Butterflies at Allsorts Challenge

Hello everyone, it's time already for a new challenge at Allsorts. Btw. we are back to our regular weekly schedule now that August is just about over. 

It's Dena's turn to host this week and she picked the fun optional theme of "Butterflies". This time of the year I have the most butterflies in my garden and always love seeing them! We mostly have Monarch butterflies and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, both very common in our area. Although this year there aren't as many butterflies because my Zinnias are taking forever to bloom!! (We had an extremely dry June).  Thank goodness for my butterfly bush!

Today's card features a butterfly resembling a Monarch butterfly a bit. It's a large stamp from the Visible Image set "Butterfly Effect".

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I started out by using a Vicki Boutin stencil with Pumice Stone Distress Oxide ink for a faint pattern. Next I heat embossed the script (SU stamp - retired) onto black cardstock using Versamark ink and white embossing powder. The butterfly was stamped on an inky background which was done using the smooshing technique and Distress inks/oxides. Before adding the butterfly I decided to add a die cut circle for more interest. The quote is from Tim Holtz's Small Talk sticker booklet which includes lots of wonderful quotes. 

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!

Prizes for the Allsorts challenges ending in September (that includes this week's challenge) come from Craft Stash, Anna Marie Designs, AALL and Create and Oakwood. Lots of wonderful goodies to win!!

Will link up this card with the following blogs:

• Inspiration Station - Inspiration Photo above (I was inspired by yhe beautiful Monarch butterflies to color my butterfly in similar colors.)
• Moving along with the Times - Embossing
• Crazy is our fame - STENCILS are our game! - Stencils and opt. Butterflies (you might have to tilt the screen a bit to see my faint stencil on the background using pumice stone ink!!)
• Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenges - AG
• Triple B - AG with Birds, Blooms or Butterflies
• Stamping Sensations - AG 

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I Spy With My Little Eye: Something for Boys or Men (Challenge No. 6)

Hello everyone, Pauline and I are back again with a new challenge for I Spy With My Little Eye taking place right here on my blog! So glad you stopped by today and we'd LOVE for you to join us too!

Just a heads up, for next month only we're going to start the challenge on the 3rd Monday (Sept. 18th) instead of 3rd Wednesday, there is a great reason behind it which we will announce with the next challenge. 

We had some wonderful entries over the last 2 months, thank you all for joining us. Be sure to scroll down to the end to see if you were one of our top 2. Remember, the top picks are invited to join us as guest designers in a future challenge!

It's my turn to choose a theme this month and I selected .....

I Spy With My Little Eye....

Something for Boys or Men

We all need a maculine card now and then so we hope you'll take on the challenge and join us.  Remember, you may share anything crafty, it doesn't have to be a card! As long as it fits the theme and is handmade we'd love to see it!

And here are our shares for your inspiration:

My Card (Ellie)

I love Lavinia fairies but their animal stamps are simply perfect for masculine cards and this was a great opportunity to ink up a couple of their animal stamps.

The inky background was done with an acetate sheet and distress oxide inks spritzed with water then "smooshed" onto the card. (Bundled Sage - all shades of green you see are a result from the Bundle Sage ink pad, Speckled Egg). 

The focal point are Lavinia stamps Maka (the wolf) and an owl from the set Brodwin and Maylin. I've done some background stamping with Darkroom Door's Grid stamp, the old script is from Just for Fun Rubberstamps (no longer in business I think), and some ink blotches with an old stamp from Whimsy Stamps and no longer available. I also flicked some diluted Distress Oxide ink onto the background for a little more interest. Sentiments are from the Penny Black Set "Let's Go Wild". I used a Sakura "stardust" gel pen for some highlights.

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I'd like to enter my card (above) to the following challenges:

We Love Stamping - Masculine // Paper Minutes - no designer papers // AAA Birthday - Birthday Cards // Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Favorite Techniques (love creating inky backgrounds)

Pauline's Card

Isn't it fabulous!!! And I spy the same flying owl on here too :) Be sure to visit her blog to read all about how she made this card!

There are no guest designers this time so let's get straight to our Top Picks!

Top Picks from Challenges No. 4 and No. 5 (which was a combined challenge)

We had some fabulous entries sharing "A Sweet Treat" or "Warm and Sunny Colors". Many thanks to all of you who joined us!

