Challenge #15. Christmas In July!

Evening fellow Quirky Fans! Hope your week has been very eventful, and you aren't too hot in 'heat waves' in other parts of the World or soaked through in all the rain we're having here in UK! Welcome back to another Quirky Crafts Challenge! Please scroll down to the post below to see the last Challenge winners if you missed it. It's my turn, Spyder, (Lyn) to set the theme and at the time of typing this I wasn't sure which way to go... something summery and hot or...something freezing and wintry?? So after checking out some of the lovely digi's our sponsors....

Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps
were offering us to play with, it just had to be.....

Christmas In July!

So here's a chance to make a start on all those Christmas cards you know you'll need (come Christmas eve!) Of course it doesn't have to be a card, we'd love to see anything crafty that has anything to do with Christmas, decorations, stockings, Advent calenders, I've seen a few lovely ones about blogland, as well as Tags, Atc's, Scrapbook Pages, etc etc! And to make it even more fun Stitchy Bear will be offering our winner...

$10 voucher!
just so you can choose what you want when you want it from three different ranges as used by the Design Team!

Here are some lovely creations by our Guest designers, winners and favourites from our past challenges...

Laura

Laura said: I made a wreath. I printed a page of holly digis which I coloured with Promarkers, fussycut and stuck to a ring of card. I added seam binding bows over the digi bows. I glittered the berries and then added two coats of glossy accents. I added a hanging loop and tails to finish it off. Laura hadn't used digis before and I think she may now be a convert!

Natali

Natali used Holly Bough and said she wanted to keep this beautiful image simple and not clutter it with embellishments, she used Copics to colour the image.

Natali also used Rudolf with Santa to make this stylish fun card.

And here's some fabulous makes by the Quirky team...

Cazzy

I used three Stitchy images on my card, Ruldolf (so cute, throw him a reindeer treat someone) with a decoupaged head, Holly Bough and Snowflake. I made the snowflake into my backing paper, repeating it over and over, and I tried to add a blue background on the computer which didn't work out so I coloured the background with a pastel blue Promarker then added Ice Stickles to the snowflakes. Rudolf and Holly Bough are also coloured with Promarkers, and the ribbon edged with gold marker free with a magazine. Finally the ribbons are from Crafty Ribbons (of course). This looks paler than it actually is.

Spyder

For my first card I've used Busted from our sponsors, on a card I trimmed down to make a slightly different shape. I printed Santa out two or three times so I could do a bit of decoupage. The top half of his body and head has been 3D-ed over the main image, which was printed straight onto the blue 'snowy' paper and cut out using my Nesties. I coloured him with ProMarkers, using those thin nibs on the tiny fiddly bits and added some micro fine glitter on Santa's furry bits! (Second card coming next.....added 16th July)

Lyn

This time I used Bah Humbug coloured with Promarkers, adding Eyelash wool, a snow flake ribbon, gems, dimensional flowers, asticky gelly sentiment and micro glitter. Papers are all Pink Petticoat. Links on my blog for the free fonts used inside both these cards.

Caro

I used Rudolf with Santa from our sponsors. I printed the image onto white card, then put it though a cuttlebug embossing folder to generate the snowy scene before colouring the image, houses, smoke and trees with promarkers and the sky with blue chalk for a soft dreamy effect. I then mounted the whole thing onto red card to make it pop.

Diane

I also chose to work with the Holly Bough. When it comes to Christmas I am afraid I am a bit of a traditionalist. I like the old fashioned look, not so much the cutesy look. This digistamp has been printed many times and decoupaged to within an inch of it's life. Coloured with promarkers and layered with foam pads it has then been mounted onto white cardstock which has been embossed using my Grand Calibur and the cuttlebug swiss dots folder. A mat of deep red to make the whole thing stand out a bit more and I am done.

Now it's over to you! Let's see your Christmas In July creations!

Please add a link to your blog post (not your blog) (or your image in photobucket, SCS, Flikr etc) using the biggest blue froggy at the top of the collection, the other one (at the bottom) doesn't do anything that we can tell, and please comment after you have linked. Don't forget to mention Quirky and add a link back to here (please read the rules and if you realised you haven't followed the rules and won't be included in the top three, and you want your entry removed to try again - please email us using the link in the side bar).

Have Fun - The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.

Email entries from non bloggers:

Digi card 1 created by Stepanie Lewis using Word

Digi Card 2 created by Stephanie Lewis using Word.

Winners: Challenge #14. Make Us Laugh!

