It's About Quirky Time

  It was my turn to set the challenge, and the sponsor this time is The Cutting Cafe who have some wonderful clock files of images so I called the challenge It's About Quirky Time to feature clocks.
I made this pop up card, I made one once before and really liked it, and it didn't take too much time to do (pardon the pun).
I used Clocks background printed on lime green to make the card base, with sentiments from the It's About That Time set.

The tag pulls up to make the card base into a box which stands up, pretty neat I think. My tag is cut from the Time Background, sponged with Distress ink and cut with a Tim Holtz Sizzix die, which is a little wider than the measurements in the SCS instructions so you need to cut the slot a little wider, also I had to cut some off the length of the tag to make it the right size.

This is only the second time I have made a card like this, and I was intending to make a stepper when I found the instructions for this one. The first one was also made as a challenge example for The Cutting Cafe sponsored challenge!

I used a little cuckoo clock from It's About That Time, as well as the two sentiments, and I coloured the clock with Promarkers. Cuckoo is cut with a speech bubble stamp from a DoCrafts X Cut set, I think it is a dream bubble but it fits! All other sentiments were cut with Spellbinders dies.

You can also buy the clocks ready coloured. I wanted a cuckoo as well, so searched around for a bird and found one in One Spring Day that I could use. I know mine looks like a Robin lol!

Finally I found some large polka dot reversable ribbon and used it on the front section, wrapping it round with seam binding. I also used seam binding, this time with polka dot chiffon ribbon, on the tag.

People I know, even family don't always "get it" when it comes to novelty fold cards, so I have added a clue on the back of the tag, an arrow from It's All About Time.

You can just see the tip of the arrow when the card is closed, I hope folk get the hint!

If you want to see some more great examples hop over to Quirky Crafts challenge blog, and if you join in the fun you could end up winning some sets of your choice from The Cutting Cafe.

I've popped this card into the following challenges:

Coffee, Chocolate and Cards - Use a Tag (Fri)

Allsorts - Happy Birthday (with blog hop) (Fri)

I love Promarkers - Anything goes (Wed)

Technique Twist - pop up card box (Sat) (Mine is a little different - hope ok)

Ghoulish - atishoo!

 I have no idea what I am going to do with this card, maybe keep it for Halloween! The image is from Bugaboo, and is called Slelekinz Baby the words are my own. The card blank is embossed with a Craftwell embossing folder, I tried it out and then put this blank away in a box, so it is a leftover. I coloured the little darling with Promarkers, die cuts are all using Spellbinders and the pink panel, with gold and spotty paper, and the ribbon is one that I made up and then didn't use and it has been hanging about as a left over in my spare die cuts box until now.

 Side view, showing the other embossed side of the gatefold.

This card has haunted the following challenges:

Left of Center (this one is specially for LOC) (Fri 23rd)
Catch the Bug - Bingo, buttons, something beginning with S, circles (May)
Passion for Promarkers - use your die cuts (Tues)
Papertake Weekly - Ooooh so cute (Tues)
Delicious Doodles - a bit moody (Fri)
Addicted to Stamps - anything goes (Wed)
Our Creative Corner - leftovers (great idea) (May)

This card is a work in progress, I am road testing some Crackerbox Palace digi images, just waiting for some sentiments to go with the tissue box. I got the idea of the tissue coming out of the box from the Crackerbox Palace blog, it was a Vicky make. I printed the digi out twice, plain card and spotty paper then cut them out and put them together to make it stronger, I only needed to print it once, stick it onto the card and cut round (sometimes I make extra work for myself lol). I kept the background plain, at least so far. 

Quirky peacock theme reminder.

We only have two entries so far in the latest Quirky challenge, it ends Saturday Midday so get your peacock coloured projects or projects with peacocks, or peacock feathers in now, great chance of winning a prize from our sponsor Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps.

For my first card I used the gorgeous peacock by IKEsArt, which I painted with Twinkling h2Os and highlighted with Atyou Spica pens. I decided not to add backing papers with this stunning image, but I did cut a couple of feathers from a new Spellbinders die. Happy Birthday is stamped and heat embossed in gold, the stamp is from a Hero Arts set. MUM is die cut and embossed with a Sizzix Embosslit alphabet die set. The thin satin ribbon is from Ribbon Oasis and was some I got when getting samples for my son's wedding stationery.

Will she like it? I will find out tomorrow!

For this card I used a panel of paper from the Coosty Creations Mehendi Peacock pack, it is covered in tiny peacocks. The large peacock is by Delicious Doodles and is totally coloured with Atyou Spica pens, I tried to give the tail feathers a goldy green look.

