Gorgeous Gift Tags IG Hop - November 26

Hello and welcome back to my blog lovely friends. It's time 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 'celebrate'. I think this month's theme covers just about any occasion; birthday, Christmas, New Year, so just go for it.  I can't wait to see what the rest of my fellow hoppers have made and I hope you can pop over to Instagram and join us.

It's my youngest son's 30th birthday at the end of the month so this month's tag is for him.  I stencilled the background and die cut the numbers and sentiment from gold mirror card.  I think it turned out great and I hope you like it too.

Here is my tag:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the back of my tag:

I die cut my tag from white card and used a balloon stencil and some cool colours of ink pads to create my background (my son likes blue so that's why I went with cooler colours).  I die cut the 30 and my sentiment from gold mirror card and the shadow for the sentiment from vellum.  I also die cut 3 more extras from white card so that I could stack them up.  I adhered everything together with liquid glue and added them onto the tags, again using liquid glue.  I cut the hole reinforcer from gold mirror card and added it with liquid glue.  I decided to add a couple of stars as embellishments, which I cut from the gold mirror card and added with liquid glue.  For the back of the tag I die cut another white tag and added some stencilling at the very bottom to match the front.  I added a hole reinforcer and also 3 more stars, all cut from the gold mirror card using liquid glue.  I adhered both tags together with liquid glue.  I threaded some white ribbon through the hole and tied a bow around it using blue and white twine.  

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

* to be updated * 

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 using the hashtag #gorgeousgifttagsnov26.

Thanks for stopping by and take care.

Lots of love,

tag supplies:

Waffle Flower - nesting tags die set

Craft Addiction UK - create your own football shirt die set (for the numbers)

Simon Says Stamp + CZ Design - let's celebrate die & shadow

MFT - balloon party stencil

MFT - blueprints 13 die set (for star)

Gina K Designs - ink pads - blue sky, applemint, medium lilac

Limetree Craft - 280gsm silky smooth white card (not available but other options are here and here)

Stampin' Up!  - card stock vellum 

gold mirror card, ribbon & twine from my stash

I have Affiliate Links for the Gina K Designs store. If you are considering making a purchase I would appreciate you using my links as it will earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you x

Just Us Girls challenge #831 - Word Week

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog. I am back to share my card for this week's Just Us Girls challenge and it's Word Week and Vicki has chosen 'play'. This is such a fun theme and open to lots of interpretation and I'm sure this is going to be a really popular week.  I cannot wait to see all your gorgeous creations.

The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the theme was football as me and my son have been avidly watching the World Cup (except for the ones at silly o'clock).  I don't usually watch football but love the World Cup as there's lots of excitement and it's done in a few weeks.  I decided to make a football shirt shaped card and I think it turned out super fun.  I hope you like it too. 

Here is my card:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

For a fun touch I added a number to the back of the shirt:

I began by making a top folding card base 4 1/2" x 5 1/2" and die cut the shirt leaving the top of the die overhanging the fold of the card base ever so slightly.  The finished shirt size card is approximately 4 1/4" x 5'.  I used 2 stencils and ink blended grass on the bottom and clouds on the top of the shirt.  I die cut the footballer silhouette image x 4 from black card and stacked them using liquid glue; I then adhered it to the centre using liquid glue.  I stamped the 'happy birthday' sentiment above and the 'have a ball' sentiment below using black ink.  For the inside I again used the grass stencil and ink blended along the bottom.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre and added another silhouette image in the bottom left corner.  A really simple card but I think most men/boys would love it. 

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

A Cut Above challenge - ATG with a die cut

Allsorts challenge - stencils (cloud and grass stencil)

Aud Sentiments challenge - bookmarks and/or hobbies + sentiment

Crafty Calendar challenge - happy birthday

Daisy Chain challenge - birthday

Heart's Quest Celebrations of Love challenge - BEWAS + optional theme 'masculine'

Heart's Quest for Shaped Cards & Tags challenge - ATG

Mix It Up challenge - ATG optional shaped card

Simply Clean & Simple challenge - ATG optional theme birthday

Stencil Fun challenge - ATG optional theme patterns

The Male Room challenge - hobbies

Unicorn challenge - no design paper

I'm sure this will be a popular challenge as play could mean lots of things, such as, play music, play sports, play a game etc.  I cannot wait to see what you create. Please pop over to the challenge blog and leave some love for our guest designer Bonnie and the rest of the design team.

I appreciate you stopping by.

