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

Dec 9, 2023

"B" is for.......................

Hello and welcome! It's Saturday again and that means it's the start of a new challenge at Allsorts. Brenda is hosting this week and her challenge is "I spy something beginning with "B". It's an optional theme so if you haven't included any "B"s on your card you are still invited to join us with a new crafty creation for your chance to win or to be selected as a Top 5. Prizes are from Aldridge Crafts, Stampendous, AALL and Create, these are for challenge 758 and 759.

Always love this theme as there are so many things that would be suitable and I decided on B for Bird on a Branch, Blue and Black. 

I used some new to me stamps from Aall and Create to make this simple card. I first stamped the bird (from the set Robin and Nuthatch), then masked the edges off with washi tape, then I added the watered down Distress ink (Faded Jeans) around the bird using a piece of acetate. The clocks are from the All and Create set Clocks and Flowers. (By the way, both of these sets are still available and part of their super discounts along with many other stamps!!) I wanted to ink around the inner edges before removing the washi tape but somehow I forgot about doing it until the card was finished... I think it would have given the edges a little more definition. 


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The sentiment is part of the Clocks and Flowers set. 

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 link up with these challenges:


Today (Saturday December 9th) is the last day to sign up to take part in the Papercrafters' Year in Review hop. The linky tool will close at 11:59 pm CST. If you would like to join a few other crafts in sharing your favorites of 2023 with a blog hop please read this post where you can find all the info.Would LOVE for you to join in!!



Dec 6, 2023

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday - December Challenge

Hello and welcome to Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday - December challenge taking place right here on my blog! I'm so glad you stopped by today and hope you'll join in the fun too! There were lots of wonderful entries last month, many thanks to everyone who joined! My top picks with a twist are at the end of this post.

{Also, as a reminder, if you were thinking about taking part in this year's Papercrafters' Year in Review hop (on December 29th), only a few more days remain to sign up. All that info can be found in this post.}


I'm sure most of you know by now, the theme is now always............

Anything Goes

and instead of a challenge theme there will be a top pick twist, meaning the top picks will each have something in common. But nobody knows what the twist will be (not even me) and will be inspired by YOUR creations. So do link up all your new or recently created crafty makes (any type of craft) for your chance to have your project featured next month! The linky tool is at the end of the post.

Here is what I made:
I recently got the new Lavinia Large Snowflake set in the mail and so I used one snowflake as the focal point.

I started out by using Lavinia's Feather Leaf stencil with a circle mask in place to ink up the background with Wilted Violet Distress Oxide ink. Inside the circle I stamped Lavinia's Winter Magic sentiment using a regular die ink in a coordinating color (second generation stamping). Then I used the the same Distress Oxide ink to stamp the new Lavinia snowflake in the center, which I sprinkled with ultra fine clear embossing powder and heat embossed. 


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The sentiment is an oldie from Stampin Up, love this simple font! It has also been heat embossed using the same Oxide ink. I wanted to add something with stripes to the card so I used my Classy Stripes stencil on a white paper scrap once again with the same ink. I added a crystal glimmer enamel dot from Honeybee Stamps in the center of the snowflake and, hard to see, but used a clear Sakura Stardust glitter gel pen on the dots which are part of the Lavinia sentiment.

I also made the this card using Blueprint Sketch and Salvaged Patina Distress Oxide inks.

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!


Linking up the purple snowflake card with these challenges:

November Top Picks with a Twist:

Many thanks to everyone who joined in last month. There were so many fabulous entries and as always it's not easy to select a theme but I do enjoy that part of the challenge and the Top Pick twist from the November entries is....Three of Something.

And here are my Top Picks with a Twist each one featuring "Three of Something" posted in the order of entry:



No. 17 Melanie H.
3 Turkeys


No. 51 JanR
3 Stars

No. 52 Chrissy
3 Christmas Trees and 3 Reindeer


Congratulations everyone! Well deserved recongnition! Your top pick logo is below, you may place it on 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 Sunday December 31st to play along!


