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Monday 28 March 2016

Cazzy Hookin' time: Happy Easter little ones!

Cazzy Hookin' time: Happy Easter little ones!: Easter pressies for my grandchildren. The carrot pouches are from a free pattern on Amigurumi to go . She also has a bunny pattern to fi...

Tuesday 22 March 2016

Cazzy Hookin' time: Birthday infinity scarves.

Cazzy Hookin' time: Birthday infinity scarves.: For a week I dropped the Persian Tiles blanket and instead I made birthday scarves (one each) for my brother and father.  Here the den...

Monday 21 March 2016

Happy Birthday Dad.

Dad's birthday is tomorrow, but he won't see this (because he is a technophobe) and spoil the surprise!
Remember the grumpy penguins card? Well this is the other half of the background I made for that one on watercolour paper. I stamped the Katlekraft water drops with Versamark then heat embossed with white embossing powder before spritzing the paper with water and sprinkling on Brushos.
These birds are also a Katzelkraft set which I bought from That's Crafty, I must be bird crazy because I have the Tim Holtz ones too - but these are half the price! I don't think there are dies for the stamps, so I fussy cut them.
Happy Birthday is a Hero Arts stamp and Dad is a Papermania stamp, both from clear sets and stamped in Indigo Versacolor ink and heat embossed with clear powder.
I got my Faber Castel Gelatos out, first time using them and the set I have is brights. I blended blue and yellow to make green mainly because I started with blue and realised the birds didn't show against the background so I added yellow and blended it (using my fingers and a sponge) - which is the beauty of Gelatos. I found it hard to use round the detailed areas, and the left hand bird ended up with a green eyeball which I went over with my Sharpie Paperwhite pen. I guess I should have masked the eyeballs in hindsight. 
I hope Dad likes it!

Challenges entered:
Brown Sugar - Spring (well we have had a lot of rain) (Fri)
Craft Stamper - March take it make it, stamps (Wed)
Crafting from the Heart - #104 anything goes (Mon)
Love to Scrap - #74 anything goes (Mon)
Creative Fingers - #105 anything goes (Fri)
Glitter and Sparkle - anything goes (Sun)
Delicious Doodles - Show us some green (March)
Happy Little Stampers - Mixed media challenge theme water (March)
Graph'it Markers - Spring Delights wk9 (1st April)
Love to Create - #6 anything mixed media (10th April)


Sunday 20 March 2016

Quirky reminder, yee haw!


Amazingly I am here on time for the reminder post for the Quirky Crafts challenge! The challenge is masculine and must use ribbon or twine. I used both on my card.
We have three wonderful sponsors, Bugaboo, Crafty Ribbons and SLS Lines.
The digi is from Bugaboo and is called Wee Ones Cowboy - Horseshoe, which is very cute and easy to colour too. There are lots more cowboy digis to choose from.  I coloured him with Promarkers and die cut him with Spellbinders dies, using the "outside the frame" technique because the perfect size die for height was a little narrow, so the horseshoe is slightly outside the frame. The papers are from a DCWV stack called All About Boys, the horse silhouette ribbon is exclusive to Crafty Ribbons. It comes in several colours and with different animals - even dinosaurs! 
The twine is Tim Holtz paper ribbon, and the horseshoe charm tied on to it is a random odd one I had.
I rounded the corners of the card and biggest paper layer.

If you want to see more examples, play along with us - or join the DT, hop on over to Quirky Crafts now.

Challenges entered:
Crafting from the Heart - #103 anything goes
Passion for Promarkers - for a child (Tues)
I love Promarkers - Men at Work (Wed)
Inspiration Destination - #77 anything goes (Wed)
LMMS challenges - #133 anything goes (Thurs)
Simply Papercrafts - #25 anything goes (Fri)
Catch the Bug - Bingo (Sat) 3 layers, die cut and sentiment.
The Ribbon Girl - use a digi (Sat)
Glitter and Sparkle - #180 anything goes (Sun)
Coffee Chocolate and Cards - Use ribbon (Fri 18th April)
Creative Fingers - #105 anything goes


Friday 11 March 2016

NBUS #6 Quickly sneaking in!


