Mini Card challenge IG Hop

Hello friends and happy Hump Day.  I trust your week has been good so far.  I'm taking part in a Mini Card challenge for the next 3 weeks, which has been organised by my lovely friend Kelly.  It's a chance to keep us occupied and our creativity flowing before the Summer 2024 Hop begins. 

We begin this week with The Mixed Up Challenge where we take 2 things that DO or DON’T belong and create a project! For instance you could make a card with ink blending and stamping - they go together. However you could also make a Christmas card in Halloween colours - which normally would not go together. I have to admit I was a little stumped at this one as I didn't want to make a card where things go together (like a 'normal' card) but was wracking my brain to think of something that didn't go together. I eventually decided to make a Christmas card using 4th of July colours i.e. red, white and blue, which are not traditionally used for festive makes.

Here is my card:

A closer look:

I decorated the inside:

It was so gloomy here when I took the photos that the stamping on the inside looks black but it's actually navy and the sentiment is also cut from navy card. 

I began by cutting a white panel 3 3/4" x 5" and ink blended some red ink into the centre.  I also added some water droplets to give a slightly distressed look.  I cut a slightly larger mat panel from navy card and adhered them with double sided tape.  I die cut 3 snowflakes from white card and added them onto the ink blended panel with liquid glue.  I die cut the sentiment 3 times from navy card and stacked them using liquid glue for extra dimension.  I added the sentiment on top of the snowflakes with liquid glue.  I finished the front with a few red pearls.  For the inside I cut the same panels from white and navy card and adhered them with double sided tape.  I lightly ink blended the red ink just in the lower left corner and cut another 3 white snowflakes and added them over the ink blending with liquid glue.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre of the panel with navy ink.  A fairly clean and simple card and I really like the colour combo, even though it is untraditional.  I hope you like it. 

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

Crafts Galore Encore challenge - ATG

Creative Knockouts challenge - finish the inside

Girlz Creative Christmas challenge - dies and/or punches

Inkspirational challenge - seasonal (winter)

Jingle Belles challenge - no patterned paper 

Merry Little Christmas challenge - anything Christmas goes

Peace on Earth Christmas challenge - anything Christmas themed 

The Holly & Ivy Christmas challenge - anything Christmas goes 

If you would like to follow the hop over on Instagram please use the hashtag #minicardchallenges 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 mix up challenge a try and again use the hashtag and we will find your projects. 

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

Love and hugs,

Card ingredients:

MFT stamps - Let it snowflake die-namics

Sizzix - merry & bright die

Gina K Designs - ink pads - red hot & in the navy

Uniko Stamps - Christmas wishes (for inside sentiment)

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card

navy card from stash 

Little Things from Lucy's Cards - chunky soft pomegranate pearls (sadly store now closed)

Summer Crush Wednesday IG Hop week 6

Hello friends; I hope you are having a great day.  Today is the final week of our Summer Crush Wednesday IG hop 😢 organised by my good friend Kelly.  We have had lots of fun over the last 6 weeks using themes and techniques to hopefully inspire you to get involved.  Please hop along for one more time and this week our theme is 'sail-abrate'!  For this week we want to see all your boat themed projects such as boats, canoes, rafts, cruise ships, pirate ships etc.  Don't forget to use the hashtag  #scwcardhop23 to find all our projects and for us to find yours.  

Here is my boat themed card:

a close up of my super cute 'crew':

For my card this week I decided to try making a rocker card.  I've seen a few of them in blogland and wanted to try and make mine into a boat.  Most of it was trial and error and lots of trimming and re-cutting but I'm super happy with the finished result.  Most of the card was made with scraps from my scrap bin except from the rocker part which was cut with a large circle die.  I wanted some cute critters to 'crew' my boat so stamped and coloured these 2 cuties with my Promarkers and I used the matching dies to cut them out.  I wanted the back of my boat to look tidy so I backed my critters with plain white die cuts on the back.  I used 2 embossing folders - a wood-grain one for the bottom of the boat and a striped one for the sails.  I hand cut my anchor and coloured it with a black marker and used a scallop border die to resemble the waves.  Not sure about the sentiment, I thought it was funny because it was a rocker card, but now I'm not so sure; I may change it before I send it to someone 😃.  I do have a video of the card rocking but can't seem to add it to my post at the moment.  I may just add it to my stories on IG if I can't add it here.  A few clear raindrops and my card is finished.

