Quirky Crafts 2011: Challenge 4 - Recycled Romance

It's Challenge time again here at Quirky Crafts! It was a great turnout for our last challenge, with some gorgeous makes, so thank you everyone who entered. There seemed to be a little confusion as to which challenge some of you were entering so hopefully this will make it clear. Each challenge lasts nearly two weeks, going live on Sunday evening and entries closing on Friday evening when you can come back and vote for your favourite three entries. So this new challenge will be open for entries until Friday 25th February (Rules for challenge entry are in the side bar). Now onto this week's challenge

Quirky Crafts 2011: Challenge 4

which was set by me, Caro. We have a lovely sponsor for this challenge.

Digital Delights

Digital Delights are creators of some gorgeous digital stamps. The winner of the Design Team vote will be able to chose 3 digital images of their own choice from this fabulous collection. The DT were given the opportunity to work with some of these images and they are lovely.

Now what is the challenge? Well with Valentines Day tomorrow most of you have probably made your Valentines cards, but we are still feeling romantic so we thought we would continue with the romance theme with a twist...

Recycled Romance

This means we would like to see anything Romantic (hearts, weddings, engagements, Valentines etc) with a recycled element on your card. Specifically we would like to see something that is not normally crafty: think packaging, inside of coloured envelopes, bubble wrap, newspaper, the metal from tomato purée tubes, seeds etc. Make sure you tell us on your blog what you recycled on your creation, just in case we can't tell!

Rules for entering our challenges are in the side bar and we reserve the right to remove any links that don't follow the rules, although we will tell you so you can enter something else. Don't forget, we love to see all your cards but we also accept anything crafty as long as it fits into the current challenge. That includes ATC's, Altered Art, Fat Pages, Scrap Book Pages, Magic boxes, Tags, Book Marks, in fact anything crafty you can think of!

Here are a few creations by our Design Team to give you inspiration.

Caro's altered photo frame with cardboard hearts recycled from a parcel

Diane's lovely card with recycled cardboard and string and an image from our sponsor

Lyn's used a cardboard heart from packaging, flowers made from parcel paper, sweet wrappings and newspaper, ribbon from a jewellery gift box, tiny hearts punched out from packaging, and golden hearts, which were die-cut from a photo glue tube! Lyn has also used an image from our sponsor

Guest Designer Barbara with her gorgeous card, which uses a zip, doily and some foil wrapping and Barbara has used a digi image from our sponsor.

Guest Designer Lena Katrine used a button from a child's outgrown garment and some tulle from an old skirt on this very romantic card.

Caro's ATCs using recycled cardboard from a parcel, lace from a table mat, gold tinsel from a Christmas cracker and a label from a skirt, as well as two different digi images from our sponsor.

Cazzy's altered chocolate box, with heart and wings cut from tissue boxes and old book page.

The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.

Winners from Challenge #3

Before we announce the details of this weeks challenge it is my pleasure to announce the winners of the last challenge 'dots, stripes and embossing'.

The winner of our public vote and 5 digis of your choice from

Spyder's Other Corner is...



Crafty C

Congratulations!! We'd love you to join us as a Guest Designer in one of our next challenges, so please could you email Cazzy, using the link on the sidebar and she'll tell you all about it and arrange for your free digi stamps! Please help yourself to a winner's badge to display on your blog with pride with a link back to us!

The winner of the Design Team vote and gorgeous ribbons from

Crafty Ribbons is...

Ellie

Congratulations! Please email Cazzy via the link in the sidebar who will arrange for your ribbons to be sent to you. Please also help yourself to a winner's badge to display on your blog with pride with a link back to us!   You are also welcome to join us as a Guest Designer in one of our next challenges, so please could you email Cazzy, using the link on the sidebar and she'll tell you all about it.

We also would like to give a special mention to the entry by Blackdragon, with this very unusual coffin tag which came second in the public vote, though we cannot give another prize if you would like to join us as a guest designer in the next or a future challenge please email Cazzy using the link at the side.

Check back shortly for the details of our next Challenge!

The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team 

Winner and New DT member news

Sorry for the delay folks, with so many great entries it was soooo difficult to choose but finally we managed it.

The DT are please to announce that the winner of the Stitchy Bear voucher is: Lena, with her wonderful Lily of the Valley card.

Lena please email Cazzy via the link in the sidebar who will arrange for your voucher to be sent to you.

