Little Squirrel Amongst the Sunflowers

It's hard to believe but September has arrived!! I'm always sad when summer comes to an end but luckily here in Illinois we usually still have summer-like temperatures throughout September (in fact we are currently having a heatwave) and the weather stays mild until mid October (usually). And my Dahlias and Zinnas are still blooming happily with lots of butterflies around them. 

I do love working with autumn colors and themes so really enjoyed making today's card for the new Four Seasons challenge where we've now switched seasons and it's now All Things Fall/Autumn. As always we have a wonderful moodboard if you need a starting point.

I am actually sharing 2 cards today, they are similar but not exactly the same. First one is the one for the Four Seasons design team.

Card No.1:

 

The moodboard (see below) inspired me to reach for this beautiful sunflower PSX stamp (G-2003). A real oldie released 2006 that I purchased from eBay several years ago along with a few others. After stamping I used my Zig Clean Color brush pens for coloring and "smooshed" some distress ink color onto the background using a small acetate sheet. Then I stamped the script from Tracy Evans stamp set Magnolia and the little squirrel is also from a Tracy Evans set, Alpha Florals. Sentiment is from a Hero Arts autumn stamp kit from several years ago. I added gingham ribbon and a couple of staples, and used my black Posca pen for splatter.

Our moodboard is below, isn't is wonderful? As you can see my inspiration came from the bottom right image of sunflowers and black gingham ribbon, and then just had to add a squirrel!

You have until September 25th evening to join us and hope to see you there!

I am entering my card with these challenges:

• Ally's Angels - AG
• A Perfect Time To Craft 
• Beautiful Blossoms - AG
• Classic Design Challenge - AG
• Crafts Galore Encore - AG
• Creative Fingers - AG
• Cupcake Inspirations - In the Garden
• DL.Art Linky Challenge - AG
• Love to Craft 
• Simon Says Stamp - AG
• Word Art Wednesday - AG

Card No. 2:

While I had the sunflower stamp out I decided to make a second card, this time a birthday card. It's just slightly different the the card above so I thought I'd include it in the same blog post.

Here I used the My Favorite Things Birthday background stamp (part of it) instead of Tracy Evans script stamp and the gingham ribbon was placed above background stamping. Instead of a squirrel I used a little blackbird from one of Tracy Evans sets Amongst the Flowers. Love her little critters!! Sentiment came from a Stampin Up set with lots of small sentiments (found at a thrift store so it's most likely retired). On this card I used Faber Castell Polychromos pencils for coloring instead of the Zig Brush pens I used on the first card.

I am sharing the second card with these challenges:

• Kleuren Met Potloden - Use Colored Pencils
• Retro Rubber Challenge  - Old Stamps and Anything Goes
• Seize The Birthday - Opt. of Anything Goes

Here they are side by side. Not sure which one I prefer :) But probably the birthday card as it's just a little bit more CAS.

The Great Outdoors

Hello everyone, it's time for a new theme at Allsorts challenge and Brenda is hosting with the optional theme of "All Creatures Great and Small". Always a favorite one as I love working with creature (animal) stamps just as much as I love florals. This time our prize comes from Lavinia stamps so I took this opportunity to play with some of mine. Sadly I have to admit that they have been neglected recently.

I started with a die cut circle mask for a moon and used Lavinia's Feather Leaf stencil with Dried Marigold and Mowed Lawn Distress inks. Before removing the mask I used Marigold ink again just around the circle. Next I stamped the large fox from Lavinia's Fox Set 1, Pixie Lanterns and Field Grass. I colored the lanterns using Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. Next I used a torn paper mask for some grassy hills. While looking for a sentiment to use I found this one from a set by Tracy Evans for Aall and Create (Blackbird - retired) and remembered the cute little foxes from a recent Tracy Evans set (Blossoms of Hope) so I stamped that right above the sentiment. I finished off the card with a few black Posca pen splatters and a Sakura clear sparkle pen over the lanterns and around the moon.

I am sharing this card with these challenges:

• Crazy is our fame - STENCILS are our game! - Stencils
• Double Trouble Challenge - at least 3,2,1 Recipe (I used 3+ stamps, 2 colored ink pads, 1 stencil)
• Just Us Girls - Stencils
• Krafty Chicks - Masculine
• Simon Says Stamp - AG
• The Paper Funday - AG
• Try It On Tuesday - Inspired by a song (anyone remember "What does the fox say? "😊)
• We Love Stamping - Summer Blooms
• Word Art Wednesday - AG

As always, thanks so much for stopping by my blog. Hope you're having a wonderful weekend. Supposed to be cloudy over here but we're expecting another heat wave next week!

I Spy With My Little Eye............. Sunflowers or Something Yellow (Challenge No. 40)

Hello everyone and welcome to the new I spy with my little eye challenge, taking place right here on my blog. Pauline and I are back with a new theme and we hope you will come join in the fun! And don't forget to scroll down to see who we selected as our top two, both invited as guest designers in the next challenge.

This time it's my turn (Ellie) to select a theme and it is:

I spy with my little eye...........

