Stencil Fun IG Hop - October

Happy Sunday friends; I hope you've all had a great weekend so far. Today I am sharing my card for this month's Stencil Fun IG Hop organised by my lovely friend Jane. We a group of crafters who are determined to use their forgotten and neglected stencils. I'm definitely guilty of this; I have so many stencils but usually forget to reach for them so this hop is perfect for me. The theme is always anything goes but we will have an optional theme to use if we want to. This month's optional theme is 'Halloween' and I'm excited to see who has used this optional theme.

I know it's hard to believe but I didn't actually have a Halloween stencil in my stash - I know shocker - so of course I had to go shopping!!  I decided upon a Halloween script stencil as I thought it would make a fun background and I also went with a shaker element too.   I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I also decorated the envelope:

I began by ink blending my background with orange, lime green and purple inks, I then placed the stencil over top and stencilled with black ink to achieve the 'reverse stencil' technique (which I have done once before here).  I added some white gel pen highlights which I think really makes the background pop and I cut the panel down to 4" x 5 1/4".  At this point I decided to make a shaker card so I cut a circle from the upper centre of the panel and also cut a slightly smaller circle from an orange panel so that I could have a inside mat layer.  I adhered the two panels together with liquid glue and then added a piece of clear plastic (salvaged from some packaging) for my window with double sided tape.  I die cut the letters for the word 'eek' 4 times and adhered them together with liquid glue and also die cut some bats from black card.  I stamped and white heat embossed the sentiment and cut it out with a sentiment strips die.  I decided to trim the panel down slightly and added an orange mat layer behind it with double sided tape.  I found a sequin mix that included some orange, purple and green sequins so used that inside my shaker window along with some of the bats.  I added thin foam tape around the window and adhered it together to seal the window. I added the eek word with liquid glue and the sentiment with black foam squares.  I added some scrap card behind my panel with double sided tape and adhered it to a black card base for some extra drama.  For the inside I cut a white panel 3 7/8" x 5 1/8" and adhered it to an orange mat layer.  I adhered a strip of the stencilled background down the left side of the white panel and stamped the sentiment in black ink.   I also added one of the bats in the top right hand corner with liquid glue.  As I had the circle left over from cutting out the window and a thin strip of the background still left I decided to decorate the front and back of my envelope too.  

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

AAA Colourful challenge - colour board #20

A Cut Above challenge - ATG with a die cut

Aud Sentiments challenge - ink blending and/or fall/thanksgiving + sentiment

Craft Rocket challenge - autumn/Halloween

Crafty Calendar challenge - Halloween 

Crafty Gals Corner challenge - spooky....... colours/words

Creative Inspirations challenge - autumn/something spooky

Daisy Chain challenge - autumn/Halloween

Inkspirational challenge - seasonal (Halloween)

Just Us Girls challenge - word week: Halloween

Little Red Wagon challenge - Halloween

Moving Along With The Times challenge - sentiment as the focus

Stencil Fun challenge - ATG with a stencil optional theme Halloween

The Paper Funday challenge - ATG optional twist cute or creepy

Tic Tac Toe challenge - stencil, free, embossing (my sentiment is heat embossed)

Unicorn challenge - autumn and/or Halloween

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

We hope you will be inspired by our Stencil Fun 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 #stencilfunoctober2025 and we will find you.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

Lots of love

card supplies:

Pretty Pink Posh - Halloween words stencil

Gina K Designs - ink pads - tangerine twist, key lime, wild wisteria*

Gina K Designs - large strip sentiments dies*

Gina K Designs - white pigment ink cube*

Waffle Flower - nesting circle dies

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Limetree Crafts - 220gsm black card

Clearly Besotted - fright night stamp - retired

Spellbinders - simply perfect alphabets dies

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

WOW! - clear gloss super fine embossing powder

Sakura - white no.10 gelly roll pen

Little Things From Lucy's Cards - sprinkles rainbow circles sequins - store now closed

orange card from my stash

* I now have an Affiliate Link for the Gina K Designs store.  If 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

Gorgeous Gift Tags IG Hop - October 25

Hello friends, I hope you're doing ok and that you've had a lovely day so far. It's time for a new theme 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 'Halloween', which is great theme and with so many images to choose from such as ghosts, spiders, witches, or even cute trick or treaters, the world is your oyster! I can't wait to see what the rest of my fellow hoppers have made. I hope you can pop over to Instagram and join us. 

I don't make many Halloween things as a rule but as I had bought a new stamp I would have been rude not to use it lol!  I went for a bright lime green and black colour combo and I have to say I love how it turned out.  I hope you like it too. 

Here is my tag:

A closer look at the details:

I decorated the backs too:

I began by die cutting two tags from white card.  I used a lime green ink pad to ink blend over the front of one of them and I went with a heavier hand around the edge for some contrast.  I used my new background stamp and stamped it over the ink blending with black ink.  I also added some black ink around the edge of the tag.  I die cut a spider web from black card and adhered it to the top left corner of the tag with liquid glue.  I die cut a ghost from white card 4 times and adhered them together with liquid glue; I added some black card behind his eyes and mouth also with liquid glue.  I adhered the ghost to the tag with liquid glue.  I stamped the sentiment onto black card with watermark ink and white heat embossed it before cutting it out with a sentiment strips die.  I added that above the ghost with foam squares.  For the back of this tag I found some lime green paper almost the same colour as my ink blending and adhered that with liquid glue.  I had a little piece of the spider web die cut left over from the front so added that to the bottom right corner with liquid glue.  I stamped a sentiment at the very bottom of the tag with black ink.  For the second tag I kept it really simple; I added a piece of striped paper to the front of the tag and adhered another spider web in the right bottom corner with liquid glue and for the back of the tag I simply covered it with black card to continue the spooky vibe.  I tied both the tags together with lime green spotty ribbon and then added some black twine which I tied into a bow for some extra decoration.  