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

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - 4 legged friends 

Happy Little Stampers Birthday challenge - ATG

Crafty Calendar challenge - ATG

My Time To Craft challenge - summertime waterplay 

Scrapping4Fun challenge - birthday

Addicted to Stamps & More challenge - die cuts and/or stencils

Colorful Options challenge - red, white and blue (I've used white and blue plus neutrals)

Please pop over to IG to see what the other participants of the hop have created; and we cannot wait to see your sail-abrate creations.  Thanks for joining in for the last 6 weeks, it been a fun time stretching our supplies and using our imagination to come up with some fun cards. 

Enjoy the rest of your day and thanks for stopping by.

Love and hugs, 

Card ingredients:

MFT - missing you every single day stamp/die set (retired but still available here)

Promarkers

Clearly Besotted Stamps - scalloped edges die collection (retired)

Go Kreate - XL circle dies (no longer available)

Sheena - wood panel embossing folder (no longer available)

Sizzix/Tim Holtz - stripes embossing folder (no longer available)

Sentiment from magazine freebie stamp set

Little Things from Lucy's Cards - clear raindrops

Summer Crush Wednesday Week 4

Hello and happy Saturday friends.  Apologies that this post is late this week; we went away at the beginning of the week for a couple of days to celebrate our 30th Wedding Anniversary and I've been playing catch up ever since!  Welcome to Week 4 of the Summer Crush Wednesday IG hop organised by my good friend Kelly.  The hop will run for 6 weeks (this is week 4) and we will have some fun themes and even some techniques I've never tried before!  If you would like to join us just use the hashtag #scwcardhop23 and we will find you (you can also see all the other participants of the hop using this hashtag).  This week is 'salt life' and this is a technique I've never tried before; water-colouring and using salt to create interesting and original backgrounds.  I hope you will give it a go as it's really fun.  

Here is my 'salt life' card:

here are some close ups of the salt effects:

and I had a small piece left so decorated the inside too:

I began by water-colouring my panel with my paints using pinks and purples.  I watched a tutorial on YouTube so that I knew what the process was when using salt and apparently the secret is that the paint has to be almost dry for the effect of the salt to be more dramatic.  I was pressed for time so blasted my background with a heat tool until almost dry and then sprinkled some regular table salt and some salt crystals onto my background.  Ideally I think you would leave it for quite a few hours or even overnight to react with the paint but again I was strapped for time so left it for 2 hours and then again blasted it with heat to make sure it was completely dry.  I then rubbed off the salt to reveal the reaction.  I was pleasantly surprised with the result and it looked really good.  I didn't want to cover up my background too much so decided to make a slimline card (which I don't do very often).  I die cut some flowers and a butterfly from black card and adhered them with liquid glue onto the water-coloured background.  The sentiment was a pre-made strip and I added that with foam squares.  A very simple card but I think it looks dramatic and perfect for a sympathy card.  I'm looking forward to creating more salt backgrounds in different colours.  

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

Creative Knockouts challenge - finish the inside

Unicorn challenge - no design paper

Happy Little Stampers Watercolour challenge - ATG/option Christmas

Addicted to Stamps and More challenge - any occasion

Please pop over to Instagram to see what the other participants of the hop have created; we cannot wait to see what you create.  Don't forget to stop by again next week for more summer fun creating.  

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.  

Love and hugs, 

Card ingredients:

Sizzix/Tim Holtz - wildflowers #1 thinlits

Clearly Besotted - butterfly duo die collection (retired)

Gina K Designs - Mixed messages sentiment sheets

Gina K Designs - sentiment strips dies

Gina K Designs - so many sentiments (for inside sentiment)

Strathmore - Bristol smooth water-colour pad

Kuretake - Gansai Tambi water-colour palette

Beautiful wildflowers

Happy Saturday friends.  It's a beautiful day here is South Wales, glorious sunshine all day but very breezy (perfect for drying my washing lol!).   I hope you're having a fab day and the weather is good where you are too.  I'm sharing a slimline card I made for a friend in work who's birthday is today.  Apart from the sentiment there is no stamping on this card.  Here is my card:

close up of the card:

pretty gold embossing & splatters:

I die cut the flowers from white card and coloured them with oxide inks for a softer effect.  I die cut the butterfly from glitter card and black for the body.  I created the background by simply splattering some gold pigment paint in 2 shades of gold for a sparkly but clean and simple look.  I added the panel to a peach coloured card panel and then adhered this to my white card base.  The sentiment was embossed in gold embossing powder and I added a few pearls for a final touch.  The finished card size is 4" x 8 1/4".  I don't make slimline cards very often but I really like them so I will have make more of them soon.  

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

The Crafters Cafe challenge - flowers

Creative Knockouts challenge - wings and things

Sweet Stampin' challenge - no squares

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge - bright, cheerful colours

Allsorts challenge - use 3 colours of the rainbow (red, orange, green)

Krafty Chicks challenge - all occasions

Simon Says Stamp IG challenge - make the cut

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and I'll catch you back here very soon.

