Nov 8, 2025

I've Been Good All Day!

A new challenge starts today at the Allsorts challenge blog and this time it's Christine's turn to host. Her optional theme is "Christmas Cards" and you have two weeks to join us. There are 2 prizes for this challenge from the Allsorts prize box.

I feel like it's been a while since I used my "cute" Penny Black stamps and this particular one is new to me so I wanted to color it up. It's a wood mounted stamp called Tweet Christmas. I had so much fun with it that I used two different coloring mediums but created two very similar cards. 


Above I used my Faber Castell Polychromos pencils on Bristol Velllum paper. For the backgorund I used one of my stencils by Tim Holtz and Antique Linen ink. This cute ginger cat image was the perfect stamp to use with Penny Black's Dear Santa stamp set. 

The card is simple in design so I decided to stitch around the edges with my sewing machine. I'm keeping it closeby now so maybe I'll reach for it more often. I added some stickles glitter to the ornaments to make them sparkle. 

I am sharing the above card here:




This card is almost identical to the one above. Here I heat embossed the image on watercolor paper and then used my Derwent Inktense pencils. I used another Tim Holtz stencil and matted onto dark purple cardstock before sewing. I used the same stamp set for the sentiment, again very fitting for the image. 

Below is a peek at our prizes - stamps, stencils and dies!



Thanks so much for visiting. Hope you're having a great weekend. Rain and maybe some snow is in our forecast. 

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Nov 5, 2025

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday - November Challenge

Hello and welcome to the November Edition of my Crafty Wednesday Challenge taking place right here on my blog! I'm so glad you stopped by today and hope you'll join in too with a new or recently made creation. There were lots of fabulous entries last month, thank you all for sharing your creativity! My top picks with a twist are at the end of the post along with the new linky tool.

As most of you know, the theme at Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday is now always ....


Anything Goes


and instead of a challenge theme there will be a "Top Pick Twist", meaning I will select a twist from all of the entries for the Top 3. Nobody will know what the twist will be (not even me) until the end of the challenge. So do link up all of your crafty makes, your entry might be the one inspiring the Top Pick twist :)

And here is what I made:

I still love playing with my new Tracy Evans stamps and here I used the snowman from the set A Myriad of Designs. I wasn't sure how this would turn out (this was basically a test run with that snowman) but I love the results and decided to use it for today's inspiration piece.

I started out by heat embossing the snowman onto Bristol Vellum paper.

I know most of you are familiar with heat embossing but if you've never done it before, basically these are the tools you need:

  • Anti Static Pouch (you rub this over your cardstock, this ensures that embossing powder only sticks to the ink)
  • Versamark ink pad (make sure to ink your stamp very well with this ink)
  • Embossing Powder of your choice (I prefer ultra fine/detail as I sometimes like to emboss sentiments too - here I used Ultra Fine White) I usually sprinkle plenty onto the stamped image then shake off the excess and put back into the jar.
  • Heating Tool to melt the embossing powder


After heat embossing, I added some color to the background using the smooshing technique with Chipped Sapphire Distress ink. Using black ink (I used Versafine Onyx) I stamped the snowman's hat and then fussy cut so he could have a black hat. An embossed hat would have been nice too but I was too lazy for that :)  A Micron fineliner pen was used to color his eyes and heart shaped buttons and copic markers to color the embossed branches, carrot and tiny heart. Not sure the copic markers were the best choice as they did bleed a little so I am still looking for something fine-tipped that writes onto embossed images (maybe these extra fine-tipped Posca Pens would work without bleeding..)

The tree and wording are from Tracy Evans set Winter Delights and the little bird at the bottom left and row of bells at the top are part of the set Myriad of Designs. You can find Tracy Evans stamps at Simon Says Stamp if you are in the US or directly from Tracy Evans Boutique Designs in the UK. 

Another view below:
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!

Challenges I plan to share with:



October Top Picks with a Twist:


So many wonderful entries to choose from and they gave me lots of ideas for a twist. But "Lots of White" won and these are my Top Picks using the twist. 

No. 8 Jenny Martin

No. 53 CarolG

No. 56 Dreja


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 :)


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 November 30th to join in.

A few things to remember:
  • You may combine with any other challenges.
  • You may use any brand of stamps/digis/dies/papers (no company restriction as long as copyright laws are followed).
  • Please note: entries using pre-colored digital products will no longer be selected as top picks. 
  • A short description of products used is expected, most importantly the source of focal point.
  • This linkup is for sharing handmade projects of any kind not limited to papercrafts.
  • Please try to limit to 3 entries per month - it's ok if you end up with more than 3 but I may not be able to visit your entries after the 3rd.
  • Please do include a link back here to my blog in your blog post.
  • Backlinking to a recent post IS allowed.
You can read more about the Guidelines/Copyright info here.
 



