AAA Birthday challenge #76 - sport

Hello again friends and happy 1st of August. I hope you all had a wonderful July, although it went by in the blink of an eye once again.  I had a great month as it was my birthday on the 12th and I was spoilt as usual by my lovely friends and family.  I even got to relax and watch the Wimbledon finals that weekend too.  

I'm here today to share my card for this month's AAA Birthday challenge and this month our theme is 'sport' which is such a fun challenge.  Don't forget sports are unisex so you can make a pink football card if you like!  I hope you will take on our challenge this month and get creating. Our guest designer this month is the lovely Cathy R. so please pop over to her blog and leave her some love.

I recently bought some dies from a new-ish craft company and they were perfect for this month's theme.  Most of the men in my life enjoy football so this card will definitely find a new home very soon.  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the images:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by die cutting the football silhouette images from black glossy card, plus I also cut an extra two layers from white card and stacked them up with liquid glue.  I die cut 4 of the postage style rectangles and leaving the die in place lightly ink blended some green and blue ink for a soft background.  I white heat embossed my birthday sentiment onto black card and use a sentiment strips die to cut it out.  I cut a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and arranged the 4 rectangles in a grid layout, adhering them with liquid glue.  I also added each of the football silhouette images with liquid glue over each rectangle.  I added the sentiment in the centre with foam squares.  I added some scrap white card behind my white panel for some thin dimension and then adhered it to my card base with double sided tape.  No embellishments this time as I thought there was enough going on.  For the inside I cut another white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and ink blended the green and blue inks to about half way up.  I adhered another silhouette footballer to the bottom left corner with liquid glue and stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink.  The panel was adhered to the card base with double sided tape.  I'm really happy with how this card turned out.  

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

Addicted to Stamps & More challenge - birthdays

Creative Moments challenge - embossing (my sentiment is heat embossed)

Girlz and the Art of Letters challenge - Letter F - football

Girlz Makes Guyz cards challenge - ATG masculine

Halloween & Other Occasions challenge - birthday

If You Give a Crafter a Cookie challenge - happy birthday

Inkspirational challenge - word prompt 'birthday'

Little Red Wagon challenge - masculine

Make My Monday challenge - masculine

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

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

Craft Addiction UK - mini football collection dies

Lawn Fawn - little letter die set (for postage style rectangle)

Clearly Besotted - happy birthday all stamp (for outside sentiment) - retired

Gina K Designs - sentiment strips dies

Gina K Designs - ink pads - jelly bean green and sea glass

Lawn Fawn - sweet smiles stamp (for inside sentiment)

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card - not currently available - but they do have 280gsm silky smooth white card available here

Verasafine - onyx black ink pad

Wow! - opaque bright white super fine embossing powder

Hobbycraft - A4 black card

Imagination Crafts - glossy black card (I got mine from eBay)

Krafty Chicks challenge #779 - ATG

Good morning lovely friends; it's Thursday so that means it's time for a new challenge over at Krafty Chicks challenge.  We have a 5 week month so that means we have an extra 'Anything Goes' challenge this week and Diane is our hostess.  It can't get any easier than ATG so come and join in the fun with us. 

The world's your oyster this week, you can make anything you like.  I wanted to share the anniversary card I made for my hubby (which was a few weeks ago).  I love the fun image and sentiment and went for a bright and cheery colour combo.  The card is 7" x 7" in size.  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the image:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by stamping the image onto alcohol marker friendly card, coloured it with Promarkers and added some white gelly roll pen highlights.  I used the coordinating die to cut it out.  To create my card base I cut one piece of white card 8" x 7" and another piece 7" x 7"; on the larger piece I scored at 1" on the 8" side and used this 'tab' to attach the two panels together using double sided tape.  I cut a white panel 4 3/4" square and using a heart stencil and some light grey ink created a soft background for my images.  I matted this panel onto some gold mirri card with double sided tape.  I cut a piece of yellow patterned paper 5 3/4" square and again matted it onto the gold mirri card with double sided tape.  I then cut another white panel 6 3/4" square and matted it onto the gold mirri card again.  I adhered all the layers together with double sided tape.  I stamped the happy anniversary and husband words onto scrap white card and cut them out with a sentiment strip die.  I adhered the image into the centre of the stencilled panel using foam tape and stamped the 'me love you' sentiment in black ink below.  I added the other sentiments above the image with foam squares.  The whole panel was then adhered to the card base with double sided tape.  For a final finishing touch I die cut 5 hearts from the gold mirri card and added them around the image with liquid glue.  I kept the inside fairly simple this time; I cut I white panel 5 3/4" square and again added a gold mirri card mat.  I added a border of the patterned paper to the top and bottom with double sided tape and stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink.  I added some more gold hearts in the left upper and right bottom corners.  The panel was adhered to the card base with double sided tape.  Quite a few layers and dimension on this card but I knew I wouldn't be posting it so it didn't matter.  

