Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday - April Challenge

Hello and welcome to the Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday -April challenge taking place right here on my blog! I'm so glad you you stopped by and I would love to see you joining in this month too! It was so nice to see so many of you linking up in March and I enjoyed visiting you all! Be sure to scroll down to see my top picks.

As always at Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday the theme is now.....................

Anything  Goes,

and instead of a challenge theme there will be a "Top Pick Twist" but nobody knows what the twist will be (not even me) until the challenge closes as it will be inspired by YOUR creations. So do link up all your new or recently created projects for a chance to be featured. Remember, you may share anything crafty, handmade by you. It doesn't have to be a card.

Here is my April creation:

The focal point are these fun Lavinia Stamps fairies - Dancing Till Dawn.

For a change I dusted off my Dylusion sprays, I used After Midnight and Fresh Lime although you can barely see any fresh lime here... It's been years since I last used them and I don't really know how to properly use them so I just spritzed on a craft mat, a spritz of water and then I inked up some Mixed Media card. There was plenty of ink for several cardstock pieces, the first two were very intense but I liked how this piece turned out and I thought it was perfect for these Lavinia fairies so I made a night sky which happens to be this month's Lavinia stamps challenge so I may link this up there.

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I used parts of Lavinia's poem Secret Night on the top right and bottom left stamped with Chipped Sapphire ink. I also used one of Lavinia's tiny stars stamp with Squeezed Lemonade ink. A quicky glue pen and loose glitter finishes off the card. Looks like I forgot to brush off some glitter specks from the Night of Navy (Stampin Up) card base. 

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 blogging challenges:

• Country View Crafts' Challenge - things with wings
• Pearly Sparkles Challenge - All Creatures Great and Small
• Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenges - AG
• We Love Stamping - Using AG Option
• We Love 2 Create - AG Creative/Mixed Media

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March Top Picks 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 March entries is ..... For the Kids. How fabulous are these creations below!!?? So fun and creative!!

No. 34 Steph

No. 67 Priya

No. 70 Linby

Congrats everyone, well deserved recognition! Your top pick logo is below. Feel free to post it 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 Sunday April 30th 11:59 CST to play along!

A few things to remember:

• You may combine with any other challenges.
• You may use any brand of stamps/digis/products (no company restriction).
• Please try to limit your linked up cards to 3 entries per month - it's ok if you end up with more than 3.
• 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

Crazy Cousin at Double Trouble - Colors of the Rainbow and a Sketch

Hello everyone, I was invited to be the Crazy Cousin (a.k.a guest designer) at Double Trouble challenge for the month of April so here I am today sharing my card for their first April challenge. 

You can see in the logo above, Thing One - the trouble maker - wants to see a choice of rainbow color(s). Thing 3 - Twisted Sister - want us to use the Sketch (below) from Tuesday Morning Sketch challenge (this is optional) and finally Thing 2 wants us to share our card with Tuesday Morning Sketch challenge if we used the sketch (also optional). 

This was a fun card to create. I thought this new to me wood mounted stamp from Penny Black (Fish are Jumping) was the perfect choice for the Roy G. Biv Rainbow color challenge. 

I colored the image with a mix of Copic markers and Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. I followed the orders of the Twisted Sister and used Tuesday Morning's sketch (which will actually go live tomorrow as their challenge starts on a Tuesday but I think they will allow back linking for this challenge only). I cut the image out using a Nestabilities scallop circle die. The papers are from my stash. 

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Sentiment is also new to me from Tim Holtz's Tiny Text stamp set. Lots of great quotes in this set! I used Stickles glitter to make the rainbow sparkle. 

This challenge runs for two weeks and as mentioned you only need to follow Thing 1's theme of rainbow color(s), Thing 2 and 3 are optional :)

I shared this beautiful photo before but couldn't miss the opportunity to share again since today's topic is about rainbow colors :)

I took it while on vacation in Colorado. It was such a beautiful sight to see and it was extra special as that day was my birthday!

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 my card with these challenges:

• We Love Stamping - Opt. Birds/Animals (a little mouse)
•  Sisterhood of Crafters - Rainbows or Rainbow Colors Unfortunately I'm too late for it :(
• Crafty Animals - Animals
• Critter Crazy Challenges - Critters
• Pearly Sparkles Challenge - All Creatures Great and Small

In the Spring Garden

I'm back again a second time today as it's also time for a new theme at Allsorts challenge. It's my turn to host and I selected the optional theme of "in the spring garden". Lots of choices there and I'd love to see all those garden things but if you're currently working on another theme we'd love to see those too! Btw. this theme runs for two weeks to cover the Easter holiday so I won't have a Saturday post next week. We have a new selection of prizes for the April challenges, this month they come from Oakwood, AALL and Create, Stamp Addicts, Ruth Hamilton Design and Aldridge Crafts. Winners will be drawn from each challenge and all will be announced on April 28th on the challenge blog. 

Another Penny Black stamp for my second project today, this time I chose the beautiful stamp Bird's Eye View which I stamped using Versafine Onyx ink and colored with Distress watercolor pencils. I wanted to add a spring quote but don't have many to choose from especially not it a font I wanted so I googled spring quotes and loved this one by S. Brown and I typed it up on my computer using the American typewriter font.

