Krafty Chicks challenge #841 - Christmas

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 is Week 2, our theme is 'Christmas' and I am your hostess. We are in the 'ber months now so if you haven't already started your Christmas cards it's time to ramp up production.  We hope you will join us and build up your collection and take the pressure off in December.  So come on over and join in the fun with us.

I recently purchased this gorgeous layering stencil in the Spellbinders clearance sale and have been dying to use it.  I used a non-traditional colour combo and I love 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 began by creating my card base by cutting a white piece of card 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" and scoring on the long side at 4 1/4".  I cut a piece of light brown card to 5" x 6" (although I will trim it down later) and used white pigment ink on the first layer of the stencil and a mid blue and navy on the second and third layers.  I am really happy with the finished result, although the mid blue turned more teal on the light brown card but I think it looks lovely.  At this point I trimmed the panel down to 4" x 5 1/4" and added some scrap white card behind for some dimension.  I stamped and white heat embossed the 'merry' sentiment and 'Christmas' sub-sentiment onto the same brown card and used the coordinating dies to cut them out (I also cut 3 more from the brown card to layer up).  I added the panel onto my card base using double sided tape and then adhered the sentiments in the centre using liquid glue.  I finished off with some white pearls.  For the inside I cut another panel from the light brown card and stencilled part of the design at the bottom using the same inks as the front.  I stamped and white heat embossed the sentiment in the centre and then adhered the panel to my card base using 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 '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.  I'll be back in a little while with my card for this week's Just Us Girls challenge. 

Love and hugs,

card supplies:

Hero Arts - color layering holiday neighborhood stencils

Kristina Werner (for C&9th) - joyful & merry stamp & die set

Gina K Designs - ink pads - blue raspberry and in the navy

Gina K Designs - white pigment ink cube

WOW! - opaque bright white super fine embossing powder

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

Little Things From Lucy's Cards - soft snowflake mix pearls (store sadly closed)

light brown card 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

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