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 May 2016

May Flowers winners

Wow, such a lot of great entries for our last challenge for a few months. It made it hard to choose our top three as we all liked a different top six!

This is a sad moment for me because it is the first time Quirky has had to take an extended break. Hopefully we can start up again later this year. We have one person interested in joining our team, but we need more for later in the year. If you are interested please get in touch.

We finally managed to choose, and here are our winners:

In first place we chose Lozzy and her pretty pocket letter.
Congratulations Lozzy, you have won the 
$15 Ike's Art Voucher!

In second place we chose Lena's beautiful wedding album.
Congratulations Lena, you have won
 4 digis of your choice from Delicious Doodles!

In third place we chose Katrina's beautiful flowers and butterfly card.
Congratulations Katrina, you have won
3 digis of your choice from Bloobel Stamps!
Please contact me so that I can arrange for you to receive your prize, if you want to let me know which images you would like I can pass it on to save time. I will make your winner's badges.
Normally I would invite you to be guest designers, but as we are putting challenges on hold for now I can't say when we will be back - but you are welcome to be guest designers if and when we do come back!


Have Fun - The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.

Sunday, 15 May 2016

May 2016 Midway Reminder - April Showers bring Quirky May flowers!

It's reminder time for our last challenge for a few months, and it's all about flowers, following our Quirky April furry showers!

This is a very popular challenge and you hardly need a reminder!

Also if you are interested in joining the DT later in the year when we hope to resume challenges, please contact me at any time during the next few months.

Our wonderful sponsors for this challenge are:




I just realised I forgot to tell you about the amazing prizes which are:
Ist prize Ike's Art $15 worth of digis of choice
, 2nd Prize Delicious Doodles 4 digis of choice,
 3rd prize Bloobel Stamps 3 digis of choice


Now for some inspiration from the team:

A truly beautiful card by Elena using Rosalie from Delicious Doodles. Superb colouring Elena!



I colored my image with Copics, then fussy-cut her and adhered her to my vivid purple paper.
I cut  my pattered paper to the same size as Lulu's Peekaboo circle and now it looks like
she's peeking out of a purple room.
Besides the tiny flowers on my patterned paper, I lined the rim of Lulu's window with jewelled flowers. staying with the flowers theme of this challenge, my sentiment inside reads:
"May your day bloom with wonderful surprises".

Peekaboo Lulu

I colored Daisies & Butterfly Frame from Delicious Doodles with Copics.
Using Photoshop, I used the image to frame a pic of my daughter,
using digital elements and papers to complete my layout.

Nana Connie is unwell and will join us in a few days.

Cazzy
Sorry I'm late! Here is my first card using a gorgeous image from Ike's Art called Greek Window. I have never been to Greece, and would love to visit one day! I googled Greek houses to try and get the colours right.
I will be back with a Bloobel Stamps card next.

Marg

This is my take on Flower Square by Ike's Art
coloured using Sakura Gelly Roll glitter pens,
mounted onto raspberry card, black card, matt gold paper,
added lace and a 6x6 white linen effect card base.
Glitzy Babe sentiment was an afterthought.


Have Fun - The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.

IMPORTANT! Before you link you must:
Add a link to http://quirkycrafts.blogspot.co.uk  to your entry post, if you do not do this you will have to go back and do it, it is quicker to do it first. 

If you don't have a blog and your link is not accepted look at this: http://blog.inlinkz.com/2013/12/uploading-linkup-links-even-when-the-remote-host-does-not-allow-viewing-the-images/

Linking will allow you to continue, and will record your entry, (if you don't add the Quirky crafts link as above your entry goes into the moderation queue and will not be approved until you add that link - if we have time to check)!

Then press the button and link to your project post. 

Please leave us a comment after you have linked your creation.

If you followed the Quirky Rules you will be considered for the the top three, you could win a prize and be guest designer too  - good luck from the team. Please come back and check if you won within 14 days of the challenge close.


