Stamptember 2025!

Hello again friends; I hope you've had a great day so far.  I'm back again to share a card as part of this year's 16th celebration of STAMPtember from Simon Says Stamp.  The stamp set I am using literally dropped on my mat this lunchtime so I excitedly made a quick card to share with you.  I was lucky to be gifted the awesome stamp set called 'shiny baubles' which is part of Simon Says Stamp own STAMPtember release; this is not limited edition and will be restocked as needed.  

Today we are revealing NEW Simon Says Stamp-branded products designed to inspire and delight you. All are available exclusively at SimonSaysStamp.com. You’ll see intriguing new stamps (of course), inks, dies, embossing folders, and stencils, as well as some other fun surprises. 

During STAMPtember®, they will also be releasing EXCLUSIVE products made in partnership with many of the industry’s finest brands and ONLY available at SimonSaysStamp.com!  Heidi is going live tomorrow (Tuesday 2nd September at 12 noon ET) with STAMPtember exclusives, news, inspiration, prizes and much more so pop over to YouTube and set up your notification as you won't want to miss it!

I stamped each bauble with two colours of ink and added some gold heat embossing.  I hope you like it. 

Here is my card:

A closer look at the baubles:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a panel from fog card 4" x 5 1/4" and created my own background with the small star stamps in the set.  I stamped the larger bauble in two contrasting colours of red ink and the smaller bauble in two shades of green ink, adding the extra details in the darker shade of ink.  I added the toppers and focal images in the centre with gold heat embossing.  I don't have the dies so I fussy cut out the baubles.  I also gold heat embossed the sentiment directly onto the bottom of the panel.  I made a hole at the top of the baubles with my pokey tool and threaded some gold thread which I secured at the back with double sided tape.  The baubles were added with foam squares.  I added some scrap white card behind my panel for stability and dimension and added it to my card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I simply stamped a strip of the fog card with the stars and added it to the bottom of my white panel with liquid glue.  I gold heat embossed another sentiment from the stamp set in the centre.  The panel was adhered to the card base with double sided tape.  I'm hoping to create a few more cards throughout the month using this stamp set so stay tuned.  

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

* to be updated *

There is loads of inspiration over on the Simon Says Stamp Blog and also over on Instagram. Please use the hashtags #stamptember #stamptember2025 #sssstamptember to check out what everyone is making.  

Thanks for stopping by and leaving me such lovely comments. 

Love and hugs, 

card supplies:

Simon Says Stamp - shiny baubles stamp set (gifted)

Simon Says Stamp - fog card stock

Gina K Designs - ink pads - red hot, faded brick, jelly bean green, fresh asparagus, soft stone

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Cosmic Shimmer - detail bright gold embossing powder

Versamark - watermark ink pad

gold thread from stash

AAA Birthday challenge #77 - snarky

Hello again friends and happy 1st of September.  I hope you all had a wonderful summer and the kids are ready to go back to school soon.   Let's hope the first of the 'ber' months isn't too bad and we have some crisp, dry days and not lots of rain!  

I'm here today to share my card for this month's AAA Birthday challenge and this month our theme is 'snarky' which is such a fun challenge. The urban dictionary's definition is:

"Snarky" is used to describe speech with a specific emotional tone, typically a form of sarcasm informed by cheekiness and a mild, playful irreverence or impudence".

We all love playful, fun sentiments and there are loads of stamp companies that make these types of greetings.  Dig through your stash, I'm sure you have some; even if it's just 'you're how old?'  Our guest designer this month is the lovely Carol so please pop over to her blog and leave her some love.

