Stencil Fun IG Hop - Sept 26

Hello again friends; I am back to share my card for the Stencil Fun IG Hop organised by my lovely friend Jane. We a group of crafters who are determined to use their forgotten and neglected stencils. I'm definitely guilty of this; I have so many stencils but usually forget to reach for them so this hop is perfect for me. The theme is always anything goes but we will have an optional theme to use if we want to. This month's optional theme is 'butterflies', which I'm sure will be very popular, as most people like butterflies don't they?  I'm sure there will be lots of fantastic and colourful creations, and I'm excited to see what everyone has made.

I used an older ink & flip stencil from Uniko called 'geometric butterfly' which I actually forgot I had. It has two layers but I didn't use the background layer just the butterfly one.  I paired it with an old embossing folder and a stitched frame die and I think it turned out really pretty.  I hope you like it too. 

Here is my card:

A closer look at the beautiful butterfly:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by stencilling the butterfly onto some scrap white card using light blue and light green ink pads.  The great thing about these ink and flip stencils is that there is only one layer and you literally flip it over to do the other part of the design.  I decided to fussy cut the butterfly so that I could add some dimension behind it with foam squares.  I cut a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and embossed it using a very old script folder.  I die cut a stitched frame from white card, as well as 2 more from 300gsm card, so that I could layer them up using liquid glue.  I added some blue and green spatter to the embossed background (it's quite subtle so a little hard to see in the photo) and then adhered the frame onto the panel with liquid glue.  I added the butterfly with foam squares in the upper part of the frame; I only added the foam squares behind the body of the butterfly so that the wings could be raised up.  I stamped the sentiment using the light blue ink pad and cut it out with a sentiment strips die.  I added the sentiment below the butterfly with foam squares.  I finished off with some blue and green sequins.  The panel was adhered to my card base using double sided tape.  For the inside I cut another white panel and partially stencilled the butterfly along the bottom.  I partially embossed the script folder just over the butterfly and I think it looks really effective.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre with blue ink and added the panel onto my card base with double sided tape.  

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

* to be updated *

We hope you will be inspired by our Stencil Fun Instagram Hop and will pop over and check out all the gorgeous cards along the way. If you would like to join us please visit my Instagram page or use the hashtag #stencilfunSeptt2026 and we will find you.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Lots of love, 

card supplies:

Uniko - Ink & Flip geometric butterfly layering stencil

Uniko - floral vines clear stamp (for sentiments)

Provo Craft - cuttlebug script embossing folder

Gina K Designs - master layouts 18 die set (for frame die)

Gina K Designs - large strip sentiments die set

Gina K Designs - ink pads - ocean mist and applemint

Limetree Craft - 280gsm silky smooth white card (not available but other options are here and here)

Limetree Craft - 300gsm smooth white card (for card base and extra frames)

sequins from Little Things by Lucy's Cards & Studio Katia - both sadly closed

I have Affiliate Links for the Gina K Designs store. If you are considering making a purchase I would appreciate you using my links as it will earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you x

CASE IT IG Hop - September 2026

Hello again friends. I hope you've had a great start to your weekend. I'm here to share this month's card for the CASE IT Instagram Hop where we find a project on Instagram that inspires us and we will share that project as well as the project we’ve created. There are so many beautiful creations on Instagram the only difficult part is narrowing down which one to CASE (which means Copy And Share Everything).

This month I was inspired by @buzsy and as soon as I saw this card I was in love and asked her if I could CASE it right away.  I loved the blended leaf focal image with the silhouette stamping and how she kept the background very CAS and elegant.  I decided to make a Christmas card but you can definitely see that my card was inspired by hers! Here is her card for my inspiration:

Isn't her card just perfect? Using Ardyth's LIMES process (you can watch her video here) we list what we see - she has used yellow, orange, brown and green as her main colours, a subtle embossed white background, a large leaf die cut and simple black on white sentiment all layered on a brown panel. So I used a bauble die instead of the leaf, and used a monochromatic blue colour combo.  I skipped the embossed background and but kept the spatters.  I also added two strip sentiments instead of one and added some silver pearls.  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a white panel 4" x 5 1/4' and added some spatter using my blue ink pads; I did decide to add a blue mat layer so trimmed my panel down slightly and layered them together with liquid glue.  I die cut the bauble from white card and the topper from silver mirror card.  I stamped the silhouette images onto the bauble using black ink, stamped the snowy background stamp in blue ink and used a few different blue ink pads plus a light grey ink pad to blend over the bauble.  I added the silver topper with liquid glue and added foam squares behind the bauble and added it onto the panel. I found some pre-printed Christmas sentiment sheets, die cut them with sentiment strips dies and added both with foam squares.  I added a white twine bow to the bauble topper and finished off with some silver pearls.  The panel was then adhered to my card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut another white panel and blue mat layer and adhered them together with liquid glue.  I stamped the silhouette images at the bottom and ink blended some blue ink over them.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre using black ink before adding the panel to my card base using double sided tape.  

