Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday - January Challenge

Hello and welcome to the January Crafty Wednesday challenge taking place right here on my blog! I'm so glad you stopped by today and hoping you will join in this month too! There were some fabulous entries in December, so be sure to scroll down to see if you were one of my top picks! 

This Month's Theme

Something New

As always, the theme is optional for your inspiration, but do feel free to share any of your crafty makes (any type of craft is welcome) and all entries will be considered as a Top Pick. You will find the linky tool at the end of the post. 

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!

And here is what I made:

For my "Something New" I went with a new (to me) product, this cute Conga Line stamp set from Colorado Craft Company. I got mine from Amazon but it's also available at Scrapbook.com and of course directly from Colorado Craft Company as well as other retailers. 

I've only just discovered this stamp set from a recent Allsorts challenge entrant and fell in love with these cute hamsters (or maybe they are guinea pigs?) Stamped using Versafine Onyx ink and simple watercoloring was done using my Zig Clean Color markers and a Zig Detailer watercolor brush. 

Related Products You May Like:

Party hats and crown were paper pieced using patterned paper scraps and I used the same papers for the banners. 

The sentiment is part of the same set and I decided to use a star stencil on the background. I've had this stencil for several years and don't remember what brand it is, but this stencil is a good alternative, otherwise stamped or die cut stars would also work well. Some green jute twine from May Arts finishes off the card. 

Stamp Set Used: 

Colorado Craft Conga Line

I'm linking up here:

A Place To Start - AG // Colouring in Scrapland - Coloring // Crafting Happiness Challenges - AG // Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Something New // 613 Avenue Create - AG // Critter Crazy Challenges - Critters // Clever Dexter Challenge - Something New // Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper - Patterned Papers // Creatalicious Challenges - Something New // The Crafting Challenge - AG // Sweet Stampin - Something New // 
 Always AG and Link Parties:

Taylor Made Cards 4 U // Crafter's Castle // 613 Avenue Create opt. twist watercolor // Crafty Creations // Creative Moments // Lemon Shortbread // Through The Craft Room Door // The Corrosive Challenges // A Bit More Time to Craft // A Perfect Time To Craft // Classic Design  Challenge * // Crafts Galore Encore // DL.Art Linky Challenge // Love to Craft // QKR Stampede // The Creative Crafters // World Wide Open Design Team Challenge // Lil Patch of Crafty Friends 

Dare to Share // Sunday Showcase (First Sunday) with Ada and Mireille // Inspire Me Monday //  Link Up Potpourri //  Random-osity Good, Random, Fun // You're The Star Blog Hop Link Party @Stonecottage Adventures // Anything Goes with Your Hosts @ My Random Musings // Jenerally Informed The Happy Now  Thursday Favorite Things // Little Things Thursday // Encouraging Heart and Home @ Slices of Life

Last Month's Top Picks

I will continue to add my favorites to the dedicated Pinterest board, but going forward I will once again showcase the top pick's creations with links to their individual blogs, which will be removed at the start of each new month's challenge to remain in compliance with GDPR.

Selecting just three is never easy but something that needs to be done and here they are from last month's theme of Baby, It's Cold Outside or Anything Goes. They are listed in order of entry.

No. 27 Auntie Sue

No. 34 Pauline

No. 47 Jill

Congratulations!! Well deserved recognition. Your Top Pick logo is below, feel free to post it to your own blogs if you like to :)

Can't wait to see what you will share this month!

A few things to remember:

• You may follow the theme or anything crafty goes.

• You may combine with any other challenges.

• You may use any brand of stamps/digis/products (no company restriction).
• No more than 3 entries per person please - no worries if you end up with more.
• Please do include a link back here to my blog in your blog post.
• Backlinking IS allowed.

My Recent Amazon Purchases

So I recently discovered a monthly link-up named Prime Purchases on Tanya at The Other Side of the Road's blog and since our family now has Amazon prime I've been buying more than I used to from Amazon. I hadn't really planned on signing up for Amazon Prime again (I did a free trial some time ago) but I accidentally signed up for it again and this time we ended up keeping it and it's come in real handy. 

The linkup is happening monthly, but I plan on sharing my Amazon purchases quarterly instead. These are all random, some crafty things, things for the kitchen, school... 

As a paper crafter you can never have enough Christmas sentiment stamps and when I came across a card that used this set, I just had to have it!

I've had the heart version of this die for a while and always wanted to get the star version but kept putting it off. Well, this holiday season I decided to treat myself and purchased it :)

I mentioned in my last post that I discovered Anita Jeram stamps from Colorado Craft Company. I purchased the sets Conga Line  and Big Love.

A few bottles of my favorite glue. It's been out of stock at Joann's (our only local craft store) for some time, I was getting desparate and had to place an order back in October. I think this is when I accidentally signed up again for prime and it arrived the following day.

