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

Creative Knockouts challenge - Tis the season

Cut it Up challenge - use more than one die (sweater & sentiment strip dies)

Dragonfly Dreams challenge - Christmas

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - use craft dies

Stamping Sensations challenge - favourite colours (I love traditional red & green for Christmas)

Stencil Fun challenge - ATG include a stencil option Christmas

The Male Room challenge - Christmas

The Sisterhood of Crafters challenge - sweater weather

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 - a very silly season stamp & die set

Gina K Designs - sweater weather stencil

Gina K Designs - pearl mix (black, gold & silver)

Gina K Designs - large strip sentiment dies

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

Hobbycraft - A4 luxury black card

red and green card from scrap bin

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)

Dream Valley challenge - ATG

Krafty Chicks challenge - ATG

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

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

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

Hobbycraft - A4 luxury black card

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)

Krafty Chicks challenge - ATG

Papercraft challenges - happy birthday

Seize the Birthday challenge - birthday creation - no topping this time

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

Sweet Stampin' challenge - birthday

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

Spellbinders - simply perfect alphabet

Spellbinders - colour essentials sequins - silver smooth disc

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

We R Makers - Crop-a-dile tool & eyelets

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm smooth white card 

rainbow colours of card from my scrap bin

Winter Wonderland IG Hop - Week 5

Hello friends and happy hump day.  I hope you've had a great day so far.  It's Wednesday so it's time for this week's instalment of the Winter Wonderland IG Hop organised by my lovely friend Kelly.  This is technically the last week of the hop but don't worry as we have an extra bonus week for you next week!  Each Wednesday we are sharing our creations with a winter theme. 

This week is Week 5 and our theme is plaid poinsettia.  Now the brief was you can make something that includes a poinsettia or include some plaid or both.  I decided to use both.  Here is my card:

A close up of my poinsettia:

I decorated the inside as usual:

here is what the paper looked before and after inking:

I began by trying to find some plaid patterned paper, which was not easy.  I eventually found one but it was a beige/neutral colour.  I decided to ink swipe onto the paper with a red ink pad to make it the colour I wanted.  I think it turned out really good and just what I was looking for.  I then die cut my poinsettia; one large layer and 2 smaller layers, plus a few leaves from dark green card and the centre from gold mirri card; I then added gold pearls onto the centre.  I used foam squares to attach all the layers so it ended up being very dimensional.  I cut a piece of white card to a 3 3/4" x 5" panel and added a strip of red spotted paper and a smaller strip of the gold mirri card to the left hand side.  I adhered the leaves with liquid glue and stamped my sentiment in black ink.  I then added the poinsettia with liquid glue over the leaves.  For a final touch I added some gold splatter over the entire card panel.  The panel was then attached to my A2 card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I added another strip of spotty paper and gold mirri card and as I had one poinsettia left over I cut it up and layered it into the bottom left corner.  I stamped a sentiment in black ink.  A really dimensional and shimmery card in real life and I'm really happy with it.  

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

Crafter's Cafe challenge - feminine

Crafty Gals Corner challenge - dots and/or stripes

Double D challenge - stripes and/or dots

Inkspirational challenge - seasonal (obviously I've gone for Christmas again)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

Time Out challenge - winter/holiday

Try It On challenge - traditional Christmas

Use Your Stuff challenge - shine bright (mirri card, gold pearls, gold splatter)

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:

MFT - all star high top die-namics

Gina K Designs - autumn splendor paper pack

Gina K Designs - red hot ink pad

Gina K Designs - black, gold & silver pearl mix

Personal Impressions - big Christmas essentials (for outside sentiment)

Personal Impressions (Paula Pascual) - Christmas messages (for inside sentiment)

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm smooth white card

Echo Park - dots & stripes (Valentine) for spotty paper

Gansai Tambi - starry colours palette (for gold splatter)

green card & mirri card from scrap box

Winter Wonderland IG Hop - Week 4

Hello friends; I hope your day is going well and you've had a great start to your week.  It's Wednesday so that means it's time to share my card for this week's Winter Wonderland IG Hop which has been organised by my lovely friend Kelly.  Can you believe this week is week 4 already!  Each Wednesday we will be sharing our cards with a winter theme.  

This week is the lovely theme of Santa!  I always reach for cutesy images so I thought I would mix it up this week and go for a traditional/vintage style image and actually used a red rubber wood mounted stamp!!  Here is my card:

a close up of the image:

I decorated the inside:

I apologise for the photos today but it's quite gloomy here and I struggled to get anything better, but they are better than horrible (maybe!). 