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

* to be updated * 

We hope you will be inspired by our CASE IT Instagram Hop and will pop over and check out all the gorgeous cards along the way. If you would like to join us please visit my Instagram page or use the hashtag #caseithop and we will find you.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Lots of love

card supplies:

Gina K Designs - joyful ornament 3d embossing folder, stencil & die set (I only used the die)

Gina K Designs - holiday silhouettes stamp

Gina K Designs - snowy background stamp

Gina K Designs - ink pads - sea glass, blue sky, powder blue, blue raspberry, soft stone

Gina K Designs - sentiment strips die set

Gina K Designs - holiday greetings sentiment sheets

Gina K Designs - black, gold & silver metallic pearl mix

Limetree Craft - 280gsm silky smooth white card (not available but other options are here and here)

Limetree Craft - 300gsm smooth white card (for card base)

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

I have affiliate links for the Gina K Designs store. If you are considering making a purchase I would appreciate you using my links as it will earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

Thank you x

Just Us Girls challenge #840 - Word Week

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog. I am here to share my card for this week's Just Us Girls challenge and this week is Word Week and Ina has given us the theme of 'bold'. You could go with a bold sentiment or image or even bold colours.  I can't wait to see that you create so come and join in the fun with us.  Our guest this month is Julia Aston so please pop over and show her some love.

I choose to go with bold colours and a bold background stamp so hopefully covered all the bases this week.  I used a rainbow of colours and a fun Uniko stamp which I stamped in black.  I hope you like it. 

Here is my card:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and using my rainbow colours of ink pads blended my background.  I then used my Misti to stamp the birthday background stamp using black ink.  I also added some extra doodling using a white gelly roll pen, a yellow Posca pen and a gold metallic zig writer pen.  I added some scrap white card behind the panel and then adhered it to my card base using double sided tape.  For the inside I cut another white panel and blended the rainbow colours along the bottom (although I realised half way through that I started my rainbow from the wrong side oops!).  I stamped the present from the background and fussy cut it out and then blended over it with red and orange inks (using masking tape to try and keep the colours in the right place) and also added some white gelly roll pen dots.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink and then adhered the panel to my card base using double sided tape.  

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

* to be updated *

I can't wait to see all your bold creations this week and look forward to seeing your entries in the linky. Please pop over to the challenge blog and leave some love for the rest of the design team.

I appreciate you stopping by.

Love and hugs,

card supplies:

Uniko - block party birthday background stamp

Uniko - pure florals: cosmos clear stamp (for inside sentiment)

Limetree Craft - 280gsm silky smooth white card (not available but other options are here and here)

Limetree Craft - 300gsm smooth white card (for card base)

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

Gina K Designs - ink pads - red hot, tangerine twist, wild dandelion, lucky clover, blue raspberry, wild lilac

Sakura - white no. 10 gelly roll pen

Posca - yellow 0.7mm bullet marker

Zig - writer gold metallic pen (can only find it in a 6 colour pack)

I have Affiliate Links for the Gina K Designs store. If you are considering making a purchase I would appreciate you using my links as it will earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you x

Krafty Chicks challenge #837 - Christmas

Good morning lovely friends. I hope you're all doing ok and having a great week so far. It's time for a new challenge over at Krafty Chicks challenge and this week is Week 2, our theme is 'Christmas' and I am your hostess. We are in the 'ber months now so if you haven't already started your Christmas cards it's time to ramp up production.  We hope you will join us and build up your collection and take the pressure off in December.  So come on over and join in the fun with us.

I went fairly clean and simple this week and used a Penny Black wooden stamp that I got from a friend in her recent destash.  I found a tin of Arteza expert pencils (which I completely forgot I had) so thought I would try them out.  I think I need a little more practice but it turned out ok.  I hope you like it. 

