Quirky reminder, It's raining cats and dogs!

I just realised I posted the reminder on Quirky and forgot to put it on my blog, so here I am! For my first card I used Cat on a Window and Kitty Cat Birthday from our sponsor Crackerbox Palace.

I love the Kitty Cat birthday sentiment and I hope my Mum will too, she has a Siamese cat but used to have a blue grey Persian - both rescues. The Mum stamp is a Papermania one and I stamped and heat embossed it.

There is a lot of detail in the Cat on a Window image which I coloured with ProMarkers, there is lots of depth as a result. The red polka-dot ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons, fish bones charm from stash. I die cut the sentiment and scalloped frame with Spellbinders rectangle dies.

Challenges entered with the kitty cat card:

Love to Scrap - #75 The Big Bow theory (Mon)

Passion for Promarkers - bingo, embossing, image, die cuts (Tues)

Tuesday Throwdown - #289 Use your die cuts

Crafty Gals - die cuts (Wed)

Fab n Funky - #300 Girly and Pretty (Wed)

Simon Says - Let's do the Polka (Wed)

Cute Card Thursday - hand made embellishments 

Crafts Galore - April anything goes

Show us your pussies - Furrything goes (April)

For my second card I used Dog Sidney and Dog-gone Special.

I love this cute puppy dog image in his too big collar! I kept it simple and masculine, and added some  of my favourite ribbon by Crafty Ribbons. Again he is coloured with Promarkers and both the image and sentiment are die cut with Spellbinders dies.

Challenges entered with Dog-gone card:

Passion for Promarkers - bingo, ribbon, image, sentiment (Tues)

Crafting with Dragonflies - Masculine (Sat week)

Creative Fingers - #107 anything goes (Fri)

The Ribbon Girl - April any image (April 30th)

Quirky reminder, yee haw!

Amazingly I am here on time for the reminder post for the Quirky Crafts challenge! The challenge is masculine and must use ribbon or twine. I used both on my card.

We have three wonderful sponsors, Bugaboo, Crafty Ribbons and SLS Lines.

The digi is from Bugaboo and is called Wee Ones Cowboy - Horseshoe, which is very cute and easy to colour too. There are lots more cowboy digis to choose from.  I coloured him with Promarkers and die cut him with Spellbinders dies, using the "outside the frame" technique because the perfect size die for height was a little narrow, so the horseshoe is slightly outside the frame. The papers are from a DCWV stack called All About Boys, the horse silhouette ribbon is exclusive to Crafty Ribbons. It comes in several colours and with different animals - even dinosaurs! 

The twine is Tim Holtz paper ribbon, and the horseshoe charm tied on to it is a random odd one I had.

I rounded the corners of the card and biggest paper layer.

If you want to see more examples, play along with us - or join the DT, hop on over to Quirky Crafts now.

Challenges entered:

Crafting from the Heart - #103 anything goes

Passion for Promarkers - for a child (Tues)

I love Promarkers - Men at Work (Wed)

Inspiration Destination - #77 anything goes (Wed)

LMMS challenges - #133 anything goes (Thurs)

Simply Papercrafts - #25 anything goes (Fri)

Catch the Bug - Bingo (Sat) 3 layers, die cut and sentiment.

The Ribbon Girl - use a digi (Sat)

Glitter and Sparkle - #180 anything goes (Sun)

Coffee Chocolate and Cards - Use ribbon (Fri 18th April)

Creative Fingers - #105 anything goes

Let's Quirky Celebrate everything crafty!

YAY It's Quirky challenge time again, it is my challenge and the first of our new monthly challenges this year!

My challenge to you is to celebrate anything you like, but you must include the word Celebrate, or Celebration. 

I am celebrating having a new team, new monthly format, and the New Year.

We are sponsored by the wonderful Stitchy Bear Digital Outlet who provided the team with images to use, and are providing three prizes to our lucky top three.

Here are the details:

The digi I used is called Craft Queen by BB Kakes from Stitchy Bear, her craft room is way tidier than mine!

