It's a Magpie Day today!!

Greetings dear crafters!

Yes, today we're having one of our Magpie Days and it's a candy day for our commenters.  No, you don't need to be a follower but you do have to leave a comment today or between now and June 30th, the challenge end, to qualify for the draw.

How does it work?  One comment per visitor/follower on THIS post please and after the close of the challenge we will count the number of comments and let random.org choose the lucky winner.  (Anyone leaving more than one comment on THIS post will disqualify themselves, we'd like it to be fair for all please.) 

Here are our candy details...

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2 12" x 12" scrapbooking packs

5 x A4 sheets of thick greyboard

5 x A4 sheets of thin greyboard

Set of Sizzix embossing folders

2 packs assorted sticky backed ribbons

2 small sets of decorative rub-ons

Pack of 12 white roses (great for inking/spraying)

Spellbinders die set

3 pots of glitter (gold, silver, copper)

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We will announce the winner in July and once we have your details the candy will be mailed to you.  The competition is open to EVERYONE, wherever you are in the world.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!!!!

Have a wonderful day and a great weekend, I'll be back with the last post for the month on Monday.

Chris and the CVC team xxx

MAGPIE: It's a DT's postcard day today!

Hello there!

It's a Magpie Day today and some of the DT have got together and followed our theme to create some postcards for you.  Here's our line up...

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DOREEN

I have gone for a vibrant postcard scene from somewhere hot and sunny,you can find out how I made this over on my blog

SUE D

Hi, I've gone for some un-inked rubber for my postcard, and some new paints.

Details can be found here on my blog x

JENNIE

With hardly anything "scenic" in my (vast) stamp collection I have gone for a vintage sepia postcard  with a "wish you were here" feel! As usual there are a few more details on my blog.

ASTRID

One of my all time favourite stampers is the very talented Paula Whittaker who blogs at Just for One Day. This little scene was very much inspired by her wonderful work. If you want to see how I put it together, all you need to do is click here

ALISON

I didn't have time this month to be part of the main Simply Scenic inspiration, so I'm really happy that I was able to squeeze in a Magpie Day postcard.  I kept it simple with some stamping and some of my favourite Distress Ink colours.  Hop over to Words and Pictures if you'd like to see more.

CHRIS

My choice is inspired by my recent Tim Holtz aquisitions, put together in an ode to purple, lol!  You can find my step x step here.

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We hope you like our little interlude, normal service resumes on Monday, lol!!

Have a great weekend everyone, make it a crafty one!  >:o)

Chris and the CVC team xxx

It's a Magpie blog candy!

Hi everyone,

We have another Magpie Day today and we're repeating our blog candy prize as it remained unclaimed last month.  (If your entry is ever the lucky number pulled out of the hat then PLEASE do claim your candy within 14 days using the contact email widget on the sidebar.)

Here is the candy prize....

The lucky number chosen by random.org is...

Jane's Journal - Congrat's!!!!

Email us please with your name and address so we can get your prize in the post!

Donna will be here on Saturday with another beautiful project, see you then we hope.  Have fun!

Chris and the team xxx

It's our November Magpie Day!

Good morning folks!

Magpie Day, what's a Magpie Day? Well, for those of you who haven't seen our Magpie Days before, they can be anything at all, whatever we may have chosen from an eclectic mix of topics or things we'd like to do. It's a temporary divergence from our theme for the month, kind of like a separate challenge for a day just for our DTMs. For this Magpie, we have chosen TWO entirely different things to do - a surPRIZE for those followers who have already entered the challenge and some Magpie makes from our team.

You'll have to read on for the surPRIZE but in the meantime, our DT have chosen 'Made from scraps' as their theme and here is what they've made...

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DTM's 'Made from scraps'

Doreen

I have made a couple of Tags,all with scraps, even the burlap and Gingham were from scrap boxes.

I love using scraps,it gives a great sense of achievement to make items with stash you might have thrown away.

You can get full details of this from my blog

Sue B

A distressed stained off cut from a masterboard.

More details on my blog-scrumplescrunch.

Sue D

Here's what I made out of my pile of scraps, with a great deal of help from Dina Wakley.

More details are on my blog here at Sue The Iron.

Jennie

I had great fun scrapping this layout of my little grandson with some of my scraps die cut for other projects. If you want to see what I used then hop on over to my blog.

Nikki

I used lots of scraps on my tag to create texture and layers. I have probably hidden most of them with 'painty fun' but do hop over to Addicted to Art to see the layering process.

Brenda

I bet you are just like me - a huge box of paper scraps on a shelf behind me and it keeps growing, I never seem to make a dent in it, but Magpie Day today has given me the chance to at least dip into it and use a few of the bits of designer papers that I have been keeping. Combined with the fabulous Retro Ornaments die from Tim Holtz and his Simple Sayings stamps it was quick and easy to make a card, so as it was all out I decided to make three.

Chris

With more calls for me to make Christmas cards and lots of leftovers from the ones lready made, I couldn't resist this op[portunity to make another. More details can be found at My corner of Heaven. Chris xxx

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Entrant's surPRIZE

We decided to have a little blog candy fun for a Magpie surprise today as it has fallen mid-month. Those of you that have already entered and linked your projects have automatically become eligible and we are relying upon random.org to make the pick....

And the winning number is...

Congratulations Karen P, please email us with your address so we can get the candy in the post to you! This is the blog candy you've won. >:o)

(Comprises: Ribbon tied triptych panel, 3 assorted rubber stamps, 25 x #8 manilla tags, 6" x 6" paper pad.)

