Blooming Friendship

Hello and welcome!

It's time already for a new theme at Allsorts challenge, this week it's Lorraine's turn to host and she chose "Anything Goes with Option of Make Your Own Background". Hope you'll join us for a chance to win. We have a £15 store voucher from WOWVOW to give away. By the way this challenge runs for 2 weeks over summer. Here in my corner of the world summer is slowly coming to an end as there is only one more week of summer break for the public schools. It always goes so fast!!

By the way, I posted more vacation photos yesterday. It was planned to share them with today's post but had extra time this Thursday to work on the blog so I shared them a day earlier. You can visit this post if you'd like to see more Black Hills/Custer State Park photos. 

Now onto my card. 

The background was made with Distress inks and I added a bit of stenciling too. 

The floral stamp is Penny Black's Blossom Branch brushstroke stamp, inked up using Distress inks and markers and stamped with the help of a stamp platform, which in my opinion is a necessity when using brushstroke stamps. 

The sentiment is also by Penny Black from the sentiment set Friendship. I also added a couple small sentiments from the Penny Black set Snippets. I used a retired Whimsy Stamps tag die (options) to cut it out. Some mustard colored ribbon and natural jute twine was tied onto the card/tag. The little butterfly is one from Penny Black's Soaring die set.

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Thank you 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 plan on linking up here:

Penny Black Saturday - PB Stamps // Craft Rocket Challenges - Flowers // Krafty Chicks - Stamp Act // Moving along with the Times - AG // The Paper Funday - Friendship // Crafty Calendar - AG // Di's Digis Designs - Die Cuts // 

Always AG:

A Place To Start - AG // Taylor Made Cards 4 U // 613 Avenue Create opt. twist watercolor // Creative Moments // Through The Craft Room Door // The Corrosive Challenges // 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 // 

 

Link Parties:

Dare to Share //  Sunday Showcase - First Sunday with Ada and Mireille  //  Inspire Me Monday //  Link Up Potpourri //  Random-osity Good, Random, Fun //  Travel Tuesday. // You're The Star Blog Hop Link Party @Stonecottage Adventures // Anything Goes with Your Hosts @ My Random Musings // Jenerally Informed The Happy Now // Spread the Kindness Linkup @ Shelbee on the Edge //  Wonderful Wednesday // My Corner Of The World //Thursday Favorite Things // Little Things Thursday // Encouraging Heart and Home @ Slices of Life //  Funtastic Friday //   Link Up On The Edge

More Vacation Photos: Wildlife Loop Road, Wind Cave National Park, Sylvan Lake Trail and Two Monuments

Hello and welcome!

I had planned on posting these pictures tomorrow along with my weekly card share, but had a little extra time yesterday already to work on the post so I decided to share them today in a separate post. 

These are more pictures from our July road trip to the Black Hills/Badlands. You can see the first set of pictures HERE (The Badlands National Park) and the second set HERE (Black Elk Peak Loop Trail). 

Since we were so wiped out from the long Black Elk Loop Trail from the previous day we decided to start the next day with a leisurely drive on Wildlife Loop Road, an attraction in Custer State Park, to see some of the local wildlife and wide open areas. The views really are gorgeous but there wasn't a lot of wildlife, maybe we should have done it at bit earlier in the morning...

We did finally come across a herd of Bison and as the road went on saw a few more Bison here and there along with fields of prairie dogs and a few deer.

Even though we didn't see as much wildlife as we hoped to, it was still a beautiful relaxing drive with a very different landscape to what we are used to at home (cornfields everywhere!!). 

Custer State Park is home to several lakes, I have no idea which lake this is but we did see a few deer in this area and the lake was beautiful.

We decided to drive to Wind Cave National Park which is just south of Custer State Park. Not only are there cave tours but there are also some hiking trails and a chance to see more wildlife. We did see a few American Antelopes in this area.

We had no intention of doing a cave tour (we visited Jewel Cave when we visited this area in 2016), instead I just wanted to see what this area looked like and maybe find a few more animals.

We did discovered these stairs near the visitor's center and of course wanted to check out where they led to so up we went.

It was this beautiful trail in an open field of flowers.

The trail was pretty narrow and I was a bit worried about Rattlesnakes once again as this area is known for Rattlesnakes. We hiked for a little while but didn't complete the trail as it wasn't really planned and we didn't know how long it would take. It sure was beautiful though.

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There were still many hours left in the day and since Mount Rushmore is so close by we decided to visit it on this day too. You don't need to spend a long time here.

We did the Presidential Loop trail which is fairly easy, less than a mile long, and visited the gift shop.

