Ellibelle's Garden Party No. 7 - Anything In or From a Garden

Hello everyone and welcome to my Garden Party No. 7 taking place right here on my blog. I'm so glad you stopped by and I hope you will bring something along to share this month too. Remember, anything in or from a garden goes, this can be any type of craft, photography (from a garden), garden tips, garden weddings, 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.

Here is my crafty share this time. 

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!

All stamps I used on today's card are from Tracy Evans Boutique Designs: TE14 - The Wonder of Nature, TE37 Flower Power, TE43 Magnolia and TE35 Abstract Trees and TE32 Alpha Florals. 

I colored the flowers using Derwent Inktense pencils and added Stickles glitter to the flower centers. The stamps are available directly from Tracy Evans shop from the UK or from Simon Says in the US. I also added some twine and edges were all distressed.

I plan to share my card here:

• Beautiful Blossoms - Flowers
• Dream Valley Challenges - 2 or more layers
• FarmQuest Home Challenge Blog - Anything Home Goes (Sunflowers and Wheelbarrow from the home garden)
• Paper Rock Scissors - Paper and/or scissors (all paper layers and scissors used for distressing and fussy cutting)
• Path of Positivity - Anything Positive 
• The Paper Funday - Changing Seasons or AG
• Triple B - Blooms, Birds or Butterflies
• Word Art Wednesday - AG

Starting mid- August and into late summer is when butterflies are the most active in my garden and I absolutely love to walk around and photograph them. I feel like this year I've had the most butterflies ever in my garden. 

Painted Lady Butterfly on a pink Zinnia blossom

A better view of this gorgeous flower. Zinnias are so easy to grow from seed and attact butterflies and hummingbirds alike. I've not bee able to capture a decent photo of a hummingbird as they are so quick.

A Monarch Butterfly loading up on nectar from a butterfly bush.

Top Picks for Garden Party No. 6

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:

No. 16 Emma T.

No. 53 Carol G.

No. 58 Bunny Hoyle

Such amazing work!! Congratulations to each one of you on your well deserved recognition. Your Top Pick logo is below, you may post it on your own blogs if you like to.

Now it's time for the 7th 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 October 6th at 11:59pm CST

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday - September Challenge

Hello and welcome to the September edition of Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday challenge, taking place right here on my blog. I'm so glad you stopped by and hope you will join in this month too. There were some wonderful entries last month, a little slower than usual but still lots of beauties thank you all so much for sharing! My "Top Picks with a Twist" are at the end of this post.

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 :) The linky tool is at the end of this post.

Here is what I came up with this month using a cute cat image in remembrance of my dear ginger cat Thomas.

On September 1st was Ginger Cat Appreciation Day and I miss my dear handsome cat Thomas so much. I had to say my final goodbye to him on August 17th. When we adopted him in September of 2010 I had no idea that losing him would be this hard and these almost 15 years of having him flew by so fast. He had a fun and adventurous life, always up to something and he knew how to keep us entertained! What a special kitty he was, my constant companion inside the house and out in the garden. My heart is still broken but I am so thankful for all the wonderful memories he left me with. 

So for today's card I decided to ink up this new to me stamp from Colorado Craft Company - No Peeking. It's a small set including this cute kitty along with some sentiments suitable for Christmas as well as other occasions. There is also a steel die available to match this stamp but I think it would be easy enough to fussy cut so I don't have the die.

After stamping and coloring the image (I used Memento ink and Copic markers on Xpress it blending card), I cut out the image using Penny Black's Postal die set. Then I used a thin washi tape to mask off the edges and used Tumbled Glass Distress ink for some color around the image. The patterned paper I recently won from Diana's challenge at DL.Art. 

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!

The sentiment is part of the same stamp set and I added the tiny hearts made with an Avery Elle die set which unfortunately seems to be retired so I don't have a link to share.

