2nd Candy Draw

Well it's the 31st October and that means time for my 2nd Candy draw.  Draw number 1 still hasn't been claimed so if it isn't claimed by the time I make the final draw, I'll draw another number, but for now I'm drawing for a 2nd time with Randon.org and the number is ...........

3

The 3rd comment on my blog is from Clevercrafter ....that's you Lorraine of http://raineyscraftroom.blogspot.co.uk/

Please email me at linda.levoir@gmail.com with your choice of prize (since the first draw hasn't yet been claimed you get to choose from all 3) and you mailing address to post it off to :) xx

Remember that there's still time to enter, the final draw won't  be picked till 20/11/13, which means you still have 20 days to enter .

See you tomorrow with my DT post for Crafty Catz :) xx

Pre-loved Candy

Winner of first draw, drawn on 23/10/13 for 50 followers is Caroline http://carolineshideout.blogspot.co.uk/ (this prize has now been claimed)

Winner of 2nd draw drawn on 31/10/13 is Lorraine http://raineyscraftroom.blogspot.co.uk/ (this prize has now been claimed)

Winner of 3rd draw drawn on 20/11/13 is Dianne
 http://crazycraftshed.blogspot.co.uk/ (this prize has now been claimed)


Final draw will take place on 20/11/13

Ok so as I said in my previous post I have a lot of stuff that's taking up room in my craft space (which is really a very small corner lol)

I apologise for the quality of some of the photos, there was so much stuff it was impossible to photograph with my usual set up.

So this is what's on offer, there's so much stuff I thought I'd do 3 draws, so 3 people will get the chance to win.

Firstly we have paper, there's a mix of 12 x 12 and 8 x 8 design paper, from First Edition, Die Cuts with a View and Do Crafts. Most of the 8 x 8 paper is either double sided, foiled, glittered, glossy or embossed. I've also included some A4 coloured Card stock, some miri card, some gold foil paper, a piece of glitter card, some 6 x 6 textured card stock and some bright corrogated card stock. I've also included some bright textured self adhesive border strips.

THIS PRIZE HAS NOW BEEN CLAIMED

Secondly Promarkers, in the following colours:  

Poppy, Crimson, Burgundy, Burnt Umber, Chestnut, Henna, Walnut, Terracotta, Tan, Caramel, Burnt Sienna, Sandstone, Soft Peach, Gold, Spice, Vanilla, Sunflower, Buttercup, Ivory, Satin, Pear  Green, Olive Green, Moss, Meadow Green, Apple, Green, Pastel Green, 

Mint Green, Duck Egg, Turquoise, Pastel Blue, China Blue, 

MidnightBlue, PowderBlue, Lilac, Lavender, Amethyst, Aubergine, Mulberry, 

Plum, Slate, Fuchsia Pink, Maroon, Pale Pink, Baby Pink, Cerise

Dusky Rose, Putty, Dusky Pink, Coral,

Cool Grey 1, Cool Grey 2, Cool Grey 3, Cool Grey 4, Cool Grey 5

Black, Blender Pen x 2.

I've also included a few extra fine nibs.

THIS PRIZE HAS NOW BEEN CLAIMED

Finally a mixture. There's a deep Martha Stewart Punch, 2 flower punches, 2 sets of Spellbinders Nesties Dies, a set of X-Cut dies, 3 Spellbinders tag dies, some clear stamps (one set of which has never been inked) a sealed Distress ink pad in Antique Linen, some small patterned notecards, a sealed pack of Wild Orchid Cosmos Daisies, some paper Do Crafts border trims and some other small embellishments

THIS PRIZE HAS NOW BEEN CLAIMED

I'll do 3 random draws.  One when I get to 50 followers, another on the 31st of this month and another at 100 entries OR 20th November, whichever is soonest. I'll let the 1st randomly drawn winner pick which if the 3 prizes they want (and they can then re-enter the draw for the other 2 prizes if they wish) and then the second randomly drawn person will choose from the remaining 2 (and can then re-enter for the last one). The final winner will get the remaining prize.

So what do you need to do if you're interested in winning? 

Simple, be or become a follower, leave me a comment below, and put the picture  below on your blog (on your side bar is fine) preferably with a link back to here if possible, you can also grab the button from my side bar.  