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

AAA Colourful challenge - colour board #20 (I used lime green & black)

Craft Rocket challenge - autumn/Halloween

Crafty Calendar challenge - Halloween

Creative Inspirations challenge - autumn/something spooky

Cut It Up challenge - use more than one die (tag, web, ghost, sentiment strip die)

Double D challenge - trick or treat, smell my feet

Heart's Quest for Shaped Cards & Tags challenge - ATG on a shaped card or tag

If You Give A Crafter A Cookie challenge - spooky fun

Little Red Wagon challenge - H is for holidays (I chose Halloween)

Stamping Sensations challenge - autumn

Tag-along (+ ATC's) challenge - anything autumn

The Four Seasons challenge - ATG fall optional mood board

The Paper Funday challenge - ATG optional cute or creepy

Tic Tac Toe challenge - top row across: die cut/twine/embossing

We Love Stamping challenge - anything autumn

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. If you would like to join us please visit my Instagram page or use the hashtag #gorgeousgifttagsOct2025 and we will find your tags.

Thanks for stopping by and take care.

Lots of love

tag supplies:

Waffle Flower - nesting tag dies

Creative Expressions - ghostly manor rubber stamp

Gina K Designs - key lime ink pad

Gina K Designs - large strip sentiments dies

Spellbinders - harvest magic die set (for ghost)

Marianne Design - spiderweb die

MFT - fab-boo-lous friends stamp (for sentiment)

MFT - black & white stripes 6x6 paper pack

WOW! - opaque bright white super fine embossing powder

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Limetree Crafts - 220gsm black card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

Versamark - watermark ink pad

lime paper from stash

Falling for Wednesdays IG Hop - Week 7

Happy Wednesday friends; I hope you've had a great week so far.  I'm back with my card for the Falling for Wednesdays IG Hop organised by my lovely friend Kelly.  It is Week 7 and this week is the last week of this hop but don't be sad we'll be back very soon with a Winter Wonderland Hop.  This week's theme is 'BOO-tiful' and we want to see all things Halloween.  

I don't really make Halloween cards as none of my family really celebrates the occasion so I decided to make some fun Halloween inspired sour cream containers.  I'm sorry but my post is photo heavy so scroll through if you don't want to see them all.  Here are my cute containers:

here they are individually:

a close up of the cute images:

I began by making the containers.  I used 4 sheets of patterned paper in 2 different colours and cut them to 5 1/2" x 6 1/2".  I've made these before so knew what to do but if you're not sure there are loads of tutorials on Pinterest and YouTube.  Typically I couldn't find my paper crimper to crimp the edges (isn't it always the case when you need something) so just left them plain on the bottom.  For the top I punched 2 holes with my Crop-a-dile (another hunt around the craft room first though) and tied some ribbon in a knot before wrapping some black twine in a bow to secure and make it look pretty.  I didn't have any lime green or orange ribbon so I coloured some white ribbon with my Promarkers to match.  

I stamped the 4 adorable images and coloured them with Promarkers; I made sure to leave enough room so that I could cut them out with a circle die (whilst the die was still in place I lightly inked around the edges with a grey ink pad for some definition).  I also cut the matching scallop die with card to co-ordinate with the images.  I didn't have any lime green card so ink blended that one to match before cutting it out.  The sentiments are from the same stamp set; I stamped 2 in black ink and 2 were white heat embossed onto black card.  I added the stamped circles on to the scalloped circles with foam tape and then they were added to the container with double sided tape.  The sentiment was then added on top with double sided tape.  I added a few white gel pen highlights and voila they were done.  

I tied the opening with ribbon because I didn't have any small treats available to fill them with so it means I can undo them and fill them when I'm ready.  

I would like to enter my treat containers into the following challenges:

Colourful Options challenge - neon

Crafty Catz challenge - ATG option spots and/or stripes (my paper has spots)

Creative Inspirations challenge - autumn or Halloween

Dream Valley challenge - occasions other than birthday

Fab 'n' Funky challenge - show us some colouring (coloured with Promarkers)

Get Creative challenge - purple, black, green and orange 

Papercraft challenges - ribbon

Pearly Sparkles challenge - let's go cute

Shopping Our Stash challenge - colour me beautiful - 13 challenges max

Tic Tac Toe challenge - purple, orange, black/purple, witch, embossing/free, orange, embossing/free, broom, black

Unicorn challenge - autumn and/or Halloween

We Love Stamping challenge - mood board (I was inspired by the colours)

I hope you will be able to join us over at Instagram and check out the hop.  Please use the hashtag #ffwcardgroup2023 to find all the creations by the participants of the hop and if you want to join in we can find your makes too.  

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

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

MFT - fab-BOO-lous friends stamp set (bought new from a store on eBay)

Spellbinders - standard circles large dies

Spellbinders - classic scalloped circles large dies

Gina K Designs - key lime and stormy sky ink pads

card, ribbon and twine from my stash

Promarkers

Wow - white super fine embossing powder

Memento tuxedo black ink pad (to stamp images)

Versafine onyx black ink (for sentiments)

Sakura - white gelly roll 10 pen