Reindeer Christmas card

Happy Sunday friends; oh my goodness it has been so long since I last posted, I hope you missed me!  My mojo has been lacking for the last few weeks and I have been in a bit of a creative slump.  However I found an image that I had already coloured up so thought I would try and make something with it.   Here is my card:

a close up of the adorable image:

I also decorated the inside:

As I mentioned I had already coloured up the cute reindeer image with my Promarkers and fussy cut him out.  I embossed a background of kraft card with a snow flake embossing folder and cut it to 4 " x 5 1/4".  I die cut the beautiful decorative circle and also some small trees from white card and also a small snow bank (but it's hard to see it).  I placed the larger tree behind the bank and adhered the smaller tree in front using liquid glue.  The reindeer was added on top with foam squares.  The kraft panel was added to the A2 card base using  double sided tape and then the decorative circle was added towards the top using foam tape.  I stamped and heat embossed a small sentiment and cut it out with a sentiment strip die.  This was added to the bottom right with foam squares.  For the inside I stamped a sentiment in black ink onto a white panel and this was added onto a kraft panel.  This was added to the card with double sided tape.  I lightly inked some sea glass ink into the bottom left corner and placed a white tree on top with liquid glue.  I didn't add any embellishments as I thought it looked ok without any.  

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

Crafty Animals challenge - must include an animal

Crafty Catz challenge - ATG option lots of layers

Creative Moments challenge - it's alive

Critter Crazy challenge - ATG with a featured critter

Cut It Up challenge - add a sentiment (must include a die cut)

Inkspirational challenge - word prompt - cold

Little Red Wagon challenge - patterned paper or not - I find myself using paper less and less but do try and use up some of it from time to time.  I use embossing folders a lot, as I have on this card

Moving Along with the Times challenge - ATG

Pearly Sparkles challenge - let's go cute

I will try and hunt down my mojo and make something else really soon so that there is such a long break between posts again.  I appreciate you stopping by. 

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

LOTV - penguins and reindeer A5 stamp set

Gina K Designs - snowflakes embossing folder

Gina K Designs - princess circle decorative die

Gina K Designs - winter wonderland die set (for trees)

Gina K Designs - holiday wreath builder (for inside sentiment)

Gina K Designs - sea glass ink pad (for light ink blending)

Lawn Fawn - stitched hillside borders

Clearly Besotted Stamps - mini messages

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm smooth white card

Crafters Companion - neenah desert storm kraft card

WOW! - opaque bright white super fine embossing powder

Versamark ink pad

Promarkers

Hexagon tile shaker card

Hello crafty friends; I hope you've had a great start to your week.  I can't believe it's been almost a week since my last post; time flies when you're having fun lol!  

I'm sharing a card I made for my sister-in-law's birthday which was last week.  I saw a lovely card on Pinterest and decided to make my own version including a shaker window.  Here is my card:

a closer look at the details:

I also decorated the inside:

and also the back of the card:

I began by rooting around my paper pad stash and picked out some designs that I liked and coordinated well together.  I used a hexagon die and cut out 3 of each design (for the front but I cut extras for the inside and back too).  I foolishly embossed my white card before I die cut it so the design did get a little flattened but I still liked the look so rolled with it.  I then arranged my hexagons on my white panel and decided where I wanted my shaker window.  I used the same hexagon die to cut the window and added acetate behind with double sided tape.  Before filling my shaker I adhered all the hexagon pieces with liquid glue and die cut the panel using a stitched rectangle die and I stamped the sentiment in black ink.  I placed foam tape around the window and then found some sequins to match my colour scheme to fill.  The white panel was then adhered to a black card panel.  I found a butterfly that I had already die cut from some glitter card which matched my colours perfectly so added this with liquid glue to the bottom left.  I added some black pearls to the butterfly body and some gold pearls scattered around the card.  The whole thing was then added to my card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I simply added 3 hexagons to the right corner and stamped a sentiment in black ink.  As I had spare card I cut 2 more hexagons for the back of my card and also added my handmade sticker.  An elegant card I think and no colouring at all!!  