As you know I love MFT Stamps (so sad they are now closed) and I had the perfect set for this challenge.  I don't think I will ever not grab for my MFT products as they are so fun.  Anyway enough waffling, I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the image:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a white panel using a stitched rectangle die.  I cut the strip of striped patterned paper using a torn edge die and also the stitched rectangle die so that it would match up with the white panel (in hinsight I could have skipped the torn edge as I ended up covering most of it lol!).  I adhered this to the left edge of the panel with liquid glue.  I cut a small strip of spotty paper and added that to the bottom of the panel with liquid glue.  I also die cut a stitched rounded rectangle from some grid paper and adhered that to the centre with double sided tape, overlapping the other patterned papers.  I stamped the image onto alcohol marker friendly card and coloured it with Promarkers.  I don't have the dies for this set so I fussy cut him out.  I stamped the snarky sentiment onto orange card with Versamark ink and white heat embossed it, using my trimmer to cut it out.  I added foam squares to the sentiment and image and adhered the sentiment just overlapping the spotty paper and the image on top so that he looked like he was standing on it.  I finished off with some enamel dots (still trying to use them up).  For the inside I cut a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and added a strip of orange card at the bottom with double sided tape and then a piece of the striped paper with liquid glue, which I again cut with the torn edge die.  I fussy cut another image, but this time only the top half, coloured him with Promarkers and added him with liquid glue.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre with navy ink.  The panel was adhered to the card base with double sided tape.  A really fun card and I think this will be perfect for any of my older relatives.  

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

A Cut Above challenge - ATG with a die cut

Allsorts challenge - birthdays or ATG (it is a birthday card, it says HBD on the inside)

As You Like It challenge - favourite colouring medium (I have used Promarkers for over 15 years; they blend well and most of my pens are the original ones and are still going strong)

Cheerful Sketches challenge - sketch 148

Christmas (or not) BINGO challenge - Line N - stripes, free, stamped phrase

Crafter's Cafe challenge - ATG optional 'use patterned papers'

Dragonfly Dreams challenge - lots of layers

Dream Valley challenge - 2 or more papers

Girlz makes Guyz Cards challenge - ATG men

Little Red Wagon challenge - G is for gentlemen

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge - stamp it in STAMPtember

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

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 supplies:

MFT - old friends stamp

MFT - blueprints 13 (for stitched rectangle)

MFT - torn paper edges die set

MFT - stitched rounded rectangle stack die set

LDRS Creative - happy fall 6x6 paper pad (for striped paper)

My Mind's Eye - now & then 'Izzy' 6x6 paper pad (for other papers)

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Versamark - watermark ink pad

WOW! - opaque bright white super fine embossing powder

Gina K Designs - in the navy ink pad

Your Next Stamp - self adhesive enamel dots - summer chill & white sugar & sparkle

orange card from my scraps bin

Krafty Chicks challenge #783 - Masculine

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 4; as always the theme is 'masculine' and Lori is our hostess (although she is currently taking a short break). I know masculine makes can be difficult but we always need them so take the challenge and get ahead. We hope you will come over and join in the fun with us.

I recently purchased some new stamps from Uniko Stamps and they are perfect for clean and simple masculine makes.  I had fun creating my random pattern and although I'm not that good at random I think it turned out great.  I really enjoyed just using inks, stamps and paper for this card and the finished size is 5" x 7".  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at my stamping:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by creating my card base using white card cut to 10" x 7" and scoring on the long side at 5".  I cut a panel 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" from the same white card and using 4 different blue ink pads stamped my random pattern across the top half of the panel.  I also used a line stamp from the set and stamped that with black ink which I think is really fun.  I stamped the sentiment below using black ink and simply mounted the panel onto some blue card with double sided tape.  I added some scraps of the blue card behind my panel for dimension and stability and then this was adhered to the card base with double sided tape.  No embellishments this time as I don't think men really like them that much.  For the inside I cut another white panel and blue mat panel the same as the front.  I stamped a smaller version of the pattern at the bottom of the panel and a sentiment in the centre with black ink.  The panels were adhered together with double sided tape and then also added to the card base with double sided tape.  I really like how this card turned out; the stamp set is so much fun and there are unlimited ways to create fun patterns with it.  

