May 21, 2025

I Spy With My Little Eye..... At Least One Butterfly (Challenge No. 26)

Hello everyone and welcome to the 26th edition of "I spy with my little eye" challenge hosted right here on my blog! Pauline and I are back with a new theme for you and hope you'll join in the fun too! We  had some great entries last month, thank you all so much!! Be sure to scroll down to see who the top picks were, both invited to join us in the next challenge.


This month it was my turn to select a theme and I chose............

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

at least one butterfly.

As always, you are welcome to share anything handmade as long a it follows the theme. We can't wait to see what you'll share with us!


And here is what we made for your inspiration:

Ellie (my card)

(All details and a mini tutorial are right below the card.)

This post may include 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 supporting this blog!

I'm sure I mentioned somewhere before that I am decluttering (once again!!) and came across a pretty collection of napkins sent to me by the dear Mia and I also picked up a couple from my sister. I've long admired projects made with napkins and tried it before using them with glue but it was a messy project and didn't turn out in a way for me to share. So they just sat unused in a drawer. As they "fell into my hands" while decluttering, I decided to give it another try and this time I found another way to use without the messy glue but with a hot iron, clear plastic wrap (such as saran or other cling wrap) and parchment paper instead. I couldn't believe how easy and mess-free this was!! Needless to say, my collection of napkins will be staying in my craft room :)

How to use a napkin as an Iron-On for paper:

  • Step 1: Place a piece of Parchment paper on an ironing mat (or ironing board).
  • Step 2: Place a piece of cardstock on the Parchment paper (I think wax paper works too).
  • Step 3: Place a piece of clear plastic wrap (such as Saran wrap or Glad cling wrap) over the cardstock making sure it is laying smoothly on the cardstock.
  • Step 4: Place the printed single layer of your napkin over the clear wrap print side up.
  • Step 5: Place another piece of Parchment paper over the napkin, making sure all your layers are covered, especially the clear wrap so it doesn't melt onto your hot iron.
  • Step 6: Use your hot iron (highest stetting) to iron over the parchment paper until the napkin is attached onto the paper. Doesn't take too long but you do need to go over it a few times. 
After this was done I simply added the Butterfly (Penny Black Soft Wings) which I stamped with Versafine Onyx ink and colored with Inktense pencils, then fussy cut. The sentiment is from Penny Black set Snippets, stamped directly onto the "napkin" paper. I also used a script stamp (old from Whimsy Stamps) on the background for more interest. Matted onto black cardstock and then a matching card base. 

I plan to share the above card with these challenges:




Isn't this just beautiful with this wonderful monochromatic color scheme! Please visit Pauline's blog to find out how she made this card.


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We are so excited to have not one but two guest designers this time around. Thank you Silke and Helen for joining us for this challenge!

So beautiful in shades of turquoise- blue! Please visit Silke's blog to find out how she made this card!



Such wonderful gold embossing and gorgeous colorful butterflies! Please visit Helen's blog to find out how she made this card.


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Top Picks from Challenge No. 25

Thank you all again for joining us in  the last challenge, it was so great to see so many wonderful things following our "April Showers or May Flowers" theme! Selecting top picks is never easy but we finally managed and here they are listed in the order of entry:


No. 1 Carol G. (Ellie's Pick)


No. 14 Jackie C. (Pauline's Pick)


Congratulations to both of you!!

Remember, Top Picks are invited to join us in the next challenge if you like to. That would be for challenge no. 27, starting Wednesday June 18th. Of course it's not a requirement but we would love to have you both as guests!!  
If you are interested in taking part, please message me (Ellie) at ellibellescorner at gmail dot com so I can give you all the details for our upcoming theme.

Below is your top pick logo, you may place it on your own blogs if you like to :)


To play along in the current 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 May 18th at 11:59pm CST



Use Code MAY to take 11% off your entire order! 


May 10, 2025

A Floral Artist Trading Card

Today is the start of a new challenge at Allsorts and it's Lynne's turn to host. She chose "paper piecing" for her optional theme and of course the "anything goes" option is there too if you prefer. Our prize for this challenge is a £25 store voucher from Personal Impressions. You have two weeks to join us.

