AAA Birthday challenge #79 - Music

Hello again friends.  I'm back again to share my card for this month's AAA Birthday challenge and this month our theme is 'music' which is such a fun challenge with so many possibilities such as die cut or stamped musical notes, music paper or even images singing or playing instruments. I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone interprets the theme this month. Our guest designer this month is the lovely Sigrid so please pop over to her blog and leave her some love.

I used an older (but new to me) stamp and die set from MFT to make a fun birthday card for a friend. I know they are probably for kids but I think they work for us oldies too lol!  I went for a white and purple colour scheme and I really like how it turned out.  The card size is 5" x 6".  I hope you like it. 

Here is my card:

A closer look at the fun images:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by making my card base from white card cut to 10" x 6" and scored along the long side at 5". I then stamped the images onto alcohol marker friendly card, coloured them with Promarkers and used the coordinating dies to cut them out.  I also cut 3 more from white card so that I could layer them up for some extra dimension.  I cut a piece of white card 4 5/8" x 5 5/8" and embossed it with the music notes folder and matted it onto a purple panel with double sided tape.  I cut two stars from vellum so that my images would have a grounding piece to separate them from the background and I added the images to them with liquid glue.  I stamped the two sentiments with black ink and used a sentiment strips die to cut them out.  I also die cut 3 stars from the purple card to use as embellishments.  I placed the all the elements onto the background with foam squares.  I added some scrap white card behind the panel and then adhered it to my card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut another white panel and adhered a strip of white card which I embossed with the folder to the bottom with double sided tape.  I also added a thin strip of purple card above it with liquid glue.  I adhered this panel onto a purple mat layer with double sided tape.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink and finished off with a die cut star in the top right corner.  The panel was adhered to the card base with double sided tape.  

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

Addicted to Stamps & More challenge - all occasions

Can You Handle The Pressure challenge - must use an embossing folder optional pumpkins/orange

Cardz 4 Galz challenge - colouring (I used Promarkers alcohol markers)

Girlz and The Art of Letters challenge - Letter M...... is for Music

Inkspirational challenge - seeing stars

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge - add some texture

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

The Paper Funday challenge - ATG optional cute or creepy

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 - friendship rocks stamp & die set

Crafts-Too - musical notes embossing folder

MFT - blueprints 18 (for stars)

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

Quickutz - nesting stars dies

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

Stampin' Up! - card stock vellum - no longer available

purple card from stash

Gina K Designs - large strip sentiments dies

*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 #708 - CAS

Good morning lovely friends; I hope you're having a great week so far.  I had a bit of a fright yesterday as every time I tried to get on my blog it was redirecting to spam/selling pages.  I got a bit stressed, googled for help and tried a few things, but not being very tech savvy couldn't figure it out.  Luckily my eldest son is very tech savvy and even though it was 12:30am he patiently sat with me and finally sorted it out.  Apparently it was a corrupted widget on my blog and once we removed it (after a bit of trial and error) everything was back to normal.  I'm only explaining just in case some of you experience it in the future.  It's when old, outdated widget gets taken over by dodgy types and they can change the purpose of the widget.  

Anyway onto happier, nicer things.  Today is the start of a brand new challenge over at Krafty Chicks challenge and this week Diane is our hostess and wants to see all your CAS (clean and simple) creations.    

I've been making cards with lots of details and layers lately so it was a nice change to go back to a CAS style.  I didn't have anyone in mind when I made this card so just had fun.  Here is my card:

A closer look:

I also decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" to create my background.  I took 2 ink cubes in yellow and blue and simply swiped them across the panel in a stripe pattern.  It's not perfect but I really like that plank or woodgrain effect you get by doing it this way.  I took another white panel and cut it to 3 1/2" x 4 3/4" and die cut a star into the centre.  I added foam tape behind this panel and added onto my striped background at a jaunty angle for some interest.  I die cut the 'birthday' word from navy card 3 times and adhered them together with liquid glue (on the 3rd layer I only added the middle part, from the i to the d so that it would give some support as it was over the open part of the die cut).  I added that over the star cut out with liquid glue.  I foolishly left it until now to add the happy sentiment so carefully using my Misti stamped it above the die cut word with navy ink.  I felt it needed a little something but nothing too in your face so found a die that cut out some teeny tiny stars and added some above and below the star.  These were cut out of some of the same striped background that I had practised on.  For the inside I cut a white panel 3 3/4" x 5" and stamped a sentiment in the centre with navy ink.  I swiped the yellow and blue ink at the bottom to replicate the front and added a few more stars.  This panel was added with double sided tape.  This was a really quick and easy card to make and the background took seconds but I think it looks really fun.  I hope you like it. 