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

Christmas BINGO (or not) challenge - Line G - square card, free, frame

Crafty Catz challenge - ATG

Crafty Gals Corner challenge - our anniversary in July

Cut It Up challenge - monochrome

Little Red Wagon challenge - masculine (anniversary card for hubby)

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends challenge - ATG

Make My Monday challenge - masculine (anniversary card for hubby)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

The Paper Funday challenge - ATG optional twist 'fun with stencils'

Tic Tac Toe challenge - any colour, free, sentiment

I hope you will be able to join us for our 'ATG' 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 appreciate your lovely comments.

Love and hugs,

card supplies:

Stamping Bella - cave couple stamp & die

Uniko Stamps - everyday love sentiments stamp

Uniko Stamps - everyday family stamp

Gina K Designs - forever flowers stamp (for inside greeting)

Gina K Designs - large strip sentiment dies

Gina K Designs - soft stone ink pad

Time For Tea Designs - scattered hearts stencil

The Works - 12 x 12 paper pad - pastel basics

Limetree Crafts - 12 x 12 smooth white 250gsm card

Versafine - onyx black ink

Memento - tuxedo black ink pad

Sakura - white no. 10 gelly roll pen

MFT - tag builder blueprints 6

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card - store now closed

gold mirri card from stash

Krafty Chicks challenge #778 - Masculine

Good morning lovely friends. I hope you're all doing ok and having a great week so far. It's time for a new challenge over at Krafty Chicks challenge and this week we are on Week 4; as always the theme is 'masculine' and Lori is our hostess. I know masculine makes can be difficult but we always need them so take the challenge and get ahead. We hope you will come over and join in the fun with us.

I recently purchased a new Penny Black wooden stamp, of course featuring my favourite hedgie character, and I was itching to use it so I grabbed it for today's card.  I love these images as they are so cute and really easy to colour.  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A close up of the cute image:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by stamping the image onto alcohol marker friendly card, coloured him with Promarkers and added some white gelly roll pen highlights.  I cut the panel down to 3 1/2" x 4 3/4".  I also cut a lovely green striped patterned paper to 4" x 5 1/4" to use as my mat layer and adhered them together with double sided tape.  I cut two banners, one from green card and one from red card; I added the green banner with double sided tape and the red banner with a foam square to the top left corner.  I originally stamped the sentiment directly on the panel but I pressed a little hard and it didn't come out very well so I stamped it again onto a scrap of white card and cut it out with a sentiment strips die (I also cut another 3 plain white strips and adhered them together with liquid glue).   The sentiment was added below the image using liquid glue covering up my boo-boo!  I added some scrap white card behind my panel for some dimension and stability and then adhered this to the card base with liquid glue.  For the inside I cut a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and stamped the image in the bottom right corner (I used second generation stamping for a softer look).  I used the left over ends of the banners from the front of the card and added them in the bottom left corner with liquid glue.  I had a small strip of the patterned paper left so added that to the top of the panel with double sided tape.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink.  The panel was adhered to the card base with double sided tape.  A fun card and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  

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

Colourful Options challenge - summer mood board (I used red, green and a smidge of yellow)

Crafty Animals challenge - ATG must include an animal

Crafty Catz challenge - ATG optional child's birthday

Creative Inspirations challenge - stars and/or stripes

Critter Crazy challenge - animal birthday

Die Cut Divas challenge - happy birthday

Double D challenge - a card for the kiddos

Girlz Make Guyz cards - ATG male

Halloween & Other Occasions challenge - birthday

I Love Promarkers challenge - ATG or super heroes

Inkspirational challenge - word prompt 'birthday'

Love Those Pretty Papers challenge - use patterned paper optional theme birthday

Moving Along With The Times challenge - masculine

Penny Black Saturday challenge - ATG optional 'in or on the water'

The Sisterhood of Crafters challenge - stripes and/or dots

I hope you will be able to join us for our 'masculine' 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 appreciate your lovely comments.

