Two of my dear blog friends have exciting news this week: Jena of Modish just unveiled a new section to her already fabulous blog called Biztips — she’s been a huge help to the community, and writes one of the best business tips on running your indie business — whether you’re an artist, crafter or just someone who sells handmade items.

And secondly, I’m so happy to see the faces of those I’ve only known via email — Erin of Design for Mankind was also very busy filming and making a new series called Dialogue, where she talks to people of all creative walks of life on various topics. See her first installment here, where she talks about balancing, and how do these three ladies do it all — Lisa Solomon, Jen Gotch and Kelly Lynn Jones!

{Congrats Jena and Erin!}

I am in love with these awesome illustrations by Sean Morris (the bear coaster idea is fabulous!). I read about him on Etsy a few weeks before, and I’ve been looking through his blog ever since. If you want to know more, Australian Edge has a little interview up with him.

…and here’s the last roundup for March’s PikaPackage Project — our first one for 2009, and also marks a full year anniversary for the project since its inception last year. My, how time flies! 🙂

The total participants for this round is 29, and without further ado, here’s the rest of the artists who has contributed to this round:

1. Sara of Sim Sima sent in her beautiful handmade screenprinted brooches;
2. Candice of Cordial Kitten sent in these lovely limited edition springtime prints;
3. Denise Ann Holmes shipped these beautiful limited edition prints, just in time for spring;
4. Belinda of Gretchenmist sent in lovely original artwork and prints;
5. Susan Schwake of the beautiful Art Stream gallery sent over these lovely limited edition prints;
6. Sally Faulkner of Sally Illustration, the lady behind our cover this issue of the zine sent in load of items — prints, buttons and a zine too!
7. Yali Paz sent these beautiful full-sized prints and ACEOs all the way from Israel;
8. Melody Seal sent in these marvellous prints as well as beautiful hand-bound notebooks;
9. Anna Wadham sent in a bevy of goodies! There’s prints, notecard sets, buttons and also mirrors!
10. Kate Endle made more of her popular mini-prints for this round;
11. Myrte of Mirthquake sent in these lovely bird prints, mini-prints and buttons;
12. Christine Berrie sent in an original drawing, prints and posters of her work;
13. Valerie Pensworth sent in delicate full-sized prints and portraits;
14. Mitch & Lauren of 3CD Kidstuff sent in prints that would look great on your kids’ walls; and
15. Jess Racklyeft of Jesses Mess sent in quirky prints of her work!

Watch out for the launch (which is hovering around the corner!), and please head on over to our Flickr stream, and remember to sign up for our mailing list to be the first to know about the giveaway, and also when the packages hits our shop!

The PikaPackage Project will now run on a quarterly basis instead of being bi-monthly, and our next one will be in June. So if you’re an artist who is interested to take part in one of Pikaland’s projects (there’s a new one coming up very, very soon!) please head on over here to sign up for the artists mailing list!