Four Seasons October Challenge - A Haunted House

Hello October, how are we here already!!?? I hope you are ready for the fall season. I'm looking forward to the beautiful colors of the season and hopefully we'll have some nice fall weather this month. It usually is but you just never know, I do remember the year my daughter was born we had negative 20 degrees celsius around mid-October, I remember it so well because our furnice started a small fire in the basement that October and then we were without heat for a few days so had to use space heaters. So you just never know what kind of weather you'll get in October around here!!

Ok but you are here to see my newest project. A new month means a new challenge at the Four Seasons challenge blog and we are still in "Fall/Autumn" mode so come share all your new fall themed creations with us! As always we have a mood board to get you started but it's completely optional as "Anything Fall Goes".

I absolutely thought I had a Halloween stamp (bought at a thrift store earlier this year) that resembled the creatures on the bottom left of our mood board but it was nowhere to be found! And I also couldn't find a couple of my other Halloween themed stamp sets (I don't have many). I have no idea what happened to them! I did find one clamshell box of random stamps for Halloween including this wood mounted haunted house from Art Impressions. The sentiments (including October 31) are part of a really old stamp by Whimsy Stamps (Chalkboard Greetings) which I keep in my Whimsy Stamps box as the set includes a variety of sentiments not just Halloween. I used distress inks for watercoloring and the "boo" stamp was also in this box of random Halloween stamps.

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I'm acutally kind of shocked that my card looks nothing like anything on the mood board. I probably would have done another sunflower card as I have many sunflower stamps, but somehow I had a Halloween themed card in my mind.

Here is our optional mood board for the month:

Not my best coloring but below is a closeup of the image. The patterned paper is from a fairy tale paper pack I've been hoarding for no reason.

Our challenge runs until October 25th so there is plenty of time to join in the fun! 

Thanks so much for visiting!!

I plan on sharing with these challenges:

• Krafty Chicks - all occasions
• Addicted to Stamps and More - any occasion
• Simon Says Stamp - AG
• The Crafty Addicts- AG

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!

Seasonal Tree

Hello and welcome! Happy Saturday! It's time already for a new theme at Allsorts challenge and Brenda's turn to host. Fitting for the time of the year she chose "Trees, Leaves and/or Berries" with the option of Anything Goes so anyone can play along with us for a chance to win. As this challenge will end in October we have new prizes for the month of October (btw. September winners were just announced yesterday so be sure to check out that post on the challenge blog if you haven't already!) This month there are prizes from Stamp Addicts, Oakwood, Highlight Crafts, Ruth Hamilton Design, AALL and Create and Craft Stash for challenges 748, 749,750 and 751 with winners announced on the last Friday of October.   

And here is what I made:

I have several tree stamps but this beautiful Seasonal Tree from Lavinia Stamps was the first one that came to mind and while I did look through my stamps to see if I'd rather use another one, I stuck with my first thought. I masked the edges of my square card stock with washi tape and then used Carved Pumpkin ink with an ink blending tool to ink it up. I did add just a little bit of Worn Lipstick ink on the very edges for a bit darker shade. Next I used my trusty old French Script stamp on the background and flicked some diluted Walnut Stain ink on it as well. 

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After removing the Washi tape I stamped the Seasonal Tree with black ink. I wanted to add some more stamping and since I am currently keeping my Aall and Create stamps right on my desk, these birds were looking at me and I thought they'd be perfect. They are part of the A4 stamp set Friendship Florals. The leaves are part of Lavinias Creeping Vine. I also used a single leave stamp and die from an old Hero Arts stamp kit. While looking for a sentiment to add I found the most perfect one from an old stamp set by Whimsy Stamps (Autumn Letter Seals). I just love this verse and think it fits the theme of my card so well.    

Even if something is left undone, 

everyone must take time to sit still and watch the leaves turn. 

- Elizabeth Lawrence  

Below are our prizes for the following 4 challenges, lots of wonderful goodies which will be divided among the winners.

Thank you so much for visiting today! Hope I inspired you to join us in this week's challenge, would love to see you there!

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I plan to enter these challenges:

• Triple B Challenge - Birds, Bees or Butterflies
• Crafty Gals Corner - signs of fall
• Simon Says Stamp - AG
• The Male Room - Leaves
• Word Art Wednesdays - AG
• Everybody-Art-Challenge - stamping
• Make My Monday - create your own background
• Path of Positivity - something positive
• Alphabet Challenge - M for Monochrome
• Sweet Stampin - Autumn

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!

Cute Four Legged Friends

Happy Saturday! It's time already for a new theme at Allsorts challenge. Sarah's turn to host this week and her optional theme is Four Legged Friends. Hope you'll join us this week to be entered into the prize drawing. You can enter up to three times following the optional theme or anything goes. There are some wonderful prizes up for grabs from Craft Stash, Anna Marie Designs, AALL and Create, Oakwood, WOWVOW for our September challenges and all winners will be announced on Friday the 29th.