Love and hugs,

card supplies:

Penny Black - game on 4129J wooden stamp

Promarkers

Penny Black - balloon ride clear stamp (for outside sentiment)

Echo Park - little girl dots & stripes 6 x 6 paper pad

MFT - blueprints 18 (for banners)

Gina K Designs - sentiment strips die set

Clearly Besotted - simply said birthday (for inside sentiment)

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card - not currently available - but they do have 280gsm silky smooth white card available here

Versafine - onyx black ink pad

Memento - tuxedo black ink pad

Sakura - white no. 10 gelly roll pen

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card - store now closed

Cards for All Seasons IG Hop - Week 15

Hello friends; I hope you're having a great week so far. I'm back today 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 15 and our theme is 'Hollywood Glam'.  Such a fun theme this week; think glitter, sparkle and glamourous.  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.

As soon as I saw the theme I immediately thought of Marilyn Monroe; to me she is the epitome of old school Hollywood Glam.  I didn't have anything Marilyn related in my stash but found an awesome stamp set online that I purchased immediately.  It has two different images so used the second one on the inside of my card.  I hope you like it. 

Here is my card:

A closer look at the image:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by stamping both the images onto alcohol marker friendly card, coloured them with Promarkers and fussy cut them out.  It's hard to tell in the photos but I did add some gold glitter gel pen onto the shoes and as eyeshadow on main image but I couldn't really capture it that well but it looks fab in real life.  I cut a panel from black shimmer card 3 3/4" x 5" and using a spotlight stencil and some white pigment ink created a fun background to emulate a stage.  I also white heat embossed the sentiment in the top left corner.  I matted the panel onto some gold glitter card; my border is slightly larger than my usual cards because I wanted the gold glitter to stand out a bit more. I added the image, standing in the spotlight, with foam squares.  As the sentiment was all about stars and twinkling I decided to cut some stars from the glitter card and placed them randomly around the image with liquid glue, apart from the two larger ones which were added with foam squares.  I added some scrap white card behind my panel and then this was adhered to my card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut a white panel 3 3/4" x 5" and again a gold glitter mat layer and adhered them together with double sided tape.  I added a 1" strip of the black shimmer card to the bottom of the panel and also a thin strip of the glitter card above it, both with liquid glue.  I added the second image in the bottom left corner and 3 glitter stars with liquid glue.  Finally I stamped the sentiment in the upper centre in black ink.  The panel was adhered to the card base with double sided tape.  I love how this card turned out and I think the colour combo is dramatic and gorgeous.  

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

Crafts Galore Encore challenge - ATG

Creative Inspirations challenge - stars and/or stripes

Creative Knockouts challenge - sparkle and shine

I Love Promarkers challenge - ATG or super heroes

The Dream Factory challenge - spotlight

The Paper Funday challenge - ATG optional theme fun with stencils

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 in the morning 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:

AALL and Create - Marilyn stamp set

Promarkers

Funky Fossil Designs - in the spotlight stencil - retired

Gina K Designs - white pigment ink cube

MFT - sweet 16 stamp set

MFT - blueprints 13 die set (for larger stars)

Mama Elephant - confetti creative cuts (for smaller stars) - retired

Tonic Studios - gold dust glitter card 250gsm

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card - not currently available - but they do have 280gsm silky smooth white card available here

Versafine - onyx black ink pad

black shimmer card from my stash

Patterned Paper Party IG Hop - July

Hello friends; I hope you're having a great weekend and are looking forward to the brand new week.

I'm here today to share my card for this month's Patterned Paper Party Instagram Hop. Do you love patterned paper? Do you have a huge stash that needs using? Well so do we and it's time to get it used! We will be hopping on the 20th of each month to share our ideas. We will definitely be creating cards, but maybe sometimes tags, ATCs, gift bags, boxes, mini albums and scrapbook pages too. We want our patterned paper to be used.

