Apr 12, 2025

The Wonderful Gifts of Spring

Hello everyone, it's time for a new theme at Allsorts challenge and Val is hosting with her optional theme of Stencils or Masks, or Anything Goes.  Prizes are from  Lisa Horton Crafts and some stencils. The challenge is open for two weeks so plenty of time to join us :)

I decided to use this beautiful rabbit stamp from Aall and Create (No.529 In the Wild). I love this stamp but only used it once before and I thought this was the perfect time for inking him up along with a stencil (new to me) also from Aall and Create (Crisp Tulips No. 178). These are probably both retired from Aall and Create but can still found at some retailers.


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The image was stamped onto Neenah cardstock using Versafine Onyx ink  then colored with Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. I used Twisted Citron Distress Oxide ink for the stencil pattern. Sentiments are from another retired Aall and Create set (left) and a retired Stampin Up set (quote on the right side). A few die cut butterflies (Penny Black die Soaring) along with a few enamel dots finish off the card front which I then layered onto a green mat and white for the base. I did use a black inkpad along the edges of the image panel for some interest. 

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I plan to share with these challenges:



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Join in the fun with all things "Garden". 


Apr 10, 2025

Ellibelle's Garden Party No. 2 - Anything in or from a Garden

Hello and welcome to another Garden Party!! So glad you are here! The first party was a great success, thank you all for joining in the fun, it has been wonderful to see all things "Garden" on your blogs and the linky tool gallery full of garden things. Be sure to scroll to the end to see the Top Picks which btw was extremely hard to choose!


Remember, the theme here is always anything Garden related, from or in a garden, this can be cards, scrapbook pages and crafts of any kind along with hobby photography from a garden, garden weddings, garden tea parties, garden tips etc. 


And  here is what I made for this month - Tulips from the Garden.


This cute image is by Penny Black - Tulips for You. I finally purchased a new pack of Xpress it blending card (in my experience the best paper for Copics) so I colored her with Copic markers after stamping with Memento Tuxedo ink. It's a pretty large stamp so I went with a CAS-ish design by adding just a few patterned papers from my scrap box. I mounted the image panel onto matching pink cardstock then another piece of patterned paper. The button sentiment is an oldie from Whimsy Stamps, and I cut it out with the matching die, unfortunately both the sentiment and die are no longer available. I used some jute twine with the button sentiment and added this to the card with foam tape. 


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Several clusters of purple crocus made a surprise appearance in my garden this year. Last year I only had one single purple bloom along with a white one. Squirrels like to dig up the bulbs so I definitely didn't expect them. Sadly they never bloom for very long and are faded now. 



Top Picks from Garden Party No. 1


There was such a great variety in garden themed posts and as you can imagine it was extremely hard to make this selection. But finally I settled on these 3 listed in the order of entry:

who shared this beautiful butterfly themed card.

who shared a wonderful display of Orchids from her visit to a Botanical Garden.


who shared this gorgeous art journal page.

Congratulations to each one of you! Your top pick logo is below, you may post this to your own blogs if you like to :)




Now it's time for the second Garden Party to start!

Simply link a new or recently shared post (featuring something in or from a garden) using the linky tool below. To make it even more fun and maybe meet a new blogging friend I invite you to visit another entrant's blog post and leave them some love. This is just a suggestion and in no way do you have to :)



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Below are the main guidelines at a glance:

  • Your entry must feature something in or from a garden.
  • You may combine with any other challenges/link parties.
  • Please leave a link back to this blog.
  • Up to 5 entries per blogger please.
  • Backlinking to a recent post is allowed.
  • The party ends on Monday May 5th at 11:59pm CST


Apr 2, 2025

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday - April Challenge

Hello and welcome to the April edition of Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday challenge taking place right here on my blog. I'm so glad you stopped by today and hope you will join in the fun too with your own crafty makes. I love seeing what you've been up to in the craft room so please share in the linky tool below. There were lots of fabulous entries last month so be sure to scroll down to see if your entry may have inspired the twist for the Top Picks. 