No candy only blogs please, I will be checking :)

  

That's it, I hope you see something you like, I'm just happy for it to go to a new home where it will be used and loved.

I'll be back tomorrow with a card to share, I hope everyone enjoys their evening :) xx

DT CC Spots & Stripes

Good morning everyone!!  It's Friday and that can only mean it's time for my DT post for Crafty Catz, and for once my post is not scheduled because I have the day off work!

Of course looking out of my window it's cold, grey and raining lol, but I don't care because not only do I have the day of work (in fact I have no work now until Wednesday)  I'm going to see the Cirque du Soleil tonight!! I'm sooo excited as I've been wanting to see them for years and never managed to ge tickets before for one reason or another and actually the tickets have been stuck to the front of my fridge for almost a year.........I wasn't missing out this time lol.

Anyhoo on to the challenge....

This week it's the wonderful Anna who chooses, (she is always making me smile with her fun comments in our DT blog)  and Anna chose 'SPots and Stripes'  Very easy, you just have to have some spots and some stripes somewhere on your card.  This could be on the image, design paper, the way you've coloured, the ribbon, embellishments etc....as you can see it should be easy to get some spots and stripes on there somewhere :)

This week we are being spobsored by Crimson Cloud and they are offering a prize to our winner.

This is my take on the challenge I chose some beautiful Maja Design paper that hade spots on one side and stripes on the other but after I made it I realised that I'd actually got more spots on my card than I'd realised.   Can you (pardon the pun) spot them all? :P

I used a Martha Stewart Punch Around the Edge set to make the shape.

The image is by the wonderful Krista Smith from Saturated Canary (and she's actually sponsoring our challenge in 2 weeks (which also happens to be my first time hosting the challenge!), so keep an eye out for that).  She called Ribbons Fairy and is available here. I've coloured her with my Copics.

Flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, lace and ribbon from The Ribbon Girl and the sentiment is by Whimsy and cut with a matching die, both of which I got from Bunny Zoe crafts.  The pearl trim and the paper came from Live & Love Crafts.

This is the inside of the card, sorry for the terrible lighting I didn't have enough space to set up the 2nd light as I'm moving and tidying stuff ready for my daughter's visit at the weekend, I'll try and replace it later.

This card is available for sale in my Etsy shop

Well that's it for now, do pop over to the Crafty Catz blog and see the wonderful designs the other girls have made and give them some love. 

Have a fab day :) xx

I'll be entering the following challenges:

Wild Orchid Crafts - Lovely Lavender
BunnyZoe Crafts Use Ribbon
The Ribbon Girl - Brown

50 Followers Candy Winner

Good evening folks.  It's been a miserable day here, wet, cold and windy, but I hit my 50 followers (actually 51 yay! ), target today so that means the first draw for my candy!

I used Random.Org to draw the winner and the result is

Number 13, unlucky for some, but not for you Caroline! http://carolineshideout.blogspot.co.uk/

Please email me linda.levoir@gmail.com with your choice from the 3 draws and your full name and postal address, and your goodies could be winging their way to you this weekend :) xx

I'll be posting the 2nd draw on October 31st...yup someone will be getting a different kind of treat bag for Halloween lol, so plenty of time still to enter yet.

Don't forget to check back Friday for my Crafty Catz DT post.  Have a good evening everyone :) xx

Wee Stamps Summer Fairy

Good evening (or morning, depending on when you read this and indeed, what part of the globe you're from I guess).  I should have blogged this card earlier today, in fact it was made and ready to go but then we had a visitor and I needed to go out to get a guillotine, as I'm fed up of buying blades for my trimmer.  I even bought titanium ones last  time and they seemed to last no longer to be honest. Anyway, finally I got round to taking pics and just finding time to blog it before bed. 

I didn't make this for any particular reason other than that I loved the image and fancied trying something a little different. I had an idea I wanted to try out, I'd seen a card in monochrome with a touch of blue here and there a while back, and loved the kind of frosty look of it.  I thought it might be fun to do a similar thing but with pink, like something gradually warming up and coming to life.  Here's what I made.