Our top picks are below in the order of entry.

*To be in compliance with GDPR, Top Pick photos and links will be removed after the start of the new challenge. 

Remember, both Top Picks are invited to join us in the next challenge if you like to. That would be for challenge no. 7 starting September 18th! Of course it's not a requirement but we would love to have you as guests!!

No. 53 Lisa S. - Pauline's Pick

No. 56 Loopyloo - Ellie's Pick

Congratulations to both of you! Well deserved recognition! Your top pick logo is above, feel free to post it to your own blogs if you like to :)

As mentioned, you are both invited to join us as a guest designer. Please email me (Ellie) at ellibellescorner at gmail dot com if you would like to join us so I can tell you about our upcoming theme. *Please note, by accepting the guest designer post you agree to have your project and blog link posted here on this blog.

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Now it's time to link up YOUR creations! Anyone is invited to join us with your crafty makes following our theme.


A few things to remember:

• You may share up to 5 different projects
• You may combine with as many other challenges as you like to
• No fully digital projects please
• Please include a link back to this blog
• Backlinking to a recent post is allowed
• Challenge ends Sunday September 17th 

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!

All Creatures Great and Small... (and a few European Vacation Pictures)

Hello everyone, it's time for another new challenge at Allsorts. As a reminder the challenges run for two weeks during August since many are on summer holiday. Summer break went by quickly over here as school already started this week. Our family did get a chance to go to Europe in July to visit my family and I'm sharing some pictures too of some places we visited along with some of my family. Simply scroll down past the card for the vacation pictures.

Anyway, at Allsorts it's Brenda's turn to host this week and she chose theme of.......All Creatures Great and Small with an option for Anything Goes. We have 2 prizes this time around so hope you'll join in with us for your chance to win. There is a stamp set from AALL and Create and a £15 voucher from WOWVOW up for grabs.

My mojo has gone wandering ever since I've been back from vacation (actually before I left for vacation) so I went to my craft room with no idea in my mind. Dug a bit through my box of extra pieces and snippets and found the "negative" of a rectangle die cut and that's how this card was started. I then picked out an image that would fit into the frame which is this cute Penny Black stamp Furry Flight. The little mouse and kite did require fussy cutting to add to the card. For coloring I used my Zig Clean Color markers. The sentiments are from Colorado Craft Company set So Sweet and Lawn Fawn set Gingham Backdrops. The gingham border stamp is also part of the same stamp set.

A prima flower and some Wink of Stella glitter finish off 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 entering the card to:

• Penny Black Saturday Challenge - use PB stamps
• Double D Challenge - AG
• Crafty Gals Corner - Summer Fun
• Pattie's Creations - AG
• Paper Dragonfly Creative Challenges - AG or Party
• A Perfect Time To Craft - AG
• Ally's Angels - AG
• Classic Design Challenge - AG
• Crafty Animals - Animals
• Critter Crazy Challenges - Critters
• DL.Art Linky Challenge - AG
• Craft Rocket Challenges - Animals
• The Paper Funday - AG

 >>>>>>>>>>>Costumer Appreciation Sale at Scrapbook.com/Ad

I wanted to share a few photos from my trip to Europe as well. The main reason for the trip was to visit my family (it's been over 5 years since I have seen most of them) and it's been so wonderful! Of course we did some sightseeing too and went hiking in Austria. 

These fortress ruins (Wolfstein) near the city of Neumarkt are only about 45 minutes away from my hometown so we spent one morning exploring. I'm a big fan of fortresses and castles in any shape and form so really enjoyed this!

And of course there had to be a cat. This cute little kitten came right up to us for some cuddles. Probably belongs to a nearby farm. His mom was around too but I didn't get to capture a picture of her. 

We also visited the city of Nuremberg also about 45 min. drive away from my hometown in another direction. I'm no stranger to Nuremberg as I went to school here for 3 years but it's been many years since I visited the "Altstadt" (Old Town). This year I decided to meet up with a friend here and we walked up to the Nuremberg Imperial Castle. 

Took a few pictures along the way...

We also got to visit the beautiful city of Prague in the Czech Republic. It's only about 3 hours away from my hometown (but none of us have ever been there before) and we stayed for just that day since my sister had appartment reservations for all of us in Austria for the following few days. 