Here is my card:

A closer look at the adorable image:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" from alcohol marker friendly card (although I will cut it down later) and stamped the image at the bottom using Memento ink.  I used the Arteza pencils and sansodor (similar to gamsol) to colour the image.  I did a test one first and I messed up the hedgie so the one on my card is my second try.  I die cut the panel using a stitched rectangle die and also die cut 2 more stitched rectangles in slightly increasing sizes to layer up.  I also die cut a red mat layer using a plain rectangle die and adhered all the layers together using liquid glue.  I stamped the sentiment onto white card using black ink and used a stitched label die to cut it out.  I also die cut a flag banner from red card and layered them together using liquid glue.  I added the sentiment label to the top left of my panel using liquid glue.  I added the panel to my card base using double sided tape.  I didn't add any embellishments as I liked the CAS design.  For the inside I die cut the largest stitched rectangle from white and the plain rectangle from red and adhered them together with liquid glue.  I salvaged the snowman from my test run and fussy cut him out before adding him to the bottom left corner with liquid glue.  I stamped the sentiment in the bottom right corner with black ink.  The panel was adhered to the card base using double sided tape.  

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

* to be updated *

I hope you will be able to join us for our 'Christmas' challenge and I cannot wait to see your creations in our linky. Please leave some love for my fellow chicks - Leanne, Diane and Lori. 

Thank you so much for stopping by; I appreciate your lovely comments.  I'll be back in a little while with my card for this week's Just Us Girls challenge. 

Love and hugs,

card supplies:

Penny Black - snowy & hedgy wood mounted stamp

Arteza- Expert 120 coloured pencils in tin

Winsor & Newton - sansodor low odour solvent

Clearly Besotted - mini messages clear stamp - retired 

LOTV - Christmas greetings A5 clear stamp (for inside) no longer available

Gina K Designs - master layouts 01 die set (for plain rectangle die)

Gina K Designs - master layouts 02 die set (for middle stitched rectangle die)

Gina K Designs - master layouts 05 die set (for smallest stitched rectangle, flag die and strip die)

Gian K Designs - master layouts 14 die set (for largest stitched rectangle die)

Limetree Craft - 280gsm silky smooth white card (not available but other options are here and here)

Limetree Craft - 300gsm smooth white card (for card base)

Limetree Craft - persian red 200gsm card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

Memento - tuxedo black ink pad

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card - store now closed

I have Affiliate Links for the Gina K Designs store. If you are considering making a purchase I would appreciate you using my links as it will earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you x

Gorgeous Gift Tags IG Hop - September 26

Hello and welcome back to my blog lovely friends. It's time for the Gorgeous Gift Tags IG Hop, which takes place on the 5th of each month. You always have the option to go for anything goes but the extra prompt this month is 'school days'. It's very apt as the little darlings have now gone back to school (although my darlings are not so little anymore and not in school lol!).  So get creating and let's see all your school themed tags. I can't wait to see what the rest of my fellow hoppers have made and I hope you can pop over to Instagram and join us.

As I did last month I decided to create a fun shaped tag as I had the perfect die in my stash - an apple shaped die.  I used some super cute images and I think it turned out really sweet.  I hope you like it. 

Here is my tag:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the back of the tag:

I began by die cutting the apple from red card and the inner part from white card.  I decided to add some lines to the white piece using an old red rubber cling stamp and some light blue ink and I think it looks like it's been cut out from a notepad.  I stamped the images onto alcohol marker friendly card using memento ink and coloured them with my Promarkers.  I don't have the dies so I fussy cut them out.  I stamped the sentiment directly onto the background with black ink.  I added the white piece onto the apple using liquid glue and the images onto that using foam squares.  For some final decoration I die cut some stars from gold mirror card and added them with liquid glue.  I punched a hole at the top and added a red hole reinforcer before threading through some red and white twine.  I also used some black twine to tie a bow around the apple stem.  For the back of the tag I kept it fairly simple.  I added another white piece, which I again stamped with the lined stamp, and added a few gold stars.  

