Daisy Chain for Woodblock Wednesday

It's been a few months since I had a chance to join in at the Woodblock Wednesday challenge but I'm happy that it worked out this time 😊

A friend asked me if I could have her 10 year old daughter make a few cards with me for a summer "crafty thing to do" as she really loved the card I had sent for her birthday. So I thought up a design for this card that I hope she will like. This will be one of the cards she will make. And of course the "star tools" will be wood mounted rubber stamps as I think they are much more fun to use for a beginning stamper than unmounted stamps. Especially when they are as cute as the Penny Black critter stamps! She will also do some stenciling and die cutting, and a little bit of coloring. 

I started out with a homemade circles stencil where I had punched several sizes of circles out from an acetate sheet. I used Tea Dye Distress ink for the circles. Then I stamped Penny Black's Daisy Chain 1690K (retired and unfortunately hard to find) onto the circles using Versafine Onyx ink.  I thought the stenciled circles would be a good alternative to coloring up all the little mice (we're doing another card where more coloring is involved and she can always choose to color her mice more). 

The little bit of coloring here was done with Faber Castell Polychromos pencils and I added Stickles glitter to the flower centers. A pretty strip of patterned paper from The Paper Studio by Hobby Lobby was added at the top along with some jute twine. After this was done I thought it would have been nice to add a punched scallop border under the patterened paper but I had already stamped the sentiment and there wasn't any room. She will have to option to add one to her card as I think paper punches are another fun tool to use. 

Some of the links included are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links. As always, this is at no extra cost to you.

For an extra embellishment I added a die cut butterfly from Penny Black's die set Soaring and glitter was added to the center. I only added one butterfly to my card but she will have the option to add more to the card she will make. I used a corner rounder punch (old by Creative Memories) on both the card front and card base. Sentiment is from the clear Penny Black set Friendship, another oldie that I couldn't find a link to. I used Versafine Onyx ink but wish I had gone with a brown instead of black. I will let her choose a sentiment so she doesn't have to go with this one. And maybe she'll stamp hers in brown. 

Challenges I plan to share this card with:

• A Cut Above - Die Cut Challenge Blog - At least one die cut (butterfly die)
• C.R.A.F.T. - Cute
• Crafting Happiness Challenges - AG
• Crafty Animals - Animals
• Krafty Chicks - CAS
• Critter Crazy Challenges - AG
• Cupcake Inspirations - AG
• DL.Art Linky Challenge - AG
• FarmQuest General Store Challenge - Anything Farm or Country Goes (Country Mice)
• Make My Monday - Use a stencil (homemade circles stencil)
• Pearly Sparkles Challenge - This Makes Me Smile (Cute Penny Black Stamps)
• Penny Black Saturday Challenge - PB stamps/ opt. patterned papers
• Send a Smile for Kids - Summer Fun Cards for Kids (I think making daisy chains is a fun summer activity for kids)
• Simply CAS - AG CAS
• Sweet Stampin - Anything But Birthday
• The Paper Funday - AG
• We Love Stamping - Sports and hobbies (I think these mice are enjoying a day crafting with flowers)
• Woodblock Wednesday Challenge - AG with Woodblock Stamps

With Brave Wings She Flies

Hello everyone, it's time for the new Allsorts challenge where I am hosting this time. For my optional theme I chose "Bees, Blooms and Birds". Any or all, and then there is always the Anything Goes option if that works better for you. 

It's a bee themed card from me, always love them but somehow I rarely make them. Maybe I need more bee themed stamps!!

Some of the links included are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links. As always, this is at no extra cost to you.

The focal point is a large bee stamp from the Visible Image set Bee Happy. I stamped with Versafine Onyx ink, colored with my Faber Castell Polychromos pencils, then fussy cut. For the "honeycomb" background I used my Chickenwire stencils (old by TCW) with Squeezed Lemonade and Wild Honey Distress inks. I used a circle die to cut out the honeycomb, inked around the edge with Wild Honey Distress ink then glued onto the Posted die cut by Penny Black. I used foam tape to add the bee to the posted die. Those of you in the UK can find the Posted die set at Buddly Crafts along with many other goodies!