I sat my peacock on some green grosgrain ribbon from Crafty Ribbons. Happy Birthday is cut out and debossed using a Spellbinders set of words, I felt the urge to fill in the debossing with gold stickles - did that work?

These cards have flown into the following challenges:

One Stitch at a Time - Keep it simple (Sun)

Polkadoodles - things with wings (Sat)

Daring Cardmakers - Light as a feather (Fri)

A very special birthday, two of two!

This is Kenny's card from us, Grampy (Grumpy lol) and Granny! Again it is an 8"x8" scalloped card blank, this time a blue card mat, and some more of that English Paper Company paper in a sort of patchwork. Again I used a Bugaboo image called Birthday Monster Sign, coloured with Promarkers and die cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities, with a bit of outside the box. I wrote on the balloons, and die cut a number 2 with  a Sizzix Shadow Box number die. I also used a Pollycraft little boy in monster costume which I coloured with Promarkers. Pollycraft ceased trading last year so you can't purchase this digi. 

The silhouette ribbon I used this time is the Dinosaur one, available from Crafty Ribbons in many colours.

I cut Kenny out with an old Zipemate alphabet die set, and mounted the letters on a panel cut with a Spellbinders Nestabilities.

 This time I used yellow Papermania starts paper....

......and another Pollycraft digi, also coloured with Promarkers. He is s cute monster about to tuck into cake!

I don't think Kenny reads my blog yet, these are in the post!

This card has rampaged into the following challenges:

Creative Fingers - Anything goes (Fri 16th)

Incy Wincy - Birthdays (Mon)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenges - Simon says Die Crazy

Left of Centre - Masculine cards (23rd May)

ABC - L for lots of layers (Thurs)

Crafty Ribbons - anything goes with ribbon (Thurs)

A very special birthday card, one of two

Yes Kenny is TWO on Saturday! This card is from Mother in Law, Kenny's Great Nanny. I used an 8"x8" scalloped card blank. I created a panel using red card, and different papers which I think are English Paper Company - the cover was missing so I will update this if I find it and I am wrong. The pack included a circus paper that went perfectly with the Bugaboo Clown numbers -Two image. I coloured the image with Promarkers and added some glitter glue to the top of the candle, die cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities and matted it onto red. I used one of my new silhouette ribbons, I thought horses went with the horse on the circus paper. I won a huge bag full of silhoutte ribbons from Crafty Ribbons recently.

Happy Birthday words are from a Spellbinders die set, I didn't expect it to be a debossing die set before I got it home and looked properly. Kenny is cut out with dies from a Quickuzt set.

Inside the card, just blue stars and this is Papermania paper.

I won this huge bag of ribbons, lucky me!

Next card coming up... 

This card tumbled into the following challenges:

Creative Fingers - Anything goes (Fri 16th)

Incy Wincy - Birthdays (Mon)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenges - Simon says Die Crazy

Left of Centre - masculine cards (23rd May)

Crafty Ribbons - anything goes with ribbon (Thurs)

Polkadoodles birthday blog hop - free digis

I just discovered the Polkadoodles 5th birthday blog hop, so glad I did because every team member has had a digi made of themselves by Nikky, including one of Nikky herself, and you can download all of them for free!

As Proud as a Quirky Peacock

Monica set us a beautiful challenge this time at Quirky Crafts, and it is all about peacocks, feathers, peacock colours, and beauty! I decided to use the Mehendi Peacock Digital Stamp and Paper Pack by Coosty Creations, which contains papers and just one of the many peacock images that our sponsor, Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps, gave us to work with.

I think this is a fabulous challenge, and made this into a fabulous birthday card! I coloured the Mehendi peacock image from the pack with Atyou Spica pens to give it that lovely peacock shine, I keep finding bits that need touching up, and this stuff (like other metallic ink) seems to rough up my card stock. I will try either Prismacolor pencils, or Promarkers on it next to see what can be done.

I just happened to notice some peacock feathers in a box on my shelf a few days ago, and decided this was the perfect time to use one! They are from Crafty Devils and I can't remember if I bought or won them but they are in a box of stash I had long forgotten about that I think was a prize, so I might have won these.

I used three different papers on the front (all three and the image are cut with Spellbinders dies, had to hang that tail out), and I stamped the sentiment with a Brilliance Peacock ink pad, seemed appropriate! Originally I stamped it and heat embossed in gold onto the patterned paper, then changed my mind. 

(this was it in gold, I didn't think it showed up enough once I took the photo).

The stamp is a Hero Arts one from a clear set, this time I heat embossed with clear powder, and edged it with A Wink of Stella gold, that is a strange pen - I had to try one when I saw it at a show being sold by Little Claire, you keep it upright when not in use, squeeze the barrel to get the ink flowing (after shaking), and every time I squeeze it gold ink is coming out where it shouldn't be. Is that usual or is that just mine?

