Ellibelle's Garden Party No. 19 - Anything in or from a Garden

Hello everyone and welcome to the September Garden Party taking place right here on my blog. I'm so glad you stopped by and hope you will share something in the linkup too! As always, it's Anything in or from a Garden. This can be crafts of any kind, garden photography, garden tips and advice, garden weddings, tea parties in the garden etc. The only rule is that the crafts/photos have to be your own. 

It's beginning to look a little bit autumnal in the garden so I made a fall themed card for my project. The stamp is Penny Black's wood mounted stamp Chitchat which I believe was my very first PB stamp I ever purchased 😊 I colored with Derwent Inktense water soluble pencils and then added some shading with Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. the patterned papers are from my stash, I think both are from a DCWV Fall paper pack. Sentiment is from a clear stamp set also by Penny Black. I finished off the card with a button and jute twine bow and die cut butterflies using Penny Black's die set Soaring and some glitter on the butterflies' bodies.

Sharing the above card with these challenges:

• Addicted to Stamps and More - Die Cuts or Stencils 
• Craft Rocket Challenges - Dies
• Crafty Animals - Animals
• Creative Moments - Make it cute
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Stamp It
• The Pick 3 Challenge - I chose Insects, Polka Dots and Stamping

There are no special party guests this time so let's get straight to the Top Picks from the last challenge.

Top Picks for Garden Party No. 18

It's never easy to choose but I finally managed and here they are listed in the order of entry:

No. 19 Priya R. 

No. 21 Donna W.

(fun fact, Donna's card inspired me to use the image I used on today's card 😀)

No. 52 Darlene

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 :) Please read the info below if you'd like to join me as a special party guest.

New this year:

I would like to invited each Top Pick to join me as a "Special Party Guest" in the next Garden Party (starting Thursday, October 8th). Please message me at ellibellescorner at gmail dot com if you would like to be a special guest. Of course this is totally optional as I know we all are busy in one way or another, just thought it would be something fun to offer the top picks :)

(Btw. Even if you are a special party guest for the month, you are still invited to share your other garden themed creations in the linky tool during the month!)

Now it's time for your share at the Garden Party No. 19!

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 October 5th at 11:59pm CST
  

Halloween ATC

Earlier this year the official Penny Black shop marked down several of their stamp sets (I think they are being retired)  and this fun Halloween set Spooktacular was one of those. (I just checked and it's marked down to $3.95!!) I'm not usually so much into Halloween but do like some cute stuff whether it's stamps or decorations and I just couldn't resist this CUTE cat!

When I read the new theme at the Tag Along challenge was circles I immedately had this idea in my head. It's not often where something turns out the way I imaged it, but I actually liked it so much that I made a similar card at full size (A2) which I will share at a later time.

I started with a small circle for a moon mask then inked the background using Carved Pumpkin Distress Oxide ink. Some water was splashed onto the background for that fun reaction but it's hard to see. Next I stamped the cat (part of it anyway), removed the mask and stamped the spider. While the stamp set with the cat includes a spider, this particular one is a bit more creepy and it's from a wood mounted Halloween stamp (Creepy Crawly Halloween K4018) also ordered from that Penny Black sale. This one is no longer available through Penny Black. The small dots at the very top and the sentiment are all part of the "spider" stamp. I do not like spider at all but do find them fascinating at the same time. 

I inked the edges with Villainous Potion Distress Oxide ink and ran a black inkpad just along the edge. The sentiment all comes in one line along with that spider (PB K4018) but I cut each word apart to fit onto the ATC. Oh, and I also used a Tim Holz mini tiles stencil on the background for some more interest.

I am entering this ATC here:

• Crafting Happiness Challenges - AG
• Crafts Galore Encore - AG
• Crafty Animals - AG
• Crazy is our fame - STENCILS are our game! - Stencils
• Creative Inspirations Challenge - AG
• Critter Crazy Challenges - AG
• Everybody-Art-Challenge - ATC
• Lost Coast Designs - Black and white plus one (Orange)
• Moving along with the Times - Four Legged Friends
• Penny Black Saturday Challenge - PB Stamps opt. dies (I used a circle die for the mask)
• Simon Says Stamp - Stamps
• Sparkles Forum Challenges - AG
• Tag-Along (and ATC's) - Tags and ATC opt. of Circles
• The Little Things  - AG 
• The Paper Funday - AG
• Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge - Halloween

As always, thanks so much for visiting! Have a wonderful weekend. 

August Card Chain Challenge Reveal Day

It's been quite some time since I last joined in at the Card Chain Challenge but came across their fun optional August themes just a day before the linky tool was closing and immediately had an idea in my mind for the card. So I signed up :) My card went to Tina in Slovenia this time and I was happy to hear that it arrived safely.

As always there were several challenge options to choose such as a sketch, themes, colors, product or a technique. I chose the color options, mice and baking plus the design was inspired by the sketch although it's not an exact match.

Ok, so these mice look  more like they are getting ready to eat these baked treats and not actually bake them 😊 They are from the set Sweet Treats by Colorado Craft Company. Stamped with Memento on Xpress it card and colored with copic markers. One of the little mice has been fussy cut because I wanted to use a smaller circle for it to follow the sketch idea somewhat.

Background paper is old from Tim Holtz (Idea-ology). I added a few die cut flowers and sentiment is also from Tim Holtz (Tiny Text stamp set). The card base is kraft cardstock where I used a polka dot stencil on the front side. Some glitter was added to the flower centers and cake decor. 

I am sharing my card with these challenges:

• Addicted to Stamps and More - Die cuts and/or Stencils (I used both)
• Crafty Animals - Animals
• Creative Moments - Make it Cute
• Critter Crazy Challenges - Critters
• Simon Says Stamp - Stamp It
• Sweet Stampin - Use Die Cuts
• The Paper Funday - AG option

It was a joy to receive some happy mail from Greta in OR. Thank you so much! Love these colors and the flowers are layered so beautifully!

There is still time to sign up for the next Card Chain Challenge where everyone sends and received a physical card. So nice these days when most things in our mail boxes are ads or bills. You can find out all the details here. 

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.