October Round Up! Photos, Fashion, Tutorials & Inspiration

What a fantastic Autumn! Crunchy leaves and pumpkin pie all round :D I have to admit that saying goodbye to summer is always tricky, but with Halloween and cozy socks to be indulged in through  October, it's been quite the welcomed treat! 

So, incase you missed out on anything during this glorious month, here is our October Round Up!

A snapshot of our lovely wordless wednesday photos. October was full of fog and I made my first ever pumpkin pie. It is sublime! We're big fans of instagram, its super addictive!

I answered your questions on my vintage glasses, shared a sweet autumn get up as well as some super stylish Halloween outfits for Style Me Friday. Do you think you're a ghost or a vampire? Either way you'll look killer in one of these ensembles!

After our little break to Paris last month we had the chance to share with you our favorite places to visit in the city, including a peek into our  Disneyland adventure and some amazing pictures and trinkets collected from our favorite flea markets there. We'd love to go back to all of them!

This month we shared four extra special Halloween tutorials, including how to make an awesome felt sugar skull brooch, a hollow book diy for your store your secret stash in, our favorite recipe for delicious cinder toffee and we even created a set of free printable Frankenstein & Bride of Frankenstein candy boxes for the ultimate trick or treaters visiting you on fright night! It's been spooktacular :D

This month has brought some more great achievements that we are super proud of :) 

We donated one of our prints to raise money for the Pug Rescue Centre at their Pug-O-Ween event and it went for over $50! We're also over the moon that we got to be a guest contributer with our tutorials on Mollie Makes blog and over on Kanelstrand's blog. We also have new products at over in Ginger Pickle's amazing online shop and had our Mr & Mrs prints featured on Blog And Buy Sale. Hooray!

On top of that we somehow had time to hold a stall at the arts market in Edinburgh and have launched few new products in our etsy store. Productive or what!

As a special Halloween 'trick or treat' to thank you lovely readers for all your support, we're offering you an exclusive 20% off in our etsy shop till MIDNIGHT tonight! Click this link to find the code and get in there quick :D Every order will also be given one of our awesome scratch cards, giving you either a free print, keepsake card or pencil with your next order, or even another 10% or 15% off your next order too! We love surprises :D

Last but not least, we would like to give kudos to the following bloggers. As you know, our diy posts are quite popular on our blog. We love nothing more than to see how others have taken on our little tutorials and made them their own! This month we'd like to thank Knitting Paradise, Laid Off Mom, Curious Cat and 2till3 for sharing the love! Good work ladies :D

We'd love to hear from everyone who has tried one of our projects so please get in touch and send us a picture so we can give you some love :) It's so fab to see your wonderful creations, it makes us super happy!

Thanks to everyone for all their support and we hope you're enjoying our blog :)

Don't forget to make use of our etsy code before it expires tonight, it may be the last one we do before Christmas! If that's not frightening, I'm not sure what is ;)

Happy Halloween boils and gouhls! 

Vivid

xox

Wordless Wednesday

DIY: How To Make A Hollow 'Secret Stash' Book

This week we're sharing how to make your own secret stash book!

I've always had a soft spot for hollow books; the idea of looking like a little angel whilst hiding something like a little devil has always appealed... perhaps because it's not far from the truth most of the time!

Be it hidden sweeties, jewellery or money inside... or perhaps even as a cute little planter, we're sure you're going to love your book after it's been reincarnated as much as we do :D 

For this tutorial you will need:

A pretty hard back book - one that you wont be sad (or told off) to cut up!

White glue (we used Mod Podge)

A stiff & thick brush

A pencil and ruler

A scalpel

Cling film 

A drill

To start making your hollow book, you'll want to save a few pages at the beginning and at the end of the book so it looks more realistic; you wouldn't want to give away your secret as soon as the cover has been opened!

So, go about 5 pages in (at the start and the end) of the book and cover them with cling film. You should wrap this so it covers the hardback cover fully too. This will stop your glue from sticking them together.

When you're ready, hold your book closed and brush the glue on all three sides of the pages as shown above. The best way to do this is to do a couple of thin coats so the pages can soak it in slowly. Gloop it on and the pages might go a bit wonky.

Pop it under several heavy books and let the glue dry. It will need about half an hour or so - enough time for a good cuppa :)

Once it has dried, open the book and draw in where you're going to cut the inside. We recommend you measure a good couple of inches in from all sides so you have a decent rim all the way around.

The easiest way to cut where all the corners meet is to drill holes in each; this will help act as a guide for your cutting lines too. Make sure to drill slowly and not too deep when pressing down. You only want to cut about 3/4 or so into your glued pages, otherwise you might have a book that's all hole and no secrets! 

Corners done, your next job is to join the dots and cut out the rectangle section of the book. Use your ruler and a sharp scalpel and only cut a few pages deep at a time when doing this step. Slow and steady wins the race here! Gently lift out these pages as you go...

...Until you've hollowed out 3/4 of your glued book pages. Doesn't that look amazing! 

Dont worry if it is a little messy as you cut the pages out as you can always trim any excess bist of paper that seem to be over hanging when you're done. 

Once you're happy, give the book another good couple of thin coats with the white glue. Using your brush, cover the inside pages, both where you have cut, around the frame and around the outside again. 

If you want to neaten up the top page and hide those corners, the best way to do it is to glue down one of your front pages that you were saving. Gently pull it out of the cling film and smooth it down over the top so it is glued closed. Pop the book under several heavy books and let it dry, then cut your new hole out of the first page. Lovely!

Let the insides dry a little longer (the glue will go clear when it's done) and you're ready to go!

