AAA Birthday challenge #80 - box card

Good morning lovely friends and welcome to the last month of 2025!  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 'box card' which may sound intimidating but there are lots of tutorials out there to follow (there are links over on the challenge blog if you want check them out).  Our guest designer again this month is the talented Sigrid so please pop over to her blog and leave her some love.

To create my box card I used a die set from Studio Light, which I have used once before to make a birthday box card for our cat Willow, which you can see here.  This time around I simply used all the dies in the set to create my card and I think it turned out so pretty and girly.  I hope you like it.   There are a few more photos today as I tried to get as many good views of the project as possible!

Here is my box card:

Plus I added a white panel on the back to write my message:

To create the box you need to die cut two of the pieces and adhere them together to make the box shape so I began by die cutting two of them from black card.  I adhered them together with strong red line tape so I know they would stay secure.  I also cut three of the supports for the inside of the box from black card.  I used a very old but a really pretty paper pad to cut the layers (the stripe paper has glitter running through it and looks beautiful in real life) and cut the back panel from white card and stamped a sentiment in the centre with black ink.   I then added them to the box with liquid glue. As I said I decided to stick with just the dies in the set so cut the butterflies from pink and orange scrap card (to match the papers) and also cut some leaves from paper from the pad.  I also die cut the grass from two different colours of green card from my scraps bin.  I stamped the happy birthday sentiment onto white card and used the decorative label die to cut it out; I also cut the layer from black card.  I adhered them together with liquid glue.  It was now time to decorate the box.  I adhered the grass to the inside supports with liquid glue and then added them into the box with more of the red line tape.  I adhered two of the smaller butterflies directly to the grass and box with liquid glue but the others had a tiny piece of acetate stuck to the backs with double sided tape so that they look like they are flying above the grass.  I did cover the backs with another butterfly to hide the tape.  These three butterflies were then adhered to the supports with red line tape.  I adhered two more of the butterflies to the side flaps with foam squares and the sentiment to the front also with foam squares.  I added two leaves behind the sentiment label (but not sure if I like them now lol!) and finished off with some black pearls in the centres of each of the butterflies.  I also added a butterfly to the white panel on the back.  At the last moment I decided to cut two banners, one from orange and one from pink card for the back flap; I adhered the orange one with liquid glue and the pink one with foam squares.  A really sweet box card and the added bonus is that is folds flat and will fit in an A2 envelope.  

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

A Cut Above challenge - ATG with a die cut

Creative Creases challenge - ATG with a fun fold

Creative Friday challenge - ATG

Cut It Up challenge - fun fold + use a die cut

Girlz Rebel challenge - something beginning with B (butterflies/box card)

Little Red Wagon challenge - pearls & sequins & gems, oh my

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge - use dies in Diecember

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

Tic Tac Toe challenge - shaped card, free, foliage

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

Have a great day.

Love and hugs,

box card supplies:

Studio Light - exploding box die set (SL-ES-CD116)

MFT - sweet 16 stamp (for happy birthday sentiment)

DCWV - Nana's nursery - baby girl 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" paper pad

Limetree Craft - 220gsm black card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

Gina K Designs - on the inside stamp set (for sentiment on the back)

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

coloured card from scraps bin

acetate from stash

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

Thank you x

Krafty Chicks challenge #796 - Masculine

Good morning lovely friends, I appreciate you stopping by and I hope you're all doing ok. It's time for a new challenge over at Krafty Chicks challenge and this week we are on Week 4; as always the theme is 'Masculine' and Lori is our hostess. Now I know that masculine makes are not our favourite but we do need them from time to time so get ahead of the game and be prepared.  We hope you will come over and join in the fun with us.

So still suffering with my cold I ended up making another clean and simple card, although I think men prefer that anyway so a win-win for me!  I have seen lots of paper strip cards on Instagram recently so I thought I would have a go at recreating the layout using stamps instead of patterned paper.  I think it turned out great but you should have seen my hands at the end, they were so inky!  I went with a blue, grey and black colour combo as it's one of my go-to's for mens cards.  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the pattern:

Plus I decorated the inside:

So I began by cutting a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and grabbed some stamp sets from Uniko to create my background.  I used a block and the pad from my Misti so that I would get as good an impression as possible.  I stamped with the lined blue strip first and then worked up from there.  I used 3 blues, 3 greys and 1 black ink pad to create my pattern.  Finally I stamped the happy birthday greeting, lining it up with the angle of the stamping.  I cut a black mat layer and adhered them together with double sided tape.  As always I added some scrap white card behind my panel for stability and a little bit of dimension before adhering it to my card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut another white panel and created a 'mini' pattern in the bottom right corner and stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink.  I adhered the panel onto a black mat layer and then added it to the card base with double sided tape.  I really like how this card turned out and it was a purely SIP card (stamps, inks, paper) which I haven't done for a while.

