ATC Scrap Makes IG Hop February 26

Hello friends, I hope you're doing great and you've had a great start to your week. I'm sharing my creations for this month's ATC Scrap Makes IG Hop. We challenge you to use leftover die cuts, sentiments and card stock to create Artist Trading Cards (ATC's). You can send them in happy mail, save them on a ring to highlight your favorite creations, swap them with friends or add sweet notes to a lunchbox. Join us if you like; the only rules are to use scraps and create cards that are 2.5” x 3.5” in size. We share our little snippets of happiness on the third Tuesday of the month.

I had some ink smooshed backgrounds left over from a previous project so they were my starting point this month.  I won a recent challenge and one of the prizes was an ATC stamp set so I also used that.  I went very mixed media/grungy this time around and I think they turned out great.  I hope you like them too.

Here are my ATC's:

and a closer look at each individual ATC:

I decorated the backs very simply this time:

I began by stamping the ATC stamps on each of the ink smooshed backgrounds and roughly trimmed them down, I stamped and gold heat embossed a small butterfly in the top right corner and ink blended around the edge with a brown ink pad.  I took 4 plain white ATC's and created some distressed looking backgrounds using a stamp from MFT and again ink blended all around with the brown ink pad.  I stamped 4 of the floral images with a light brown ink onto white card and used the matching dies to cut them out.  As I didn't want too much colour I used 2 prismacolor pencils to lightly colour the florals.  The white was a little bright so again used the remainder of the brown ink on my blending brush to tone down the white.  I added some white and gold spatter over all of the backgrounds and also brushed some of the gold randomly around the edges of the ATC's.  Once dry I tied some twine around each of the smaller panels, adhered the florals with liquid glue and added foam squares behind.  I used some pre-printed sentiments and again coloured them by blending with the brown ink.  A stamped the ATC info stamp onto the back using black ink and lightly blended around the edges of the back of the ATC's.  I then added the smaller panels onto the ATC's and adhered the sentiments with liquid glue.  

I would like to enter my ATC's into the following challenges:

* to be updated * 

I hope you will pop over to Instagram and check out the hop; please use the hashtag #ATCscrapmakes2026 or #ATCscrapmakesfeb26 to see all the gorgeous creations and also if you want to participate we will be able to find you.

I really appreciate you stopping by today.

Love and hugs,

ATC supplies:

*Gina K Designs - floral friendship stamp & die (for flowers)

Gina K Designs - spring mountain stamp (for butterflies)

Gina K Designs - warm cocoa ink pad

MFT - distressed patterns stamp

Creative Expressions - wordies sentiment sheet - everyday

ATC silicone stamp won in a recent challenge

Kuretake - gansai tambi starry colors palette (for gold spatter)

Winsor & Newton - white gouache (for white spatter)

Prismacolor Premier pencils - light green & light aqua

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

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

Versamark - embossing and watermark ink pad

Cosmic Shimmer - bright gold detail embossing powder

twine 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 #806 - Birthday

Good morning lovely friends; I hope you're having a great week.  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. This is such an easy challenge as we always need birthday cards so we hope you will come over and join in the fun with us.

I'm sharing the card I made for my niece's 21st birthday and although I've made something similar in the past I did step it up a little and I think it's an elegant card for a special birthday.  My card size is 5 1/2" x 7 1/2".  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by taking some smooth white card and created my card base by cutting it to 11" x 7 1/2" and scoring on the long side at 5 1/2".  I used my score board to score 5 lines vertically for some texture and visual interest in the background and matted this panel onto a gold mirror card layer with double sided tape.  I also added some gold and black spatter.  I die cut some leaves from white card and also a couple from vellum and also die cut the happy birthday frame from vellum twice.  I cut a white circle to go behind the vellum frame and also used gold mirror card to die cut the 21, along with a few extra white ones so that I could layer them up with liquid glue.  I stamped the sentiment using black ink and die cut it out with a sentiment strips die.  I adhered the birthday frame together with liquid glue, putting it sparingly so that it would be less noticeable through the vellum and added the white circle behind it.  I added the leaves vertically along the score lines with liquid glue, adding the circle frame with foam squares.  I adhered the 21 with liquid glue into the centre of the circle and the sentiment on the bottom edge of the circle with foam squares.  I finished off with some gold and black metallic pearls.  I added some scrap white card behind the panel and then adhered it to the card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut another white panel and added it onto a gold mat panel with double sided tape.  I added some gold and black spatter to the bottom third and adhered a cluster of leaves in the left lower corner.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink.  I adhered the panel onto the card base with double sided tape.  