>>>>>>>>>>Click Here for More Stamps by Colorado Craft Company/Ad

I plan to link up with:

• A Cut Above - Die Cut Challenge Blog - Die Cuts
• A Perfect Time To Craft - AG
• Crafty Animals - Animals
• Critter Crazy Challenges - Critters
• Cut It Up - At Least One Die Cut
• DL.Art Linky Challenge - AG
• Neglected Stuff Challenge - My neglected stuff are those tiny heart dies
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Stamp It
• Talk About It Tuesdays - AG

Top Picks with a Twist:

Now it's time to announce the Top Picks with a twist. Thank you all again for joining in, it was so great to see your posts! 

The twist from the August entries is: More than one fold. 

No. 11 Carrie Sheridan

No. 37 GerJanne 

Front of card with attached belly band.

No. 39 Silke

closed

How amazing are these!!!

Congratulations to each one of you on your well deserved recognition! The 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 the last Sunday of September to join in (September 28th). 

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.

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. 

Seasonal Sunflowers for Four Seasons September Challenge

It's time for a change of seasons in the crafty world and especially so at the Four Seasons challenge blog as we are now celebrating "All Things Fall" for the next three months. I hope you will join us! As always there is a great moodboard to inspire you but its use is optional. We pretty much just want to see "Anything Fall". 

And here is what I made:

A little something different from me today as I'ved used patterned paper as the focal point of my card instead of stamped images. I purchased this paper from a small town scrapbooking store I happened to notice while driving through that small town. The shop only accepted cash payments and I rarely carry cash on me and only had enough for a few sheets of designer papers. This was one of them, by Carta Bella -Seasonal Sunflowers from the Fall Fun collection. I loved the bold sunflowers and the paper is double sided but I only used one side on this card. 

For the sentiment I chose one from a retired Hero Arts stamp kit which I stamped using Walnut Stain Distress ink. The sentiment panel looked a little empty and I had one of Tracy Evans' stamp sets on my desk so I chose a flower from that set and stamped it a few times using Mustard Seed Distress ink. I matted the sentiment onto dark brown cardstock then adhered to the patterned paper card front. I thought some stitches would be nice but didn't want to dig out my sewing machine so I chose a retired set from Whimsy Stamps which includes several stitched elements and used that instead with brown ink.

Related Products:

Looking through my box of die cuts I found this small dragonfly which is part of a dragonfly border die also long retired from Whimsy stamps. To finish off the card I added lots of glitter to all the flower centers and dragonfly.

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:

• Beautiful Blossoms - AG with Flowers
• Simon Says Stamp - AG

Always AG

• A Perfect Time To Craft 
• Ally's Angels
• Classic Design Challenge
• Crafts Galore Encore 
• Creatalicious Challenges 
• DL.Art Linky Challenge
• Do-Al(l) Kreatives 
• The Creative Crafters

Thanks so much for visiting!

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. 

 

A Masculine Birthday Card

Hello everyone. It's time for a new theme at Allsorts challenge and Donna's turn to host. For her theme she selected "Birthdays" and of course we have the "Anything Goes" option as always. There are 2 prizes for this challenge of 2 stamp sets each and you have two weeks to join us.

As I have more masculine than feminine birthdays coming up later this year I decided to make a masculine birthday card using an old PSX stamp I purchased from eBay many years ago. I think it was part of a mixed lot I purchased as this is my first time using it. 

It is PSX K2777, as with all PSX stamps now only available through second hand markets such as eBay or Etsy. I used Distress inks for inking and coloring along with Faber Castell Polychromos pencils for the smaller parts such as the flowers, stones and ramp.

The background was embossed using Spellbinders 3D embossing folder Cast Away and the sentiment is part of the Penny Black set Let's Play. I like the simple font for male cards. 

Linking up here:

• Can You Handle The Pressure? - Use Embossing Folders
• Cardz 4 Guyz - Boats
• Shopping Our Stash - On or in the Water

Thanks so much for visiting!

I Spy With My Little Eyes..........Warm and Sunny Colors (Challenge No. 29)

Hello and welcome to the 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 all are welcome to join us.  

This time it's Pauline's turn to select a theme and she has chosen:

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

Warm and Sunny Colors.

Perfect theme for this time of the year and we can't wait to see what you'll create. The linky tool is at the end of this post.

