Hooray... It's Your Special Day

Hello everyone, this is another scheduled post so hopefully it posted as planned. 

It's the start of a new challenge at Allsorts and Liz is hosting this time. Her theme is one I really enjoyed... For  a Child as I simply love all things cute and cute stamps are the reason why I discovered this hobby in the first place. Of course I discovered lots of different styles of stamps over the many years which I really enjoy working with just the same, but I will never not like making cute cards :)

This stamp is by Penny Black - Furry Flight. I colored with my Derwent Inktense pencils. For the sun I used a rays stencil by Vicki Bouton which at one time was a freebie from scrapbook.com. I used Antique Linen ink for stenciling. 

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The patterened paper I've had in my stash for a long time from a 12x12 paper pack by DCWV (I think). Sentiment is also by Penny Black from the set "Sweet Wishes". I stamped "It's Your Special Day" from the same set inside the card but unfortinately didn't take a picture of the inside.

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 hope to get a chance to link up with these challenges:

• Penny Black Saturday Challenge - use Penny Black Stamps

Thanks so much for visiting!

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Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday June and July Challenge (Reminder)

This summer I am combining the June and July Crafty Wednesday challenges once again as you may have noticed when I posted the challenge in June. But I had an extra unplanned project prepared so I thought I'd create a "reminder post" where I would share the extra project I made.

As always, the theme at Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday is 

"Anything Goes" 

and instead I will select a Top Pick twist from the entries. Nobody knows what the twist will be (not even me!) until the end of the challenge as it will be inspired by the entrants. As I have combined the June and July challenge, I won't announce any Top Picks in this post, instead I will announce them when I post the August challenge.

Here is my little inspiration piece - an ATC created with a part of a "rejected project" I worked on. 

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!

Maybe you'll remember seeing this recent card I shared for the current "I spy with my little eye" challenge. No idea why I had started over with the card but it left me with another piece, too pretty to throw away so I decided to make it in to an ATC. 

I used Tracy Evans Boutique Designs TE042 Bloom and Grow which I colored with Victorian Velvet ink. The script stamp in an oldie from Just For Fun Rubberstamp (no longer in business) using the same distress ink. And the black stamping on the edges was done with part of TE009 Take Flight.

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When/if I get a chance I will try to link up here:

• Tag-Along (and ATC's) - Tags and ATC's

Remember, I will post both June and July Top Picks with the August challenge as I am on a (partial) blogging break and posts are scheduled.

If you like this post then I invite you to subscribe to my blog per email to receive email notifications when I post something new. Simply enter your email address below and click subscribe.

Please use the June/July linky tool below to join in.

Hello Summer Days from a Cool Cat

This is another scheduled post so hopefully it will go live as planned!

It's the first of the month and that means today starts a new challenge at The Four Seasons challenge blog where we are in the midst of Summer and we have another fun mood board to help inspire your creativity. As always, the mood board is optional as Anything Summer Goes! 

There are so many great ideas you can get from our mood board! I was inspired by the palm trees and drink, and I used this cute Penny Black stamp Beach Hammock 2089L. This is a real oldie and I am sorry but I could not find it anywhere at the moment. These older stamps do pop up on eBay occasionally, or Etsy.

I heat embossed the image on Bristol Vellum paper then colored with my Derwent Inktense pencils. On my mission to de-clutter my craft area I came across my small set of 12 Inktense pencils and as I've not really reached for them in the past I decided to give them another try before donating them. So this image has been colored using this small set of Inktense pencils and guess what?? It prompted me to purchase the set of 72 pencils!!! I think having a variety of colors to choose from will make such a difference and hopefully I'll get lots of use out of them. 

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I used a Sizzix Deckle die to cut out a window on the black cardstock to frame the image with. The die cut sentiment "Hello" is part of a Penny Black die and "Summer Days" is part of an old Whimsy stamp set. I used part of a circle for the die cut sentiment. The frame reminds me a bit of a vintage postcard. 

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

When I get a moment I will try to link up with these challenges:

• A Perfect Time To Craft - Always AG
• Ally's Angels - Always AG
• Crafts Galore Encore - Always AG
• Crafty Animals - Always AG with an Animal
• Critter Crazy Challenges - Always AG with a Critter
• DL.Art Linky Challenge - Always AG
• Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Use PB stamps
• The Creative Crafters - Always AG

As always thank you so much for visting. 

