Dragonfly Dreams challenge - GDT card

Good morning and happy Sunday lovely friends. I hope you are all doing ok and finding lots of time to get crafty. Well the weather is certainly perfect for staying indoors and crafting as it's now really chilly and wet here in South Wales.  I'm not sure if you are the same as me but as soon as the clocks go back I don't want to leave the house after 4pm lol!  

I am delighted to be a guest designer over at Dragonfly Dreams challenge this month and they have a fantastic theme of 'feminine'.  I'm sure this is going to be a really popular challenge and I'm looking forward to seeing all your pretty, girly creations.  I think flowers are always my go-to when I think of feminine and I combined them with a soft colour combo and pretty dies.  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the flowers:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by stamping the florals and coloured them with the coordinating stencils using two colours of teal/blue for the flowers and two greys for the leaves.  I went with blue as I was itching to use one of my new ink pads from Gina K Designs so chose the new Cadet Blue which is beautiful.  I stamped the sentiment in black and used the coordinating dies to cut out both the sentiment and flowers (I cut 3 more of each from white so that I could layer them up for some extra dimension).  After watching Gina on Thursday showcase Master Layouts 19 I decided to use the scalloped dies and I cut the fancy scalloped die from white card and the scalloped mat layer from a teal/blue card and I adhered them together with liquid glue.  Before I adhered the centre panel I took a lattice stencil and the lightest grey ink pad and stencilled a soft grounding panel for my flowers.  The centre panel was adhered in place with liquid glue.  I cut a white panel 3 7/8" x 4 6/8" and also a teal/blue mat layer 4" x 4 7/8" and adhered them together with double sided tape.  I added the scalloped panel with double sided tape and then added the flowers with liquid glue and the sentiment with foam squares.  I finished off with some clear solid sequins.  I added some scrap white card behind the panel for some dimension and then adhered it to the card base with double sided tape.  As I still had the sparkle gel on my card from my winter card I used my finger and added a small amount over the flowers for a pretty sparkle.  For the inside I cut the same white and blue layers and also cut another scalloped panel and mat.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink and then adhered the panel to the card base.  

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

Beautiful Blossoms challenge - anything floral goes optional mood board

Cardz 4 Galz challenge - colouring (I coloured by ink blending using a stencil)

Girlz and the Art of Letters challenge - letter M - monochrome

Seize the Birthday challenge - favourite fall treat or ATG

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

I hope you can join in with this fun challenge. Please pop over to the challenge blog to find out all the details and to check out the gorgeous creations by the Design Team too.

I hope you enjoy the last bit of your weekend and thanks so much for stopping by.

Love and hugs,

card supplies:

Gina K Designs - floral friendship stamp, dies and coordinating stencils

Gina K Designs - Master Layouts 19 die set

Gina K Designs - ink pads - cadet blue, sea glass, soft stone, stormy sky

Gina K Designs - bodacious blooms layering stencils (for lattice)

Gina K Designs - birthday cheer stamp (for inside greeting)

Gina K Designs - starlight sparkle gel

Gina K Designs - clear quartz solid sequins

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

teal/blue card from stash

*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

AAA Birthday challenge #79 - Music

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

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

Here is my card:

A closer look at the fun images:

Plus I decorated the inside:

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

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

Addicted to Stamps & More challenge - all occasions

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

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

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

Inkspirational challenge - seeing stars

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge - add some texture

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

The Paper Funday challenge - ATG optional cute or creepy

The Design Team have created amazing cards as always so please pop over to the blog and check them out and perhaps leave them some love on their personal blogs. I hope you will be able to join in with the challenge this month but don't forget it has to be birthday themed. I can't wait to see your creations in the linky.

Have a great day.

Love and hugs,

card supplies:

MFT - friendship rocks stamp & die set

Crafts-Too - musical notes embossing folder

MFT - blueprints 18 (for stars)

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

Quickutz - nesting stars dies

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

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

purple card from stash

Gina K Designs - large strip sentiments dies

*I now have an Affiliate Link for the Gina K Designs store. If you are considering making a purchase I would appreciate you using my link as it will earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. 
Thank you x

Christmas (or not) BINGO challenge - GDT card

Happy Saturday friends and welcome to November.  I'm not really sure what happened to October but I hope you're ready for a brand new month.  I'm here this morning to share my card as GDT for The Christmas (or not) BINGO challenge. I was lucky enough to win one of their recent challenges and was honoured to be asked to be a guest designer. The challenge is an awesome BINGO board but you can only choose one vertical line to follow and use at least 3 of the options.  I chose to use Line I for my card (winter, icy blue or lavender, free, aperture or frame and snowflakes) and actually fulfilled all the criteria - go me!!

Here is the BINGO board for this challenge:

I chose to use icy blue for my colours as I really like blue for Christmas cards especially paired with snowflakes and my card is 5" x 7" in size.  Most of the elements are layered up so there is quite a lot of dimension on this card.  I hope you like it.