To switch it up a bit I decided to make an ATC instead of a traditional card for today's challenge. I've only made one ATC before and it's been years ago. It was fun to make but I won't be joining any ATC swaps anytime soon as I really don't like duplicating my projects. Luckily there are no rules and I can just keep it for myself and hopefully add more to my personal collection :)  

This post may include 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 supporting this blog!

The flower is part of a large stamp by Aall and Create (In the Wild - Retired). It was stamped on a handmade background using a previously inked paper and some other parts of the same stamp. After fussy cutting, I decided it was a little too pale so I inked the edges using a darker purple ink - Villainous Potion. For the background I used a Gelli Arts gel plate. I used Wilted Violet and Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide inks which I applied to the gel plate using a brayer. Next I pressed a Tim Holtz stencil onto the plate before taking the print. And as this ATC was made when I worked on re-organizing and decluttering my craft room I found my jar of texture paste, not used in some years but still perfectly fine so I decided this little ATC would be a good background for some mixed media. I used my Circle Explosion stencil with the texture paste. 


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I thought a little more was needed so I stamped the numbers from the same Aall and Create set Wild and Free on the top left and used a stamp from the Aall and Create set Follow Your Own Path on the bottom right. For whatever reason I ended up with a smudge on the bottom left and another craft item I found while decluttering came to the rescue, Tim Holtz' Botanical collage paper. I had purchased this several years ago but never used it before. The script on the bottom left and top right are part of this collage paper. I love that it's almost translucent and mainly just shows off the black print. I definitely want to use more of this paper. It has such beautiful botanical prints on it along with some vintage text. To finish it off I used a white Posca pen to flick some ink onto the card and added the word Nature stamped on a scrap piece of paper. 




In two weeks we are celebrating Allsorts' 16th birthday and we will have some special prizes for the occasion. Hope you will join us then too and we would love it if you shared our logo on your own blogs to help us spread the word.


I plan to share with these challenges:


Thanks so much for visiting and hope you're having a wonderful weekend. Lots of sunshine in our forecast which makes me happy.


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May 8, 2025

Ellibelle's Garden Party No. 3 - Anything in or from a Garden

Hello everyone and welcome to my 3rd Garden Party taking place right here on my blog! I'm so glad you are here and do hope you will bring something along to share this month too. Remember, anything in or from a garden goes, this can be any type of craft, photography (from a garden), garden tips, garden weddings, etc. As always the linkup is at the end of the post. And don't forget to check out who made the top picks from the last party. 

Here is my garden themed project featuring some beautiful daises recently released by Penny Black.

This post may include 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 supporting this blog!

This is Penny Black's newest Flower of the Month, Dainty Daisies along with the matching die set. With each flower of the month release there is also a "flower holder" and this time it was this flower pitcher set called Hand Picked and matching die

The embossing was done with the Mini Brickwork 3D embossing folder by Tim Holtz. I've had this folder for a little while now but this is my first time using it. Along the sides I used the border stamp included in the Dainty Daisies stamp set. Green cardstock from Stampin Up was used for the card base. On the pitcher I used 2 other stamps included in that same set Hand Picked. To complete the card I added stickles glitter to the flower centers. 


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I plan to share with these challenges (lots of flower challengens at the moment so I found many to combine :)


I couldn't resist photographing this pretty dandelion puff from my garden. We don't use weed killer as we have cats and they do roam around in the garden when the weather allows, besides that I just love dandelion. I love the quote "Some see a weed, some see a wish". Do you see a weed or a wish? Ok, they do annoy me (along with all the other weeds) in my vegetable garden so it just depends where they are. 


Top Picks for Garden Party No. 2


As expected, it was extremely hard to select the top picks. There were so many beautiful things shared and thank you all for taking part at the Garden Party. I did finally narrow it down and here they are listed in the order of entry:

No. 9 Helen F.

So pretty and elegant with the gold embossing!

No. 10 Papierelle

A gorgeous design reminding me of flowers painted on a chalkboard.

No. 16 Rosi

Simply beautiful! My few Lily of the Valleys (spread from the neighbour's into my garden) will be blooming soon!


