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Sunday 27 April 2014

Quirkyness - or should that be Quirky S?


 Lyn challenged us to do something beginning with S for this challenge. We have three sponsors, Bugaboo, who provided the images, Crafty Ribbons who are giving a voucher, and Robyn's Fetish.

My first card features Sitting Sock Monkey, that's 2 S's already, and there are Scallops and Spotty Ribbon (from Crafty Ribbons of course), that is 4 S's!
The image and greeting (which is also from Bugaboo) are coloured with Promarkers, and I fussy cut the Sock monkey, and die cut the Sentiment with Spellbinders dies, the paper is DCWV (ooo that is two more, I am up to 6 S's).

This card is an unusual Shape, made by die cutting Spellbinders Grand labels and matching lables 23, I am still on the blue and green theme. The image is Clown Six from Bugaboo, it is coloured with Promarkers and Stickles Sparkling glitter glue. The Spotty paper is DCWV, and the Spotty ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons. (7 S's)

Now all you need to do is hop over to the Quirky blog to see lots of inspiration and join in to win some great prizes!

I have entered the following challenges:
Pink Gems Gem of a Challenge - Cute and Cuddly (Sat)
Feeling Crafty - anything for a child (April)
I love Promarkers - Hats (Weds)
That Craft Place - anything goes (Sun)
Cute Card Thursday - blue and green 


Tuesday 22 April 2014

Quirky Boxer dog

Here is my last project for the current Quirky challenge. I used Boxer, by Enid Barnes, from Squigglefly. I adore Boxer dogs, they are so fierce to look at and so daft when you speak to them they roll over and go all soppy!
I coloured the dog with Promarkers and Graphit markers. I used the rest of the Gelli print I told you about in the last post, I was going to attempt another new technique but decided to keep that for another day.

The card in close up, that dog is gorgeous! The ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons, the background behind the dog is the ghost print from yesterday, see previous post, and the background is the offcut from yesterday. I used those Snaps again, not sure I like them but they go with the circles in the print and I have a lot of them! They are like eyelets, but no hole so you can't call them eyelets but you set them in the same way with a flat surface selected on the top, using the Cropadile Big Bite. A normal eyelet setter would probably do it, not tried yet.
Small squares were cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities.

 I used some printed doggy card for the inside, and a die cut panel of kraft paper to write on.

When I looked at the offcuts they just called out to be made into this tag/bookmark. It can be used as a tag on a gift, then kept to use as a bookmark. It could also be used as a standalone card.
Inside the tag/bookmark/mini card.

Here they are together both standing.

This card bounded into the following challenges:
ABC challenges - J for just as you like (1st and 15th of month)
Crafty Ribbons challenges - Anything goes with ribbon (Thurs)
Incy Wincy Designs - furry friends (Mon)
Moving along with the times - the word "happy" (Thurs)
Creative Fingers - anything goes (Fri)
A sprinkle of imagination - anything goes (May 12th)

Monday 21 April 2014

Well I made a Quirky mess alright!


I'm back, with my second make for the Quirky Reminder. I decided to use the Gelli Plate (hmmm, where did I put it, scrabble scrabble, panic ----- oh There it is!), and re-watched some of the videos first, thought I was ready so after searching for the thing and then some paint I found I didn't have a great colour choice in cheap acrylic, mostly silver, gold, white and some green - oh and some yellow from a tube that split and I tried to save the contents by putting it in a plastic screw top jar and seems to be hardly usable and drying up now, I gave yellow a miss!

If the phone will upload the photos to the cloud I can show you WIP, which started out well then went downhill fast. I wanted to over print my first efforts, and I found some Plaid Artist Acrylic paint in maroon and green (more green), didn't shake it right away so ended up with clear gel stuff, shook it and got the paint, added some of both and brayered away. Tried to do some stuff with stencils and foam stamps, and ended up with a gloopy red and green mess on my card (I don't have Bristol paper, or even know what that is yet, so used my best stamping card here).

(So this was the ghost print from the first print, except I have run the roller over a blank bit and the roller had silver paint on it. It was actually looking promising at this point!


I printed over the green with silver you see, but then added this maroon and green Plaid paint, and tried lifting some like you do, but ended up with this total mess, see details below of how I got from this to .........

this!
This was after over printing in white and then green and this is the panel cut to fit the card.)