As most of you know, the theme at Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday is now always ....

Anything Goes


and instead of a challenge theme there will be a "Top Pick Twist", meaning I will select a twist from all of the entries for the Top 3. Nobody will know what the twist will be (not even me) until the end of the challenge. So do link up all of your crafty makes, your entry might be the one inspiring the Top Pick twist :) The linky tool is at the end of this post.


Here is what I'm sharing this month:


This cute Penny Black stamp (Tulip Jungle) is new to me. I recently came across it on eBay reasonably priced and of course had to have it. It's been stamped on Copic Xpress It blending card which I really need to re-order as this was probably the last small piece of xpress it  paper from my stash and it works so much better with Copic markers than Neenah does. The pink dotted paper I've had for a long time in my patterned paper stash and the tiny sentiment is part of Penny Black's Snippets sentiment set. I used a white gel pen by Sakura for the dots on kitty's cheeks and a clear Wink of Stella brush for some sparkle. Hard to see in the photo above, but the one below shows the shimmer. They do all sparkle in real life but on the photo only the bottom tulips sparkle. So hard to capture sparkle with a camera.


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March Top Picks with a Twist:

 
Now it's time to announce the Top Picks with a twist from the March entries. Thank you all again for joining in the fun, I really enjoyed visiting your entries and selecting a "twist". This time the twist is.... Oh So Cute

And here they are listed in the order of entry:


No. 24 Silke

No. 60 Izzy Scraps

No. 65 Amy



Congratulations to each one of you for your well deserved recognition. The Top Pick logo is below, you may post this 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.



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To join in this month's challenge please use the linky tool below. You have until the last Wednesday of April to join in (April 30th 11:59pm CST). 


A few things to remember:
  • You may combine with any other challenges.
  • You may use any brand of stamps/digis/dies/papers (no company restriction as long as copyright laws are followed).
  • Please note: entries using pre-colored digital images will no longer be selected as top picks. 
  • A short description of products used is expected, most importantly the source of focal point.
  • This linkup is for sharing handmade projects of any kind not limited to papercrafts.
  • Please try to limit to 3 entries per month - it's ok if you end up with more than 3 but I may not be able to visit your entries after the 3rd.
  • Please do include a link back here to my blog in your blog post.
  • Backlinking to a recent post IS allowed.
You can read more about the Guidelines/Copyright info here.


Apr 1, 2025

Four Seasons April Challenge: Pansies and Clover

April is here and that means it's the start of a new challenge at the Four Seasons challenge blog. We have a new wonderful mood board to inspire you but as you probably know the mood board is optional as "Anything Spring Goes" to celebrate the current season in the northern hemisphere.

Below is our wonderful mood board for April. Isn't is just beautiful and so many great ideas to get from it!


And here is what I came up with, mainly inspired by the bottom left image and how fun that my image also included some forget-me-nots to go with the top right of our mood board :) 



This beautiful image is a digi by Power Poppy (Clover and Pansies). I've only used it once before several years ago but it came to mind immediately when I saw our mood board :)

I colored with my Faber Castell Polychromos pencils which took quite some time. I really need to rewatch my Pencil Coloring video tutorial I purchased a few years ago as I could use a refresher on layering colors but I still like how it turned out. 


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I kept the card CAS to keep the focus on the pretty image. I used part of the Happy Birthday background stamp by My Favorite Things (retired) at the bottom of the image panel and a sentiment from Penny Black (Sprinkles and Smiles) at the top. A tiny butterfly made with Penny Black's die set Soaring and a purple rhinestone finish off the card. I did add a little bit of stickles glitter to the flowers for some sparkle. Yellow DCWV cardstock as a mat and the card front was from a set of retired Stampin Up Paper Pumpkin kits I found at a thrift store a few months ago. 

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I plan to share the card with these challenges:





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