Gina K Appreciation IG Hop

Hello again friends; I'm back to share a card I made as part of a Gina K Appreciation Hop over on Instagram.  As you know I love Gina K Designs products and use them (especially her ink pads) on practically every card I make so it was a no-brainer to join the hop once again this year (you can see last years card here).  

Gina is one of the OG creators and YouTubers. She has thousands of hours of video tutorials and is endlessly creative. We wanted to take a day to highlight @ginakdesigns and her amazing products and send her lots of crafty love. On the odd chance that you haven’t heard of her yet, we hope you will be inspired to check her and her fabulous team out on all the social media spots!

I have been so inspired by Gina’s 3D embossing bundles that I had use one on my card today. However I didn't use the embossing folder on my background, I only used it for embossing a couple of extra flowers.  I'm loving the dreamy no-line colouring look of stencilling the flowers directly onto my panel and used Gina's favourite colour combo - teal and black.  The card base is 5" x 6 1/4" as I didn't want to chop anything off the edges lol!  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the gorgeous florals:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began with a 5" x 7" panel and stencilled the gorgeous flowers using two shades of teal ink and the leaves in two shades of green ink.  I decided to leave the flower centres white as it went with the soft, dreamy look I was going for.   I die cut the three flowers from the bundle with white card and again using the stencils, coloured them the same way.  I trimmed the panel down to 4 1/2" x 5 3/4" and added a thin black mat layer behind with double sided tape.  I white heat embossed the sentiment onto black card and used the coordinating die to cut it out; I also cut an extra 2 from black card so that I could layer them up.  I added the sentiment to the left of centre with liquid glue and two of the embossed flowers were added with foam squares.  I finished off with some black pearls.  I added some scrap white card behind my panel and adhered it to my card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut another white panel 4 1/2" x 5 3/4" and again added a black mat layer with double sided tape.  I lightly ink blended some sea glass ink to the bottom of the panel and added the one remaining embossed flower to the bottom right corner (before I stuck it down I stencilled a couple of leaves peeking out from behind it).  The panel was then adhered to the card base with liquid glue.  

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

* to be updated *

I hope you will pop over to Instagram and check out the hop; please use the hashtag #ginakappreciationhop to see all the gorgeous creations.

Enjoy your weekend; I appreciate you stopping by.

Love and hugs

card supplies:

*Gina K Designs products:

blooming branches 3D embossing folder, stencil & die bundle

picture perfect greetings stamp (for outside sentiment)

birthday cheer mini stamp (for inside sentiment)

ink pads - sea glass, ocean mist, jelly bean green, fresh asparagus

white pigment ink cube

black, gold & silver metallic pearl mix

other products:

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

Limetree Craft - 220gsm black card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

WOW! - opaque bright white super fine embossing powder

*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

Stencil Fun IG Hop - February 2026

Happy again friends; I am back to share my card for the Stencil Fun IG Hop organised by my lovely friend Jane. We a group of crafters who are determined to use their forgotten and neglected stencils. I'm definitely guilty of this; I have so many stencils but usually forget to reach for them so this hop is perfect for me. The theme is always anything goes but we will have an optional theme to use if we want to. This month's optional theme is 'oldie but goodie' and I'm excited to see what everyone has made.

I think my most used and loved stencil is the mini cloud edges stencil so that is what I used for this month's cards (yes more than one!) as it's definitely an oldie but a goodie.  I decided to create some panels of rainbow clouds but wanted to make something a little different so was inspired by a recent card of Cathy Zielske aka CZ Designs.  I hope you like them; sorry for the photo overload!

Here are my cards:

Card no. 1:

plus a closer look:

and I decorated the inside:

card no. 2:

plus a closer look:

and the inside:

Here are my panels after die cutting:

So I began by stencilling the cloud background in rainbow colours using 2 white panels.  I found two small dies that I thought would be perfect for my shapes; a square and a rectangle and cut them out from the two backgrounds.  After all my die cutting I realised I had enough pieces to make 2 cards and then spent an absolute age trying to figure out the best placement of the pieces.  Once I was happy I added foam squares behind each piece and attached them to a white panel cut to 4" x 5 1/4".  I wanted to use a black sentiment so that it would pop against the pastel rainbow backgrounds so die cut the word hello 6 times from black card (3 stacked for each card) and adhered them together with liquid glue.  I also die cut some tiny black hearts to use as embellishments.  I stamped two sub-sentiments in black onto white card and cut them out with sentiment strip dies.  Both sentiments and hearts were added to the card front with liquid glue.  I added some scrap white card behind the panel and this was added to my A2 card base with double sided tape.  For the insides I cut a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and stamped a sentiment in the centre with black ink.  I had a few of the die cut pieces left over so added two to the bottom of card 1 along with 3 hearts and 3 to the bottom of card 2 with 2 hearts; all adhered with liquid glue.  I then added the panels to the card base with double sided tape.  

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

* to be updated * 

We hope you will be inspired by our Stencil Fun Instagram Hop and will pop over and check out all the gorgeous cards along the way. If you would like to join us please visit my Instagram page or use the hashtag #stencilfunfebruary2026 and we will find you.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

Lots of love

card supplies:

Clearly Besotted - geometric style (for the shape dies) - retired 

*Gina K Designs - ink pads - red velvet, tangerine twist, wild dandelion, lucky clover, blue sky, light lilac, medium carnation

Gina K Designs - sentiment strips dies

Gina K Designs - scripty quartet dies (for hello die)

Gina K Designs - corner blossoms stamp (for inside sentiment card 2)

Gina K Designs - a bit of spring stamp (for inside sentiment card 1)

Gina K Designs - fancy phrases stamp (for sub sentiments on both cards)

Lawn Fawn - hedgehugs die set (for tiny heart)

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

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

*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

Seize the Birthday challenge - guest designer

Hello friends, I hope you're having a great day. I was lucky enough to win a recent challenge so I am guest designing (or the surprise guest as they call it) for the Seize the Birthday challenge.