More good news.

You may remember a while back we asked people to let us know if they were interested in joining us on the Design Team (DT). We are very happy to announce that our first new DT member is the talented: Diane (applause). Diane is already a Quirky Crafts challenge winner with one of her gorgeous creations and has joined us as a guest a few times too. I am sure you will love her work.

We will be announcing another new DT member very soon.

Also don't forget to enter our doubly sponsored challenge detailed below, and come back and vote for your favourites too.

The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.

Quirky Crafts-2011 Challenge#3 Dots/Spots/Stripes and Embossing!

It's Challenge time again!! It was a fabulous turnout for our last challenge, some gorgeous makes, so thank you everyone who entered. A few of you didn't quite follow the rules but maybe we didn't shout them loud enough! So I shall type them in very big letters in just a minute!! But first! (drum roll please!)

The Winner of Our Public vote is...
Just Barbara from Forgottenscraps
With her beautifully coloured Miss Anya, sitting in her gorgeous spring garden

Well done Barbara!! We'd love you to join us as a Guest Designer in one of our next challenges, so please could you email Cazzy, using the link on the sidebar and she'll tell you all about it! Please help yourself to a winner's badge to display on your blog with pride with a link back to us!

Now for the Design Teams vote and the winner
of the
Stitchy Bear Digi Stamps $10 Voucher

It was sooo hard to choose, but finally after staying up all night, (eating soggy sandwiches and cold coffee) we on the Quirky Team have still not come to a decision! Please pop back later when we've all made up our minds and drunk loads more cold coffee!

*****

On to the new challenge!!

Quirky Craft's Challenge #3 of 2011...

Is set by me, Lyn, aka Spyder, so you know it's going to be nice and easy! This challenge is kindly being sponsored by two fabulous sponsors. The first and gorgeous ....

Crafty Ribbons!

Yay!! We all need ribbons!!! All the ribbons come in 5mtr bags for £1.00 but Crafty Ribbons have a special offer - pick any 5 colours and you can choose a 6th colour FREE!! So any 6 colours for £5.00, that works out at less then 17p per mtr!! And for this challenge our Design Team Choice Winner will receive not only a selection of gorgeous spotty polka dot ribbons, but also a selection of these lovely striped ribbons and some lovely buttons too!!

Our second Sponsor this 3rd challenge of 2011 is, seeing it's all my fault..me!! (don't groan!!) And The winner of the Public Voting will be able to choose any five digi's of their choice from...
Spyder's Other Corner

So??? What's the Challenge Lyn?? Well, the title sort of gives it away! We'd love to see on all your crafty makes...

Dots/Spots/Stripes and Embossing!

Little tiny dots, huge spots, small spots, straight stripes or wiggly ones, dry or heat embossing, it's up to you but we want to see all three!

Now for the rules!! (Lyn waves her swishy stick!) Your blog post must mention that you have entered The Quirky Crafts Challenge with a link back to this blog. Your link must connect to your make, not just your blog and you should leave us a comment after you have linked your entry, then we can nip over to see you so much quicker.

Also,we don't want to see something you've already entered into one of our challenges, we'd like to see something new! We love all your makes but if your entry doesn't meet the conditions of the challenge, we reserve the right to delete it from Inlinkz. If this is the case we will let you know so you can enter another project!

Don't forget, we love to see all your cards but we also accept anything crafty as long as it fits into the current challenge. That includes ATC's, Altered Art, Fat Pages, Scrap Book Pages, Magic boxes, Tags, Book Marks, anything crafty you can think of! If you're not sure how to link your project, email us and we can help! Poor cazzy isn't feeling too well, so her lovely creatation will be here a little later, meanwhile...

Here's a few makes by our Design Team to give you all some inspiration!!

Caro's scrapbook page (with heat embossed castle in three colours)

Lyn's Pocket Card
Embossed bear, heart and acetate

Caro's clean and simple card

Lyn's 'Happy Birthday' Card

Cazzy's Friendship card

The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.
Please add your entry to InLinkz

Quirky Crafts 2011 - challenge 2: In the Spring Garden (must have: pink, green, stamped or digi image)

Challenge time again, and first of all I would like to thank all the people who entered the last challenge, it was difficult to get round everyone to comment and there were some great entries.