I began by stamping the gorgeous Santa image in Memento London Fog ink which is a lovely light grey.  There wasn't much colouring to do, I coloured his face, beard and glasses with a mix of Promarkers and SN Tri-blend markers and then went over the beard and snowflakes with some glitter glue.  I put the image to one side to dry and then created my background with a snowflake stencil using red ink on a white panel cut to 3 3/4" x 5".  I made an A2 card base from red cardstock and I adhered the stencilled panel with double sided tape.  I used a strip of white card and stamped my sentiment in Versafine Clair morning mist ink.  I added this strip onto a slightly larger strip of same red card as my card base and adhered this with double sided tape.  Once the image panel was dry I used a rectangle die and cut it out and then used the matching scalloped die to cut a red mat panel.  I added this to the card with foam tape.  I decided to add some glitter glue to the snowflakes in the background for some extra sparkle and finished off with 3 small sequins under my sentiment.  It really does look much nicer in real life and really sparkles when it catches the light.  

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

Allsorts challenge - Christmas time

Craft challenge - Christmas

Colourful Options challenge - red

Creative Knockouts challenge - lots of layers

Daisy Chain challenge - Christmas/winter

Inkspirational challenge - seasonal (obviously I've gone for Christmas)

Mix it Up challenge - ATG option stamping

My Time to Craft challenge - got to be Christmas

Scrapping4Fun challenge - traditional Christmas colours

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - make it sparkle

Stamping Sensations challenge - get ready for Christmas

Sweet Stampin' challenge - use red

Tic Tac Toe challenge - sparkle/free/monochromatic

We hope you will be able to join us over on Instagram and follow the hop.  Please use the hashtag #winterwonderlandcardhop2023 to find all our creations and, if we inspire you and you decide to join in, we can find yours too.  

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

Love and hugs, 

Card ingredients:

Rubber Stampede - Santa collage wooden stamp (very old and probably no longer available)

Spellbinders - classic rectangles large & classic scalloped rectangles large

Spellbinders - colour essentials sequins - scarlet smooth disc

Funky Fossil Designs - snow flurry stencil

Stickles glitter glue - crystal 

Versafine Morning Mist ink pad (for sentiment)

Memento London Fog ink pad (to stamp image)

Gina K Designs - red velvet ink pad 

Paula Pascal - Christmas messages

Promarkers

Spectrum Noir Tri Blend markers

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm smooth white card

Stampin' Up! - red card from brights selection pack (again very old!)

Winter Wonderland IG Hop - Week 3

Happy Hump Day friends; I hope you're having a great week so far.  I'm back with Week 3 of the Winter Wonderland IG Hop which has been organised by my lovely friend Kelly.  Each Wednesday in November we will be sharing our cards with a winter theme.  

This week is a fun one - pink Christmas!  I love traditional colours for Christmas but it's nice to step out of our comfort zone from time to time and have a play with different colour schemes.  I had lots of ideas for my make this week but finally settled on CAS and super cute!  Here is my card:

a close up of my cute penguin:

I also decorated the inside:

I used mostly Promarkers with a couple of Tri-blend markers:

I began by stamping the cute penguin image with memento tuxedo black ink and coloured it with mostly Promarkers but I did use 2 x Spectrum Noir tri-blend markers too (I'm actually liking these pens a lot as they take away the stress of colour blending as there are 3 colours in each pen).  I don't have the coordinating dies so fussy cut him out and put him to one side.  I then cut a white panel of card 3 3/4" x 5" and used a stencil and some pink ink to make my background.  I found some hot pink card in my scrap bin and used that as my mat layer behind my white panel.  I cut a 2 1/2" strip of the hot pink card and used a scalloped edge die to cut a decorative border on the top and bottom.   I then added a white strip on top with double sided tape.  Before adding to the card panel I stamped my sentiment.  This was then adhered to the card panel with double sided tape.  The penguin was added with foam squares and I added 5 small pink pearls as a finishing touch.  I did forget to add some white gel pen highlights but I'll do that before I give the card to someone.  The panel was then added to a white card blank with foam tape.  I decorated the inside in my usual way - a small strip of the stencilled card added to the bottom and a sentiment stamped in black ink.  A really sweet card and I think once you've settled on the idea it's really easy to mass produce.