With only hours to go I wondered how (with my lack of mojo) I could enter the NBUS challenge at Darlene's place. Then I remembered this NBUS that I had made a start on but not completed - voila!
I fell in love with the (NBUS) Katzelkraft Grumpy Penguins rubber stamps that are stocked by That's Crafty and while I was there the water drops set and some crazy birds also fell into my basket, well you have to get the free postage don't you?
The background is a technique I tried from Craft Stamper magazine, you stamp onto watercolour paper with Versamark and heat emboss it with white EP. Then you get messy by spritzing the paper with water then sprinkling on tiny buts of Brushos, letting some run and flicking water on it when it's dry - isn't it lovely?
The penguins were also stamped on watercolour paper in black Versacolor ink and heat embossed with clear powder, then I coloured them a little with Pan Pastels cut them out and mounted them on the background. How unusual, a totally hand stamped card!
The penguins are grumpy about the rain, they are all wet!
Happy Birthday is from a Hero Arts clear set, and Brother is from a Papermania clear set of stamps, both stamped in Indigo Versacolor and heat embossed with clear EP.

There are so many things I wanted to do but haven't got there yet. At least I made it for this one!

So that's my Brother's birthday card sorted for this month! Need one for Dad now.

Challenges entered:
NBUS #6 - Sunday 13th March
Tuesday Throwdown - create a scene.
Love to create - #6 anything mixed media (27th March)
Craft Stamper - Take it Make it for March, anything goes with a stamp.


Sunday 6 March 2016

It's Quirky March!

First I must apologise for February, especially to Regina Easter of The Cutting Cafe for not posting anything at all! I really should have done what Lyn does, and posted "one I made earlier" in true Blue Peter fashion. I will try and make it up to her as soon as I can get into the cutting machine mood again.

February was a bit of a nightmare, and ended up written off for me crafting wise. If you read my last crochet blog post you will know that we went to Torquay for a much needed break which turned into a complete nightmare when my hubby ended up in the hospital for two nights, then our son came down by train to drive us back one day early - so much for a holiday. Flaming cancer, has to ruin everything it can!

Some of you will also know that I am sometimes struggling to do any papercrafting, when I tried I just ended up with tears streaming down my face.

As well as all of that to deal with we had two team members leave us, and a couple more go down with injury or sickness, and Stitchy Bear (who were the first digi sponsors to offer to sponsor us and have sponsored us for many years) announced they were ceasing all sponsorships and down sizing. So I have had to create all the posts for Jan because it was my challenge, and most of the posts for Feb, and I had to do March also! I have also been approaching new sponsors to cover the spaces left by Stitchy, and getting one new team member set up. Kelly Patricia agreed to join us, was all ready to join in with March - then dislocated her wrist! With Lynne leaving due to hand problems, Nana Connie out of action with a broken hand and now a dislocated wrist I am wondering if Quirky has been cursed! Probably by an evil dwarf axe warrior!

Which brings me on to the challenge....

...because yesterday was the first Sunday in March, and so it was the start of a new monthly challenge at Quirky Crafts. We have 3 great sponsors including one new one, Crafty Ribbons, Bugaboo and  a brand new to Quirky sponsor - SLS Lines.


My card today features the Dwarf Axe Warrior from SLS Lines, I just love his facial hair! The challenge is Masculine with ribbon or twine, and my ribbon is some silver and gold ribbon from Crafty Ribbons which was in one of their £1 bargain bags which are amazingly good value. I thought it went quite well.... but until I looked for the link to the digi I had forgotten he was a Dwarf Axe Warrior and was labouring under the delusion that he was a Viking warrior and was thinking of Viking gold and metals, good job I didn't find backing paper with long ships on it which had crossed my mind! I wondered as I coloured him with Promarkers and metallic gel pen, why a Viking would have Doc Martin boots, they are way to modern for a Viking!
I know he isn't a Viking, but I thought of the film Lord of the Rings and the Viking in that when I was making this.
The papers I used were all from two pads by Kanban and they are called Mechanica and Industria which I searched for endlessly until someone who was decluttering said she had unused pads if I wanted them - did I want them!

I added some brads, slightly different shades of brads, to the corners of the "wood" panel, and all the panels were die cut with Spellbinders create a card 5" x 7" set.

I haven't decided who will get this card so I've left the sentiment off for now, might be Father's day, or a birthday or just a Stay Strong card for Hubby.

I will make a Bugaboo example next, and hope to show you that later on depending how the day pans out.

If you would like to see some more examples and maybe play along with the challenge just hop on over to Quirky Crafts now, and if you feel you are a Quirky kind of person - we are still looking for at least one more!

Challenges entered:
Crafty Gals - All about the boys (Wed 9th March)
Inspiration Destination - #75 anything goes (Wed)
Crafting from the Heart - anything goes #102 (Mon 14th)
Crafting by Designs - anything goes (March)
Crafts Galore - anything goes (March)
Creative Fingers - #104 anything goes
SLS Lines - #17inspired by a book or song  (March)