Hugs, 

Card ingredients:

Sizzix/Tim Holtz Thinlets - wildflowers

Distress Oxide inks in abandoned coral, spiced marmalade, mustard seed, twisted citron

Memory Box - pippi butterfly

Gansai Tambi - starry colors (I used yellow gold and red gold for the background)

Ranger - letter-it birthday (for the sentiment)

pearls from Little Things from Lucy's cards (they were a free gift)

peach cardstock from stash

Heffy Doodle - white letter size cardstock

Cosmic Shimmer - bright gold detail embossing powder

Passion for Promarkers #144–DT card

Happy Tuesday dear friends.  Oh dear it’s back to work for me today *groan* but on the plus side it’s a shorter working week *yay*.  Another plus is that it’s time for a brand new challenge over at passion for promarkers challenge.  This week the lovely Maya has set the theme and she has chosen “white on white”, such a pretty theme isn’t it.  We only want to see your image coloured, all your papers/card must be white but we will allow lightly inked edges!  The only problem with WOW cards is photographing them (and you know that’s not my strongest area anyway lol!).  Here is my card:

I have used a beautiful stamp from Crafts and Me called ‘city girl’ and coloured her with promarkers.  It is a brand new stamp and even though I stamped it about 4 times I couldn’t get a perfect impression.  I even tried blotting the stamp with cellotape to try and remove any residue – any ideas for next time I use it!  I went a bit mad with all the dies I used including Marianne creatables rolled roses, die-namics butterflies and die-namics border die.  The embossing folder is from sizzix and is called ‘folksy fun’.  I inked the edges with a cats eye chalk ink pad and added some white pearls to finish. 

Our sponsor this week is Letraset and one lucky winner will receive a Promarker Stamping Kit.

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

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

I’m rushing to do the post before work so will add this later!

I hope you can join in with our challenge this week and I look forward to seeing what you create.  Have a wonderful day and thanks so much for stopping by today.

Card ingredients:

Image: crafts and me – ‘city girl’

Papers: none, white digital stamping card from craftwork cards

Tools: promarkers, white pearls from the hobby house, Marianne creatables rolled roses, die-namics butterflies die, die-namics monarch border, memory box elegant scrollwork die (which I chopped down), rectangle nesties, cats eye chalk inkpad, sizzix embossing folder ‘folksy fun’

Winter wonderland challenge–DT card

Good morning dear friends.  As there is no passion for promarkers challenge card today I thought I would do a catch-up post and share my card for last week’s winter wonderland challenge.  A huge apology to my fellow DT girlies, I meant to post it Friday evening but then I completely forgot – oops.  However better late than never and there is still time to enter our challenge (phew!).  Our theme is “let it snow” so I know there will be lots of lovely entries for us to drool over.  Here is my card:

I have used a super cute image from saturated canary digis called ‘a winter ragamuffin’ and I coloured her with promarkers and flex markers.  The gorgeous papers are echo park from the ‘season’s greetings’ pad and I dug out my neglected MS double loops border punch. 

Our sponsor this week is Delicious Doodles and one lucky winner will receive 3 digi images from their online store.

The rest of the DT have created gorgeous samples for your inspiration, so please pop over to the challenge blog and check them out.  We really appreciate the lovely comments you leave for us.

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

Addicted to stamps challenge – snowflakes

Cupcake inspirations challenge – inspiration photo

Dream valley challenge – Christmas (2nd entry)

OSAAT challenge – use a digi

Quirky crafts challenge – snow

The squirrel & the fox challenge – Christmas (2nd entry)

Stamptacular challenge – Christmas glitz

Crafty boots challenge – Christmas

The cutie pie challenge – use a sentiment

Heart song inspirations challenge – snowflakes and/or doilies

Lollipop crafts challenge – happy holidays

The pink elephant challenge – snowflakes and sparkle

Pollycraft challenge – Christmas fun

Crafty purple frog challenge – it’s cold outside

Hanna & friends challenge – winter cards

Paper play challenge – snowman

Card makin’ mamas challenge – Christmas (2nd entry)

Crafty Ann’s challenge – Christmas BINGO (glitter, snow, red)

Craft your days away challenge – snowmen

Totally gorjuss challenge – let it snow

I hope you will have time to enter our challenge - the linky closes on Thursday at 5pm so still time to get involved.  I’ll be back later with my second catch up card for the bee crafty challenge (this time I’m 12 days late with my card – oh dear!  I blame the time of year for everything at the moment lol!)   Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Card ingredients:

