Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday - January Challenge

Happy New Year!! 

I would like to wish all of my blog followers and visitors a Happy and Healthy 2020!

Welcome to the first Crafty Wednesday challenge of the year right here on my blog! I'm so happy you decided to check it out and maybe play along! There were some fabulous entries last month, be sure to scroll down to see if you were the prize winner or in my top picks.

This  Month's Theme

Use New Goodies or Old Favorites
(or both)

I think this challenge is for everyone and I hope you'll play along! As always the linky tool is at the end of this post.

For my card I used a "new to me" stamp by Hero Arts along with some old favorites. This stamp is called Antique Bee and Flowers and is available directly from Hero Arts, at Scrapbook. com  or Amazon. My card was inspired by a another challenge card I was working on ...

Hero Arts Antique Bee and Flowers also available Here and Here // Penny Black Happy Wishes also available Here // TCW Chickenwire Stencil // Stampin Up French Script // Distress Ink Tea Dye // Distress Ink Walnut Stain // Distress Ink Antique Linen // Distress Ink Scattered Straw // Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink // Clear Embossing Powder // Bristol Vellum Paper // Wink of Stella

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The image has been heat embossed on Bristol Vellum paper and colored with distress inks. I then used a chickenwire stencil and french script stamp to create the background with distress inks and I inked and distressed the edges.  Sentiments are from the Penny Black set Happy Wishes, stamped with Walnut Stain distress ink and heat embossed. Layered onto Stampin Up's Old Olive card stock then used 110 lb heavy weight white card stock as the base. Some clear wink of stella glitter was applied to the bee to give it some sparkles. 

I'm also linking up here:
Little Red Wagon - NBUS // Mod Squad Challenge - Make Your Own Pattern Papers // Simon Says Wednesday - Something New // Not Dressed as a Lamb - Any Blog Post

Below I've linked to Amazon for those of you interested. Affiliate links are used in this post, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase through the links,  at no cost to you. 

This Month's Prize

For the ease of things I am continuing to offer the winner a $6 Gift Certificate to either Mo's Digital Pencil Shop or Bugaboo. I am not affiliated with any of these companies and the prize will be supplied by me. 

Last Month's Winner and Top Picks

First up is the prize winner. Random.org was used to selected the winner, and the prize goes to......

No. 17 Paper Whims

Congratulations, you won a $6 Gift Certificate to either Mo's Digital Pencil or Bugaboo Stamps. (Unfortunately I can no longer offer Tiddly Inks as a prize as no certificates are offered in their new Etsy shop and the other shop is now closed.) 
Please message me at ellibellescorner at gmail dot com with your choice of gift certificate and I will get that sent to you. 

Choosing my top picks is never easy, but it has to be done and here they are in order of entry:

No. 16 Christy Lee

No. 29 Jan R

No. 56 Kuni

Congratulations on being selected as top picks! Your Top Pick logo is below. Feel free to post it to your own blogs if you like to!

As always, in order to follow GDPR regulations, I am not linking back to the individual blogs, but you can see these gorgeous top picks following the "Christmas/Holidays" theme by visiting last month's challenge/ linky tool.

To play along in this month's challenge simply use the linky tool below. The usual rules apply:

• Enter up to 3 times with a new project.
• You may combine with any other challenges.
• You may use any brand of stamps/digis (no company restriction)
• Be sure to add a link back here to my blog

PS: I recently shared my 2019 Year In Review post, where I picked my favorite creations of 2019. You can take a look here and please let me know if you've done a "favorites of 2019" post. I'd love to come check out yours!

Year in Review 2019

At the end of every year I like to take a look back at all the cards I made during the year and pick my favorites to share in my "year in review" post. To make it easier I choose a favorite from each month, but there were a couple of months where I couldn't decide and picked 2.

I've linked the original post above each creation, if you'd like to find out more about each card, simply click that link. 

January

Sweet Wishes

Sweet Wishes using Penny Black Loads of Love as the focal point.

