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. 

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:

• Penny Black Saturday Challenge - PB Stamps
• TIME OUT Challenges - Winter/Holidays
• Krafty Chicks - All Occasions
• Craft Rocket Challenges - Wintertime
• My Time To Craft Christmas - Snowflakes
• Fab n Funky - Blue Hues
• Bastel-Traum - Winter Landscape
• Daisy Chain Challenges - Christmas or Winter
• Die Cut Divas - All About the Holidays
• Let's Craft & Create Challenge - Stitched real or faux (I used a stitched border die)
• Use Your Stuff - Snow/ Winter

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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!

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):

• Christmas Craft Creations - Hats
• Christmas Kickstart challenge - Christmas, but not as we know it
• Penny Black Saturday - Glitter and Glitz plus PB
• My Time to Craft - Christmas
• Paper Dragonfly Creative Challenges - Anything Festive
• Most Magical Time of the Year - Christmas
• Art Impressions Stamp Challenge - Making spirits bright
• C.R.A.F.T. - Christmas
• Crafty Gals Corner - Dots and/or Stripes 
• Double D Challenges - Dots and/or Stripes
• The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge - Christmas
• Unicorn Challenge - Christmas
• Daisy Chain Challenges - Christmas
• Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog - Christmas
• The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up - Christmas

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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 Spy With My Little Eye ...........Sparkle and/or Shine (Challenge No. 9)

Hello and welcome to a new I Spy With My Little Eye challenge taking place right here on my blog! Pauline and I are here with a new theme and hope you will join us too this month for your chance to be featured in the next challenge and maybe even joining us as a guest designer. We had many wonderful entries last month, thank you all so much for playing along with us. The Top 2 are at the end of the post so be sure to scroll down.

It was my turn to choose a theme this time around and it is.................

I Spy with my little eye...............

Sparkle and/or Shine.

We can't wait to see what you'll share with 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 by you we'd love to see it! The linky tool is at the end of the post.

My 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 today I used a few Penny Black stamps (Trilling Trio, Berry Bevy, Nature Sings, Christmas Story). The postmark/cancellation stamps are from a set by Flourishes which is no longer in business. I started by inking snow drifts with a torn paper mask on a white piece of card stock (they are barely visible in the photo), then stamped the bird with the help of my stamp platform. I used Distress ink pads as my markers no longer work well. After stamping I used a damp paint brush on the bird. Next I stamped the branches and somehow I managed to get a couple of smudges on the paper so my idea of a clean-ish card changed to a more rustic card so out came the background stamp to "hide" the smudges. The patterned paper (which also wasn't part of the original card idea) is from Hobby Lobby/last year's release. I also found the ribbon scrap on my desk from the last project and I thought it was perfect. I stapled it onto the card then tied some jute twine around the staple. Since the card turned a bit "rustic" I decided that the chunky glass glitter was a perfect choice for my sparkle/shine element. I've had this from Stampin Up for a long time. I used my regular liquid glue (Mono multi) to add the glitter. I also added stickles glitter to the berries.

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I plan to share the card above with these challenges:

• Penny Black Saturday - Glitter and Glitz
• Triple B - Birds, Blooms or Butterflies
• Farmquest Country Christmas - 
• The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge - Christmas
• Unicorn Challenge - Christmas
• Daisy Chain Challenges - Christmas

Pauline's Card

A beautifully done scene which Pauline always does so amazingly! Be sure to visit her blog to find out all the details and a better view of the wonderful sparkle!

Excited to have a guest designer this month and that is Jolanda of The Inque Spot Studio. Thank you so much for joining us this month, Jolanda!!

Jolanda's Card:

Love the deep blue and gold combo! So effective for Christmas! Be sure to visit Jolanda's blog to find out how she made this card.

Top 2 from Challenge No. 8 - Shades of Autumn

Many thanks to all of you who played "I spy" with us last month. We had many fabulous entries and as always selecting our top picks wasn't easy but something that needed done so here they are 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. 10 starting December 20th! Of course it's not a requirement but we would love to have you as guests!!

No. 44 Carol G. (Ellie's Pick)

No. 53 Anke (Pauline's Pick)

Congratulations to both of you!! Your top pick logo is below to display on your own blogs if you like to.