Back in the Custer area we stopped at Crazy Horse Memorial which is an ongoing work in progress. An impressing mountain carving of Native American "Crazy Horse". It's a slow process as I read that work started 70 years ago. 

It was another place we visited in 2016 so this time we only saw the views from the lookout point. (You can see it from the road). They have a beautiful museum/Native American store here and a light show at night. It's well worth a visit and I do wish we hadn't skipped going inside this time.

Our hotel was in Custer, the closest town to Custer State Park so after we were done with our other Sightseeing on this day we decided to spend the rest of the day at Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park. I just love this lake so much!! 

Sylvan Lake Loop trail is fairly easy so of course we hiked around it to see it from every angle :) 

I did discover the trail head of Sunday Gulch Trail and REALLY wanted to go on it but my family didn't. It was also rather late in the day at this time and with a trail classified as strenuous we really weren't prepared so I may just have to visit this area again some day!!

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As we were leaving we came across this family of deer. 

I have one more set of blog worthy vacation picture to share next week. Hope you stop by then!

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!

Linking up here:

Dare to Share //  Sunday Showcase - First Sunday with Ada and Mireille  //  Inspire Me Monday //  Link Up Potpourri //  Random-osity Good, Random, Fun //  Travel Tuesday. // You're The Star Blog Hop Link Party @Stonecottage Adventures // Anything Goes with Your Hosts @ My Random Musings // Jenerally Informed The Happy Now // Spread the Kindness Linkup @ Shelbee on the Edge //  Wonderful Wednesday // My Corner Of The World //Thursday Favorite Things // Little Things Thursday // Encouraging Heart and Home @ Slices of Life //  Funtastic Friday //   Link Up On The Edge // Friday Favorites

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday - August Challenge

Hello and welcome to Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday - August challenge taking place right here on my blog! I'm so glad you decided to stop by and I would LOVE it if you joined in too! As always, you can scroll down to see last month's Top Picks with a Twist. There were some fabulous entries, thank you all for sharing your creativity!

As a reminder, the themes now are always....................

Anything Goes

and instead is replaced by a "Top Pick Twist".

So feel free to link up all your new or recently made crafty things for a chance to be featured next month. As mentioned, the Top Pick features now will follow a theme/twist but nobody knows what that will be until the end of the month (not even me) and will be inspired by YOUR creations. Will it be something you incorporated on your card? As always, the  linky tool is at the end of the post.

Here is my card share:

My card was inspired by the current challenge at Inspiration Station with this fabulous photo:

The Zebra stood out to me the most  as I remembered this stamp I found for just $0.25 at a thrift store a few years ago and have never used it. It's by Coronado Stamps, not really a company I am familiar with and I am thinking it may no longer be in business. I do love the realistic style and glad I finally inked it up!

I created a sunset (or sunrise) scene with Distress inks (Antique Linen, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick) with a circle die cut mask in place for a moon. I removed the mask then stamped the Zebra. A white Posca pen was then used on the Zebra's white stripes. The pen worked ok but you can still see some orange and if I had to do this again I would definitely start out by stamping the Zebra first and masking it before inking the sky. Wish I had thought of that when I first started with the card!!

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The tree is Lavinia's Celestial Tree stamp, it was the only one big enough to sort of fit with the size of the Zebra.

The birds are from an older Hero Arts monthly kit and I added a quote from Tim Holtz's metallic sticker quotation set.

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 on linking up  here:

Inspiration Station - Animal Kingdom // Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenges - AG // The Paper Funday - AG opt. Friendship

Always AG and Link Parties:

A Place To Start - AG // Taylor Made Cards 4 U // 613 Avenue Create opt. twist watercolor // Creative Moments // Through The Craft Room Door // The Corrosive Challenges // 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 

Link Parties:

Dare to Share //  Sunday Showcase - First Sunday with Ada and Mireille  //  Inspire Me Monday //  Link Up Potpourri //  Random-osity Good, Random, Fun //  Travel Tuesday. // You're The Star Blog Hop Link Party @Stonecottage Adventures // Anything Goes with Your Hosts @ My Random Musings // Jenerally Informed The Happy Now // Spread the Kindness Linkup @ Shelbee on the Edge //  Wonderful Wednesday // My Corner Of The World //Thursday Favorite Things // Little Things Thursday // Encouraging Heart and Home @ Slices of Life //  Funtastic Friday //   Link Up On The Edge

 July  Top Pick with a Twist

As mentioned previously, there is now a Top Pick Twist when it comes to my selection of Top Picks. Nobody knows what the twist will be - not even me - until the end of the month as the twist will be totally inspired by YOUR creations. This means the top picks will all have something in common. 

