Friendships Grow // Flashback Friday

Last Friday I posted a card made with some really old stamps and titled the post "Flashback Friday". I thought it would be fun to try inking up some of my very rarely (or never!) used older stamps and post those creations on Fridays. I have no idea how often I will have the time to do these "Flashback Friday" posts, but that's ok as they are just for fun.

I did find some more time to play this week using an old stamp set from Stampin Up - Friendships Grow. I don't know about you, but I love the old Stampin Up sets. Back then when they were current many of the sets were out of my price range, and I actually found this set at Goodwill for just $2.00 a few years ago. But sadly, I have not inked it up until now. 

To make my card I stamped the image with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink on Bristol Vellum paper. Zig Clean Color markers and a Zig Detailer waterbrush were used for coloring. I wanted to make a little scene with the image, so I inked up just the flowers from this stamp and masked off the girls with post it notes and stamped the flowers on each side of the girls. Next I stamped the image on a post it note, did some quick and simple fussy cutting to place this over my colored image, and then I stamped a line of trees in the background. This is another old stamp I purchased online a few years ago -  by PSX F1550.

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I used Distress Oxide ink Iced Spruce to stamp the trees with. The birds are from a little more recent set (but still a couple of years old) set by Penny Black - Spread Cheer. It's actually a stamp with lots of birds, but I masked off all but two to use on my card, stamped with Pumice Stone Distress Oxide ink.

The sentiment is part of the Stampin Up stamp set. I used Versafine Clair Nocturne ink again for stamping. The edges were all distressed.  I used some retired designer paper to mat the image panel. The card base is Hero Arts Dove White 100lb card stock.As you can see I tied a bow with some sheer ribbon, another item I use so rarely, but I thought it fit the image style so well. 

Stampin Up Friendships Grow // PSX F1550 (both retired but are probably available on ebay or etsy) // Penny Black Spread Cheer // Versafine Clair Nocturne // Distress Oxide Iced Spruce and Distress Oxide Pumice Stone // Strathmore Bristol Vellum // Hero Arts Dove White 100lb Cardstock // SU Retired Designer Paper // Zig Clean Color Markers // Zig Detailer Waterbrush

I am also sharing with these challenges:

Stamplorations Challenge - Stamps and Watercolors (I used Zig Clean Color Watercolors)

Stinkin' Inkers - Trees // Double D Challenges - Beautiful Watercolors // As You Like It Challenge  - Favorite Coloring Medium (Love my Zig Clean Color markers, because I find them quick and easy to use and love the watercolor look) // Cardz 4 Galz - Flora or Fauna (I really do love both) // Art Impressions Stamp Challenge - Outdoor Scenes // Moo-Mania & More - Polka Dots // Pattie's Creations - Flowers // Craft-Dee BowZ - Bows // Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper - Pattern Paper

Anything Goes:

Cute Card Thursday // Crafting With An Attitude // Imagine That Creative Playground // Crafting By Designs // Crafty Creations // Creative Moments // The Crafty Addicts // Through The Craft Room Door *//

Thank you so much for stopping by today and your interest in my "Oldies but Goodies" creations. Hope I can inspire you to dust off some of your old stamps too 😃

This post does contain some affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links, at no additional cost to you. Thanks so much for your support!

Cowboy Adventures and New Hero Arts March Kit Release

Hello and happy Monday! I don't usually have three days of posts in a row, but last Friday I had some extra time and decided to make a card with the other stamp set I ordered from Hero Arts. Also, today Hero Arts is releasing their new monthly kit and you can see what it looks like at the end of this post.

I ordered this set (Cowboy Adventure) because I thought it would be great for masculine cards, and I really don't have many masculine stamps, although I do have a couple older single cowboy stamps, and this set is great for stamping scenes which I really want to get better at.

