AAA Birthday challenge #81 - winter birthday

Good morning lovely friends and welcome to 2026! It seems like last year went by in a blink of an eye; let's hope this year takes it a bit slower lol!  I hope your year is happy and healthy and all your dreams/goals come true.  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 'winter birthday' and our guest designer this month is Cathy R so please pop over to her blog and leave her some love.

I always think of critters such as penguins for winter birthdays as they are synonymous with cold, icy climes.  I used a cute image from a holiday set but the image itself is very suitable for a birthday card.  I went fairly CAS and let the little fella shine.  I hope you like it. 

Here is my card:

A closer look at the adorable image:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" from alcohol marker friendly card and stamped the adorable image in memento ink in the lower right of the panel.  I coloured the image with Promarkers and added some white gelly roll pen highlights.  I did some stamp surgery to my sentiment so that it would ready happy brrr-thday which I thought was perfect for a winter birthday card and cut it out with a sentiment strip die.  I found a piece of scrap patterned paper in my stash that had an icy, snowy feel and cut a piece 2 3/4" x 5 1/4" and gave it a decorative edge with a scalloped die.  I added the paper to the left side of the white panel with double sided tape.  I added an extra layer of scrap card behind the sentiment before adhering it below the image with liquid glue.  The panel was adhered to the card base with double sided tape.  I didn't add any embellishments this time as I liked the clean and simple look.  Can you believe there is no dimension on this card at all, which is very rare for me!  For the inside I cut another white panel the same as the front and stamped another, smaller, image from the same stamp set and again coloured it with Promarkers.  I added a very thin strip of the paper at the bottom of the panel 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 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 supplies:

MFT - sweet holiday penguins stamp

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

Promarkers

Sakura - white no. 10 gelly roll pen

MFT - bearly special birthday stamp (for outside sentiment which I modified)

Clearly Besotted - scalloped edges die collection - retired

Kristina Werner with Concord & 9th - joyful & merry dies (for strip die)

LOTV - verses polymer stamp (for inside sentiment) - no longer available

Limetree Craft - 280gsm silky smooth white card (for card base)

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

Memento - tuxedo black ink pad

patterned paper from a pad I got from TK Maxx a few years ago

*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 #801 - birthday

Good morning lovely friends and Happy New Year to you!  I would like to take this opportunity to wish you love, happiness and good health in 2026 with some crafty goodness thrown in for good measure too lol!  I'm not totally sure where 2025 went but onwards and upwards in a brand new year.  

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. This is such an easy challenge as we always need birthday cards so we hope you will come over and join in the fun with us.

I received my new Gina K goodies yesterday and had to use them straight away.  I love this bundle; the size is perfect for smaller or larger cards and the design is just beautiful.  I think I will be reaching for this one often.  I saw a beautiful card by Mindy Eggen that I wanted to recreate for an upcoming birthday.  As the card will be for a family member I made it slightly larger at 5 1/2" x 7 1/2".  Mindy's card just made me swoon when I saw it and I know mine's not as perfect as hers but I am really happy with how it turned out.  I hope you like it too.  

Here is my card:

A closer look at the beautiful flowers:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by making my card base which I created from smooth white card cut to 11" x 7 1/2" and scored on the long side at 5 1/2".  I began by die cutting 4 of the floral arrangements from smooth white card.  I then took the coordinating stencils and using the same colour combo as Mindy stencilled 2 of the die cuts and left 2 of them white so that I could layer them up with liquid glue.  I cut a pink panel 5 1/2" x 7 1/2" and attached it to the card base with double sided tape.  Funny story the first time I did this I attached it upside down, haven't done that for a while, so I chopped off the front and reattached it to another card base.  I cut a stitched white panel from ML 17 and layered some scrap white card behind for a little bit of dimension and adhered that to the centre of the pink panel with double sided tape.  Mindy used a 'spatter' stamp to add some interest to the corners of her white panel and initially as I didn't have this stamp I wasn't going to put anything there except maybe a few pearls, however I remembered that the snowy background looks like splatter so I carefully masked off the corners and just using part of the background stamp added some black 'splatters' to the top left and bottom right corners.  I then adhered the flower arrangements in the top right and bottom left corners with liquid glue.  I stamped and die cut a sentiment and again layered it up with another one cut from white card and added that to the centre of the white panel with liquid glue.  The front didn't need anything else so I left it like that.  For the inside I cut a pink panel 5 1/4" x 7 1/4".  I also die cut another white stitched rectangle and stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink.  I decided to stencil just the one flower in the bottom left corner using the same pink inks.  I adhered the panels together with double sided tape before adding it onto the card base, again with double sided tape.  

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

* to be updated * 

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 want to say how much I appreciate your lovely comments, your support really does mean the world to me.   

Love and hugs,

card ingredients:

*Gina K Designs - divine rose die & stencil bundle

Gina K Designs - master layouts 17 die set (for stitched rectangle)

Gina K Designs - snowy background stamp

Gina K Designs - graceful greetings stamp & die set (for outside sentiment)

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

Gina K Designs - ink pads - light cranberry, medium cranberry, key lime, grass green, fresh asparagus

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

pink card from my 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