Woodland Critters Always and Forever

Today is the start of a new theme at Allsorts challenge and Sarah wants to see "Woodland Critters". Of course the Anything Goes option is there too and hope you can join us. We have prizes from Lavinia Stamps and you have two weeks to join us.

A few days ago was our 27th wedding anniversary and I made this cute card for my husband using The Wallace Family hedgehogs as the focal point along with some other Lavinia stamps. I've always loved hedgehogs ever since I discovered one in my childhood garden as a young child. Now that I live in the States the chances that I come across one are very slim as they aren't native here, unfortunately. 

I started out by stamping the tree (Tree of Courage) and hedgehogs using Versafine Onyx ink. I did mask a little bit off the tree to make it appear as if the hedgehog is walking out from behind the tree. Next I used Lavinia's Feather Leaf stencil with brown and blue inks and stamped the leaves around the tree top which are part of the Creeping Vine set. As it is an anniversary card I decided to add a little tiny heart (part of a die set by Avery Elle) and sticker sentiment from Tim Holtz. I thought the card needed something a little more at the bottom and so I decided to add more leaves in Tea Dye and Villainous Potion inks. The small mushrooms on the left of the tree are Lavinia's Slender Mushrooms (mini). Btw. I linked the stamps to my favorite US Lavinia Stamps retailer on Etsy (ASC Craft Supplies - free US shipping and her shop has so much more besides Lavinia stamps!!). If you are in the UK/Europe your best place would be directly from the Lavinia Stamps shop.

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:

• Cardz 4 Guyz - Autumn
• Crafty Animals - AG with Animals
• Crafty Gals Corner - Fall...Leaves
• Crazy is our fame - STENCILS are our game! - Stencils opt. Nature
• DL.ART Thankful Thursday - AG opt. Fall
• Do-Al(l) Kreatives - AG
• Double Trouble Challenge - Doodle Styled Image (the tree), 2 layers, 1 sentiment
• Dream Valley Challenges - Fall Colors
• FarmQuest General Store Challenge - Anything Farm/Country Goes
• Heart's Quest Celebration of Love - Opt. Harvest
• Just Us Girls - Stencils
• Path of Positivity - Anything Positive
• Simon Says Stamp - AG
• The Male Room - Make Your Own Background
• The Paper Funday - AG
• We Love Stamping - Make it Cute

Thanks so much for visiting!!

I Spy With My Little Eye............ Something Clean and Simple (CAS) Challenge No. 30

Hello everyone and welcome back to another "I spy with my little eye challenge" taking place right here on my blog. Pauline and I are back with a new theme for you and we hope you will join us! As always you can see our Top Picks from the last challenge at the end of this post. 

It's my turn to select a theme this month and it's a nice and easy one.........

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

Something Clean and Simple (CAS)"

Whatever CAS means to you is fine with us. For some it's very simplistic for other maybe just a layer or two less than what you usually make. I think it's something we all define a bit differently so do come join us and share your CAS makes. The linky tool is at the bottom of this post.

Here is what we came up with this time:

My Card (Ellie)

All detais 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!

I used a new to me stamp set by Colorado Craft Company - Coffee House to make my card. I simply stamped the gingham border by Lawn Fawn along the bottom edge using Walnut Stain Distress ink. Then I stamped one of the cute images from the set along with the coffee beans and the sentiment. The coffee cup was stamped separately and fussy cut. Before adding it to the card I added some brown grosgrain ribbon from SU around the card. I colored with Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. The card base is also by SU, the same dark brown as the ribbon. Both appear black in the photo. 

>>>>>>>>>>Shop more Colorado Craft Company Stamps at Scrapbook.com/Ad
(Plus Fall Clearance Sale Going On Now!)

I am entering my card here:

• Alphabet Challenge - K for Keep it Simple
• Crafty Animals - Animals
• FarmQuest Home Challenge Blog - Anything Home Goes
• First Cup Challenges - Coffee/Tea/Drink
• Stamping Sensations - CAS
• We Love Stamping - Cute

Pauline's Card

A simple but eye-catching design! So beautiful! Please visit Pauline's blog to find out how she made the card.

As mentioned in the last challenge, we are taking a break for guest designer invites at the moment so lets get straight to our Top Picks.

Top Picks from Challenge No. 29

Many thanks to all of you for joining our last challenge of "Warm and Sunny Colors". We had lots of wonderful entries and as always it's hard to select favorites. But we finally managed and they are listed in the order of entry below. 

No. 2 Jolanda (Ellie's Pick)

No. 10 Lorraine (Pauline's Pick)

Congratulations to both 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 :)

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, October 12th at 11:59pm CST

Trees, Leaves and Plants at Allsorts Challenge

Hello everyone, time is flying by so fast and it's already time for a new theme at Allsorts challenge which I almost missed out on as I thought I'd have a few more days to make my card. I do really love the bi-weekly challenges but somehow it was easier to stay organized when the challenges were weekly :)

Anyway, this time Val is hosting and her theme is "Trees, Leaves and Plants", perfect for this time of the year. And of course the Anything Goes option is there too!

As I was in  a bit of a hurry I thought I'd check at Paper Playful for a simple sketch and  I found one at Try an Sketch on Tuesday (linked below) which inspired my use of the leaf and sunflower. The leaf is from the retired set #496 Foliage by Aall and Create. If you are in the US then it can still be purchased from Frantic Stamper. The sunflower is from Tracy Evans Boutique Designs set TE33 Sunflower. 

I flipped the sketch and as any shapes are allowed I chose a leaf and flower. For the background I decided on a stencil duo from Tim Holtz, this stamps and stencil" combo set and the script stamp from Tracy Evans set TE43 Magnolia. I then decided to add a "frame" around the leaf using a rectangle stencil from MFT and more distress inks in autumnal colors (MFT closed its doors and I'm not sure if the stencil is available anywhere else but you can also mask the edges or make your own stencil using dies). The word "Foliage" is from the same set #496 Foliage and I decided to add a little squirrel from Tracy Evans set TE32 Alpha Florals. Distress inks used are: Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge, Aged Mahogany, Villainous Potion and Walnut Stain.

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Take an extra 15% off with code!

Planning to share with these challenges:

• A Place To Start - Leaves/Circles
• Crafty Gals Corner - Fall Colors
• Crazy is our fame - STENCILS are our game! - Sencils and Nature
• FarmQuest General Store Challenge - Farm or Country
• Make My Monday - Fun with Stencils
• Path of Positivity - Anything Positive
• The Paper Funday - Changing Seasons
• Try a Sketch On Tuesday - Sketch above

I also decided to make an Artist Trading Card as I had stamped the leaf twice using just a little bit of a different color variation on each leaf. I used some of the same products as above to make the ATC - same stencil set, same Aall and Create set Foliage and same Tracy Evans set Magnolia. 

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 entering the ATC here:

• ATC Around the World - It's Getting Autumn
• Tag-Along (and ATC's) - Things with Wings

At Allsorts we have 2 prizes from the Allsorts prizes box for this challenge and you have two weeks to join us for your chance to win!

Thanks so much for visiting!

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 

No. 39 Silke

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.