Congratulations to each one of you on your well deserved recognition! Your top pick logo is below, you may post this on your own blogs if you like to.


To stay in compliance with GDPR links will be removed at the start of each new party.


Now it's time for the 3rd 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 June 9th at 11:59pm CST

If you like this post then I invite you to subscribe to receive post updates sent directly into your inbox. Simply add your email address below to be added to the list. 

May 7, 2025

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday - May Challenge

Hello and welcome to the May edition of Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday challenge, taking place right here on my blog. I'm so glad you stopped by and hope you will join in this month too. There were lots of great entries in April. Be sure to scroll down to see if you are one of the "Top Picks" and may have inspired the top pick twist.

In case you missed it... I have a new email subscription option. If you would like to stay up-to-date when something new is posted here, simply enter your email address below and click subscribe. 

If you have been previously subscribed to my old email subscription, please re-subscribe if you would like to continue receiving my email updates as I am phasing that out soon. 


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 linky tool is at the end of this post.

Here is what I came up with this month.


I started with a handmade circle mask (the negative) and inked with Wilted Violet, Twisted Citron and Rustic Wilderness on Bristol Vellum paper, then spritzed with water for that fun reaction to create the white blodges. I stamped the flowers from Tracy Evans Boutique Designs Flower Power directly on the card and also on a previously made inky background which I then fussy cut. For the background I used stamps from my stash (Aall and Create Wild and Free, Aall and Create Musical Gears and SU French Script - all retired). As I had the Circle Explosion stencil out from another project I decided to use it as well. Sentiment is a quote from Tim Holtz Small Talk sticker sentiment book. I inked and distressed the edges before adding to the card base. Oh, and the small bird is from Tracy Evans Shadowed Elements stamp. Btw. Tracy Evans stamps are available directly at her shop in the UK or Simon Says Stamp and Topflight Stamps in the USA.


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Another view below. 


This post may include 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 supporting this blog!


I plan to share with these challenges:



April Top Picks with a Twist:


Now it's time to announce the Top Picks with a twist from the April entries. Thank you all again for joining in the fun, I really enjoyed visiting your entries and selecting a "twist". This time the twist is.... Things with Wings

And here they are listed in the order of entry:


No. 23 Elizabeth H.


No. 49 Lia


Congratulations to each one of you for your well deserved recognition. The 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 the last Wednesday of May to join in (May 28th 11:59pm CST). 



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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 images 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.



May 1, 2025

Get Well Wishes

Hello everyone, happy first day of May!! A new month means it's the start of a new Four Seasons challenge where we are currently celebrating the wonderful Spring season, meaning Anything Spring Goes. But we do have a great mood board for your inspiration, completely optional to use. 


And here is what I made, of course I let the mood board inspire me. After all, the mood boards are a big part of why I love being part of the Four Seasons design team :)



I used some oldies on this card, 2 of them never used before (the flowers and sentiment), and I am so glad I did as I do love how this turned out. 

This little duck is part of the Penny Black set Buddy & Duck,  I did use this set before but it's been a while. The flowers are a small stamp from a set by Flourishes (From the Garden - retired) stamped four times along the bottom. I used Xpress It blending card and colored with Copic markers. I found the Stampin Up set Curvy Verses at a thrift store over a year or two ago and although I tried  using it before, the style of it just never seemed to work out but I think it's perfect for this card. Maybe because I stamped the Petunias in a curvy way... The little duck seems to be a little bit under the weather so I chose the Get Well verse from the set. 


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I used a MFT cloud stencil and Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink for the clouds and added a tiny butterfly (Soaring by Penny Black) with a white enamel dot for a little embellishment. It's hard to see but I also applied some Stickles glitter to the flower centers.


This post may include 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 supporting this blog!

Thanks so much for visiting and I hope I inspired you to ink up some never before used oldies too. 



