I Spy With My Little Eye..........Something Monochrome (Challenge No. 37)

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! As always, our top picks from the last challenge are at the end of this post, invited to join us in the next challenge.

This time it's Pauline's turn to select a theme and it is.........

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

Something Monochrome.

We can't wait to see what color you choose to feature on your monochromatic projects. As always, the linky tool is at the end of this post.

Here is what we came up with to inspire you:

My Card (Ellie)

(All details are right below the card.)

I went with a brown color scheme. I recently got Tracy Evans' new-ish stamp set Framed Delights, I knew I wanted to use it with my cats set by Tracy Evans - Numerical Cats and this is what I came up with. The hearts at the top left are from the set Branched Heart also by Tracy Evans. Stamping looks black but I used Versafine Clair Pinecone ink which is a very dark brown. On the background I used a crackle stencil by Prima with Tea Dye Distress ink. I distressed the edges for an aged look and used DCWV Cocoa paper as a layer and Stampin Up Espresso paper for the card base. It's hard to see but I added rhinestones to the top and bottom of the stamped frame.

I am entering the above card here:

• Crafty Animals - Animals
• Crafty Catz - AG
• Crazy is our fame - STENCILS are our game! - AG with Stencils
• Fab n' Funky - Monochromatic
• Neglected Stuff Challenge - I had that Prima crackle stencil for many years but think this is my first time using it. 
• Paper Rock Scissors - Paper and/or Scissors (all layers are paper and I used scissors for distressing)

Pauline's Card

Such a beautiful design with that gorgeous color! Please visit Pauline's blog to find out how she made this card.

We are so excited to have Gerrina of Gerrina's Creatieve Wereld joining us this time as a guest designer. Thanks so much, Gerrina!

Gerrina's Card

So cute and feminine, what a fun design! Please visit Gerrina's blog to find out how she made this card.

Top Picks from Challenges 35 and 36

We had such wonderful entries sharing in our combined Spring Flowers or Spring Showers themes over the last two months. Thank you all so much for joining us! Selecting Top Picks was so hard but since we had a 2-months challenge we decided it was just right to choose 2 Top Picks each, so a total of 4. Each one of you is invited to join us as a guest designer in the next challenge.

No. 1 Chris (Pauline's Pick)

No. 35 Carrie Sheridan (Ellie's Pick)

No. 47 Silke (Ellie's Pick)

No. 51 AdryConceP (Pauline's Pick)

(You can take a closer look at all the pretty pages in this album on Adry's blog.)

Congratulations on your well deserved recognition! Your Top Pick logo is below.

Remember, you are all invited to join us as guest designers for challenge no. 38 starting June 17th. 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, June 14th at 11:59pm CST

Ellibelle's Garden Party No. 15 - Anything in (or from) a Garden... Plus More Italy Vacation Photos: Varenna)

Hello everyone, it's time for a new Garden Party to start and all are invited to join in the fun!

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 in a  garden... So many options!! As always the linky tool is at the end of the post along with my Top Picks from the last party, each one invited to join me as a special party guest :)

At the end of the post I'm also sharing an assortment of photos from our daytrip from Milan to Varenna on Lake Como. They are very garden focused so fit well into today's post. If you're not interested in the pictures simply scroll down to the very end for the Garden Party link up.

Here is what I made this time:

I started with a smooshed background using diluted Distress inks. I found a piece of inky cardstock in my stash of extras that matched the background piece so I used that extra piece to stamp the boots onto and then fussy cut. I thought the postmarks stamp from the same set would work well to "ground" the boots and I used the same stamp directly on the boots to give them some more detail.

Next I stamped the butterfly collage stamp directly onto the background but it didn't stamp fully so I decided to use another butterfly stamp from the same set, stamped on another snippet of inky cardstock and fussy cut then added right over the large butterfly. "Fly Free" and "Butterfly" are part of the same sets: Tracy Evans for Aall and Create The Great Outdoors and Spread Your Wings. Both have been retired but possibly still found at some retailers...

