Pearly Sparkles challenge - guest designer

Hello again friends; I'm like buses today - no posts for ages and then I'm back with my second post lol!  I am delighted to be a guest designer over at Pearly Sparkles challenge this month and their theme is 'anything but a card' so you can make bags, boxes, bookmarks, tags - the world's your oyster!  I can't wait to see what you create.

I had loads of ideas running through my mind and remembered I had this cute little gift bag die in my stash that I hadn't used for years.   So simple to make but really fun to decorate any way you want.  I hope you like it. 

Here is my bag:

A closer look at the adorable images:

A little decoration to the back:

I began by die cutting two pieces of the gift bag from a mid grey card and adhered them together with strong red line tape. I love the decorative edge and stitching detail around the handle. I stamped the images onto alcohol marker friendly card, coloured them with Promarkers and added some white gelly roll pen highlights.  I die cut them with the coordinating dies.  I used a strip of patterned paper and used a scallop border die to create the decorative edge on each side.  I added a white panel slightly smaller on top with double sided tape (I did ink blend some pink ink lightly over the white panel to soften it slightly).  The images were arranged over the strip and added with foam tape.  I stamped the sentiment onto white card with black ink and used a larger sentiment strip die to cut it out; this was adhered to the bottom of the bag with double sided tape.  For a finishing touch I wrapped some twine around the handle and tied it into a bow.   For the back of the bag I kept it really simple.  I added the same patterned paper and white card so that I could write a message to the recipient of the gift.  A really sweet and dinky little gift bag - it only measures 3" x 4" - but it would be perfect for some small chocolates or some jewellery.  

I would like to enter my gift bag into the following challenges:

* to be updated *

I would like to thank Helen and everyone at Pearly Sparkles challenge for having me as a guest this month. I hope you will be able to play along with the challenge and I cannot wait to see all your non-card projects.

Ok, that is it from me for today, but thank you for stopping by and visiting my corner of blogland.

Love and hugs,

card ingredients:

Lawn Fawn - goodie bag die

Lawn Fawn - year four stamp & die set

Lawn Fawn - spiffy speckles 6"x6" petite paper pack

Promarkers

Sakura - white no. 10 gelly roll pen

Clearly Besotted - scalloped edges die collection - retired

Gina K Designs - large strip sentiments dies

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card - not currently available

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card - store now closed

Versafine - onyx black ink pad

Memento - tuxedo black ink pad

grey card from stash

AAA Birthday challenge #71 - Masculine

Good morning friends and welcome to March and the first day of meteorological spring *yay*.  I'm sharing my card for this month's AAA Birthday challenge and this month our theme is 'masculine'. Now I know we all prefer to make pretty, girly, flowery creations but we do occasionally have to make cards for the men in our lives lol!  Please take on our challenge this month and get creating some masculine makes. Our guest designer this month is the lovely Ella so please pop over to her blog and leave her some love.

It was my nephew's birthday last week so it was perfect timing for my masculine make.  I had a new die set that I wanted to use so set to work.  This card would be suitable for males of all ages and full disclosure - my nephew was 36 this year!  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A close up of the monsters:

Plus I decorated the inside:

As my card was for a family member I made a 5" x 7" card size as always.  I began by cutting a panel from fog card 4 3/4" x 6 3/4" and used an embossing folder for some fun texture.  I added a black mat panel behind with double sided tape.  I die cut all the elements for the monsters from card in my scraps bin and adhered them together with liquid glue.  I stamped the 'monster' sentiment onto alcohol marker friendly card, coloured it with Promarkers and used the coordinating die to cut it out.  I also die cut the letters to spell 'nephew' from black card 4 times and adhered them together with liquid glue.  I stamped rest of the sentiment onto white card with black ink and used sentiment strip dies to cut them out.  Now that I had all my elements ready I arranged them onto my card.  I added the die cut monsters and 'monster' sentiment with foam squares and the remainder with liquid glue.  I didn't add any embellishments as I thought there was enough going on, especially with the embossed background.  Instead of adding foam tape for dimension I used 4 layers of scrap card behind my panel and added it to my card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut a white panel 4 3/4" x 6 3/4" and adhered this to a black mat panel with double sided tape.  I embossed another piece of fog card and cut it into two strips, adhering one to the top and one to the bottom of the panel with double sided tape.  For a fun twist I partially die cut one of the monsters and adhered him at the bottom left of the panel so that it looked like he was peeking over the embossed panel.  Finally I stamped a sentiment in the centre with black ink.  The panel was added to my card base with double sided tape.  A really fun card and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It could be sent to a 4 year old or a 40 year old I think!

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

* to be updated * 

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,

card ingredients: 

Spellbinders - monster love pop die set

Spellbinders - splatter embossing folder - currently on sale!

Neat & Tangled - little monster stamp & die set (for monster word) - store now closed

Promarkers

MFT - little letters die set - retired

MFT - purr-fect birthday stamp (for partial sentiment)

Gina K Designs - sentiment strips dies

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

Simon Says Stamp - fog card stock

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card - currently not available

Versafine - onyx black ink pad

coloured card from scraps bin

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card - store now closed