I used my favourite Maja Design papers collection, Crea Diem, love love love these papers.  Well I love all the Maja papers to be fair, but these most of all, these come from Dies to Die For.  All the papers and card have been edged with Pumice Stone DI and stitched with white top stitch thread. I don't think the camera really does this card justice (or maybe it's just the photographer :P), the effect is very subtle and doesn't really capture on film as it does in RL. 

The image is drawn by the talented and sweet Sylvia Zet.  This digi from Wee Stamps is called Summer Fairy.  Isn't she gorgeous.  I think she looks a bit like a statue coming to life coloured like this, love her.

She's coloured in Copics, I used a selection of  Warm Greys and RV91.  I accented her wings with a little glamour dust.

I used a Memory Box frame, a Joy Crafts Butterfly Border split into 2 parts and a Magnolia Doohicky tag.  The card was shaped with dies from Go Kreate.

Flowers are all from Wild Orchid Crafts, the seam binding and narrow white lace (which I realise I have ONCE AGAIN, covered almost completely, what am I like) are from The Ribbon Girl, everything else is from stash.

I rather like the effect, I hope you do too and that it inspires you to try something a little different.

This card can be bought from my Etsy store, see link at Top left of page.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

613 Avenue Create #42 (Image, patterned paper, shaped, die cut, liquid pearls, bling, flowers, stitching)

Alphabet Challenge R is for Roses

7 Kids Anything Goes with a twist of marker

Live & Love Crafts #16 Use Pink

Stampin' for the Weekend Anything Goes

I've had quite a productive weekend as I've finished a GDT project as well as this make and almost completed this weeks CC DT project, so now I'm off to catch some zzzs. work in the morning.

See you again soon, until then, take care :) xx 

Super Exciting News with a Cherry on Top

Good morning everyone, are you having a great weekend? I certainly am :)

I have been super busy at work this week, I have 3 days booked off at the end of the coming week and beginning of next and I'm trying desperately to clear my workload and it just isn't happening lol. It's like one step forwards and two back and I really don't want to return after my break to over  150 emails eeek. But I'm really looking forward to my break, I have tickets to go see the Cirque du Soleil and also my beautiful daughter is coming up from London to spend a couple of days with me and without the boyfriend this time, so I get to spend some proper mother/daughter time :)

I've had quite a bit of challenge success over the last few days, winning top spots in the Tiddlyinks, A Creative Romance, Divas by Design, and Tilda's Town.  Then Sylvia Zet, the super talented designer of the oh so adorable Wee Stamps,  contacted me on Facebook to ask if she could feature my card on her blog !!  How excited was I?  I was walking around with this big grin on my face lol.  Then just when I thought things couldn't get any better.....they did!

Yesterday at work I took a few seconds for a quick peek at my personal emails and nearly fell off my chair.  Sitting there was a message from Becky Hetherington asking me if I'd like to join the design teams at A Creative Romance!!  OMG, have you seen the talent on those teams?  Those girls (and boy, let's not forget Alby) are seriously gifted, do go check out their blogs they make simply wonderful creations, so I was immensely flattered to be asked and of course it didn't take much thinking for me to say yes :) I'll be joining the Elegant Artisans and will be posting my first project for them on 8th November, so keep an eye out then, it's a fab challenge and I already have ideas for it running around in my head!

So my cup runneth over this week and I'm a very happy bunny.  I'm also almost at my 50 followers now, so I think my first candy draw might well take place this weekend, I'm hoping to unwind and get some crafting done so I should be back again with something to share either late this evening or tomorrow.  Hope you all have a great weekend and I'll see you soon. Happy crafting ! :) xx

DT Crafty Catz - Gift to Remember

Good morning all my lovely followers and readers and those popping by for a quick peek.  a big welcome to my new followers too and thank you all of the wonderful people who have been leaving me such sweet comments lately, I do truly appreciate it.

So I'm here with my post for this week's challenge at Crafty Catz. This week it's the lovely and talented Naomi's turn to choose and she chose 'A Gift to Remember', so either a gift, or a card that represents gift giving in some form.  I stepped completely out of my comfort zone and didn't make a card for once (gasp).

This is a scheduled post as I'll be hard at work when this goes live.  Work has been hectic lately and I'll confess right away that I ran out of time on this project and got it done by the skin of my teeth and as such it isn't up to my usual standard, so I apologise for that, but the next one will be better I promise.

