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Thursday, 7 December 2023

Winter Wonderland IG Hop - Week 6 bonus week!

Hello again friends; I hope you're having a fabulous day so far....one day closer to the weekend.  Sorry I'm a day late with my card for the final week of the Winter Wonderland IG Hop, organised by my lovely friend Kelly.  I went on a shopping trip yesterday to Bristol and it was such a long day and I was exhausted when I got home at almost 8pm so didn't post but I am finally here to share my card.  This week is our last and bonus week where we share cards with a winter theme.  
So our prompt for this week is 'sweater weather/winter at the beach' and obviously as the weather is really cold here at the moment I went for sweater weather as my inspiration.  Here is my card:
a close up of my sweaters (or jumpers as we call them in the UK):
I decorated the inside as usual:
I began by picking some red and green card from my scrap bin and stamping the cute sweaters in black ink and then used the matching dies to cut them out.  I also cut some plain sweaters to that I could add an extra layer behind each one.  I grabbed a stencil and using red and green ink created my background.  I also inked around the edges with the green ink as there was more red than green in my background.  I matted the panel onto a black panel and adhered it to my card base with double sided tape.  I created a small white panel, which I again matted onto black and added this onto my card base with foam squares at a jaunty angle for some interest.  I added the sweaters with double sided tape into each corner.  The fun sentiment was stamped onto a small piece of white card in black ink and I used a sentiment strip die to cut it out.  This was added to the centre of the panel with foam squares.  I finished off with a few gold pearls.  For the inside I stamped a sentiment in black ink and added a green sweater in the bottom left corner, again I added a black mat panel and adhered this to the card base with double sided tape.  

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

Creative Inspirations challenge - Happy Christmas/Happy New Year
Cut it Up challenge - use more than one die (sweater & sentiment strip dies)
Stamping Sensations challenge - favourite colours (I love traditional red & green for Christmas)
Stencil Fun challenge - ATG include a stencil option Christmas

We hope you will be able to join us over on Instagram and follow the hop.  Please use the hashtag #winterwonderlandcardhop2023 to find all of our creations and we will be able to find yours if you feel inspired to join in.  

Enjoy the rest of your day and thank you so much for stopping by.  

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

Gina K Designs - sweater weather stencil
Gina K Designs - pearl mix (black, gold & silver)
Gina K Designs - red velvet and jellybean green ink pads
Gina K Designs - sketched wreath builder stamp (for inside sentiment)
Limetree Crafts - 250gms smooth white card
red and green card from scrap bin

Monday, 4 December 2023

Masculine birthday card

Hello lovely friends; I hope you've had a great start to your week.  Mine was lovely, I met a friend for breakfast and we talked and talked and put the world to rights lol!  Then I picked up my new Christmas tree - it's the first one we've had since we had Willow the wild cat so only went for a very basic pop up tree but for £30 I was pleasantly surprise at how good it looks (although she is very interested in it so don't hold out much hope that it will survive until next year!!).  Then a quick look around the shops and bought 2 Christmas gifts, but at least I can say I've officially started Christmas shopping now!  I'm going on a shopping trip to Bristol on Wednesday so hopefully will get a few more (fingers crossed).  

It was my son's birthday last week - my 'baby' is now 27 - and I can't believe where the time has gone, especially as I only look 25 myself hahahahaha!  Here is the card I made for him:

a close up of the hi-tops:
and I decorated the inside:
added a few stars to the envelope so everything was matching:
I began by die cutting the sneakers from patterned paper and the various add on pieces from white and black card.  I stuck them together with liquid glue and also added a couple of extra shoe pieces to make them more sturdy.  I then cut a white card panel 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" and used a stencil and some light grey ink to create my background; this was then added to a black card mat with double sided tape.  I cut a smaller white card panel 3 5/8" x 5 5/8" and stamped my sentiments in black ink.  This again was then added onto a black card mat with double sided tape.  The sneakers were added with a mixture of liquid glue (for the bottom sneaker) and foam squares for the top sneaker.  The stars were then added with liquid glue.  The whole thing was then added to a 5" x 7" card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut another white card panel 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" and again used the same stencil but this time leaving a white area in the middle so that I could stamp my greeting (and also write my message).  Again this was added to a black card mat with double sided tape.  Finally I die cut some extra stars and added them to the bottom left corner of my envelope.  I'm really happy with the final result, enough going on without being too fussy - and my son loved it too, especially as he has a pair of Converse shoes very similar to these!  