I took one chocolate box and stuck the inside into the lid to strengthen it, then painted it with white gesso before painting it with Paper Artsy Fresco paints. I painted it with Ice Blue then sponged Beach Hut and South Pacific over the top.

I cut a piece of designer printed paper by Me and My Big Ideas to use for the background and adhered it to the box. The image was coloured with Promarkers and metallic pens (and now I see what I forgot, meant to add some gems to the crown - will have to do that and retake).

I found some ribbon sliders spelling celebrate and added them and their ribbon to the top of the frame. Quirky is stamped with an Inkadinkado stamp and heat embossed in gold. DoCrafts scrabble tiles spell out the words round the frame, and some shiny red mirror mosaic tiles are dotted inbetween them.

The die cut corner is a Spellbinders Heartfelt die, and the other corner features tiny buttons. I added real shells, tiny cork stoppered bottles of glittery stuff and some freebie metal charms, an odd peacock feather embellishement and an exercise book embellishment that I hand wrote in. 

To finish it off I rubbed some Treasure Gold round the edge of the frame where the lid edge is.

Here it is from another angle, I made some changes to it from the original below (where you can still see wet glue)! I added two legs made from wooden beads, and I really thought it would stand up - it isn't standing without help! So, as I type, a third leg made from two beads is painted and drying, and I had to paint the back of the box today - now you can only see the embossed chocolate bars and make if you really look. I think I might have to decorate the back, all that blue space!

I added some gems to the crown, and drew some images on the stamps on the shelf, and added another little bottle, who knows what will appear on this next!

This is the chocolate box, the chocolates were a Christmas present from my hubby, he knows what I like!

Challenges entered:

Crafty Gals - #52 anything goes end of year bash and hop (5th Jan)

Tuesday Throwdown - #274 anything goes

Simon Says - Lets Party (Wed)

Cute Card Thursday - #406 anything goes 

Left of Centre - all things new (Fri)

Brown Sugar - New Year (Fri)

That's Crafty - anything goes (11th Jan)

Allsorts - what's new? (Sat)

Glitter and Sparkle - #169 anything goes (Sun)

That Craft Place - anything goes (Jan 17)

Love to Create - anything mixed media (24th Jan)

Crafts Galore - #25 anything goes (Jan)

Pumpkins are not just for Halloween!

I just bought a pumpkin the other day, got to decide what to cook it into now, but it has to be Slimming World friendly, in other words as healthy as possible.

Are we sprouting feathers over at Quirky Crafts? You bet we are! The challenge is as light as a Quirky feather, any project with birds and/or feathers of any kind will do.

We have three great sponsors, Sweet Pea Stamps, Bugaboo and Crafty Ribbons. The image I used this time is from Sweet Pea Stamps, it is by Sandra Caudwell and is called Pilgrim Crow. Sweet Pea are closing down on 25th November sadly so this could be your last chance to win some digis from them.

I coloured the digi with Promarkers and die cut it with Spellbinders dies, the grid die is by Tonic I think. The spotty ribbons are from Crafty Ribbons, and the greeting is stamped with a clear Craftwork Cards set. I added real feathers - I have a small box full and most of them were not suitable colours for this card. Finally some Tim Holtz paper string (twine) tied in a bow with a feather charm.

So hop on over to Quirky Crafts to see some fabulous examples and to play along, and maybe win prizes. 

My card has hopped into the following challenges:

Digi Chooseday - reds, orange or brown (Tues)

Papertake Weekly - anything goes (Tues)

Crafty Gals - #44 Autumn Hues (Wed)

Cute Card Thursday - food or drink (Thurs)

Left of Centre - things with wings (Fri)

Allsorts - ribbons and bows (Sat)

The Ribbon Girl - anything goes (Sun)

ABC - U for unlimited (15th Nov)

Cards Galore -use a stamped or digi image (Nov)

Die cut divas - warm and cozy (Nov)

Gone fishing - that's Quirky!

My turn to set the challenge at Quirky Crafts and it is called Gone Fishing. You just have to include something fish or fishing related on your project, even a fish in a bowl.