Hero Arts Cowboy Adventure

Distress Inks & Oxide: 

  Anique Linen // Victorian Velvet // Seedless Preserves // Faded Jeans // Bundled Sage // Vintage Photo  

Versafine Clair Ink Nocturne

Ranger Ink Blending Tool

Tonic Stamp Platform

I started out by covering the bottom 3rd of my card stockwith a post-it note, then using distress inks/oxides I inked up the rest of the card, starting with  Anique Linen ink, then Victorian Velvet ink. Next I started at the other end with Faded Jeans ink and following with Seedless Preserves ink until it met with the Victorian Velvet ink. I added more of the same colors over each color to blend. Next I removed the post it note and added Bundled Sage Oxide in to the bottom portion and used a torn post it note for some masking with more  bundled sage ink and an ink applicator tool. I decided everything was a little too bright, so I went over the whole card with Vintage Photo   distress ink and a blending tool, to deepen the colors. Next I stamped the plants, cowboy and dog and the horizontal line that is part of the set. The small dots you can see on parts of the image panel were done with Stampin Up's retired set Itty Bitty Backgrounds (can most likely be found on ebay). Sentiment is part of the set, stamped with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink onto white card stock. I added some hemp twine and brad and layered the inked panel onto some pattern paper from my scraps.

The stamp set is also available as a combo with matching dies - Cowboy Adventures and Die Set, but I got the set without the dies.

Challenges I am sharing with:
The Male Room - Masculine
Make My Monday - something new (stamp set is brand new to me)
Alphabet Challenge - Twine
Brown Sugar - Transportation
Addicted to Stamps - Anything But a Square
Di's Digis Designs - Include an Animal
Crafteezee - Vintage
Crafty Animals - Animals
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper - Pattern Papers
Mix It Up Challenge - Inked Backgrounds
Sparkles Forum Challenges - Animals
Crafting By Designs - Silhouettes

Anything Goes themes:
Simon Says Wednesday // Dare 2B Artzy Challenges // Lil Patch of Crafty Friends // The Corrosive Challenges // We Love 2 Create // A Gem of a Challenge // Catch The Bug // A Bit More Time to Craft // A Perfect Time To Craft // Crafts Galore Encore // Creatalicious Challenges // Happy Craft Challenge // Love to Craft // Not Just Cards // The Creative Crafters // Crafting-With-Friends // Creative Fingers // Crafting With An Attitude // Crafty Creations // Creative Moments // The Crafty Addicts // Word Art Wednesdays 

As I mentioned above, today Hero Arts is also releasing their March My Monthly Hero kit. I am a kit subscriber so my kit will be shipped automatically, but it can now also be ordered from the Hero Arts site.

Here is what this month's kit looks like:


The large aquarium die looks like so much fun! I might actually try making a shaker card with it (I've only made a couple of those, many many years ago following a technique challenge on splitcoast when I filled it with chunky glitter and the other one with sand.

You can purchase a kit here if you are interested. And remember, Hero Arts does ship free within the United States with a $50 or more order.
Some wonderful Add-ons  have been released as well, you can actually purchase all Add-ons (not including the kit) in a set at a reduced price of $215.00. (Not in my budget unfortunately!) But of course they can also be purchased separately here.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!! Hope it's a great one. Super cold and windy here today but at least there is plenty of sunshine!


This post contains some affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links, at no additional cost to you. All products used in today's post have been purchased by me at full retail cost and all opinions are my own.

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday - October Challenge

Hello and Welcome to the October "Crafty Wednesday" challenge here on my blog! It's time for  new theme and I hope many of you will join in! A big thank you goes out to all of you that joined in last month. Be sure to scroll down to see if you were the lucky prize winner. I am also bringing back a version of the top picks.

This month I set the theme of

"Outdoors/ Nature".

A pretty open theme, it can be flowers, trees, animals out in nature, a beautiful sunset or beach scene, out on the farm, outdoor activities etc. I can't wait to see what you will share this month!

I managed to make two cards for today, both are in a similar style using silhouette stamps.

Stampin Up Forever Young (no longer available but maybe ebay?) // Penny Black Sprinkles and Smiles // Distress Inks: Wild Honey, Shabby Shutters, Stormy Sky// Versafine Onyx Ink // Tim Holtz Quotations

For the card above I decided to get out an old Stampin Up stamp set (Forever Young). I've had this stamp set for years, would you believe this is my first time ever inking it up??!! 

I masked some hills using hand cut papers and inked using my Distress inks. The tree was stamped using Versafine Onyx ink. Using the same tree image I stamped the branches around the card, also using the same black ink. Framed and mounted onto a white card base (Neenah linen texture 80lb) to complete the card.