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

Crafty Catz challenge - ATG option make them smile
Cut It Up challenge - use more than one die (sneaker dies/star dies)
Little Red Wagon challenge - Bohemian Rhapsody (my 3 elements are stencilling, die-cutting and stamping)
Papercraft challenges - happy birthday
Seize the Birthday challenge - ATG birthday - no topping this time
Sweet Stampin' challenge - happy birthday (I stamped my sentiments, hope this is enough)

I really appreciate you stopping by.  I'll be back on Wednesday (a little later than normal) with my 'bonus' card for the Winter Wonderland IG Hop.  

Love and hugs, 
 
card ingredients:
MFT - all stars hi top die-namics *retired*
Echo Park - navy ombre essentials patterned paper (for sneakers)
Gina K Designs - star struck stencil
Gina K Designs - stormy sky ink pad
MFT - blueprints 13 (for stars) *retired*
Stampin' Up! - family party (for sentiments) *retired*
Limetree Crafts - 250gsm smooth white card

Friday, 1 December 2023

AAA Birthday challenge - DT card

Good morning lovely friends; I can't believe it's already December 1st - where did November go?  As it's the first of the month it means we have a brand new challenge over at AAA Birthday. This month's theme is 'add a tag' and has been chosen by Tristan.  Our guest designer this month is Helen Brammer so please pop over to her blog and leave her some love.  
As always I toyed with lots of different ideas, including making a card and matching tag but when I was looking through my stash I found this adorable mini tag so wanted to use that.  Here is my card:
a close up of the tags:
I decorated the inside too:
I began by die-cutting 5 of the mini tags from white card and then die cut the 'happy' letters from a rainbow of coloured cardstock and adhered them with liquid glue.  I tried adding twine but it looked too busy so I dusted off my Crop-a-dile and added some colourful eyelets to the tags instead.  I cut a panel of white card 3 3/4" x 5" and used a large script stamp for my background and stamped it in light grey ink.  To finish the rainbow I stamped the 'birthday' sentiment in purple ink.  The panel was adhered to the card base with liquid glue.  I added 3 tags with foam squares and then the other 2 were added with double sided tape.  I think it added a little interest to the card instead of having them all the same height.  I finished the front of the card with 3 silver sequins around the stamped sentiment.  The inside was decorated quite simply; the same script stamp was added to a strip of white card and this was added to the bottom of the panel with liquid glue.  I stamped a sentiment in the same purple ink. 

The Design Team have created amazing cards as always so please pop over to the blog and check them out and perhaps leave them some love on their blogs too.  

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

Cut It Up challenge - use more than 1 die (letter dies and tag die)
Papercraft challenges - happy birthday
Seize the Birthday challenge - birthday creation - no topping this time

I hope you will be able to join in with our challenge this month but don't forget it has to be birthday themed.  I can't wait to see your creations in the linky.

Enjoy the rest of your day and thank you so much for stopping by.  

Love and hugs, 

Card ingredients:

Clearly Besotted - tag along die set (used matching stamp set for inside sentiment) - retired
Gina K Designs - square starters stamp set (for birthday sentiment)
Gina K Designs - soft stone ink pad 
Gina K Designs - wild wisteria ink pad 
MFT - best friends red rubber background stamp
Limetree Crafts - 250gsm smooth white card 
rainbow colours of card from my scrap bin