Ellibelle's Garden Party No. 15 - Anything in (or from) a Garden... Plus More Italy Vacation Photos: Varenna)

Hello everyone, it's time for a new Garden Party to start and all are invited to join in the fun!

As always, you may share anything in or from a garden. This can be crafts of any kind, garden photography or garden tips, weddings and tea parties taking place in a  garden... So many options!! As always the linky tool is at the end of the post along with my Top Picks from the last party, each one invited to join me as a special party guest :)

At the end of the post I'm also sharing an assortment of photos from our daytrip from Milan to Varenna on Lake Como. They are very garden focused so fit well into today's post. If you're not interested in the pictures simply scroll down to the very end for the Garden Party link up.

Here is what I made this time:

I started with a smooshed background using diluted Distress inks. I found a piece of inky cardstock in my stash of extras that matched the background piece so I used that extra piece to stamp the boots onto and then fussy cut. I thought the postmarks stamp from the same set would work well to "ground" the boots and I used the same stamp directly on the boots to give them some more detail.

Next I stamped the butterfly collage stamp directly onto the background but it didn't stamp fully so I decided to use another butterfly stamp from the same set, stamped on another snippet of inky cardstock and fussy cut then added right over the large butterfly. "Fly Free" and "Butterfly" are part of the same sets: Tracy Evans for Aall and Create The Great Outdoors and Spread Your Wings. Both have been retired but possibly still found at some retailers...

I plan to share the above card with these challenges:

At Double D they are asking for Watercolor (my background is a smooshed watercolor background), Double Trouble Challenge want to see at least 3 layers, at least 2 shapes (hexagon and rectangle), and at least 1 stamp

At Mix It Up Challenge it's all about Stamped Backgrounds, Moving along with the Times wants to see Butterflies, Paper Rock Scissors is looking for Paper and/or Scissors (I used both this time!), then at The Pick 3 Challenge we need to choose three from a list of 6 words(I chose Boots/Feminine/For a Friend) and at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge it's Things with Wings. Anything Goes at The Paper Funday and Word Art Wednesday  My color scheme was inspired by the current optional Triple B moodboard with pink butterfly, bird for flower. Finally at We Love Stamping it's all about all creatures great or small.

I'm so excited to introduce a Special Party Guest this time around and that is Guest Designer Irene of Irene's Scrapbook. So happy yo have you as a special guest, Irene!!

Irene's Card

This card puts a big smile on my face as I love hedgehogs and daisies!! Please visit her blog to find out how she made this card.

Top Picks for Garden Party No. 14

Now it's time to announce my Top 3 from the last Garden Party. It was so great to visit all your blogs and admiring your gorgeous creations. Susan aka rainy if you read this, I am sorry that I wasn't able to leave you a comment, I kept getting an error message and my comment wouldn't go through.

My Top 3 are listed in the order of entry:

No. 10 Loopyloo

No. 32 Suzanne Reynolds

No. 44 Pauline

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 :) Please read the info below if you'd like to join me as a special party guest.

New this year:

I would like to invited each Top Pick to join me as a "Special Party Guest" in the next Garden Party (starting June 11th). Please message me at ellibellescorner at gmail dot com if you would like to be a special guest. Of course this is totally optional as I know we all are busy in one way or another just thought it would be something fun to offer the top picks :)

(Btw. Even if you are a special party guest for the month, you are still invited to share your other garden themed creations in the linky tool during the month!)

As promised I am sharing some more of my April vacation photos. This time the photos are from our daytrip from Milan to Varenna on Lake Como. Mid-April on a weekday was definitely the perfect time to visit as it gets extremely busy during summer - and as a bonus, the beautiful Wisteria was in full bloom during our visit. 

Varenna is known for its beautiful gardens at Villa Cipressi and Villa Monastero and they were why I planned this daytrip from Milan. Some  of you know how much I enjoy gardens! Plus it only takes one hour to get here from Milan and train tickets were easily purchased from the Trenitalia site and very inexpensive. 

This is "Heaven's Gate" at Villa Cipressi. Be prepared to wait in line for your turn... Unfortunately some visitors turn this into longer photo sessions for Instagram (some showed up with tri-pods for their phones)  but I can't blame them as it's such a beautiful spot.

 

Even prettier without people in it...

All roads to the town center were very narrow and uphill like the one below.

Many daytrip tourists take ferry rides to other villages on Lake Como but I wanted to have enough time to explore Varenna and I didn't want to wait in a line for a ferry on our first visit to Varenna. It worked out perfectly and we enjoyed a relaxed day surrounded by beauty and some surprises (such as a small scorpion on a wall - I had no idea Northern Italy had scorpions - luckily I found out these are pretty harmless!)

PS: If you missed my Milan pictures and would like to see them you can find them here. I have more vacation photos and soon I will share some snapshots from Verona.

But now let's get back to the party... it's time for your share at the Garden Party No. 15!

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 June15th at 11:59pm CST