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We hope you've enjoyed our little Magpie interlude this month.... it's back to the challenge theme posts on Monday with a fabulous guest post.

See you then!

Chris and the team xxx

Magpie Day - We have postcards!

It's our last post for this month and it's a Magpie Day!

Q: What is a Magpie Day?
A: Whatever takes our fancy!

We've introduced Magpie Days for the occasional spare date in our calendar. Our DTMs suggest a topic and play with that theme. Today we thought it would be fun to feature POSTCARDS!

Here's what our talented team came up with...

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Chris

My postcard is called 'A postcard from Paris' and makes use of Tim's new French flight Framelits dies with stamps. There's a kewl map of Liege cut from one of the new 'Come away with me' papers from Graphic 45 too. On the serious side, the postcard journey starts in Liege (Belgium) and ends in Paris and is commemorative of the centenary of WWI. You can find exactly what's been used and how HERE.

Doreen

Hello, I have made a vintage postcard  from a wife to her husband who is away at war.

More details from my blog here. xxx

Sue B

My Postcard is from the North Pole, posted by Santa to a child that has been very good all year.

A step by step is over on my Blog.


Trace

 and here is the back :

I love all things vintage and love playing with the new papers, so this vintage style postcard from Paris was created using mostly collaged elements x For all the details please hop here .

Alison

Making a postcard means I can get out one of my first ever stamp purchases... the Tim Holtz PostCard label.  It's still one of my favourites - I don't know why I don't use it more!  For more details of my melancholy message, take a trip over to Words and Pictures.

Gabrielle

My son starts Secondary school in September and so my postcard is themed with him in mind! Lots of my most favourite Wendy Vecchi stamps were used - in fact I think there are 23 stamped images in total! For more on how I made this, please pop over to my blog!

Jennie

I rather indulged myself with an old favourite stamp which I hadn't used in a while to create this vintage postcard.  There are more details on my blog here.

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We hope you've enjoyed peeking at our postcards. If you have some time, do please hop around to see the details and share some love with the DT Members who work SO hard to create our projects for you to see.

We'll be back on Monday with a brand new challenge for you and more lovely projects to share from our team.

Thanks to you all for your support and all the lovely comments this month, have a fabulous weekend!

Chris and the team. xxx

And our Magpie Day surprise is...

 ***  BLOG CANDY  ***

We told you that we would be holding ‘Magpie Days’ from time to time and we told you we thought you'd like our surprise today so here it is! To promote our new Pinterest page all you have to do is to become one of our Pinterest followers and then enter our draw below. One lucky winner will be chosen at random (random.org) to win our candy of…

these beautiful wooden backed stamps…

some autumnal ribbons…

12 vintage style buttons…

12. heart ribbon sliders…

and some twine and lace…

To give you an idea of the size of the stamps, the largest one measures 5.5”/14cm sq and stamps a pattern 5”/12.5cm sq. The text stamp has 4 stamping sides reading “Thinking of you”, “To a wonderful you”, “I’m thinking happy thoughts of you” and “You are on my mind”.

You will find our Pinterest page HERE, simply start following any of our boards to qualify then enter your details below. (If you are following us on Pinterest already, just sign up below.)

We will be holding the competition open for 1 month (closes 23:55 hrs, August 8th) after which time the winner will be announced.

GOOD LUCK!

Chris and the CVC team xxx

Today is 'Magpie day' with Gabrielle!

Today we're introducing a MAGPIE DAY!  -  "What is that?" we hear you ask. 

From July we will be posting every other day with posts appearing on our sister/project blog on the other days. With all our DT Members and guest posts we will be bringing you as much variation (and inspiration, we hope) that you can take. Occasionally we will have a spare slot and on those days we will be holding a MAGPIE DAY - there will be an eclectic collection of things as it can be anything at all (hence the name 'magpie'), a step by step from a DTM, a special guest highlight, a collection of projects from the team, who knows, you'll have to wait and see! >;o)

Our lovely and talented DTM, Gabrielle of crafty thoughts, has volunteered to be our first Magpie today, so over to her....

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I am currently having lots of fun playing with paint and experimenting with different effects. Today I'm sharing a tag made with Fresco paints by PaperArtsy, Grunge Paste and a stencil. I covered a tag in thin layers of Yellow Submarine, Hey Pesto, London Bus and Beach Hut paints and, when dry, a layer of French Roast that I wiped off with a baby wipe - this leaves a cool aged look! I then measured a card from the Found Relatives pack and cut an aperture that's a little smaller!

Then I mixed paint into Grunge Paste and through a stencil to create the leaves. When this is dry you can do the same for the petals (using Claret paint) and the centre, masking off sections of the stencil to make sure you don't have extra, unwanted petals or leaves! I added a little more green paint directly to the leaves and stems so that they stand out and drew round the stencilled flowers and leaves with a charcoal pencil so that they become even more 3D!

I then masked off the stencil again and stamped a text stamp through the stencil so it appeared only on the petals. I added a Remnant Rub under the photo but left the top free so the lovely background could be seen. I hope you have a go at mixing paint into Grunge Paste - I'd love to see what you make!

Gabrielle

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This is gorgeous Gabrielle and great tips and techniques here, thank you!!

Okay folks, this is our last post, you have until 11.45pm on Monday to get your projects finished and linked to have a chance of winning our fab £20 shop voucher from our sponsor, Country View Crafts.

Enjoy the rest of the month and GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE!

Chris and the CVC team. xxx