I Spy With My Little Eye.............Something Festive for Christmas (Challenge No. 32)

Hello everyone and welcome to a 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 join us too! And don't forget to check below to see who made our top 2, both invited to join us as guest designers in a future challenge. 

It's my turn to select a theme and fitting for the upcoming festive season I chose...........

I Spy with my little eye.....

Something Festive for Christmas.

This can be anything suitable for Christmas: cards, tags, scrapbook pages, home decor pieces, gifts, etc. You can choose how festive you want to go, it could be just a bit or full of festivities. Pauline and I both thought of mice in a festive forest setting as you will see below. Totally unplanned :)

My Card:

(Details are right below the card)

I recently received an order from Lavinia stamps (could not resist those cute mice!!!) and decided to make a festive outdoor scene featuring this cute little mouse Pipspell looking up in wonder at the sparkly Christmas tree (Fairy Fir Tree). I made some snowbanks and hills using a homemade mask out of torn paper and stamped a pine branch from Lavinia's set Starpine. The golden berries are from the Berry Wreath set and the tiny mushroom cottages are Lavinia's Small Shroom stamps. I added  stickles glitter for sparkles. As with all the other stamps, the winter sentiment at the bottom of the card is also by Lavinia - Seasons Change. 

I plan to share the above card here:

• A Place To Start - Something New (New Stamps)
• Aud Sentiments Blog Challenge  - Glitter, Christmas and a Sentiment
• Double Trouble Challenge - Recipe: at least 3 colors (yellow black, blue), at least 2 stamps and 1 slimline card
• Girlz Creative Christmas Challenge - Christmas Tree

Pauline's Card:

To find out how Pauline made this card please visit her blog. 

Top Picks from Challenge No. 31

Thank you all again for joining us in the last challenge where we were looking for something spooky. There were such fun spooky makes shared, thank you all for joining us. It's never easy to narrow it down but we finally managed and here are our Top Picks, both invited to join us in the next challenge.

No. 8 Helen (Pauline's Pick)

No. 20 CarolG (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 for the January challenge starting January 21st. 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 not a requirement but would love to have you joining us if you like to :)

Just a heads up: Next month we are taking a break from the traditional challenge but instead there will be a "I spy with my little eye........A Crafty Year in Review/Favorites of 2025" post with a linky tool where everyone will be able to link up their own "year in review post :)

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, December 14th at 11:59pm CST

Ellibelle's Garden Party No. 9 - Anything in (or from) a Garden

Hello everyone and welcome to the new Garden Party taking place right here on my blog. When I started the Garden Party I thought about taking a break during the non-gardening months but there is always beauty in the gardens no matter the season so I am continuing over late fall and winter. 

As always, you may share anything in or from a garden. This can be crafts of any kind, garden photography or garden tips, weddings and tea parties taking place the garden... So many options!!

And here is what I'm sharing:

I couldn't resist this new stamp set from Tracy Evans TE055 Berries and I thought it would be perfect to use for a "late season" garden card. I went with a CAS design. I created a mask using the negative of a deckle die cut and inked the inside using Stampin Up's Cookie Crumble ink. I stamped the branch from the set in the top left corner and then used the bunnies along with the notebook edge at the bottom. Both along with the sentiment are part of the same set. A little bit of Stickles Crystal glitter on the berries finish off the card and I used Kraft paper from Michaels (110lb) for the card base. 

I thought the card was a little bit too CAS so I decided to use a simple stencil (Tim Holtz) on the background for more interest.

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 enter the above card here:

• Ally's Angels - AG
• A Place To Start - Something New (new stamp set)
• Aud Sentiments Blog Challenge - Glitter and a Sentiment
• Crafty Animals - Animals
• Crazy is our fame - STENCILS are our game! - Stencils
• Creative Inspirations Challenge - AG
• DL.ART Thankful Thursday - AG
• FarmQuest General Store Challenge - Anything Farm/Country Goes
• Simply Clean and Simple - AG CAS
• We Love Stamping - AG

I couple of days ago I was so lucky to have found out about the possibilty of Northern Lights in my area and was treated to this beautiful sky. This was taken at the edge of town just around 9:30 pm. My first time seeing them and it was well worth the few minutes drive to the edge of town (they are hard to see inside the city due to city lights). They were visible in much of the US midwest and I've  heard even in Texas and northern Florida. I hope some of you got to see them too!!

Top Picks for Garden Party No. 7

Let's take a look at my Top 3 from the last Garden Party. As always, there were lots of beautiful things shared and it's always so hard to narrow it down but here they are in the order of entry:

No. 2 Linby

No. 10 Fiona

No. 17 Brenda

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 :)

Now it's time for the 9th Garden Party to start!

Simply link a new or recently shared post (featuring something in or from a garden) using the linky tool below. To make it even more fun and maybe meet a new blogging friend I invite you to visit another entrant's blog post and leave them some love. This is just a suggestion and in no way do you have to :)

Below are the main guidelines at a glance:

• Your entry must feature something in or from a garden.
• You may combine with any other challenges/link parties.
• Please leave a link back to this blog.
• Up to 5 entries per blogger please.
• Backlinking to a recent post is allowed.
• The party ends on Monday December 8th at 11:59pm CST