Stereotype!

 This is a mixture of stamps and hopefully will be ok for at least two challenges I want to enter.

The typewriter doll is by Lost Coast, her sexy legs are by Unity Stamps, the circles and spirals are Rubber Dance stamps, and the type stamps are Craftwork Cards.

You might remember my altered French/English dictionary which I started as part of The Craft Barn challenge last year - well this is another page I have done in that dictionary.

The page is painted with white gesso, the typist is stamped on white card and coloured with Promarkers and a Distress marker, circles and spirals are stamped in Distress inks and the torn edges are inked with Distress ink.

The small Rubber Dance circles have words in them and say: "you are unique and so am I" and "this is different" - I think it is! She has typed - "I am not A Stereotype".

When I got careers advice a very long time ago the adviser thought all girls should become typists, he didn't like it if you wanted to become anything else!

I have a list of challenges I want to enter to try not to forget, and already one has passed by so I have to add a different one for that.

Challenges entered:

That Craft Place - anything mixed media (Sun)

Love to Create - #16 anything mixed media or inky (Sun)

The Craft Barn - pens (Sun)

Lost Coast - circles (you can use any stamps) (7th ASept)

Special mention in:

Rubber Dance - colour challenge (Aug - 7th Sept)

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)

Quirky Christmas Treasure time!

I think I still have the altering bug after last week, and I bought this frame in a charity shop (is that the same as thrift shop in the USA, a charity shop is where people donate goods to sell to raise money for a cause, the cause runs the shop). I also had a previously unopened pack of treasure in the form of Tattered Angels Glimmer Glass, I was so awestruck I couldn't think how I could use these shapes on cards and give them away, and so it stayed put for a few years - until now!

The challenge at Quirky Crafts starting today, is to make a Christmas project and to use your treasure, this could be something like my treasure, or the last of something you can't get any more, or a personal keepsake.

It can be any project you like too, you just need to tell us what your treasure is and why it is so precious.

The very generous sponsor for this challenge is The Cutting Cafe who provided the team with some great images to use. I used Christmas Laundry Line and Christmas Sentiment Shapes on my upcycled frame. 

I painted the frame with one coat of gesso, then two coats of Fresco Snowflake, then allowed it to dry before applying Ice Blue Fresco then Squid Ink with blending foam. I inked the Christmas Sentiment Shapes with Distress inks. The Christmas Laundry Line is coloured with Promarkers, including silver for the stars, and I added Stickles glitter glue. The white stuff along the bottom of the image is glass ball gel medium, and in this photo it hasn't dried yet so I will replace the image when it does dry (image now replaced, I built the glass ball gel up a little more and it is as dry as it will get, and I went over the whole thing with sparkling Mod Podge to protect the image, not sure where the little line above the tree came from).

The Glimmer Glass is stuck to various parts of the frame with Decopatch which I hope will hold.

So hop on over to Quirky to see lots of lovely examples by the team, and to join in with the challenge which runs for two weeks.

I have entered the following challenges:

ABC  - A for Almost Christmas

Anything but a card - Withdrawn

Feeling Crafty - Christmas

Craft Mojo - Christmas

Passion for Promarkers - include a sentiment (Jan 7th)

Hot hot hot!

 Here is another page for The Craft Barn Alpha challenge, T for Temperature which is the same in French and English. I had to do this one given the unusual heatwave we have been experiencing here in the UK! I coloured the page yellow and used Tim Holtz stencil letters which are supposed to stick to your paper but wouldn't stick to gesso! So I held them on and dabbed Fired Brick Distress Ink round them. I doodled some bits, stamped some Hero Arts images, and an Elzybells girl with temperature, and some other stamps of Kokopelli and sun faces. I added some swirly bits with a Visible Image grunge stamp.

This is my new Woodware stamp, I wanted this one for ages and got it in the craft shop that is in the motorbike shop the other side of Trowbridge, near Lidls. I bought the Card Candi there too, and I knew I had this matching card stock, perfect. The butterfly was a free die with a magazine and I added gems and flat backed pearls to finish the flower.

I have entered the following challenges:

Crafty Card Makers - 1-2-3 1 Image, 2 papers and 3 embellishments. (19th August)
Crafty Ribbons - Use one or more circles - stamp has circles and the background (sorry peeps I thought I had linked, maybe I didn't save)

Finally I found out I owned another Itty Bitty stamp, and so I made this CAS card, inked the edges with Distress Ink in two shades then spritzed it with water. When it was dry I stamped and heat embossed the image and Hero Arts greeting in gold then coloured the flowers with Stickles.

This card has been entered in the following challenges:

Unity Stamps show and tell on Facebook - Itty Bitty a day, this is the last day, and I only had two Itty Bittys.