Quirky Crafts Challenge 23 buttons the bear

buttons the bear, originally uploaded by cazzytime aka bluesuedeshoes.

Challenge 23 over on Quirky Crafts Challenge blog is "buttons". It is also sponsored by Crafty Ribbons, and the hearts ribbon is from them so it was appropriate to use it.
This is my second example.
The bear and moon and stars are cut with an Accucut Zipeslim die, the scalloped circle is a Sizzix die, buttons, charm and brads from stash. The word Baby was written with Adirondack 3d paint (also used on the man in the moon) on an acrylic plaque from Graphicus. Sadly the bear had his nose squashed while it was still wet, and the card suffered another accident, you can just see a bit of red on the back - it got put down on the test moon with red ink cheek very wet, oh dear!

So enter your projects with buttons on and win a load of great ribbons.

Missed deadline

I was up late trying to make an entry for the Just Cute Bears challenge blog, but I happened to glance on the blog to see if there was an actual time, was it Saturday or Sunday, and found it should have been there by 6pm GMT so I gave up and went to bed, I was on the second attempt having messed up the first one and changed my mind about doing what I thought I was going to do. So you may get to see it, maybe not as it could be adapted for something else that I can't show you yet.

I had a migraine yesterday hanging around from Friday, and it sort of got better midday, though I later had to have a sleep and that is why I was so late starting the card. Also we had unexpected visitors arrive Friday evening, my son and DIL, and they stayed until just before Midday.

Today I just ache all over, every single bit of me inside and out. I have a special card to make for someone who is leaving at the end of this week, really need to get on with it and I am not certain of the design yet. Haven't done it due to being ill last weekend with the virus, which affected me for the whole week.

Challenge 22 - Cute

Today is the start of Challenge 22 over on Quirky Crafts Challenge blog. The challenge is sponsored by the Cutting Cafe and you can win some digital downloads of your choice.

Also if you want to apply for the Quirky Crafts design team you have until 28th Feb.

Before this challenge I hadn't really used digital downloads much though I have quite a few saved and now I think I will use them more. The beauty of them is that they are inexpensive, don't take up storage space in the home, and you can change them in size or colour.

I have used a combination of a sentiment from the Cutting Cafe Nice sheet, and stamps from the Crafty Pad (Shelley and Twitter I think) which I think go together perfectly.
 Can anyone tell me by the way why it is that I always get sick on the weekends so I lose out on my personal time? No, I don't suppose you can. I was in bed most of yesterday, and feel like going there today I am so bunged up with cold, but at least my throat is less painful, but I will have a shower, think I need it.
So without further ado (and too much more unwanted information) here are two versions of the same card layout.

Die cut shapes are all done with Nestabilities, paper is from Pocket Full Of Posies by DCWV, glitter glue on Prima blooms is Ice Stickles and is still wet in this photo, ink is Memento, images coloured with Promarkers.

Now I am looking for challenges I can enter and I didn't make my cards with any other challenges in mind but I found the following:
I hope these qualify for the green + 1 challenge on My time to Craft.
and O is for one piece of paper on ABC challenges

Lori asked how I got my sparkly signature, well someone on UK Scrappers forum was offering a long time ago, and probably still does it, and made my sig for free to use on the forum, I didn't have the blog then but I tried copying it in a a photo and it worked. There are lots of free sites where you can do your own but none are as good as my own signature below which has no links to adverts and doesn't disappear to force you back to the site.

Quirky Crafts Challenge 21 - Valentine's

Challenge 21 on the new Quirky Crafts blog begins today and the theme is Valentines/Foreign. It is sponsored by the Cutting Cafe and the prize is from there.

You can make any craft project on the theme of Valentines, Foreign or Foreign Valentines to enter and win three downloads of your choice of digi images from Cutting Cafe.


The card I made is a gatefold, and this was not what I set out to do, it was accidental due to the wrong crease but then I decided it would work even better than I had planned. The birds are a bit big to be hiding in the love tree but that is the idea, open the card and find the birds.
The great thing about digital images is that you can resize them to suit your design. I used the tree on the front and cut some of the hearts out to decoupage them, also to overlap the edges of the long rectangle cut with Nestabilities. All the images and sentiments used on this card are from the Cutting Cafe. I wondered if it was a bit too plain but decided to leave it like that as I like it.

Two more days to enter

Nobody has made a card using Lyn's very versatile sketch yet and there are two more days to make your card, enter the challenge on Quirky Crafts Forum and win a prize. There are some great examples by the design team on the forum and their blogs.

Quirky Crafts Weekly Challenge 17

How do you go about creating a design team challenge card?
1. First, you know what you need to do a couple of months in advance, you should not make the card in advance - you should leave it until as late as possible, the day it is due is best.
2. If a sketch is required, pick a stamp but don't try it for size against your Nestabilities die sets, that way it is more of a challenge when you find it doesn't fit any of them and you have to start again, but not before you have stamped 4 images on 6 sheets of card and heat embossed in an attempt to get a good one, and having cleared a space you should realise that there are bits of punch waste that you also need to clear, and while doing that you should tip up your newly opened embossing powder. Clear up the powder liberally covering your clothes, then for good measure tip the pot up again and repeat. Also your first stamping attempt should use dried up ink, so you have to do it again.
3. After that discover that the stamp was too big, and look for some you stamped last year that were the perfect size all the time.
4. Finally get your inky fingers all over your newly stamped image for a smutty effect.
So here is Lyn's sketch and a nice one it is too:

Followed by the finished attempt, and for good measure forget to go cook and eat your tea so you eat too late and cannot sleep!

Hop on over to Quirky Crafts forum to see the other DT member's cards or visit their blogs from the links at the side. If you show us your card on the forum you could win a prize, and you have two weeks from today to enter.

Hey, I just realised I matched the colours in the sketch drawing, which was not intentional and would not have been the case if the first image was the right size!

Quirky Crafts Challenges with prizes back soon

I can't believe the summer has gone so fast, and next Sunday - 6th Sept - the challenges start again at the Quirky Crafts forum. This time you can make any hand crafted item for any challenge and there will be a small prize for the winner each week.

There are new design team members too, and one outgoing DT member.

The forum is also undergoing a few changes for the better, pop over to see.

Changing the subject: for reasons that aren't clear I can no longer post any comments on a Typepad blog, is blogger blocking this as a rival I wonder? So sorry Tim and Tassy, would comment but it won't let me!

On the subject of Tim, I just bought a second hand but signed copy of The Altered Journey for £10, it took a couple of weeks to arrive but it was worth every penny and the name it is dedicated too is close to mine ha ha! I have The Journey Continues DVD too and I will be doing a review of them but I highly recommend them both.

Blue blooms

I recently bought some Coordinations Black Magic card and I have wanted to try this for ages. I ran the card with a blue back through the Big Shot with a Cuttlebug embossing folder then sanded the raised parts to reveal the blue beneath. I have mounted it on blue card, then a black blank, punched it with a Martha Steward Lattice Arch punch, added ribbon, three blooms and 6 brads as per the ABC challenge blog list. Greeting embossed in clear ink (Papermania Stamp set from the Daisy and Dandelion range), and some pastel blue embossing powder.

New challenge blog and candy as well

Faerie Song Art Stamps sketch challenge blog.

There is a new challenge blog on the block, and there is already a challenge waiting for you with a sketch to follow here.

You can also win this gorgeous candy:

Top 15 on challenge site

My altered stamp file made it to the top 15 on the new challenge blog - This Thursday! The winner was randomly picked and you can see all of the top 15 on the site.

There is a new challenge for this week, beaded beauties, so hop on over and get beading!