Our sponsor is Crackerbox Palace and they provided all the images I have used and the sentiment, and to see more images and witty sentiments hop over to the Quirky blog now.

I coloured the image with ProMarkers and the sea is painted with diluted Brusho crystals, you only need a tiny bit to make a lot, I painted a sheet of watercolour paper to use it up and I still have some left!

I die cut the image and panels with Spellbinders dies and added some real twine to the fishing line, and some little fish charms (or are they beads?). The paper is by DCWV.

I hope you will come and play Gone Fishing with us over at Quirky Crafts, any project is acceptable and we allow a little backdating because nothing is more frustrating than seeing a challenge and knowing you posted the perfect card for it yesterday! 

This card swam into the following challenges:

Love to Scrap - #58 anything goes (Mon)

Passion for Promarkers - Jolly Holidays (Tues)

I love Promarkers - 3 or more layers (Wed)

Inspiration Destination - #44 anything goes (Wed)

Little Miss Muffet - hot Summer nights (Thurs)

Cute Card Thursday - citrus 

Pile it on - Sequins or beads (Sun/Wed 13th)

Glitter and Sparkle - anything goes (Sun)

Simply Papercrafts - anything goes (Aug 14th)

ABC - O is for open (Aug 15th)

Crafting by Design - anything goes (Aug)

Our Creative Corner - Mexico Moods (Sept 4)

A swallow's journey

I used my Rubber Dance stamps again, and this time I used this gorgeous swallow stamp stamp on kraft, coloured with Prismacolor pencils and masked to stamp some background before die cutting with a Sizzix stamp die. I added some Tim Holtz paper string to one side of the die cut and a boat charm to the waves.

Then I decided to add another background, using a stencil and Distress Ink I sponged some waves and stamped the bird in Ranger Van Dyke Brown. On the Kraft card it is stamped in black, as is the shell and the "waves". 

The card I used for the card blank is textured and that showed through the inking. My bird is on a migratory journey over the sea - can you tell?

This card has swooped into the following challenges:

Rubber Dance Blog - colour and travel (July)

Craft Stamper - take a stamp anything goes (Jul)

Left of Centre - use texture (Fri)

Graph'it Markers - colour Duos (Fri)

Love to scrap - anything goes (Aug 2nd)

We love to create - #15 anything mixed media/creative/inky goes (Sun)

Vintage Stamping - #34 travel (Sun 3rd)

Papertake Weekly - take your pick blue and green (Tues)

A Sprinkle of Imagination - anything goes with something from the shop (Jul - Aug 11th?)

Fab n Funky - no patterned paper (Aug 11th)

Fussy and Fancy - #144 things with wings - picked randomly to be GD

Do you have a guardian angel, maybe a Quirky one?

Two cards for the Quirky Crafts reminder today. My first has a Sweet Pea image by Molly Harrison called Orchid of the Night , it is so beautiful. I spent several hours colouring it with Promarkers and drawing (doodling) in the veins on the wings, then going over them with silver Prismacolor pencil, and the stamens. Then I die cut the image and mounted it on silver mirri card. Only then did I spot a huge streak of purple (well huge for the tiny face) on her face just above the chin!!!! I tried the ivory I had used to blend it away but she ended up with a very rosy face. In the end I used white pencil on top and hope it looks ok now.

The card blank is folded from sparkly glittery purple card, I added fibres and two star charms to the fibres. The sparkle sentiment was a freebie from Sweet Pea Stamps, and Birthday Wishes is cut with an IO set. I added gems for the dots this time.

My second card uses Strength Fairy from Bugaboo, and this sums up what I have been going through lately. It would be good as a canvas to put on the wall too, or a door hanger. I had a lot of trouble with ink bleed on this one, and her tummy had ended up looking bruised sadly. She is coloured with Promarkers, die cut with Spellbinders dies. The tag is also a Spellbinders die. I added a bow eyelet and fibres. The paper is DCWV cup cake stack.

To see more fabulous examples and to play along with us - hop on over to Quirky Crafts Challenge blog.

