Friday, May 1, 2009

***frenzied spring-cleaning blog candy giveaway gala weekend spectacular!!!***

and the prize goes to the first person who can say that three times, fast!!! (~lol~)

nope, as is customary on these occasions, the winner shall be picked randomly from the comments made on this post between now (friday may 1st--happy may day, btw!) and midnight on sunday (may 3rd). but i seem to have gotten just slightly ahead of myself. let's start over, shall we?!

if you are here as part of the CAARDVARKS gala reader weekend, may i extend an extra-special

HELLO!
and
welcome!

i'm so pleased you stopped by and hope you are having a lovely time! be sure to come along to CAARDVARKS on tuesday to check out the new challenge, it's a good one, with a prize you will *love*!

speaking of PRIZES, let's talk about the candy now, ok? first off, you might be thinking, "hey lauren--why is it called the FRENZIED SPRING-CLEANING blog candy giveaway?" i'm so pleased you asked! it's called that because, while 10% the things in the photo are current product bought (on sale, mostly) with a view to being blog candy; the other 90% have been gleaned from a recent, long-overdue, clearout of my stash. everything here is in "brand-new" condition: it's unused... it's full sheets... it's unopened packages...but...most of it is *OLDER* product. so in other words, if you are a strict "latest-and-greatest" sort of supply person, this will probably not appeal to you!

there are LOADS of stickers, a whole bunch of rub-ons, a couple of little clear stamps, some prima flowers & paper birds, a box of heidi swapp colored pencils, a cute chipboard mini-album that's shaped like a house, some iron-on thingies, a set of unopened (but the plastic's yellowed with age, and i have NO IDEA where they've come from) hero arts flower-border stamps which may have come over with the pilgrims on the mayflower...

lemme sum up: there is A LOT of stuff here, and i think it all reallllllllllllly wants to come and live at your house!!!

(the STUFF: in real life, this is a 2 foot by 3 foot of my dining room carpet. don't worry, the carpet is not included. but everything else is ALL YOURS!!!)

right, so you've read this far, and you are undiscouraged. so now you are probably wondering, "hey lauren--how can i become eligible to *WIN* this enormous assortment of only vaguely appalling old stuff?!" i'm so pleased you asked! since this *IS* the CAARDVARKS gala reader weekend...and since we are all about making the CAARDVARKS card challenge site even more fun for our lovely readers...i'd love to hear your thoughts about challenges!

leave me a comment telling me the best challenge you've entered...whether it was at 'VARKS or elsewhere: why was it best--great theme, cool prize, exciting DT examples?
OR
tell me your LEAST favorite challenge--one that you just COULD NOT figure out how--or maybe WHY--to do it! was it too specific? too "far out"? too vague? spill the dirt...but in a NICE way, ok?!
OR
tell me a challenge that you keep *hoping* to see, but no one has ever done yet! wanna make cards based on pink floyd lyrics? hoping for a dried-macaroni-collage invitational? we are always on the lookout for something new!

there's a lot of scope here, folks. tell me something about art challenges generally, and you shall be entered in the drawing! you may enter as many times as you like, but you have to leave a pertinent comment each time. i will ship world-wide. if i can figure out how to close the comments at the end i will, but if not we will just go with midnight on sunday, US eastern standard time.

thanks for stopping by
and good luck!!!
~♥♥♥~

16 comments:

  1. Do NOT pick me, as I DO NOT NEED MORE STUFF (#1 never wins, anyway), but I have to tell you it gladdens my heart that other people have giveaways from their own stash. ;-) Oh, look, I failed to mention anything about challenges, so I guess I am disqualified, anyway. PS: I like sketch challenges.

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  2. You had me at "rub-ons".
    The best challenge I've ever entered was the 'Varks "10 day 10k". I was so inspired and motivated to make my best possible card each of the 10 days. And I made some really wonderful blog friends from participating...how great is that?
    I'm not good of thinking up challenges, but I would love to see a challenge "design your card around the ribbon" (I am sure YOU could come up with a better title!) You see, I have so many virginal spools of ribbon I just had to have, and I can't seem to make them work with ANYTHING. So what if I plan a card around the ribbon? THAT is a real challenge...at least for me :)

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  3. Hey there, is this fun!!! Just dropped by to see if you'd posted something and I see blogcandy! Great.....honestly, I love old stash, work with it all the time, and eventhough I get pretty bored with it every now and then, I use it still and have lots of fun with it!
    Challenges.... oh gosh, I love them, used to do AAE but they stopped unfortunately, Say it in Scrap is good too (although I haven't participated in a long time), love my "own" challengeblog with 8 other friends a lot, but I think the best one so far was Emily Falconbridge's Art Journal Challenge 2007! 52 Weeks of pure fun!
    Wow, long answer, but, you've asked for it!!