The theme is always 'anything goes' but each month we will have an optional twist that can be used if you like; this month the twist is 'bright' so if you have any super bright and fun papers now is the time to grab them and use them up.  I have to be honest I completely forgot about the twist and, even though my papers are quite fun and bright, that was a total fluke lol!  I hope you like it:

Here is my card:

A closer look at the papers:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" (although I will cut it down later).  I found a paper pad I wanted to use and selected 6 papers that I thought were fun and looked good together.  I used a rounded banner die and cut one from each of the papers.  I used a 'hello' die and cut it from brushed silver card 4 times and stacked them up with liquid glue.  I also stamped a sub-sentiment onto white card using black ink and cut it out with a sentiment strips die.  I arranged the banners in a pleasing arrangement and adhered them with liquid glue.  I also used liquid glue to add the hello and sub-sentiment across the banners.  It was at this point that I decided that I wanted a stitched edge around my panel.  This proved to be tricky because as the middle was raised due to the stacked sentiment it took about 4 goes through the die cutting machine to cut it out and even then I had to snip the sides with my scissors - next time I'll try to remember to cut the panel first or leave it as it is lol!  I finished off with some silver metallic pearls.  I added some scrap white card behind my panel for some slight dimension and then added it to my card base with double sided tape.  For the inside I cut the same sized white panel and added another set of the patterned paper banners at the bottom with liquid glue.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink.  Once again I used the stitched rectangle to cut the panel down but this time it was fine as there wasn't as much dimension to get through.  The panel was added to the card base with double sided tape.  A fun layout and it would be suitable for all ages and genders.  

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

Alphabet challenge - G is for girlfriend

Crafts Galore Encore challenge - ATG

Dream Valley challenge - ATG

Girlz Creative Fun Art of Scrap challenge - ATG must use design papers

Love Those Pretty Papers challenge - ATG must use patterned papers

We hope you will be inspired by our Patterned Paper Party IG Hop and will pop over and check out all the gorgeous creations along the way. If you would like to join us please visit my Instagram page or use the hashtag #patternedpaperpartyhopjuly2025 and we will find you. 

Thanks for stopping by and take care. 

Lots of love

card supplies

MFT - blueprints 13 (for rounded banner)

MFT - hello there die set

Gina K Designs - thankful greenery stamp (for 'sweet friend' sentiment)

Gina K Designs - sentiment strips dies

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

Gina K Designs - Master Layouts 14 (for stitched rectangle die)

Clearly Besotted - sending love stamp (for inside sentiment)

The Works - pastel basics 12"x 12" paper pad

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card - not currently available - but they do have 280gsm silky smooth white card available here

Versafine - onyx black ink pad

Krafty Chicks challenge #777 CAS

Good morning lovely friends. I hope you're all doing ok and having a great week so far. It's time for a new challenge over at Krafty Chicks challenge and this week we are on Week 3; as always the theme is 'CAS' and Diane is our hostess. I know clean and simple means different things to everyone, but generally we want to see an uncluttered design, lots of open space with little or no embellishments. We hope you are up for the challenge and you will come over and join in the fun with us.

For today's card I am again using an image that I had already coloured for another project but never used, although at that time I only needed the horse so hadn't stamped the hedgie but that was easily rectified, along with some fussy cutting.  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the gorgeous image:

Plus I decorated the inside:

So I began by fussy cutting out the horse which I had previously coloured with Promarkers and added some white gelly roll highlights.  I stamped the hedgie part of the stamp onto a scrap of alcohol marker friendly card, coloured it with Promarkers, added some white gelly roll highlights and again fussy cut it out.  Thankfully because the rope has lines it was easy enough to join them together, with liquid glue, without an obvious line.  I cut a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and used what ink was left on my green and blue blending brushes to create a soft blended background.  I added the image with foam squares and stamped the small sentiment just above it in black ink.  I cut some scrap white card and adhered that behind my panel for stability and dimension and this was added to the card base with double sided tape.  I decided not to add any embellishments to keep it as CAS as possible.  For the inside I kept it really simple; I cut a white panel 4" x 5 1/4" and stamped the image at the bottom using second generation stamping so that it would be a little more subtle.  I then stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink.  The panel was added to the card base with double sided tape.   I love Penny Black images and I think it turned out really cute.