A few things to remember:
  • You may combine with any other challenges.
  • You may use any brand of stamps/digis/products (no company restriction).
  • Please try to limit your linked up cards to 3 entries per month - it's ok if you end up with more than 3.
  • Please do include a link back here to my blog in your blog post.
  • Backlinking to a recent post IS allowed.
  • Digital products are allowed and very welcome but the final piece has to be a physical handmade creation, not just digital

Dec 2, 2023

Christmas Pinecone and a Bunny in the Snow

It's Saturday already and that means a new challenge starts today at Allsorts and it's also time for the reveal at the Card Chain challenge so I have two project to share today :)

First up, at Allsorts it's Liz' turn to host and she selected the fun theme of "Stitching - Real or Faux" and of course the theme is optional so all your new creations are welcome.  A wonderful bundle from  AALL and Create is our prize which will be split between challenges 756 and 757 so hope you can join us for your chance to win! 


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 beautiful pinecone stamp is from my most recent Aall and Create order from the set Pinecone. I placed 4 orders with them in total within the last 3 months, just couldn't resist the fabulous sale prices and lucky for me I did not have to pay any custom fees for any of my orders. The inky background was found in my box of previously inked card stock where I used Distress Oxide ink, not sure anymore what color. I stamped the image on the inked piece then colored with Ground Espresso Oxide ink and a Faber Castell Polychromo pencil for the pine needles.

On the top portion I used part of the Penny Black background stamp Christmas Story. And a bit of it was stamped on red card stock for some added interest. I really wanted to use some of this gingham ribbon but thought it was all gone, then found a small piece of it on the bottom of my ribbon stash so I tied some jute twine around it and added with a mini glue dot. Really love this ribbon combined with twine. Some glitter on the pinecone for a little sparkle and I used my Wonky Stitches die to add a stitched design.


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I'm entering this card with the following challenges:


The next card I made for the November Card Chain Challenge where today we are revealing the cards sent in November.  My card went to Bonnie in Colorado this time and I was happy to hear that she liked it. 


As always there are several challenge options to choose from - a sketch, color combo, themes, techniques. We only have to choose one and this time I selected the theme of "winter" which was one of the options because I really wanted to use this new (to me) stamp from Colorado Craft Company - Sled Bunny. I combined it with the beautiful trees which were part of the Aall and Create set WoodlandI added Penny Black's Berries die and then the sentiment which is part of the Aall and Create stamp set. 



I am sharing the above card with these challenges:


Below is the beautiful card I received from Julia in MA, doesn't this pie look absolutely delicious!! Thank you, Julia for this wonderful card!!!


PS: If you've been thinking about taking part in this year's Papercrafters Year in Review hop, there are only a few more days left to sign up for this hop which takes place at the end of December. Please visit this post for all the details! Would LOVE for you to join in!! 

Dec 1, 2023

Four Seasons December Challenge - Christmas Blessing

Hello and welcome! 

So hard to believe it's December!! I'm not sure where the time went and I wish it would slow down a little bit! We already had our first snow of the season then some below freezing temperature but thankfully it's been warming up a bit since yesterday. As much as I love a beautiful winter scene, I am just not a fan of winter weather anymore, especially when it comes to the unpredictable road conditions!!  

A new month means a new challenge at the Four Seasons challenge blog and we are also switching seasons as it's time for WINTER for the next 3 months. So we would like to see all your winter themed creations of course that includes winter holidays. As always there is a wonderful mood board to inspire you but it is completely optional.

Here is what I created:

And here is our December mood board:

My inspiration came from the bottom right image, the icy holly berries. I used this as an opportunity to ink up the beautiful Penny Black stamp Holly Berry Birds. This is a large stamp so instead of using the full stamp, I first stamped the end of it on the top left then the part with the birds on the bottom. I colored with distress inks, the background was also watercolored using only Chipped Sapphire Distress ink, I love the variation of colors this ink gives when diluted. 


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I created a snowy background with a white Posca pen then added the die cut Snowflakes (Dancing Snowflakes dies by Penny Black). The sentiment is from the Penny Black Christmas sentiment set Festive Cheer.


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 blogs:

PS: If you've been thinking about taking part in this year's Papercrafters Year in Review hop, there are only a few more days left to sign up for this hop which takes place at the end of December. Please visit this post for all the details! Would LOVE for you to join in!! 


Nov 26, 2023

Papercrafters Year in Review Hop - Who Wants to Join In??