To add some interest to the background I used a graph stamp by Darkroom Door (you have to look really closely to see it). Also used a Lavinia Stencil and added some ink spatter onto the background. The bird was stamped a second time and fussy cut then added with foam tape.

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The outer paper looks black but is Stampin Up's Night of Navy which always looks black in photos. I haven't added this piece to a card base yet. I think this might make a nice spring wall decoration so I might get a frame for it. 

Those butterflies and spatter weren't intentional LOL but I got some ink marks from my fingers onto the piece shortly before it was finished and didn't want to start over with it. So I decided to add the butterflies and spatter to "hide" the imperfections. I do like how it turned out :)

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Thanks so much for visiting. If you'd like to read my other post I shared a couple of hours ago simply click on the card below. It's for the April Four Seasons challenge where the theme is Spring.

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 would like to share my Spring Garden creation with these challenges:

Penny Black Saturday - PB Stamps 

Craft Rocket Challenges - For the Girls

Simon Says Stamp - AG

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Stencil it

Use Your Stuff - Animals/Birds

These below are Always Anything Goes, I may not share with all but hope to link up when possible:

A Gem of a Challenge unlimited entries
A Perfect Time To Craft unlimited entries
Classic Design  Challenge unlimited entries
DL.Art Linky Challenge unlimited entries/ once per day
LeAnn’s World 101 unlimited entries
We Love 2 Create (creative/mixed media) unlimited entries
A Place To Start 8 entries max
613 Avenue Create 8 entries max
Path of Positivity 7 entries max
The Paper Funday 6 entries max
Word Art Wednesdays 5 entries max
The Corrosive Challenges 4 entries max 
Through The Craft Room Door 4 entries max
Crafty Catz 3 entries max
Creative Fingers 3 entries max
Ally's Angels 3 entries max  
Arty Divas 3 entries max
Crafts Galore Encore 3 entries max
Creatalicious Challenges 3 entries max
Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday (my own challenge) 3 entries max  
Let's Craft & Create Challenge 3 entries max 
QKR Stampede 3 entries max
The Creative Crafters 3 entries max
World Wide Open Design Team Challenge 3 entries max
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends 3 entries max
Taylor Made Cards 4 U 3 entries max

Chick to Chick

Hello everyone and happy April Fools Day! Hopefully April starts with some sunshine in your corner of the world. We're expecting rain, snow and wind today and chilly weather in the next few days. Yesterday it was a bit over 70 degrees F (above 20 degrees C) then we had some storms move through the area which brought the cold weather. Typical April weather!! 

A new month means it's time for another challenge at the Four Seasons challenge blog and we want to see all your new spring themed cards and crafts! As always there is a fabulous optional mood board too if you need a starting point.

I can't believe Easter is just about a week away!! I haven't made many Easter cards this year but I was inspired by the cute chick on our mood board so I got out my Chick to Chick stamp set from Penny Black. 

I stamped on  Neenah 80lb card stock and colored with my Faber Castell Polychromos pencils then used a circle Nestabilities die to cut it out and layered onto a scalloped circle die cut which I inked with Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxide ink. 

Green patterned paper is from my stash. On the white background I used a Lavinia Stencil with the same yellow ink. The sentiment is an oldie wood mounted stamp also by Penny Black. I embellished with a butterfly die cut (Penny Black die Soaring), sticky pearls and green jute twine.

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I'd like to share with these challenges:

Tic Tac Toe Challenge It won't let me copy and paste the tic tac toe logo into my post but I am using the diagonal line from right to left (die cuts/free/circles)

Penny Black Saturday - use PB Stamps
Art Impressions Stamp Challenge - Easter
C.R.A.F.T. - Easter
Fab n Funky - Lots of Layers
Paper Shelter - For a child
Simon Says Stamp - AG
Double D - Easter
Paper Minutes - Easter
Cutie Pie Challenge - Beginning with B (Birds, Bow, Butterfly)
Use Your Stuff - Animals/Birds

Cut It Up - add embellishments

My Time to Craft  - Springtime

Pattie's Creations - 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!

These below are Always Anything Goes, I may not share with all but hope to link up when possible:

A Gem of a Challenge unlimited entries
A Perfect Time To Craft unlimited entries
Classic Design  Challenge unlimited entries
DL.Art Linky Challenge unlimited entries/ once per day
LeAnn’s World 101 unlimited entries
We Love 2 Create (creative/mixed media) unlimited entries
A Place To Start 8 entries max
613 Avenue Create 8 entries max
Path of Positivity 7 entries max
The Paper Funday 6 entries max
Word Art Wednesdays 5 entries max
The Corrosive Challenges 4 entries max 
Through The Craft Room Door 4 entries max
Crafty Catz 3 entries max
Creative Fingers 3 entries max
Ally's Angels 3 entries max  
Arty Divas 3 entries max
Crafts Galore Encore 3 entries max
Creatalicious Challenges 3 entries max
Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday (my own challenge) 3 entries max  
Let's Craft & Create Challenge 3 entries max 
QKR Stampede 3 entries max
The Creative Crafters 3 entries max
World Wide Open Design Team Challenge 3 entries max
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends 3 entries max
Taylor Made Cards 4 U 3 entries max