Image: saturated canary – ‘a winter ragamuffin’

Papers: echo park – ‘season’s greeting’, SU real red cardstock

Tools: promarkers, flex markers, circle nesties, MS double loops punch, dovecraft snowflake punch, heart button from stash, sizzix sizzlit architectural accent #1, sentiment from pink petticoat, stickles

Cupcake craft challenge #166–DT card

** THIS IS MY SECOND POST FOR TODAY **

Please scroll down to see my Stamp with Fun DT card

Hello again, I’m back as promised with my DT card for this week’s cupcake craft challenge.  This week the lovely Shelly has set the theme and she has chosen “take a leaf out of my book” which means we want you to use leaves as the main interest on the project, either the image or embellishments.  Here is my card:

I was lucky enough to be offered an image from our sponsor this week (who are tickled pink stamps) and I chose this one called ‘vintage Christmas Christina’ and coloured her with promarkers and flex markers.  I created the holly background with a see-d’s stamp and coloured them with promarkers.  The dotty paper is HOTP from the ‘forever Christmas cards’ paper stack.  The holly were cut out with a sizzlit die and I used pearls for the berries. 

As I mentioned our sponsor this week are tickled pink stamps and one lucky winner will receive either one rubber stamp or two digital images of their choice.

 

Don’t forget we also have our ‘icing on the cupcake’ sponsors and for October we have two!!  Firstly we have Polka Doodles and they are offering one lucky winner a copy of their ‘pretty sweet’ CD collection.  Our second sponsor is Scrap Affair and they are offering one lucky winner a 5 pack of promarkers.

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

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

Come and get it challenge – anything goes

Dream valley challenge – anything goes

OSAAT challenge – Christmas

Paper pretties challenge – embellish

Meljen’s challenge – Christmas

Paper crafting journey challenge – use a digi

Card makin’ mamas challenge – use die cuts/punches

Sweet stampin’ challenge – anything goes

Little Claire’s challenge – Christmas (3rd entry)

I hope you will be able to join in with our challenge this week and I look forward to seeing what you create.  Whatever you are up to tonight, whether you celebrate Halloween or not, have a wonderful evening and thanks for stopping by.

Card ingredients:

Image: tickled pink stamps – ‘vintage Christmas Christina’ digi

Papers: HOTP – ‘forever Christmas cards’ paper stack, SU real red cardstock, hand-stamped holly background

Tools: promarkers, flex markers, sizzix sizzlit holly die, pearls from the hobby house, ribbon from the pretty little ribbon shop, pink petticoat sentiment ribbons, circle nesties

Charisma cardz #40–DT card

Good morning dear friends.  I hope you are surviving the dreadful winds and rain we’re having at the moment.  I was drenched just walking from my car to work yesterday – it’s going to be a long winter I think groan!!

On a happier note it’s time for a brand new challenge over at charisma cardz challenge today and I am delighted to have set the theme this week.  As it’s almost halloween I thought I would choose a colour theme of “black and orange”, although you don’t have to make a halloween card unless you want too of course.  Here is my card:

I have used a super image which was kindly given by our sponsor Pink Cat Studio and she is called ‘Lily witch’ and I coloured her with a mix of promarkers and flex markers.  The dotty paper is echo park from the ‘dots and stripes – candy shoppe collection’ and the borders were created with my martha stewart drippy goo border punch.  The fun ghosts were die cut using a sizzix sizzlit die.

As I mentioned our first sponsor this week is Pink Cat Studio and they are offering one lucky winner 5 digital stamps of their choice and our second sponsor is Simon Says Stamp who are offering one lucky winner a $20.00 gift voucher (excl p&p) to spend in their online store.

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

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

Come and get it challenge – Halloween

Stampin’ sisters in Christ challenge – include fruit (she is holding a pumpkin)

Bows and berries challenge – photo inspiration

Karen’s doodles challenge – Halloween

The pink elephant challenge – trick or treat

Digital Tuesday challenge – we like to party

Freshly brewed challenge – pumpkins

Papertake challenge – anything goes + option something punched

Party time Tuesday challenge – show us your shapes (circle, ghost) 2nd entry

Tuesday throwdown challenge – Halloween

Crafts and me challenge – use a digi

Fab ‘n’ funky challenge – die cuts and punches

I love promarkers challenge – spooky

Little darlings challenge – fall or Halloween

My mum’s craft shop challenge – all creatures great and small (cat & frog)

Mark’s finest papers challenge – use polka dots

Secret crafter Saturday challenge – Halloween

Crafty calendar challenge – spooky

I hope you will be able to join in with my colour challenge this week and I really look forward to seeing what you create.  I hope you have a wonderful day and thanks so much for stopping by today.