You are both invited to join us as guest designers (optional of course!) for challenge no. 9 starting on Wednesday December 20th. 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.

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Now it's time to link up YOUR creations for the new theme! Anyone is invited to join us with your crafty makes following our theme - I Spy Sparkle and/or Shine.

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
• Challenge ends Sunday December 17th
• Backlinking to a recent project is allowed

PS: I am planning a Year in Review hop again at the end of the year  and looking for co-hosts. I shared more info in this post, if anyone is interested :)

Sleigh Ride with Friends

Hello and welcome! It's time already for a new theme at Allsorts challenge where Lynn is the host this week and she selected the optional theme of Friendship. We'd love to have you joining us following her theme or not, as the option of Anything Goes is there for each challenge. Prizes for the November challenges come from Stampendous, Oakwood Direct and WOWVOW.

For this challenge I decided to make a winter themed card and I found this old stamp set from Whimsy Stamps in my box of Christmas stamps. It's been a long time since I've inked it up.

The background was done using Iced Spruce Distress Oxide inks and I used a white Posca pen for some "snowy" spatter. I used a deckle die to cut out the image. The sentiment (a quote from the Christmas song Sleigh Ride) is part of the same stamp set, I think it works perfectly for the "friendship" theme.

Outside the snow is falling & friends are calling "yoo-hoo."
Come on it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you.

I layered image and sentiment onto red card stock then white. The patterned paper is from a designer paper pack purchased last year from Hobby Lobby. I finsihed off the card by adding the punched snowflakes found in my box of die cuts/punched pieces and used some ribbon scraps and jute twine. Wasn't easy to tie the bow as my thumb isn't completely healed yet but I managed somehow.  

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Below a closeup

I'd like to share with these challenges:

• Most Magical Time of the Year - Christmas
• Art Impressions Stamp Challenge - Holiday Cards
• Craft Rocket Challenges - Winter
• Krafty Chicks - Christmas
• Christmas Crafts All Year Round - Holiday Carol
• Crafty Animals - Animals
• Daisy Chain Challenges - Christmas/Winter
• FarmQuest Country Christmas Challenge - Country Christmas (Outdoors)
• Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog - Christmas
• Inspire Me Monday Linkup

                       >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Holiday Festival Sale at Scrapbook.com/Ad

I wanted to post another reminder about this year's Year in Review hop happening the last week of December. We have 8 entrants so far, thank you to everyone who's joining so far. 

All the info is below (copied from the original post) along with the linky tool for signing up. 

Papercrafters' Year in Review 2023 Hop Sign Up

Before I let you go, I wanted to mention that I am once again planning the "Year a Review" hop where we will feature our favorite creations of the year and looking for a few co-hosts. As always, you may choose how many project you will feature. It could be a top 5 or top 10. Maybe you have just one you are especially fond of having created. I usually go with a favorite of each month to make the choice easier. 

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 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 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.

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.

A Song of Joy

Hello and Happy Sunday! Last month I was selected as the guest designer at Stamping Sensations (thank you to the Stamping Sensations DT!!!) and today is the start of a new challenge over at the challenge blog and I am here to share my guest DT creation. It's all about "Getting Ready for Christmas" so come join in for your chance at a great prize or your chance to be a guest designer too!

Here is what I made:

I used the beautiful older stamp Song of Joy by Penny Black. Colored with my Faber Castell Polychromos pencils and thought I'd go with traditional red/green/gold for Christmas so I tried to color the bird in a neutral color and chose shades of gray with a bit of yellow. The sentiment is an oldie from Stampin Up but it was a recent thriftstore find for me. I love the simple font. 

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To add some interest to the card I did some paper piercing around the edges, added a shiny rhinestone to the star's center and a simple bow made of striped bakers twine in red and white. Sponged the edges lightly before adhering to the card base.

Thanks so much for visiting!!

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 here:

Penny Black Saturday - use PB stamps

PS: Still plenty of 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. 