These two angels have flown into the following challenges:

TTCRD - anything goes May 12-18 (Mon)

Tuesday Throwdown - add a doodle (veins on wings)

I love Promarkers - flowers (Wed)

The Paper Shelter - charming (Wed)

Little Miss Muffet - many layers (Thurs)

Creative Fingers - #80 anything goes (Fri)

Polkadoodles - things with wings (Fri)

Allsorts - No squares allowed (Sat)

Sentimental Sundays - cute or funny sentiment (hope the sparkle one is cute)

Pile it on - not cute (Sun/Wed)

One Sweet Challenge - things with wings (30th May)

ABC challenges - J is for Jewels (31st May)

Top 3/4/5 or won:

Blue and Purple challenge at:

with the Sweet Pea angel.

Have you seen a Quirky Angel?

It is Quirky Crafts challenge time again, and Monica set us the theme of Angels  among us because our two sponsors have such a lot of beautiful angel images.

Our sponsors generously provided the team with all the images they can use.

My first card is made with an image from Sweet Pea by Rachel Anderson called Angelic. 

I kept it delicate with pale colours using Promarkers and turquoise Graph'it markers, and used pale pink and blue pearlescent card stock. The pretty panel behind the angel is cut with a Spellbinders die, as are the image, layers and sentiment and layers.

The sentiment was a freebie from Sweet Pea, part of a set of four. I found the perfect pink ribbon in my Crafty Ribbons box, and even found an odd angel charm (thought I had some but could only find this one which is perfect).

I think this card would work as a birthday card and in dark gothy colours - I might have to try that now!

Our second sponsor is Bugaboo, and I chose to use Christmas Words - Angel but to make a girly birthday card for someone's "little angel"! Everyone thinks their little girls are "angels" - right?

Have you ever used a digi or stamp for something other than it's intended purpose?

Again I coloured her with Promarkers and the same colours pink and turquoise, this time adding in purple and some Stickles for some glitter. The papers I used are Tatty Teddy papers by Papermania.

The chiffon polka dot ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons. Words die cut with IO die set and I lost the dots again so used some gold star beads instead which go with the image.

Pssss .... want to see some more angels? Hop over to the Quirky blog now, and I hope you will come and play along with us.

These cuties have flown into the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly - anything goes, no patterned paper (Tues)

Passion for Promarkers - relaxing (Tues)

Simon Says - lets get sentimental (Wed)

TTCRD - anything goes May 5th - 11th

Crafty Ribbons - anything goes with ribbon (Thurs)

Graph'it Markers - something square (Fri)

Inspired by Stamping - IBSIC #93 (Fri 15th May)

Left of Centre - Bling (Fri)

The Stamping Boutique - die cuts (Fri)

Allsorts - more than one die cut (Sat)

My Time to Craft - Sympathy (Sat)

Sentimental Sundays - Really Girly or Mother's day 

The Ribbon Girl - anything goes/shaped cards (Sun)

Little Miss Muffet - lots of layers (Thurs 21st)

Polkadoodles - things with wings (Fri 22nd)

Crafts Galore - anything goes (May)

One Sweet Challenge - things with wings (May)

Are we there yet? Still on the Quirky journey!

This is my card for the Quirky Crafts reminder, you have until Saturday 9th May midday to come on a journey with us. Any sort of transport will do, and a horse is transport too!

This is Buddy Time by Coosty Creations available from our sponsor Stitchy Bear Digital Outlet. I coloured the image with Graph'its (browns and turquoise), and Promarkers then die cut it with Spellbinders label 1 matted onto the scalloped and grand versions. The charms are the only ones I have like this, I took the loop off the bottom of the horseshoe. The sentiment is cut with an IO stamp set, I always loose the tiny "dots" for the i, so added one with red Stickles.

The ribbons are from Crafty Ribbons, the horse silhouette ribbon is exclusive to them.

Inside the card I punched out horses from around the panels, the white panel has a punched out horse in the top corner.

Mum has a birthday soon and she used to go riding until a few years ago, so this will be perfect for her, and she is the "Special Lady" for Pile it on and One Stitch at a Time!