Challenges entered:

Cutie Pie Challenge - Shades of Autumn

Unicorn Challenge - Autumn or Halloween

C.R.A.F.T.  - Autumn/Weather (beautiful autumn day)

Cute Card Thursday - Autumn

Moving along with the Times  - Autumn

Crafty Catz - ATGoes / Option Colors of Autumn

Crazy 4 Challenges - Leaves, Trees or Anything Fall

Artistic Stampers - Inktober

Crafteezee - Leaves

Creative With Stamps Challenge  - Halloween or Leaves

Penny Black Restful // sentiment from Penny Black Birthday Balloons // Barely Banana Ink (SU retired) // Seedless Preserves Distress Ink // Faded Jeans Distress Ink // Versafine Onyx Ink // Clear Embossing Powder // Tonic Stamp Platform // Applicator Tool Kit 

To make the second card, I heat embossed the Penny Black stamp Restful, then  added the moon mask, and inked the background starting out with the lightest color and finished with the darkest. Trimmed all the edges to a 5" square and then heat embossed the sentiment. I added a little bit of Weathered Wood distress ink to create an illusion of some shadows in the snow, but it's barely visible in the photos. And why did I forget to add any glitter!!! Will definitely do that before sending out the cards!

Challenges entered:
Aud Sentiments Challenge  - Use a Two-Word Sentiment
Cardz 4 Galz  - What's New (New to me stamp)
Alphabet Challenge - N is for Nature  
Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Anything Goes with PB 
heARTful Stamping Challenge - Anything Goes
A Snowflakes Promise  - Anything Goes

Crafty Sentiment Designs  -  Anything Goes

Lemon Shortbread - Always Anything Goes 

Always Happy Birthday - Birthday

This post contains some affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links, at no additional cost to you. 

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This month I am giving away two embossing folders to one lucky winner.

And now it's time to announce the September winner of the leafy rubber stamp ....

Becca Yarling with entry no. 19.

Congratulations, please email me by October 17th to claim your prize at ellibelle_blog at yahoo dot com.

As  mentioned above, I decided to bring back to top picks, and in order to follow the GDPR I will post entry no. and entry name only. 

Here are the September top picks in order of entry:

No. 10 Carole J

No. 21 Alice

No. 24 Annie

Congratulations ladies, your top pick logo is below. Feel free to post it to your own blogs if you like to. 

If you would like to join in this month's challenge, please use the linky tool below.

A few things to remember:

• You must follow the theme
• You may combine with any other challenges
• Please be sure to include a link back here in your blog post

Please remember: this is a public blog, meaning any papercraft you link up or any comments left on this blog will be visible and clickable by third parties. The blog owner is not responsible for republished content from this blog on other blogs or websites without permission. 

Bring on the Happy

I spent some time working on a few design team projects the other day and decided to practice my scenery inking. I love cards with scenes but they are not easy for me to make ....
I ended up with two scenery type cards, but only sharing one today, the other one is something for my Saturday design team post. Although they both include some sort of mountains, the other one is completely different.

Hello Friend // Sprinkles and Smiles // Nature's Gifts // Spread Cheer // Pan Pastels // Zig Clean Color // Oscillations Stencil // Rays Stencil // Versafine Onyx Ink // Clear Embossing Powder // Tonic Stamp Platform // Bristol Vellum Paper

I tore some printer paper in shape of mountains to create my mask. For this card I used my Pan Pastels for the background. I have the "pure color" set, so the colors are a bit brighter, but the set does come with white so I was able to mix the gray with white to create a lighter shade. I am thinking about purchasing the Landscape set or maybe just some single colors...

The cute image is from the set Hello Friend by Penny Black, heat embossed on Bristol Vellum paper, colored with my Zig Clean Color markers and then fussy cut to add to the scene. If you guessed that I messed up when stamping the sentiment, you guessed correctly...of course that happened after my scene was complete and I was about to through the card out. But luckily I thought of a way to save the card, by stamping the sentiment again on white card stock, masking off the first part of the sentiment and then using a circle punch to punch out the "happy". I adhered the circle with dimensionals. And the bird was stamped there to cover up another little smudge. He is part of the set Spread Cheer by Penny Black. I think the circle cutout and the bird actually look really nice in the design, although not originally planned :)

The road pattern was done with Penny Black's Oscillations Stencil. The grass was stamped using one of the stamps from Penny Black's set Nature's Gifts and Shabby Shutters Distress ink. 

