Ellibelle's Garden Party No. 4 - Anything In or From a Garden

Hello everyone and welcome to my Garden Party No. 4 taking place right here on my blog. I'm so glad you stopped by and I hope you will bring something along to share this month too. Remember, anything in or from a garden goes, this can be any type of craft, photography (from a garden), garden tips, garden weddings, etc. As always the linkup is at the end of the post. And don't forget to check who made the top picks from the last party.

Here is my share for this challenge:

I feel like I've been neglecting my Tracy Evans stamps a bit, in fact the focal points (flower and mice) on this card were never used before even though I've had them for a few months now. It was time to ink them up especially since I just treated myself to some new Tracy Evans stamps when she offered free worldwide shipping. I need to start using my new goodies instead of just collecting them!!!

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I used a homemade mask to ink up the circle using Distress inks. (Broken China, Twisted Lime and Cracked Pistachio). The flower is from Tracy Evans Boutique Designs set Clematis TE5 stamed with Versafine Onyx ink. To add to the design I chose a stamp from Tracy's Aall and Create release The Great Outdoors #370 on the background and two corners. This set is retired but possibly still available through some Aall and Create retailers. The sentiment is part of the Clematis set. I wanted to include a little critter and chose the garden mouse -Tracy Evans set TE32 Alpha Florals. That little mouse seemed lonely on the card so another little mouse joined him at the bottom of the card :)

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 also wanted to share my beautiful Iceland Poppy I recently planted. I absolutely love it and promptly purchased another plant :) Can never have enough flowers! 

Challenges I plan to share my card with:

• Art Impressions Stamp Challenge - Blossoms and Blooms
• Triple B - Blooms, Birds or Butterflies
• Try It On Tuesday - In the garden
• We Love Stamping - Nature

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Top Picks for Garden Party No. 3

It was so great to see many of you joining me again at the garden party and I enjoyed visiting all your wonderful entries. Selecting just 3 is never easy but I finally managed  and here they are listed in the order of entry:

No. 40 Susan aka Rainy 

No. 41 Debbie M.

No. 44 Maria

Aren't these simply stunning? Congratulations to each one of you on your well deserved recognition. Your Top Pick logo is below, you may post it on your own blogs if you like to.

Now it's time for the 4th 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 :)

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 July 9th at 11:59pm CST

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Flowers Make Me Happy

Hello everyone and happy Saturday! Today is the start of a new challenge at Allsorts and Gail is hosting. Her theme for the next two weeks is.......What makes you happy. A fun and easy theme but as always there is the Anything Goes option if you prefer. We have prizes from Buddly Crafts. 

There are a lots of things that make me happy and I decided to go with Flowers. 

I didn't always love Geraniums, somehow it seems to me like a very "old-fashioned" flower with not the most pleasant scent, but in the recent years it's become one I purchase every year. Love that it's available in a variety of colors, they are very heat tolerant and last three seasons long into late fall with minimal upkeep. So for my card I selected this beautiful Penny Black stamp Light Touch which features a beautiful brushstroke Geranium. 

Brushstroke stamps need a stamp positioning tool (in my opinion) and that is what I used along with Distress inks/oxides (Picked Raspberries, Wilted Violet, Blueprint Sketch, Mowed Lawn, Twisted Citron). When the ink was dry (I used my heating tool to help it along) I stenciled a mini tile design on the background (Tim Holtz stencil). Then I randomly stamped a Nature verse on the background which is part of a Tracy Evans set (Miniatures by Aall and Create). This set is retired but possibly still available through some retailers).

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For the sentiment I chose Especially for You from the Penny Black set Blooming sentiments. I added this with a couple of staples along with a piece of crimped paper. I've had my paper crimper tool for many years since my early cardmaking days and when I recently decluttered it almost had to go because I simply never use it. Well, here we are, it still has a place in my craft room and it was time to put it to work :) Anyone else having such a hard time parting with tools even though used so rarely?

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!