Come on a journey with us at Quirky Crafts.

This card is trotting into the following challenges:

Crafting from the Heart - anything goes 57 (Mon)

TTCRD - anything goes May 4th

Addicted to Stamps - Make your mark (Wed/Fri)

Crafty Ribbons - 118 anything goes with ribbon (Thurs)

Cute card Thursday - use a sentiment (Thurs)

Graph'its Markers - ribbon or lace (Fri 8th May)

Pile ít on - for a lady (Sun/Wed)

One Stitch at a time - anything goes with a special lady (Sun 17th)

Cards Galore - anything goes (May)

Challenges won/top 3:

Sentimental Sunday - work it out 

Thank Whoooo?

Do you like my rainbow owl? The owl image was free from Faery Ink, and was supposed to be entered into a challenge, which I missed due to being ill all last week. 

I thought I would make him up into a card anyway.  He is coloured with Promarkers, cut out with Spellbinders Curved Rectangles die and mounted on Kraft card. I created the sentiments in Serif Page Plus, and I found some rainbow fibers to add to the side, I also used a feather charm.

He has flown into the following challenges:

Allsorts - no DP (Sat)

Pink Gems - use Kraft and one other colour (hmmm might be too many colours here) (Sat 6th Dec)

Paula Holifield - CAS (Sun)

Open Minded Crafting Fun - Thankful (Dec 13th)

Quirky remembering summer days!

I wasn't sure I would be able to make anything for the new challenge starting today because last weekend I got cellulitis (a very nasty potentially deadly skin infection) in my arm (had it before always in a leg), and we were staying with my Son and family so I had to go to the nearest hospital Hemel Hemstead and wait for a couple of hours to get some antibiotics. I was told to keep my arm still, important not to spread the infection or I could end up hospitalised on a drip. so I wasn't able to finish my crochet or do all the crafting I had planned.

As well as that I had a nasty reaction to the first antibiotics so had to go to my GP to get different ones, and although the reaction I was having vanished the new antibiotics have made me feel very ill all week and I have one day to go on them. Yesterday was the first day I felt a little better and I had a terrible night last night ironically.

About my card, which is all you really wanted to know wasn't it! The sponsor of our Quirky Crafts Challenge is the wonderfully quirky Bugaboo! The challenge set by Lyn is Memories of Summer, and we did have a wonderful hot summer that lasted longer than usual (too hot for me most of the time), followed by some very cold weeks at the end of August and now we have Summer again in September at a very tolerable temperature for me.

I used several Bugaboo images and made them into a scene, I used Crab Boat, Crab Sand, Crab Scuba,  Seahorse and Fried Chicken (who comes with a sentiment saying "Fried" Chicken too). There are lots more cute crab images at Bugaboo, kite flying, sun bathing - all sorts.

I coloured my images with Promarkers, added a bit of glossy accents to the sunglasses, scuba masks and bubbles - this went wrong when far too much came out of the bottle and I tried to scrap some back off, so some of the colours of the sea look a bit odd because there is gloss underneath! I finished the sea by painting it with Mica paints, then I added some blue and white striped twine and a brass lighthouse charm. I will take a photo of the inside - I found some blue and white striped paper that matches the twine to add.

I remember sitting looking out over the beach at Torquay where everyone was swimming in the sea this summer!

My card has sailed into the following challenges:

Through the Craft Room Door - anything goes (15th Sept)

Papertake Weekly - repeat repeat (two crab scuba images, 3 seahorses) (Tues)

Divas by Design - anything goes (Wed)

Cute Card Thursdays - too cute

Creative fingers - #48 Anything goes (Sat)

Little Miss Muffet Stamps - anything goes with certain brands (23rd Sept?)

Crafting at the Weekend - 5 anything goes (Sept)

Cards Galore - make a card (Sept)

A very Quirky Fairy world.

Doris set us a challenge at Quirky Crafts, and it is a recipe challenge. In fact here is a fairy ring and you must choose 3 things at least, and feature a fairy or fairies!

