Stencil Fun IG Hop - October

Happy Sunday friends; I hope you've all had a great weekend so far. Today I am sharing my card for this month's Stencil Fun IG Hop organised by my lovely friend Jane. We a group of crafters who are determined to use their forgotten and neglected stencils. I'm definitely guilty of this; I have so many stencils but usually forget to reach for them so this hop is perfect for me. The theme is always anything goes but we will have an optional theme to use if we want to. This month's optional theme is 'Halloween' and I'm excited to see who has used this optional theme.

I know it's hard to believe but I didn't actually have a Halloween stencil in my stash - I know shocker - so of course I had to go shopping!!  I decided upon a Halloween script stencil as I thought it would make a fun background and I also went with a shaker element too.   I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I also decorated the envelope:

I began by ink blending my background with orange, lime green and purple inks, I then placed the stencil over top and stencilled with black ink to achieve the 'reverse stencil' technique (which I have done once before here).  I added some white gel pen highlights which I think really makes the background pop and I cut the panel down to 4" x 5 1/4".  At this point I decided to make a shaker card so I cut a circle from the upper centre of the panel and also cut a slightly smaller circle from an orange panel so that I could have a inside mat layer.  I adhered the two panels together with liquid glue and then added a piece of clear plastic (salvaged from some packaging) for my window with double sided tape.  I die cut the letters for the word 'eek' 4 times and adhered them together with liquid glue and also die cut some bats from black card.  I stamped and white heat embossed the sentiment and cut it out with a sentiment strips die.  I decided to trim the panel down slightly and added an orange mat layer behind it with double sided tape.  I found a sequin mix that included some orange, purple and green sequins so used that inside my shaker window along with some of the bats.  I added thin foam tape around the window and adhered it together to seal the window. I added the eek word with liquid glue and the sentiment with black foam squares.  I added some scrap card behind my panel with double sided tape and adhered it to a black card base for some extra drama.  For the inside I cut a white panel 3 7/8" x 5 1/8" and adhered it to an orange mat layer.  I adhered a strip of the stencilled background down the left side of the white panel and stamped the sentiment in black ink.   I also added one of the bats in the top right hand corner with liquid glue.  As I had the circle left over from cutting out the window and a thin strip of the background still left I decided to decorate the front and back of my envelope too.  

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

AAA Colourful challenge - colour board #20

A Cut Above challenge - ATG with a die cut

Aud Sentiments challenge - ink blending and/or fall/thanksgiving + sentiment

Craft Rocket challenge - autumn/Halloween

Crafty Calendar challenge - Halloween 

Crafty Gals Corner challenge - spooky....... colours/words

Creative Inspirations challenge - autumn/something spooky

Daisy Chain challenge - autumn/Halloween

Inkspirational challenge - seasonal (Halloween)

Just Us Girls challenge - word week: Halloween

Little Red Wagon challenge - Halloween

Moving Along With The Times challenge - sentiment as the focus

Stencil Fun challenge - ATG with a stencil optional theme Halloween

The Paper Funday challenge - ATG optional twist cute or creepy

Tic Tac Toe challenge - stencil, free, embossing (my sentiment is heat embossed)

Unicorn challenge - autumn and/or Halloween

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

We hope you will be inspired by our Stencil Fun Instagram Hop and will pop over and check out all the gorgeous cards along the way. If you would like to join us please visit my Instagram page or use the hashtag #stencilfunoctober2025 and we will find you.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

Lots of love

card supplies:

Pretty Pink Posh - Halloween words stencil

Gina K Designs - ink pads - tangerine twist, key lime, wild wisteria*

Gina K Designs - large strip sentiments dies*

Gina K Designs - white pigment ink cube*

Waffle Flower - nesting circle dies

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Limetree Crafts - 220gsm black card

Clearly Besotted - fright night stamp - retired

Spellbinders - simply perfect alphabets dies

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

WOW! - clear gloss super fine embossing powder

Sakura - white no.10 gelly roll pen

Little Things From Lucy's Cards - sprinkles rainbow circles sequins - store now closed

orange card from my stash

* I now have an Affiliate Link for the Gina K Designs store.  If 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

CASE IT IG Hop - October 25

Hello again friends. I hope you've had a great day so far. I'm back to share this month's card for the CASE IT Instagram Hop where we find a project on Instagram that inspires us and we will share that project as well as the project we’ve created that was inspired by that original. There are so many beautiful creations on Instagram the only difficult part is narrowing down which one to CASE (which means Copy And Share Everything).