The collection has closed. Let other people know about it through twitter.

Sunday, 1 May 2016

May 2016 Challenge #5 April Showers bring Quirky May Flowers

Hi everyone, Cazzy here and I am very excited about this challenge because we have three brand new sponsors to Quirky (although we have used digis by two of them before from Stitchy who are no longer sponsoring challenges).

Last month we had showers of furry friends (and here in the UK we also had showers of rain, sleet, hailstones, mini snowballs and snow), and April Showers result in May Flowers - I want to see flowers on your project, either as part of an image stamped or printed, or as part of the design, or even the paper you use! Easy Peasy then!

Due to unfortunate personal circumstances Quirky will be taking a long break from challenges and this will be the last challenge for a few months.

We are saying goodbye and thank you to the wonderful Nana Connie this month too, taking the team down to just three active members. We wish Nana Connie all the best for the future.

We hope to resume challenges later this year, but we will only be able to do that if we get some applicants for the DT. It would be very sad to see Quirky disappear forever now wouldn't it? So if you want us to keep going please apply to join us ready for a come back later in the year.

Anyway now on to the challenge:

Our wonderful new sponsors for this challenge are:





The team have been generously supplied with digs from all three sponsors to use in this post, and the midway reminder, and here is some inspiration for you:

First our Guest Designers:

Elena used the very quirky Venus Van Trap digi from Bloobel Stamps, and added lots of blooms to her gorgeous card. Elena said: Hello I am Elena F and I´m from The Basque Country, I´m almost 42; mother of 3 children between 11 years and 21 months.  That means I do not have much spare time but the little I have I use in making crafts, especially coloring and scrap but I also sew, knit and crochet....when I can.....but I´m lucky and I´ve got a break in my job currently.

Maya used the beautiful Rosalee digi from Delicious Doodles. She added extra roses to make it special.


Now the Design Team:

                                            Pat

I created a 100% digital card using an image from Ike's Art called Windmill.


using Bloobel Stamps "Thank You for the Flowers"


Colored with ProMarkers, then cut and embossed with a die from Spellbinders.
I added white satin ribbon and decorated it with a few scrap bits
from another die cut.
The butterfly is colored and glittered
and the bow is twine.



I have Love in a Mist in my garden where it grows and seeds like crazy every year and I do love the blue flowers and alien looking seed pods, so I was happy to find this digi from Delicious Doodles. I coloured it with Chameleon pens this time and found the perfect blue cardstock and decided to keep it simple.

using Floral Watering Can by Delicious Doodles


I used alcoholic marker pens from Harmony. The ladybug ribbon is 
exclusive to Crafty Ribbons. I decided to slightly cut the picture
down to fit into the dies I wanted to use. I had, though, already
got the toppers already die cut (luckily in the colours I wanted too).
The lace was an afterthought so I "tucked" it under the outer edge
of the bottom scalloped edge squared die cut.  
I have 2 more cards to add which should be added tomorrow

To see who won the last challenge see the previous post below this one.

Have Fun - The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.

April 2016 Winners - Quirky raining cats and dogs.

That was a fun challenge, thanks Marg. I think you all like cats or dogs or both! I haven't worked out if we have more cats than dogs yet, have you?

Our sponsors for this challenge are the wonderful Crackerbox Palace who provided some cute digis to the team to show you.
 Crackerbox Palace Website
All of your entries were wonderful, and the team had a tough time deciding on the top three. We made a decision and here are our winners:

In first place we have Jane Willis with a lovely kitty card.

Congratulations Jane, you have won three digis of your choice from Crackerbox Palace.

In second place we have Donna Mundinger, again with a kitty card! 

Congratulations Donna, you have won two digis of your choice from Crackerbox Palace!

In third place we have Scrap & C with a very cute puppy card.


Congratulations Scrap & C, you have one one digi of your choice from Crackerbox Palace!

