Stencil it – I dare you!

Happy Friday crafty friends! I hope you’re having a good week. It’s time for another Daring Cardmakers Challenge and this week Nat is our host. As the title of this post suggests, this week’s challenge is all about stencils. She would like you to use stencils on your card this week, whether in the form of:

• Stamp + stencil + die combos
• Stand-alone stencils for ink blending, texture paste, and other media
• Layered stencils to create colourful backgrounds
• And if you don’t yet have any stencils in your stash, you can create your own masks/stencils with your existing die collection, or even some free-hand cutting for fun edges

For my project I used a Tim Holtz tartan stencil and some pixie powders to create my background paper. This is one of my favourite ways to use stencils. I taped the stencil onto some white card on my glass mat and then lightly sprinkled some pixie powders (I used three colours) across the stencil. I then lightly sprayed water until the powders had been activated but not too much water that you lose the details of the stencil. I then carefully peeled off the stencil and turned it over onto another a blank piece of card and press it with some kitchen roll to create a negative print of the stencil. Once it’s dried I cut a square panel which I mounted onto a black layer and a blue layer to complement the colours I used.

I then added a Tim Holtz modern flower die cut (layered with gold and black) and added some gold nuvo drops to finish it off.

I hope you will hop on over to the Daring Cardmakers Challenge blog and share your makes too, there is some beautiful cards from the design team to get you started if you need a wee bit of inspiration.

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA Ginger Ninja Crafts!) xx

Less is more-I Dare You!

Happy Friday everyone! It’s time for another Daring Cardmakers challenge and this week lovely Enfys has challenged us to make a card where “Less is More”. Enfys would like us to make cards with at least 75% of the card left totally blank – no stamped or embossed backgrounds. Lots of white space…..try it, it’s amazing how effective it can be.

I created a little inky circle on my card base using various shades of blue. My focal image is a Tracey Hey stamp from the Sail Away stamp set. I coloured in the little mouse in his boat and fussy cut him out. I stamped some little squiggly lines and hearts in a strip either side of the circle and then added the focal image with foam pads to give a little dimension. The finishing touches were to add a sentiment and a few nuvo drops (I just couldn’t help myself!) I hope I’ve left enough white space for the prompt! What do you think, should I have gone more minimal?

Thanks so much for popping by, hopefully I will see you again soon!
Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA Ginger Ninja Crafts!) xx

Cards with Attitude – I dare you!

 Hi crafty friends, it’s time for a new Daring Cardmaker Challenge and this week Kathy is our host. She has dared us to make ” Cards with Attitude!” Kathy would like us to break out of the rut of square or rectangular cards.  She would love to see cards with a difference this week. The kind that surprise the recipient by being a bit different from regular flat(ish) squares and rectangles we all like to make. 

I went with a pop up card and I used some beautiful downloads from Antonio Makes. Lovely Antonio invited me to join his Creative Squad and he gifted me these downloads to use for projects. He also very kindly gave me a discount code so any of you can get 10% off any purchases. Just use JENNY10 for your discount.

The front of my card looks like a normal rectangular card….

But on the inside there’s a pop up with butterflies….

I have a video uploaded on my YouTube channel sharing how I made this card.

Thanks so much for visiting the Ginger Ninja Crafts blog, I hope to see you again soon!

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA Ginger Ninja Crafts!) xx

Chocolate heaven – I dare you!

Happy Friday everyone, I hope you are having a good day. It’s a holiday weekend for us for Easter so we are enjoying some relaxation and time off and of course some chocolate! Kathy is hosting our challenge this week over at the Daring Cardmakers Challenge and she would like you to create “Chocolate Heaven” on your cards! So indulge yourself  a little this week! Kathy would love to see all sorts of chocolatey treats – chocolate cakes, chocolate colours,  velvety drinking chocolate, a tempting box of chocolates….
Whatever you fancy!

Here is my project, please don’t forget to hop on over to the Daring cardmakers challenge blog and see what the rest of the design team have made and share your chocolate themed cards!

Thanks for stopping by the Ginger Ninja Crafts blog, I hope to see you again soon!

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA Ginger Ninja Crafts!) xx

April Elemental Challenge – Daring Cardmakers Challenge

It’s my turn to host the Daring Cardmakers Challenge and it’s an elemental challenge which means you have to pick three (or more) elements from these pictures to inspire your card.

I had great fun searching for images to use and from the above selection I used the bunny, the little yellow flowers, the eggs and the pinks/purples colours.

I hope you will hop on over to the challenge blog and see the other DT makes and why not share your card too?

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA Ginger Ninja Crafts!) xx

Hello Spring – I dare you!

Hi crafty friends, I’m later than usual with my Daring Cardmakers weekly post but better late than never! This week we are hosted by Shabneez who has dared us to celebrate the arrival of spring with cards featuring anything related to the season be it lambs, rabbits, daffodils, tulips etc. 