This month I was inspired by Verena (@simple_stamper over on IG); her cards are beautiful and this one is so soft and instantly caught my eye.  I needed a birthday card for my sister in law so changed the snowflakes to butterflies and went with pink instead of blue.  You can definitely see that my card was inspired by hers!  Here is her card for my inspiration:

So if we use Ardyth's LIMES process (you can watch her video here) we list what we see - Verena has used blues and silver, snowflakes, soft ink blended background and a diagonal arrangement. So I included the ink blended background and diagonal arrangement but modified mine by using butterflies, pink and gold.  I excluded that the snowflakes fade to white, the water droplets and used gold splatter instead.  My spin is that my card is larger at 6" x 8" in size.  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by making my card base from a 12" x 12" piece of white card; this was cut to 12" x 8" and scored on the 12" side at 6".  I then cut a white panel 5 3/4" x 7 3/4" and ink blended the top 2/3rds using a pink ink; as in Verena's card I went heavier at the top and faded out to white towards the bottom.  I added gold and white splatter and set it aside to dry.  I then die cut my butterflies from light and dark pink card and cut the bodies from gold mirri card; I adhered them together with liquid glue. I stamped the sentiment using black ink (not sure why I didn't do gold but I think it looks ok) using a mixture of stamp sets and cut it out with my trimmer.  I can't tell you how much faffing I did with the butterflies to get an arrangement I was happy with but eventually I did and added the smaller ones with liquid glue and the 3 larger ones with foam squares.  I added the sentiment with foam squares overlapping the butterflies and finished off with some gold sequins.  I added some scrap card behind the panel for stability and dimension and adhered it to my card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut another piece of white card 5 3/4" x 7 3/4" and ink blended the lower third with the pink ink.  I again added some splatter as before.  I die cut two more butterflies and adhered them with liquid glue.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink.  I decided to add a gold mirri mat layer to bring a bit more gold to the inside so trimmed my white panel down a little and adhered it to the gold layer with double sided tape.  This was then added to the card base with double sided tape.  

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

613 Avenue Create challenge - think pink

A Cut Above challenge - ATG with a die cut (3rd entry)

Aud Sentiments challenge - ink blending and/or fall/thanksgiving + sentiment

Crafty Animals challenge - ATG but must include an animal

Creative Moments challenge - things with wings

Critter Crazy challenge - ATG with a featured critter

Cut It Up challenge - use more than 1 die (3rd entry)

Heart's Quest Celebrations of Love challenge - BEWAS optional Thanksgiving or appreciation

Let's Craft & Create challenge - things with wings

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - bright and colourful

Triple B challenge - birds, blooms and/or butterflies optional inspiration board

We hope you will be inspired by our CASE IT Instagram Hop and will pop over and check out all the gorgeous cards along the way. If you would like to join us please visit my Instagram page or use the hashtag #caseithop and we will find you.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Lots of love

card supplies:

Craft Addiction UK - wings of elegance

Gina K Designs - innocent pink ink pad

Uniko Stamps - floral vines stamp (for HBD)

Uniko Stamps - everyday family (for sister)

Clearly Besotted - friends & family stamp (for sub sentiment) - retired

Spellbinders - gold smooth discs color essential sequins

LOTV - verse polymer stamp (for inside greeting) - no longer available

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

gold mirri card from stash

pink card from scraps bin

Krafty Chicks challenge #789 - Christmas

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 2; as always the theme is 'Christmas' and I am your hostess. Scarily Christmas is not that far away now so if you haven't started your cards yet this is the perfect opportunity to begin.  Obviously if you have joined in with us since January then it's another card to add to the pile, which really takes the stress off. We hope you will come over and join in the fun with us.