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Nov 2, 2025

October Card Chain Challenge

Today is reveal day at the Card Chain Challenge where I took part in last month. As always there were several challenge options to choose from such as a sketch, themes, colors or products/techniques. I actually liked all of the options given so I decided to join in. My card went to Dee in Kenya. I really hope it was received as I haven't heard back yet from Dee.

My first thought was to go with the sketch using trees and fairies but the sketch then didn't really work out so the challenge options I chose are trees, wee folk, glitter and splats.


All stamps I used are by Lavinia Stamps - Fairy Chain small, Spring Trees, Secret Night. I linked these to ASC stamp supplies on Etsy (my favorite shop for Lavinia stamps in the US because she offers free shipping!!). They are also available at Simon Says Stamp. If you're outside the US then your best place to get them is at the Lavinia stamps shop or a Lavinia retailer in your country. 

This card was actually pretty easy to make once I figured out my design. I first stamped the Fairy Chain using Walnut Stain Distress ink and embossed with ultra fine clear embossing powder. Next I inked the card using Distress inks/oxides in Carved Pumpkin and Fired Brick with a moon mask in place. After removing the moon mask I stamped the Spring Trees using second generation Walnut Stain ink as I wanted the trees a shade lighter than the fairies. A homemade mask was used to make some hills around the fairies and trees using Fired Brick ink. Finally I stamped parts of the sentiment Secret Night at the bottom. For some spatter I used a gold Posca pen. And of course the fairies need sparkly wings so I added stickles glitter for some sparkle.







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!

I plan to link up with these challenges:

I received the beautiful sparkly card below from Jeanne in MN. It's hard to tell from the photo but the flowers are embossed in gold and glitter. I love it!



Btw., if you'd like to join the card chain challenge in November, it is still open for a few more days. All you have to do is make one card and mail to your recipient so it arrives before the end of the month. You will also receive one card from the person who signs up after you. All details are here.



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Nov 1, 2025

The Great Pumpkin and the Little Fox

Hello everyone, it's hard to believe but November has arrived and that means it's the start of a new challenge at the Four Seasons challenge blog. It's our last month of "All Things Fall" for the year so hope you can come join in the fun with your fall themed creations. As always we have a great mood board for your inspiration but it is optional as "Anything Fall Goes". 

Here is what I made for this month inspired by the bottom left image from our mood board. I love those colors and it gave me another reason to ink up the fun pumpkin stamp from Tracy Evans.


I find Tracy Evans' stamps so addictive, they all work so beautifully together and I think the way to combine them are unlimited. This cute little fox is new to me from a retired set (Up Up & Away) also by Tracy Evans for Aall and Create. I had it on my wishlist for some time but never ended up purchasing it. Then recently I came across a cute card by the very talented Sarn who used another fox from this set and I was reminded of the set. It's no longer in production but luckily I found it at Frantic Stamper who still has one in stock (US shipping only). 

I stamped the fox onto a paper where I had used the "smooshing" technique and fussy cut. For the pumpkin from the TE set Myriad of Designs I used Pumice Stone Distress ink and Stampin Up's Creamy Caramel around the edge. I did use my stamping platform for the pumpkin so I could re-stamp if needed. For the stem I used Bundled Sage along with Iced Spruce. Behind the fox/pumpkin I used stamps from Tracy Evans sets Fern, On the Wild Side and the flowers are from the set Poppy. They were also stamped onto a smooshed background. Oh, I also used the script stamp from the set Magnolia. I added a few spatters (watered down Iced Spruce Oxide ink) but left it in a CAS style otherwise. 

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!

Product List:
Inks: Distress Inks and Oxides: Pumice Stone, Bundled Sage, Iced Spruce, Carved Pumpkin, Dried Marygold. Stampin Up: Creamy Caramel. Tsukineko: Versafine Onyx
Other: Stamp Positioning Tool, Paint Brush for spatter
Stamps: Tracy Evans: Myriad of Designs, Fern, On the Wild Side, Poppy, Magnolia available here, here  or here. AALL and Create: Up Up & Away (retired) one set available here for USA shipping






I plan to share the card above with these challenges:
Please visit the challenge blog to see what the rest of the team made and you have until November 25th to join in this month. 

Thanks so much for visiting and Happy November Days!!


If you like this post then I invite you to subscribe to receive post updates sent directly to your inbox. Simply add your email address below to be added to the list. 
 