Here is my card:

A closer look at the details:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I took an extra close up photo to try and capture the sparkle gel in the background:

I began by die cutting each snowflake 4 times from white card as well as the frame 4 times and adhered them together with liquid glue.   I used the mat layer die to cut a panel from light blue card and covered it in starlight sparkle gel and put it aside to dry.  I made my card base from white card cut to 10" x 7" and scored it at 5" along the longer side.  I stamped the sentiment in blue ink and used the coordinating die to cut it out.  I adhered the frame onto the blue layer using double sided tape and the added the snowflakes with liquid glue.  I adhered the sentiment in the left bottom corner and finished off with some clear solid sequins.  It was difficult to capture there sparkle gel but it looks so pretty in real life.  For the inside I cut a white panel using a stitched rectangle die and a blue mat layer and adhered them together with double sided tape.  I stamped the sentiment in blue ink and die cut a snowflake from blue card and adhered that in the bottom right corner.  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:

52 Christmas Card Throwdown challenge - sketch

Addicted to Stamps & More challenge - any occasion

CRAFT challenge - Christmas

Crafter's Cafe challenge - ATG optional Christmas

Jingle Belles challenge - snow

Moving Along With The Times challenge - winter wonderland

Merry Little Christmas challenge - anything Christmas goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

Please pop over to The Christmas (or not) BINGO challenge blog for all the details/rules and to see the amazing creations from the design team. I would like to thank Becca and the team for having me as a guest this month. I hope you will find the time to enter the challenge and cannot wait to see all your projects in the linky.

Thanks for stopping by and see you all soon.

Love and hugs,
 

card supplies:

Gina K Designs - snowflake trio dies

Gina K Designs - Master Layouts 20 die set (for frame die)

Gina K Designs - Master Layouts 14 (for stitched rectangle and mat layer dies)

Gina K Designs - holiday floral stamp & die set (for outside greeting)

Gina K Designs - graphic tree stamp (for inside greeting)

Gina K Designs - powder blue ink pad

Gina K Designs - clear quartz solid sequins

Gina K Designs - starlight sparkle gel

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

blue card from stash

*I now have an Affiliate Link for the Gina K Designs store. If you are considering making a purchase I would appreciate you using my link as it will earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. 
Thank you x

Krafty Chicks #792 - ATG

Good morning lovely friends; it's Thursday so that means it's time for a new challenge over at Krafty Chicks challenge. As we have a 5 week month it means we have an extra 'Anything Goes' challenge this week and Lori 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.  Sadly I needed a sympathy card so that is what I'm sharing today.  I was inspired by a card I saw by Michelle Lupton which you can see here. I changed up the embossing folder, card size and sentiment.  I kept the colour blend although I flipped it.  It's such a pretty colour combo.  I hope you like it.  The colours look a little darker in the photos; they are softer in real life. 

Here is my card:

A closer look at the embossing:

Plus I decorated the inside:

I began by cutting my white panel to 5" x 5 1/2" and ran it through my intri-cut with the 3D embossing folder.  I then took my orange ink and ink blended up from the bottom to about half way.  I then blended in some pink ink up into the right corner leaving the left corner white.  I stamped the sentiment using the orange ink and cut it out with the coordinating die (I also cut 2 more from white and stacked them up with liquid glue).  I added some scrap white card behind my embossing panel and adhered it to the card base with liquid glue (the card base is 5 1/4" x 5 3/4" which I cut from a piece 10 1/2" x 5 3/4" and scored at the 5 1/4" mark on the long side).  I added the sentiment with liquid glue and finished off with some clear sequins.  For the inside I cut another white panel 4 7/8" x 5 3/8" and stamped the sentiment in the centre using the orange ink pad.  I embossed a white panel 4 7/8" x 1 1/2" with the 3D folder and ink blended the orange and pink inks all over and added it to the bottom of the panel with liquid glue.  The panel was adhered the card base with double sided tape.  Such a soft and delicate card and I hope the recipient will take some comfort from it. 

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

* to be updated *

I hope you will be able to join us for our 'anything goes' 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:

Altenew - ambridge bouquet 3D embossing folder - discontinued

Gina K Designs - delicate dahlias stamp & die set (for outside sentiment)

Gina K Designs - with sympathy stamp (for inside greeting)

Gina K Designs - ink pads - innocent pink & tangerine twist

Gina K Designs - clear quartz solid sequins

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

*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

Cards For All Seasons IG Hop Week 22 - Boo!

Hello again friends; I'm back 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 22 and our theme is 'boo'. Such a fun theme this week and open to lots of interpretation; even if you don't want to make any more Halloween creations you could use Halloween colours instead.  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.

I found some plain white gift bags recently that I've had in my stash for years so I thought, even though I don't have many trick or treaters, why not decorate them to fill with sweets and chocolate (and if I don't have any callers I'm sure my sons and myself will eat the goodies lol!).  I know I've used this stamp set once already this year but it's so super cute and I gave more of the images some love this time around.  I went with the same layout and design on each bag just changed up the images and colours.  There are lots of photos today as I wanted to give each bag its moment in the spotlight haha!  I hope you like them.

