Thursday 3 April 2014

Focus on You - Candi Special!

Hi everyone this week I want to share with you some gorgeous makes featuring lovely Craftwork Cards Candi!  As you know this week is Candi week - hope that you've enjoyed all the posts here on the blog and found lots of inspiration !

So first up this week is... (and as always in no particular order) we have:-

ANN PLAYFORD











Next up is

JANET HUGHES

Next up is

KAREN WOODHEAD


Next up is

SHAYNE COULTER




Next up is

DIANA WARD


Next up is

CLAIRE HAIGH


Next up is Cheryl from the USA


Candi has so many uses - I hope that this lovely selection from you the lovely customers inspires you to get creating with Candi!

All these lovely ladies will be entered into my prize draw for April!  For your chance to enter here is what to do...

So to be in with a chance to win this month's prize all you have to do is e-mail me at sparklygirltina@gmail.com with a project you've made using Craftwork Card products.  Anyone who gets featured on the blog in the month of April will be put into a draw for the April prize.  Don't worry if you don't get featured in April as you WILL get featured in future postings and each month there will be a different prize up for grabs!!!  Hopefully that all makes sense!

Here is this month's prize...
Monochrome Paper Blox Pad
 Vintage Flora Paper Blox Pad
 10 mini twister cards - Elegant

Don't forget to pop over and have a look at the Pinterest boards found here too, where you will find plenty more inspiration - there is even a board dedicated to Focus on You!

See you next month, until then...

Happy Crafting



SPARKLYGIRL-TINA
XXXXXXXXXXXX

Wednesday 2 April 2014

Stunning Candi Topiary by Neil Burley and they could be yours!


Hello again!

Yes, back again with more Candi - after all it is CANDI LOVE week!  My lovely team colleagues have been soooo busy preparing stunning creations and cards using Candi and the best news of all is that they are all going to be given away to some of Craftwork Cards loyal customers.

Here goes for today ...............

Neil Burley has made this really gorgeous pair of topiary trees, with Candi and Candi blooms - I think these took a super long session in Neil's craft room and just wait till you see the attention to detail in the close up below.  Best of all Neil has said that he will GIVE THEM AWAY to one of you lucky customers, so all you have to do is leave a comment on this here blog!  I'll put the names in a Candi box, who needs a hat when one has lots of Candi boxes!??!, and draw a winner and let you know in due course - couldn't be easier......... Wish I could enter I love them!



Wow!  A close up .........

Here's what Neil said and his instructions......

Ball Trees – Westminster Candi (2-3 packs)
"When I heard about the Candi Love Week, I had the thought of making these ornamental trees based on a technique I learnt at a Woodware Retailer’s Training session with Jane Gill.

 The balls are 7.5cm diameter polystyrene balls that are first covered with Dreamweaver Metallic Copper Embossing Paste before pressing in the Candi dome up. 


Every now and then I’d put one 'cup up' to stick the flowers to later. I set out a tray for mass flower making, folding six Candi in half for each flower. 





I used Pinflair to glue down the petals in stages – learnt after much trial and error – starting with the north/south ones leaving a gap in the middle. 

Allow to set, then hold one side while you add Candi petals to the other. Allow to set, and then add the final two petals and a blob of Liquid Pearls. Ideally, dry over night before glueing to the balls."


Thank you so much Neil for these fabulous creations.  The trees will go to one lucky and very happy customer out there - if you leave a comment on the blog today it could be YOU!

Hope to see you back tomorrow for some more inspiration from some of the Design Team, until then keep happy and enjoy crafting with Candi........




Tuesday 1 April 2014

Candi Love Week - Day 4 Candi Twist Flowers!


So today is Day 4 of Candi Love Week - are you enjoying all the amazing Candi inspiration?
We hope you are and that you will join in all the fun and enter all the competitions, your chance to win some fabulous prizes!

Today we are going to share with you a gorgeous Candi Twist flower that Design Team member, Kay Fletcher designed.

Step 1
Punch a circle from white cardstock to use as a base for your flower.  Take 3 pieces of Candi and using tweezers, twist each piece.  Apply a dot of glue to the centre of punched circle and stand the Candi, upright, in the glue.


Step 2
Take 2 pieces of Candi and wrap them around a cocktail stick, this creates the centre of your flower.
Interlock the 2 pieces between the 3 upright pieces on the punched circle.