You'll see if you look closely at the photo that my cut envelope inserts are very rough around the edge, this is because my blade on my paper trimmer decided to go blunt right when I did not have the time to go and replace it!  I won't repeat the varied mutters I was uttering in my crafty corner lol. 

Anyhoo....I'd decided I would make a little file to keep recipies in for a friend of mine who loves to bake.

I'd looked up a few different tutorials on the net and decided that a lot looked very complicated and I didn't have a lot of time so I kind of gathered some of the best ideas and simplified them. This is how my finished project looks. We were provided with some images to use by our sponsor The Stamp Fairy and I used the one with the cake for this as I thought it was apporpriate.

This was made very simply from a piece of A4 white card, a strip from a 12 x 12 piece of designer paper, some envelopes, the image and a few embellies.

I've added some liquid applique to the cake for the icing, and a little glossy accents to the cherry.

A view from the side, you can see the envelopes here.

Here it's opened, those inserts were simply made from some old 6 x 6 envelopes I had left over, which a stuck closed and then trimmed to size to make the pockets (look at those awful raged edges....stupid trimmer blade....mutter mutter....methinks I may invest in a guilotine, that'll teach it!!)

The project was lots of fun to make and I may have to step out of my comfort zone a bit more often and experiment a bit as this was really pretty easy once I figured it out.

Do drop by the blog and have a look at my team mates efforts, they really are fabulous this week and we also have a couple of the Stamp Fairy DT joining us for this week too. Have a go and join in, there's a wonderful prize to be won.

Take care and I'll be back at the weekend with more to share if i survive the day at work lol! :) xxx

Tailor Tilda for Someone Special

Good evening to all my lovely followers and visitors and a huge welcome to my latest followers, I'm so very glad to have you join me :)   

I'm afraid this post is rather photo heavy.

Today I'm sharing a card I made for my Mum's birthday which is on Thursday. She has opened it today, so I'm safe sharing it here and I just have to say 

Happy Birthday Mum!! 

for when she reads this  tomorrow hehe. 

This is what I made her.

I spotted this stamp a while back, and it wasn't easy to get hold of I had to order from the US in the end as I couldn't seem to find it in stock in the UK, but I knew it was the one I needed as my Mum used to be a Dressmaker and worked in the tailoring trade for many years.  So this was just perfect for her.

I coloured her up to look a bit like my Mum and to match the papers ofc.

I used my Copics (I'm sure you guessed)

Skin: E11, 00, 000, 0000

Hair:E17, 19, 29, 57

Dress, bow and sewing: RV99, 95, 93, 91, V99, 95, 93, 91, G82

Sewing machine and shadow: W7, 5, 3, 2, 0

Table: E43, 41

I added some little dots of liquid pearls around the image.

I must apologise for the pics, the colours are not shown at their best, the soft colours of the papers look a little washed out here under the lamp, but I needed to take some pics quick so I could post the card the next morning, to make sure it arrived on time.  The papers used are from Pion, Alma's sewing room from 6 x 6 collection apart from the elements sheet which is 12 x 12.

I love all those elements you get on the sheets, the tape measure and button and thread cards and the little needle cases you make up, such fun!

I mounted the elements on some card for stability and all  paper elements and backing papers are inked with walnut stain distress ink.

Along with those I added  some little wooden half thread spools. The buttons were salvaged from an old cardigan, they were the perfect colour and size for this.

The flowers are Wild Orchid Crafts, apart from the ribbon rose which is from The Ribbon Girl, the lace which you can only see a tiny bit of cos I've gone and covered it up again like a numpty is also from TRG as is the rose coloured twine.

As usual I decorated the inside to coordinate, you can actually see the lace here, yay! lol

The tags were made with more of the paper elements from the sheet, mounted on card and punched.  I added shabby seam binding from Live & Love Crafts and a couple of sewing related charms and stamped Happy Birthday with an old clear stamp I had that looks like it's been stitched.  I added a Magnolia Doohickey Envelope Edge die to the top and finished off trimming with some pearls and I was done.  I hope you enjoyed sharing it with me.