I would like to enter my tag into the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps & More challenge - die cuts and/or stencils (entry #3)

CRAFT challenge - back to school/ATG

Craft Rocket challenge - use dies

Cut It Up challenge - in shape (please delete if only cards allowed)

Farm Quest Grocery Game challenge - anything food and/or drink related

Heart's Quest for Shaped Cards & Tags challenge - ATG

Sweet Stampin' challenge - use a die cut

Tag-along (& ATC's) challenge - circle or ATG

The Little Things challenge - mermaids and/or fish or ATG

Unicorn challenge - not square

We hope you will be inspired by our Gorgeous Gift Tags Instagram Hop and will pop over and check out all the gorgeous tags along the way using the hashtag #gorgeousgifttagssept26.

Thanks for stopping by and take care.

Lots of love,

tag supplies:

TLC Designs - apple a day die set

Studio Katia - teacher's apple stamp - store sadly closed

MFT - writing tablet red rubber cling stamp

MFT - blueprints 13 & tag builder blueprints 6 (for star dies)

Waffle Flower - nesting tags dies (for hole reinforcer die)

Gina K Designs - blue sky ink pad

Limetree Craft - 280gsm silky smooth white card (not available but other options are here and here)

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

Memento - tuxedo black ink pad

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card - store now closed

coloured card and twine from my stash

I have Affiliate Links for the Gina K Designs store. If you are considering making a purchase I would appreciate you using my links as it will earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you x

Just Us Girls challenge #839 - Die Week

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog. I am here to share my card for this week's Just Us Girls challenge and this week is Die Week and Sue has given us the theme of 'thank you'. So grab your thank you or thanks dies and join in the fun with us.  We all love our dies don't we and I cannot wait to see all your gorgeous creations. Our guest this month is Julia Aston so please pop over and show her some love.

I used a favourite thank you die from Spellbinders and I love that it has a shadow.  Whilst I was getting that die from my stash I came across the 'build-a-wreath' die set that I haven't used yet so thought I would bust that out too.  As the thank you die cut is quite large I decided to make a square card for a change so that I could comfortably fit everything in.  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by creating my card base; I cut white card to 11" x 5 1/2" and scored it at 5 1/2" to make my 5 1/2" square card base.  I also cut a white panel 5 1/4" square and embossed it using a leafy folder.  I used coloured card from my scraps bin to cut out all the branches for the wreath, the flowers and the gorgeous bow (my scraps bin could keep me going until the end of time I think lol!) and assembled the flowers and bow with liquid glue.  I die cut the thank you from gold mirror card and the shadow from vellum and adhered them together using liquid glue.  I arranged the branches to make the wreath shape and adhered them with liquid glue onto my embossed panel.  I added the bow at the top and the flowers on the bottom of the wreath using foam squares.  I added tiny slivers of foam tape behind the thank you word and added that into the centre of the wreath.  I finished off with some gold disc sequins.  I added some scrap white card behind my panel and adhered it to my card base using double sided tape.  For the inside I cut another white panel 5 1/4" square and partially embossed the bottom using the leafy folder.  I had one flower and two branches left over so added them to the bottom right corner using liquid glue.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre with dark brown ink before adding the panel to the card base using double sided tape.  

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Beautiful Blossoms challenge - anything floral goes optional mood board

Can You Handle The Pressure challenge - use an EF optional twist: bees

Colorful Options challenge - rusty brown (option 2 and 4)

Creative Inspirations - hello autumn

If You Give A Crafter A Cookie challenge - sweater weather (inspired by the colours)

Mix It Up challenge - ATG + optional embossing

Pinspirational challenge - orange, red, brown & yellow

The Four Seasons challenge - anything goes fall optional mood board

Tic Tac Toe challenge - top row across: letters/numbers, dimension, sparkle/shine

Triple B challenge - birds blooms or butterflies and optional mood board

Try It On Tuesday challenge - emboss it

I can't wait to see all your die cuts this week and look forward to seeing your entries in the linky. Please pop over to the challenge blog and leave some love for the rest of the design team.

I appreciate you stopping by.

Love and hugs,

card supplies:

Spellbinders - thank you dies

Spellbinders - build-a-wreath die set

Spellbinders - branching out embossing folder 

Spellbinders - envelope of wonder stamp sentiments clear stamp

Spellbinders - gold smooth discs color essentials sequins

Gina K Designs - dark chocolate ink pad (to stamp inside sentiment)

Limetree Craft - 280gsm silky smooth white card (not available but other options are here and here)

Limetree Craft - 300gsm smooth white card (for card base)

I have Affiliate Links for the Gina K Designs store. If you are considering making a purchase I would appreciate you using my links as it will earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you x