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

Can you handle the pressure challenge - ATG embossing option bees/beehives

Seize the Birthday challenge - repetitive die cuts

Triple B challenge - include birds, butterflies or blooms

NBUS challenge - never used die/embossing folder before

Happy Little Stampers ATG with dies challenge - must use dies

Moving along with the times challenge - ATG

I have quite a few birthdays coming up so hopefully will be back soon with some more inspiration for you.  Thanks for stopping by; I really love reading your comments and appreciate them all. 

Love and hugs, 

Card ingredients:

Spellbinders - SDOM Feb 23 Floral mini tiles

Spellbinders - EOM Feb 23 Hydrangea blooms

Honey Bee Stamps - Acorn sisters stamp set (for sister sentiment)

Clearly Besotted Stamps - fabulous fuchsias (for HB sentiment)

Little Things from Lucy's Cards - muted metallics and passion flower sequins for shaker

Tonic Studios - autumn maple 6x6 pearlescent card pad

Honey Bee Stamps - inside birthday sentiments

Gina K Designs - Master Layouts 8 (to die cut the panels)

Gina K Designs - black, gold and silver pearl mix

Memory Box - Isabella butterfly die

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm smooth white card

Hobbycraft - Black A4 card

paper pad ? from Home Bargains (not 100% sure)

Falling for Wednesdays IG Hop - Week 7

Happy Wednesday friends; I hope you've had a great week so far.  I'm back with my card for the Falling for Wednesdays IG Hop organised by my lovely friend Kelly.  It is Week 7 and this week is the last week of this hop but don't be sad we'll be back very soon with a Winter Wonderland Hop.  This week's theme is 'BOO-tiful' and we want to see all things Halloween.  

I don't really make Halloween cards as none of my family really celebrates the occasion so I decided to make some fun Halloween inspired sour cream containers.  I'm sorry but my post is photo heavy so scroll through if you don't want to see them all.  Here are my cute containers:

here they are individually:

a close up of the cute images:

I began by making the containers.  I used 4 sheets of patterned paper in 2 different colours and cut them to 5 1/2" x 6 1/2".  I've made these before so knew what to do but if you're not sure there are loads of tutorials on Pinterest and YouTube.  Typically I couldn't find my paper crimper to crimp the edges (isn't it always the case when you need something) so just left them plain on the bottom.  For the top I punched 2 holes with my Crop-a-dile (another hunt around the craft room first though) and tied some ribbon in a knot before wrapping some black twine in a bow to secure and make it look pretty.  I didn't have any lime green or orange ribbon so I coloured some white ribbon with my Promarkers to match.  

I stamped the 4 adorable images and coloured them with Promarkers; I made sure to leave enough room so that I could cut them out with a circle die (whilst the die was still in place I lightly inked around the edges with a grey ink pad for some definition).  I also cut the matching scallop die with card to co-ordinate with the images.  I didn't have any lime green card so ink blended that one to match before cutting it out.  The sentiments are from the same stamp set; I stamped 2 in black ink and 2 were white heat embossed onto black card.  I added the stamped circles on to the scalloped circles with foam tape and then they were added to the container with double sided tape.  The sentiment was then added on top with double sided tape.  I added a few white gel pen highlights and voila they were done.  

I tied the opening with ribbon because I didn't have any small treats available to fill them with so it means I can undo them and fill them when I'm ready.  

I would like to enter my treat containers into the following challenges:

Colourful Options challenge - neon

Crafty Catz challenge - ATG option spots and/or stripes (my paper has spots)

Creative Inspirations challenge - autumn or Halloween

Dream Valley challenge - occasions other than birthday

Fab 'n' Funky challenge - show us some colouring (coloured with Promarkers)

Get Creative challenge - purple, black, green and orange 

Papercraft challenges - ribbon

Pearly Sparkles challenge - let's go cute

Shopping Our Stash challenge - colour me beautiful - 13 challenges max

Tic Tac Toe challenge - purple, orange, black/purple, witch, embossing/free, orange, embossing/free, broom, black

Unicorn challenge - autumn and/or Halloween

We Love Stamping challenge - mood board (I was inspired by the colours)

I hope you will be able to join us over at Instagram and check out the hop.  Please use the hashtag #ffwcardgroup2023 to find all the creations by the participants of the hop and if you want to join in we can find your makes too.  