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

AAA Cards challenge - anything CAS goes optional twist 'all the greens'

Allsorts challenge - I spy with something beginning with B - blue, birthday

Classic Design challenge - anything goes optional twist 'happy birthday'

Girlz makes Guyz Cards challenge - anything goes men

Halloween & Other Occasions challenge - birthday

Inkspirational challenge - clean and simple optional twist 'flowers'

Little Red Wagon challenge - G is for gentlemen

Simply Clean and Simple challenge - ATG CAS optional twist 'cute animals'

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG 

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: mid century modern stamp

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

Uniko Stamps - birthday sentiments stamp (for inside sentiment)

Gina K Designs - ink pads - blue sky, blue raspberry, blue denim, in the navy

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

blue card from stash

Krafty Chicks challenge #782 - CAS

Good morning lovely friends and welcome to my little corner of blogland.  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.

I received some new butterfly dies from Craft Addiction UK recently and thought this challenge would be the perfect time to show them some love.  I love the calming monochrome colour scheme and I think this card would also work well as a sympathy card.  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the butterflies:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and using a light green ink cube I blended a soft hue of colour, darker in the centre and fading out to white.  I took two different sized square dies and cut them out of white card, I then used the smaller sized squares from the set to cut out the centres to create a frame.  Usually I would stack them up for dimension but as I wanted to keep the layout CAS and almost one layer I added the frames onto the background with liquid glue.  I die cut two of the butterflies from a shimmery green card and the bodies from gold mirror card and adhered them together with liquid glue.  I stamped a tiny sentiment along the top of one of the larger frames using the same ink cube that I used for the background.  I did adhere the butterflies with foam squares for a little dimension and I also added a a few pieces of scrap white card behind the panel for extra stability.  The panel was added to the card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut another panel 4" x 5 1/4" and ink blended the green ink along the bottom third.  I die cut two more frames and 1 more butterfly and adhered them with liquid glue in the lower right corner. Using the same ink cube I stamped a sentiment in the centre of the panel.  This was then adhered to the card base with double sided tape. It is such a soft and delicate looking card and looks really pretty in real life.  

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

AAA Cards challenge - anything CAS goes optional twist 'all green'

A Cut Above challenge - ATG but must have at least one die cut

Addicted to CAS challenge - squares

Allsorts challenge - I spy something beginning with B - butterflies

Classic Design challenge - ATG optional twist 'happy birthday'

Creative Friday challenge - square (I've used squares in my background)

Double D challenge - butterflies

Halloween & Other Occasions challenge - birthday

Inkspirational challenge - clean & simple optional twist 'flowers'

Simply Clean and Simple challenge - anything CAS goes optional twist 'cute animals'

Triple B challenge - ATG but must include birds, blooms or butterflies optional mood board

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:

Craft Addiction UK - wings of elegance die set

Spellbinders - classic squares large die set (for frames)

Spellbinders - nature's dance stamp (for inside sentiment)

Clearly Besotted Stamps - teeny tags stamp (for outside sentiment)

Gina K Designs - medium spruce ink cube

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

green shimmer card & gold mirror card from scraps bin

Patterned Paper IG Hop - August

Hello friends; I hope you're having a great week so far.  I'm here 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 'banner' so grab your banner dies and your patterned papers and have fun. I was inspired by a gorgeous layout I saw on Pinterest so that was my starting point.  I used pretty, soft colours and a CAS design.  I hope you like it.  

Here is my card:

A closer look at the pretty papers:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a white panel 4" x 5 1/4".  I wanted a strip of grey behind my banners but couldn't find any paper I liked so I cut a 1 1/2" strip from fog grey card and stamped a pin dot pattern in a tone on tone grey ink.  I added this to the right side of the panel with double sided tape.  I cut the banners from 3 different patterned papers (but from the same pad) and also one from white card, which I used to stamp my sentiment.  I'm finding lately that I need thank you cards so that's what I made today.  I adhered the 3 patterned banners in a staggered layout with liquid glue; the white banner was added over the top with foam squares.  I finished off with some enamel dots (I found quite a few packets recently so I'm trying to use them up).  I added some scrap white card behind my panel for stability and dimension and then this was added to my card base with double sided tape. For the inside I cut another white panel 4" x 5/14" and added a tone on tone stamped grey strip of card to the bottom with double sided tape.  I die cut another set of banners and adhered them at the bottom of the panel with liquid glue.  I stamped a sentiment in the centre with black ink.  The panel was adhered to the card base with double sided tape.  I'm really happy with how this card turned out and it was relatively quick to make too, which was a bonus.  