One of the papers in the pack is this ombre one with a 3d embossed effect, you don't see the effect on the front small panel so much, which is too small scale but you can on this size (the card is C5 size).

Every time I see a peacock I remember my friend's wedding reception. It was held in a barn which was converted to a functions room, and in the yard was a peacock which either got amorous or jealous of a bright blue car parked in the car park - it did a lot of damage!

As usual you can see more inspiration and a very funny video, and join in the fun if you hop on over to Quirky Crafts. 

My peacock card strutted into the following challenges:

One Stitch at a Time - use a digi (Sun)

Left of Centre - masculine colours (BH weekend Fri)

Creative Fingers - anything goes (Fri)

Country View Challenges - Nature's Glories (May)

Papertake Weekly - anything goes (Tues)

Polkadoodles - something old -peacock feather, something new -Images and digi paper pack(Fri 16th May)

I found a Design Seeds palette for this, so I can enter Pan Pastels  pick a colour palette challenge ends May 17th.

I'm so excited....

......squeeeeeeee!

So I just had to tell everyone I won a challenge at Pan Pastels, and I am so looking forward to the prize!

This is the card that won:

All the details can be found HERE.

...and there'S more!

This card was a bit trickier to photograph, it must be all the orange and bright colours! This image is called Snails - belated birthday from Bugaboo. I coloured it with Promarkers and die cut it with a Spellbinders die. I found some hand made embroidered paper that reminded me of snail trails, mounted that on blue card and added macroon ribbon from Crafty Ribbons (couldn't find any cake ribbon), as well as three star brads and a caterpillar brad.

Inside the card, just spotty paper on blue paper panels.

I have entered the following challenges:

Crafty Cardmakers - It's a bug's life (Mon)

Daring Cardmakers - colour challenge (Fri 11th)

Creative Fingers - anything goes (Fri)

Incy Wincy Designs - 4 or more papers+brads (4 brads)(Mon)

Papertake Weekly - anything goes - optional no DPP (Tues)

Passion for Promarkers - food and drink (Tues)

Fussy and Fancy - Spring colours (15th May)

Cards Galore Encore - anything goes (May)

I made top 5 at Incy Wincy - where do you display your awards?

More Cazzy-S Quirkyness!

 I was a bit later than I thought I would be with the additional examples for this challenge. To begin with
this card is made with Flower Name Sunflower paired with Flower Gals - Sunflower, I think we featured her in an earlier challenge. I found some paper with the same colour scheme as I had coloured the image then added some ribbons from Crafty Ribbons, and stamped a sentiment. I die the the image with a Spellbinders die, does it make it clean and simple if you cut the image directly rather than layer it? I don't normally do this but I like it. I added some colour to the die cut with Atyou Spica pens. The papers are from a pad by First Edition and it is called Hideaway by Lauren Jung. The sheet on the front is glittered, so pretty. I added two different coloured grosgrain ribbons from Crafty Ribbons. Finally I stamped a greeting with a Cuddly Buddly stamp, die cut it and added some colour to match. Cuddly Buddly sell these greeting sets (or they did) as compatible with Spellbinders dies, however I found that they were not compatible with the current Nestabilites, I have one of the original sets, the ones that you had to seperate before using, and that shape oval fits. I think they discontinued the stamp set shortly after I bought it.

Inside the card some non glittery paper from the same stack.

If you want to see more wonderful examples and join in - hop on over to Quirky Crafts Challenge blog.

I have entered the following challenges:

ABC - K for keep it simple (Thurs)

Creative Fingers - anything goes (Fri)

Daring Cardmakers - colour challenge (Fri 11th)

Papertake Weekly - anything goes - optional no DPP (Tues)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - flowers

Fussy and Fancy - Spring colours (15th May)

That Craft Place - anything goes (Sun)

Bearly Mine challenge blog - flowers (May)

Cards Galore Encore - anything goes (May)

Feeling Crafty - one for the girls or ladies (May)

One Sweet Challenge - flowers (May)

Crafty Little Fairies (new to me) - in the garden (May)

Quirky S reminder time!

It is reminder time for the Something beginning with S.... challenge at Quirky Crafts.

I used Bugaboo's Scene it - Happy Spring to Ewe, instead of the "Happy Spring to ewe" sentiment that came with it, I used "Happy birthday to ewe", which came with a different Bugaboo image. I really love this image with the sheep on springs!

The image is coloured with Promarkers, and die cut with Spellbinders Card Creator dies. Paper is Papermania , I thought the blue one looked like a spring pattern, and both ribbons are from Crafty Ribbons. Buttons from my local market, tied through with baker's twine. 