Today I came down and the mess was dry so I thought I would add some white over the top, maybe that would help, brayed the Gelli Plate, and then realised that all my efforts with stencils and torn paper was on the acrylic sheet that protects the plate - I forgot I covered it before going to bed! Never mind I wasn't going to waste that so tried to get a print anyway, semi successful. So got the cover off the plate and went for the bright green again, with stencils and again varying degrees of success. I brayered the paint through the stencils before removing them, didn't work on the flowery stencil, so got another one out for that corner.
I cut a panel, mounted it on Kraft, wrapped round some rafia, punched holes and used a couple of flat headed eyelets from WR Memory Keepers, added some metal letters that are ribbon sliders, and added the image which was first mounted on Kraft. The image itself is coloured with Promakers, and I tried to give it a middle of the night look with the shadow round the image, this went a bit wrong when I added blue dots, so I tried to cover it (unsuccessfully) with black glitter glue! I used clear gel medium on the water too. 
I love the image, it is so funny, it is called Ferald Sleepwalking from Squigglefly, what is Ferald? I think I might have coloured him wrong, he looks like a little lion cub to me, but Ferald could be a ferret perhaps!

One thing I can say is that this card is UNIQUE! If you hop on over to Quirky Crafts you can see plenty more uniqueness and if you join in you could win some great prizes from That Craft Place,  Squigglefly and Digital Delights.

I dived into the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursdays - Splish Splash
Pan Pastels - go grungy (3rd May)

Sunday 20 April 2014

Quirky media mayhem reminder

This is the first of three makes (I hope) for the Quirky reminder, and this image is from Digital Delights by Louby Loo, and is called Princess Delightful. I coloured her with Promarkers and atyou Spica pens, the die cut her and mounted her on a panel die cut from a sheet of card which I used behind numerous sprayed projects - so it was multi coloured with sparkly spray and I didn't know it would work so well as a die cut panel. The sentiment is also mounted on some of the die cut sprayed card. The purple panel has a die cut edge, all dies are Spellbinders. I found some sparkly gold and ivory fibre and used it down one edge.
Hopefully back later with at least one more project!

Hop on over to Quirky Crafts to see more inspiration and to join in!

I'm delighted to enter the following challenges:

Artful Times - Spray away (Fri)
Craft all day - have a heart (April) small heart on her bodice.
Crafty Ribbons - anything goes with ribbon (Thurs)
Moving along with the times - the word "happy" (Thurs)
Cards Galore - favourite colour challenge (It's purple with green again) (April)
The Stamping Boutique - Birthdays (Fri)


Tuesday 15 April 2014

Easter Bunny

 This Easter Bunny is a Spyder Lyn digi called Bob the Easter Bunny, and I coloured him with Promarkers (I don't know why he looks so orange in the photo), and a little bit of Spica on the egg for shine. The papers are DCWV Spring stack, I cut two pieces and adhered them to a panel of blue, then covered the join with grosgrain ribbon and zig zag stitched round the panel. I mounted this onto a white card blank, then added some tiny Papermania Capsule buttons. The sentiment is also a Papermania stamp.
Inside the card.

This little bunny will be hoping into the following challenges:
Pink Gems - Spring is in the air (Sat)
Chocolate Coffee and Cards - stripes (Fri 18th)
Creative Card Crew - Spring (Tues)
Feeling Crafty - for a child (April)
Papertake Weekly - Easter (Tues)
Passion for Promarkers - All creatures great and small (Tues)
That Craft Place - Easter (Tues)
Ali Craft - Spring (2nd May)

Sunday 13 April 2014

Quirky Mayhem, of the messy mixed media variety!

 Gemma set the project this time as Mixed Media Mayhem, and told us to "get messy", well I certainly did that with my project (my hands are still very messy)! I chose this Digi, Tall Ship, from one of our sponsors Squigglefly, and wanted it to be on the sea. My sea isn't as good as I visualised, I had a fine oil painting effect in mind! I took one small flat canvas panel and covered it with white gesso first.When it was dry applied alcohol inks, using first some die cut clouds that I used as masks for the sky, then a wavy wave mask I bought at a show to get the horizon. I added the ship and coloured around the sails to match in with the sky and clouds. I added some fish and seahorse charms, and coloured them with Promarkers, and added glass ball gel medium mixed with acrylic white paint for the foam on the waves, applying it with a pallette knife (badly). I found a seagull stamp and stamped a few birds, and added some seashell ribbon to the hanging loop, the ribbon was from Crafty Ribbons a long time ago.
This is a close up of the project, messy or what! How I imagined this would end up was like a fine old masters oil painting - ermmm, think I have a long way to go!
 I hope to complete another project - it will be along later, and of course there will be many more examples next week in the reminder post.

So hop on over to Quirky Crafts to see some more great makes, and maybe to join in and win one of the three prizes on offer, from That Craft Place, Squigglefly and Digital Delights!