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Seaside

Hello everyone, it's the start of a new theme at Allsorts challenge and Christine is hosting this time around. Her theme for the next two week is Seaside. Of course the Anything Goes option is there too if the theme isn't for you. We have prizes from  Grafton Crafts.

I've been so busy preparing for a 3 week visit from overseas, meaning working ahead on projects and blog posts. My visit arrives this evening and unfortunately I have also somehow injured my shoulder and been dealing with some intense pain for over a week now. The nights of course are the worst but it limited the work I could do to prepare for the visit, thankfully the rest of the house has been very helpful!

Anyway, I thought I'd make an easy card for this challenge and use a Stampin Up Paper Pumpkin card kit which I found at a thrift store over a year ago. I had forgotten about it until it "fell into my hands" during my decluttering mission and I thought it would make a quick and easy card. But my original idea seemed nothing like my style so instead I ended up just using the boat and wheel from the kit. This meant I had to have my husband help with the 3D embossing folder which I think was my first time using although I purchased it some time ago. I love the extra texture from these embossing folders but they are so hard to run through the Big Shot machine!!! I didn't even want to try with my shoulder injury. The embossing folder is by Spellbinders.

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The red frame came from my box of extra die cuts, this particular one was done using Penny Black's Polaroid die. Skyblue cardstock was placed behind the polaroid die cut and then I added some cheesecloth and the wheel along with a strip of indigo blue cardstock and the boat. Sentiment is from a set by Hero Arts. The card base is actually another part of the Stampin Up Paper Pumpkin kit. 

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!

When I get a chance I will try linking up here:

• Can You Handle The Pressure? - Embossing Folders
• Cut It Up - Masculine
• Craft Rocket Challenges - No Designer Papers
• Creative Knockouts - Summer Fun
• Everybody-Art-Challenge - Maritime
• Little Red Wagon - Embossing
• Neglected Stuff Challenge - Something Neglected 
• The Paper Funday - Embossing

Thanks so much for visiting. Hope you're having a great weekend. 

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I Spy With My Little Eye......... Vintage Vibes (Challenge No. 27)

Hello everyone and welcome to the 27th edition of "I spy with my little eye" challenge taking place right here on my blog! Pauline and I are back with a new theme and some inspiration for you, and we hope you will join us this month too! Also remember to scroll down to see who made the Top 2 in the last challenge, both invited to join us for our next challenge as guest designers.

It's Pauline's turn to select a theme and she selected:

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

Vintage Vibes.

Lots of ways to make it a little bit vintage, could be as simple as distressed edges, maybe add some lace for a victorian feel or use vintage-y colors. And of course there is an abundance of vintage style products available too so we hope you will get a chance to share with us! 

And here is what we made to inspire you.

Ellie (my card)

All details are right below the 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!

I recently received an order from Tracy Evans Boutique Designs and decided to ink up my new goodies. I used TE042 Bloom and Grow for the focal point stamped twice to form an oval. Next I used the text stamp from the set TE043 Magnolia and decided to add some crackle stamping on two of the corners. This was done using an old Tim Holtz stamp. I thought it needed something else so I used parts of TE009 Take Flight stamped in black. The sentiment is from the set TE039 Poppy Edges were distressed and inked using the same ink I used for coloring the flowers and for background stamping. I matted this onto black cardstock and then a white card base. For inks I used Victorian Velvet Distress ink as well as Versafine Onyx ink. I finished off the card with some stickles glitter in the flower centers. 

I plan to share with these challenges:

• Beautiful Blossoms - Flowers
• Creations in Pink - Use Mostly Pink
• Sparkles Forum Challenges - Flowers
• Triple B - Blooms, Birds or Butterflies
• We Love Stamping - Nature 
• We Love 2 Create - Anything Creative

Pauline's Card

Such a beauty using all these gorgeous nature themed stamps! Please visit Pauline's blog to find out how she made this card.

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We have no guest designer this month so let's get straight to last month's Top Picks. 

Top Picks from Challenge No. 26

No. 6 Nonni (Ellie's Pick)

No. 17 Carrie Sheridan (Pauline's Pick)

Congratulations to both of you!!

Remember, Top Picks are invited to join us in the next challenge if you like to. That would be for challenge no. 28, starting Wednesday July 16th. Of course it's not a requirement but we would love to have you both as guests!!  

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.