Step 3
On scrap paper put a large circle of glue.  Twist 5 more pieces of Candi using tweezers and dip into glue and attach around the edge of centre petals.


Step 4
Continue adding 'twisted' Candi around the outside edge until the flower is the required size.


This is how Kay made the flower for the centre piece of this stunning box.





We would love to see your Candi Twist Flowers, send pictures to candilovebycwc@talktalk.net and we will share them on the blog.

Enjoy the rest of Candi Love Week, the prize for leaving your comments today is a surprise (could it be a Candi ring, I wonder??!) if you're not in you'll never know!

Until tomorrow........


How do you use Candi? A Fun Survey!


Hello Everyone

Firstly,  happy Mother's Day to all you crafty Mum's - have a really great day and secondly a very happy birthday to , probably our youngest contributed ever to Tina's Thursday blog, a little girl called Nia who is celebrating her 5th birthday with a party today - Happy Birthday Nia, have a really fun day!  xxx

We're still on our Candi fest and today I have some more fun for you all, please read on .......

                                                     A FUN CANDI SURVEY

We all love Candi and know you do too, so to give us an idea of just how much and how it features in your crafting, it would be great if you could answer the questions below.

There are 10 prizes of hand decorated notebooks to give away, contributors picked at random.

Here's how they started out.........

Here's how they look now .......


I have covered little notebooks with CWC pearlised card (I love it!) and then used lighter weight papers, ribbon, bows, stickles, glossy accents and lots of Candi to decorate....

 Here's how your prize will arrive, in pink tissue with a handmade Candi bloom label! 

We will post the results of what you say and relevant pics on the blog during Candi Love week.

CANDI LOVE - in the crafting dictionary it means a love of the amazingly versatile 'leg-less brad' created by Craftwork Cards to be used in your daily crafting for soooo many different looks.  It comes in stunning colours and designs to tone with, match and enhance all your crafting projects  - a must 
in every crafters stash..............

1.  What would you say about Candi in your dictionary?


2.  Do you have lots of a Candi?

3.   How many varieties?


4.   How do you store it? (Happy to see pic, in fact would love to!)


5.   If you use Candi boxes, how do you know what's in the boxes?


6.   Do you have a Candi index or library of patterns, colours etc.?


7.   Do you use with Candi fix? If so do you stick the fix to the Candi or pop on the card/project and then pop on the Candi on top?


8.   What's your main use of Candi?


9.   Any ideas or thoughts on what else we can do to with Candi?


10.  If there was a Candi workshop in your area, would you want to attend? If so, where do you live? 

And now - another fun competition.  Pop you creative poetic heads on and compose a  Candi Limerick (5 lines - 1st, 2nd and 5th rhyming and 3rd and 4th rhyming) I've been working on mine but it's not very good! There's a great prize for this too  :  4 bags of Candi and Candi Stamp - Bubble Bloom – Christina, Closing Date: 02/04/2014

Please email on candilovebycwc@talktalk.net. And don't forget to leave a comment on the blog too to qualify.  Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback, we are really looking forward to your responses, seeing your storage pics and hearing what you think.  Can't wait for those Limericks too!  Watch the blog for the results!

Results of guess the number of a Candi in champagne glass out on 2/2/14 so still time to enter and  don't forget to pop by and check to see if you are the lucky winner!

Until tomorrow, keep happy and dreaming of Candi!

Saturday 29 March 2014

Candi or Champagne / Champagne or Candi ???



Morning All....

Day 2 of Candi Love week and only a day away from Mother's Day for all you lucky Mums out there, hope you're all planning a nice relaxing day.

Another competition today, a champagne flute crammed with Candi and you've guessed it, we want to know how many pieces of Candi are in the glass.  I had the task of counting them too! I thought I'd do it twice to make sure I was right but ended up doing 3 counts as 2nd was interrupted and by the time I went back to it couldn't remember what I was up to, lol! Anyway I now know exactly how many there are and have written it down so it's not forgotten.  What we want you to do is email at candilovebycwc@talktalk.net and let us know how many pieces of Candi you think are in the glass, the winner will be the person who guesses exactly or is closest to the magic number. The Prize is a  Candi Selection Box with 13 boxes full of Candi, you have until the end of 1st April 2014 to get your answers in, make sure you comment on the blog too........

Here's the glass below!


I thought for the picture I would set the scene and include a bottle of bubbly, if I give a bottle as a present I always make a nice a bottle label to pretty it up for the recipient....