Such a beautiful city full of beautiful architecture! But so many people!! I did feel a bit like an ant in an ant colony as we crossed Charles Bridge. 

My hubby, me and kids...

Before we left for Prague I found out Karlstejn Castle is just south of Prague so we took a little detour here. I wish we had had more time to explore because I would have loved to see the inside of this castle! There may be another trip to the Czech Republic in the future :)

For a few days of our visit my sister and her husband rented an appartment for all of us in Austria's Zell am See region so we could spend some more time all together and of course we did some hiking while there. 

 

Hubby and the kids.

My dad and I below..

On the day we didn't pack rain jackets we got caught by a summer rain LOL.

Hope you enjoyed my pictures, I sure wish I could go back already!!

I would like to share my travel pictures with these link parties:

 Ageless Style Linkup - Denim // Dare to Share // Link Up Potpourri //  Random-osity Good, Random, Fun //  Travel Tuesday. // You're The Star Blog Hop Link Party @Stonecottage Adventures // Anything Goes with Your Hosts @ My Random Musings // Jenerally Informed The Happy Now // My Corner Of The World //Thursday Favorite Things // Little Things Thursday // Encouraging Heart and Home @ Slices of Life //  Funtastic Friday //   Link Up On The Edge

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday - August Challenge

Hello everyone and welcome to the August Crafty Wednesday challenge taking place right here on my blog. I'm so glad you stopped by and hope you'll join in the fun this month too! There were many fabulous creations in July, thank you all so much for sharing. My commenting was a bit delayed as I've been out of the country for the last half of July and not on a computer but I did manage to visit you all yesterday. Always so nice to see your crafty makes, and be sure to scroll down to see who made the top picks with a twist.

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!

Here is my share for this month:

The butterfly fairy Aurora by Lavinia is the star of the card. She's been stamped with Versafine Onyx ink onto the card front which I used the MFT rectangle stencil on along with a background stamp from the Visible Image set Butterfly Effect. Sentiments are from Penny Black (Snippets) and the same Visible Image set. I've also done some stenciling and inked up the card front edges with lilac ink. Somehow I managed to get an ink blob onto the card so I added a couple of punched mini flowers. Wink of Stella was applied to the wings and flowers. 

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Sorry about the brighness on the photo below, it was extremely sunny at the time I took the photo and this angle surely wasn't the best.

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!

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Top Picks with a Twist

As mentioned previously, there is now a Top Pick Twist when it comes to my selection of Top Picks. Nobody knows what the twist will be - not even me - until the end of the month as the twist will be totally inspired by YOUR creations. This means the top picks will all have something in common.

The twist from the July entries is.......... Christmas in July.

And here they are in the order of entry:

No 26 Cornelia

No. 28 Mummylade

 No. 53 JanR

Congrats everyone, well deserved recognition! Your top pick logo is below. Feel free to post it 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 Wednesday August 30th 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

Four Seasons Challenge August - Dreaming of Daisies

Hello everyone, I've been missing from blogland for the last half of July visiting my family overseas and the last several posts on my blog had been scheduled ahead of time. We just got back on Saturday, a day later than planned due to a 15 hour overnight layover so I'm a day behind. It was so wonderful to see my family again after several years but I am also ready to get back to a normal routine. 

Since it's the first day of August we have a new challenge starting today at the Four Seasons challenge blog! Hard to believe it's the last month of summer challenges so please come share all your summer themed creations with us. As always there is fun mood board which is totally optional as "Anything Summer Goes". 

As usual I was inspired by the mood board which is easy to see :) 

I used the Penny Black stamp Daisy Dream as the focal point. I masked off the botton and part of the top to ink up the sky with a circle die cut in place for a sun. I also used my clouds stencil but the clouds blend it too much. 

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The flowers were all stamped again on snippets of white card stock and fussy cut. This image acutally includes a vase/jar for the daisies, but I only  used the flowers this time which was easy to do since I masked off that part of the card.

The sentiment is from Penny Black's Blooming Sentiments. The card is clean and simple in style but definitely did take some time to make since all those blossoms had to be fussy cut. While I always enjoy fussy cutting, I feel like I need to get some reading glasses. 

Hope you'll join us this month. The challenge runs until August 25th so there is plenty of time.

Challenge I'd like to share with:

Penny Black Saturday - use PB stamps

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!