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

Addicted to Stamps & More challenge - make your mark (ink pads)

Creative Friday challenge - ATG

Girlz Makes Guyz Cards challenge - birthday card for a man

Girlz Rebel challenge - something beginning with B (blue, birthday)

Heart's Quest Celebrations of Love challenge - BEWAS (birthday)

Mix It Up challenge - ATG optional CAS

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

Sweet Stampin' challenge - birthdays (happy 16th birthday to you all!)

I hope you will be able to join us for our 'masculine' 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. 

Love and hugs,

card supplies:

Uniko Stamps - background builders: classics stamp

Uniko Stamps - background builders: squared

Uniko Stamps - floral vines stamp (for happy birthday greeting)

Uniko Stamps - organic wishes (for inside greeting)

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

Gina K Designs* - ink pads - blue raspberry, powder blue, blue sky, slate, stormy sky, soft stone

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Limetree Crafts - 220gsm black card

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

Cards For All Seasons IG Hop Week 24 -- gratitude

Hello again friends; I'm back to share my card for this week's Cards for All Seasons IG hop organised by my lovely friend Kelly. We are now on Week 24 and as it is almost Thanksgiving in the US our theme is 'gratitude'. Such a great theme this week and I feel so grateful to be able to make my handmade creations,  join the lovely crafting community and have friends all around the world. There are going to be so many awesome creations along the hop this week and I can't wait to see what sparks your imagination.

I am currently full up with a cold so my card is fairly clean and simple this time.  I was inspired by a recent video of Gina K and did a colour block background and silhoutte image.  As always my card looks much prettier in real life and I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the image:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by creating the background; I used masking magic strips to create the ink blended stripes.  I did have a boo-boo when blending the yellow stripe so my green stripe ended up being bigger than I intended to cover up the mistake.  I think it looks ok but I would have liked more white on that end of the panel.  I stamped the silhouette image more towards the left corner and the sentiment in the top right corner using black ink.  I cut the panel with the stitched die from ML 14 and a black layer with the plain die from ML 01 and adhered them together with double sided tape.  I added some scrap white card behind the panel with double sided tape.  I decided to make a yellow card base to draw your eye to the yellow stripe and added the panel with double sided tape.  I finished off with some gold pearls.  For the inside I cut another white stitched panel and black layer.  I stamped the silhouette image using a light grey ink onto the white panel and as I had a thin piece of the ink blended piece left over from the front I also stamped part of the silhouette image over this as well.  I also cut it out with the stitched rectangle die.  I adhered them together with liquid glue.  I decided to stamp the sentiment onto the blended piece so that I left enough space to write my message above.  A bright and happy card and I'm happy with how it turned out.  

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

* to be updated * 

I hope you will pop over to Instagram and check out the hop; please use the hashtag #cfascardhop2025 to see all the gorgeous creations and also if you want to participate we will be able to find you.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Love and hugs,

Gina K Designs supplies*:

Gina K Designs - autumn silhouettes stamp

Gina K Designs - harvest silhouettes stamp (for inside greeting)

Gina K Designs - Master Layouts 01 die set

Gina K Designs - Master Layouts 14 die set

Gina K Designs - ink pads - tangerine twist, wild dandelion, jelly bean green

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

Other supplies:

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Limetree Crafts - 230gsm daffodil card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

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

Patterned Paper Party IG Hop - November 25

Hello friends; I hope you're having a great week. I'm back today to share my card for this month's Patterned Paper Party Instagram Hop. Do you love patterned paper? Do you have a huge stash that needs using? Well so do we and it's time to get it used! We will be hopping on the 20th of each month to share our ideas. We will definitely be creating cards, but maybe sometimes tags, ATCs, gift bags/boxes, mini albums and scrapbook pages too. We want our patterned paper to be used.