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

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

MFT - fab-BOO-lous friends stamp set (bought new from a store on eBay)

Spellbinders - standard circles large dies

Spellbinders - classic scalloped circles large dies

Gina K Designs - key lime and stormy sky ink pads

card, ribbon and twine from my stash

Promarkers

Wow - white super fine embossing powder

Memento tuxedo black ink pad (to stamp images)

Versafine onyx black ink (for sentiments)

Sakura - white gelly roll 10 pen

Scrapping4fun challenge - GDT card

Hello again friends; I'm back with my second card for today.  I hope you have a fun and relaxing day before the hustle and bustle of the brand new week.  

I'm joining the Scrapping4fun challenge this month as a guest designer and their theme is a fun one - 'fruits and/or veggies'.  

I wanted to use a brand new die set that I had just received so went with fruit for my card:

a close up of my image:

I decorated the inside:

and the Promarkers I used:

Even though I knew what die set I wanted to use I wasn't sure what image to use.  I was rooting around my stash for something else and came across this older Greeting Farm image which was perfect for my card.  I stamped her with memento ink, coloured her with Promarkers and added some white gel pen highlights.  I fussy cut her out and put her to one side whilst I did my die cutting.  I made a card base from white card using the larger die and then cut it again from red card for my mat.  The layer panel was cut with the matching smaller die from white card and I also used a lattice embossing folder for some interest.  The outer apple mat was again cut from red card and the inner piece was cut with white card; I also used a splatter stamp with red ink for some interest on this piece.  The sentiment was stamped with black ink to the left hand side and the image was added with thin foam squares to the right side of the apple.  I die cut one green leaf for the top of my apple and a final touch was 3 red sequins.  The finished card size is just a smidge smaller than 5 1/2" x 5 1/2".  

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

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

Little Red Wagon challenge - layer upon layer

Shopping Our Stash challenge - colour me beautiful (I used Promarkers) - 13 challenges max

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

The Sisterhood of Crafters challenge - shapes (I've used lots of die cut shapes)

Can You Handle the Pressure challenge - ATG embossing option bees/beehive 

Seize the Birthday challenge - ATG (no topping this time)

Please pop over to the Scrapping4fun challenge blog for all the details/rules and to see the amazing creations from the design team.  I hope you will find the time to enter the challenge and cannot wait to see all you fruits and veggies.  

Thanks for stopping by and see you all soon.  

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

TLC Designs - an apple a day die set

The Greeting Farm - Lottie stamp

Spellbinders - perfect pie sentiments & fillings stamp set (for sentiment) - on sale!

Spellbinders - scarlet smooth disc sequins

Taylored Expressions - splatter background stamp

Gina K Designs - lattice embossing folder

Gina K Designs - red velvet ink pad

Gina K Designs - Breath of Sunshine card kit (for leaf die) (it's sold out but items will be available individually soon)

Gina K Designs - birthday cheer stamp set (for inside sentiment)

the basics:

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm smooth white card

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card

Promarkers

Sakura - white gelly roll 10 pen

Versafine onyx black ink (for sentiments)

Memento tuxedo black ink (to stamp image)

red and green card from my scrap bin

AAA Birthday challenge #54 - favourite colours

Good morning lovely friends; it's a busy posting day for me today as I have 2 cards to share with you.  For my first post I'm here with my DT card for this month's AAA Birthday challenge and this month our hostess is Sue and she has chosen the theme 'favourite colours'.  Our guest designer this month is Izzy so please pop over to her blog and give her some love.  

For the first 2 weeks of the month we are joining forces with our sister challenge AAA cards whose theme is 'inkblending with 3 or more colours'.  If you take part in both our challenges (with 2 separate cards) you could be in with a chance of winning a prize; please check the blog for all the details.  Please remember theirs is a clean and simple challenge and it can be for any occasion.  