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

Alphabet challenge - g is for girlfriend

Crafty Animals challenge - ATG must include an animal

I Love Promarkers challenge - ATG or super heroes

Little Red Wagon challenge - honky cat (if my horse is not appropriate please delete me)

Penny Black Saturday challenge - ATG optional theme 'in or on the water'

Simply Clean & Simple challenge - ATG optional theme 'beachy'

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - cute critters 

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 and Lori.

Thank you so much for stopping by; I appreciate your lovely comments.

Love and hugs,

card supplies:

Penny Black - Minding Shelty 2889K wood stamp (I saw some on eBay)

Promarkers

MFT - bitty bears stamp set (for outside sentiment)

MFT - happy hippos stamp set (for inside sentiment)

Versafine - onyx black ink pad

Memento - tuxedo black ink pad

Sakura - white no. 10 gelly roll pen

Gina K Designs - blending brushes and ink (although I used what was left on the brushes so not 100% sure but probably sea glass and jelly bean green)

Limetree Crafts - 250gsm silky smooth white card - not currently available - but they do have 280gsm silky smooth white card available here

Heffy Doodle - alcohol marker friendly card - store now closed

Wedding card

Hello lovely friends.  I hope you've had a great start to your week.  Today I'm sharing a wedding card I made for my nephew, who got married two weeks ago.  I'm not sure if I can post wedding photos yet but I did have one taken with my nephew so will share that instead.

It was a beautiful day and the venue was stunning.  I'm a bit of an introvert and was really dreading getting dressed up and having to interact with lots of people I didn't know but it was a lovely day and I did enjoy myself.  

Enough waffling and onto the card.  I used my computer to print the wording but everything else was die cut/embossed and the card was 7" x 7" in size.  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by making my card base; I cut one piece of white card 8" x 7" and one piece 7" x 7".  I scored the 8" side at the 1" mark and folded it to make a tab so that I could adhere both pieces together to make my card base.  I cut another white panel 5 3/4" square and embossed it with the beautiful tiled hearts folder; it was ever so slightly smaller than the panel but I don't think it's that noticeable.  I cut a mat layer from matte silver card and adhered them together with double sided tape.  I cut the largest heart from the die set from white card, but because I only wanted a small mat layer I hand cut the silver matte card layers (they are a little wonky in places but again they look ok) and adhered them with liquid glue.  I printed all the sentiments using my computer and printer and die cut the longer ones with sentiment strip dies and the names with a smaller heart die (again hand cutting the silver matte card layer).  I adhered the small hearts and sentiments with liquid glue.  I die cut the 'happily ever after' 4 times from the matte silver card and stacked them up with liquid glue.  I now started assembling my card.  I used foam squares for all the elements and overlapped the hearts ever so slightly.  The panel was added to the card base with double sided tape.  For a finishing touch I added some small hearts cut from the silver matte card.  For the inside of the card I cut a white panel 6" square and added a silver matte card layer with liquid glue.  I had some left over embossed card so cut a 2" square and then cut it diagonally to create two triangles and added them in the top left and bottom right corners.  I also hand cut one of the hearts from the embossed piece and added that in the bottom left corner.  I stamped the sentiment in black ink in the centre.  The panel was added to the card base with double sided tape.  I'm really happy with this card and think it turned out really beautiful and elegant (even if I say so myself lol!).

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

Can You Handle The Pressure challenge - must use an EF optional theme in the sky

Cardz  4 Galz challenge - wedding or anniversary

Christmas (or not) BINGO challenge - Line G - square card base, free, sentiment as focus

Inkspirational challenge - three of the same (I have 3 hearts)

Make My Monday challenge - embossing wet or dry

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - emboss it

Word Power challenge - make the sentiment the focus

I also made a card for my sister to give to my nephew and his new wife (her son & daughter-in-law) so I'll try and share that one with you in the next few days.  

Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving me such lovely comments; I appreciate each and every one of them. 

Love and hugs, 

card supplies:

Spellbinders - tiled hearts 2D embossing folder (EOM Dec 23) - ? retired

Spellbinders - happily ever after sentiment die

Spellbinders - essential hearts die set

MFT - tag builder blueprints 6 (for hearts) 

Card Making Magic - verses stamp (for inside sentiment)

Limetree Crafts - simply the best 12" x 12" silky smooth 250gsm white card - no longer available

silver matte card from stash (but it may be Tonic but not sure)

Versafine - onyx black ink pad

Computer & printer for wording on front of card