*Ta*Da*

We hope you have a lot of fun carting around your new secret stash book! We plan to use ours for Halloween candy ... and when we've eaten all of that, a super cute jewellery box!

Happy Making!

xox

Style Me Friday...

hauntingly stylish ghost

top: topshop                                     skirt: miss selfridge
padlock necklace: asos                       key necklace: 2Sisters
snow white eyelashes: maskworld        candy floss machine: clatronic
film: beetlejuice                                music: the cramps
feather headband: shop curious            mary janes: vivienne westwood

New Products: Illustrated Cards & Prints!

boyfriend note cards

Hello lovelies!

We've been working like little bee's here at Vivid HQ on lots of fun new goodies for our shop. We created these new cards and prints which were exclusively for sale at our last market and we are delighted to announce they are now available in our online boutique too :D 

pug print

We've released our little pug illustration from the keepsake card as a full sized print as he's been getting a lot of friendly attention :D We've also created 6 new cards with a few of our favorite things on them...

sweet things note cards

Gumball machines, French Fancies and little sweeties for the ladies - c'est bon! And retro record players, red converse shoes and mint green headphones for the guys. Such a cute couple, right ;)

retro notecards

Finally, our extra special retro cards with our marshmallow fluff jar, vintage salon, garden flamingos and clock radio illustrations are now available to buy as a set. Looking good, right?

We're really excited to share that we've also working away on a new line of products for some time now which has been stupidly hard to keep a secret! A lot of time and effort has been put in and we are really close to spilling the beans :D Keep your eyes peeled for something super exciting coming to the shop and blog soon :)

In the mean time, we hope you love our new stationery and remember that there is a 20% discount available at our etsy shop too. Simply enter the coupon code: SPOOKTACULAR20 at the checkout... beware, the code will expire very soon so if you want to snap up some of these new works you better get in there quick!

Wordless Wednesday

Pug-O-Ween!

I Love Lucy Pug

As you know we are big fans of Pug dogs. In fact, we pugging love them!

Earlier on in the year we were asked to get involved with fundraising for the Texan DFW Pug Rescue, who's mission is to have "No Texas Pug Left Behind". By rescuing around 10 pugs a week, we know it is a cause worth supporting.

Elvis Pugsley

When they asked us to donate one of our prints to help raise money for their cause we were really excited to get involved. When we heard that the auction would be held at their annual Pug-O-Ween even we were over the moon!

Witch Pug

Hundreds of pugs dressed to the nines! We've just discovered a whole new level to how great Halloween is. Could there be anything better than this? People have really gone all out for the event and we can't wait till we have a little pug of our own to get involved with the festivities!

Pug - O - Tron

We donated one of our I Pugging Love you prints and are really delighted to share that it raised over $50 dollars for DFW Pug Rescue - how fab is that? It's been wonderful to participate in something that is so important, and if it means we can help out even just one little pug, we are delighted :)

We'd like to say a big thank you Dallas News for taking such amazing pictures at the event, to the 757 people who attended with their fabulously cute pug dogs, to everyone who bid on our item and an extra special congratulations to the lucky winner :)

DIY: Recipe For How To Make Cinder Toffee For Halloween

Eeeek! Only 9 sleeps left till Halloween!

As we're putting the finishing touches to our spooktacular costumes, we thought we would share one last Halloween diy with you. Once you've made your space invader pinata, your sugar skull brooches and printed out our amazing free Frankenstein candy boxes, there is only one more important thing left to do... Make the candy!

You cant have a good night trick or treating without a good sweetie to share, so today we thought we've share our favorite one; cinder toffee! 

Much like the honeycomb center you find in those crunchie bars, this recipe has that amazing toffee taste but doesn't break your teeth. It's not only a lot of fun to make, but it is super easy AND you will feel like a mad scientist in the process... Do you think you can handle it?

You will need:

200g caster sugar

4 tbsp golden syrup 

1 tbsp bicarbonate soda

a little butter and a deep tray

... and some rock salt for those of you who love salted caramel!

Start by greasing your pan so the cinder toffee doesn't stick and getting all your ingredients at the ready. 

Put the sugar and golden syrup into a pan and heat it up slowly, stirring it all the time. Do this until the sugar dissolves and the sticky mixture starts to go a deep golden brown colour. You need to stir this like a mad woman to make sure the sugar doesn't burn and stick to your pan as hot sugar is hardcore! 

When you're ready, take the pan off the heat and whisk the bicarbonate soda into the sugar syrup. You need to do this quite quickly and vigorously as the mixture cools really fast. Watch out as it will bubble and spatter as you do this - and it is a LOT of fun! 

Then pour it into your tray and let it cool. It will rise some more which is perfect, so don't be tempted to pop it! Quickly sprinkle on your salt if you're feeling a bit daring and allow to harden and cool completely. 

When it comes to the crunch time, you get to smash it into big shards for sharing. Best candy ever!

We hope you've had a lot of fun experimenting with this recipe and we hope you have the best night ever!

Happy baking :D
xox

Etsy Discount Code!

Fancy a wee cheeky coupon code for our wonderful shop? 

We know a lot of you would have loved to have come to see our stall at the arts market today but live too far away to do so. As a little treat so you don't feel left out, we'd like to offer you a coupon code for 20% off any purchases made in our etsy boutique before 12pm on the 31st of October; witching hour on Halloween! 

To get your special offer, simply enter SPOOKTACULAR20 at the checkout.

Happy Days!

Style Me Friday...

twilight

                       dress: new look                                 earrings: azendi
                       fangs very much: vivid please!          perfume: juliette has a gun
                       nails: essie                                       french fancies: mr kipling
                       fake blood: joke shops                      clutch: dorothy perkins
                       shoes: topshop