Here is what we came up with for your inspiraton:

Ellie

(all details are right below the card)

I used a Vicki Boutin stencil on the background that I received as a freebie some time ago from Scrapbook.com along with some Distress inks (Twisted Citron, Mustard Seed and Picked Raspberry). The butterfly die cut was done with a die by Penny Black (Flowing Butterfly), simply left it white for this card and placed it onto a strip of black card stock  which I added a few sticky rhinestones to. Sentiment is from the set Butterfly Basics (long retired from Stampin Up). 

Pauline

Such a beautiful and stylish design! Please visit Pauline's blog to find out how she made this card.

We have a guest designer this time and that is Fiona Whitehead. So happy to have you joining us, Fiona!

Fiona's Card

So gorgeous and creative! Please visit Fiona's blog to find out how she made this card. 

Top Picks from Challenge No. 27

Many thanks to each one of you who took the time to join our last challenge of "Something to Celebrate". Our Top Picks are below listed in the order of entry. 

No. 11 Claudia (Ellie's Pick)

No. 38 Loopyloo (Pauline's Pick)

Congratulations to both of you!!

Below is your top pick logo, you may place it on your own blogs if you like to :)

For the time being I am discontinuing the guest designer invites but hopefully will bring them back some time in the future.

To play along in the current 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, September 14th at 11:59pm CST

B is For............Bird, Blue Bloom and Butterfly

Hello and welcome! It's time for a new theme at Allsorts challenge and this time around it's my turn to host. For my optional theme I selected "I Spy Something Beginning with B". Lots of favorites beginning with a "B" so I hope you will join us and there is always the "Anything Goes" option. We have 2 prizes of coordinating stamps and dies to give away.

I have two projects to share today:

A couple of weeks ago I made this card using a new to me stamp set by Stampin Up and today I am sharing an Artist Trading Card (ATC) I made using the same products but a bit differently. 

B is for Bird on a Branch

I used a mix of red, orange, yellow and brown Distress inks for this card. A white pencil was used on the bird's and dragonfly's wings. I used the Direct to Paper technique around the edges of the ATC but a couple words got lost from the ink so I cut those out from white cardstock. The background was stenciled using Aall and Create's stencil Tulips (the same one I used on the card I made previously).

Related Products: 

  

I am entering this ATC here:

• ATC Around the World - Any ATC Goes
• Stamping Sensations - Birds, Bees and Butterflies
• Tag-Along (and ATC's) - Any tags or ATC opt. Travel

B is for Blue, Blossom and Butterfly

For the above card I used washi tape to mask off the edges then using the "smooshing technique inked up the background with Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide ink. Stamping on the background was done with Aall and Create's set Foliage #496 (retired) and Sent with Love #831 (retired). The rose (also from set #831) was stamped on a separate piece of cardstock which was also inked using the smooshing technique, and then fussy cut. The butterfly is part of the Aall and Create set Spread Your Wings #729 (retired).

For a little more interest I added a piece of cheesecloth behind the rose and used a Wink of Stella clear glitter brush all over the rose but it's not showing in the picture. 

Related Products:

I am sharing the rose card with these challengese:

• Beautiful Blossoms - Flowers
• Creative Artiste Challenge - Anything Mixed Media Goes
• The Flower Challenge - Add Embellishments (cheese cloth)
• Triple B - Blooms, Butterflies or Birds

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. 

Ellibelle's Garden Party No. 6: Anything In or From a Garden

Hello everyone and welcome to my Garden Party No. 6 taking place right here on my blog. I'm so glad you stopped by and I hope you will bring something along to share this month too. Remember, anything in or from a garden goes, this can be any type of craft, photography (from a garden), garden tips, garden weddings, 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.

Here is my Garden Party share this time.

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 used one of my favorite Hero Arts stamps - Antique Bee and Flowers, stamped once in the center and then part of it on top and bottom of the card. I colored with Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. I used a Chickenwire stencil from TCW which works as well for a honeycomb background I think, with Antique Linen Distress ink. I then used a script stamp from Tracy Evans' set called Magnolia on the background for a little more interest. The sentiments in black are from the Tim Holtz booklet of quotes called Small Talk. I mounted the card front onto black cardstock and then onto an embossed piece where I used the Texture embossing folder by Penny Black.