That's all from me today, but don't forget to pop back Friday for my Crafty Catz DT post, I'm stepping right out of my comfort zone this week!

I'm entering this card for the following challenges:

Fashionista Shabby Chic

Tilda's Town #74 Stitching

Simply Magnolia Flowers & Lace

Midweek Magnolias Songbirds (The Sewing Machine Song - from the film The Perils of Pauline)

613 Avenue Create Anything Goes + Pile it On

Have a great day :) xx

DT Crafty Catz - Halloween

Good morning folks, hoping this Friday finds you all well and looking forward to the soon to arrive weekend (I know I am!).

First I need to say a big hello and welcome to my newest followers and also give a big hug to my existing followers and a thank you for putting up with all my ramblings lol.

This is a scheduled post and I'm actually typing this out Thursday evening after a VERY long and busy day at work, so it will be lots of pics and very little blather from me for a change.

Our challenge at Crafty Catz this week, chosen by the fabulous Sue (known to all as Aunty Sue), who is such a helpful member of our DT and who keeps us all laughing, is Halloween.

Those of you who saw my post yesterday will know I have recently created something spooky, so I decided to go for a cute Halloween rather than a scary one.  This is what I made.

The image is a Wee Stamps one from the very talented illustrator Sylvia Zet, she draws super cute images, love this little witch and just look at that adorable bat on her broomstick, if bats were actually as cute as that I would so want one as a pet lol and if you go check the challenge blog you'll see a card by my team mate Naomi with another of Sylvia's stamps that has 2 of those cute bats....adorable overload! LOL

She's coloured in copics as usual for me, for once I'm not putting the colours as I'm so tired and just blogging super fast.

I used some autumnal looking fruits and flowers and the ticket sentiments are made with a Whimsy die and stamp set.

I gave the inside a bit of a Halloween feel too.

I haven't listed out all my mats and equipment today to save time, but if anyone would like more details about anything just post your question in a comment and I'll reply with an answer.

Thank you so much for dropping by and don't forget to drop by the challenge blog, the girls have made some gorgeous creations and we have 2 prizes this week from BunnyZoe Crafts and Marianne Designs.

That's it from me today, I hope you enjoyed my share and that it's inspired you to join in with our Halloween challenge.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly - Two by Two (Two Tickets)

Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes

Divas by Design - 3 or more layers

7 Kids - Anything Goes

Hanna and Friends - Halloween

Stampin' for the Weekend - Anything Goes

Whimsy Stamps - Shabby/Vintage

Magnolia-licious Shaped Cards

Enjoy your day and happy crafting! :) xx

GDT Country View Crafts - Something Spooky

Good morning crafters (and non crafting readers, all are welcome here).  Today I'm here with a piece I made for Country View Crafts.

When Chris from Country View Challenges emailed me to tell me that I was one of their top 3 for August it was a very happy surprise, so imagine how super excited I was when she told me that they'd like me to create a GDT piece for their October challenge!  Of course I said yes!  The theme given to me (which I had to keep all these weeks as a secret....no pressure lol) was to create 'Something Spooky'

I knew right away which image I wanted to use. It's called Withering Fairy, one of the Saturated Canaray digis.  I'd seen it when Krista Smith (the artist) first released it and right away it made me think of Gothic Romantic images....think Miss Haversham in Great Expectations, sitting in her wedding dress while the wedding breakfast rotted and dissolved around her, or Catherine from Wuthering Heights coming back to haunt her true love Heathcliff....or again Giselle, dying from unrequited love and coming back as a vengeful spirit.

So that was the kind of feel I wanted for my project.  I coloured her up in teal and purple and warm greys which I thought worked well for both the image and the feel of the project.  I used a little Frantage in Aged Wine around the image too, which helps give it that old and decaying look. I just added very minimal Glamour Dust to her wings as I wanted her to look kind of like the magic was fading away.

I found some old scraps of design papers with a mottled and aged look to them, I don't have a clue what they were I'm afraid and I've all but covered them in my project anyway, so I guess that's not important lol.

They've been distressed, inked with Black Soot distress ink and stitched with black top stitch thread.

