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:

Christmas BINGO (or not) challenge - Line N - winter weather, blue, free or Line O - rectangle, free, patterned paper

Colorful Options challenge - blue & white

Crafty Animals challenge - ATG must include an animal

Creative Knockouts challenge - celebrations

Critter Crazy challenge - ATG with a featured critter

Inkspirational challenge - cold

Little Red Wagon challenge - use the force! (I stamped and die cut)

Pearly Sparkles challenge - use patterned paper

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - add a sentiment

The Four Seasons challenge - ATG winter season optional inspiration board

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

CASE IT IG Hop - December 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 Mikaela (@thecraftyoinkpen over on IG); her cards are so rich and colourful and so beautiful and this one has everything I love - embossing, die cuts and a large sentiment.  I'm not sure I need any more Christmas cards but I decided to make my version a festive one.  I went with a white embossed background instead of her dark green and used snowflakes instead of leaves but I think you can definitely see that my card was inspired by hers!  Here is her card for my inspiration:

Isn't Mikaela's card just gorgeous.  The green is so rich and I love the beautiful leaves and fab sentiment.  You really need to check out her Instagram and give her a follow.  

Here is my card:

A closer look at my snowflake cluster:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and embossed it with a striped folder.  I decided to go with an icy monochrome colour scheme so cut my various sized snowflakes from a mix of white, grey, glitter and silver mirror card. I arranged them largest at the bottom to smallest at the top with liquid glue, leaving the ends free so that I could zhuzh them up a bit (as Laura Basson would say)!  I die cut the merry word from white card x 2 and the shadow layer from vellum also x 2 and adhered them together with liquid glue.  This was placed over the snowflakes again with liquid glue.  I stamped and white heat embossed the Christmas word onto grey card and used the coordinating strip sentiment die to cut it out.  This was adhered below the merry with foam squares.  I finished off with some solid clear sequins.  I added some scrap white card behind my panel for stability and dimension and adhered it to the card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut another white panel and add a strip of white card to the bottom that I embossed to match the front, I also added a thin strip of silver mirror card above it.  I stamped the sentiment in a light grey ink in the centre and finished off with 2 snowflakes.  The panel was added to the card base with double sided tape.  It is such a pretty card in real life, with so much shimmer and shine.  

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

613 Avenue Create challenge - sparkle and shine

As You Like It challenge - free for all Christmas #3

Can You Handle The Pressure challenge - must use and EF optional celebrate any holiday

Cardz 4 Galz challenge - Christmas sparkle #3

Classic Design challenge - make it merry

CRAFT challenge - Christmas/ATG

Cut It Up challenge - oldie but goodie from your stash/must use a die cut (every I used is older stuff)

Die Cut Divas challenge - Christmas/winter #4

If You Give A Crafter A Cookie challenge - time for Santa (inspiration photo) - inspired by snowflakes

Pearly Sparkles challenge - silver bells (use silver) - I used silver mirror card

The Four Seasons challenge - ATG winter

Tic Tac Toe challenge - texture/free/sparkle

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

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:

*Gina K Designs - snowflake trio die set

Gina K Designs - clear quartz solid sequins

Gina K Designs - white pigment ink cube and soft stone ink pad

Clearly Besotted - snowflake trio die collection (I only used the smallest one)

Clearly Besotted - simply said Christmas stamp (for inside sentiment)

Spellbinders - peppermint stripes embossing folder

Kristina Werner with Concord & 9th - joyful and merry stamps & dies

WOW! - opaque bright white super fine embossing powder

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Tonic Studios - sugar crystal 250gsm glitter card

Stampin' Up! - cardstock vellum - no longer available

silver mirror, grey shimmer and plain grey 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