I just received the latest kit from Gina K Designs yesterday so it was the perfect excuse to dig out my new goodies.  I made a US A6 sized card (4 1/2" x 6 1/4") and went for a soft lilac colour scheme and lots of bling.  I hope you like it.  

I'm sorry about the photos today; I must have taken 20 photos and they were all awful, my card is so soft and pretty in real life but the photos don't really show it off to it's full potential.  I think I will have to try and find my photo light box and see if that makes a difference!

Here is my card:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

The free gift in the kit was a 3D embossing folder/stencil/die bundle so I used this today.  I began by stencilling the background with a light and medium lilac ink and used the matching die to cut out the ornament.  I probably could have gone a little darker but I wanted it soft and light.  I then used the coordinating 3D embossing folder to emboss the pattern, which looks amazing in real life.  I cut a white panel with a stitched rectangle and also the mat layer from gold mirri card.  I stamped the snowy background onto the white panel using the darker lilac ink.  I die cut the ornament top and 'string' from the gold card.  I adhered the panels together with double sided tape, added the string with liquid glue and the ornament was added over top with foam squares.  I stamped and gold heat embossed the sentiment and cut it out with the coordinating die before adding it above the ornament with foam squares.  I used the lots of dots die and cut out loads of gold dots which I added to the ornament with liquid glue.  I added some scrap white card behind my panel and then this was adhered to my card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut another white stitched panel and gold mat layer and adhered them together with double sided tape.  I had some of the ornament background and snowy background left over so added one to the top and one to the bottom of the panel with liquid glue.  Finally I stamped the sentiment in the darker lilac ink before adding the panel to the card base with double sided tape.  

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

The 12 months of Christmas Link Up challenge - ATG optional twist snowfall

ABC Christmas challenge - v is for vertical

A Cut Above challenge - ATG with a die cut

As You Like It challenge - square or not (these days my usual go-to is a rectangle card base)

Creative Crafting Uncles - males go feminine

Cut It Up challenge - use more than 1 die

Merry Little Christmas challenge - ATG Christmas

Peace On Earth Christmas challenge - anything Christmas themed

Sparkles Christmas challenge - non traditional Christmas colours 

Stencil Fun challenge - anything stencil goes optional them Halloween

The Dream Factory challenge - use mainly purple

The Holly & Ivy Christmas challenge - anything Christmas goes 

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

Gina K Designs - a little something card kit (currently only available as a kit but everything will be available individually at the end of the month)

Gina K Designs - snowy background stamp

Gina K Designs - Master Layouts 17 (for stitched and plain rectangle)

Gina K Designs - O Christmas tree stamp & die set (for sentiments)

Gina K Designs - lots of dots die set (for gold dots)

Gina K Designs - layering ink pads - light lilac & medium lilac

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Versamark - watermark ink pad

Cosmic Shimmer - detail bright gold embossing powder

gold mirri card from stash

Gorgeous Gift Tags IG Hop - October 25

Hello friends, I hope you're doing ok and that you've had a lovely day so far. It's time for a new theme for the Gorgeous Gift Tags IG Hop, which takes place on the 5th of each month. You always have the option to go for anything goes but the extra prompt this month is 'Halloween', which is great theme and with so many images to choose from such as ghosts, spiders, witches, or even cute trick or treaters, the world is your oyster! I can't wait to see what the rest of my fellow hoppers have made. I hope you can pop over to Instagram and join us. 

I don't make many Halloween things as a rule but as I had bought a new stamp I would have been rude not to use it lol!  I went for a bright lime green and black colour combo and I have to say I love how it turned out.  I hope you like it too. 

Here is my tag:

A closer look at the details:

I decorated the backs too:

I began by die cutting two tags from white card.  I used a lime green ink pad to ink blend over the front of one of them and I went with a heavier hand around the edge for some contrast.  I used my new background stamp and stamped it over the ink blending with black ink.  I also added some black ink around the edge of the tag.  I die cut a spider web from black card and adhered it to the top left corner of the tag with liquid glue.  I die cut a ghost from white card 4 times and adhered them together with liquid glue; I added some black card behind his eyes and mouth also with liquid glue.  I adhered the ghost to the tag with liquid glue.  I stamped the sentiment onto black card with watermark ink and white heat embossed it before cutting it out with a sentiment strips die.  I added that above the ghost with foam squares.  For the back of this tag I found some lime green paper almost the same colour as my ink blending and adhered that with liquid glue.  I had a little piece of the spider web die cut left over from the front so added that to the bottom right corner with liquid glue.  I stamped a sentiment at the very bottom of the tag with black ink.  For the second tag I kept it really simple; I added a piece of striped paper to the front of the tag and adhered another spider web in the right bottom corner with liquid glue and for the back of the tag I simply covered it with black card to continue the spooky vibe.  I tied both the tags together with lime green spotty ribbon and then added some black twine which I tied into a bow for some extra decoration.  

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

AAA Colourful challenge - colour board #20 (I used lime green & black)

Craft Rocket challenge - autumn/Halloween

Crafty Calendar challenge - Halloween

Creative Inspirations challenge - autumn/something spooky

Cut It Up challenge - use more than one die (tag, web, ghost, sentiment strip die)

Double D challenge - trick or treat, smell my feet

Heart's Quest for Shaped Cards & Tags challenge - ATG on a shaped card or tag

If You Give A Crafter A Cookie challenge - spooky fun

Little Red Wagon challenge - H is for holidays (I chose Halloween)

Stamping Sensations challenge - autumn

Tag-along (+ ATC's) challenge - anything autumn

The Four Seasons challenge - ATG fall optional mood board

The Paper Funday challenge - ATG optional cute or creepy

Tic Tac Toe challenge - top row across: die cut/twine/embossing

We Love Stamping challenge - anything autumn

We hope you will be inspired by our Gorgeous Gift Tags Instagram Hop and will pop over and check out all the gorgeous tags along the way. If you would like to join us please visit my Instagram page or use the hashtag #gorgeousgifttagsOct2025 and we will find your tags.

Thanks for stopping by and take care.

Lots of love

tag supplies:

Waffle Flower - nesting tag dies

Creative Expressions - ghostly manor rubber stamp

Gina K Designs - key lime ink pad

Gina K Designs - large strip sentiments dies

Spellbinders - harvest magic die set (for ghost)

Marianne Design - spiderweb die

MFT - fab-boo-lous friends stamp (for sentiment)

MFT - black & white stripes 6x6 paper pack

WOW! - opaque bright white super fine embossing powder

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Limetree Crafts - 220gsm black card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

Versamark - watermark ink pad

lime paper from stash

Krafty Chicks challenge #788 - 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 we are on Week 1; as always the theme is 'birthday' and Leanne is our hostess. It can't get any easier than this week's challenge so we hope you will come over and join in the fun with us.

My mother asked me to make a 75th birthday card for her friend and this is the card I'm sharing today.  I actually ended up making 3 cards for the same lady as her friends also asked me to make cards for them, but they'll be shared another day.  I always stress when I have to make multiple cards for the same person as I don't want them to be too similar but it got done lol!   The card size is 7" x 7" as it was for a special occasion and I am really happy with how it turned out.  I hope you like it too (despite my terrible photos).

Here is my card:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began making my card base by cutting one panel 7" x 7" and one panel 7" x 8"; I scored at 1" on the 8" side and used that as a hinge to join my panels together with super strong red liner tape.  I cut a white panel 6 1/2" square and embossed it with a gorgeous leafy EF (I did have to use my larger electronic die cutting machine and move the panel and emboss the other edge as the folder wasn't quite large enough but it's such a busy pattern I don't think it's that noticeable.  I cut a mat layer from gold mirri card and adhered them together with double sided tape.  I die cut the gorgeous butterflies from glitter card and the bodies from the gold mirri card and assembled them with liquid glue.  I also die cut the large sentiment from glitter card and the shadow from gold and the 75 was cut from gold too.  Whilst I had the die cutting machine out I also cut some small gold circles to use as embellishments.  Once I decided on my layout I adhered the butterflies and large sentiment with foam squares and the 75 and gold circles with liquid glue.  I added some scrap white card behind the panel for stability and dimension before adhering it to the card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut another white panel 6 1/2" square and again matted it onto a gold layer with double sided tape.  I embossed another piece of white card and cut it into two strips for the top and bottom of the panel.  I die cut one more large butterfly and adhered that to the bottom right corner with liquid glue and finally stamped the sentiment in black ink in the bottom left corner as I thought it balanced the large butterfly really well and left more room for my mother to write her message.  It is so sparkly in real life and so pretty.  