Above is a photo of one of my beautiful mini sunflowers (Suncredible Sunflower or Helianthus Hybrid). This plant was purchased from the Lowes Garden center "clearance" section. Anyone else addicted to the Garden Center clearance?? I had to quit going as I started running out of room for flowers without more digging. Absolutely love how well this plant recovered. It looked really sad when I purchased it but I was happy to rescue it, trim off all the spent flowers and it grew back so beautifully! This sort of sunflower almost grows like a little shrub and is full of blossoms as you can see a few in the background. Plus the bees and butterflies love it!

Challenge I plan to share the above card with:

• A Place To Start - Summer Things
• Can You Handle The Pressure? - Embossing Folders
• Crazy is our fame - STENCILS are our game! - Stencils
• Double D - Bee Happy
• Stamping Sensations - Birds, Bees or Butterflies
• Sweet Stampin - Use a stencil
• Try It On Tuesday - Summer

Related Products:

Top Picks for Garden Party No. 5

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:

No. 3 Melanie H.

No. 56 Brenda

No. 66 Papierelle

Such amazing work!! Congratulations to each one of you on your well deserved recognition. Your Top Pick logo is below, you may post it on your own blogs if you like to.

Now it's time for the 5th 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 September 8th 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. 

 

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday August Challenge

Hello and welcome to the August edition of Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday challenge, taking place right here on my blog. I'm so glad you stopped by and hope you will join in this month too. There were lots of great entries in June and July which had a combined linky tool. Be sure to scroll down to see if you are one of the "Top Picks" and this time there are 2 sets of Top Picks, one for June and one for July.

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 :) The linky tool is at the end of this post.

Here is what I came up with this month.

I love visiting second hand shops (you'll never know what you'll find!!!) and on my last visit I found this beautiful wood mounted stamp set from Stampin Up - Asian Artistry. I knew I had to have it as I absolutely love this quote and of course I love the stamps in this set too. To make my card I followed a few challenges which helped me come up with the design.

I used several colors of Distress inks/oxides on the background (Barn Door, Carved Pumpkin, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey and Mustard Seed). Then I used a retired stencil from Aall and Create - Crisp Tulips - on the background. 

Related Products:

The image was stamped using Walnut Stain Distress ink directly onto the background and again onto a scrap piece of white cardstock so I could cut out the bird for the "spotlight" technique using a circle die. I mounted the inked cardfront onto brushed gold cardstock (the lighting on the photo makes it appear a bit green-ish but there is no green on the card). Finally I mounted this onto a red card base. The dragonfly and sentiment are both part of this same set by Stampin Up. 

This post does 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 your support!

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

Take 12% off your order with Code!

I plan to share with these challenges:

A Cut Above - Die Cut Challenge Blog - at least one die cut
Crazy is our fame - STENCILS are our game! - Stencils and opt. Leaves or Trees
Double Trouble Challenge - 3,2,1 recipe (at least 3 colors: red, orange, yellow used; at least 2 layers and 1 spotlight technique) 
Stamping Sensations - Birds, Bees or Butterflies
The Paper Funday - AG
Triple B - Birds, Blooms or Butterflies

Top Picks with a Twist:

Now it's time to announce the Top Picks with a twist. Thank you all again for joining in the fun, I really enjoyed visiting your entries and selecting a "twist". As it was a 2-months challenge I am sharing two sets of Top Picks, one from those entering in June and one from those who entered in July.

From the June entries:

For June I selected the Twist of "Birthdays". So each one of these top picks features a birthday card.

No. 1 Jan R.

No. 29 Pauline C.

No. 73 Irene M.

From the July entries:

For July I selected the twist of "By the Sea" so each Top Pick below features a seaside scene. 

No. 85 Debbie M.

No. 97 Maria

No. 111 Yvette

Congratulations to each one of you for your well deserved recognition. The 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 the last Wednesday of August to join in (August 27th). 

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.

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.