Hello everyone, as I haven't done a "proper" post for this year's Papercrafters Year in Review sign up post (and instead had just included it with other posts), I thought I better prepare one before it's too late! We already have a few who signed up to take part but there is still room for a few more and still a bit of time so here is all the info you need:


Details:

  • Create a blog post featuring YOUR OWN favorite creations of 2023 to be scheduled on your blogs for Friday December 29th 6am CST (12 noon UK time)
  • I will provide the html code for the linky tool to each person signing up as a co-host. It would be great if you included this in your post on your own blogs but not neccessary as long as you post a list of each participant.
  • Your blog followers are welcome to link up their own favorites during that time period should they decided to create their own "year in review" posts. The linky tool will be open for one week.
  • You must have a blog to participate.
  • This will be a blog hop, so please plan on visiting and commenting on each participant's "Year in Review 2023" post when time allows during hop week.
  • This sign up is for any paper crafter with a blog. You don't have to have a papercraft only blog - as long as you have some favorite handmade cards or other papercrafts to share in your review post you are welcome to sign up. 
  • Optional: You are welcome to offer a small prize to a winner selected from those who commented on your post (including other co-hosts) but that is totally up to you and it is absolutely not needed or expected to offer a prize in order to be a co-host. 
  • The blog hop will run for one week (December 29th - January 4th)
  • To get an idea of how it works you can click here to see last year's hop.
  • As always, you may select any amount of favorites to share, this can be a top 10 or top 5 (etc.), maybe you are extremely proud of one of your creations you'd like ot highlight, or you can select a favorite of each month which is what I usually do to make the selection easier :)

I will close the sign-up linky tool on December 9th (may close sooner if enough sign up before that date), then I will message everyone with the hop list by December 15th so everyone will have plenty of time to prepare their posts even before Christmas should you want to work ahead on it. 


Nov 25, 2023

Winter Trees

Hello and welcome! Time for a new theme already at Allsorts challenge and it's Sarah's week to host. As winter is just around the corner (definitely already feels like winter over here!!!) she would like to see "Colors of Winter" which is optional so all your new crafty makes are welcome for a chance to win one of our great prizes or to be selected in her top 5. We have a great assortment of prizes for the next two weeks, by AALL and Create who by the way still have some fantastic discounts, many 50% off or more. So if you haven't taken advantage of their fabulous sale yet, don't miss your chance! 


For my card today I went with a simple winter scene using the Penny Black stamp Gorgeous Grove.


I used a mask made of torn copy paper and a circle for the moon then inked the sky with Chipped Sapphire Distress ink. The trees were stamped with Gathered Twigs Distress Oxide ink. A white Posca pen was used to flick some "snowflakes" onto the background and then I added the die cut snowflakes which were done using Penny Black's Dancing Snowflakes dies. On the sentiment portion I used Lawn Fawn's stitched border die. Sentiment is an oldie from Stampin Up. 

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Another view:

The tiny sentiment inside the moon is from the Penny Black set Holiday Snippets.

I plan to share with these challenges:



PS: Still some time to sign up for the Papercrafters Year in Review 2023 hop where we share our favorite creations of the year. If interested, please visit this post where I shared all the info about it at the end of that post. 


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!

Nov 18, 2023

Christmas Elf

Hello and welcome! It's Saturday meaning a new challenge starts today at Allsorts and Lorraine (Lolo) is hosting this week. Her theme, which is optional is Christmas Time, so if you haven't started yet with your Christmas cards then this is your chance! Almost time to send them off!! Of course the Anything Goes option is there too, so hopefully we'll see you joining us this week! Prizes for the November challenges come from Stampendous and Oakwood Direct and WOWVOW and winners will be announced on the last Friday of the month.

Here is what I made with an image inspired by a couple of other Christmas challenge I found.

This cute image is a Penny Black stamp (Little Elf Present) illustrated by Mo Manning. It was part of a mixed lot I purchased from the resale site Mercari earlier this year and my first time using. I was inspired by the Christmas Craft Creations challenge where the theme is Hats and I thought this image was a perfect choice. I'm not sure why this stamp seems to be so rare... I did find one listing of it on eBay and another on Mercari, and Mo Manning should have it in digi version for those who prefer that.

At the current Christmas Kickstart challenge the theme is Christmas, but not as we know it, which inspired the non-traditional colors. The skirt and hat were paper pieced from some patterned paper scraps, the rest of the elf colored with Copic markers. I was really hoping to find a bigger piece of the same patterned paper to mount the image panel on but could not find any more of it in my stash, so I chose some polka dotted paper instead. I embellished with some small punched circles and Stickles glitter.

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For sentiments I chose a larger verse from the Penny Black set Season's Gifts and "Happy Holidays" is from a Stampin Up set I found at a thrift store.

Below are the challenges I plan to link up with (this list includes the two I mentioned above):

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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!