The patterned paper on the background is from my stash and I don't know what brand it is. I think it was included in a package of patterned papers I found at a thrift store some time ago. Sentiment is a sticker quote from Tim Holtz's Small Talk sticker booklet. I used a glue pen to add loose glitter to the bee's wings. It's very shimmery in real life unfortunately my camera didn't capture that very well.

Linking up here:

• Ally's Angels - AG
• Crazy is our fame - STENCILS are our game! - Stencils
• Critter Crazy Challenges - Critters
• Die Cut Divas - AG with a die cut
• FarmQuest General Store Challenge - Anything Farm or Country Goes 
• Make My Monday - Stencils
• Paper Rock Scissors - Papers and/or scissors (I used scissors for fussy cutting and all layers are paper)
• Shopping Our Stash - Summertime
• Simon Says Stamp - Things with Wings
• Sweet Stampin - Anything but birthday
• The Creative Crafters - AG 
• The Paper Funday - AG
• Try It On Tuesday - Flying High
• Word Art Wednesday - AG

Thanks so much for visiting!

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I Spy With My Little Eye..... Something by the Sea (Challenge No. 38)

Hello everyone and welcome! It's time already for 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 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 host and I chose...

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

Something by the Sea!

We can't wait to see what you'll share with us. Remember, this can be any type of craft, as long as we can spy something by the sea you are invited to link up with us. As always, the linky tool is at the end of this post.

And here is what we made for this challenge:

Ellie

(All info is right below the card.)

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!

Some time ago I mentioned that I purchased several packs of Stamperia papers and for today's card I cut into the beautiful Silent Sea paper pack. I have the 8x8 inch pack but it also comes in a larger 12x12 size. As usual with these beautiful papers I have a really hard time cutting into them, so I am using a simple sketch. I added a die cut anchor (old die by Whimsy Stamps) and layered that onto a piece of craft gauze. I also decided to add some stitches around the edges and tied jute twine around the card and onto the anchor. The sentiment is one from Tim Holtz's Small Talk sticker quotations booklet.

I plan to share the above card here:

Alphabet Challenge - D for Double (2 boats)  // Crafty Calendar -for Boys or Men // DL.Art Linky Challenge - AG // Dragonfly Dreams - Masculine // Love Those Pretty Papers Challenge - Pretty Papers // Paper Rock Scissors - Papers and scissors (all layers are paper and I used scissors for distressing and cutting twine/gauze) // Shopping Our Stash - Summertime (my old stash is the anchor die, twine and gauze)

Pauline

Such an amazing scene by Pauline. Please visit her blog to find out how she made this card.

We are so excited to have a guest designer joining us this month and that is Silke of Silke's Kartenkram. So happy you joined us for this month! 

Silke

Totally adorable! Please visit her blog to find out how she made this card.

Top Picks from Challenges 37

We had some wonderful entries for last month's monochrome 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.10 Alice K. (Ellie's Pick)

No. 12 Maria (Pauline'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. 39 starting Wednesday July 15th. 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 :)

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, July 12th at 11:59pm CST

Artist Trading Card Duo

When I recently made this card I had the luck of messing up my first try. Before throwing it away I decided to see if I could save parts of it and create an ATC, and I ended up making 2 ATCs 😊

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!

Here I used the "smooshing" technique for the background with Distress inks/oxides then stamped Lavinia's Moon stamp using Twilight Versafine Clair ink. I did not like how the moon stood out on the original card I tried making, and also wasn't a fan of the inky background. But I think it works much better for a miniature project like an ATC instead of a greeting card size. On the background I also used the sentiment Magic Surrounds Us. Cats are Witches Cat on the right side and Luka on the left. Texture 2 stamp was used on the corners and edges, and then I added Lavinia's Miniature Stars using Twilight Versafine ink to match the moon and texture stamp. I used white brilliance ink to lighten up the moon just a little bit. These stamps are all by Lavinia.

A closeup of ATC #1 

I am entering the one above here:

• Crafty Catz - AG
• Lavinia Challenge - Midsummer Moon
• Tag-Along (and ATC's) - option Text
• The Little Things - AG
• The Paper Funday - AG
• We Love Stamping - AG

ATC #2

I finally purchased a binder for my ATCs. I found this cute one on Amazon :)

Enough for 4 cards per page and it does come in a two other options but I loved this "Sakura Cat" style, of course :)

Have a wonderful weekend and thanks so much for visiting!