A bottle label is easy to make and probably by looking at it you will see how, just cut some card to suit the size of the bottle, I'm a very big fan of Craftwork Cards pearlised card and here I have used the beautiful Damask Pearl Blue which is perfect with the pastel Kitsch, Tea Dance and many other of the fab Craftwork Card ranges. Score and cut a circle in the centre of the shorter piece to go over the neck of the bottle and decorate as desired . I have used Kitsch flowers and papers and lots of Candi of course.  You could also use a beautiful bow on the stem of your glass, just stick some ribbon on the back and tie around the stem for an extra pretty flourish.

That's it for today folks, back tomorrow  with even more Candi and a fun survey for you all to take part in.  Until then, keep happy, smiling and crafting with Candi.........


Friday 28 March 2014

Candi Love Week!



Happy, happy Friday!

Hope you are all smiling and happy this Friday, it's nearly the weekend, Mother's Day on Sunday, and here in blog land it's the start of Candi Love week, a whole week of Candi fun for those of you who love Candi and use it on your cards and craft projects and as well as being treated to lots of inspiration there are chances to win loads of goodies including lots and lots of yummy Candi, you can even win by leaving a comment.    Don't forget to log on every day for a look and tell your crafty friends too - us crafters are a loving, sharing community.......! 

Here are some of the giveaways up off grabs this week........

Remember, you don't always just have to pop a couple on a card, Candi does  add a certain 'je ne sais quoi'  to a card though,  use Candi to create flowers, use upside down, inside out, scrunched, folded 
and embellished with glossy accents (my favourite) or glitter/stickles.....

Here are just a few uses.....


During the week I will be altering a couple of items using beautiful Craftwork Cards products and lots of Candi.  Here is something you could do with little ones over the forthcoming holidays, needs an adult to cut up the bottle though (I used a very sharp bread knife!!)...

Before!

 After ...... A little wristlet tied with a red ribbon, using a beautiful crackle glazed bow and a Candi bloom centre



Take a slice from the bottle, cut through one side, I angled off each side of the cut (you can see in the pic above) cover with whatever paper you fancy, punch 2 holes for the ribbon to fasten and decorate however you desire! Not quite sophisticated for us grown ups probably but great for little princesses.........  Let us see your recycling/altering please, there are prizes during the week too - lots


And now for the line up for the next week .........

CANDI LOVE WEEK

The Candi Love Clinic will be open all week, you can email your tips and suggestions or ask us for help or tips, you can share your ideas, best glues etc. the new new email address is candilovebycwc@talktalk.net


28/03/2014
Competition: Altered/Recycled items using Candi to decorate
Closing Date: 01/04/2014
Prize:  Candi Storage Box, Candi Fix Foam Pads, 4 bags of Candi
Winner announced: 04/04/2014

29/03/2014
Competition: Guess the number of Candi in champagne glass - a toast to all the Mums for Mother's Day 
Prize: Candi Selection Box with 13 boxes full of Candi
Closing Date:  01/04/2014
Winner Announced: 02/04/2014

30/03/2014
A Fun Candi Survey - 10 hand decorated notebooks to be won 
Competition: Candi Limerick. (5 lines, 1st, 3rd and 5th rhyming) must be 'clean'!!!
Closing Date: 02/04/2014
Prize: 4 bags of Candi and Candi Stamp - Bubble Bloom – Christina
Marie to feature an altered Candi project

31/03/2014
How to make one of Kay Fletcher’s gorgeous Candi Flower’s, step by step instructions with pictures.  Pictures of beautiful finished project use the Kitsch box......
Prizes of handmade Candi card and gift for leaving comments

01/04/2014
Feature on customer replies to 'What you do with Candi'
Closing date for Guess Number of Candi in Champagne glass, winner announced 

02/04/2014
Feature more customer replies to 'What you do with Candi'
Announce winner of Guess the Number of Candi Competition
Feature some of the DT Candi gallery
Prizes of DT Candi Makes for comments left

03/04/2014
Tina Boyden’s Focus on You - it's all about Candi
Prize for randomly selected entry

04/04/2014
Grand Finale of Candi Love week
Results of all the competitions, list of weeks winners
Feature some Candi Limericks, any pics sent in

We are so looking forward to bringing you Candi every day for the next week, please, please join in and enjoy the fun.  Until tomorrow keep happy, smiling and crafting with Candi........  I'm off to Candi heaven in my craft room and to try my hand at writing a Limerick, lol..........