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 July 13th 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 Garden Party No. 4 - Anything In or From a Garden

Hello everyone and welcome to my Garden Party No. 4 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 share for this challenge:

I feel like I've been neglecting my Tracy Evans stamps a bit, in fact the focal points (flower and mice) on this card were never used before even though I've had them for a few months now. It was time to ink them up especially since I just treated myself to some new Tracy Evans stamps when she offered free worldwide shipping. I need to start using my new goodies instead of just collecting them!!!

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I used a homemade mask to ink up the circle using Distress inks. (Broken China, Twisted Lime and Cracked Pistachio). The flower is from Tracy Evans Boutique Designs set Clematis TE5 stamed with Versafine Onyx ink. To add to the design I chose a stamp from Tracy's Aall and Create release The Great Outdoors #370 on the background and two corners. This set is retired but possibly still available through some Aall and Create retailers. The sentiment is part of the Clematis set. I wanted to include a little critter and chose the garden mouse -Tracy Evans set TE32 Alpha Florals. That little mouse seemed lonely on the card so another little mouse joined him at the bottom of the 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!

I also wanted to share my beautiful Iceland Poppy I recently planted. I absolutely love it and promptly purchased another plant :) Can never have enough flowers! 

Challenges I plan to share my card with:

• Art Impressions Stamp Challenge - Blossoms and Blooms
• Triple B - Blooms, Birds or Butterflies
• Try It On Tuesday - In the garden
• We Love Stamping - Nature

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Top Picks for Garden Party No. 3

It was so great to see many of you joining me again at the garden party and I enjoyed visiting all your wonderful entries. Selecting just 3 is never easy but I finally managed  and here they are listed in the order of entry:

No. 40 Susan aka Rainy 

No. 41 Debbie M.

No. 44 Maria

Aren't these simply stunning? 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 4th 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 July 9th 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. 

 

Flowers Make Me Happy

Hello everyone and happy Saturday! Today is the start of a new challenge at Allsorts and Gail is hosting. Her theme for the next two weeks is.......What makes you happy. A fun and easy theme but as always there is the Anything Goes option if you prefer. We have prizes from Buddly Crafts. 

There are a lots of things that make me happy and I decided to go with Flowers. 

I didn't always love Geraniums, somehow it seems to me like a very "old-fashioned" flower with not the most pleasant scent, but in the recent years it's become one I purchase every year. Love that it's available in a variety of colors, they are very heat tolerant and last three seasons long into late fall with minimal upkeep. So for my card I selected this beautiful Penny Black stamp Light Touch which features a beautiful brushstroke Geranium. 

Brushstroke stamps need a stamp positioning tool (in my opinion) and that is what I used along with Distress inks/oxides (Picked Raspberries, Wilted Violet, Blueprint Sketch, Mowed Lawn, Twisted Citron). When the ink was dry (I used my heating tool to help it along) I stenciled a mini tile design on the background (Tim Holtz stencil). Then I randomly stamped a Nature verse on the background which is part of a Tracy Evans set (Miniatures by Aall and Create). This set is retired but possibly still available through some retailers).

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For the sentiment I chose Especially for You from the Penny Black set Blooming sentiments. I added this with a couple of staples along with a piece of crimped paper. I've had my paper crimper tool for many years since my early cardmaking days and when I recently decluttered it almost had to go because I simply never use it. Well, here we are, it still has a place in my craft room and it was time to put it to work :) Anyone else having such a hard time parting with tools even though used so rarely?

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!

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I plan to share with these challenges:

• Beautiful Blossoms - Flowers
• Crazy is our fame - STENCILS are our game! - Stencils
• DL.Art Linky Challenge - AG
• Dragonfly Dreams - One or more butterflies
• Neglected Stuff Challenge - Something neglected (my paper crimper tool)
• Path of Positivity - something positive
• Penny Black Saturday Challenge - AG with PB Stamps
• Sisterhood of Crafters - Flowers
• Sparkles Forum Challenges -Flowers
• The Paper Funday - AG
• Triple B - Blooms, Birds or Butterflies
• We Love Stamping - Nature
• Word Art Wednesday - AG

Speaking of challenges, I wanted to remind you about my Garden Party where anything in or from a garden goes. Just a few more days remain for you to join in the current challenge and I hope to see you there :)

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Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday - June and July

Hello everyone and welcome to the June/July edition of Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday challenge taking place right here on my blog. As you have probably guessed from the title of this post, this challenge/linky will be open for 2 months as I have family visiting from overseas and I won't be on the computer much during that time so I thought it would be best to keep it open for 2 months to give me a chance to visit each one of you before I announce my top picks. They will all be announced the first Wednesday of August, I will select 2 separate sets of Top Picks with a Twist, one set from the  June entries and one set from the July entries. So you are welcome to enter 6 times in total over the next two months :)

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.