Now I know it's a bit of a cop-out but I love all colours and I don't really have a favourite so I went for 'rainbow' as my favourite colours.  I did follow the theme for the AAA cards theme but I'm not sure if my card is really CAS enough for their challenge.  Here is my card:

a closer look at my cute image:

I also decorated the inside:

I began by stamping the cute bear and coloured him with Promarkers.  I fussy cut him out and put him to one side.  I decided to make a circle card for a change and dug out a die set that I bought from a craft destash group on FB and hadn't used yet and cut my card base with the largest die in the set.  I also die cut the same size circle from white card and ink blended my rainbow of colours around the edge.  I then used a smaller circle and a decorative edge circle to cut out the panel for my image to stand on, again from white card.  I stamped a small sentiment at the bottom of the white circle and added the bear above with foam squares.  3 rainbow pearls and my card was complete.  For the inside I stamped the image with a light grey ink towards the bottom of the circle and added a small sentiment over it with black ink so that it stands out over the grey.  The card size is 5" x 5" in diameter.  

Please pop over to the challenge blog and check out the wonderful creations by the rest of the DT; you will not be disappointed.  If you can please go over to the AAA Cards blog and check out their DT creations too.  

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

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

Crafty Animals challenge - ATG (must include an animal)

Critter Crazy challenge - ATG (with featured critter)

Little Red Wagon challenge - layer upon layer

Make My Monday challenge - make your own background (I ink blended my background)

Mix It Up challenge - ATG option make your own background (I ink blended my background)

Pearly Sparkles challenge - let's go cute

Shopping Our Stash challenge - colour me beautiful (13 challenges in total)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

The Cutie Pie challenge - birthdays and/or bears

The Sisterhood of Crafters challenge - shapes (my card and layers are circles)

Try It On Tuesday challenge - going round in circles

I really hope you have time to enter our challenge this month (and make another card for the AAA Cards challenge too) and I cannot wait to see all your birthday creations.  

Thanks for stopping by; I'll see you again in a little while.   

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

LOTV - thanks a bunch (I can't find the rubber stamp so I've linked to the digi)

Little B - circle dies 100381

Clearly Besotted Stamps - mini messages

Gina K Designs ink pads (passionate pink, red hot, sweet mango, wild dandelion, applemint, turquoise sea, blue raspberry, wild lilac and soft stone)

Gina K Designs - rainbow pearl mix

Gina K Designs - birthday cheer stamp set (for the inside sentiment)

Promarkers

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm smooth white card

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card

Versafine onyx black ink (for sentiments)

Memento tuxedo black ink (to stamp image)

Sakura - white gelly roll 10 pen

Krafty Chicks challenge - GDT card week 4

Happy Thursday friends; I hope your week has been good so far and not too hectic.  I'm back today with my final card as guest chick for the Krafty Chicks challenge.  I have really enjoyed being their guest this month.  This week's theme is 'All occasion' so you can enter anything you like.  I needed to make a baby card so thought it would be ideal for this challenge.  

My son's friend recently welcomed a baby boy and my son asked if I could make a card for him.  I love making baby cards but it's ages since I made one so popped over to Pinterest for some inspiration.  I saw a gorgeous baby onesie card so thought I would give it a go.  Is it perfect - no, but is it super cute and unique - yes!  I took lots of photos so I'm apologising now for the photo overload lol!  

Here is my card:

a close up of the cute bib:

the inside:

the back:

I even made myself a template for next time:

I made my own envelope to match:

There are loads of templates/tutorials over on Pinterest so I had a look at a couple and then made my own template as I wanted my card to be a little bigger than the ones I had seen.  I started with a panel 5"x6" and made my template by die cutting circles for the neck and legs and then shaping the arms/body.  I then transferred this template onto a 5"x7" card base and cut out my onesie.  I embossed the front with a dot embossing folder.  I made a smaller template so that I could cover the embossing on the inside and also have a different colour layer for my sentiment just for some contrast.  I used mostly dies to create the elements but also stamped a sentiment in blue ink onto a banner for the front.  A few pearls for the poppers and the front was complete.  I used the same elements on the inside and stamped a secondary sentiment in black ink.  On the back I stamped my 'handmade by Denise' and added a die cut star.  I used an envelope punch board to make a matching envelope and added a few die cuts onto that too.  My son's friends were delighted with the card and said they had many comments on it, which is nice.  I'll have to try one in pink now as well as I think they look gorgeous.  