The Top Pick Twist from the July entries is ............Summer Colors Galore! Meaning all my July Top Picks will feature lots of beautiful summer colors. 

No. 30 Diane H.

No. 31 Gale K.

No. 44 Sparkling Pink

Congratulations!! Well deserved recognition! Your Top Pick logo is below. Feel free to post it to your own blogs.

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 please use the linky tool below. You have until Wednesday August 31st 11:59pm CST to link up! 

A few things to remember:

• 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 so I can manage to visit each entry.
• Please do include a link back here to my blog in your blog post.
• Backlinking to a recent post IS allowed.
• Digital products are allowed and very welcome but the final piece has to be a physical handmade creation, not just digital.

Pineapple Girl for Four Seasons Challenge - Summer

Hello and welcome! Happy August! Hard to believe it's August already! School starts here in less than 3 weeks! Summertime always seems to fly by so fast!! But luckily summer weather does stick around over here until the end of September usually so at least we can still enjoy some nice weather!

I'm so excited to share the news that I have joined the the Four Seasons Challenge Blog design team! I discovered this blog late last year and have used it so many times over these months whenever I needed a bit of inspiration. I wasn't really planning on joining another full time design team but couldn't help giving this one a try. With just one card commitment a month and a beautiful mood board each month I know it won't be hard to do! Many thanks to the Four Seasons team for allowing me to be part of it! Really looking forward to all the wonderful mood boards and challenges to come! And I hope some of my blog readers will join in the fun too :)

For those of you unfamiliar with Four Seasons Challenge: This is a monthly papercraft challenge starting on the 1st and ending on the 25th of each month. As the name suggests, the themes follow the four seasons (in the northern hemisphere) and each month the theme will be Anything Goes with the current season in mind.  

Each month will also have a new mood board as inspiration but it is totally optional to use the mood board. 

Below is this month's mood board and I am sure you will be able to tell what inspired my card. 

In fact I used this as an excuse to purchase this beautiful Mo Manning Pineapple Girl digital image. Not that I didn't already have plenty of products I could  have used, but I always loved this image just never actually purchased it. What a joy it was to color with my Faber Castell Polychromos!!

After coloring I fussy cut her using my Cutterbee scissors. On the background paper I used the Circle Explosions stencil to add some interest. The die cut circle and butterflies are from a newer Penny Black die set Soaring which I seem to be using a lot because I absolutely love this set, especially the butterflies. I cut them out on white card stock then used Squeezed Lemonade and Mustard Seed Distress inks to give them color. 

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The summer sentiment is from an old Whimsy Stamp set (Summer Letter Seals) but it's many years old and no longer available. "Sweet Life" is a sticker from Tim Holtz Metallic sticker set. 

I used a Wonky Stitches rectangle die to cut out the image panel.

The patterned papers are all scraps from my scrap box. Green jute twine is by May Arts in Parrot Green.

Hope you will join in the fun at The Four Seasons challenge this month! And thank you 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 plan on linking up here (I found so many this time but ensured they all allow unlimited entries to other challenges):

We Love Stamping - Hot Sunny Colors // We Love 2 Create - Anything Creative // 2 Sisters On The Blog - AG // Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper - Patterned Papers // Creatalicious Challenges - AG // Pearly Sparkles Challenge - AG // International Art & Soul - Happiness //  Double Trouble Challenges - Add Extra Layers, Frames or Die Cuts (The circle die cut wasn't originally planned but it was laying around my desk so I added it // Incy Wincy Designs  - Food and/or Drink // Fab n Funky - AG // Little Red Wagon - Stitching (hope faux stitching is ok?) // Paper Shelter - AG // Simon Says Stamp - AG // Digi Choosday Challenge - AG // Everybody-Art-Challenge - Sunny Greetings // Cutie Pie Challenge - Little Cuties // Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenges - AG // 

Always AG and Link Parties:

A Place To Start - AG // Taylor Made Cards 4 U // 613 Avenue Create opt. twist watercolor // Creative Moments // Through The Craft Room Door // The Corrosive Challenges // 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 

Link Parties:

Dare to Share //  Sunday Showcase - First Sunday with Ada and Mireille  //  Inspire Me Monday //  Link Up Potpourri //  Random-osity Good, Random, Fun //  Travel Tuesday. // You're The Star Blog Hop Link Party @Stonecottage Adventures // Anything Goes with Your Hosts @ My Random Musings // Jenerally Informed The Happy Now // Spread the Kindness Linkup @ Shelbee on the Edge //  Wonderful Wednesday // My Corner Of The World //Thursday Favorite Things // Little Things Thursday // Encouraging Heart and Home @ Slices of Life //  Funtastic Friday //   Link Up On The Edge