I am sharing in these challenges:

Tuesday Throwdown - Anything Goes this week

Paper Shelter Challenge - Anything Goes 

Pause Dream Enjoy- ATGoes this week

As You Like It Challenge - Fur or Feathers and Why (Once again fur - although I prefer cat fur at the moment, I used to have a dog growing up ... furry animals just make better companions I think)

Craft Rocket Challenges  - Anything Goes this week

Catch The Bug - Anything Goes this time

Crazy 4 Challenges - Mountains

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - On the Move 

Sweet Stampin - Travel

Dare 2B Artzy Challenges - Anything Goes

heARTful Stamping Challenge - Dog Days of Summer 
Double Trouble - Dog Days of Summer

Thanks so much for visiting!! As mentioned, I have another scenery card ready to share on Saturday, hope you'll check back then :)

This post contains affiliate links, this means I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support! 

Trees and Leaves

Happy Saturday! It's time for the new challenge over at the Allsorts challenge blog and Mervi would like to see "Trees and/or Leaves". Come play along, we have a great prize to give away by Marianne Design. 

I got this stamp when it was first released by Penny Black (a year or so ago) but this is my first time using it. Not sure what kept me away from it...I do love this scene! 

Well, I thought it was perfect for today's challenge so I inked it up and created an autumnal birthday card with it. The little red birds are from another set also by Penny Black.

 Products used:

Hidden Lane, Woodland Wonder, Sprinkles and Smiles (all by Penny Black)

Mix of Distress Inks and Markers

Versamark ink and black embossing powder

Stampin Up and Neenah card stocks

Hope you have a good weekend!

Thanks for visiting!

Close to Nature

It's a new month already - can't believe it's October!!! - and it's time for a new  challenge at Penny Black and More. This month our theme is "Close to Nature".

I knew I wanted to create another scene for this challenge, but I also wanted to use one of Penny Black's cute animal stamps, and I thought this cute fox would be perfect for the nature theme.

I started out by heat embossing the fox on bristol vellum cardstock. Then I stamped the fox again on a post-it note and fussy cut to use as a mask. I also used some torn paper to mask the hill. Distress ink was used to ink up the hill. Next I stamped the pine trees using an old SU ink pad (forest foliage). I didn't really plan on a watercolor look, but my stamp didn't leave a solid impression (I need a misti!!!) so in order to not waste the card I decided to go with a watercolor look on the trees by inking up the stamp then spritzing with water before stamping. I did this right on top of the partially stamped tree, and stamped it again without re-inking to add a few more trees.

After removing the fox mask I colored him with zig clean color brush pens and inked the sky with distress ink. The sentiment and fox are both part of the set "Smile All Day". The pine tree is from the set "Woodland Beauty", both by Penny Black.

This month we are being sponsored by Penny Black, Crafty Ribbons and Sizzix so we have some wonderful prizes to be won. I hope you'll come join us for this fun theme!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, hope it's a nice and sunny one!

Midmonth Reminder at Penny Black and More

Happy Monday :) It's the 18th of the month so that means it's time for the Midmonth reminder post at Penny Black and More. Still time to join us if you haven't already or if you'd like to play along again - remember you can enter up to 3 times. 

I'm sharing a winter scenery card today. I am really loving all the cards made with silhouette stamps, but I am struggling so much with them!!! It took me what seemed like forever to come up with this. And I am not even 100% happy with it. I tend to overthink everything and that's what I did  here too.

All stamps are by Penny Black from the sets Woodland Beauty, Spread Cheer and Season's Gifts for the sentiment.  I made a hill mask by simply cutting printer paper in shape of a hill and then inked with distress ink as I moved the mask around. It all sounds so easy, no idea why I am struggling with these cards so much!! I guess it just means I need to practice more with silhouette stamps, because I do love scenic cards. 

We have some wonderful prizes lined up this month
 from Penny Black, Swedish House Crafts and Tattered Lace, so lots of chances to win!!

Thanks so much for visiting!