 

My stainless steel pots/pans lid knobs needed replaced (evidently I shouldn't have put the lids into the dishwasher all those years) and these knobs were recommended so I purchased them. Glad I didn't have to replace my pots and pans set! 

I was looking for envelopes in bulk, I purchased these above along with a package of A2 sized envelopes and A7 sized because they had good reviews. Unfortunately they all went back as they were shipped in a shipping envelope and most if not all envelopes were damaged. I'm definitely not risking purchasing envelopes from Amazon again!! I also wasn't really impressed by the quality and decided to purchase some from Hobby Lobby, although one size I needed was out of stock.

Flexi Stretcher

My ballet dancer daughter had this flexi stretcher on her wish list and it was a perfect gift for her. 

I needed semolina flour and for some reason non of our local grocery store carry it anymore. Glad found this one on Amazon. 

Did you known you could rent college text books through Amazon Prime? This is my son's second Amazon Prime rental and it's worked out great.

I wanted to get a replacement for my  ink blending tool and someone had recommended these brushes on a stamping forum. I like that they have colorful handles that I can match to the inks I am using.

My daughter uses this tape to wrap her toes with whenever she dances on Pointe to prevent blisters. (All the older dancers at her studio use it.) We usually get it locally, but due to the shipping shortages every store was out right before recital week, so glad I found a 6 pack online! I did see it back in stock now at Target, but we still have a few rolls left from the order. 

Last year I started re-reading Phillipa Carr's Daughters of England series. This time I decide to purchase them to read on my Kindle App. I've arrived at book no. 16. (In case you are wondering - this book is not related to the movie Black Swan). 

Thanks so much for visiting!

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'm linking up here:

Tanya at The Other Side of the Road

Also linking up here:

Random-osity Good, Random, Fun // Thursday Favorite Things // Shelbee on the Edge Linkup // Sunday Showcase (first Sunday) with Ada and Mireille

Colorado Craft Mouse with a Die for Stamping Sensations and December Card Chain Challenge Reveal Day

Hello and welcome! 

Today's post is a two-in-one, hopefully I'll manage to keep the post from getting too long as I am sharing two cards I made, and a third I received.

It's the first Sunday of a new month and that means a new challenge starts at Stamping Sensations, and since it's the second of the month it also means time for Reveal Day for the December Card Cain Challenge which I had joined in again last month!

So first up is my card for Stamping Sensations where we're starting the year off with an easy theme of "Stamping with Option to Include a Die". Our prize this month is a £25 prize package from Oakwood Archer. Hope you will join us for your chance to win!

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!

So last year I discovered a line of stamps by Anita Jeram from Colorado Craft Company. 

I did wait for quite some time before I purchased any, but then found them at a really great price and free shipping through this Amazon seller and it was hard to resist that free shipping!!

This stamp set is called Big Love (also available at scrapbook.com and direct from Colorado Craft). It comes with this gorgeous - super cute - image and several sentiments, including the one I used on this card. There is also a matching die available but I rarely get matching dies for sets and instead fussy cut using my Cutterbee scissors.

Colored with Distress inks and a Zig Detailer watercolor brush before fussy cutting.

I also finally got the Avery Elle Star Frame die I've had on my wish list for some time and used it on today's card. 

The stencil is by TCW Circle Explosion. 

As mentioned, today is also reveal day for the December Card Chain Challenge - a world wide card exchange where we send one card and receive one card. By the way, if you are a card maker and would like to join in the January card exchange, you can read all the details HERE and sign up there as well. 

My December card went to Tina in Slovenia. I do so hope that my card arrived on time as I haven't heard anything from Tina. It was mailed in the first week of December.

At Card Chain Challenge we are always given a choice of "challenges". For December we had a fun "Tic Tac Toe" type grid and I selected the last row.

Gold, Glitter, Bird, Stamp and Red. I did use some other colors in addition to just gold and red for coloring. 

The image is from Penny Black - Birdhouse Blessings, heat embossed using Versafine Onyx ink and detail clear embossing powder. Coloring was done with Distress inks and Stampin Up re-inkers.

The script border I used on the bottom portion is from Whimsy Stamps (retired) and the mini sentiment is from Penny Black's set Holiday Snippets. The tag die is fromWhimsy (also retired) but there are lot of similar tag sets available, like this set. 

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Patterned paper is from my stash and I tied some gold cord around the card to finish it off. Oh, and some stickles glitter was applied to the star and snow on the bird house. 

Below is a photo of the cute and beautiful card I received from my sender, Pia from Norway. 

I LOVE these colors for Christmas and how cute are the Santas? A really fun mini slimline card!! Thank you, Pia!

PS: I know I just mentioned this in yesterday's post, but there is still time to join our mini hop and/or share your own "2021 Year in Review" post so I am writing another reminder for those of you who didn't see yesterday's post. Some of the hop co-hosts are giving a prize away too, from my blog you can win a code for 2 digis from Rachelle Anne Miller. You can hop along/ join in here or simply click the logo below.