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Oct 25, 2025

Autumn Colors

Today is the start of a new theme at Allsorts challenge and Brenda is hosting. For her optional theme she selected "Autumn Colors". They are all around us here so a perfect time for the theme. I hope you'll join us! We have prizes from Stamp Addicts and Simon Says Stamp. 

Always a  hard decision on what stamps to use so I decided to ink up some newer Tracy Evans Boutique Design stamps for the first time - Seedheads. These are available directly from Tracy Evans shop or if you are in the US then you can get them at Simon Says Stamp. Besides Seeheads, I used a few additional stamps by Tracy Evans - Magnolia, On the Wild Side and Pinecone (retired from Aall and Create) on the background.

The inking on the background was done with Brushos before stamping. The seed pods were stamped again and fussy cut. I used a white gel pen for some highlights. "Autumn" is part of the Pinecone set. The image panel was distressed and glued onto rust red cardstock then onto kraft cardstock.  I used a harlequin stamp (very old from Stampin Up) on the top and bottom corner of the card front. Decided some gold spatter would be nice but my Posca pen went a bit wild with some huge spatters. Oh well... I need to accept that some things I cannot control!!

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!

I plan to share with these challenges:

Lots of autumn themed challenges so I found plenty to join :)

Thanks so much for visiting and hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

 

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Oct 15, 2025

I Spy With My Little Eye...........Something Spooky (Challenge No. 31)

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 our new challenge and we hope you'll join in the fun! It's always so nice to visit your entries and seeing what you shared with the theme in mind. Be sure to scroll down to see who our Top Picks were from the last challenge.

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


I Spy With My Little Eye.........

Something Spooky


Spooky cards, treat bags for the neighbourhood trick-or-treaters, scrapbook pages or any other spooky crafts, but please nothing too creepy 😊 We still want to be able to sleep at night after visiting your blogs 😊😊 (We're ok with creepy spiders LOL)


And here is what we came up with this time to inspire you.



My Card (Ellie)

all details are 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!


This is about as spooky as it gets for me, this witch looks rather ugly and scary so I decided to paint her skin green like the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. I have never used this stamp before, it's from Northwoods Rubberstamps (not sure if they are still in business) but I was lucky to find it at a thrift store and thougth it was perfect for Halloween cards.

I heat embossed the image so I could work around it without the worry of smearing ink. I used Derwent Inktense pencils for coloring and Distress ink (Black Soot) to create the scene around it. My new "Hill House" stamp from Lavinia along with Lavinia's Large Path and Tree of Courage completed the scene. The sentiment I used was actually part of a Halloween designer paper page by Carta Bella I've had in my stash for some time. I thought it was the most perfect wording to coordinate with the image. The "batty" background paper is also by Carta Bella. 

This finished piece is larger than my usual cards measuring 8x6 inches so I might just put it in a frame and use as home decor during the spooky season.

I plan to share my card with these challenges:


Pauline's Card

Such a magical and fun spooky scene framed so nicely! Please visit Pauline's blog to find out how she made this card.


Top Picks from Challenge No. 30

(and a return of the Guest Designer Invites)

Thank you all again for joining us in the last challenge of something CAS. As always selecting favorites is never easy and this time it was even harder than ususal so instead of a top 2 we have a top 3 (there was a tie!!)

No. 9 Carol (Pauline's Pick)

No. 12 Cindy Beach (Pauline's Pick)

No, 22 Chris (Ellie's Pick)

Congratulations to all three of you on your well deserved recognition!! Below is your top pick logo, you may place it on your own blogs if you like to :)

As mentioned above, we are bringing back the guest designer invites for our Top Picks if wanted and we would love to have you joining us.
 
If any of you are interested in joining us for the next challenge (starting November 19th) please message me (Ellie) at ellibellescorner at gmail dot com so I can tell you all about our upcoming theme. We completely understand that you may have other obligations so it is of course totally optional. 


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, November 16th at 11:59pm CST

If you like this post then I invite you to subscribe to receive post updates sent directly to your inbox. Simply add your email address below to be added to the list. 
 
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Oct 11, 2025

Green and Gold for Christmas

Hello everyone, it's the start of a new theme at Allsorts challenge today and Lynne is hosting this time. Her optional theme is "Traditional Christmas Colors" and of course the Anything Goes option is there too for those of you who prefer to go that route. We have a fabulous Tim Holtz Festive Foliage stamp set offered by Buddly Crafts along with a voucher for digital downloads from their store. Plus (brand new) starting with this challenge, the host will select a guest designer for a future challenge.

For my traditional Christmas Colors I went with Green and Gold.