The Great Outdoors

Hello everyone, it's Saturday so that means it's time for a new theme at Allsorts challenge. My turn to host this week and I selected the optional theme of "The Great Outdoors" because I love creating them especially this time of the year and they usually make great masculine cards too which I need in November :) 

Prizes for the November challenges come from Stampendous, Oakwood Direct and WOWVOW, and hope you'll join in with us this week! Remember, the theme is optional and while I'd absolutely love for you to create something following my optional theme, all of your new creations are welcome up to 3 per participant!

I injured/cut my thumb with a can at the very end of October, it's a pretty deep and long cut down the thumb that required 2 visits to the clinic because the wound opened up again after they used skin glue. Anyway, I am trying my best to do most with the left hand so the cut can heal. I was lucky to find this deer already precut in my box of die cuts and I was able to make the background and stamped the trees with mostly my left hand. I do use my other 4 fingers on the right hand when possible for easy things but soooo hard not to move the thumb when you move the other fingers so I try to avoid it right now. I cannot wait for this to heal, I am such a wimp when it comes to injuries!!

Anyway, the tree and deer are both by Penny Black - Woodsy stamp set and Beneath the Birches die set. The script is an oldie from a company called Just for Fun Rubberstamps but they are no longer in business. Sentiment is an oldie from Whimsy Stamps also found cut out already in my box of extras. 

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Definitely wasn't easy to use the paper trimmer with the left hand though!!

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 would like to share this card with the following challenges:

• Penny Black Saturday Challenge - use PB stamps
• Fab n Funky - Masculine
• Sisterhood of Crafters - get inky
• Double D Challenges - Oh Deer

PS: Still plenty of 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. 

If you already read the info and wanted to sign up but haven't yet, you can simply use the linky tool below.

This linky tool is for the Year In Review Hop Signup:

October Card Chain Challenge Reveal Day

It's been a while since I joined the Card Chain Challenge as I started renovating my kitchen cabinets in the spring (still working on that!!) but I ended up clicking on the CCC recent post and saw one of the challenge options was bears so I decided to join in once again :) 

My recipient for October was Michaela from Austria and this is the card I made for her and was so happy to hear that she liked it :)

As always, we are given a nice selection of themes and I wanted to use the "bears" option because it's been a while since I used this cute Lili of the Valley stamp. 

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I kept the card in a CAS style. The image has been stamped on Bristol Vellum and colored with distress inks first. But it turned out a bit more pastel than I wanted so I added some Faber Castell Polychromos pencil coloring. I added a die cut border with some natural jute twine, then the sentiment from Penny Black. The little flowers were done with a Martha Stewart punch. 

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!

If you are a card maker and would like to join in then you can still sign up for the November challenge for a few more days. You do have to make and mail a card to your recipient to be received my the end of the month. All details can be found here.

I usually share a picture of the card I received but unfortunately it didn't arrive yet.

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I plan to link up with these challenges:

• Use Your Stuff - AG
• Critter Crazy Challenges - Critters
• A Perfect Time To Craft - AG
• Ally's Angels - AG
• Crafts Galore Encore - AG
• DL.Art Linky Challenge - AG

PS: Still plenty of 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. 

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday November Challenge

Hello and welcome to the November Crafty Wednesday challenge taking place right here on my blog! I'm so glad you stopped by today and I would love for you to join in the fun too this month. There were some fabulous entries last month so 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! The linky tool is at the end of the post.

And here is my November creation perfect fit for the chilly weather we're currently having, but it's supposed to warm up a bit by Sunday. 

I used Lavinia's Red Pine (large) stamp along with the winter quote (snow falls) also from Lavinia, and then my newly received Penguin stamps from Aall and Create, from sets #604 and # 603. A Distress Ink background using the smooching technique with masked edges. I used Wilted Violet and Tumbled Glass Oxide inks. A Posca pen for some white spatter. 

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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!

My card fits the theme at Inkspirational challenge of word prompt: cold, so will enter there. 

 >>>>>>>>>>>Stamping Sale at Scrapbook.com/Ad

October 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 October entries is....Flower Feature. 

And here are my Top Picks with a Twist posted in the order of entry:

No. 13 Maryann Scrap

No. 24 Loopyloo

No. 47 Donna W.

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 Thursday November 30th to play along!

PS: Still plenty of 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. 

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