And here is what I made:

I've had this beautiful PSX stamp (K 2250) for a few years now, an oldie from 1997 purchased from eBay and this was my first time using it. No idea why I've not reached for it before as it's beautiful. For this card I decided to leave it in black and white. I used shimmer gold paper for the background. The flowers are cut with Penny Black's Frames die set and the leaf is cut with a Martha Stewart punch. 

Another view below. The words are a bit hard to read, they say "Beautiful Moments", they are from Tim Holtz's metallic sentiment sticker book. 

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 share with these challenges:

• A Cut Above - Die Cut Challenge Blog - AG
• Crafter's Cafe - AG
• Neglected Stuff Challenge - Something neglected (the PSX stamp)
• Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenges - AG
• Simon Says Stamp - Masculine
• We Love Stamping - Nature

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May Top Picks with a Twist:

Now it's time to announce the Top Picks with a twist from the May entries. Thank you all again for joining in the fun, I really enjoyed visiting your entries and selecting a "twist". This time the twist is.... Fabulous Backgrounds:

And here they are listed in the order of entry:

No. 18 Helen F.

Who made this fabulous celestial background using Distress inks.

No. 41 Alicia OBryant

Who used a fun background stamp on her design.

No. 54 Donna W.

Who used strips of Alcohol Ink panels for her background.

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. Remember, this linky tool is open for both June and July challenges. So you have until the last Wednesday of July to join in (July 30th). 

If you like this post then I invite you to subscribe to my blog to receive email notifications when I post something new. Simply enter your email address below and click subscribe.

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.
• Remember: June and July challenges are combined this year and you may enter up to 6 times!

You can read more about the Guidelines/Copyright info here.

Pink Lemonade

June has arrived and that means today starts the new Four Seasons challenge. It's hard to believe but Summer has arrived at the challenge blog and we are celebrating all things summer! Check out our fabulous mood board which of course is optional to use as Anything Summer Goes. 

How about some pink lemonade?? Of course I had to ink up this cute stamp when I saw the mood board. 

This is an old wood mounted stamp by Penny Black - Make Lemonade 1675K. I stamped it on watercolor paper and colored it with Distress inks. Also stamped it on a post it note which I then fussy cut to use as a mask. (Btw., although this stamp is an oldie, there are currently 3 listings for it on eBay so still a chance to purchase if you are in the US.) 

The pretty border stamp is part of a recent Penny Black Flower of the Month set. I used the same border stamp at the top of the card (second generation stamping) and added a bit of watercoloring around the edges so it's not as bold as at the bottom. The slice of pink lemon is from a set by Stampin Up a more recent thrift store find and probably retired - Lemon Zest. I cut this out and glued to the card then added the sentiment from Penny Black set Micey Day. This is an older set but still available online through Lighthouse Books and Crafts (a Wisconsin, USA based Christian gift and craft shop with an Amazon store front as well.) 

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Another look below. I'm not sure I like the watercolored textured paper and also not a fan of how the watercoloring around the edges appears on the photo. It does look a bit more blended in real life. I found the sequins in my stash while moving things around/decluttering. The colors were a great fit so I added them for some shine and interest.

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 found several challenges to enter so I will link up here:

• Ally's Angels - AG
• Crafts Galore Encore - AG
• A Perfect Time To Craft - AG
• Crafty Animals - AG
• Crafty Gals Corner - Something adorable (How sweet are these mice??!!)
• Creations in Pink - AG in mainly pink
• Cutie Pie Challenge - Cute
• Fab n' Funky - Add a sentiment
• FarmQuest General Store Challenge - AG Farm/Country
• FarmQuest Grocery Game Challenges Blog - Anything Food (Does a slice of pink lemon count?)
• Penny Black Saturday Challenge - AG with PB Stamps
• Send a Smile for Kids - Punny Sentiments
• Simon Says Stamp - AG
• Stamping Sensations - Our Furry Friends
• The Creative Crafters - AG

Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you'll check out the challenge blog to see what my teammates made for our first Summer 2025 challenge.

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