Sunflowers or Something yellow

I'm always drawn to the color yellow this time of year and usually sunflowers are in full bloom, so I thought it was a great theme for the challenge. We can't wait to see your wonderful creations. As always, the linky tool is at the end of this post.

My Card (Ellie)

I have several sunflower stamps to choose from but thought it was time for me to ink up the beautiful sunflower by PSX (K025). An oldie that I purchased from eBay many years ago but I think I have only used it once before. This time I stamped with Memento Tuxedo ink on Copic Xpress it paper and colored with my Copic markers as I feel like they are being neglected and sadly some are even drying up 😞

At the bottom part I used a stamp from a retired Tracy Evans for Aall and Create stamp set (Plant Your Dreams), mounted this onto black cardstock and then onto an embossed kraft card. Embossing was done with a folder from Penny Black. A white card base completes the card.

Entering the above card here:

• Beautiful Blossoms - Blossoms
• Can You Handle The Pressure? - Embossing Folders
• FarmQuest General Store Challenge - AG Farm or Country (There are always sunflowers out in the countryside!)
• Inspiration Station - Photo challenge: Sunflower
• The Paper Funday - AG
• Triple B - Blooms, Birds or Butterflies

Pauline's Card

Absolutley stunning! Please visit Pauline's blog to find out how she made this card.

We have no guest designer for this challenge so lets get straight to our Top Picks from the last challenge.

Top Picks from Challenges No. 38

We had some wonderful entries for last month's "Things with Wings" challenge, thank you all so much for sharing your creativity with us! Selecting Top Picks is never easy but we finally managed and here they are in the order of entry:

No. 1 Kathy K. (Pauline's Pick)

No. 17 Diane H. (Ellie's Pick)

Congratulations to both of you on your well deserved recognition! Your Top Pick logo is below.

Remember, you are both invited to join us as guest designers for challenge no. 41 starting Wednesday September 16th. If you would like to be a guest designer please message me (Ellie) at ellibellescorner at gmail dot com so I can give you all the details. Of course this is totally optional as we all are busy in one way or another and it might just not work out for you but we thought it would be something fun to offer the top picks :) I'm always happy to offer an alternative date too, just ask :)

To play along in the new challenge please use the linky tool below.

A few things to remember:

(Complete list of guidelines and copyright info can be found here.)

• You may share up to 5 different projects 
• You may combine with as many other challenges as you like to.
• A short mention of products used whenever possible is expected, especially the focal point.
• New: While you are free to link up your creations using pre-colored digital art (AI generated, digital pre-colored toppers/images, digital papers etc.), they will be excluded from top picks. 
• Please include a link back to this blog.
• Back-linking to a recent project is allowed.
• Linkup closes on Sunday, September 13th at 11:59pm CST

Embossing (Heat or Dry) at Allsorts Challenge

Hello everyone, today is the start of a new theme at Allsorts challenge and Lynne is hosting this time. For her optional theme she chose "Embossing - Heat or Dry" and of course there is always the Anything Goes option too. Our prize is die, embossing folder and layering stencil bundle from Lisa Horton Crafts. As always, the challenge runs for 2 weeks.

I decided to use an embossing folder by The Paper Studio (from Hobby Lobby) in 2 color ways.

After embossing I was just going to ink the raised texture but it wasn't easy to keep the backbround white, so I decided to ink all of it, then use a darker shade of yellow on the flower centers with a small make-up applicator that attaches to your finger (something like this).  I saw a box of these at Marshall's and bought them specifically for the craft room. I flicked some black ink from a Posca pen onto the background. Sentiment is from the Tim Holtz Small Talk Quotations sticker booklet and added the die cut butterfly to finish it off. Inks used here are Distress Squeezed Lemonade and Mustard Seed.

Sharing with these challenges:

• Ally's Angels - AG
• Can You Handle The Pressure? - Embossing Folders
• Classic Design Challenge - AG
• Crafty Gals Corner - Summer Vibes
• Cupcake Inspirations - in the Garden
• Cut It Up - Add a sentiment (plus a die cut)
• Triple B - Blooms, Birds or Butterflies

I made this one before I made the yellow card. I added ink before running it through the big shot machine but then added more later. I flicked some water onto the card for that "bleached" look reaction and glitter to the flower centers. Sentiment is from a Penny Black set and was stamped with Versafine Clair Very Peri ink. I thought this turned out a little darker than I wanted that's why I decided to try again with shades of yellow but thought this one was also nice enough to share :) I'm don't remember exactly which inks I used on this one besides Blueprint Sketch in the flower centers. I somehow ended up with another color on a blending tool too that wasn't supposed to be there.

Sharing this card with these challenges:

• A Perfect Time To Craft - AG
• Beautiful Blossoms - AG with Blossoms
• Crafts Galore Encore - AG
• The Creative Crafters - AG
• Word Power - Words in focus

Thanks so much for visiting. Hope you're having a wonderful weekend! It looks like it'll be another rainy one here. We've had some heavy rain and thunderstorms over here for a few days now. It was needed but too much at once now!
 

PS: Yesterday I shared a non-crafty photography post for Kym's Photo challenge. You can click here if you'd like to see what photo promps we had this time and what I chose for my pictures.