Please contact me with your choice of digis (all stamps are available as digis from Crackerbox Palace) and I will pass your choices on and send you a personalised badge.

I would like to give a special mention to 8 year old Ellie who made a lovely kitty card.

I will send you a special badge Ellie.


So it looks like the kitty cats won over the puppies this time, poor puppies!

Thank you to everyone who entered, and don't forget to check back later today to find out about our new challenge!

Have Fun - The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.

Sunday, 17 April 2016

April 2016 Midway Reminder: It's Raining Quirky Cats and Dogs.

It's reminder time, and our challenge this month is It's Raining Quirky Cats and Dogs, and Marg wants to see a cat or dog or both on your projects.

Don't forget also we need more Quirky team mates, if you are interested - even if you have no experience of doing this - please contact Cazzy in the usual way.



All of their fantastic images are available in digital form or real rubber stamps, mounted or unmounted or just on cling rubber. The cling rubber version has the image on the back so you can see what you are stamping!

 Crackerbox Palace Website

The prizes are:
For our first place winner - 3 digis of your choice.
For our second place winner - 2 digis of your choice.
for our third place winner - 1 digi of your choice.


Now for some more inspiration, using images from our sponsor, from the team:

using "Cat and Dog"

  Image is colored with ProMarkers, then die cut.  The two mats are lightly embossed with a "Linen" folder.  I used three ribbons from my stash for embellishment, two of them to tie the double-color bow.  Paper is a left over scrap of  12" x 12" scrapbooking paper.

Using Hang on Cat from Crackerbox Palace

I love the Kitty Cat birthday sentiment and I hope my Mum will too, she has a Siamese cat but used to have a blue grey Persian - both rescues.
There is a lot of detail in the Cat on a Window image, lots of depth as a result. The red polka-dot ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons, fish bones charm from stash.

Using Dog Sidney and Dog-gone Special on my second card.

I love this cute puppy dog image in his too big collar! I kept it simple and masculine, and added some  of my favourite ribbon by Crafty Ribbons. 

I hope to add a third card later.

Marg
will be along later.
I made this card not only for the reminder post but also for my stepsons birthday later this month. I found all of the items used in my own craft stash so unfortunately I cant tell you where I brought anything.  I decided to place "Hang On Cat" on to cream hammered embossed card so it looked like the cat was trying to hang on to the wallpaper but instead hes making scratches in it. I then wrote "Hang on there" down the left hand side of the image, on the paw print cardstock in a black pen. 



Have Fun - The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.

Sunday, 3 April 2016

April 2016 Quirky Raining Cats and Dogs Challenge - DT Call still on.


Welcome back to another challenge at Quirky Crafts. Thank you to all that entered in our last challenge, they were all fabulous. Let's see if we can get more entries than March. Don't forget that you can enter up to 3 times, but it must still follow the theme and be a new make this month.

The new challenge, for April, I hope, will be as popular and it's chosen by me, Marg, DT member.

The theme is: Quirky Raining Cats and Dogs, and I would like to see any hand made project which has dogs, cats or both on it. In other words you can interpret the theme however you want as long as it has a cat or dog or both on it, stamped, digi, drawn, painted, sewn knitted or crocheted!

Our fabulous sponsor this month is the wonderful:

All of their fantastic images are available in digital form or real rubber stamps, mounted or unmounted or just on cling rubber. The cling rubber version has the image on the back so you can see what you are stamping!

 Crackerbox Palace Website

The prizes are:
For our first place winner - 3 digis of your choice.
For our second place winner - 2 digis of your choice.
for our third place winner - 1 digi of your choice.

Cazzy said we don't have any guests this month, and none of last months (Feb) winners have contacted her to collect their badges or prizes. In fact some of January winners haven't contacted her to collect their prizes! Surprised? We are, who doesn't want to collect the great prizes we have?