The theme is always 'anything goes' but each month we will have an optional twist that can be used if you like; this month the twist is 'paper piecing' so grab your patterned papers, your scissors and have fun. I grabbed this really old paper pad from Echo Park Paper that's been in my stash for years and used 2 coordinating papers in traditional Christmas colours. I haven't done this technique for ages and I had great fun fussy cutting all the different pieces, although the tiny ones were a bit fiddly.  The layout is fairly simple but I wanted the paper pieced image to be the star of the show.  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the image:

Plus I decorated the inside (very simply this time):

So I began by stamping the image onto alcohol marker friendly card and only coloured the skin and hair with my Promarkers.  Leaving the image in place in the Misti I then re-stamped it onto green striped paper, red striped paper, yellow card and brown card.  I fussy cut the arms and legs from the red paper, the body from the green paper, the star and baubles from the yellow card and the boots from the brown card.  I went around each fussy cut piece with a black marker to tidy up any wonky edges!  I adhered all the pieces onto the main stamped image with liquid glue, added some shading with coordinating Promarker colours and white highlights with a gelly roll pen.  I trimmed the panel down to 3 1/2" x 4 3/4" and added some scrap white card behind with double sided tape for some stability and dimension.  I stamped the sentiment below the image with black ink.  I cut a piece of the green diagonal paper to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" and adhered this to the card base with double sided tape.  I then added the white panel onto this with double sided tape.  I finished off with some gold metallic pearls.  For the inside I cut another white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and added some strips of the left over green diagonal paper to the top and bottom with liquid glue and stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink.  The panel was adhered to the card base with double sided tape.  I don't think paper piecing will ever be as popular as it once was but I enjoyed the trip down memory lane making this card.  

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

The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up challenge - ATG optional twist sleigh

As You Like It challenge - favourite embellishments (I always tend to reach for pearls or sequins)

Aud Sentiments challenge - glitter and/or Christmas + sentiment

CRAFT challenge - Christmas/ATG

Craft Rocket challenge - Christmas/winter

Crafty Gals Corner challenge - tis the season

Creative Inspirations challenge - wrapped up for winter

Daisy Chain challenge - Christmas/winter

Dream Valley challenge - 2 or more papers

Just Us Girls challenge - mood board

Merry Little Christmas challenge - anything Christmas goes

Mix It Up challenge - ATG optional twist CAS

Sparkles Christmas challenge - festive wear

Stamping Sensations challenge - Christmas

The Dream Factory challenge - candy cane lane/anything Christmassy

The Holly & Ivy Christmas challenge - anything Christmas goes

The Paper Funday challenge - ATG optional twist merry & bright

Unicorn challenge - Christmas/winter

We Love Stamping challenge - anything Christmas

We hope you will be inspired by our Patterned Paper Party IG Hop and will pop over and check out all the gorgeous creations along the way. If you would like to join us please visit my Instagram page or use the hashtag #patternedpaperpartyhopnovember2025 and we will find you.

Thanks for stopping by and take care.

Lots of love

card supplies:

MFT - bright holidays stamp

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card (store now closed)

Promarkers

Echo Park - dots & stripes 6x6 metropolitan collection pad

Honey Bee Stamps - inside holiday sentiments stamp

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

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

Memento - tuxedo black ink pad

Memento - tuxedo black dual marker pen

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

yellow card from scraps bin

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

Krafty Chicks challenge #795 - CAS

Good morning lovely friends and welcome to my chilly corner of blogland. It's biting cold and windy here at the moment and the perfect weather for staying indoors and crafting!  It's time for a new challenge over at Krafty Chicks challenge and this week we are on Week 3; and as always the theme is 'CAS (clean and simple)' and Diane is our hostess. Now we know that CAS is subjective but generally it's lots of white space, no embellishments (or very few) and an uncluttered design. It can be a difficult design to pull off but we hope you will take on the challenge and come over and join in the fun with us.

When I was colouring the cute critters from Tuesday's ATC Hop I thought one of them would be perfect for today's card and as he was already coloured in this card came together really quickly.  I think it turned out super cute and I hope you like it too.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the cute critter:

I decorated the inside (albeit very simply this time):

So as I said I coloured this cute image with my Promarkers and fussy cut him out when I was making my ATC's earlier in the week.  I also added some white gelly roll pen highlights.  I cut a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and lightly ink blended some green ink in the centre before spraying my card with perfect pearls (I mix it with water and keep it in a small spray bottle so it's always ready to use).  It's really subtle in the pictures but it's really shimmery in real life.  I added some scrap white card behind the panel for stability and a little bit of dimension.  I made my card base from grey card to compliment the colour of the cat and adhered the ink blended panel with double sided tape.  I added foam squares behind the image and adhered it directly into the centre.  I stamped a sentiment in black ink onto white card and used the coordinating die to cut it out.  This was added below the image with liquid glue.  I didn't add anything else as I liked it as it was (plus I wanted to keep it as CAS as possible).  For the inside I cut another white panel and ink blended along the bottom and stamped the sentiment in black ink in the centre.  The panel was adhered to the card base with double sided tape.  

