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

AAA Birthday challenge #75 - summer birthday

Hello again friends and happy 1st of July.  The weather has certainly perked up again over the last few days, although it's a little bit too hot for me.  It was my nephew's wedding on Sunday and although it was only 24 degrees I managed to burn the back of my neck lol!  We had a wonderful day and the bride looked amazing, like a princess (no photos yet I'm afraid until the newlyweds have shared their own).  

I'm here today to share my card for this month's AAA Birthday challenge and this month our theme is 'summer birthday' which is such a fun challenge.  I hope you will take on our challenge this month and get creating. Our guest designer this month is the lovely Pauline so please pop over to her blog and leave her some love.

My mind instantly went to food when I saw the theme - I was thinking ice-cream, ice lollies, candy floss etc but I finally settled on ice lollies as my focal point.  There is nothing cooler than a frozen ice lolly in the hot sun mmmmmm!  It's a fun card and I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the lollies:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I often admire Yana Smakula's cards and the way she uses coloured card for her backgrounds; they always look so cool.  I decided to try it on this card and used a panel of blue card cut to 4" x 5 1/4".  I splattered some blue ink as well as some perfect pearls mixed with water onto it to add some interest.  For my focal point I stamped 4 of the ice lollies but used a blending brush to add the ink to the stamp so that it would be a bit softer and have a little roughness to it.  I used the coordinating dies to cut them out. I also stamped 4 sticks using a kraft ink and also die cut them out.  I stamped the happy birthday sentiment directly onto the background in the centre with black ink.  I then decided to stamp the sub sentiment onto the blue lolly in black ink.  I die cut 3 more layers for each lolly and stick and adhered them together with liquid glue.  I added foam squares behind each lolly and added them to my card base, two above the sentiment and two below, in a grid formation (again inspired by Yana). I added some scrap white card behind my panel with double sided tape and then this was adhered to my card base with double sided tape.  I finished off with some clear raindrop embellishments.  For the inside I cut a white panel 3 3/4" x 5" and added a blue card mat layer with double sided tape.  I stamped and die cut another lolly and adhered in onto the lower right of the panel with liquid glue and stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink.  The panel was then adhered to the card base with double sided tape.  A bright and fun card and I'm really happy with how it turned out. 

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

AAA Cards challenge - anything CAS goes optional twist sentiment focus

Allsorts challenge - seaside or ATG

Cardz 4 Galz challenge - welcome to summer

Classic Design challenge - ATG optional twist vacation/holiday

Creative Knockouts challenge - summer fun

Die Cut Divas challenge - happy birthday (I love MFT and have used their products on my card)

Halloween & Other Occasions challenge - happy birthday

Little Red Wagon challenge - to boldly go (use bold colours)

Make My Monday challenge - summer fun

Papercraft challenges - summer vibes

The Four Seasons challenge - summer (optional mood board)

The Sisterhood of Crafters challenge - summer fun

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 - you're the sweetest stamp (the die set is now sold out)

Gina K Designs ink pads - powder blue, key lime, tangerine twist, wild dandelion, passionate pink, kraft

Little Things From Lucy's Cards - clear raindrops - store now sadly closed

Versafine - onyx black ink pad

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card - not currently available - but they do have 280gsm silky smooth white card available here

blue card from my stash

Ranger - perfect pearls (perfect pearl colour)

AAA Birthday challenge #73 - ATG/our 6th Birthday

Hello again friends; as promised I am back to share my card for this month's AAA Birthday challenge and this month our theme is 'Anything Goes' but we are also celebrating our 6th Birthday so there will be be prizes up for grabs this month. I hope you will take on our super easy challenge this month and get creating. Our guest designer this month is the lovely Jenn Borjeson so please pop over to her blog and leave her some love.

It's actually my father-in-law's birthday today - happy birthday Arthur - so I'm sharing his card with you.  He is an avid Manchester United supporter (I know poor thing) so I thought I would create a football themed card. I hope you like it. 