The focal point is a beautiful die by Penny Black - Birds on a Wreath. UK friends can find it at Buddly Crafts. This wreath originally includes 2 birds but I had to cut one out as I messed up my background where I had to trim off more than I wanted and then the bird at the top didn't fit. I tried to add it somewhere else on the wreath but it looked cluttered so I left it off. 

The background was done with Pine Needles Distress Oxide ink using the smooshing technique. For the background stamp I used Penny Black's Christmas Story and the same ink. Before adhering the die cut I used a gold Posca pen for some spatter. Brushed Gold cardstock was used to cut out the focal point and the golden layer. Card base is SU cardstock. The color matched the Pine Needles ink beautifully but unfortunately I have no idea of the name of the SU color or it it's a retired color. It's been a few years since I purchased paper from Stampin Up. 



>>>>>>>>>>>>>Click here for more Christmas themed dies by Penny Black/Ad




I thought about adding a little red for a full traditional Christmas color scheme but I liked the simplicity of just the two colors so left it at that. 



I plan to share with these challenges:

Thanks so much for visiting!


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Oct 9, 2025

Ellibelle's Garden Party No. 8 - Anything in or from a Garden

Hello everyone, it's time for a new Garden Party (No. 8) to start and all are invited to attend with a "Garden" themed post. Remember, anything in or from a garden goes, this can be any type of craft, photography (from a garden), garden tips, garden weddings and parties, etc. As always the linkup is at the end of the post. And don't forget to check who made the top picks from the last party. My apologies to all of you as I fell so behind with commenting but finally got the chance to visit all your blogs now. 

Here is what I made using stamps from Tracy Evans Boutique Designs.


I don't have any pumpkins growing in my garden this year but I did once before (accidentally by leaving a pumpkin for the squirrels to enjoy over winter and one of the seeds grew a plant :)  I do have birds and cats (my own cat as well as some neighbourhood cats roaming around).

I started with my stamp positioning tool and the large pumpkin from the Tracy Evans set A Myriad of Designs. I used a mix of yellow-ish and orange Distress inks/Oxides and green for the stem. Next I used the ivy which is part of the same set. I slightly bent the ivy stamp so it wouldn't stamp in a straight line. Next I stamped the cat from the set Numerical Cats which also included "October" using Versafine Onyx ink. The little bird is from the set Myriad of Designs as well. I thought about some stenciling on the background but couldn't decide on a stencil so instead I dug through my Tracy Evans stamps and decided on using the background stamp - Art Notes which was released through Aall and Create and retired. If you are interested in any of these stamps, they are available in the US from Simon Says Stamp. The retired Art Notes can be purchased at Frantic Stamper. Fran is unfortunately closing her shop and is no longer purchasing any new inventory so the newer stamps aren't available there. Of course if you are in the UK you can get the Tracy Evans Boutique Designs stamps directly from Tracy's shop. 

I framed my scene with black cardstock then a white base. To finish the card I used a black Posca pen for some black spatter and stamped a couple more of the ivy leaves under the cat's paws.



I am sharing the above card here:
  1. A Place To Start - Pumpkins
  2. Cupcake Inspirations  - Fall Harvest
  3. Double Trouble Challenge - 3, 2, 1 Recipe (3 layers, 2 animals, 1 pumpkin)
  4. FarmQuest General Store Challenge - Anything farm/country/outdoors
  5. Sisterhood of Crafters - Anything Fall
  6. Stamps & Fun = Creativity - Animals
  7. Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge - Halloween
  8. We Love Stamping - Autumn




I also decided to make an ATC since I had stamped the pumpkin a second time. A similar design to the card above using the same stamps and inks. I am starting to love the miniature cards and have already made 5 this year. Those of you who make/collect these... how do you store them?

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!


I am sharing the ATC with the challenges below:
  1. Papercraft Challenges - Amazing Autumn
  2. Pearly Sparkles Challenge - Pumpkins and Leaves
  3. Stamping Sensations - Autumn
  4. Tag-Along (and ATC's) - Anything Autumn


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Click Here for Spooktacular Savings at Scrapbook.com/Ad




Top Picks for Garden Party No. 7


It was so great to see many of you joining me again at the Garden Party and selecting just 3 is never easy but I finally managed  and here they are listed in the order of entry:


Such beautiful work!! Congratulations to each one of you on your well deserved recognition! Your top pick logo is below, you may post it to your own blogs if you like to :)



Now it's time for the 8th Garden Party to start!

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 November 10th at 11:59pm CST



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Please click HERE to join in "Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday" challenge.


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


Please click HERE to join in "Ellibelle's Garden Party" challenge.