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

Aud Sentiments challenge - dies and/or love, anniversary, wedding + sentiment

Crafts Galore Encore challenge - ATG

Let's Craft & Create challenge - ATG + from the heart

The Paper Funday challenge - ATG optional pastel colours

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 want to say how much I appreciate your lovely comments, your support really does mean the world to me.

Love and hugs,

card ingredients:

*Gina K Designs - foliage fillers die set

Gina K Designs - Master Layouts 03 die set (for white circle)

Gina K Designs - large strip sentiments die set

MFT - happy birthday circle frame die

MFT - by the numbers die set

Honey Bee Stamps - this one's for the girls stamp (for outside sentiment)

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

Stampin' Up! - card stock vellum

Limetree Craft - 280gsm silky smooth white card (not available currently but other options can be found here and here)

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

gold mirror card from stash

Kuretake - gansai tambi starry colours paint palette (for gold spatters)

MFT - black hybrid ink pad (for black spatters)

*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

Cards For All Seasons IG Hop Week 21 - Masquerade

Hello again friends; I'm back to share my card for this week's Cards for All Seasons IG hop organised by my lovely friend Kelly. We are now on Week 21 and our theme is 'masquerade'. Such a fun theme this week and open to lots of interpretation if you don't want to use actual masks.  You could have an image wearing a mask or even just use masking on your creation. 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 went very literal and used masks on my card (which is 5 3/4" x 7 3/4").  I wanted the full masquerade ball vibe and chose my patterns and colours accordingly.  There's lots going on but I hope you like it:

Here is my card:

A closer look at the masks:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a white panel 5 1/2" x 7 1/2" and using purple and green ink pads and my homemade smooshing tool I ink created my background; I splattered some gold paint and black ink for some extra interest.  I set that aside to dry and die cut my masks 4 times from black card.  I didn't have any harlequin paper so I created my own using a rhombus die and coordinating stencil; I cut the die from white card and used black ink through the stencil and it turned out exactly as I wanted.  I also splattered that panel with gold paint too.  It was at this point that I decided to use the gold paint to go over the black masks and I think it turned out really good; they are so shiny.  I trimmed the ink smooshed background ever so slightly and adhered it onto a black mat with double sided tape.  I also added a black mat behind the harlequin panel which I added to the background at a jaunty angle.  I adhered the masks with foam squares and added some black pearls to each mask for some extra bling.  I die cut some mini masks from black card and added them with liquid glue.  I stamped a sentiment onto white card using black ink and used a sentiment strip die to cut it out.  I adhered it to the card with foam squares.  I added some scrap white card behind the panel and adhered it to the card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut another white panel and adhered it to a black card mat with double sided tape.  I ink smooshed a 2" panel of white card using the same inks and once dry cut it into 2 x 1" strips which I adhered to the top and bottom of the white panel with liquid glue.  I die cut another large black mask and added it to the bottom left corner with liquid glue. Finally I added a die cut sentiment to the centre with liquid glue.  The panel was then adhered to the card base with double sided tape. 

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

Die Cut Divas challenge - ATG must have at least one die cut

Double D challenge - Halloween colours (purple, green, black)

Stencil Fun challenge - all about stencils optional theme Halloween (the harlequin panel is stencilled)

I hope you will pop over to Instagram and check out the hop; please use the hashtag #cfascardhop2025 to see all the gorgeous creations and also if you want to participate we will be able to find you.

I'll be back tomorrow with my card for the Krafty Chicks challenge so I hope you will pop back and check it out. Until then thank you so much for stopping by.