My Four Legged Friends are these cute Penny Black mice. Not going to lie, mice do freak me out when they are unexpected but I do love all Penny Black mice. It's an older wood mounted stamp but I only purchased it earlier this year as I am still collecting Penny Black critter stamps and I rather have them wood mounted instead of cling.

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I colored with distress inks and flicked some ink onto the background too. Tiny hearts were added for some more interest and stickles glitter for sparkle. The sentiment is from the set Dream.Love.Sentiments. also by Penny Black.

On Monday we are celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary and this is the card I am giving to my husband. I didn't photograph the inside but I used a number "25" die cut along with another verse from the same sentiment set - the one starting with Forever.  

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There's a great variety of four legged friends themed card on the challenge blog by the rest of the team so hope you'll stop by there to check them out and of course to link up your own creation!

Linking up with these challenges:

• Penny Black Saturday - PB Stamps
• Crafty Animals - Animals
• Critter Crazy Challenges - Critters

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 Spy With My Little Eye: Something From or On a Farm/ Challenge No. 7 - Partnering with Double Trouble Challenge (Optional)

Hello and welcome to a new "I spy with my little eye" challenge taking place right here on my blog! Pauline and I are back with a new fun theme a couple of  days earlier than usual and we are so excited to be collaborating with the fun Double Trouble challenge this time for some Triple Fun - more details below.

Of course it is optional for our participants to join Double Trouble challenge so lets first get started with our theme here.

I spy with my little eye....................

Something on or from a farm.

Lots of fun options there, that includes things like animals you may find around a farm, any kind of crops, farm scenes, tractors, farmers and so much more!! We can't wait to see what you will come up with!

And now for the extra fun part, if you use a die or punch on your card then you are invited to join the Double Trouble challenge as their main theme is "Any Way you Punch it" - use die cuts or punches. With their optional twist of "Farm Animal". 

And here is what our little design team came up with:

My Card (Ellie)

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 started with another inky background previously done this time in shades of orange. Then I stamped the "wheat" silhouette (old, by Hero Arts) onto the background using Distress Inks. And I wanted to use another stamp from my new Aall and Create set The Great Outdoors which I am sure is supposed to be a flower but on today's card I decided it could be a vegetable just the same so I stamped it in black for some interest on the background :) I had lots of choices for a farm animal but decided to finally ink up my new Colorado Craft stamp I purchased earlier this year from the set "Veg Out".Colored and fussy cut to add to the card. The sentiment at the top is also from Colorado Craft Company from the set Veggie Stacks". "Dance in the Breeze" at the bottom is part of that same stamp by Aall and Create. Thought it was very fitting as this rabbit happily hops (or dances) away from the field with his carrot :) For my die cut piece to follow the Double Trouble challenge I added some die cut butterflies done with a Penny Black die set. I wanted to bring in a little more black on the top so I used a torn piece of patterned paper and added a button with twine to finish it off. 

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I plan to share the card above with these challenges:

Colourful Options - outrages orange

Crafty Animals - Animals

Critter Crazy Challenges - Critter

Mix It Up Challenge - Make your own background

Stamping Sensations - AG or Garden Delights

Pauline's Card:

Isn't it just adorable and so beautifully done! You can find out all about how she made this by visiting her blog.

We're so exited to have a guest designer this month and that is Lynda aka Loopyloo. So glad you've joined us this month, Lynda!

Lynda's Card:

How wonderful is this with these sweet creatures complete with a red barn! To find out how she made this cute card please be sure to visit her blog.

Top Picks from Challenges No. 6

Many thank to all of you who played I spy with us last month. While it wasn't a super popular theme there were some fabulous entries and as usual a bit of a challenge to select our top favorites. But something that needs done so here they are:

*To be in compliance with GDPR, Top Pick photos and links will be removed after the start of the new challenge. 

Remember, both Top Picks are invited to join us in the next challenge if you like to. That would be for challenge no. 8 starting October 18th! Of course it's not a requirement but we would love to have you as guests!!

No. 4 Maxine (Ellie's Pick)

No 10 - Anke (Pauline's Pick)

Congratulations to both of you!! Your top pick logo is below to display on your own blogs if you like to.

You are both invited to join us as guest designers (optional of course!) for challenge no. 8 starting on Wednesday October 18. 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.

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Now it's time to link up YOUR creations for the new theme! Anyone is invited to join us with your crafty makes following our theme - I spy something on or from a farm.


A few things to remember:

• You may share up to 5 different projects
• You may combine with as many other challenges as you like to
• No fully digital projects please
• Please include a link back to this blog
• Challenge ends Sunday October 15th
• If you have used a die or punch you may also link up with Double Trouble challenge for the next two weeks