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:

• A Place To Start - Something New (new stamps)
• DL.Art Linky Challenge - AG
• Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog - Christmas
• Moving along with the Times - Winter Wonderland
• Pearly Sparkles Challenge - Snowman
• Peace on Earth - Christmas
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Masculine
• Stamping Sensations - Christmas
• The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up - Christmas
• The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge - Christmas
• The Paper Funday - Merry and Bright or AG
• Unicorn Challenge - Winter/Christmas
• We Love Stamping - Christmas

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.