I plan to share the above card with these challenges:

At Double D they are asking for Watercolor (my background is a smooshed watercolor background), Double Trouble Challenge want to see at least 3 layers, at least 2 shapes (hexagon and rectangle), and at least 1 stamp

At Mix It Up Challenge it's all about Stamped Backgrounds, Moving along with the Times wants to see Butterflies, Paper Rock Scissors is looking for Paper and/or Scissors (I used both this time!), then at The Pick 3 Challenge we need to choose three from a list of 6 words(I chose Boots/Feminine/For a Friend) and at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge it's Things with Wings. Anything Goes at The Paper Funday and Word Art Wednesday  My color scheme was inspired by the current optional Triple B moodboard with pink butterfly, bird for flower. Finally at We Love Stamping it's all about all creatures great or small.

I'm so excited to introduce a Special Party Guest this time around and that is Guest Designer Irene of Irene's Scrapbook. So happy yo have you as a special guest, Irene!!

Irene's Card

This card puts a big smile on my face as I love hedgehogs and daisies!! Please visit her blog to find out how she made this card.

Top Picks for Garden Party No. 14

Now it's time to announce my Top 3 from the last Garden Party. It was so great to visit all your blogs and admiring your gorgeous creations. Susan aka rainy if you read this, I am sorry that I wasn't able to leave you a comment, I kept getting an error message and my comment wouldn't go through.

My Top 3 are listed in the order of entry:

No. 10 Loopyloo

No. 32 Suzanne Reynolds

No. 44 Pauline

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 June 11th). 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!)

As promised I am sharing some more of my April vacation photos. This time the photos are from our daytrip from Milan to Varenna on Lake Como. Mid-April on a weekday was definitely the perfect time to visit as it gets extremely busy during summer - and as a bonus, the beautiful Wisteria was in full bloom during our visit. 

Varenna is known for its beautiful gardens at Villa Cipressi and Villa Monastero and they were why I planned this daytrip from Milan. Some  of you know how much I enjoy gardens! Plus it only takes one hour to get here from Milan and train tickets were easily purchased from the Trenitalia site and very inexpensive. 

This is "Heaven's Gate" at Villa Cipressi. Be prepared to wait in line for your turn... Unfortunately some visitors turn this into longer photo sessions for Instagram (some showed up with tri-pods for their phones)  but I can't blame them as it's such a beautiful spot.

 

Even prettier without people in it...

All roads to the town center were very narrow and uphill like the one below.

Many daytrip tourists take ferry rides to other villages on Lake Como but I wanted to have enough time to explore Varenna and I didn't want to wait in a line for a ferry on our first visit to Varenna. It worked out perfectly and we enjoyed a relaxed day surrounded by beauty and some surprises (such as a small scorpion on a wall - I had no idea Northern Italy had scorpions - luckily I found out these are pretty harmless!)

PS: If you missed my Milan pictures and would like to see them you can find them here. I have more vacation photos and soon I will share some snapshots from Verona.

But now let's get back to the party... it's time for your share at the Garden Party No. 15!

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 June15th at 11:59pm CST

A Monocromatic Card and Some Vacation Pictures (Milan)

Hello everyone, it's the start of a new Allsorts challenge and it's Liz' turn to host. For her optional theme she chose "Monochromatic". I love monochromatic color schemes. As always, if the theme isn't for you then there is the "Anything Goes" option. We love to see all your crafty makes up to 5 per entrant. This time there are 2 prizes from the Allsorts prize box, an A5 stamp set and A6 stamp and stencil. 

I'm also sharing part of my vacation pictures below... I'm afraid it turned into a photo- heavy post.

To make my card I used Salvaged Patina Distress ink to make an inky (smooshed) background. Then I chose Tracy Evans large stamp set Daisy Elegance. This set is retired from Aall and Create and unfortunately one of the harder to find sets. This stamp is large and I only used a portion of it for the card. Most of the wording is part of the set, the only separate thing is the quote "Cherish the little things" which is part of another Tracy Evans stamp set.

I added die cut butterflies made with Penny Black die set Soaring. Glitter was added to the flower centers. I made my own colored cardstock by inking a piece of white neenah paper using the same ink, then mounted this onto a white card base.

