Krafty Chicks challenge #758 - Birthday

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 1, our theme is 'birthday' and our hostess is Leanne. We always need birthday cards, gift packaging and decorations so I'm sure you will find this week a breeze! We hope you will come over and join in the fun with us.

It was my mother-in-law's birthday recently so this challenge was perfect timing for me.  I grabbed some new supplies from Gina K Designs and got to work.  It's a really pretty stamp, die and stencil combo and my MIL loved it.  I hope you like it too.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the flowers:

Plus I decorated the inside:

As always for my family cards I used a 5" x 7" card base.  I cut a white panel 4 3/4" x 6 3/4" and stamped half of the 'double background 1' in soft stone ink.  I used the half that resembles leaves and although it wasn't quite big enough I don't think it looks glaringly obvious.  I matted this onto a slightly larger black card panel with double sided tape.  I stamped two of the flower arrangements, used the coordinating stencils to colour them in and cut them out with the matching dies.  I also stamped the happy birthday sentiment from the same stamp set in black ink and used the coordinating die to cut it out.  I cut the decorative label from master layouts 10 and also the slightly larger mat label from black card (although once I placed the flowers on top you couldn't really tell it was a decorative label lol!).  Before adding it to my panel I stamped the mother word directly onto the label with black ink.  I adhered the label with foam squares and placed the flower arrangements at the top and bottom with foam squares.  I added the happy birthday sentiment above the mother word with foam squares.  I added some scrap card stock behind my panel for dimension and it was then added to my card base with double sided tape.  I finished off with a few gold pearls.  For the inside I cut a white panel 4 3/4" x 6 3/4" and matted it onto a black card panel with double sided tape.  I stamped another of the leafy backgrounds and cut it into a strip and added it to the bottom of the panel with double sided tape.  I cut a thin strip of black card and added this above it.  I die cut a flower and ink blended it in the same colours as the flowers on the front of my card and added that in left lower corner with liquid glue.  Finally I stamped a sentiment in the centre of the panel using black ink.  The panel was added to my card base with double sided tape.  A really pretty and elegant card I think and I love using all the coordinating product from Gina K Designs.  

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

As You Like It challenge - monochrome or colour (colourful cards as they are bright and happy)

Beautiful Blossoms challenge - anything floral goes (optional mood board)

Cardz 4 Galz challenge - Mother's Day or for a special lady

Craft Rocket challenge - for the girls

Crafty Catz challenge - ATG optional twist for the girls

Get Creative challenge - happy birthday Barbie! (make a card for a woman)

Halloween & Other Occasions challenge - birthday

Little Red Wagon challenge - B is for birthday

Sweet Stampin' challenge - special women

Triple B challenge - use at least one bird, bloom or butterfly (optional mood board)

Try It On Tuesday challenge - for a lady

Word Power challenge - make the sentiment the focus of your card

I hope you will be able to join us for our 'birthday' 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 ingredients:

Gina K Designs - spring clusters stamp & die bundle

Gina K Designs - spring clusters stencils

Gina K Designs - double background 1/grip mat

Gina K Designs - lovely ladies stamp set

Gina K Designs - Master Layouts 10 die set (for decorative label)

Gina K Designs - let's get started die set (free with the intri-cut machine)

Gina K Designs - perfect posy stamp (for inside greeting)

Gina K Designs - ink pads - sunkissed coral, butterscotch, jelly bean green, soft stone

Gina K Designs - black, gold & silver pearl mix

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

Hobbycraft - A4 black card

Versafine - onyx black ink pad

Cards for All Seasons IG Hop - Week 5

Hello friends; I hope you're having a great week so far. I'm back today 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 5 and this week our theme is 'carnival party'; think theme parks, carnival festivities, masks, masquerades, tickets, colours and more.  A really fun theme and I can't wait to see what sparks your imagination.

I immediately thought of a circus and even though I don't have many circus themed products I did find a super cute clown stamp set that I thought would be perfect.  It's bright and happy and I hope you like it. 