The theme for this challenge is 'use something new'

What a great theme for the start of the year; I'm sure we all have new craft supplies sitting on our desk from Christmas or even before waiting to be used.  I had last month's Gina K Designs kit sitting on my desk which has been neglected due to me being ill so I thought it was high time to get it out and show it some love.  I hope you like my card. 

Here is my card:

A close up of the image (also shows the shimmer pen I used):

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by stamping the images with memento ink onto white card and used the coordinating stencils to colour them in.  I used the matching dies to cut them out.  I cut a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and using the thick brush stencil lightly stencilled in the lower left corner using a light grey ink.  I stamped and die cut the sentiments and also cut an extra plain die cut so that I could double them up for some dimension.  I added foam squares behind the flowers and arranged them in the lower left corner.  I also added some extra leaves with liquid glue.  The sentiments were also added with liquid glue as they were already 2 layers thick.  I finished with a few black pearls and some shimmer pen on the flowers.  I noticed I had slightly damaged the right corner of my panel so decided to cut it down ever so slightly and the finished panel size is 3 7/8" x 5 1/8".  I added the panel onto my card base with foam tape.  For the inside I cut another white panel 4" x 5 1/4' and stencilled along the very bottom with the thick brush stencil.  I had some flowers and leaves left over so added them to the left corner with liquid glue.  I stamped a sentiment in the upper centre with black ink and added the panel to my card base with double sided tape.  

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

Addicted to Stamps & More challenge - birthdays

Cardz 4 Galz challenge - use stencils

Christmas (or not) BINGO challenge - line I - layers, free, stamped images

Colourful Options challenge - yellow, purple or green

Craft Rocket challenge - something new (I used a new card kit)

Daisy Chain challenge - no design paper

Group of Seven Cardmakers challenge - ombre (my flowers are ombre)

Halloween & Other Occasions challenge - always birthday

Scrapping4Fun challenge - ATG optional hello/winter

Sweet Stampin' challenge - new (new stash)

The Paper Funday challenge - ATG option monochrome

Triple B challenge - birds, blooms or butterflies

Unicorn challenge - birthday

I would like to thank Nancy and all the Team at Seize the Birthday for inviting me to be a guest for this fun challenge and I hope you will pop over and leave them some love.  I'm sure most of you had some new goodies for Christmas so join in the fun. 

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

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

Gina K Designs - delicate dahlias stamp & die bundle

Gina K Designs - delicate dahlias coordinating stencil

Gina K Designs - thick brush stencil

Gina K Designs - ink pads - medium lilac, dark lilac, jelly bean green, fresh asparagus, soft stone

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

Gina K Designs - black, gold and silver pearl mix

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card (currently not available but this 250gsm smooth white card is an alternative in stock here)

Versafine - onyx black ink pad

Memento - tuxedo black ink pad

Tonic Studios - aqua shimmer pen glitter gloss

Krafty Chicks challenge #707 Christmas

Good Morning lovely friends.  I'm back again today to share my card for this week's Krafty Chicks challenge and this week is all about Christmas.  So grab your Christmas stamps, dies, papers etc and join in the fun with us. 

I bought some new stamps recently from LOTV as they've been having a fab offer and all their polymer stamp sets were only £10 - it would have been rude not to get some lol!  One of the sets I got was Christmas Mugs so I thought I would use one of the images for my card.  I asked my son to choose the image and he picked the cute snowman so here is my card:

a closer look at the cute image:

I decorated the inside:

I began by stamping the image with alcohol marker friendly ink and coloured it with Promarkers.  I also added some white highlights with a gel pen.  I decided I wanted to keep my card as one layer so stamped the image again onto masking paper and made a mask to cover my coloured image.  I then ink blended around the image with a light blue ink and also added some stencilled stars behind the mug.  Below the image I ink blended some very light grey ink to ground the image.  I cut out the panel with a scalloped rectangle and added it to my card base with foam tape.  I stamped a sentiment with black ink and cut it out with a banner die.  I also cut a slightly larger banner from a light blue card and layered them together.  This was added to the top right corner with liquid glue.  I didn't add any embellishments as I liked it as it was.  For the inside I cut another scalloped rectangle, stamped a sentiment in the centre with black ink and partially stamped the image at the bottom in a light grey ink.  I applied the mask and lightly inked with blue ink around the image.  The panel was adhered to the card base with double sided tape.   I'm really happy with how this card turned out and cannot wait to ink up all the other mugs.  

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

Christmas With The Cuties challenge - Santa and/or snowman

CRAFT challenge - Christmas

Crafts Galore Encore challenge - ATG

Crafty Gals Corner challenge - ATG

Creative Inspirations challenge - ATG

I Love Promarkers challenge - ATG option love/romance

Merry Little Christmas challenge - anything Christmas Goes

Peace On Earth Christmas challenge - anything Christmas themed

Shopping Our Stash challenge - round and round (dots on my mug and background) 13 max

Stencil Fun challenge - must use a stencil option Easter/spring

The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge - anything Christmas goes

The Male Room challenge - food and drink

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 and also our guest designer Shirley, who is joining us for March. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

LOTV - Christmas Mugs A5 stamp set

MFT - blueprints 27 (for scalloped rectangle and banner dies)

MFT - itty bitty holiday stamp set

Funky Fossil Designs - snow is falling stencil

Gina K Designs - ink pads - soft stone & sea glass

Gina K Designs - masking magic sheets

Paula Pascual - Christmas messages stamp set (for inside greeting)

Promarkers

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

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card

Sakura - no. 10 white gelly roll pen