I have entered the following challenges:
Anything but a card - Spring has sprung, open challenge (ends in two weeks)
That Craft Place - anything goes (ends in two weeks)

Tuesday 8 April 2014

Easter egg hunt

 This image is called Aurora Easter Egg Hunt from The East Wind by Unky. I coloured her with Promakers yesterday afternoon including a shadow around her in pastel blue, the colouring took a few hours, the rabbit is decoupaged because a tiny part of his foot got cut off,  then I added some glitter glue, and then I began to design a card around her. Die cut her with Spellbinders Labels 8, and an ornate rectangle in purple. (I had a few challenges in mind here), I made a gatefold card in yellow using my Scor Pal, the metric version, I creased at 7*, turned the card over and scored at the same place again, I used DCWV papers, Easter eggs at the top and stripes at the bottom. This is a very small pad of paper (with only two of each of the papers left) and I needed two pieces to cover the length of the purple panels, so I covered the join with lime green lace, I love purple and lime green together! I added some bunny brads to 4 outside corners, attached some purple polka dot ribbon to the back and one side of the card, then attached the die cut centre panel. I added a bow in the same ribbon and some lime green pearls.

I found some freebie papers that almost matched the stripes on the front, and made panels of purple paper then striped paper for the inside. The sentiment is heat embossed in purple and is a Papermania die, another fancy rectangle behind the sentiment finished it off.
I think Aurora Easter Egg hunt is only available as a freebie at present if you sign up to the newsletter at The East Wind challenge blog.

I have entered the following challenges:
The East Wind - Use a sentiment (April 10th)
Graph'it Markers - shadows (April 18th)
Allsorts - no flowers (Sat)
Bearly Mine - Spring (April)
Cards Galore - favourite colours (Tues)
Crafty Ribbons - anything goes with ribbon (Wed)
Creative Card Crew - Spring (Tues 22nd)
Feeling Crafty - anything for a child (April)
Incy Wincy - 321, 3 different papers (and 3 x 2 pearls), 2 pieces of ribbon (and 2 of lace), 1 digi (and 1 sentiment) (Mon)
Moving along with the times - sweet treats (Thurs)
One Sweet Challenge - ringing in spring (April)
Papertake Weekly - Spring has sprung (Tues)
Passion for Promarkers - so sentimental (Tues)
Pink Gems - Ribbon and Lace (Sat) 
Coffee Chocolate and Cards - Stripes - (April)
Ali Crafts - Spring (May 2nd)

Sunday 6 April 2014

Spice up your life with colour girls - Quirky reminder

 Well Doris wants to see our "inner girls" in the current challenge that runs until Saturday. Our sponsor is the lovely Regina of The Cutting Cafe, and she provided the team with files of images to use, and I was lucky enough to win 6 months worth of every new release so I have used one of my files as well.
Rose is here again, simply because I like her and had her printed already. This time I coloured her dress with Promakers, and the rest of her too. I mounted her on a panel of lime green, on of my favourite colours, and teamed it with red - and pink. I found some sparkly brads to use on the green panel. The bright background is from You Colour my World, and the flowers and sentiment are from All About Girls. I added a big brad to the big flower, covered it in stickles glue, and added some lime green Stickles to the red and green flowers. All this mounted on a scalloped square, and this is an 8"x8" card blank so I used a Grand Nestability to cut the square. Finally I added some lime green polka dot ribbon.

This is McKenzie, wearing a dress which is cut from a panel from You Colour my World. She is coloured with Promarkers. In the background arranged so it looks like she is wearing the party hat, is a sentiment from All About Girls. the tall thin card blank is inked round the edges in pink, and I added polka dot ribbon and some teeny tiny buttons to match the colours.

Hop on over to Quirky to see some more fun makes, and to join in with the fun!

I have entered the following challenges:
Craft All Day - have a heart (April)
Allsorts - no flowers (Sat)
Cards Galore - creating with colour, your fav colour (lime green) (April)
Crafty Ribbons - anything goes with ribbon (Wed)
I love Promarkers - Clean and simple (Wed)
Papertake Weekly - anything goes (Tues)

Tuesday 1 April 2014

Quick cards and food glorious food!

I found a few photos I haven't shared with you all:
 I have had a pack of aperture card blanks for years, didn't know what to do with them, then Laura of Crafty Ribbons fame gave me an idea....scraps of ribbon! So I got busy sticking, and found heaps of ribbons I stickyfied with the Xyron then didn't use, and there was more glue on my fingers than anywhere!
I used a Doodlebug stamp set to stamp directly on the card blanks.
 Hmmm, what do you do when you stamp on your nearly finished card and make a mistake? Well you could stamp on a panel, cut it out an cover the mistake, bit tricky with the aperture - so, lets make it look deliberate! Did I get away with it? The "mistake" was the first block of Happys on the left, and I went from there!
Variations on the same theme...

 how many different ways can I stamp with these same stamps?....

Different ribbons make them look different and I have a whole heap ready to stamp!

 I think this was classic cheese and onion pie Slimming World recipe.
 Peppers stuffed with cherry tomatoes and quark with basil and garlic, yum.
 Here they are just out of the oven.
My Mum's adopted cat, Katy.

 Katy warming herself.
Salad and veggies with jacket potato and quark, or it might have been mozzerella cheese.

 Stuffed pepper, jacket potato and stir fry leek in passata.

Classic cheese and potato pie day 2 with my special home made tomato sauce - it needed something!