So here is some inspiration from the team:



This is very CAS.  I printed the image twice; once directly onto the kraft card front along with the sentiment and a second time onto white paper.  I fussy cut the white image and layered it onto the card front right over the image printed there.   I also colored the white areas with a gel pen and chalk.  The lace and bow were added and it was complete.  :-D


I created my card using "Peeking Cat" from Crackerbox Palace,
embellishing with ribbon, crocheted flower and jeweled flourishes.
Don't you love my made up sentiment?!


I made an easel card with Crackerbox Palace's "Spot the Dog".
Above is the card closed,
and below is the card open with my punchline.





using Cat and Dog


I have made this card in the shape of an easel card, which does fold
down flat for posting. I decided not to colour the digi in as I thought
it looked really nice in black & white. As I wanted to use orange with
the cream card.  the splash of blue ribbon has silver paw prints
printed on it. The finishing touch was the sentiment, Ruff Day from
Crackerbox Palace as they have a good selection to match.

Cazzy 
using Peeking Cat
This is a card from 2013, which is cheating a little but I am really unwell and have been in bed all week with a nasty virus so I hope I am forgiven. I have also had the folder with my blog photos get corrupted, hope the hard drive isn't about to pack up, and I had to search my blog to find this photo! I will make something new for the reminder, at least one thing!
I have the rubber stamp of Peeking cat which is what I used to make this card, I wanted the cat to be peeking out of a present, so I tried to make it look like that with the ribbons.

Sadly Kelly Patricia is unable to join us this month as planned, she has had to give up crafting for health reasons. We wish her all the best for the future.

So we are still looking for some Quirky team mates - if you are interested in joining us for just one challenge, more than one challenge or permanently please contact Cazzy for details.



To see who won the last challenge see the previous post below this one. {add link to winner's post on the word previous post} Any crafty project is acceptable as usual. Important: BEFORE you link up please add a link to the Quirky Crafts Challenges blog (http://quirkycrafts.blogspot.com - the blog not this post) to your post - or you will not be able to enter. When you have done this you can go ahead and add a link to your blog post or your online photo gallery, SCS etc. using the button or link below. If you do not have a blog (or inlinkz will not accept your non blog link) you can email your entry to us via the sidebar link. Good luck!

Have Fun - The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.



March 2016 Challenge winners: Quirky Masculine with ribbon or twine DT call

Hi everyone, WOW - the quality of entries was outstanding for our Quirky Masculine challenge with ribbon. That makes it hard to decide on just three winners because the team clearly love them all!

We do have a top three, just wish we could give you all a prize!

If any of you would like to join our team either short term or long term please contact me and I can tell you what will be involved. Lets keep Quirky crafting!

So without further ado here are our top three for the March challenge:


In first place and sponsored by the wonderful Crafty Ribbons is:

With her adorable Mr Chick card for Easter. This is a lovely card with a lot of detail.



Congratulations Jan, you have won a £10 gift voucher to spend at Crafty Ribbons, where they sell ribbons - many exclusive - buttons and more!
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In Second place and sponsored by our lovely amazing Bugaboo is:
With this gorgeous golden Tim Holtz style tag.

Congratulations Maya, you have won 7 digis of your choice from Bugaboo. You know we love Bugaboo digis - I hope you will enjoy your prize!


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In third place and sponsored by the gorgeous SLS Lines we have:


Congratulations Elena, you have won 3 digi images of your choice from SLS Lines. This is our first challenge sponsored by SLS Lines and we have enjoyed using their images immensely. 
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Please can all three of you contact me by email, or the contact form if email doesn't work - both in the sidebar. I will send your customised winner's badge and arrange for you to receive your prizes.
We would love all of you to be Quirky Guest Designers in our May challenge, it is going to be very exciting - with three new sponsors - so please let me know if you can!

Thank you to everyone who entered, and a big thank you to our sponsors. Don't forget to check back later today to find out about our new challenge!

Have Fun - The Quirky Crafts Challenge Design Team.