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

Lyn wants us all to have some Quirky Animal Magic

 So animal magic it is, could be magical animals or just animals. My first card features Hedgehog Flower from one of our great sponsors, Bugaboo over at Quirky Crafts for the new challenge this fortnight.

I coloured him with Promarkers and die cut him and a scalloped panel with Spellbinders dies. I used Papermania Tatty Teddy paper (the blue) and DCWV cupcake paper, added some novelty buttons tied through with Tim Holtz paper string, and some polka dot chiffon ribbon which you can buy from Crafty Ribbons (as well as polka dot buttons). Happy Birthday is die cut using an IO die set that I use a lot.

I used the Papermania paper inside too, a slightly different design still pale blue.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly - things with wings (Tues)

Crafty Ribbons - Happy Birthday (Thurs 24)

Moving along with the times - cute creatures (Thurs)

Left of Centre - die cuts (Fri)

Allsorts - Buttons (Sat)

Pile it on - birthday (Sun/Wed)

Little Miss Muffet - anything goes (24th Sept)

Oh the trouble I had with this card - maybe I will tell you another day - if you want to know! It turned out OK in the end I think.

This image is Charmaine Flannery's We're All Mad Here, from another of our sponsors - Sweet Pea Stamps. She is pretty Quirky I think, do you like her beautiful green hair? She has a crazy cat on her lap (Cheshire cat maybe?), see the playing cards flying round? I coloured her with Promarkers and Graph'it Markers (the turquoise background), and added highlights with paperwhite Sharpie marker. The frame is die cut using two Spellbinders dies, Locking Loops and a rectangle to take out the centre before mounting it on another rectangle. All around the frame I used flat backed pearls in purple, then the first paper pack I picked up was perfect for the colour scheme, it is a Papermania pack of metallic spots and stripes, which dictated to me that I needed silver behind it. The purple brads are silver ones coloured with Promarker, I added lace and ribbon, and the Just for You is one of my brand new never before used dies by Tonic, and it cut very nicely with no problems at all.

I've entered the following challenges:

TTCRD - anything goes Sept 8 - 14

Tuesday Throwdown - anything goes

Crafty Gals - bingo ribbon, hand coloured digi, sentiment (either card fits) (Wed)

Glitter and Sparkle - 154 something beginning with G (green hair) (Sun)

Ribbon Girl - any image (Sun)

Crafting from the heart - #76 anything goes (Mon)

Creative Fingers - #92 anything goes (Fri?)

Coffee, chocolate and cards - fancy and feminine (Sept)

Delicious Doodles - Dark (Sept)

Unicorn Challenges - mythical and magical (30 Sept)

Finally we have one more sponsor, Robyn's Fetish who are giving third prize in the Quirky Crafts Challenge this fortnight. So hop on over to see more Animal Magic and to play along with us.

Country roads take me home...

I have two sets of Artistic Outpost stamps which I bought in a closing down sale, and I wanted to enter the Artistic Outpost challenge so I thought I would have a go.

I have stamped some of the images in shadow ink, decoupaged the truck which is coloured with Promarkers, and cut out the second set of words and re-arranged them around the Home stamp. I sponged the edges with Distress ink, and stamped the clock faces with it too. Home is metallic blue. 

I folded and cut a gold pearlescent card blank to mount it on and added some blue and white baker's twine.

Challenges entered:

Simon Says - tie it up (Wed)

Addicted to Stamps - anything goes (Wed)

We love to create - anything mixed media or inky goes (Sun)

Artistic Outpost - verses and greetings AO stamps (Aug)

The Artistic Stamper - anything goes (Aug)

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

Another bright shirt, that's Quirky!

I found this shirt which I had put under something, so I finished it off. The  "Shirt and Tie Shaped Card" files are from The Cutting Cafe, I used some double sided paper to make the shirt and some American Crafts paper that looks like fabric for the tie and handkerchief. The sentiment is also from The Cutting Cafe and is from a printables set called  Assorted Celebration Word Circles. I have teeny tiny buttons and one normal sized button which has Tim Holtz twine though it.