Here are the bags all together:

Here is each bag and a close up of the image:

 

 

 

 

 

I worked in a production line style as I felt it made everything go faster.  I cut all the pieces of pattern paper, the striped paper is 4 7/8" x 5 1/8" and the strip of paper is 4 7/8" x 1 14".  I also cut black card mat layers for each piece and adhered them together with double sided tape.  I cut 5 of the arches from white card and using the next size up cut a black layer.  Before adhering them together I stamped the spider webs in black ink (although I used second generation stamping on 4 of them as I thought the first one was too dark) and stars in a colour to match the paper.  I did some ink blending around the edges in the same ink colour as the stars and then adhered the arches together with liquid glue.  I stamped and die cut all the images (except for the bats which I die cut from black card) and then coloured them with Promarkers.  I also added some white gelly roll pen highlights.  It was then time to assemble; I added the strip onto the black and white panel with double sided tape, added the arch into the centre with foam tape and placed the images and sentiment onto the arch with foam squares.  I added the bats with liquid glue and also added a string to the spider so he wasn't floating in mid air!  I think they are adorable and if I do have any kiddos at my door on Friday I'm sure they will love them.  

I would like to enter my gift bags into the following challenges:

Allsorts challenge - autumn colours

Cardz for Guyz challenge - use orange, black, purple - 1 or more

Crafty Catz challenge - ATG optional twist Halloween

Crafty Gals Corner challenge - fill in the blank - spooky____ treat bags

Creative Crafting Uncles challenge - Halloween

Creative Inspirations challenge - autumn/something spooky

Creative Knockouts challenge - Halloween or fall

Double D challenge - Halloween colours

Make My Monday challenge - Halloween colours

Papercraft challenges - spooky delights

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - ATG

Sweet Stampin' challenge - Halloween or Halloween colours

The Dream Factory challenge - Coco: day of the dead and/or Halloween

Try It On Tuesday challenge - Halloween

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 tomorrow 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,

supplies:

Hobbycraft - small gift bags 5 pack

MFT stamps - fab-BOO-lous friends stamp & die

Mama Elephant - B2B arches die set

MFT - black & white stripes 6x6 paper pack

Authentique - glowing 6x6 paper pad

Dovecraft - back to basics II 6x6 designer paper pack

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Limetree Crafts - 220gsm black card

Promarkers

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

Sakura - white no. 10 gelly roll pen

Gina K Designs - large strip sentiments dies

*I now have an Affiliate Link for the Gina K Designs store. If you are considering making a purchase I would appreciate you using my link as it will earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. 
Thank you x

Krafty Chicks challenge #791 - Masculine

Good morning lovely friends. I hope you're all doing ok and having a great week. 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 (although she is currently taking a short break). I know masculine makes can be difficult but we always need them so come on, take the challenge, and get ahead. We hope you will come over and join in the fun with us.

I always tend to veer toward clean and simple makes when I make masculine cards (unless it's for my boys or hubby) and this is how today's card turned out too.  It was so quick to make and although I made it in shades of grey I think it would awesome in bright colours too.  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 circles; I didn't have enough plain grey cardstock that matched each other so used some grey ink pads and blended onto a white piece of card before die cutting them out.  I did use one scrap of grey card as it matched the blended colours really well.  I adhered the circles together with liquid glue and then cut it in half with my scissors.  I cut a panel of grey woodgrain patterned paper, which was from a Christmas pad I bought a few years ago in TKMaxx and matted that onto a black layer with double sided tape.  I adhered the circles with liquid glue in the upper half of the panel and stamped the happy birthday sentiment in black ink.  I added some scrap white card behind the panel and adhered it to my card base with double sided tape.  No embellishments as I don't think many men really go for bling as a rule, although I'm sure some men do.  For the inside I cut a white panel and black mat layer and adhered them together with double sided tape and stamped the sentiment in the centre with black ink.  I had cut lots of circles from the different colours of card and ink blended pieces so used them in the corners, adding them with liquid glue.  A really abstract card but suitable for males of all ages I think.  

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

AAA Cards challenge - anything CAS goes optional twist greys (monochrome)

Addicted to Stamps & More challenge - any occasion

Heart's Quest Celebrations of Love challenge - BEWAS (birthday)

Paper Rocks Scissors - ATG (I used scissors to cut my circles in half & pp for background)

Simply Clean and Simple challenge - ATG optional theme pumpkins

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - clean and simple

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:

Waffle Flower - nesting circle dies

Uniko - floral vines stamp (for HB sentiment)

Uniko - organic wishes stamp (for inside sentiment)

Limetree Crafts - 280gsm silky smooth white card

Limetree Crafts - 220gsm black card

Versafine Clair - nocturne ink pad

Gina K Designs - ink pads - soft stone, slate, stormy sky

grey card from scraps bin

*I now have an Affiliate Link for the Gina K Designs store. If 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