Love and hugs,

card supplies:

Sizzix - masquerade 664195 thinlits dies

Waffle Flower - dashed rhombus panel die & two-step rhombus stencil

Lawn Fawn - sweet smiles stamp

Simon Says Stamp - birthday basics stamp & die set

Kuretale - Gansai Tambi starry colors palette

MFT - black hybrid ink pad

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Limetree Crafts - 220gsm black card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

Gina K Designs - ink pads - wild lilac, grass green

Gina K Designs - large strip sentiments dies

Gina K Designs - pearl mix - black, gold & silver metallic

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

Summer Soiree Card Making IG Hop - Week 6

Hello friends; I hope you've had a great start to your week.  The weather is very changeable here at the moment and we can't seem to string two days together; it's showery today but it was lovely and sunny yesterday.  We did however take Wesley for a walk today around the local lake this morning.  It's gorgeous up there and they even have a cafe so you can have a coffee and a bite to eat if you want.  He really enjoyed himself and was really brave meeting dogs for the first time.  He wasn't too sure about the water though.  

Anyway enough of my waffling let's get down to the real reason you are here.  It's week 5 of our Summer Soiree IG card hop, which has been organised by my lovely friend Kelly. This week is all about 'Christmas in July' so we want to see all your festive images but of course if you don't celebrate Christmas we would love to see your winter creations too.  

I've been having fun rediscovering my wooden stamps and I'm really going to try and make an effort to use them more.  I found this cute Hero Arts stamp and I remember using it lots years ago but it's been neglected for probably 15 years so I thought I would show it some love.  

Here is my card:

A close up of the cute kitty:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and did an ombre ink blend from left to right using my ink pads and blending brushes.  Using the same inks I stamped some trees in the background and added some gold dots using a metallic pen and white highlights using a gelly roll pen.  I managed to squish one corner of my panel so decided to cut it out using a postage die.  I stamped the kitty image onto alcohol marker friendly card, coloured it with Promarkers, added some white highlights and then fussy cut it out.  I stamped a sentiment under the ink blended strip towards the left side using black ink.  I added the panel onto my card blank with foam tape and also added the kitty with foam squares.  For the inside I again did an ombre ink blend but this time at the bottom of my panel and stamped two trees using the same inks.  I added more gold and white highlights and stamped my sentiment with black ink.  I used the same postage die to cut it out.  I added this to my card base with double sided tape.  A very simple card but I think it's really super cute.  I hope you like it too.  

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

AAA Cards challenge - sketch ombre

Alphabet challenge - H is for Holidays - summer or Christmas in July

Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round challenge - anything Christmas or winter holiday goes

Christmas With The Cuties challenge - clean and simple Christmas cuties

CRAFT challenge - Christmas

Crafty Gals Corner challenge - ATG optional twist Christmas

Creative Knockouts challenge - Christmas in July

Daisy Chain challenge - Christmas in July

Day Of The Month Card Club challenge - National US postage stamp day

Dragonfly Dreams challenge - Christmas in July

A Blog Named Hero July challenge - color my world (I coloured my image with alcohol markers and ink blended my background)

Kat Scrappiness Christmas in July pick 3 challenge - die cuts/stamps/mainly red & green

My Time To Craft Christmas challenge - woods (like a forest, small grove of trees)

My Time To Craft challenge - clean and simple

Papercraft challenges - holiday time

Pearly Sparkles challenge - Christmas in July

Show Us Your Pussy Cats challenge - ATG must include a cat

Simply Create Too challenge - Christmas in July 

Stamping Sensations challenge - ATG optional twist Christmas in July

Tic Tac Toe challenge - die cut/free/any sentiment

Wow so many Christmas challenges around at the moment!  

If you would like to follow the hop over on Instagram please use the hashtag #summersoireecardmakinghop2024 to find us or alternatively visit my profile and you will find the list of participants on my post.  We would love it if you would give the summer soiree challenges a try and again use the hashtag and we will find your projects.  

I'll be back tomorrow with my card for the Krafty Chicks challenge but until then enjoy the rest of your day and thank you for stopping by. 

Love and hugs,

  

Card ingredients:

Hero Arts - Winter kitty E4841 wood stamp - ? no longer available

Promarkers

Lawn Fawn - winter village stamp set (for trees)

Catherine Pooler - notecard postage dies

MFT - itty bitty holiday stamp set (for sentiments)

Gina K Designs - ink pads - key lime, jelly bean green, fresh asparagus

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card - store now closed

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card

Sakura - white no. 10 gelly roll pen

Kuretake - Zig writer gold metallic pen

Versafine - onyx black ink pad

CAS on Friday challenge - guest designer

Hello friends and welcome to Friday.  I hope you've had a great week so far and you've got some exciting plans for the weekend.  