Here is my card:

A closer look at the clowns:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by stamping the images onto alcohol marker friendly card, coloured them with Promarkers and added some white gelly roll pen highlights.  I used the coordinating dies to cut them out.  I really wanted to have a big top on my card but didn't have any images or dies I could use.  I decided to make my own and used some stencils to create my own big top background.  I used a sunrise stencil at the top and a striped stencil at the bottom of my panel and inked them up with red ink.  Where the 'join' was I die cut a scalloped border to resemble the ruffles on the big top.  I'm so happy with how it turned out.  I stamped the sentiments onto white card and die cut them out with a sentiment strip die however afterwards I decided the stamp the second part of the sentiment directly onto the scalloped border.  I thought the girl clown looked like she was balancing so using black twine I made a high wire for her to stand on.  I added the clowns, balloons and 1 sentiment with foam squares.  I also die cut some tickets from white card, inked them with the same red ink and wrote 'circus admit one' onto one of them.  The plain one was added with liquid glue and the top one with foam tape.  For a final finishing touch I added a few red pearl dots.  Instead of foam tape I added scrap card behind my panel and added this to my card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and using the striped stencil and red ink created a border at the bottom.  I stamped, coloured and die cut another clown and balloon and added them to the left corner with liquid glue.  I also created two more tickets and added them to the right corner with liquid glue.  I created my sentiment from two different stamp sets (I bravely did some stamp surgery) and stamped it in black ink.  The panel was added to my card base with double sided tape.  It is such a fun card and it brings a smile to my face. 

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

Crafter's Cafe challenge - ATG optional twist spots and/or stripes

Creative Inspirations challenge - ATG

Creative Knockouts challenge - finish the inside

Halloween & Other Occasions challenge - birthday

I Love Promarkers challenge - ATG or wings

Just Us Girls challenge - ATG stencil week

Little Red Wagon challenge - B is for birthday

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge - use your favourite technique (stencilling)

Stencil Fun challenge - ATG with stencils optional splatters

I hope you will pop over to Instagram and check out the hop; please use the hashtag #cardsforallseasonshop2025 to see all the gorgeous creations and also if you want to participate we will be able to find you.

I'll be back in the morning with my card for the Krafty Chicks challenge so I hope you will pop back and check it out. Until then thank you so much for stopping by.

Love and hugs,

card ingredients:

CC Designs - clowns clear stamp & die set

Promarkers

Gina K Designs - sunshine stencil

MFT - diagonal stripes stencil

Clearly Besotted - decorative edge die collection - retired

Gina K Designs - red hot ink pad

Gina K Designs - sentiment strips dies

Sakura - white no. 10 gelly roll pen

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

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card - store now closed

Memento - tuxedo black ink pad

Memento - tuxedo black pen 

Versafine - onyx black ink pad

Spellbinders - fashion poppy color essential pearl dots

black twine from stash

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:

Alphabet challenge - w for wings (my little bird has wings)

Crafty Animals challenge - ATG must include an animal

Crafty Calendar challenge - more than one fold

Crafty Catz challenge - ATG optional twist for the girls

Critter Crazy challenge - ATG with a featured critter

Cut It Up challenge - tie it up (I used twine)

Die Cut Divas challenge - critters

I Love Promarkers challenge - ATG or add some sparkle

Little Red Wagon challenge - tiny dancer (the gift bag is dinky 3"x4")

My Time to Craft challenge - 1-2-3 recipe (1 sentiment, 2 critters, 3 balloons)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

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:

As You Like It challenge - masculine or feminine (I do find feminine cards easier to make but enjoy the challenge of making masculine cards.  I have a hubby, 2 sons, and a nephew so had lots of practice)

Can You Handle The Pressure challenge - ATG embossing with a twist of masculine

Creative Knockouts challenge - finish the inside

Fab 'n' Funky challenge - fantasy/myth

Halloween & Other Occasions challenge - birthday

Mix It Up challenge - ATG optionals layers

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

The Male Room challenge - monochrome (blues with neutral colours black, white & grey)

Try It On Tuesday challenge - Boss it (I used an embossing folder)

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