Card ingredients:

Image: pink cat studio – ‘Lily witch’ digi

Papers: echo park – ‘dots and stripes – candy shoppe collection’, SU basic black cardstock

Tools: promarkers, flex markers, personal impressions sentiment, circle nesties, MS drippy goo border punch, sizzix sizzlits ghost die, papermania adhesive stones

Winter wonderland challenge–DT card

Good morning friends.  Well it’s Friday, so that means that it’s the last day of my holiday!  I’m sure you haven’t missed me that much as I’ve scheduled all my posts this week (well as long as they’ve worked lol!).  I’m back this morning as it’s time for a brand new challenge over at winter wonderland challenge and Suzi has set the theme of “white on white” and the only colour allowed is on your image, the rest has to be white!  Now I really struggle with this type of card and I hate photographing them but I suppose a challenge isn’t supposed to be easy!  Anyway here is my card:

 

I have used one of the new images from Pollycraft called ‘swings & slides – all the trimmings’ and coloured it with my promarkers.  I have used 2 embossing folders for the background and a gorgeous sizzix swirl die cut.  I’m gutted that I stuck the image on a little wonky but it was stuck down good and proper so couldn’t get it back off!! 

Our sponsor this week is Sassy studio designs and the lucky winner will receive 4 digi images of their choice.

The rest of the design team have created gorgeous Christmas cards once again this week, so please pop over to the challenge blog and check them out. 

I will hopefully be able to join in with some challenges when I get back from my holiday later this evening. 

I hope you’ve had a really good week and are looking forward to chilling at the weekend.  I’m hoping that my bathroom is finished (or at least almost finished) when I get home!!  Thanks for stopping by today.

Card ingredients:

Image: pollycraft ‘swings & slides – all the trimmings’

Papers: none

Tools: promarkers, SU basic rhinestones, oval nesties, MS snowflake punch, cuttlebug ‘snowflakes’ embossing folder, craft concepts ‘in stitches’ embossing folder, sizzix sizzlits medium swirl die

Winter wonderland challenge–DT card

Good morning dear friends, another week has flown by and we are another week closer to Christmas lol!  It’s just as well I’m part of the winter wonderland challenge DT as I now have a well organised stack of cards ready and won’t be rushing last minute as I normally do.  To help you build up your own stash of Christmas cards we have another brilliant challenge over at winter wonderland and we would like to see your cards feature “holly and/or ivy”, it can be as little or much as you like.  We know that many of you may not have any ivy so as long as you include holly that will be fine.  Here is my card:

Don’t faint I have actually used a real life stamp!!  It’s the gorgeous new stamp from Sugar Nellie called “furry friends” and I’ve coloured it with my promarkers.  I have a feeling this will be used lots for my Christmas cards this year as it is so adorable yet it doesn’t need much colouring to make it look fantastic.  The holly is a sizzix sizzlit die and I’ve added pearls as the berries, which I think looks really nice.  A really simple card but the image is so super cute that I didn’t want to take your eye away from it too much. 

Our sponsor this week is Simon Says Stamp and the lucky winner will receive a $15.00 gift certificate to spend in their online store.

The rest of the design team have created gorgeous cards once again this week, so please pop over to the challenge blog and check them out.  We really appreciate all the lovely comments you leave for us. 

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

Addicted to stamps challenge – Christmas card

The crafty pad challenge – Christmas in July

Stamptacular challenge – animal antics

Whoopsi daisy challenge – sparkle and shine

The crazy challenge – Christmas in July

Die cut dreams challenge – animal antics

Creative card crew challenge – animal antics

Everybody art challenge – dots

Freshly brewed challenge – go wild – use an animal or animal print

I love promarkers challenge – Christmas in July

Papertake challenge – getting cute

Creative belli challenge – Christmas in July

Fab ‘n’ funky challenge – animal magic

Shelly’s images challenge – show us what you got!

2 sisters challenge – Christmas in July

Catch the bug challenge – Thursday’s snow themed challenge

CES challenge – Christmas

The sweet stop challenge – sketch & Christmas in July

Moving along with the times challenge – 3 embellishments (pearls, holly & stickles), 2 papers and 1 image

I really hope you can join in with our challenge and I can’t wait to see what you create.  Have a wonderful Friday and thanks so much for stopping by.

Card ingredients:

Image: sugar nellie stamps – ‘furry friends’

Papers: doodlebug – ‘Christmas assortment’ paper pack, plain card from the papermill shop

Tools: promarkers, stickles, sizzix sizzlit holly die, pearls from the hobby house, personal impressions sentiment