Here is my card:

A closer look at the images:

It's an easel card so here it is when open:

I began by stamping the images onto alcohol marker friendly card and coloured them with Promarkers.  There aren't any dies with this stamp set so I fussy cut the footballer and dad word, used a circle punch to cut out the footballs and a strip sentiment die to cut out the smaller sentiments.  To create the easel card base I used a 5 3/4" circle and using a 6" x 6" card base ran it through my die cutting machine with the top of the circle hanging over slightly.  I folded the front of the card base in half in readiness to attach the front circle panel.  To create the football I cut another white and a black circle using the same circle die and then die cut lots of white and black hexagons. Using the black circle as my base I added the black hexagon in the centre and arranged the white ones around it, leaving a tiny gap so that the black circle would show through; I then filled the gaps around the edges with the black hexagons, again leaving a small gap.  I was really chuffed with the finished result (although my son told me the black ones should be pentagons not hexagons but I don't think it really matters - could you tell the difference?).  As the black card is quite a low gsm I added that onto a white circle for some extra stability with liquid glue and then adhered that to the folded front of my card base.  I adhered the footballer, footballs and dad word with foam squares and the sub sentiments with liquid glue.  For the inside of the easel I cut a slightly smaller circle from white card and adhered it to a larger black circle with liquid glue.  The difference between the layers was quite large to using my scissors I cut the black layer so that the border was thinner; it's not perfect but it's better than horrible lol!  I adhered the panel to the card base with liquid glue.  I added another football and also a boot to the right side with liquid glue for decoration.  I stamped a sentiment onto a piece of white card and trimmed it with my guillotine trimmer; I adhered it to a black layer and again trimmer it with the paper trimmer.  I added that to the panel with foam squares as this would act as the stopper which enables my card to stand up when open.  I am delighted with how this card turned out, even if it's not 100% perfect, I think my FIL will love it. 

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

Addicted to Stamps & More challenge - make your mark

A Place to Start challenge - ATG optional twist, black, white & red

As You Like It Challenge - soft or bold colours (it depends who I'm making a card for but generally for masculine cards I go with bold colours)

Creative Creases challenge - ATG with a fun fold

Halloween & Other Occasions challenge - birthday

I Love Promarkers challenge - ATG or masculine

Pearly Sparkles challenge - black and white plus one colour (red)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

The Male Room challenge - geometric (hexagon background)

Word Art 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:

Kanban - footballer & sentiments stamp - retired but available on eBay

Promarkers

Go-Kreate - XXL frames plain circles dies - retired 

Honey Bee Stamps - inside: birthday sentiments

Gina K Designs - sentiment strips dies

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card - not currently available - they do have 300gsm bright white card available here

Hobbycraft - A4 black card

Versafine - onyx black ink pad

Memento - tuxedo black ink pad

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card - store now closed

hexagon dies were bought from a FB selling page and brand is unknown

AAA Birthday challenge #72 - mythical

Good morning friends and welcome to April.  The weather is lovely here in South Wales and it's promised to be like this for the remainder of the week *yay*.  I'm not a sun worshipper but I definitely feel happier when the weather outside is nice and bright.  

I'm sharing my card for this month's AAA Birthday challenge and this month our theme is 'mythical'. So think unicorns, monsters, dragons, fairies, the list is endless.  I hope you will take on our challenge this month and get creating. Our guest designer this month is the lovely Silke so please pop over to her blog and leave her some love.

I decided to make a fun fold card and went for a z-fold card.  I know there are quite a few variations of this fold but I went with the basic z-fold as it's simple to make but really packs a punch when displayed.  For my mythical element I went with a fairy image.  I hope you like it.  It was quite difficult to photograph so there are a few more photos than usual.  