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

As You Like It challenge - favourite: square or not (I mostly make rectangle cards but for special occasions I make larger 7x7 cards like this one)

Can You Handle The Pressure challenge - anything embossing goes optional twist trees/leaves

Christmas (or not) BINGO challenge - Line B: white on white, free, scored or textured details

Crafty Animals challenge - ATG with a featured animal

Creative Crafting Uncles - males go feminine

Critter Crazy challenge - ATG with a featured critter 

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 supplies:

Craft Addiction UK - wings of elegance die set

Spellbinders - colorful expressions sentiment dies - on sale at present!

Spellbinders - simply perfect alphabet dies (for the numbers)

Spellbinders - branching out embossing folder

Tonic Studios - sugar crystal glitter card

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm simply the best smooth white 12x12 card

Gina K Designs - lots of dots die set (for circle embellishments)

Gina K Designs - big birthday stamp (for inside sentiment)

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

gold mirri card from my stash

Cards for All Seasons IG Hop Week 20 - anything pumpkin!

Hello again friends; I'm bombarding you with posts today - hopefully you don't mind!!  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 20 and our theme is 'anything pumpkin'. Such a fun theme this week and even if pumpkins are not your thing you could just use lots of orange instead.  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 was a bit short on time this week so went clean and simple for my layout and used ephemera and patterned paper for a quick card.  I really like how it turned out though and I hope you do too!

Here is my card:

A closer look at the pumpkins:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a white panel 3 7/8" x 5 1/8" and mat it onto an orange layer cut to 4" x 5 1/4".  I cut a piece of the patterned paper 1 3/8" x 5 1/8" and adhered it to the right side of the white panel with double sided tape.  I know you can only just see it but I did add a thin strip of orange card along the edge of the paper with liquid glue.  I die cut the pumpkins from the ephemera sheet using the coordinating die, added foam squares and arranged them down the card along the join where the white card and paper meet.  I didn't have time to root around my stash for the perfect sentiment so made my own and printed it out.  I die cut the sentiment with a sentiment strips die and added it over the pumpkins with foam squares.  I added some scrap white card behind my panel and adhered it to the card base with double sided tape.  No embellishments this time as I liked the CAS design as it was.  For the inside I thought I would create a punny sentiment (as I'm hilarious in my own mind lol!) and thought this one was really fun.  I again used the computer and printed it out and used my master layouts to cut out the panel along with a panel from orange card.  I adhered the panels together with double sided tape.  I used the left over paper along the bottom of the panel and again added a thin strip of orange card along the edge.  I had two pumpkins left over too so added them in the left lower corner with liquid glue.  The panel was adhered to the card base with double sided tape.  A really fun card which took hardly any time to make - so win-win!  

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

Cardz 4 Guyz challenge - autumn/fall

CAS on Friday challenge - sketch

Color Throwdown challenge - green, red and orange

Crafty Gals Corner challenge - fall___ colours and pumpkins

Creative Inspirations challenge - autumn/something spooky

Crafty Catz challenge - ATG optional twist autumn/fall colours

Dream Valley challenge - autumn colours

Everybody Art challenge - clean and simple

If You Give A Crafter A Cookie challenge - spooky fun (inspired by the pumpkins)

Make My Monday challenge - autumnal festival/autumnal fall

Papercraft challenges - amazing autumn

Pearly Sparkles challenge - pumpkins and/or autumn leaves 

PINspirational challenge - pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere optional inspiration photo

The Four Seasons challenge - ATG fall optional mood board

Tic Tac Toe challenge - orange, plaid, pumpkin

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.

I'll be back tomorrow 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 supplies:

Gina K Designs - autumn splendor ephemera sheets & coordinating die plate

Gina K Designs - autumn splendor 6x6 patterned paper pack

Gina K Designs - master layouts 01 die set

Gina K Designs - large strip sentiments dies

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

orange card from my stash