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

AAA Cards challenge - anything CAS goes option spring/spring colours

Dream Valley challenge - dies and/or punches

Get Creative challenge - sing a song (Star by Kiki Dee)

Incy Wincy Designs challenge - birthday and/or funny, humourous

Inkspirational challenge - CAS option feature a balloon

Pearly Sparkles challenge - celebrate

Simply Clean and Simple challenge - anything CAS goes option green

The Paper Funday challenge - ATG option the DIES have it

Unicorn challenge - for the boys/men

I hope you will be able to join us for our 'CAS' challenge and I cannot wait to see your creations in our linky.  Please leave some love for my fellow chicks Leanne, Diane, Lori and our guest designer Shirley who is joining us for March.  

Thank you stopping by and leaving me such lovely comments; I appreciate you all.  

Love and hugs, 

Card ingredients:

Quickutz - nesting stars dies (they are really old and no longer available)

MFT - tag builder blueprints 6 (for tiny stars) 

Spellbinders - simply perfect mix & match sentiment dies (for birthday word)

Gina K Designs - doodled autumn stamp (for happy word)

Gina K Designs - let's celebrate stamp (for inside greeting) free incentive set last month but will be available in the store once the new kit comes out

Gina K Designs - ink cubes - prickly pear & powder blue from Winter assortment

Gina K Designs - in the navy ink pad

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

Pinwheel card

Hello crafty friends.  I hope you've had a fantastic weekend and even if you are not a royalist you enjoyed the Coronation bank holiday.  I loved watching all the pomp and ceremony and the tradition was definitely a sight to see.  I think for those watching from abroad it must have seemed magical.  It was just a shame that the weather was so bad.

I'm sharing my first ever pinwheel card that I made for my son's 29th birthday.  I originally bought a die to cut the card shape but it was too small for what I wanted so I just made my own.  I think it worked out ok, even if I couldn't make an envelope big enough to fit it in lol (the size when laid flat was 12 1/2" x 7 1/2")!  He has been a drummer for many years, and was even in a band at one point, so every year I try to incorporate drumming into his card.  

This post is going to be photo heavy as it was really hard to photograph.  

The main components are from MFT stamps, but the large sentiment is Lawn Fawn, the personalisation is Gina K Designs and the verse is Honey Bee Stamps.  I tried to stick to a colour scheme of black, red, white and grey as I think these colours work really well together.  

Here is my card 

close up detail of the die cuts:

All the die cuts were stacked up at least 3 high for added stability.  I am really happy with the finished result and thankfully my son loved it too and appreciated all the hard work I put into it.  Fair play to him he is my biggest cheerleader and takes an interest in my cardmaking.  

I am entering my card into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge - inspired by music 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - no patterned paper

Mix it up challenge - ATG - option embossing

Craft Rocket challenge - for the boys

Incy Wincy Designs challenge - fun folds +/- summer fun

Crafty Calendar challenge - anything but square

Crafty Catz challenge - ATG - option make it masculine

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful week.

Love and hugs, 

Card ingredients:

MFT - keep on rockin' die-namics

MFT - keep on rockin stamp set

MFT - headphones die-namics

Lawn Fawn - giant happy birthday die

Lawn Fawn - Henry's ABC dies

Quickutz - Nesting stars dies

Gina K Designs - grand gentlemen stamp set

Honey Bee Stamps - Inside: birthday sentiments

Gina K Designs - soft stone ink pad & red velvet ink pad

Versafine - onyx ink pad

Hobbycraft UK - black cardstock

All other card from my scraps bin

Crafts Too - musical notes embossing folder

50th birthday

Well how is everybody?  I'm sorry I've neglected my blog for so long *hangs head in shame*.  I've been making cards behind the scenes but had no time to blog them.  Anyway I thought I'd pop in quickly to share a card I made for a friend's 50th birthday using this week's MFT sketch challenge #557.  Here is the sketch:

and here is my card:

I began by stamping the candles with Gina K Designs inks, masking off each candle so I could use a different colour for each.  I die cut a star from some scrap cardstock and made by own stencil which I ink blended in the top right corner.  I then die cut the 5 and 0 from white card x 4 and black glitter card x 1 and glued them all together for extra dimension.  The sentiment was stamped in Versafine onyx black ink and die cut with a banner die and the final finishing touch were some black gems.  I hope you like it.