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

AAA Cards challenge - #303 1+1 (birthday and flowers)

Atlantic Hearts Sketch challenge - sketch 656

Crafty Animals challenge - ATG must include an animal

Critter Crazy challenge - ATG with a featured critter

Die Cut Divas challenge - critters (my sentiment is die cut)

Heart's Quest Celebrations of Love challenge - BEWAS (birthday)

Inspiration Station challenge - inspiration photo

Mix It Up challenge - ATG optional CAS

Paper Rocks Scissors challenge - use paper and/or scissors (I fussy cut my image with scissors)

Penny Black Saturday challenge - ATG optional music

Show Us Your Pussycats challenge - ATG must include a cat

Simply Clean and Simple challenge - ATG CAS goes optional holiday/winter

I hope you will be able to join us for our 'CAS' 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. 

Love and hugs,

card supplies:

Penny Black image was a magazine freebie from 2012!

Promarkers

Sakura - white no. 10 gelly roll pen

Limetree Craft - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Gina K Designs - sending flowers stamp & die set

Gina K Designs - on the inside - birthday stamp 

the green ink used for blending was GKD but I used what was left on my brush

Heffy Doodle - grey card for card base (store now closed)

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

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

ATC Scrap Makes IG Hop - November 25

Hello friends, I hope you're doing great and you've had a great start to your week. I'm sharing my creations for this month's ATC Scrap Makes IG Hop. We challenge you to use leftover die cuts, sentiments and card stock to create Artist Trading Cards (ATC's). You can send them in happy mail, save them on a ring to highlight your favorite creations, swap them with friends or add sweet notes to a lunchbox. Join us if you like; the only rules are to use scraps and create cards that are 2.5” x 3.5” in size. We share our little snippets of happiness on the third Tuesday of the month.

I found some images that came free with a card making magazine (the copyright date is 2012 so I've had them a while lol!) and as they were cute Penny Black images, which I love, I decided to use them on my ATC's this month.  If you've visited my blog recently you may have seen my CASE IT card here where I recycled a birthday card and matching envelope; well I still had some small scraps left over of the envelope so thought I would use it up and make my ATC's matchy-matchy this month. I love all of them this month but I do have a soft spot for the hedgies - which one is your favourite?

Here are my ATC's:

a closer look at each ATC:

How I simply decorated the backs:

 

So I began by cutting up the scraps left from the envelope so that I could utilise as much of it as possible.  I was able to cut one whole ATC and then strips and corners on the others.  I found a background I had stamped previously with a gauze stamp and for the others I used some coordinating coloured card from my scraps bin.  I coloured the images with Promarkers and fussy cut each one before adding some white gelly roll pen and shimmer pen highlights.  I adhered the papers to the ATC's with liquid glue and splattered some white gouache mixed with perfect pearls for a little shimmer (although it is very subtle).  I inked around the edges with pink ink for some extra interest.  I added foam squares behind each image and added them to the ATC's.  I stamped some uplifting sentiments in black ink onto white card (except for one that I stamped directly onto the ATC) and used coordinating dies for two of them and my paper trimmer for the final one.  I added the sentiments with liquid glue.  For the backs I simply add a tiny scrap of the envelope just to tie it all together, again inking around the edges with the pink ink.  Very bright and cheerful ATC's this month and I hope you like them. 

I would like to enter my ATC's into the following challenges:

Beautiful Blossoms challenge - anything floral goes optional mood board

Crafters Cafe challenge - ATG optional use some yellow

Crafty Animals challenge - ATG must include an animal

Critter Crazy challenge - ATG with a featured critter

Die Cut Divas challenge - critters (I die cut the sentiments)

The Neglected Stuff challenge - use old/neglected stuff (the images are from 2012)

Paper Rocks Scissors challenge - must use paper and/or scissors (I used scissors to fussy cut the images)

Penny Black Saturday challenge - ATG optional music

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

Triple B challenge - birds, blooms and/or butterflies (I have floral paper and 1 small butterfly) 

I hope you will pop over to Instagram and check out the hop; please use the hashtag #ATCscrapmakes2025 or #ATCscrapmakesoct25 to see all the gorgeous creations and also if you want to participate we will be able to find you.

I really appreciate you stopping by today.

Love and hugs,

 

ATC supplies:

Penny Black images were magazine freebies from 2012!

Promarkers

Sakura - white no. 10 gelly roll pen

Tonic - Nuvo aqua shimmer pen

Gina K Designs - lovely notes stamp & die set

Gina K Designs - enjoyable greetings stamp

Gina K Designs - layered carnation stamp

Gina K Designs - gauze background stamp

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

Ranger - perfect pearls in perfect pearl

Winsor & Newton - white gouache

recycled envelope for backgrounds

coloured card from scraps bin

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

Thank you x