Krafty Chicks challenge #794 - 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 was looking through my stash and found this old metal stencil that I bought quite a while ago but haven't used yet so I thought why not show it some love.  I did mask off parts of the stencil so that I could blend them in different colours but boy was it fiddly; not a card I could mass produce lol!  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a white panel 4 1/2 x 5 1/2 (which I cut down slightly later) and using green and red ink pads blended through the stencil, masking off as I went along.  As I said it was quite a fiddly and tedious process but I think it was worth it as I love the contrast of the green against the red. Once the blending was finished I stamped the cabin image into the bauble with black ink.  I then cut down the panel to 4" x 5 1/4" and added some scrap white card behind it for stability and dimension.  I decided to mat it onto a red layer cut to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" although I could have just cut a red card base but I was in the zone and had already cut my card base from white.  I added the panel onto the card base with double sided tape.  I added some white gelly roll pen 'snow' but didn't feel it was bright enough so after a bit of searching found my white posca pen and added some 'snow' with that too.  I stamped and die cut the Merry word and used a sentiment strip die to cut out the Christmas word.  I added the merry with liquid glue and the Christmas was added overlapping with foam squares.  A final finishing touch was some snowflake embellishments which I added with liquid glue.  For the inside I cut a panel 3 3/4" x 5" and used the stencil to just add some interest to the bottom.  I matted the panel onto a red card layer with double sided tape and stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink.  The panel was then adhered to the card base with double sided tape.  A very traditional Christmas card but I really like it. 

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

The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up challenge - anything Christmas goes optional twist sleigh

Allsorts challenge - Christmas cards

Aud Sentiments challenge - glitter and/or Christmas + sentiment

Colourful Options challenge - red optional mood board

Craft Rocket challenge - Christmas/winter

Crafty Gals Corner challenge - tis the season

Creative Inspirations challenge - wrapped up in winter

Creative Knockouts challenge - time to be merry

Daisy Chain challenge - Christmas/winter

Farm Quest Country Christmas challenge - anything goes country Christmas 

Just Us Girls challenge - winter

Moving Along With The Times challenge - winter wonderland

Merry Little Christmas challenge - anything Christmas goes

Stamping Sensations challenge - Christmas

Stencil Fun challenge - anything stencil goes optional theme use gold

Sweet Stampin' challenge - use red

The Paper Funday challenge - ATG optional twist merry & bright

Tic Tac Toe challenge - ornament, red, Christmas sentiment

Try It On Tuesday challenge - get ready for Christmas 

Unicorn challenge - Christmas/winter

We Love Stamping challenge - anything Christmas

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:

Sweet Poppy - Christmas snowflake bauble stencil - ? retired

Inkylicious - winter cabin (small) stamp

Kristina Werner with Concord & 9th - joyful & merry stamps & coordinating dies

Gina K Designs - ink pads - cherry red, red hot, Christmas pine

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

Sakura - white no.10 gelly roll pen

Posca - PC-5M medium bullet tip paint pen

Trinity Stamps - vanilla sugar snowflakes embellishment mix

red card from 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

Winter Wonderland IG Hop - Week 3

Happy Hump Day friends; I hope you're having a great week so far.  I'm back with Week 3 of the Winter Wonderland IG Hop which has been organised by my lovely friend Kelly.  Each Wednesday in November we will be sharing our cards with a winter theme.  

This week is a fun one - pink Christmas!  I love traditional colours for Christmas but it's nice to step out of our comfort zone from time to time and have a play with different colour schemes.  I had lots of ideas for my make this week but finally settled on CAS and super cute!  Here is my card:

a close up of my cute penguin:

I also decorated the inside:

I used mostly Promarkers with a couple of Tri-blend markers:

I began by stamping the cute penguin image with memento tuxedo black ink and coloured it with mostly Promarkers but I did use 2 x Spectrum Noir tri-blend markers too (I'm actually liking these pens a lot as they take away the stress of colour blending as there are 3 colours in each pen).  I don't have the coordinating dies so fussy cut him out and put him to one side.  I then cut a white panel of card 3 3/4" x 5" and used a stencil and some pink ink to make my background.  I found some hot pink card in my scrap bin and used that as my mat layer behind my white panel.  I cut a 2 1/2" strip of the hot pink card and used a scalloped edge die to cut a decorative border on the top and bottom.   I then added a white strip on top with double sided tape.  Before adding to the card panel I stamped my sentiment.  This was then adhered to the card panel with double sided tape.  The penguin was added with foam squares and I added 5 small pink pearls as a finishing touch.  I did forget to add some white gel pen highlights but I'll do that before I give the card to someone.  The panel was then added to a white card blank with foam tape.  I decorated the inside in my usual way - a small strip of the stencilled card added to the bottom and a sentiment stamped in black ink.  A really sweet card and I think once you've settled on the idea it's really easy to mass produce.

