The Big Prize Draw

You know how I do my monthly prize draws? Well, I've been thinking about those and I decided that I'd try something a little different this year.

I've met some wonderful people through my website and the blogosphere. Some of them I've actually met face-to-face and others I 'speak' to via blogs and emails. When I was thinking about the giveaway I decided to see if any of these fab folk would like to join me in this prize draw thing and guess what? That's right, they did! Yeah!

So now I'm very pleased (and a tad excited) to present The Big Prize Draw. There are three - yes three - prizes up for grabs this month. That means that there will be three winners! And that's not a first, second and third prize. They're all pretty much the same value. Four talented people have donated prizes for the draw and there's also a chance to win some of my beads too.

Do you want to take a look at what you could win?

First off (and these prizes are listed in no particular order) we have some beautiful polymer clay beads made by the very clever Zuleykha. She has donated a set of four flowery focal beads ranging from 25-50mm diameter.

Aren't they pretty? To see more of Zuleykha's wonderful polymer clay work please visit her Etsy shop and click here to have a read of her blog.

Lyn from Florspace has donated three of her super-handy and very cute handmade MiniZ purses. There are two Everyday Cupcake ones and one Metro Dots one. These little purses are great for keeping all your odds and ends in. I have about five of them myself and I love them!

To see more of Lyn's amazing handcrafted bags and purses please head on over to her Etsy shop. Lyn has a blog too.

Next up is this exclusive Alice In Wonderland necklace by the lovely Janine Byrom of Cherished Trinkets. This gorgeous pendant features a classic illustration of Alice and the 'Drink Me' bottle. It's perfectly finished with a blue satin ribbon. The chain measures approximately 18 inches.

Janine has a whole range of Alice jewellery on her newly re-vamped and very swish website. Please click here to visit her online emporium and click here for her blog.

Senior Art Clay Silver Instructor Joy Funnell has donated a seven gram pack of Art Clay Silver. This wonderful stuff can be used to make fine silver beads, pendants, findings and much more.

Joy has lots more information about Art Clay Silver on her website and her online shop contains lots of Art Clay Silver products. She also blogs here.

And finally we have some lampwork bead dangles made by moi. There is a cupcake (naturally), a sweet little mushroom and a pretty scrollwork bead. These dangles are great for prettying up your mobile phone, camera or bag zipper pull.

So, that's the prizes. I've split them up into three lots and these are as follows :

Prize One

Zuleykha's four flower beads, my mushroom dangle and one of Lyn's cupcake MiniZs.

Prize Two

Janine's Alice necklace, one of Lyn's cupcake MiniZs and my scrollwork dangle.

Prize Three

Joy's pack of Art Clay Silver, my cupcake dangle and Lyn's dotty MiniZ.

How To Enter

All you have to do to enter the draw is leave a comment on this post.

Usually I take email entries too but from now on all draw entries have to be made by blog comment. This will make it easier to keep track of and it will make the drawing of the winners simpler too. Over time my prize draws have become so popular that the poor Lego Tombola can't take any more! The winners will be picked by a random number generator instead. Each comment will be assigned a number (number one being the first comment posted) and I will use random.org to choose the three winners.

If you normally enter my giveaways by email, please don't let the blog commenting put you off. It's really simple and you don't need a Blogger account to comment. Just leave your name in your comment and check back at the end of the month to see if you've won!

The draw is open to anyone anywhere in the world but it's only one entry per person please.

I will draw the three winners on the evening of February 28th.

I'd like to say huge massive 'thank yous' to Zuleykha, Lyn, Janine and Joy for being so generous with their prizes. Please take a moment to visit their websites and blogs and add yourself as followers so you can keep up with all their goings-on!

I'm hoping to do more of these Big Prize Draws so please bookmark or follow my blog for news of when they will take place. If you're at all interested in donating a prize for upcoming giveaways please send me an email.

Best of luck for the draw!

Beads, Dangles & Shudders

You lot seem to be loving this style of bead so here's another set for you.

I've also added the option of Cupcake Dangles to the Cupcake Beads page. These make excellent little Christmas gifts (and don't shout at me - it's not too early to be organising Christmas pressies. It'll be here before you know it!) and they're fab for attaching to your mobile phone, camera, zipper pull or wherever you fancy a bit of cupcake cheeriness!

You know I mentioned the spider influx the other day? Well, I had spider trauma this afternoon. I spent all day making beads in the conservatory and then late this afternoon my sister called me so I went outside to have a chat on the phone. I glanced up at the conservatory window and there, as bold as brass, was a big fat hairy spider. It was horrid. Its legs! It had such legs! It had shoulders. And elbows. And wrists. And I swear it was looking at me with a big spidery smirk on its face. I froze and went into full-on spider benny mode. I couldn't concentrate on my phone conversation, I started sweating and my heart was beating like a mad thing. I also started that jogging-about-on-the-spot-with-arms-flailing thing but the spider just sat there. You see, this is where the irrational part of my fear comes in. I was in the garden, in the open air, about seven feet away from the creature. I knew it wasn't going to get on me and I knew I could leg it if needs be. But I couldn't move as I had to keep an eye on it to make sure it didn't go anywhere because then I wouldn't know where it was and that would have been worse than it being in plain view. So I was stuck. Dad was out so I stayed talking on the phone to Em until he got back. He came out into the garden (after seeing me acting like a pillock through the conservatory window) and moved the offending spider. He picked it up with his bare hands - his bare hands! - and threw it over the fence. I screamed (deafening poor Emily in the process) and had a tiny breakdown which including me ripping at my hair and slapping my thigh. (I don't know what was with the thigh-slapping - it was just a reaction.) It took at least an hour for me to recover from the incident and even now I keep getting the willies every time I think of those angular zig-zaggy legs. *Shudder!*

I know I probably sound really wimpy and pathetic but I'm telling you, it's a genuine fear - not just a girly-wirly-I-don't-like-spiders thing. I'm scared witless of the buggers!