Our lovely sponsor is Crackerbox Palace, they provided us with the images to use for this challenge. I decided to make a little scene with Sleeping Fairy Dreama, Clouds,  and Happy Sun, and I coloured this with Promarkers and a Flexmarker (I only have one of those). To get my sparkles I added Stickles glue to the fairy wings, hair and the clouds and gold eyeliner to the sun's eyes. The spots on the fairy's dress are enhanced with Liquid Pearls in Key Lime.

I die cut the scene with Spellbinders (labels 22 I think) grand nestabilities, and then cut a mat in sparkling purple card, and one in check paper. I matted this onto a square of green fabric effect paper, all paper is LOTV and came free with a magazine along with the Happy Birthday sentiment, which I stamped in purple Versacolor then heat embossed with Ranger Antiquities Frosted Crystal embossing powder. Again I die cut them with Spellbinders circles and a mat with scalloped circles. The other sentiment is by Digi Stamp Boutique and went so perfectly with my scene! 

Before attaching the sentiments I added the polka dot ribbon, from Crafty Ribbons who are having a sale right now, and found some wishing well charms and added one (it is in the centre of the ribbon), didn't even know I had them! The whole thing was then attached to an 8" x 8" card which was big enough for the scene.

So I have a fairy and more than three items, sun, clouds, sparkles and sentiment (x2)

Inside the card, more of the LOTV paper in blue this time, with a strip of the check.

As well as being able to win digital images from our sponsor, anyone who enters can have 10% off, and any stamp can be ordered as a digital image for just $3 each, then you get the 10% off!

My fairy has zzzzzz her way into the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly - anything goes, optional Summer (Tues)

Passion for Promarkers - mythical creatures (Tues)

I love Promarkers - Digi does it (Wed)

Fussy and Fancy - outdoors (ends 12th June)

Glitter and Sparkle - use a digi (Sun)

Pile it on - use patterned paper and enter loads of challenges (so funny) (Sun)

Stamping for the weekend - anything goes (Fri 20th)

Art by Miran - anything goes (winners 20th June)

Open Minded Crafting Fun - things with wings (28th June)

 The Divas that cut paper - colour challenge (June)

Bunny Zoe's - layers (June)

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - T for Tailleur (Tailor)

The Alpha Challenge at The Craft Barn is on T, no twists. I have so many words I could do in the T section!
For those who don't know, The Alpha Challenge was set at the beginning of the year, and the challenge was to alter an old dictionary. Every two weeks a new letter is given out - not in alphabetical order. Sometimes there is an extra twist to add something, or restriction on which words to use. By the end of the year the alphabet will have been completed.
I don't know if I will manage another of the 3 or 4 T words I have bookmarked though, I have one page prepared but I don't know how I am going to do it, and it will need a lot of doodling!
Well T for Tailleur, or tailor, I had a lot of fun with this one. I used my Toodles and Binks Habedashery stamps, first time they saw ink, and a new Stampendous stamp - the sewing machine. I also used some freebie stamps, the needle and the spool tops. I die cut some elements with a Sizzix Tim Holtz die called Sewing Room, and I wrapped the dummy with material tied with ribbon. I added a couple of scissor charms and a real button to finish.

Quirky well fold it, late reminder!

 For this joy fold card I used images and sentiments from the Ahoy Matey set from The Cutting Cafe who are sponsoring the challenge, and giving three great prizes. Freebie papers, brass charms from stash, ribbon by Crafty Ribbons, white banner ribbon by Papermania.

 Untie the bow and you can see the pirate ship.

 The little pirate is a Kraftin Kimmie stamp. All images ae coloured with Promarkers or Trias.

 Fully open the card reveals the treasure map and some more sentiments and charms.

Finally the top card flips up to reveal a greetings frame that is perfect to write your own greeting in the centre.

I have entered the following challenges:

Joanna Sheen - male cards

Crafty Ribbons - anything goes with ribbon.

Papertake weekly - hot hot hot - warm or hot colours.

Cute card Thursday - Once upon a time (there were pirates on the high seas)

Stamping for the weekend - cute (cute pirate)

I love Promarkers - anything goes.