Reminder to get those shirts and shoes on - it's Quirky!

 It's Quirky reminder time, and once more I have used our sponsor's files Shirts and Ties from The Cutting Cafe, to make more cute shirt cards. The striped one has a flocked paper tie, using the hand made paper from Papermania, the green shirt has a very bright paper tie great for Summer barbeques. Both of these have the birthday sentiment included with this set. I added faux stitching and tiny buttons, and coloured the sentiment with Promarkers.

I had to try a shoe, but I really should have read the guidance document that was included before I started, so this could be better! I thought I would make a wedding shoe card with pearlescent ivory card and I die cut, using a Spellbinders heart die, one of the many sentiments that comes with this set. I added a real bow using gold edged ivory ribbon from Crafty Ribbons.

I have entered the following challenges:

TTCRD - anything goes 26th to 1st June

Cute Card Thursdays - cute 

Coffee Chocolate and Cards - Summer (Fri)

Cards Galore - anything goes (June)

Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemum is the name of this Ching Chou Kuik image which I have used as part of another progressive challenge on facebook. 

I coloured her with Promarkers and Graph'it markers (the turquoise), and added gems to her bracelet and hair ornament, and gem stars in the sky. The driftwood she is resting on was stamped, after masking the image, with a Visible Image stamp. I die cut the image with a Spellbinders die then added real shells, hessian, mother of pearl buttons and some blooms, and a little Stickles glitter glue to the centres of the Prima blooms to match the bigger bloom that already had glitter. Finally I added some micro beads to her tail and the driftwood.

This card has drifted into the following challenges:

Graph'it markers - pearls and bling (Fri 5th June)

Pink Gems- flowers (Sat 6th)

Pile it on - focus on your colouring (Sun/Wed)

When I get old......

I got this image from Sweet Pea Stamps as part of the Facebook progressive challenge that ends today. As soon as I saw her I thought of the poem about wearing purple and a red hat, and behaving disgracefully when you get old! The poem is by Jenny Joseph, and I left out two verses.
This sort of evolved, I was thinking mixed media and remembered the wooden triptych (well more than one) I had and thought perfect! I had a lot of trouble with the background, it was painted in Fresco Mud Brown, that was fine - then I decided to stencil cogs using Dylusions sprays in white and then coffee colour. Well it looked good when I removed the stencil for about 10 seconds - then the ink just bled and merged and lost definition. I tried again with paint dabbers, first Adirondiac then Distress Paint, but the same thing happened each time, so I gave up on that.
I coloured the image with Promarkers, and added some Cosmic Shimmer clear glue to her monocle (don't even ask about the problems I had doing that!). I added detail to the background with Dreamweaver embossing paste, the problem here is that they are very old. I have had them at least 10 years probably more and whereas the gold used to add numbers to the bottom of the right hand panel was unopened and still fine, the red I used for the hats was not, it was rubbery and stringy and didn't give me a smooth result. There was more of the gold above the image but I managed to squash some of it!
The image is partly framed with a die cut cog, cut with a Spellbinders die. I printed the poem on parchment and tore it out, inking the edges before adhering. A piece of lace seemed appropriate, maybe I should have found some purple - I didn't think of it until afterwards and don't know if I have any! The flowers and leaf were die cut with Spellbinders bitty blossom set, I picked the flower that looked most like a cog, cut it in silver holographic card and inked it to age it. The Tim Holtz life key is hiding a black fingerprint!
Finally I painted the whole thing over with sparkly Mod Podge, and the rubbed Treasure Gold round the edges.

This project has been entered into the following challenges:
TTCRD - anything goes 26th to 1st June
Artful Times - closing down party (June 3rd)
Digi Chooseday - pretty in purple (Tues)
I love Promarkers - anything but square (Wed)
Cute Card Thursday - cute
That's Crafty - The Numbers Up (8th June)
Left of Centre - upcycle/recycle (Fri)
Love to create (Pan Pastels) - mixed media #11
Inkspirational - purple (5th June?)
Anything but a card - high 5 (Sat)_

Put your shoes or shirts on, or Quirky ties.

Quirky is sponsored by The Cutting Cafe for this challenge, chosen by me, and you can win some great cutting files, or just printables. The generous Regina Easter provided the team with two files to use and I used Shirt and Tie shaped cards, which contains everything you need to cut and make shirt or tie cards and their envelopes. I cut mine by hand, if I had my cutting machine up and running I would have used that. These are so quick to do even by hand, I had some printed card that looked just like shirt material, and I used Papermania flocked hand made cotton papers for the ties. 

I added some tiny buttons to each card, and faux stitching to the birthday card and a "monogrammed" pocket.The touches of colour are added using Promarkers.

The sentiment on the first card comes with the cutting files, and the sentiments on the second are from the printables Birthday Fun set.

It has been a very busy weekend, with all the birthdays this week and I completely forgot to post these cards until now.

I thought with Father's day coming up, Mom's day in some countries this would be a good challenge, and I always need male cards so shirts are perfect!

To see more shirts, sassy shoes, and tie cards hop on over to Quirky Crafts and if you come play along with us you could win prizes!

3-2-1 Blast off

Kenny was 3 at the weekend, where have 3 years gone? I made and posted this large card, is is C4 (A4/letter) size. I used two Kraftin Kimmie stamps, the rocket is by Rachel Anne Miller, and Astro Boy is by Annie Rodrigue and I thought they went together so well especially on the DCWV boy patterned paper. Images are coloured with Promarkers and Graph'it markers. The numbers and letters were die cut with Sizzix dies, and Birthday is die cut with a Marianne die from a stamp and die set, boy is a stamp from the same set. The little rockets are from a cute set I bought at the show by Lin & Lene Designs who are new to me. I added dots of Liquid Pearls and rays round the 1. 

This card is blasting into the following challenges:

TTCRD - anything goes May 18th - 25th

Little Miss Muffet - 112 anything goes (Thurs)

Sentimental Sundays - cute or funny sentiments 

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)

PaperArtsy tag

This is the start of a project I planned ages ago, to label each of my stamp concentina files so I know what is in them without getting them out. Some of the folders are dedicated to one make of stamps and others have more than one, and one is all the odd sheets of stamps.

This folder is purely PaperArtsy (arghh - when I went to bed and thought about it - I realised what I had said, of course Dylusions are not PaperArtsy, so this is a mixed folder for now, whoops), although this isn't my whole collection - there is a Really Useful Box full of the small size (A5?) sets also. 

I was putting away some stamps I bought in January I decided to make the tag. The tags were cut with a Tim Holtz Sizzix die a long time ago and all from greyboard packaging so a bit of recycling going on here too. I roughly painted the tag with some  Blush Fresco paint, then went over it with South Pacific which is not solid so the pink shows through. Then I stamped each side, this side is PaperArtsy original type stamps. I edged the tag with Distress inks and Treasure Gold, and finally stamped and die cut a "moff". I don't want to add too many 3d details, I think they will end up getting knocked off when the folders are in use. String has been threaded through the tag and folder. 

This side of the tag is done with Dylusions stamps, and JOFY stamps and coloured with Distress markers and Promarkers.

One down around 10 to go!

I have entered this tag in the following challenges:

Craft Stamper Make it Take it May - anything goes

Country View Challenges - simply scenic (May - 10th June)

Crafting from the Heart - anything goes #58 Monday

Papertake Weekly - anything goes (Tues)

That's Blogging Crafty - Keep it Simple (May 8th)

Love to create - anything creative/mixed media goes (Sun)

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