Here's what a used:

MFT - make a wish stamp set (from Dies to Die For)

MFT - blueprints 27 die set (from Dies to Die For)

MFT - by the numbers die set (retired)

Quickutz - nesting stars (no longer available)

Little Things from Lucy's Cards - ebony mix jewels

Gina K Designs - dye inks in red velvet, sweet mango, wild dandelion, jellybean green, sea glass, plum punch and innocent pink (from Bumbleberry Crafts)

Heffy Doodle - white letter size cardstock

Black glitter cardstock from stash

Tonic - Nuvo deluxe glue

I hope you have a wonderful week and I'll see you all again soon.

Hugs and love, 

Cute chicks

Hello again friends.  Here we are again at the beginning of a new week - I can't believe where the time is going - next week will be August!  I'm here today to share a card I made for my eldest son back in May but never got around to sharing with you.  I know it's a bit cutsie for a 26 year old but I don't think you're really ever too old for cute 😏

close up of the card

I ink blended some random areas on my background panel with distress oxide inks and put it aside.  I then die cut some stars from a white panel and and added this onto the blended background panel.  I matted and layered this panel onto a black layer and added this to a fog card base using foam tape.  I coloured the cute images with Promarkers and fussy cut them out and used foam tape to add them into the die cut stars.  I stamped the sentiments in Versafine onyx black ink and finished off with a few smaller black die cut stars and some pearl embellishments.  I think this card is so happy and cheerful and perfect for a birthday.  

I am going to enter my card into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - reach for the stars

Alphabet challenge - favourite food (cupcakes are definitely on the list)

Unicorn challenge - food and/or drink

Craft Rocket challenge - for the men/boys

Krafty Chicks challenge - all occasions

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a wonderful week.  

Take care and hugs, 

Card ingredients:

MFT - birthday chicks stamp set

Quickutz - nesting stars

Distress oxide inks

Various Promarkers

Simon Says Stamp fog cardstock 

Mama Elephant - happy everything stamp set

Clearly Besotted - happy birthday all

Uni-ball Signo broad white gel pen for highlights

Paper Smooches birthday card

Good Morning friends.  Today I'm here after a long break to actually share a card!! 

A lot has happened since I was here last - sadly my dad passed away on 23rd March and as it was just as lockdown came into effect it has proved to be a very stressful and unusual time.  We did the best we could but it wasn't the funeral he deserved; only 10 family could attend and the crematorium was eerily quiet. I have to say that my parent's neighbours were fantastic and stood on their doorsteps and paid their respects as the hearse went down the street, which was extremely emotional.  It's been almost 3 months now but it really only seems like yesterday.  It will be his 85th birthday tomorrow so that will be the first difficult milestone we have to get through but my mother, sister and myself are all supporting each other and we will have a cry and talk about our memories of him and the day will go by.  Life goes on but we never forget 💔

To keep myself busy I've been trying to craft and as I had some birthdays coming up it was the perfect way to take my mind off my dad and everything else that has been going on at the moment. 

I made this card for a lovely crafting friend using Paper Smooches 'blossoming buds' stamp set.  I stamped the flower arrangement twice, coloured them with my Promarkers and fussy cut them out. I made my own circle card base by die cutting 2 circle dies from an old Quickcutz/Lifestyle nesting circles set and glued them together.  The smaller circle and scalloped circle were cut with spellbinders dies.  The sentiment is also from the stamp set and to finish off I added a few 'over the rainbow - crystal collection' gems from Little Things from Lucy's Cards.  I even decorated the inside and made my own envelope from some very old 12x12 paper from my stash.

Sorry for the poor photographs - it's still not my strongest point - but I keep trying different ways and maybe one day I will find something that works for me!

Anyway I am going to enter this card into the current Paper Smooches challenge 'flowers'.  

It's been so long since I've entered a challenge I'm not even 100% sure I remember how to do it lol!

If you have made it this far, thank you for sticking with me and have a great day.  I will hopefully be back again soon with another card I've made during lockdown. 

Take care and lots of love,

Cupcake craft challenge #181–DT card

Good morning dear friends.  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend – the weather was so spring like here and looking out the window you would be mistaken for thinking it was April or May, although there was quite a nip in the air.  Can’t complain for the end of February though can we?