Here is my card (from the front):

Here is the card (standing up):

View from above:

A close up of the adorable fairy:

A closer look at the inside:

I began by creating my card base which is 5 1/2" square.  On the front flap of the card I scored it in half at 2 3/4" and folded it towards the left to create the z fold shape.  I stamped the fairy onto alcohol marker friendly card and coloured her with Promarkers and added some white gelly roll pen highlights.  Instead of fussy cutting her I used a decorative label die to cut her out.  I also have the matching scallop label die so cut that from pink card.  I decorated all the panels with a pretty pink gingham paper that I've had in my stash for years.  I adhered the labels together with double sided tape and then added foam squares to just the left side of the label and adhered it to the front half panel, making sure it was centred on the whole card.  I die cut a happy and birthday word from white card and the shadow layers from pink card and adhered them together with liquid glue.  Using a combination of liquid glue and foam squares I attached the die cut sentiments on the edge of the labels top left and bottom right.  I didn't add any further embellishments as I liked the clean look of the card.  For the inside I die cut another label and scalloped label as before and adhered them together with double sided tape.  I stamped two of the butterflies and coloured them with Promarkers and added white gelly roll highlights and stamped the sentiment in black ink in the centre.  I added double sided tape to the back of the label and carefully added it the inside of the card, making sure it lined up with the label on the front.  I hope I've explained it properly but if not there are lots of tutorials online to help you.  A really pretty card and I'm pleased with how it turned out.

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

Addicted to Stamps & More challenge - any occasion (3rd entry)

Crafty Gals Corner challenge - fairy tale... mine is fairy

Creative Creases challenge - ATG with a fun fold

Girlz Creative Fun Art of Scrap challenge - ATG but must use patterned paper

Halloween & Other Occasions challenge - birthday

Shopping Our Stash challenge - fun folds

Sweet Stampin' challenge - female cards

Tic Tac Toe challenge - patterned paper/free/grass

Unicorn challenge - dies

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:

Lili of the Valley - woodland fairies polymer stamp set - not currently available

Promarkers

Spellbinders - happy birthday wishes die set

Spellbinders - labels one small die set - retired but loads on eBay

Spellbinders - scalloped labels one die set - retired but loads on eBay   

Tonic Studios - I love you fairy much stamp set (for inside greeting) - retired

Sakura - white no. 10 gelly roll pen

Memento - tuxedo black ink pad

Versafine - onyx black ink pad

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card - not currently available - they do have 300gsm bright white card available here

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card - store now closed

gingham and coordinating plain pink paper from stash

AAA Birthday challenge #70 - ink smooshing

Good morning friends and happy 1st February.  I'm sharing my card for this month's AAA Birthday challenge and this month we have a fun challenge for you of 'ink smooshing'.  I love the look of ink smooshing but sometimes I struggle to get the effect I want.  As I mentioned a little while ago since I made a homemade smoosher (inspired by Natalie Bowers or NB Cards on YouTube) I get great results; she has a video on her channel showing how to make it if you're interested.  Our guest designer this month is the lovely Ashwini Rao so please pop over to her blog and leave her some love.

I love pink and purple together but don't use it often enough so that was the starting point of my card.   I decided to use some die cut flowers on top but kept them white so that they would stand out against the busy background.  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A close up look at the flowers and ink smooshing:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I also had a small strip left over so decorated my envelope to match:

I began by cutting my white panel 4" x 5 1/4" from smooth white card.  I didn't feel the need to use watercolour card as I didn't use very much water.  I smooshed my ink down onto my glass mat, sprayed some water on top and picked it up with my homemade smoosher.  I initially tried ink smooshing through a stencil but I don't think I choose an 'open' enough stencil so it didn't really achieve anything, except for a few blobs, so I just went over it with the ink smoosher, direct to paper, to create my panel.  Obviously I didn't want a full ink smooshed background so decided to cut it down into strips.  I cut the front strip to be 1 7/8" and added it to a strip of black card with double sided tape.  I then adhered that to another white panel with foam squares (I could have added it directly to my card base but didn't want to mess it up lol).  I die cut the flowers from the same smooth white card and the centres from black card.  I added the stems and leaves with liquid glue and the flower heads with foam tape.  I stamped a sentiment in black ink in the bottom right corner.  The panel was then added to my card base with double sided tape.  No embellishments this time as I didn't think it needed anything.  For the inside I cut a strip of the smooshed panel to 7/8" and again adhered it to black card with double sided tape.  It was added to a white panel with double sided tape. I cut an extra one of the smaller flower and adhered that with liquid glue onto the strip.  I stamped a sentiment in black ink in the centre.  I added the panel onto my card base with double sided tape.  As I had a small strip left over and not wanting to waste it I decided to adhere it to my envelope so that everything was matching.  This was added with double sided tape.  I really like the organic effect you can achieve with ink smooshing and I hope you will give it a try.  