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Use Code NSD25 to take an extra 10% off your order (ends Friday May 2nd)



I plan to share my card with these challenges:


Newsworthy:

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Apr 26, 2025

Blackbird

Today is the start of a new theme at Allsorts challenge. It's Sarah's turn to host and her optional theme for the next two weeks is: Inspired by a Song. As always there is the Anything Goes option if this theme isn't for you. We have prizes from In2Craft

Well, I struggled with this challenge more than I should have. I had several song ideas in my head but I couldn't decide on one, so overthinking took over until I finally settled on "Blackbird" by the Beatles. 
And here is my card:



I used a stamp set from Aall and Create with the same name (Blackbird). It has been retired but may still be available from a few retailers such as Frantic Stamper in the US. I started by first stamping the large bird using Versafine Onyx ink. Then I used a Lavinia stencil on the background with Twisted Citron Distress Oxide ink. I wanted to stick with just green and black so I used Mowed Lawn Distress ink with the star stamp. Wording and small blackbirds were stamped with the same black ink. As you may have guessed I messed up stamping the birds on the top left and in order to save the card I had to come up with a way to do that so I stamped them again on a snippet of cardstock which I then tore along the edges. This step led me to distress the cardfront as well. Before adhering to the card base I inked the edges with Mowed Lawn ink. 


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This post may include 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 supporting this blog!




I plan to share with these challenges:

Thanks so much for visiting and hope you're having a good weekend. I will be working a bit more in my garden. I started weeding and clearing out my small vegetable garden patch but I am not even sure if I will plant any veggies this year. I've not had much luck in the recent years so I may just throw some Zinnia seeds in that spot and hope for lots of butterflies instead. And I need to figure out what is wrong with my raspberry bushes. Most of the canes that are supposed to carry fruit this year seem to have split at the bottom and are dead. So frustrating! I definitely don't have a green thumb :(

Apr 16, 2025

I Spy With My Little Eye................ April Showers and/or May Flowers (Challenge No. 25)

Hello 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'll join in the fun too! We had lots of fabulous entries last month so be sure to scroll down to see if you are in the Top 2, both invited to join us as Guest Designers in May if wanted :)

It's Pauline's turn to select a theme this time and it is:

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

April Showers and/or May Flowers.


Lots of great options whether you choose showers or flowers or maybe both! We can't wait to see what you'll share with us. As always, the linky tool is at the end of this post.

My Card (Ellie)
All details are right below the card.

This post may include 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 supporting this blog!


For my card I decided to use the newly released Penny Black set Hydrangreas along with the matching die for a CAS-ish card. I also used the previously released (but new to me) Posted set along with the Posted die set. I colored the flower using Zig Clean Color markers. The background was embossed with Penny Black's embossing folder Texture. I inked the edges on both the embossed piece as well as the postage die cut and stamped the hydrangea directly on to the postage die cut using Tumbled Glass ink for a little bit of interest on the background. I finished off by adding stickles glitter to the center of each blossom but it isn't showing up well. The sentiment is from MFT itty bitty basics.

I plan to share my card with these challenges:


Pauline's Card

So beautifully created with a great mix of stamps! Please visit Pauline's blog to find out how she made this card.


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We're excited to have two guest designers joining us this month, that is Carrianne and Lia. Thank you both for being our guests!!


Carrianne's Card

Such a fun and cheerful garden scene! Please visit Carrianne's blog to find out how she made this card.


Lia's Card

Isn't this most adorable and beautifully created! Please visit Lia's blog to find out how she made this card.



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Top Picks for Challenge no. 24

Many thanks to everyone who joined us in the last challenge of "The Dawn of Spring".  It was great to see so many of you joining us! Selecting Top Picks is never easy but we finally managed and here they are: 

No. 14 Silke



No. 26 Helen





Congratulations to both of you!!

Remember, Top Picks are invited to join us in the next challenge if you like to. That would be for challenge no. 26, starting Wednesday May 21st . Of course it's not a requirement but we would love to have you both as guests!!  
If you are interested in taking part, please message me (Ellie) at ellibellescorner at gmail dot com so I can give you all the details for our upcoming theme.

Below is your top pick logo, you may place it on your own blogs if you like to :)





To play along in the current 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 May 18th at 11:59pm CST

Pinned Post


Please click HERE to join in "Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday" challenge.


Please click HERE to join in "I Spy With My Little Eye" challenge.


Please click HERE to join in "Ellibelle's Garden Party" challenge.