I am entering this card here:

• A Perfect Time To Craft - AG
• Beautiful Blossoms - Flowers
• Crafting from the Art Challenge - AG
• Crafts Galore Encore - AG
• Crafty Catz - AG
• Cut It Up - Something with wings
• Craft Rocket Challenges - Not Square
• DL.Art Linky Challenge - AG
• Double D - Watercolor (my background)
• Dragonfly Dreams - Use Die Cuts
• Fab n' Funky - Pink, yellow or blue
• Let's Craft & Create Challenge - AG 
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - AG
• Moving along with the Times - Butterflies
• Paper Rock Scissors - Paper and/or scissors
• Pearly Sparkles Challenge - Butterflies
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Feminine
• Sweet Stampin - Things with Wings
• The Paper Funday - AG
• Triple B - Blooms, Butterflies or Birds
• We Love Stamping - All Creatures Great and Small
• Word Art Wednesday - AG

Coming soon!!!

And going on right now: Discount code for Allsorts challenge participants AllsortsBD17 from AALL and Create provides a 15% discount valid from 1st May through 31st May and available on all items in their store plus free shipping on orders over £39.99 (PS: Unfortunately I am not sure if Free Shipping offer is only for UK...)

We had an absolutely wonderful time overseas visiting family and more. This time I decided to book a flight to Milan (instead of the usual Munich) to visit the area for a few days and then take the train from Milan directly to my sister's town just north of Munich. We took way too many pictures (as usual!) and I couldn't decide what to share so that means I will share some today  (Milan) and some in future posts.

We only had a few days in Northern Italy but we checked most things off of my "to visit" list.

As tired as we were after arriving in Milan, we still decided to walk to the Duomo on that first evening. It was a 30 minute walk from our hotel but it felt good after sitting for the long overnight flight. 

On the left side of the Duomo (below) is Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a shopping center with lots of high end shops. We did check that out as well. The architecture was impressive but we didn't go to Milan to shop so we didn't really spend a lot of time there.

Instead I saw the castle through the other end of the shopping center and and we walked over there.

The next day we had tickets for the Duomo (which I purchased directly from the site), including the rooftop terraces and St. Charles Crypt. Sadly we didn't realize St. Charles Crypt closed at 5pm and missed that. 

It's hard to tell but there is a life- size statue on each one of the spires. The golden statue in the center was very hard to photograph.

Milan business district in the distance. 

Loved the tile floor inside the Duomo.

We had tickets to see the "Last Supper" mural at Basilica Santa Maria delle Grazie painted by Leonardo Da Vinci... I had also purchased these tickets directly from their site but as they sell out quickly I had to purchase them about 4 months in advance, acutally I purchased these before I had booked the flight. I read that these tickets are really hard to get. Right now they are all sold out until end of August and at some point they will open up ticket sales for the following 3 months (Sept/Oct./Nov.) It's a bit confusing and you pretty much have to know when they release the tickets for sale so you can get them as soon as they open up. Google helped me a lot! Thought I'd share that bit of info in case some of you might want to see this too. 

The mural is inside the rectory of the basilica below.

Tickets to the Last Supper have to be validated 30 minutes before your time slot so after validating we had time to explore the courtyard and gift shop.

I was surprised that we were allowed to take pictures of the mural.

We strolled through Parco Sempione which stretches from Castello Sforzesco to Arco Della Pace. My husband wanted to see the arch up close and luckily the rainclouds had moved on so we enjoyed a walk through this park. I had no idea that we'd find Monk Parakeets in this park. That was a nice surprise but they were hard to photograph and easier heard than seen.

This is the best picture we took of the parakeet. They are pretty much the color of the leaves. 

Lots of turtles and a view of Castello Sforzesco in the background.

The castle through the arch and my husband was happy we made the walk.

Everything  of interest to us was located in/near Milan's historic city center so it was easy to get around on foot from our hotel. A few more snapshots below...

Loved that the Wisteria was blooming!

 These tiny city cars were everywhere!! I had not seen this Fiat model before this trip. 

In my next post I will share some pictures from our daytrip to Varenna on Lake Como which was very easy to reach by train. I plan to share those pictures in my next "Garden Party" post (on May 14th). Varenna is a very small town so there won't be this many pictures (I hope!!)

Thanks so much for visiting!! And hope to see you at the Allsorts challenge blog too! Remember, the challenge runs for 2 weeks!