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

AAA Cards challenge - anything CAS goes optional twist 'all the greens'

A Cut Above challenge - ATG with a die cut

Addicted to Stamps & More challenge - any occasion

Allsorts challenge - I spy something beginning with B - banners

CAS Colours & Sketches challenge - colour challenge #567

Let's Craft and Create challenge - ATG must use a punch/die optional polkadots and/or stripes

Love Those Pretty Papers challenge - ATG focus on pretty papers optional summertime

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - stitch it (my banners have stitching detail)

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 #patternedpaperpartyhopaugust2025 and we will find you.

I'll be back tomorrow with my card for the Krafty Chicks challenge, so I hope you can pop back and check it out.  Thanks for stopping by and take care.

Lots of love

card supplies:

Gina K Designs - Master Layouts 5 die set (for banner die)

Gina K Designs - sketched roses stamp (for sentiment) - last month's incentive set but will be available very soon

Gina K Designs - pin dot background stamp

Gina K Designs - you are enough stamp (for inside sentiment)

Gina K Designs - soft stone ink pad

Simon Says Stamp - fog gray card 

Echo Park - little girl dots & stripes 6x6 paper pad 

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm white silky smooth card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

My Mind's Eye - 'ashbury heights' enamel dots

Craftelier - mint rainbow enamel dots

Cards for All Seasons IG Hop - Week 17

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 17 and our theme is 'galaxy/stars/outer space'. Such a fun theme this week; think space-ships, space-men or go for a bright star inspired card.  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 really wanted to make a galaxy inspired ink blended background so ordered a space-ship die especially for today's card.  I'm really happy with how my background turned out and the finished card is so much fun.  I hope you like it. 

Here is my card:

A closer look at the space-ship:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by creating my galaxy background.  I used ink pads from Gina K Designs in lots of colours - blues, purple, pink and yellow and blended them until I was happy with how they looked.  I splattered some white gouache all over and left it to dry.  I die cut the space-ship (or should it be rocket?) from coloured card from my scraps bin and adhered it together with liquid glue apart from the front 'leg' which I added with a tiny foam square.  I also die cut the moon and stars from some yellow card and lightly ink blended some orange ink over them for some definition.  I didn't have a suitable sentiment in my stash so used my pc and printed one out and cut it with a sentiment strips die.  Once my background was dry I trimmed it down to 4" x 5 1/4" and arranged all the die cuts and added the larger ones with foam squares and the small stars with liquid glue.  The sentiment was added to the bottom left corner with foam squares.  I added some scrap white card behind my panel for stability and dimension and then added it to the card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and added the left-over pieces from my background to the top and bottom of the panel with liquid glue.  I stamped a sentiment in black ink in the centre and finished off with some die cut stars, which I added with liquid glue.  The panel was added to the card base with double sided tape.  

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

A Cut Above challenge - ATG with a die cut

Addicted to Stamps & More challenge - any occasion

Allsorts challenge - I spy something beginning with B - blue, birthday

Classic Design challenge - ATG optional twist 'happy birthday'

Girlz Makes Guyz Cards challenge - ATG men

Halloween & Other Occasions challenge - birthday

Little Red Wagon challenge - circle of life (moon and window in rocket are circles)

The Male Room challenge - universe

Tic Tac Toe challenge - yellow, ink blending, rectangle shape (card base)

Try It On Tuesday challenge - going around in circles (moon and window in rocket are circles)

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 later with another card 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:

Spellbinders - to the moon die set

Gina K Designs - ink pads - in the navy, blue denim, blue sky, wild lilac, bubblegum pink, wild dandelion, tangerine twist and slate

Gina K Designs - large strip sentiments dies

Clearly Besotted - simply said birthday stamp (for inside sentiment) - retired

Limetree Crafts - white 280gsm silky smooth card

Winsor & Newton - white gouache (for splatters)

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

coloured card from scraps bin

Imagination Crafts - black glossy card

PC & printer for outside sentiment