I’m here this morning to share my card for this week’s cupcake craft challenge.  This week I have the honour of setting the theme and chose “boys and their toys” which is the complete opposite to Keeley’s girly challenge last week!!  Here is my card:

I used a super cute image from Pollycraft called ‘skills’ and coloured him with promarkers and flex markers.  The paper is my mind’s eye from the ‘kraft funday’ pad and the black card is from eBay.  All I seem to be making at the moment are cards for boys, but I don’t mind really, as having two boys myself I’m quite used to it lol!

Our sponsor this week is Crafty Emma’s store and one lucky winner will receive a £10.00 voucher to spend in her online store. 

 

The rest of the design team have created amazing samples as usual, so please pop over to the challenge blog and check them out.  We really appreciate the lovely comments you always leave for us. 

By the way from today the teams over at cupcake have now split into two and I’m with Team A so I’ll only be posting a DT creation once every 2 weeks from now on.  However I’ll still be letting you know each week what the challenge is and I hope you’ll still be able to join in each week. 

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

Dream valley challenge – for men (2nd entry)

Paper sundaes challenge – circles

Little darlings challenge – pearls

My mum’s craft shop challenge – buttons and ribbons

Moving along with the times challenge – lots of layers

Simon says stamp challenge – use 3 papers (it looks like I used 4 but I used both sides of a doubled sided paper – hope this is ok?)

Crafty catz weekly challenge - something beginning with B – boy, black, ball, button

Seems a little sketchy challenge – fab sketch

Stamp, scrap and doodle challenge – manly card

The pretty little ribbon shop challenge – anything goes (2nd entry)

I hope you will be able to join in with my challenge this week and I cannot wait to see what you create.  I would like to welcome my newest followers – Jenny and Mandy – *waves hello* welcome ladies, I hope you like my creations and will visit me often.  I’m running late with my stamp with fun challenge DT card this week but I’ll post it as soon as I can.  Have a wonderful day and thanks so much for stopping by.

Card ingredients:

Image: Pollycraft – ‘skills’

Papers: my mind’s eye – ‘kraft funday’ pad, black card from eBay

Tools: promarkers, flex markers, circle nesties, quickutz star cookie cutter die, button from fantastic ribbons, pearls from the hobby house, ribbon from the ribbon girl

Sweet Stampin’ Guest DT card

This is going to be a super quick post from me tonight as it’s way past my bedtime!!  However I’m late posting my Guest DT card for this week’s Sweet Stampin’ challenge and wanted to get it done before the week ran ahead of me again lol!  I cannot believe that it is already the last week of being a guest but I’ve had a brilliant time and hopefully they’ve been happy with my cards!  The theme this week is “masculine” and here is my card:

I’ve used an image from Tickled Pink stamps called ‘Lil Lad Eric’ and I coloured him with promarkers and flex markers and I have to say I’m really pleased with his shabby/distressed looking jeans haha!  The papers are wild rose studio from the ‘for men’ paper stack and the plain kraft card is from dies to die for.  I distressed all the edges with my new tonic (Tim Holtz) tool which is much easier and quicker than using than my scissors.  I added my usual go-to male card embellishments of stars and buttons and added some faux stitching and my card was done!

The design team have created amazing samples so please pop over to the challenge blog and check them out. 

There are two sponsors this week – Quixotic Paperie are offering a £10.00 voucher and Joanna Sheen is also offering a £10.00 voucher, so definitely two good reasons to join in with the fun!

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

Corrosive challenge – another dimension (2nd entry)

Freshly brewed challenge – double it (2 papers, 2 stars, 2 layers)

Paper pretties challenge – punches or die cuts

Crafty sentiments challenge – use only 2 papers

Do you stack up? challenge – distress

Southern girls challenge – so distressed

2 sisters challenge – anything goes

Allsorts challenge – anything goes

Delightful challenge – use patterned papers

Little darlings challenge – pearls

I hope you will be able to join in with the challenge this week.  I cannot wait to see what you create.  Have a wonderful Monday and thanks for stopping by.

Card ingredients:

Image: Tickled Pink stamps – ‘Lil Lad Eric’

Papers: wild rose studio – ‘for men’ paper stack, kraft card from dies to die for

Tools: promarkers, flex markers, quickutz cookie cutter star die, buttons from fantastic ribbons, pearls from the hobby house, sentiment created on the pc, nesties labels 3 (which I cut in half), tonic distressing tool, letraset fine liner pen