Hi Quirky fans, it's Lyn here. Wow!! Thank you to everyone who joined in with our last challenge, 'Make us Laugh!' sponsored by Bugaboo, and we did!!! Once again, here at Quirky Head Quarters we had a hard time choosing the first and the top three places because all your creations were fabulous and very funny! After counting all the votes from the Quirky Team, our lucky winner this time is....

~~~~Coops!!!~~~Well done! Fabulous card! Love the extra ripping detail on the backing papers. You have won 7 Digi's from Bugaboo Digital Stamps!!

Please contacted Cazzy via the email on the sidebar and she will sort out your winnings and arrange for you to be a Guest Designer for one of our future challenges!!
And now on to, our Runners up...

Deanne

Billie

Tracy

Please would you all take a banner from the side bar to place on your blog with a link back to us! AND contact Cazzy about becoming Guest Designers in future challenges! Which means of course, you'll have a lovely digi to work with for that challenge!
That's it for now...pop back later to see what I've chosen for the Next Quirky Challenge starting later today! Let's just say it's snow easy!

Spyder!

Have Fun - The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.

Challenge 14: Make us Laugh

Welcome to another Quirky Craft Challenge! It is my (Caro's) turn to set the challenge and as life is so busy at work I thought I could do with a good laugh, so the challenge is:

MAKE US LAUGH!

Basically you can make anything you like provided it has a funny picture and/or a funny sentiment. I can't wait to see what you come up with!

We are very lucky to have Bugaboo sponsoring us this week.

They are offering the lucky winner of the challenge 7 free digis from their extensive range; plenty in there to make you laugh.

Here are the design team examples using images supplied by Bugaboo:

Guest Designer Jackie from the Bugaboo blog DT

Jackie used Gus - Optional, which comes with a great sentiment, "Growing Old is Mandatory, Growing Up is Optional".

Lyn

I love Bugaboo and when I saw this one I just had to use it! This is Gus Tidbits New Truck printed out twice, once over the cloud backing papers (PinkPetticoat) and the stripy paper, (looks like two separate pieces of paper doesn't it, but no, the clouds and the stripes are all one piece, with enough white card left to add the other Gus image next to it, so I could do a bit of 3D-ing! To finish off I added some Glossy Accents to Gus's glasses and edged the card with a black ProMarker and added some mock stitching using a fine black liner. Ribbon, brads and eyelets from my stash. The stripy papers are my own, made using Promarkers and can be found as freebies HERE.

I've also made this fridge magnet using Gus-tidbits-WTF
He's also been 3D-ed and coloured with Promakers. (Added 12July)

Diane

I love Bugaboo Stamps too, we have some lovely stamps to work with here on the team, but these are my personal favourites. I have used Stella and Gus Tidbits - Grumpy . as soon as I heard Caro's theme choice i knew we would have fun with this one. Some of the stamps at Bugaboo are so funny, I was giggling to myself when i was trying to choose what I would like to use. My Husband thought I had gone mad, laughing away to myself in my craft room....here is what i have made.

I chose the backing paper (Shery K Designs) because I thought it looked just like the sort of wallpaper an older couple might choose..( Sorry Mum!). I printed the image three times, coloured with promarkers and then decoupaged. The Pull Up Card was a template I made for my cutter some time ago. I think the card may be a little plain, but I had no room left for anything else! I hope you like it, and if you want a laugh, check out bugaboo stamps, they have lots of different images to choose from, all of them great!

Caro

I am relatively new to Bugaboo, but have to say I love the range. When I saw this Stella Work -never hurt stamp I just had to use it, as I often feel that! I decided to make a wall plaque to put up at work and brighten the office. I used cardboard from packaging as the background and coloured it with fired brick distress ink. The image was coloured with promarkers and edged with distress ink. Background papers are from K&Co and Basic Gray, the flowers are Prima and the ribbon and lace were from my stash.

Cazzy (sneaking in very late)

Sorry this is late, have had all sorts of problems in the past two weeks. I used Ruby Work for Chocolate, an image after my own heart, if only I was that thin!
Now it's your turn to make us laugh - we can't wait to see what you make.
Please add a link to your blog post (not your blog) using the biggest blue froggy at the top of the collection, the other one (at the bottom) doesn't do anything that we can tell, and please comment after you have linked.Don't forget to mention Quirky and add a link back to here (please read the rules and if you realised you haven't followed the rules and won't be included in the top three, and you want your entry removed to try again - please email us using the link in the side bar).
Have Fun - The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.

Winners: Challenge 13: Handmade Flowers & Ribbons

What a gorgeous selection of entries we had for Diane's handmade flowers challenge.  It was very hard for us to pick our favourites, but we managed it in the end!  We were lucky enough to have two sponsors this time round so two of you will be winning prizes.