You have until Saturday at midday UK time to play along with us at Quirky Crafts.

I've entered the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly - anything goes (Tues)

A Quirky sketch

It's Doris' turn to set the Quirky Challenge and she has given us a sketch to use, or you can include hats - or both!

I used Sugar's Doggies from Ditzie Designs for my card - 50% of the profit goes to the Manchester Dog's home, and is an image I purchased a while back. I coloured her with Koh I Noor pencils, first time using them. I vaguely remember buying them and they must have been in a sale. I only have limited colours but I found that I can blend them beautifully with Sansador. I don't normally colour the whole sky but this image has cloud paw prints so I really felt I had to show them up, the blue was a little dark so I tried to lighten it by added white and blending it in. Sugar is a rag doll so she can have green hair if she wants to. One of the little doggies looks like one of mine, the one in her arms is like Alfie the Mini Schnauzer.

I think I need more colouring practice with these wood free pencils.

I die cut the panels with Spellbinders and the word with Impression Obsessions dies.

I don't have a hat so I followed the sketch. The paw print ribbons are a Crafty Ribbons exclusive.

Here is the sketch.

Now hop on over to Quirky Crafts to join in the fun, and maybe win one of the great prizes from our sponsors: That Craft Place, Meljen, and Ditzie Designs.

I have entered the following challenges:

Crafting from the Heart - anything goes #52 (Mon)

Darlene's NBUS - NBUS (31st March)

Crafty Ribbons - anything goes with ribbon (Thurs)

Allsorts - feature a creature (Sat)

That Craft Place - Easter/Spring (Sun)

Our Quirky pets.

I should have made this card last week, apologies to Bugaboo who are one of our two sponsors this time. The images are from the brand new Mini Kit Kidz Clowns, such a cute set with lots of images and the sentiment, I haven't used all of them there is one very cute girl in a clown costume one too, great value for money - or you could win it!

I coloured the images with Promarkers, and added some white Prismacolor pencil to the girl's face afterwards for clown make up. I cut round the image and mounted it on red sparkly card. The badge is cut with Spellbinders circles and scalloped circles. The paper was free with a magazine, so happy I remembered it as it is perfect here. I added some grosgrain ribbon from Crafty Ribbons, eyelets. a star button, mini pom poms and bakers twine. I recently bought this cute ticket die by Trimcraft, (with one other really cute die) called Fun Fair,  which the wonderful Sam Hirst of Samaflora kindly got for her friends at the cost she bought them at (plus postage) they were a bargain and I really appreciate it, again this was perfect for this card and is one of the row of three tickets. I just kept thinking of these little bits to add to the card, I had so much fun making this, I regret there are some marks on the green card I didn't see - hand cream I think!

 I made a detachable pin brooch too, it was supposed to pin through two holes but the layers made it too thick to do properly, so I added twine through the holes and pinned the brooch to the twine. I worry about pins on cards for children, I am not sure what age they are safe but I would give this to an adult too.

Inside the card I used the same paper, and the other two die cut tickets, a die cut panel with a Spellbinders die, and the brooch is here again detached.

A flat view of the inside.

Back of the pin brooch, it's got a safety catch - I have a whole bag of these.

We are also sponsored by Sweet Pea Stamps and I hope to have another example or two later.

So if you want to join in and show us your pets, or a pet you would love - even a fantasy pet, then hop over to Quirky Crafts to play with us and see some more wonderful examples.

My card has tumbled into the following challenges - TA DA:

Papertake Weekly - bingo - ribbon, die cut, punches (Tues)

I love Promarkers - make us laugh (Wed)

Little Miss Muffet - anything goes (Thurs)

LOC - #66 dies or punches (Fri)

A Gem of a Challenge - children's playtime (Sat)

ABC - D is for die cuts (Sun)

Creative Fingers - #68 anything goes

Cards Galore - use a stamp or digi (Feb)

Crafty Boots - Sentiment (Feb?)