The Winners of Challenge 1 - New Beginnings are:

Public Vote: Jennifer Greco

DT Vote: There were so many gorgeous entries that we couldn't decide on just one so chose:
1. Amelia's gorgeous wedding card, 2. Jenni with her cute toadstool new house card and
3. Desiree's gorgeous scrapbook page. An honorable mention has to go to Irit for both of her amazing papercraft creations; the cutest mini book ever and a wonderful diaper cake!

Please email us (using the link in the sidebar), if any of you would like to join us as a guest in the next challenge, and do help yourself to a winner's badge to display on your blog with pride.

I would also like to apologise if you expressed an interest in joining the DT, we haven't had time to sort out lists and pick someone yet, though we have a pool of great GDTs to draw on. I am trying to organise all my emails and should be able to find you all and add you to a list soon, then we will announce who will be joining us on the main DT.

We have some very exciting news: this year we already have three great new sponsors, and I would like to introduce the first sponsor and they are sponsoring our challenge today: Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps.

Love Blooms Paper Pack (used on all except Caro's) and Floral Fantasy (used by Spyder - Lyn) both Floppy Latte Designs

Camelia Watering Can and Dahlia (used by Caro, Diane and Claire) from the Blackberry Lane Range.

and Bumblebrella and Butterfly love both from the Stitchy range (used by Cazzy and Claire)

Challenge #2 of 2011.

The challenge was picked by me, Cazzy, and is...
In the Spring Garden And To Use Pink and Green!.

I think we have had enough of the snow and Winter weather, so let's look forward to Spring and cheer ourselves up!

You must include a stamped or digi image of something you would find in the garden (flowers, bees, butterflies, insects, pots, any garden themed stamp or digi), and include the colours pink and green in your creations. As usual any craft project can be entered.

Your blog post must mention that you have entered the challenge and a link back to this blog and you should leave us a comment after you have linked your entry.

Now we don't want to be horrible, especially as you have made the effort to enter, but if your entry doesn't meet the conditions of the challenge we reserve the right to delete it from Inlinkz, but we will tell you so you can enter another project that does fit.

One overall winner will win a voucher from Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps so you can choose something from the great range of images and papers when you are ready to purchase.

Here are some lovely examples by the Design Team all using digi images from our sponsor, and there to inspire you. The papers used are a digi Paper Pack from Stitchy called Love Blooms which is the January Collab offer that comes free with any purchase from Stitchy over $10 in value.

Guest Designer - winner of our Last Challenge Diane's gorgeous 3d Dahlia card.

Guest Designer joining us again - Claire Easson with her magic card using Butterfly Love and Dahlia images.

Caro's clean and simple card using Camelia still life

Lyn's Fairy Fantasy and Love Blooms papers card.

Cazzy's Bumblebrella card

The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.

Please Use this Froggy to add your cards and other makes, the bottom Froggy isn't working. Only a little time left before this closes and voting starts!

Voting time!

It is voting time for the challenge, so get over here and pick your best three now. Also we have a new look, which I am still working on, so any comments appreciated!

Quirky Crafts 2011 - challenge 1: New Beginnings

Happy New Year Everyone!

The Quirky Crafts DT hope you all had a lovely Christmas and got all the crafty goodies you wanted and more, and that this coming year is a good one for you all.

We have some exciting news which we will be revealing in two weeks time for our next challenge.

The first challenge of 2011 has been chosen by the lovely Caro and is:

New Beginnings.

Your craft project can be about something new: new baby, New Year, new puppy, engagement, basically a celebration of something new. As it is the first challenge of the New Year you can also use your new crafting stash, just be sure to tell us what the new items are.

We asked all of our guest designers if they would like to join in and would like to thank them for the wonderful projects displayed below.

Here are the design team examples to inspire you:

First, Guest designer Claire Easson's pretty new baby card, she tells us the greeting means "a little miracle" in Swedish.

Caro's New Baby card made in the clean and simple style

Caro's card made with her new Christmas Stash (lots of lovely stamps!)

Guest Designer Ali's (Aqualeiga's Escape) funky Happy New Year Card

Guest Designer Denise's Beautiful Day 2011 calendar

Lyn's New Home Card made with New papers, New Promakers, New clear Stamp, New Nesties and a New Pink Guillotine!

Cazzy's New Baby card, made with previously unused stamp and photographed with new camera and using new light box for the first time (ha - how is that for a lot of new things).

Cazzy's first ever attempt at a canvas (don't laugh)

The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.