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  4. I love blog candy, old or new! I love the idea of challenges & I love viewing the galleries of them, but alas I am computer "disadvantaged" and cannot figure out how to post an entry :(

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  5. Wow so happy I found your blog! I just recently found Cardvaarks and have entered the last two challenges. Love the site and all it has to offer. Many of my Hero friends hang here. A few of my cards are being featured there this weekend. Cheers!

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  6. The one and only challenge I have entered so far was Elise Blaha's Crafty Olympics. It was difficult deciding what was expected from each prompt, but I enjoyed the challenge. I would enjoy a challenge centered around a specific object. For example, restaurant matchbooks; you use a real matchbook in your layout as the focal point.

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  7. Hey girl, what a funny, funny post. You're ability to blog in such witty terms is amazing. As far as challenges go, I do enjoy sketch challenges...but here's what I don't enjoy about challenges. When you take the time to post to some one's particular challenge; would it kill that person to leave a tiny little comment on your blog? That really bugs me.

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  8. I love your site, my favorite challenges are ones that have a uniques theme that you wold think to do for example the fantasy i just loved doing. What rally bugs me is when part of the rules is to use a particular brand , for example you have to use this companies stamp. THings like that bug me because if I don't have anything from that company I feel left out and I don't want to go out an buy stuff just for that challenge.

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  9. mmmmm...I just love challenges in general and my poor medicated brain won't tell me which was my favourite or the hardest...LOL. Basically I just love a challenge that makes me think outside the box, or uses something that i normally wouldn't use...you know what i mean...anything that takes me out of my *comfort* zone :)
    Awesome candy btw...it would probably like to come live at my house ;)

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  10. I'm not really good with color challenge cause I don't have TONS of cardstock and DP like most the ladies, so I have a hard time with those.

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  11. Oh Lauren- awesome blog candy!!! New? Old? All the matters is that it is stuff LOL! Anyway, challenges, I love, love, love them! It gives me a reason to do something! I love them- my favorites are the sketch or theme ones. Not so crazy about the color ones. The thing I dislike about some challenges is they do not give enough time to do them! I love the time period caardvarks gives! I only wish they would issue their challenges on a set day of the week and have it due on a set day of the week. That is easier for me to keep track of rather than a date (my own personal preference, 2 cents please!). I hope to get back on the challenge wagon soon! Too busy cleaning and preparing for the boys to come home from college- moving back with all that stuff!!! Oh yeah, and graduation and party (gotta clean the house you know....) Thanks for the opp! debb

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  12. The Caardvarks tree challenge is the first time I have entered there...and I made 5 cards for it. I love tree/nature/leaf images and goodies and what a great excuse to get them out and actually use them! (And even possibly win an adorable new tree set!)

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  13. I always TRY to play in the 'Vaark's challenges!

    I love their challenges becuz they're always unique ... and very creative. And they always drag me ... kickin' & screamin' outta my safe l'il box.

    Not to mention that they have one of THE BEST Design Teams in all of Stampin' Blogdom!

    Thanks so much for the chance to win your haul, LOL!

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  14. The most difficult challenge I entered was to make a card in a non card shape. It was also my least favourite challenge at the time. But when I look back it really made me craft outside my comfort zone and try something new. I've come to realize that I do like challenges that make me go outside my comfort zone, I discover so many new things that way.

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  15. I love and have become addicted to card challengs!! LOL! :)
    Color Challenges are my favorite! Helps me to use different colors together. The hardest ones for me are the different shapes of cards. But I am always up for a challenge and I love hopping around to see what all the other great talent out there is up to! :)

    Thanks for the chance to win! CaardVarks is a great place for inspiration!!! :)
    Stamping Hugs!

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  16. I miss a "paper only" challenge! No prima flowers, no ribbons, no bling or pearls, no stamped images, just cards and embellishment made of paper only.

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the *BEST* part of blogging is the comments, dontcha think? thanks for taking time to leave one! ~♥~