Then I started layering my elements.  I started with Rickety House from Tom Holtz, which I  cut in both grey and white card stock,  I inked the edges of both with some Black Soot DI, and then added some Crackle Paint in rock candy, and then rubbed over a little more Black Soot.  I layered the white on top of the grey to give it some depth and stuck it to my background.

Next I cut a Cheery Lyn Clock die from a scrap of Maja paper, from the Shall We Have Coffee, collection and cut it again in grey card stock which I stuck behind it to give it a little more stability and also cut the hands in the grey and brushed them with a little black Stickles. I set them at just past Midnight...of course!  Then I cut 2 Tom Holtz trees, in Grey and White again and they got the same treatment I'd given to the house.  Again I layered the white on the grey, off set slightly to create the effect of a shadow.  I added a little Stickles in Crystal to the white tree for effect.   

I cut some white card with Graveyard Landscape by Memory Box and cut and stuck the grave stones all around the upper part of the image after sponging with a little Black Soot. Then behind that I used some pleated black tulle and finally some cheese cloth. I used some foam pads to give it some height and slipped a black doily, rubbed with a little white acrylic behind the very top.

I cut several pieces of card with the Heart Doily Border from La La Land Crafts and distressed and inked them to age them and then edged the whole project.  I finished up with a memory box spider, a little ghost die cut I had in my box of bits, some shabby seam binding, some bead string and gems and some WOC flowers which I inked in Black Soot along with a couple of glass blackberries.

Although I started with a card in mind I decided to make it into a wall hanging as I thought it was more suited to that, besides we don't really give out Halloween cards in the UK, so I thought it would see more use as a decoration.

Well that's all from me, hopefully Mr Blogger has played nice as this post is scheduled to go live while I'm heading for work.  Have a great day and don't forget to check out my Candy before you leave. :) xx

Tiddly Inks Tanker Fairy Flies

If you're looking for my candy it's here.
I got a chance to play and just create something for the fun of it yesterday, which was nice as I have quite a few projects on the burner that need to get finished this week or by the weekend that it was nice to take a little time out and jut be creative for the sheer joy of it.

Anyhooo....here's what I made (and sorry I didn't post it yesterday, I was really busy and then I got so carried away creating I didn't get time to take pics and post).

The papers are the new Autumn Basics by Maja Design, aren't they yummy? These are the 12 x 12 versions.  I thought the hot air ballons and the clocks had a real steam punk feel to then as well as vintage, so I decided to go with the flow.  The clock  and gears dies are from Cheery Lyn and I used a  Go Kreate die to create the card shape. I stitched all the papers with top stitch thread in Nutmeg and inked the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink.

The image is Tanker Fairy Flies, a Tiddly Inks digi by Christy Croll, I really love the Tiddly Inks stamps, they're so much fun and a joy to colour. She's coloured in Copics as per usual for me and I've just noticed (how embarassing) that I missed  a small lock of her hair, so I shall need to go and touch that in lol.

The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, the velvet ribbon (love it) and the seam binding are from The Ribbon Girl, the lace and pine cones (I think they look great here and they're sooo cute) are from Live & Love Crafts as are the Screw style Brads. I can't remember where I got the little clock charm but I think several of the shops sell them.

I cut the cogs in blue corrugated card, toned down the brightness a bit with some white acrylic paint and them added some frantage in shabby white.  I think they look pretty cool attached with the screw brads.

The inside is decorated to complement and coordinate with the front. More of that yummy Maja paper.

To finish I just added some pearls and a couple of flourishes.  You can see the tag pulled out here, this is cut from one of the 12 x 12 sheets which is full of tags, elements and vintage photos, great additions to your cards.

To make the seam binding look shabby I just screw it up into a small ball and then roll it between my hands in little circles so that it creases and textures.

Well that's it from me, don't forget to check out my blog candy here  before you leave.

Have a great evening :) xx

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:

Tiddly Inks  Anything Goes

Inky Chicks 2 different die cuts

Papertake Weekly Anything Goes

A Creative Romance Fairytale or Winged Creations

Stampin for the Weekend Fairies and Fantasy

A Little Bit Crafty  A Little Bit Shabby

Bunny Zoe Crafts Something Blue

CLP  #63

613 Avenue Create Anything Goes

Cupcake Inspirations #231 Steam Punk