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

Crafty Animals challenge - ATG include an animal

Crafty Gals Corner challenge - dots and/or stripes

Creative Inspirations challenge - contemporary Christmas colours

Creative Moments challenge - winter

Critter Crazy challenge - ATG with a featured critter

Daisy Chain challenge - Christmas/winter

Cut it Up challenge - layer it up (must use a die cut)

Day of the Month Card Club challenge - candy day

Double D challenge - stripes and/or dots

Dream Valley challenge - occasions other than birthday

Krafty Chicks challenge - Christmas

Moving Along with the Times challenge - Christmas animals

Pearly Sparkles challenge - Christmas/winter

Stamping Sensations challenge - get ready for Christmas

Stencil Fun challenge - anything stencil goes - option leaves

Unicorn challenge - Christmas

We Love Stamping challenge - Christmas characters

Wow lots of Christmas themed challenges around at the moment (understandably)!  I believe I checked all the rules but if I've entered too many challenges and broken your rules I apologise and just delete me.

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 if you decide to join in too we will be able to find yours too.  

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

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

MFT - sweet holiday penguins

MFT - diagonal stripes stencil

Clearly Besotted Stamps - scalloped edges die collection

Concord & 9th - Boughs and holly stamp (for sentiment)

Gina K Designs - bubblegum pink ink pad

Gina K Designs - pearl mix rainbow

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm white smooth card 

pink card from scrap bin

Promarkers & Spectrum Noir tri-blend markers

Paula Pascal - Christmas message (inside sentiment) (I've seen it on eBay)

Versafine onyx black ink pad

Memento tuxedo black ink pad

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card

Winter Wonderland IG Hop - Week 2

Hello again friends; I hope you're having a great day.  It's time for Week 2 of the Winter Wonderland IG Hop, which has been organised by my lovely friend Kelly.  Each Wednesday in November we will be sharing cards with a winter theme.  

This week's theme is snowflakes and despite having lots of ideas running through my head, I really struggled to make a card I liked.  I'm relatively happy with my finished result although I may have done some things differently if I was to make it again.  Unfortunately I was still frantically completing my card very late last night so it had to do lol!  Here is my card (it's a very dark and gloomy day here today so the lighting wasn't the best either!):

A close up of the snowflake:

I decorated the inside:

and I decorated the envelope too:

I began by stamping the snowflakes in blue ink and used the matching dies to cut them out.  I then took a white panel and embossed it with a snowflake embossing folder.  I lightly inked round the edges with the same blue ink for some contrast.  I die cut 2 circles, 1 from blue card and 1 from white card and layered them together with liquid glue.  I tried so many sentiments but none looked right then I found this one in my stash and thought it looked the best.  I again stamped it in blue ink and die cut it with a banner die.  I'm not really a bow person but found an odd piece of kraft coloured twine and decided to add it to the top of my circle to give it a 'bauble-esque' feel about it.  The circle is quite dimension as the snowflake was added with foam squares and also the sentiment banner too.  The white embossed panel was added onto a blue card panel and this was added to the card base with liquid glue.  My final touch was some tiny gold pearls which I liberally added all over my card.  I had two snowflakes left over; I was originally going to put them on the front but I couldn't get them to work there, so I added one onto the inside and one onto the envelope.  

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

Alphabet challenge - P is for peace

As You Like It challenge - favourite Christmas colours (and why) - I'm a traditionalist at heart but when it comes to snowflakes it has to be blue and white!

Aud Sentiments challenge - gift tag/packaging and/or Christmas + sentiment

Can You Handle the Pressure challenge - ATG embossing option vines/greenery

Craft Rocket challenge - wintertime (no Christmas)

Cut It Up challenge - layer it up

Daisy Chain challenge - Christmas/winter

Pearly Sparkles challenge - Christmas/winter

Shopping Our Stash challenge - emboss like a boss 

Stamping Sensations challenge - get ready for Christmas

Tic Tac Toe challenge - challenge 223 - blue, free, ribbon (please delete if twine is not the same as ribbon) 

Unicorn challenge - Christmas

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

I really appreciate your stopping by.

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

Most of the supplies I used are from Gina K Designs - 

Blizzard stamp & matching dies

Snowflakes embossing folder

Master Layouts 5 (for the circles)

Master Layouts 10 (for the banner)

Pearl mix in black, gold & silver

Holiday Silhouettes for sentiment

Powder blue ink cube

Other products used:

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm smooth white card 

blue card from scrap bin

twine from packaging