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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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

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.

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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!

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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.

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. 

 

A Floral Artist Trading Card

Today is the start of a new challenge at Allsorts and it's Lynne's turn to host. She chose "paper piecing" for her optional theme and of course the "anything goes" option is there too if you prefer. Our prize for this challenge is a £25 store voucher from Personal Impressions. You have two weeks to join us.

To switch it up a bit I decided to make an ATC instead of a traditional card for today's challenge. I've only made one ATC before and it's been years ago. It was fun to make but I won't be joining any ATC swaps anytime soon as I really don't like duplicating my projects. Luckily there are no rules and I can just keep it for myself and hopefully add more to my personal collection :)  

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!

The flower is part of a large stamp by Aall and Create (In the Wild - Retired). It was stamped on a handmade background using a previously inked paper and some other parts of the same stamp. After fussy cutting, I decided it was a little too pale so I inked the edges using a darker purple ink - Villainous Potion. For the background I used a Gelli Arts gel plate. I used Wilted Violet and Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide inks which I applied to the gel plate using a brayer. Next I pressed a Tim Holtz stencil onto the plate before taking the print. And as this ATC was made when I worked on re-organizing and decluttering my craft room I found my jar of texture paste, not used in some years but still perfectly fine so I decided this little ATC would be a good background for some mixed media. I used my Circle Explosion stencil with the texture paste. 

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I thought a little more was needed so I stamped the numbers from the same Aall and Create set Wild and Free on the top left and used a stamp from the Aall and Create set Follow Your Own Path on the bottom right. For whatever reason I ended up with a smudge on the bottom left and another craft item I found while decluttering came to the rescue, Tim Holtz' Botanical collage paper. I had purchased this several years ago but never used it before. The script on the bottom left and top right are part of this collage paper. I love that it's almost translucent and mainly just shows off the black print. I definitely want to use more of this paper. It has such beautiful botanical prints on it along with some vintage text. To finish it off I used a white Posca pen to flick some ink onto the card and added the word Nature stamped on a scrap piece of paper. 

In two weeks we are celebrating Allsorts' 16th birthday and we will have some special prizes for the occasion. Hope you will join us then too and we would love it if you shared our logo on your own blogs to help us spread the word.

I plan to share with these challenges:

• A Perfect Time To Craft - AG
• ATC Around the World - AG
• Beautiful Blossoms - AG
• Crafts Galore Encore - AG
• Craft Rocket Challenges - Flowers
• Crazy is our fame - STENCILS are our game! - Stencils
• Creative Artiste Challenge - Anyhing Mixed Media Goes
• Creative Fingers - AG
• Creative Inspirations Challenge - AG
• Mix It Up Challenge - AG opt. Paper Piecing
• Neglected Stuff Challenge - Use neglected stuff (mine are the texture paste and collage paper)
• Paper Rock Scissors - paper and/or scissors (I used both)
• Pattie's Creations - AG
• Simon Says Stamps - Beautiful Blooms
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Stencil Fun
• Tag-Along (and ATC's) - Tags or ATC's AG
• Triple B - Blooms, Birds or Butterflies

Thanks so much for visiting and hope you're having a wonderful weekend. Lots of sunshine in our forecast which makes me happy.

If you liked 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 Crafty Wednesday - May Challenge

Hello and welcome to the May 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 lots of great entries in April. Be sure to scroll down to see if you are one of the "Top Picks" and may have inspired the top pick twist.

In case you missed it... I have a new email subscription option. If you would like to stay up-to-date when something new is posted here, simply enter your email address below and click subscribe. 

If you have been previously subscribed to my old email subscription, please re-subscribe if you would like to continue receiving my email updates as I am phasing that out soon. 

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.

I started with a handmade circle mask (the negative) and inked with Wilted Violet, Twisted Citron and Rustic Wilderness on Bristol Vellum paper, then spritzed with water for that fun reaction to create the white blodges. I stamped the flowers from Tracy Evans Boutique Designs Flower Power directly on the card and also on a previously made inky background which I then fussy cut. For the background I used stamps from my stash (Aall and Create Wild and Free, Aall and Create Musical Gears and SU French Script - all retired). As I had the Circle Explosion stencil out from another project I decided to use it as well. Sentiment is a quote from Tim Holtz Small Talk sticker sentiment book. I inked and distressed the edges before adding to the card base. Oh, and the small bird is from Tracy Evans Shadowed Elements stamp. Btw. Tracy Evans stamps are available directly at her shop in the UK or Simon Says Stamp and Topflight Stamps in the USA.

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Another view below. 

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:

• 613 Avenue Create - Floral Delight
• Creative Artiste Challenge - Anything Mixed Media
• Little Red Wagon - Goodbye Yellowbrick Road (use yellow)
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Stencil Fun
• Simon Says Stamps - Beautiful Blooms
• Triple B - Blooms, Birds or Butterflies
• Word Art Wednesday - AG

April Top Picks with a Twist:

Now it's time to announce the Top Picks with a twist from the April 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.... Things with Wings. 

And here they are listed in the order of entry:

No. 23 Elizabeth H.

No. 44 Gerrina

No. 49 Lia

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. You have until the last Wednesday of May to join in (May 28th 11:59pm CST). 

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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 images 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.

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday - March Challenge (and Exciting News!!)

Hello and welcome to the March Edition of Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday challenge taking place right here on my blog. I'm so glad you stopped by today and hope you'll decide to share your crafty makes too. There were lots of fabulous entries last month, thank you all!! Be sure to scroll down to see if your entry was a Top Pick.

Exciting News!! 

Last week an idea for a new challenge popped into my head 😀 and I decided to make it happen. It will be all about "Gardens" and I am calling it Ellibelle's Garden Party. It will be for papercrafts of any kind, and you may also share garden photography and other garden related posts. I don't know about you but being out in a garden is one of my most favorite things to do and has been my whole life. So mark your calendars and come join the first party starting Thursday March 13th!!

Ok, back to the reason of today's 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 made:

I'm still playing with my new Tracy Evans Boutique Designs stamps and recently actually managed to watch a video tutorial of one of her recent makes and this is my version of it. I used similar colors and similar techniques but chose different stamps/stencil and a bit different design.

The large cat stencil is Snippet Stencil Black Cat by Tracy Evans Boutique Designs, stamps are Numerical Cats, Abstract Trees (both by TE Boutique Designs), Miniatures - the background text stamping (Aall and Create by Tracy Evans) and Night Stalker - part of the sentiment in black (Aall and Create by Dominic Phillips).

Inks are Salvaged Patina, Wilted Violet, Cracked Pistachio and Hickory Smoke along with Versafine Onyx for the black ink. A white Posca pen was used to add splatter to the background. 

Related Products:

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 link up with these challenges:

• Crafty Animals - Animals
• Critter Crazy Challenges - Critters
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Favorite Technique (I love the acrylic block inking technique)
• Stamping Sensations - AG
• We Love Stamping - AG
• We Love 2 Create - AG Mixed Media style

February Top Picks with a Twist:

 
Now it's time to announce the Top Picks with a twist from the February 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.... Anything But a Card. 

And here they are listed in the order of entry:

No. 10 Debbie M.

who made this fabulous explosion box.

No. 13 Fiona Whitehead

who made this beautiful mini book (more gorgeous pages on her blog).

 

No. 20 Adry Concep

who made this beautifully crochet Tulip Surprise.

 

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.

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To join in this month's challenge please use the linky tool below. You have until the last Wednesday of March to join in (March 26th 11:59pm CST). 

If the linky tool is missing (it happend last year in March during renewal of my linky tools subscription), please simply leave your blog post link in a comment below.

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 images 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.