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I plan to share with these challenges:

• Beautiful Blossoms - Flowers
• Crazy is our fame - STENCILS are our game! - Stencils
• DL.Art Linky Challenge - AG
• Dragonfly Dreams - One or more butterflies
• Neglected Stuff Challenge - Something neglected (my paper crimper tool)
• Path of Positivity - something positive
• Penny Black Saturday Challenge - AG with PB Stamps
• Sisterhood of Crafters - Flowers
• Sparkles Forum Challenges -Flowers
• The Paper Funday - AG
• Triple B - Blooms, Birds or Butterflies
• We Love Stamping - Nature
• Word Art Wednesday - AG

Speaking of challenges, I wanted to remind you about my Garden Party where anything in or from a garden goes. Just a few more days remain for you to join in the current challenge and I hope to see you there :)

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Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday - June and July

Hello everyone and welcome to the June/July edition of Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday challenge taking place right here on my blog. As you have probably guessed from the title of this post, this challenge/linky will be open for 2 months as I have family visiting from overseas and I won't be on the computer much during that time so I thought it would be best to keep it open for 2 months to give me a chance to visit each one of you before I announce my top picks. They will all be announced the first Wednesday of August, I will select 2 separate sets of Top Picks with a Twist, one set from the  June entries and one set from the July entries. So you are welcome to enter 6 times in total over the next two months :)

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.

And here is what I made:

I've had this beautiful PSX stamp (K 2250) for a few years now, an oldie from 1997 purchased from eBay and this was my first time using it. No idea why I've not reached for it before as it's beautiful. For this card I decided to leave it in black and white. I used shimmer gold paper for the background. The flowers are cut with Penny Black's Frames die set and the leaf is cut with a Martha Stewart punch. 

Another view below. The words are a bit hard to read, they say "Beautiful Moments", they are from Tim Holtz's metallic sentiment sticker book. 

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 share with these challenges:

• A Cut Above - Die Cut Challenge Blog - AG
• Crafter's Cafe - AG
• Neglected Stuff Challenge - Something neglected (the PSX stamp)
• Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenges - AG
• Simon Says Stamp - Masculine
• We Love Stamping - Nature

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May Top Picks with a Twist:

Now it's time to announce the Top Picks with a twist from the May 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.... Fabulous Backgrounds:

And here they are listed in the order of entry:

No. 18 Helen F.

No. 41 Alicia OBryant

No. 54 Donna W.

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.

To join in this month's challenge please use the linky tool below. Remember, this linky tool is open for both June and July challenges. So you have until the last Wednesday of July to join in (July 30th). 

If you like this post then I invite you to subscribe to my blog to receive email notifications when I post something new. Simply enter your email address below and click subscribe.

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 products 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.
• Remember: June and July challenges are combined this year and you may enter up to 6 times!

You can read more about the Guidelines/Copyright info here.

Pink Lemonade

June has arrived and that means today starts the new Four Seasons challenge. It's hard to believe but Summer has arrived at the challenge blog and we are celebrating all things summer! Check out our fabulous mood board which of course is optional to use as Anything Summer Goes. 

How about some pink lemonade?? Of course I had to ink up this cute stamp when I saw the mood board. 

This is an old wood mounted stamp by Penny Black - Make Lemonade 1675K. I stamped it on watercolor paper and colored it with Distress inks. Also stamped it on a post it note which I then fussy cut to use as a mask. (Btw., although this stamp is an oldie, there are currently 3 listings for it on eBay so still a chance to purchase if you are in the US.) 

The pretty border stamp is part of a recent Penny Black Flower of the Month set. I used the same border stamp at the top of the card (second generation stamping) and added a bit of watercoloring around the edges so it's not as bold as at the bottom. The slice of pink lemon is from a set by Stampin Up a more recent thrift store find and probably retired - Lemon Zest. I cut this out and glued to the card then added the sentiment from Penny Black set Micey Day. This is an older set but still available online through Lighthouse Books and Crafts (a Wisconsin, USA based Christian gift and craft shop with an Amazon store front as well.) 

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Another look below. I'm not sure I like the watercolored textured paper and also not a fan of how the watercoloring around the edges appears on the photo. It does look a bit more blended in real life. I found the sequins in my stash while moving things around/decluttering. The colors were a great fit so I added them for some shine and interest.

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 found several challenges to enter so I will link up here:

• Ally's Angels - AG
• Crafts Galore Encore - AG
• A Perfect Time To Craft - AG
• Crafty Animals - AG
• Crafty Gals Corner - Something adorable (How sweet are these mice??!!)
• Creations in Pink - AG in mainly pink
• Cutie Pie Challenge - Cute
• Fab n' Funky - Add a sentiment
• FarmQuest General Store Challenge - AG Farm/Country
• FarmQuest Grocery Game Challenges Blog - Anything Food (Does a slice of pink lemon count?)
• Penny Black Saturday Challenge - AG with PB Stamps
• Send a Smile for Kids - Punny Sentiments
• Simon Says Stamp - AG
• Stamping Sensations - Our Furry Friends
• The Creative Crafters - AG

Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you'll check out the challenge blog to see what my teammates made for our first Summer 2025 challenge.

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