I was lucky enough to win a recent challenge over at CAS on Friday and was offered a guest DT spot.  I excitedly accepted and today is the day that I can share my project for them.  The theme for this challenge is 'watercolour'.  I was going to go down my usual route of a background wash of colour and an image over top but decided to try something different.  After watching a couple of YouTube videos showing simple watercolour flowers I decided to give it a try myself.  My efforts are definitely not exceptional but I am over the moon pleased with the final outcome.  I hope you like it too. 

Here is my card:

A closer look at my flowers:

I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a panel of Bristol smooth heavy weight card to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".  I used my Kuretake Gansai Tambi palette and chose a pink, blue and green pan to use on my card.  Following one tutorial I saw on YouTube I added 3 small dots of concentrated colour with a small paint brush and dragged the colour out with a clean damp brush to create the petals.  I created 2 pink and 2 blue flowers in this fashion.  I know I should have done 3 or 5 flowers for perfect design but I liked the way my 4 flowers looked (and I didn't want to mess up my panel by adding one more lol!).  I added the stems using the green paint and added some leaves (although some were a little wonkier than others!).  I took a gold pan and added the centres to my flowers and also some splatter (spatter?) all over the background.  I stamped my sentiment and heat embossed with gold embossing powder (I did a little stamp surgery as the original sentiment was happy birthday bestie but I cut it apart between the birthday and bestie).  I then added the panel to an A2 card base using double sided tape.  No embellishments or anything extra as I loved it the way it was.  For the inside I took another panel of the Bristol card and stamped a sentiment in the centre with black ink.  I had practiced my flowers on a scrap of card and as they looked so pretty I didn't want to throw them away so I cut them into triangles and added them to the right top and bottom left corners with liquid glue.  A really simple card but a one-off original made by yours truly lol!

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

A Place to Start challenge - ATG

Beautiful Blossoms challenge - anything florals goes optional mood board

Creative Inspirations challenge - ATG

Halloween and Other Occasions challenge - always birthday

Incy Wincy Designs challenge - round/circles and/or hand drawn/sewing (my flowers are hand painted)

Moving Along With The Times challenge - CAS (clean and simple)

My Time To Craft challenge - summer florals

Scrapping4Fun challenge - birthday

Simply Clean and Simple challenge - CAS optional use a heart (happy 1st anniversary)

Triple B challenge - use at least one bloom, bird or butterfly optional mood board

I hope you will be able to join in with the challenge over at CAS on Friday but remember it must be a CAS creation and you are allowed one entry only. You can read the definition of CAS here. 

Thank you so much for stopping by. 

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

Kuretake - Gansai Tambi 36 colour paint palette

Strathmore - Bristol smooth heavyweight card

MFT - inside and out birthday greetings

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card (for card base)

Cosmic Shimmer - detail bright gold embossing powder

Versamark - watermark ink pad

Versafine - onyx black ink pad

Krafty Chicks challenge #723 - Stamps

Hello again lovely friends; I'm running extremely late with my post today.  Wesley the puppy is really cramping my crafting and blogging time, but he's worth it!  I hope you've all had a great day so far.  It's time for a new challenge over at Krafty Chicks challenge and we are back to Week 1 which means Leanne is our hostess and our theme as always is 'Stamps' and we want to see your clear, wooden or even digi stamps.  So come over and join in the fun with us. 

My son asked me to make a card for a friend who is leaving for a new job and this was the perfect opportunity to use some new-to-me stamps.  I think it turned out super cute and I hope you like it. 

Here is my card:

a close up of the sweet image:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by stamping my image onto some alcohol marker friendly card, coloured it with Promarkers and used the matching die to cut it out.  I wanted to try the MFT weekly sketch so used some circle dies to cut 3 circles from my white panel (which was cut to 4" x 5 1/4").  I took another panel the same size and  traced the circles with a pencil as a guide for me to ink blend my three colours.  I used some gold paint to add splatter over the ink blended areas.  For the front panel I decided to use a swiss dot embossing folder for some added interest.  I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in the lower right circle using gold detail embossing powder and then adhered both the panels together with a mixture of double sided tape and liquid glue.  The panel was then added to the card base with foam tape.  I added the image onto the front with foam squares overlapping the pink and blue circles.  To finish off I added some gold smooth sequins.  For the inside cut another panel 4 " x 5 1/4" and stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink.  I took one of the white off-cut circles that was discarded from the front panel, ink blended some pink ink and also used the embossing folder again for some interest.  I had stamped another image but messed it up so die cut just the top part, coloured it with Promarkers and added it onto the embossed circle with double sided tape.  This was then added to the lower right corner of the panel with double sided tape.  The panel was added onto the card base with double sided tape.  The image is intended as a teacher image but I felt it was suitable for an office worker too.  Let me know what you think. 