Love and hugs,

card supplies:

Craft Addiction UK - create your own football shirt die set

Craft Addiction UK - mini football collection die set

MFT - mini cloud edges stencil

MFT - grassy edges stencil

Lawn Fawn - year two mini stamp (for happy birthday)

Lawn Fawn - sweet smiles stamp (for have a ball)

Clearly Besotted - a little sentiment stamp (for inside sentiment)

Limetree Craft - 300gsm smooth white card (for card base)

Limetree Craft - 220gsm black card

Gina K Designs - ink pads - grass green & blue sky

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

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

Card Clubhouse IG Hop - Week 4

Good morning friends; I'm back to share my card for the new Card Clubhouse IG hop organised by my lovely friend Kelly. We are on Week 4 and our theme is 'kind words matter'. We are thinking use an oversized word/words die or stamp as the focal point with a thoughtful message but whatever you make we can't wait to see it. 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 pushed for time this week so went with a clean and simple layout, using some large alphabet dies and some ink blending and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I hope you like it too.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I decided to make a 6" x 6" card for a change so used a 12" x 12" piece of card to create my card base.  I cut it in half at 12" x 6" and scored it on the long side at 6".  I also cut a panel 5 1/2" square and added some black spatter.  Whilst the spatter was drying I cut the WOW letters from white card (4 times for each letter so that I could stack them).  I took the top later of the letters and using my ink pads blended them in rainbow colours and then adhered them all together with liquid glue.  Once my background was dry I stamped the sub-sentiment in black ink in the centre and adhered the rainbow blended word above with liquid glue.  I added some scrap white card behind the panel and adhered to the card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut another white panel 5 1/2" square and ink blended the rainbow at the bottom (I did pick up the yellow ink pad instead of the orange so my rainbow is slightly out of order lol!) and added some black spatter over the blended part.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink and adhered the panel to the card base with double sided tape. 

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

* to be updated * 

I hope you will pop over to Instagram and check out the hop; please use the hashtag #cardclubhousehop2026 to see all the gorgeous creations and also if you want to participate we will be able to find you.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Love and hugs,

card supplies:

Craft Addiction UK - bold alphabet dies

MFT - sassy pants b-day greetings 3 stamp (for outside sentiment)

MFT - inside & out birthday greetings (for inside sentiment)

*Gina K Designs - ink pads - red velvet, tangerine twist, wild dandelion, lucky clover, blue sky

Limetree Craft - 280gsm silky smooth white card (not available but other options are here and here)

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

MFT - extreme black hybrid ink pad (for spatter)

*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

Patterned Paper Party IG Hop - January 2026

Hello friends, welcome back to my little blog.  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 'chilly', which is something fun and should be a popular twist, so grab your patterned papers and join in the fun. I only used a tiny bit of patterned paper but I think it packs a punch.  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" x 5 1/4" and ran it through my die cutting machine with a snow flurry cover plate (it gives a fantastic stitched swirly detail and looks so cool).  I found a small piece of the blue snowflake paper and decided to die cut some letters to spell the word brr; I also cut 2 more words from white card so that I could layer them up using liquid glue.  I added some scrap white card behind the panel and adhered it to the card base with double sided tape.  I added the letters in the lower half of the panel using liquid glue.  I stamped a thin sentiment and die cut it out using the coordinating die.  I added some slivers of white card behind it and adhered it over the brr word with liquid glue.  I finished off with some white snowflake embellishments.  For the inside I cut another white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and added a strip of the snow flurry background to the bottom and added a thin strip of the snowflake paper above it with liquid glue.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink and then adhered the panel to the card base with double sided tape.  A really clean and simple card but one with a lot of impact I think.

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

The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up challenge - ATG Christmas optional twist snow people

AAA Cards challenge - follow my lead

ABC Christmas challenge - A is for anything Christmas

Christmas (or not) BINGO challenge - Line B - Christmas/non traditional colours/free (although my card would also fit Line N and Line O)!

Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round challenge - B is for Brr and Blue

Colorful Options challenge - blue & white

Crafty Calendar challenge - happy new year (my cover plate is new) entry 3 of 3

Creative Knockouts challenge - something to say

Daisy Chain challenge - use dies

Jingle Belles challenge - something old, something new (paper is old, cover plate is new)

Make My Monday challenge - use paper with pattern

Paper Rocks Scissors challenge - die cut the letters from patterned paper

Pearly Sparkles challenge - use patterned paper

Simply Clean and Simple challenge - ATG CAS optional theme use something new (cover plate is new)

The Four Seasons challenge - winter season

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

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 pageor use the hashtag #patternedpaperpartyhopjanuary2026 and we will find you.

Thanks for stopping by and take care.

Lots of love

card supplies:

Craft Addiction UK - bold alphabet dies

Time for Tea Designs - snow flurry cover plate die

*Gina K Designs - all at once - holiday season stamp & coordinating die

Gina K Designs - holiday wreath builder stamp (for inside sentiment)

Limetree Craft - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

Trinity Stamps - vanilla sugar snowflake embellishment mix

Craft ID paper pad bought from TKMaxx 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 - 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 #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