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

Crafty Animals challenge - ATG include an animal

Crafty Gals Corner challenge - dots and/or stripes

Creative Inspirations challenge - contemporary Christmas colours

Creative Moments challenge - winter

Critter Crazy challenge - ATG with a featured critter

Daisy Chain challenge - Christmas/winter

Cut it Up challenge - layer it up (must use a die cut)

Day of the Month Card Club challenge - candy day

Double D challenge - stripes and/or dots

Dream Valley challenge - occasions other than birthday

Krafty Chicks challenge - Christmas

Moving Along with the Times challenge - Christmas animals

Pearly Sparkles challenge - Christmas/winter

Stamping Sensations challenge - get ready for Christmas

Stencil Fun challenge - anything stencil goes - option leaves

Unicorn challenge - Christmas

We Love Stamping challenge - Christmas characters

Wow lots of Christmas themed challenges around at the moment (understandably)!  I believe I checked all the rules but if I've entered too many challenges and broken your rules I apologise and just delete me.

We hope you will be able to join us over on Instagram and follow the hop.  Please use the hashtag #winterwonderlandcardhop2023 to find all of our creations and if you decide to join in too we will be able to find yours too.  

Enjoy the rest of your day and thank you so much for stopping by. 

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

MFT - sweet holiday penguins

MFT - diagonal stripes stencil

Clearly Besotted Stamps - scalloped edges die collection

Concord & 9th - Boughs and holly stamp (for sentiment)

Gina K Designs - bubblegum pink ink pad

Gina K Designs - pearl mix rainbow

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm white smooth card 

pink card from scrap bin

Promarkers & Spectrum Noir tri-blend markers

Paula Pascal - Christmas message (inside sentiment) (I've seen it on eBay)

Versafine onyx black ink pad

Memento tuxedo black ink pad

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card

Falling for Wednesdays IG Hop - week 4

Happy Wednesday friends; I hope you're having a wonderful week so far.  I'm back again for this week's instalment of Falling for Wednesdays IG Hop which has been organised by my lovely friend Kelly.  This week is our only technique week and we were challenged to create our own plaid.  It's not as scary as it sounds; there are loads of stamps, stencils etc that you can use or you can even freehand draw your plaid.  I remembered that I had a plaid stamp so used that on my card.

Here is my plaid card:

A close up of the my cute image:

I also decorated the inside:

and made a matching envelope:

here are all the Promarkers and pens I used:

I began by creating my plaid (as if I messed it up I could start again).  I wanted a multi colour plaid so used 3 ink pads to ink up my stamp.  I softened the edges of the ink with a blending brush so that the blend between each colour wasn't too harsh.  The stamp set also comes with the thin lines so that you can really make the background pop - I stamped my lines in black ink for some contrast.  I didn't want my plaid to cover all the background as I thought that would be too much so I cut a piece of white card for my image to stand out a little.  I matted the plaid and white onto some dark chocolate card and also added a thin strip of the dark chocolate card between the plaid and white for some definition.  I stamped my image and coloured with Promarkers, added some white highlights, and then fussy cut it out.  I stamped my sentiment with white pigment ink and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.  It did warp my panel a bit so I let it sit under my Misti for a while before adding it to my card with double sided tape to make sure it was extra secure on my card base.  I added the image with foam squares and grounded them with a light grey Promarker.  At the last minute I decided I wanted some pumpkins around my image but I put so many foam squares behind the image that I couldn't really fit them in, however after a little surgery (i.e. cutting them in half) I managed to squeeze two onto my card.  I finished off with some gold sequins.  I'm really happy with my plaid and I think I will have to make some more in other colours.  The card size is 5"x7".