The winner of the gorgeous teddy bear ribbons from Crafty Ribbons is: Laura. Well done Laura.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

We all loved the way you actually used the ribbon element of the challenge to create the flower element of the challenge.

The winner of 6 digi images from Paper pretties is: LalkyGirl. Congratulations.

and the third and final place goes to: Natali, Maria and Kali, who all came joint third with our voting system. We would like to offer all three of you a spot as a Guest Designer.




Congratulations to all of you, please email Cazzy via the email link on the side for prize details, and let us know if you can join us for Guest Design Team Member spots. Please also help yourselves to the winners badge.

Come back later today for the launch of the next challenge.
Have Fun - The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.

Challenge 13 - Hand made flowers and ribbons

Welcome back to a new challenge. My turn (Diane). This time I have gone for Hand Made Flowers with Ribbons. So I think that is probably self explanatory really.

I am looking for your entries to include Hand Made Flowers ( from punches, die cuts etc) with ribbons. Bought flowers and blooms are not allowed on your project, and if you use them you won't be included in the top three.

You can make anything you like from a card to a scrapbook page and anything else in between. Lots of scope there for you to have fun.

We are very lucky to have two sponsors this time:

Crafty Ribbons:

who are giving our first place winner (chosen by our DT) this lovely prize of the latest Bev's Bag (available from the shop soon) of teddy bear ribbons.

and Paper Pretties

who are giving the second place winner 6 digi images of their choice.

Here are the Design Team Examples using images supplied by Paper Pretties:-

Guest Designers:

Suzie McFloozy

Suzie used Fan-tastic Sophie and made a wonderful flower to match the designer printed paper on this stunning card.

Margreet

Margreet used "1960" on her lovely vintage altered note book, and said: The flowers are die cut with a Doohickey die (Magnolia), as are the leaves, the roses on top are bought ones. We let Margreet off as she is our guest and we are happy to have this gorgeous make, but challenge entries must not include bought flowers or they will not be counted in the top three.

and the regular Design Team:

Cazzy

I used the "Flourette" image and one of the accompanying sentiments from our sponsor, this is so cute with the kitty stuck in the vase! I made my flowers with Nellie Snellen punches and embossers and added K & Co gems, and a little glitter glue. Image coloured with Promarkers. The dark card is actually plum not brown and matches the ribbon, all ribbons from Bev's Vintage Bag from Crafty Ribbons.

Caro

I have used "1960" from our sponsor to make this vintage tag. I used distress inks round the edge, coloured the image with promarkers and then attached a large number of small flowers punched out of basic grey paper. I also made my own rose-like flower from 5 punched flowers, coloured with distress ink, sprized with water, scrunched up and pinned together with a brad. I finished the tag off with pearls on the jacket and hat, and the ribbon attached witha brad.

Lyn

I used Butterfly Blossoms from our sponsor, which I printed out twice so I could do a bit of 3D-ing. I made my flowers using Woodware punches and coloured with a crimson promarker to match the colour used on the card, then added Stickles Glitter. Paper by Dovecraft

Diane

I have used the Blossoms and Butterfly digital image from Paper Pretties for my example. The colour scheme came from the sunflower images, of course. I coloured the image using promarkers and made flowers from copy paper using various punches and dies. The lace was a Martha Stewart Punch and the backing paper on from Sherry K designs.


Please add a link to your blog post (not your blog) using the biggest blue froggy at the top of the collection, the other one (at the bottom) doesn't do anything that we can tell, and please comment after you have linked.Don't forget to mention Quirky and add a link back to here (please read the rules and if you realised you haven't followed the rules and won't be included in the top three, and you want your entry removed to try again - please email us using the link in the side bar).

Have Fun - The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.

Challenge 12 Winners

The challenge was Up Up and Away (or The Sky's the Limit), so we were looking for something you would see in the sky, balloons, kites, birds, planes, clouds, rain, rainbow, umbrellas, etc, well there were lots of entries, this one got your imaginations running overtime and it was lovely to see so many entries, however we have to choose our top three and here they are.

Our generous sponsor this time round was the Cutting Cafe . Our first place winner who will receive 3 sets of digital images from The Cutting Cafe is  Gro Tjeltveit Well done Gro.

                                                           
Our second place goes too Allisa.

                                                           

Our third and final winner is Jo L
                                                          

Congratulations to all of you, please email Cazzy via the email link on the side for prize details, and let us know if you can join us for Guest Design Team Member spots. Please also help yourselves to the winners badge.

Come back later today for the launch of the next challenge.

The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.