S is for: Scalloped card (8"x8"), Spotty Ribbon, Sheep, Sentiment, Springs, Snail button, String and Scene!

Inside is decorated with a patchwork of the two papers I used on the front.

This is the first card this Sunday, I hope to be back with some more examples later!

I sprang into the following challenges:

Allsorts - Butterflies (Sat)

Crafty Ribbons - anything goes with ribbon (Thurs)

Creative Fingers - anything goes (Fri)

Left of centre - Spring Fling (Fri)

Digi Sketch challenge - Spring or sketch (Mon)

Fussy and Fancy - Spring colours (15th May)

Need a smile? I do.

 This Grinning Pug from Squigglefly makes me smile, how could you not smile looking at this! There is a pet advert, for doggie dental chews, where all the dogs end up with off with false teeth - unless they get the dental chews of course, it is really funny (not that I often watch adverts), these grinning dogs remind me of that advert! Maybe I should add a gemstone twinkle. I might have to purchase the other two dogs in the set, I hope there will be more, Schauzers would be good! I printed the image then coloured it with Promarkers, the fur is pastel beige, which just subtly changes it from white. I need to study pug colours! It didn't need much colouring.
I die cut the pug, and a piece of Gelli Print ghost print from the other day, and scalloped squares in glittery steel, the sentiment is made up by me using Page Plus, then die cut and mounted on the sparkly steel. Both of those are mounted on a piece of woodgrained gold card, bone eyelets added to the corners and mounted on a pale blue leather effect card blank that I cut and scored myself.
Not had a good day today, some of my cards were accused of not being handmade, and looking "assembled", maybe I should have told the people concerned to read my blog where every card is described in detail. I'm afraid I took it very personally, and as I have been under a lot of stress for the past few weeks, and this week hasn't been great so far I got upset, stupid stupid me.

Today was Slimming World day, and at least there we had such a good laugh because one of our members is a natural born comedian, she should be on the stage! Laughter is good for you, it must have helped - right?

Inside this card, panels of doggy print card, I have a lot of this stuff. I kept it to the palest colour so it can be written over.

I have entered the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - anything goes.

That Craft Place - anything goes (April)

Cards Galore Encore - anything goes (May)

I have recently bought a whole load of yarn at bargain prices from a lady who sells on Facebook under the name Knitting Mad. I have a load of balls of DK cotton in various colours, and while I try to decide what to do with that I decided to start on this shrug. I love this sequined yarn which is sort of dip dyed in shades of purple. I have a little bolero I normally wear over dresses or tops for formal occasions and for dinner in the hotel when we go away, but I have lost so much weight it is too big. So I need a replacement and I searched for and found this shrug pattern and thought it would be perfect. I had a dilemma over size, do I go for the size range that I am at the bottom of right now, or the one below that I plan to be in soon? I started on the larger size, then changed my mind. A shrug is just a pair of sleeves joined across the back, so does the bust measurement make a huge difference here, it doesn't fasten in any way or have a front. 

Well since starting this we have had a wedding invite, so I could need it for that - I also need to find a dress or outfit to wear with it!

These are the colours of cotton I have, the darkest blue at the top is intended for something for Kenny, I have two balls of that. I have 4 in the palest pink, which isn't in the photo. I was thinking of a seperate little top from that. So the rest is what I have to work with for a striped jumper. 

The first pattern I found was this one in Inside Crochet magazine, and I thought I would make it but looking again I am not sure I like the back view, I still might make this, and I might have to get some red cotton to go with it, or I could keep it to more muted colours that I have.

I found another pattern in a hard back book I have had for years, it is similar but skinnier and longer and with a much deeper welt. I tried a tension piece and found that it must be for Aran not DK. Sportsweight can be either apparently - it is an American book so needed translating to European terms before I found the yarn was too thin to do it.

 Or I could make this cardigan, but more stripes, there isn't enough of any one colour to make this exactly, and I am not sure I really like it.

This is a cardigan from an extremely old hard back crochet book from the 70s, I have always loved this, I think I attempted it once, can't remember what happened. I would love to do this one, but is it too dated? and is it long enough, I wanted long, maybe could alter it but that might not work out.

Another oldish book, and a Tunisian crochet sweater, I quite like it, I don't have the sizes in the Tunisian hooks needed. 

So I need to decide what to make, or find another pattern that suits the yarn that I like.

Oh and I have a bag full of bamboo and cotton yarn in 4 ply, and on order I have recycled cotton aran yarn for a specific pattern that I fell in love with from Inside crochet, and I bought some chunky yarn to make a scarf........