Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday December Challenge

Hello everyone and welcome to the December edition of my Crafty Wednesday Challenge taking place right here on my blog. I am so glad you stopped by today and hope you will join in the fun too! There were lots of great entries last month, thank you all for sharing. As always, the top 3 with a twist can be found at the end of the post.

As most of you know, the theme at Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday is now always ....

Anything Goes

and instead of a challenge theme there will be a "Top Pick Twist", meaning I will select a twist from all of the entries for the Top 3. Nobody will know what the twist will be (not even me) until the end of the challenge. So do link up all of your crafty makes, your entry might be the one inspiring the Top Pick twist :) The linkytool is at the end of the post.

Here is what I made for my share:

I've used Lavinia Stamps Pipspell (the mouse on the right) before but this is the first outing for Thistlewhisk here on my blog and I created a simple scene with these two cuties. 

I started by stamping them using Pinecone Versafine Clair ink then used the negative of a circle die along with a torn piece of paper for some masking and inked inside the cirle using Salvaged Patina Oxide ink. Inside the circle I used Lavinia's Winter Magic quote and the same Salvaged patina ink. At the bottom I stamped a branch from Lavinia's Winter Branches set with Pinecone ink and then used a white Poska pen to add dots for snowflakes. Usually I flick my Posca pen for random spatter but thought I'd try adding them in this way for a change. I do think I prefer the randomness of flicking even though it usually makes a huge mess all around with more spatter off the card then on 😄

For a little embellishment I added die cut snowflakes made with Penny Black's Dancing Snowflakes die set and used a Sakura gel pen in Stardust around the circle. And lots of Stickles glitter on the bauble which you can see better in the first photo.

This post includes some affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links. As always, this is at no cost to you. Thank you so much for your support!

I plan to share the above card with these challenges:

• A Cut Above - Die Cut Challenge Blog - At least one die cut (I used snowflakes)
• A Place To Start - Winter Things
• Aud Sentiments Blog Challenge - A Winter Sentiment
• Cupcake Inspirations - Let it Snow
• Fab n' Funky - Christmas
• FarmQuest Country Christmas Challenge - Country Christmas
• Path of Positivity - Unexpected Animal on Holiday Card
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Dies (I used snowflake dies)
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - Use Dies
• Try It On Tuesday - Snowflakes
• 

November Top Picks with a Twist:

Once again there were many wonderful creations which makes it so hard to choose favorites but thank you all so much for joining in and I always enjoy having a look at the gallery to see what most catches my eye. For the November twist I selected: Autumn so each one of my Top Picks features something fall themed.

No. 17 Gerrina

No. 19 Amy

No. 27 Wendy

Congratulations to each one of you on your well deserved recognition. Your Top Pick logo is below, you may post this to your own blogs if you like to :)

I will continue to pin the top picks to the dedicated Pinterest board, but will also include photo and link back to the original blogs/sites here. These will be removed at the start of the new challenge to stay in compliance with GDPR.

To join in this month's challenge please use the linky tool below. You have until Wednesday December 31st to join in.

A few things to remember:

• You may combine with any other challenges.
• You may use any brand of stamps/digis/dies/papers (no company restriction as long as copyright laws are followed).
• Please note: entries using pre-colored digital products will no longer be selected as top picks. 
• A short description of products used is expected, most importantly the source of focal point.
• This linkup is for sharing handmade projects of any kind not limited to papercrafts.
• Please try to limit to 3 entries per month - it's ok if you end up with more than 3 but I may not be able to visit your entries after the 3rd.
• Please do include a link back here to my blog in your blog post.
• Backlinking to a recent post IS allowed.

You can read more about the Guidelines/Copyright info here.

November Card Chain Challenge Reveal Day

Hello everyone. I hope you are doing well. Winter has arrived here in my part of the world. It snowed a lot on Saturday and again last night and the roads were so slick when I was out in the evening. The main reason why I don't like winter but nothing to do about that...

Last month I joined in at the Card Chain Challenge again and today is reveal day. This time my card went to Dagmara in Poland. As always, there are several challenge options such as a sketch, colors, themes or techniques. I went with the theme of Feathers and Vintage and used a Bird for my focal point and did some distressing to make it a bit vintage.

And here is what I made:

For my "Feather" element I decided to use Tracy Evans' Bird from the set Robin and Nuthatch. The set is retired but may still be found at some retailers. I used Distress inks for coloring. The background was one I had done with the gelli plate and some moody blue ink. Then I used a Harlequin stencil by Tim Holtz and a script stamp from Tracy Evans' set Magnolia and Apricot Distress ink. Around the edges I used part of a stamp from Tracy Evans's set Branched Heart. The sentiment is from another Tracy Evans Aall and Create retired set Pinecone. Love this quote. I added a rust red layer and then an apricot colored cardbase. Card front and rust colored mat were distressed to make it a little "vintage". I know I could have done a better job with that technique but this is what it turned out to be. Looking at it here I think some stitches around the edges would have been nice. I was happy to hear from Dagmara and that she liked the card :)

This post includes some affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links. As always, this is at no cost to you. Thank you so much for your support!

I am entering the above card to these challenges:

• Creative Fingers - AG
• Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenges - AG
• Paper Rock Scissors - Papers and/or Scissors (I used scissors for distressing and all layers are paper)
• Pattie's Creations - AG
• Simon Says Stamp - AG
• We Love 2 Create - Anything Creative

If you have never joined in the Card Chain Challenge but would like to, then you can still sign up for the December challenge for just a few more days. Be sure to read all the details here as it's a different type of a challenge where everyone will mail and receive one card in exchange. So fun!

I received the beautiful card below from Hilary in UK. I absolutely love these colors and the gorgeous stylish stamps! Thank you Hilary!!