Creative Card Crew - Birthday with sentiment (3rd Mar)

Singing a Quirky song - yes it's a reminder to come and play Quirky Charades

With a little help from my friends by John Lennon of course, and the quote comes with Pierre and Ernest, among other sentiments, from Paper Pretties and when I spotted it I knew I had to do it! We have two sponsors and three prizes, so come and play!

I coloured the image with Promarkers, die cut it with a Spellbinders label and the orange mat is cut with 5"x 7" card creator dies, the quote is cut with a Spellbinders nesting book die, the treble clef (musical note) is a Marianne die, and Thanks is from a new set by IO (Impression Obsession) which I bought as a bargain from Crafts U Love in their weekly bargain corner, I often find that the thing I would have bought was out of stock, but not this time.

I added some Tim Holtz paper string in black and white and orange and white (there is a definite orange and black theme going on here) and can you see the guitar charm tied to the twine?

Anyway hop on over to Quirky Crafts to play Charades or just to see the rest of the team playing!

This card has cycled into the following challenges:

Vintage Stamping - colour challenge (Mon) withdrawn due to no stamping,sorry I forgot when I entered this one, please discard.

Allsorts - Masculine (Sat)

My Time to Craft - charmed I'm sure (Sat)

Crafty Cardmakers - cut it out (Sun)

Bunny Zoe's - animals (10th Nov)

That's Crafty - hot and spicy (13th Nov?)

Wags and Whiskers - Let's be thankful (13 Nov)

Cards Galore - anything goes (Nov)

Crafty Boots - music (Nov)

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)

Happy Birthday Dad

It was Dad's birthday yesterday, and I know he liked a Flippin' Men card I made for my brother once, so decided to get out the Flippin' Men (drawn by the talented Jak Heath) and make him a card.

I cut an aperture in the brown leather look card with a Spellbinders Grand Nestability label, I cut a larger size in acetate and made a frame from the two sizes to cover the edges of the acetate inside the card.

I cut and coloured the back and front man on a beer barrel using Graph'its for the barrel wood and Promarkers for the rest, before fussy cutting the top part of the image. I stamped Happy Birthday from a Hero Arts clear set in copper and heat embossed it. Dad is heat embossed also and is a Papermania stamp.

I thought this brown check card was perfect for an inside panel, and I stamped cheers on it and a row of beer glasses so they showed above the man's head when the card is closed. Dad is also stamped on the brown check card and die cut to go on the front. 

The quote from the set is stamped in brown on parchment which is torn and inked. In the side of the panel I cut a slit for a pocket to put a gift card in, this doesn't show when the card is closed.

Finally I added some baker's twine to match his suit.

Dad loved it, Happy Birthday Dad!

I have entered the following challenges:

Allsorts - All about the boy (Sat)

Happy Birthday Husband.

The night before a birthday is not really the time to be making the card! I used my new Stamposaurus stamp of a greenhouse, you may recall the posts about the new greenhouse! Well I spotted the stamp at the Shepton Mallet craft show, and thought of my husband, and bought it and a few others that I couldn't resist, and there were plenty more that were hard to resist too!

 I coloured the image with Promarkers, then added glossy accents for the "glass". I heat embossed the words using Hero Arts and Papermania stamps in red, that pesky red embossing powder got everywhere it shouldn't including all over my desk when I spilled it! Here you can see it on the card where I didn't want it to be, and I had used an antistatic bag first, grrr. Then the "glass" wasn't dry so I gingerly attached some 3d gel pads to the back of the image and tried to plonk it into place without touching the wet glaze. I had attached the die cut (Spellbinders) before I added the image. However the image has curled and I had to leave it out with no envelope because it wasn't dry.

More Quirky Rainbow Bright

This is my second example card for the Quirky Crafts Challenge "Rainbow Bright" using Artsy Flower from Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps. I coloured the image with Trias and Promarkers, die cut with Nestabilities and added some gems for a bit of sparkle. The sentiment is an Elzybells stamp, with Brilliance ink in Peacock, which is blue and green but that doesn't show so well. I heat embossed the sentiment then rounded the corners with the Paper Gator and added some baker's twine.

I have entered this card in the following challenges:

Cute Card Thurdays - Diamonds are forever