get your inspiration?

My inspiration comes from nature, museums and our local zoo. I always take a notebook and camera everywhere I go and I capture anything that gives me an emotional response- be it a rock or a beautiful peacock. When I’m stuck in a rut I challenge myself to work with odd and unconventional materials. Doing so forces me to let go of any preconceived notions of how/what I “should” create and just forces me to create something with reckless abandonment. My favorite projects always come from these exercises!

4) For full-time and part-time crafters alike, how do you manage your time?

I’m finally pursuing my creative dreams full-time.  This comes on the heels of many years of bringing home the bacon at a high tech job and spending every spare moment of my life crafting, designing, hosting an Internet craft show, writing a blog and grooming relationships within the craft industry.  For those reasons, I have the work ethic of a plow horse, the sleep pattern of a new mom and the social life of a hermit!  Although every journey is different, I still believe that nothing is a better test of your passion than balancing the responsibilities of modern day life with the dedication to your dream.  Doing so helped me creatively innovate and thrive in every aspect of my life including my day job.  Yes, at times I felt defeated, unsure and just totally worn out but just when things seemed like they couldn’t get any worse I’d serendipitously receive a tid bit of validation – like a note from a perfect stranger thanking me for the inspirational tutorials and videos or something big like getting on Craft Wars and winning!

5) Tell us about one of your favorite projects!

My favorite project so far has to be the Paint Chip Pals – a colorful set of characters out to save the world from everything blah, bland and boring. You can support their mission and get your very own Paint Chip Pal plush doll by backing our Kickstarter project here!

6) What kinds of challenges do you face in your crafting and how do you overcome those?

When a project takes more than an hour or 3 steps to create I start to get antsy. If I can’t push through that initial frustration it’s a sign that I’ve been held up in my studio too long and need to get outside for a while. A bike ride or hike normally does the trick!

7) Have any exciting crafting plans to share with us?

Now that I can focus on my creative career full-time I plan to divide my time between licensing my designs, representing brands, speaking about creativity, teaching classes, helping companies enter into the craft industry and working with my husband to develope our own line of creative products such as the Paint Chip Pals! I suppose that proves that the balancing act never ends I’d love to hear from you! Contact me at Andrea@handmakemyday.com!

Be sure to check out Andrea’s website here!