As always, thanks so much for visiting!

I'm linking up here:

Mouse card:

Critter Crazy Challenges - Critters // Crafty Animals - Animals // Creatalicious Challenges - Something New (New Stamp) // Happy Little Stampers - AG Watercolor // A Gem of a Challenge - AG // Sweet Stampin - Something New (New Stamp Set) // Cut It Up - Birthdays // Krafty Chicks - AG // Simon Says Stamp - Time to Party // Crafty Sentiment Designs - AG // Ike's World - Fur or Feathers // 613 Avenue Create - AG // 

Always AG and Link Parties:

Taylor Made Cards 4 U // Crafter's Castle // 613 Avenue Create opt. twist watercolor // Crafty Creations // Creative Moments // Lemon Shortbread // Through The Craft Room Door // The Corrosive Challenges // A Bit More Time to Craft // A Perfect Time To Craft // Classic Design  Challenge * // Crafts Galore Encore // DL.Art Linky Challenge // Love to Craft // QKR Stampede // The Creative Crafters // World Wide Open Design Team Challenge // Lil Patch of Crafty Friends 

Bird Winter Card:

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper -AG w. Patterned Paper // 

Dare to Share // Inspire Me Monday //  Link Up Potpourri //  Random-osity Good, Random, Fun // You're The Star Blog Hop Link Party @Stonecottage Adventures // Anything Goes with Your Hosts @ My Random Musings // Jenerally Informed The Happy Now  Thursday Favorite Things // Little Things Thursday // Encouraging Heart and Home @ Slices of Life

A Masculine Card with Valko, the Howling Wolf

Hello and welcome! 

I would like to start off by wishing all my blog followers and visitors a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Since today is a Saturday, it's time for my weekly Allsorts challenge post. This week  Brenda is hosting and she picked the theme of "Black and White plus One Other Color". I hope you will join us!! What other color will you choose?? We do have a fabulous prize too, A4 Rare Earth stamp set that will go to one lucky winner!

And here is my card:

I had mentioned in a recent post that I ordered some Lavinia animal stamps (and a few other Lavinia stamps), this wolf was one that made it into my shopping cart along with the other wolf stamp. Not that I am a huge wolf fan, but they work so well for fantastic masculine cards and I think they were a much needed addition to my stamp collection! So here I made a masculine card using Lavinia Stamps with an old Whimsy Stamp birthday sentiment. 

The Lavinia stamps used are: Valko, Seasonal Tree, Lunar Buds and Stone Texture (this must have been retired as I can't find it for purchase any longer and it was part of my very first Lavinia order a few years ago).

I used a copy paper mask and two green shades of Distress Oxide inks - Twisted Citron and Shabby Shutters to ink up the card. A circle mask was in place for a moon. After inking, I removed the mask, stamped the wolf, stone texture and tree branches using Versafine Onyx ink. I turned the tree stamp around to stamp some branches on the opposite side of the card. The lunar buds were stamped using Shabby Shutters Distress Oxide ink. And finally the sentiment was stamped using Versafine Onyx ink. 

I used some green Stampin Up card stock for matting, and then a white card base to complete. 

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!

A closeup below:

By the way, did you get a chance yet to visit the "Year in Review" mini hop where a group of 6 paper crafters are sharing some of our favorite creations of 2021?  Some of the co-hosts are also giving away "blog candy" to lucky commenter on the hop. Oh, and anyone is welcome to create their own "year in review" post and then link up with us too. You can find the hop linky tool HERE or simply click the image panel below. Would love for you to join in!

Thanks so much for visiting!

I'm sharing my card with these challenges:

Creative Moment - AG // Mod Squad - Include Something New (New Stamps - wolf and tree), Paper Shelter - AG // Simon Says Stamp - Time to Party // Crafty Sentiment Designs - AG // Ike's World - Fur/Feathers // Double Trouble Challenges - Up to You (I chose Masculine Birthday) // We Love 2 Create - AG // Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - AG // Crafty Animals - Animals // 

Always AG and Link Parties:

Taylor Made Cards 4 U // Crafter's Castle // 613 Avenue Create opt. twist watercolor // Crafty Creations // Creative Moments // Lemon Shortbread // Through The Craft Room Door // The Corrosive Challenges // A Bit More Time to Craft // A Perfect Time To Craft // Classic Design  Challenge * // Crafts Galore Encore // DL.Art Linky Challenge // Love to Craft // QKR Stampede // The Creative Crafters // World Wide Open Design Team Challenge // 

Dare to Share // Inspire Me Monday //  Link Up Potpourri //  Random-osity Good, Random, Fun // You're The Star Blog Hop Link Party @Stonecottage Adventures // Anything Goes with Your Hosts @ My Random Musings // Jenerally Informed The Happy Now  Thursday Favorite Things // Little Things Thursday // Encouraging Heart and Home @ Slices of Life