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

Addicted to Stamps & More challenge - die cuts and/or stencils

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

Cardz 4 Galz challenge - anything but square

CAS on Friday challenge - flowers

Crafter's Cafe challenge - ATG optional birthdays

Halloween & Other Occasions challenge - always birthday

Little Red Wagon challenge - A is for anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

Word Art 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 ingredients:

Spellbinders - layered anemone dies

Spellbinders - stylish oval birthday wishes stamp set

Gina K Designs - ink pads - passionate pink & dark lilac

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card (currently not available but this 250gsm smooth white card is an alternative in stock here)

Hobbycraft - A4 black card

Versafine - onyx black ink pad

AAA Birthday challenge #69 - winter birthday

Hello again friends; I'm sharing my card (although I'm almost a week late) for this month's AAA Birthday challenge.  I have been very sick since Christmas, as has most of the family, and I'm only now starting to feel better.  My main priority for the last week has been keeping the animals alive, everything else has gone on the back burner lol!  I'm still not running at 100% but hopefully things will start to get back to a normal routine now.   As always you must create a birthday themed project and this month it's all about 'winter birthdays'.  Our guest designer this month is the lovely Colien so please pop over to her blog and leave her some love.

I decided to create a clean and simple winter birthday card featuring an adorable penguin image from Gina K Designs.  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the image:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting my white panel to 4" x 5 1/4" and lightly ink blended some sea glass ink into the bottom left corner and using the same ink I stamped some tiny snowflakes randomly.  I stamped the cute image onto alcohol marker friendly card and coloured him with Promarkers and used the matching die to cut him out.  I also stamped and coloured two mugs from the same set, and also die cut them out.  I stamped the sentiment in black ink onto a piece of white card and die cut it out with a sentiment strip die.  I added the sentiment with liquid glue at the bottom of the panel and after adding foam squares to the penguin, added him above as if he was standing on the sentiment.  I also added foam squares to the mug and placed it so that it looked like the penguin was holding it.  The panel was added to my card base with foam tape.  For the inside I cut another white panel and ink blended along the bottom and again stamped some snowflakes.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre using black ink and added the second mug to the bottom left with liquid glue.  The panel was added to the case base with double sided tape.  A really cute card and perfect for the icy, cold weather we're currently experiencing.  

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

Addicted to CAS challenge - brrr

Addicted to Stamps and More challenge - birthdays

Crafty Animals challenge - ATG must include an animal

Crafty Calendar challenge - add a die cut (entry 2)

Critter Crazy challenge - ATG with a featured critter

Daisy Chain challenge - no design paper

Double D challenge - 9th birthday/anniversary challenge

Halloween & Other Occasions challenge - always birthday

I Love Promarkers challenge - ATG or use the sketch

Make My Monday challenge - your fave challenge of 2024 - #240 a CAS winter card

Simply Clean and Simple challenge - anything CAS goes option something new

Stamping Sensations challenge - ATG optional hand coloured image (entry 2)

The Male Room challenge - clean and simple (entry 2)

Triple B challenge - birds, blooms or butterflies

We Love Stamping challenge - anything but square (entry 2) 

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:

Gina K Designs - playful penguins stamp & die

Gina K Designs - hygge time (for both sentiments)

Gina K Designs - Christmas cheer stamp set (for snowflake)

Gina K Designs - sentiment strips dies 

Gina K Designs - sea glass ink pad

Promarkers

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card (currently not available but this 250gsm smooth white card is an alternative in stock here)

Sakura - white no. 10 gelly roll pen