Welcome to Quirky Crafts Challenges

Welcome to Quirky Crafts Challenges the place where any craft project is allowed.

We're a small design team with big inspiration.

On the first Sunday of the month, at 6pm UK time, we will set a new challenge which will close on the 28th of that month at midday. The DT will pick their top three favourites and you could win a prize and join us as a Guest Designer. Winners are posted on the first Sunday in the month (midday usually) before the new challenge - don't forget to come and check if you are a winner.
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Sunday, 29 July 2012

Challenge 16 2012 - Quirky Cupcakes

The last challenge was very popular and we had a lot of really good entries, if you want to check who won scroll down to the post below this one!

It is my turn to choose the theme and your challenge this time is to make something that includes Quirky Cupcake image or images, should be fun!

As long as there is a cupcake image on your Quirky make the quirkiness can be other elements or images, but I must see cupcakes somewhere!

We are lucky to have two sponsors for this challenge and they are:


Limited Runs are giving away 3 images of your choice.




Paper Pretties are giving away 6 images of your choice.

Important: Please note, we have had to introduce a limit of 3 entries per person per challenge, the team doesn't have the time to look at masses of entries from the same person and comment on them then choose favourites . If more than 3 entries are added by the same person we will delete the additional images. We do not use random generator, we judge and score our favourites each challenge!

Both sponsors have provided some very Quirky Cupcake images for the team to use, and here are some examples (and what a lot we have got) using those images to inspire you.

In the usual Quirky tradition, Guest Designers are first:



Maria specialises in vintage makes and this Rosey Cupcake from Limited Runs work perfectly on this Quirky stunning vintage card and there are lots more vintage beauties to be found on her blog.



Purely by quirky coincidence Billie is on the DT at Paper Pretties, and has done a great job with both Poodilicious and So Sweet images (and birthday sentiment) used together for a quirky birthday card.


Billie also used Swordfish Cupcake for this humourous belated birthday card, do you get it? Billie has a great sense of humour (English spelling), as you will see if you hop on over to her blog.
Billie also used Swordfish cupcake from Limited Runs and a very quirky sentiment, Billie has a very quirky sense of humour and more like this can be found on her blog!


Coops (our winner last time) used ConBEARsation Hearts from Paper Pretties, and created a Quirky patriotic card, just look at those Union Jack flag hearts in the background, and red white and blue used throughout.


Deanne used Cherry on Top from Paper Pretties and added some very quirky icing to her funky birthday card.


Deanne also used Trees on a Cupcake from Limited Runs and very quirky colours and sentiment.



Then we have the Quirky Regular Team:

I loved the look of "Rosey" cupcake so I chose that one to work with. It made me think of Afternoon tea somewhere very very posh! (not that I ever have afternoon tea anywhere remotely posh).So a nice posh teacup was what I needed. I adapted a cut file from Birds Cards to use as the main card base. This is now a top fold card. The rose design is stencilled into the teacup layer, with extra pieces decoupaged. The lovely rosey cupcake was coloured with promarkers and the 'skirt' part of the wrapper decoupaged also, as were the rose and leaves on top. Just right for a Posh Afternoon Tea.

I used the 'Trees on a cupcake' from Limited Runs to make this Christmas card. I printed the image out and embossed the card using my cuttlebug, then coloured the image with promarkers, gold pen (stars and the band) and finished it off with pearlescent glue for the icing. To complete the look I layered the image onto green card and added gems and a sentiment.

Cazzy


On this card I used Swordfish Cupake from Limited Runs, there are so many great cupcakes it is hard to choose! I coloured it with Promakers and added Ice Stickles and Artists Irridescent Medium to give it sparkle. I die cut a doily with a Spellbinders die, and I used some paper free with a magazine for the tablecloth. I added some polkadot ribbon by Crafty Ribbons and a stamped sentiment.


My second card is made with two Paper Pretty images, Party Hat Cupcake and Sprinkles. Sprinkles is not a cupcake clearly but there are cupcakes on my card so it is allowed and he is pretty quirky! Free papers again, Perfect Pearls, Ice Stickles and Promakers used, and cupcake ribbon from Crafty Ribbons.



I chose to use this Ladybug Swirl cup cake from Limited Runs. My link leads to loads of cup cakes! I think I put on 12lbs just looking at them!! (I shoulda picked the spider one!) I've done a tiny bit of 3D-ing. I've used, freebie gingham papers, which I'll link on my blog, plus Nesties, Punches, Promarkes, Gems, Glitter, Paper flowers, a large ladybird brad, Buttons, ribbon, computer generated sentiment, two wooden ladybirds and lace!


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.
Email entries from non bloggers:

Winners of Challenge 15 - Christmas in July

This was a very popular challenge, and as a result was it was very difficult to pick from so many lovely entries, so you all seem to be well prepared for Christmas!

Of course we can only pick one entry from each person to be included!

After much tearing of hair, and lists of 70 favourites each which had to be reduced down to 6, and we all picked a different top 6 of course with so many gorgeous entries to choose from,  then the scores had to be aggregated to find who scored the most points and became our top choices and here they are:

First place: Lena Katrine with this gorgeous card:



Congratulations Lena, you have won the digi images from Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps, please email Cazzy using the link in the right hand sidebar to claim your prize, help yourself to a winner's badge and let us know if you would like to be Guest Designer in a couple of weeks time or later.

We have joint second place favourites who are:

Frea with this lovely quirky rabbit  grunge style card:


and Carissa with her very pink Christmas card.

and joint 4th place favourites who are Jeanette and Helen:

Jeanette made this very creative and unusual Christmas tree from old book pages.

and Helen made a more traditional card with a snowy scene.



Congratulations Frea, Carissa, Helen and Janette please email Cazzy using the link in the right hand sidebar to claim your prize, help yourself to a winner's badge and let us know if you would like to be Guest Designer in a couple of weeks time or later.


Finally we would like to give a special shout out to 6 year old Annabella who made this card:


Very talented for 6 year old!

and Kevin who was I think our first man to enter a Quirky challenge! We hope to see many more from Kevin and other fellas too.



Thank you all so much for sharing your wonderful creations with us, we wish we could have picked them all!

 Please come back later today for our next exciting challenge!

Have Fun - The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.

Sunday, 15 July 2012

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 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 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)
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...


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.

Sunday, 1 July 2012

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".

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!


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.