I love seeing the spring flowers popping up and I think tulips are my favourites if I had to pick! I used a little tulip die set from Crafter’s Companion. The paper I used was some scrap which I had brayered off the spare ink while I was playing with my gel plate. I added a little die cut tartan bow and layered them on a scripty stamped panel. The finishing touches were a sentiment and a few nuvo drops in complementary colours.

I can’t wait to see your lovely spring themed cards and I hope you will check out my design team colleagues makes over on the Daring Cardmakers Challenge blog, they are a talented bunch of crafters! Thanks so much for visiting the Ginger Ninja Crafts blog, hope to see you again soon!

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA Ginger Ninja Crafts!) xx

Daring Cardmakers Challenge – For Ukraine

Happy Friday crafty friends, I hope you are all safe and well in these worrying times. This week at the Daring Cardmakers Challenge we wanted to acknowledge the awful situation in Ukraine. To show our support we are making cards using blue and yellow colours, sunflowers and hope.

I used some distress spray sprays to create a background (Mermaid Lagoon and Mustard Seed). The sunflower stamp is from the lovely Julie Hickey designs. I added a little embossed panel for the sunflower to sit and a sentiment.

I got a little carried away with my backgrounds and decided to make some ATC coins to pop into happy mail. The backgrounds were made with brusho powders (cobalt blue and yellow) and various stencils. The edge is heat embossed in a copper embossing powder. I added a Crafters Companion sunflower and a printed hashtag.

I can’t wait to see all your lovely makes. Thanks so much for visiting the Ginger Ninja Crafts blog, I hope to see you again soon.

Crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA Ginger Ninja Crafts!) xx

F.E.B – I dare you!

Happy Friday crafty friends! Can you believe it’s Friday and we are nearly at the end of the month! I know it’s a short month but this one really has flown past. It’s time for our last Daring Card Makers challenge of the month and Joanne has dared us to make a FEB card! Use something beginning with each of those letters in your creation. So it might be a foiled elephant juggling a ball, a blue fairy with an embossed background, a baby card with flags and embroidery thread… what can you come up with that’s FEB? Don’t forget to tell us which items you’ve used in case we don’t spot them!

Here is my finished card….. can you guess what my F.E.B items are?

I’m sure you have, but just in case you didn’t. F is for flowers and I used a couple of stamp sets from the JMC Designs Garden Tots collection (Lady Dot and Dotty Daisy).

For E I used an Embossing folder to add some texture.

The B is for Butterfly and I shared a video yesterday (on my YouTube channel) for how I made this butterfly using alcohol inks, vellum and heat embossing. Here are a few of these pretty butterflies.

To finish off my card I added a sentiment and a flourish from the stamp sets.

In the nick of time – I dare you!

Happy Friday and welcome to another Daring Cardmakers Challenge and this week Rizwana is our host. She has dared us create cards “In the nick of time”. So this week time is of the essence! Use clocks or anything to represent time on your card, including watches, hourglasses, sundials or pocket watches

I had a Phil Martin magazine stamp set which had some clock stamps and sentiments and a Sizzix Tim Holtz clock embossing folder which I pulled out of my stash. I kept this card pretty simple, using some lilac and navy card, a little heat embossing in so;ver and some nuvo drops.

I’m looking forward to seeing all your time themed cards. Please check out the Daring Cardmakers blog to see the design team makes, there are some fab ideas.

Until next time, crafty hugs

Jenny (AKA Ginger Ninja Crafts!) xx

My Sweet Valentine – I dare you!

Happy Friday crafty friends and welcome to our new Daring Cardmakers Challenge. The lovely Dawn is our host and as Valentines day is nearly here so I would like you to show me the love and share your Valentines makes.  Make sure your cards feature lots of shades of red and pink and of course love hearts.

My Valentine is my lovely hubby so hopefully he doesn’t get a peek at this before opening it on Monday! I used the Woodware stamp set “Mushroom” and coloured two of them up to be a pair. I added some red and blue splashes to my card base and some strips of paper to give the mushrooms a place to stand. Then just added the sentiment and it was done! It’s definitely one of those cards where there was more time thinking about the layout than actually took to make it!

It’s been a hectic week here as we collected our 2 new fluffy family members! We have been kept busy entertaining our new kittens, Ozzy and Angus. They are brothers and are so playful and getting braver every day. We still have our Ginger Ninja, aka Mr Darcy and he has had a brief introduction to he new house mates. He’s not sure yet but we hope they are going to be the best of pals! Here is Mr D….

Mr Darcy

And the new additions…..

Angus at the front and Ozzy at the back

Ozzy gas a wee bit of a sticky eye but it is much better this morning and he is very good at letting us bathe it gently. Well I better go and see what those two are up to! See you all next week if not before!

Crafty hugs (and a few purrs!)

Jenny (Ginger Ninja Crafts!) xx