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

Addicted to Stamps challenge - any occasion

As You Like It challenge - autumn or winter (I love autumn, it's just so pretty with the changing leaves and the perfect weather for being outdoors)

Crafty Gals Corner challenge - signs of fall

Double D challenge - fall plaids

Get Creative challenge - pumpkin spice, please!

Incy Wincy Designs challenge - colours of autumn

Mix it Up challenge - ATG option make your own background (I stamped my background)

Retro Rubber challenge - fall scenes (my stamp is 6 years old)

Simply Create Too challenge - use stamps

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - make it cute

Tic Tac Toe challenge - stamping, brown and leaves (there are leaves on my image, hope this is ok)

Unicorn challenge - layer it up

We Love Stamping challenge - ATG option trees/leaves (there are leaves on my image)

I hope you will be able to pop over to Instagram and check out the hop.  Please usual the usual hashtag ffwcardgroup2023 and you will find all the participants cards and we will be able to see yours if you join in the fun.  

Enjoy the rest of your day and thank you so much for stopping by.

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

Concord & 9th - plaid background stamp

Honey Bee Stamps - acorn sisters

Promarkers

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm white smooth card

Limetree Crafts - 300gsm dark chocolate card

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card

Spellbinders - gold smooth disc sequins

Gina K Designs - faded brick, fresh asparagus, honey mustard, white pigment ink pads

Wow - fine detail white embossing powder

Nuvo aqua shimmer pen in glitter gloss

Sakura - white gelly roll 10 pen

Versafine onyx black ink (for lines on plaid)

Memento tuxedo black ink (for stamping image)

Congrats card

Happy Sunday lovely friends.  I've had a busy few days (but an exciting one) as my lovely son helped me re-organise/re-arrange my craft room and although I keep forgetting where I now have put things I am beyond happy with the way things are now arranged.  I don't have a huge, fancy craft space but it's bigger than some and I am grateful that my hubby has allowed me to take over half our dining room to accommodate all my stuff.  

I have a card to share today that I made for my niece.  She did amazingly well in her A levels and received 2 x A* and 2 A grades.  I wanted to celebrate her achievement so dug out an older stamp set from Concord & 9th.  Here is my card:

I decorated the inside too:

I began by stamping a lined notepaper background stamp in sea glass ink.  I took the arrow stamp from the stamp set and masked it so that I could have the point at the top of my card and the tail at the bottom and this was stamped in red ink.  I did make a mistake on the bottom but I fixed that by colouring around the arrow with a white posca pen and adding some black dots with a black marker.  It was a happy accident but I really liked the end result.  I stamped the sentiments in the same sea glass ink and added some stars in-between them, again using the red ink.  I die cut some stars and an arrow from black card and added them to the panel and also added some Nuvo aqua shimmer pen to bling them up.  I decorated the inside with a strip of the notepaper background that I had left over and another star and arrow.  The panels were both added onto a green mottled paper and again onto a black mat.  The finished card was mini slimline size - 6" x 3".  

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

Allsorts challenge - ATG or use die cuts

Creative Inspirations challenge - sentimental

Daisy Chain challenge - dots and/or stripes

Inspired By challenge - inspired by leggings (I was inspired by the colours)

Simply Create Too challenge - use stamps

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge - stamp it

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - stamp it

Sweet Stampin' challenge - doodling (I hope my doodled dots are enough)

Unicorn challenge - layer it up

I hope you have a wonderful week.  I will be back on Wednesday for my card for the next instalment in the Falling for Wednesdays IG hop.  I'd love it if you could pop back and check it out.  

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

Concord & 9th - above average stamp set

MFT stamps - blueprints 13 (for stars and arrows) *retired*

MFT stamps - writing tablet background stamp *retired*

Sakura gellyroll white 10 pen

Posca white pen

Nuvo aqua shimmer pen (glitter gloss)

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm white smooth card

Gina K Designs - sea glass and red velvet ink pads

Versafine black onyx ink pad