 Masculine Birthday 

I used a Cowboy Trio Stamp by Magenta (no longer available)

February

Winter Sparkle

I used Mo Manning Siku and Shiya and Penny Black Berry Bevy for the focal point.

One Corner an a Little Music

I used  Hero Arts My Monthly Hero February Kit as the focal point.

March

The Color Yellow

I used Mo Manning Baby Fairy Bee as the focal point.

April

Bugs, Butterflies, Blossoms

I used Stampin Up Butterfly Basics - retired but available HERE on eBay.

May 

Life Is Beautiful

I used Hero Arts April My Monthly Hero Kit.

June

Summer Scenes

Only the girl card was made in June, the boy card made in April.

I used Stampin Up Summer by the Sea, Hero Arts Color Layering Waves, Hero Arts Color Layering Sea and Sand to create the scenes.

July

Add a Charm

I used Penny Black Snowy as the focal point and  Holiday Snippets for all the little sentiments.

August

For Boys or Men

I used Penny Black Birthday Critters, Penny Black Sweet Wishes and Penny Black Wood Floors die to created this scene.

September

Friendship is the Wine of Life

I used this retired stamp by PSX as the focal point. 

October

Best Wishes with Chinese Lantern

I used Hero Arts September 2018 Stamp Kit as the focal point.

November

Caroling Trio

I used Penny Black Caroling Trio as the focal point. 

December

Inspired by a Song

I used Penny Black Nose to Nose and Penny Black Tall Trees to create this scene.

So which one of my favorites is your favorite? 

You can definitely tell that I didn't do well with my 2019 crafty New Year's resolution ... it was to use up more of my pattern papers. I did well in the beginning, but it didn't take me long to neglect my pattern papers again! Maybe I'll try again in the new year but I enjoy the process of creating my own papers and backgrounds so much more!

The cute Penny Black stamps are still some of my favorites, and I definitely enjoyed working with distress inks a lot this year (inking and coloring). I also enjoyed getting out some oldies and some of my favorites were done with stamp kit subscriptions. I am sad that non of my Lavinia stamp cards made the top picks, but I didn't use them as much. I made several different card styles for sure, but if I were to make the same style of cards I would get bored easily. 

Did you create a "Year in Review" type post on your blog? If so then please let me know in the comments so I can come to take a look! It doesn't have to be cards, I'd love to see what your favorite posts of the year were.

As always thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to visit my blog. 

Wishing you a safe, happy and healthy New Year!

Linking up here:
Create with Joy  // Not Dressed as a Lamb

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!

Allsorts Challenge 521/522 - Anything Goes

It's time already for a new theme at Allsorts challenge. This time the challenge runs for 2 weeks to cover the holiday season and Lynn is making it easy for you with the theme of Anything Goes.

I made a masculine card using products from this Hero Arts My Monthly Hero kit (the car & matching die, stencil and golden paper) along with an old sentiment from Stampin Up and an old Star Die set from Whimsy Stamps. I love this star die set as an alternative and it's on my wish list.  

The car and sentiment were heat embossed. I used the matching die to cut out the car. Distress inks were used to color the car and I added subtle sparkles with a Wink of Stella clear glitter brush. The pattern papers are from my stash. 

This fun Art Deco inspired Hero Arts kit is still available HERE if you're interested.

Thanks so much for visiting! This is my last new post for this year. I am planning on sharing my yearly "Year in Review" post at the end of the year, hope you'll check back then!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you!


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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!

More Flowers All Over for Penny Black and More!

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!

Did you get a chance yet to join this month Penny Black and More challenge? If not then there is still some time to play along for a chance to win some great prizes! Our theme is Flowers All Over, you can make anything you want featuring hand stamped flowers.

A quick and easy card today, I already had the background inked up from a previous project using a variety of green Distress inks and oxides. Then I stamped the flower sprig from the Penny Black set Sprigs in Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and sentiment from the same set over the inked paper. The card base was stamped using the same flower stamp this time with Bundled Sage Distress ink. I finished off the card with some white "candy dots" that I think were part of a Stampin Up stamp kit I purchased a few years go. 

Thanks so much for visiting!

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