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

Addicted to Stamps & More challenge - make your mark

Can You Handle The Pressure challenge - anything goes embossing optional twist sports

CRAFT - graduation/ATG

Crafty Catz challenge - ATG optional twist embellishments

Creative Inspirations challenge - ATG

Everybody Art challenge - we love stamping

I Love Promarkers challenge - ATG/pink, blue & yellow

Incy Wincy Designs challenge - round/circles and/or handdrawn /sewing

MFT sketch challenge - #705

I hope you will be able to join us for our 'Stamps' challenge and I cannot wait to see your creations in our linky.  Please leave some love for my fellow chicks - Leanne, Diane and Lori and also our guest designer Rachelle.  

Thanks for stopping by. 

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

MFT - lessons in love stamp & die set*

Clearly Besotted Stamps - poppy petals stamp (for outside sentiment) - retired

Spellbinders - fluted classic circles

Spellbinders - color essentials sequins gold smooth discs

Gina K Designs - swiss dot embossing folder

Promarkers

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card

Kuretake - Gansai Tambi starry colours palette (I used yellow gold)

* Dies to Die For has amazing offers on their stamps, dies etc.  This bundle is now sold out but they still have other amazing bundles up for grabs

A bit o' green (and gold)

Hello and happy Sunday friends.   I hope you've all had a wonderful weekend; although it seemed to go by in a blur it was so fast.  I'm sharing a card that I originally was going to post last Sunday (St. Patrick's Day) but time got away from me but I thought I would still share it.  It's not a SPD card but it is green so I thought I would have been perfect for last Sunday.  I hope you like it.  

Here is my card:

a close up of the focal image:

I decorated the inside:

I began by die cutting the circle die from gold mirror card and a further 3 times from white card and adhering them together with liquid glue.  I took the circle pieces from one of the white die cuts and ink blended onto them using 5 different colours of green ink.  I cut a white panel with a stitched rectangle and a slightly larger gold panel with another stitched panel.  Using some of the green ink that I used to ink blend with I splattered the background; I also added some gold splatter.  I adhered the panels together with double sided tape.  I took 2 of the white circles and stamped them with sentiments using black ink.  I added the gold circle outline die cut and the green ink blended circles with liquid glue.  The white stamped circles were added with foam squares for some dimension.  I didn't think the card needed any further embellishments as it was sparkly enough.  For the inside I cut another 2 stitched rectangle panels and added a few ink blended and gold circles randomly at the very bottom.  I didn't add a sentiment as I thought this card could be used for many different occasions and I can add it when needed.  

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

Addicted to Stamps and More challenge - any occasion

Allsorts challenge - keep it simple

Aud Sentiments challenge - use glitter/bling and/or green/St. Patrick's + sentiment

Colourful Options challenge - green

Double D challenge - green/clover/shamrock/luck

Dragonfly Dreams challenge - circles

Dream Valley challenge - dies and/or punches (3rd entry)

If You Give A Crafter A Cookie challenge - inspired by the colours

Inspiration Station challenge - I was instantly drawn to the colour of their skirts

Shopping Our Stash challenge - round and round

Simply Clean & Simple challenge - green

The Sisterhood of Crafters challenge - green

That's it for now but I'll be back on Wednesday with my Week 3 card for the Spring into Cardmaking IG Hop so until then take care and thanks for stopping by.  

  

card ingredients:

Waffle Flower - outlined circles die

Gina K Designs - ink pads - jellybean green, fresh asparagus, lucky clover, key lime and grass green

Gina K Designs - Lovely Flowers stamp set (for sentiments)*

Gold mirror card from my stash

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card

Kuretake Gansai Tambi - starry colours palette (I used yellow gold for my splatter)

Versafine - onyx black ink 

* should be available once new kit is released