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

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

Alphabet challenge - M is for monochrome

Can You Handle the Pressure challenge - ATG embossing option bees/beehive

Crafter's Cafe challenge - children's clothing

Day of the Month Card Club challenge - International dot day (I used a dotty embossing folder)

Simon Says Stamps Wednesday challenge - ATG

The Cutie Pie challenge - birthdays and/or bears

The Sisterhood of Crafters challenge - shapes (my card is onesie shaped plus lots of die cut shapes)

Please pop over to the Krafty Chicks challenge to get all the details/rules and also to leave some love for the design team - Leanne, Melanie, Diane and Lori.  I've had a brilliant time in the Hen House and grateful for the opportunity to guest.  

Thanks for stopping by and leaving me such lovely comments; I appreciate them all. 

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm smooth white card

MFT - it's a baby die-namics

MFT - itty bitty baby stamp set

MFT - blueprints 27 (for the banner)

MFT - blueprints 13 (for the stars)

Gina K Designs - swiss dot embossing folder

Gina K Designs - rainbow pearl mix

Lawn Fawn - Henry's ABC dies

Spellbinders - standard circles large & classic scalloped circles large

Clearly Besotted - scalloped edges die collection

blue card from my stash

Falling for Wednesdays IG Hop - week 6

Happy Wednesday friends; I hope you've had a brilliant week so far.  I'm back with my card for this week's Falling for Wednesdays IG Hop organised by my lovely friend Kelly.  We are now on Week 6 (only one more week to go) and this week is all about 'farmers market'.

I know it sounds a daunting theme this week but it's not really.  Farmers markets have a vast array of produce such as fruit, veggies, flowers, baked goods etc.  I envisaged a farmers market stand so did a quick internet search and found this free image at Our Mindful Life.  The one issue I had was that I don't have a printer but thankfully my son managed to get it printed for me.  Here is my card:

I also decorated the inside:

Here are the Promarkers I used:

the image after I finished colouring it (before adding any highlights etc):

this is the image before it was coloured:

I was a little intimidated as the image was so large and it took me ages to actually pick up my pens and begin colouring but once I started it went quite quickly.  There were a few things that I wasn't actually sure what they were but I coloured them to suit what I wanted them to be lol!  There was some greyscale/shadowing on the image which did help but I think I did ok with my colouring considering it was such a big image.  I coloured it with Promarkers and added some highlights with a white gel pen.  The image panel ended up being 5 1/2" x 6 3/4" so my card was a custom size of 5 3/4" x 7".  The panel was added to a chocolate card mat and then this was adhered to my card base with foam tape.  I heat embossed a sentiment using gold embossing powder and die cut this out with a banner die.  The banner was also added with foam tape.  Finally a few gold sequins for some extra shine.   

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

As You Like It challenge - favourite harvest colours (I always think of orange, yellows, dark greens, browns and red; they remind me of the lush fruit and vegetables around this time of year)

Crafty Gals Corner challenge - signs of fall (entry #3)

Dream Valley challenge - make it digital (my image is a free digital colouring page)

Get Creative challenge - pumpkin spice, please 

Inspiration Station challenge - inspiration prompt #53 (I was inspired by the pumpkins and colours)

Shopping our Stash challenge - colour me beautiful (I used alcohol markers to colour my image)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

I hope you will be able to join us over at Instagram and check out the hop.  As always please use the #ffwcardgroup2023 to find all our creations and we will be able to find yours if you want to join in the fun too.  

Enjoy the rest of your day.  I'll be back again tomorrow with my fourth and final card for the Krafty Chicks challenge and week 4 is all occasions.  

I appreciate you stopping by.  

Love and hugs, 

card ingredients:

free image from Our Mindful Life.com

Promarkers

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm smooth white cardstock

Gina K Designs - harvest silhouettes stamp set (for sentiment)

MFT - blueprints 27 (for banner to cut sentiment)

Gina K Designs - everything nice (for inside greeting and image)

Gina K Designs - sweet mango ink (to stamp image on inside)

Sakura - white gelly roll 10 pen

Versamark ink pad for embossing

Cosmic shimmer - bright gold detail embossing powder

Craft UK Limited - 12" x 12" white card 250gsm (to make my card base)

Limetree Crafts - dark chocolate card 300gsm

Versafine onyx black ink

Spellbinders - gold smooth disc sequins