Seasonal Sunflowers for Four Seasons September Challenge

It's time for a change of seasons in the crafty world and especially so at the Four Seasons challenge blog as we are now celebrating "All Things Fall" for the next three months. I hope you will join us! As always there is a great moodboard to inspire you but its use is optional. We pretty much just want to see "Anything Fall". 

And here is what I made:

A little something different from me today as I'ved used patterned paper as the focal point of my card instead of stamped images. I purchased this paper from a small town scrapbooking store I happened to notice while driving through that small town. The shop only accepted cash payments and I rarely carry cash on me and only had enough for a few sheets of designer papers. This was one of them, by Carta Bella -Seasonal Sunflowers from the Fall Fun collection. I loved the bold sunflowers and the paper is double sided but I only used one side on this card. 

For the sentiment I chose one from a retired Hero Arts stamp kit which I stamped using Walnut Stain Distress ink. The sentiment panel looked a little empty and I had one of Tracy Evans' stamp sets on my desk so I chose a flower from that set and stamped it a few times using Mustard Seed Distress ink. I matted the sentiment onto dark brown cardstock then adhered to the patterned paper card front. I thought some stitches would be nice but didn't want to dig out my sewing machine so I chose a retired set from Whimsy Stamps which includes several stitched elements and used that instead with brown ink.

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Looking through my box of die cuts I found this small dragonfly which is part of a dragonfly border die also long retired from Whimsy stamps. To finish off the card I added lots of glitter to all the flower centers and dragonfly.

This post includes 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 your support!

Challenges I plan to share with:

• Beautiful Blossoms - AG with Flowers
• Simon Says Stamp - AG

Always AG

• A Perfect Time To Craft 
• Ally's Angels
• Classic Design Challenge
• Crafts Galore Encore 
• Creatalicious Challenges 
• DL.Art Linky Challenge
• Do-Al(l) Kreatives 
• The Creative Crafters

Thanks so much for visiting!

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A Masculine Birthday Card

Hello everyone. It's time for a new theme at Allsorts challenge and Donna's turn to host. For her theme she selected "Birthdays" and of course we have the "Anything Goes" option as always. There are 2 prizes for this challenge of 2 stamp sets each and you have two weeks to join us.

As I have more masculine than feminine birthdays coming up later this year I decided to make a masculine birthday card using an old PSX stamp I purchased from eBay many years ago. I think it was part of a mixed lot I purchased as this is my first time using it. 

It is PSX K2777, as with all PSX stamps now only available through second hand markets such as eBay or Etsy. I used Distress inks for inking and coloring along with Faber Castell Polychromos pencils for the smaller parts such as the flowers, stones and ramp.

The background was embossed using Spellbinders 3D embossing folder Cast Away and the sentiment is part of the Penny Black set Let's Play. I like the simple font for male cards. 

Linking up here:

• Can You Handle The Pressure? - Use Embossing Folders
• Cardz 4 Guyz - Boats
• Shopping Our Stash - On or in the Water

Thanks so much for visiting!

I Spy With My Little Eyes..........Warm and Sunny Colors (Challenge No. 29)

Hello and welcome to the new "I spy with my little eye" challenge taking place right here on my blog! Pauline and I are back with a new theme and all are welcome to join us.  

This time it's Pauline's turn to select a theme and she has chosen:

I Spy With My Little Eye.................

Warm and Sunny Colors.

Perfect theme for this time of the year and we can't wait to see what you'll create. The linky tool is at the end of this post.

Here is what we came up with for your inspiraton:

Ellie

(all details are right below the card)

I used a Vicki Boutin stencil on the background that I received as a freebie some time ago from Scrapbook.com along with some Distress inks (Twisted Citron, Mustard Seed and Picked Raspberry). The butterfly die cut was done with a die by Penny Black (Flowing Butterfly), simply left it white for this card and placed it onto a strip of black card stock  which I added a few sticky rhinestones to. Sentiment is from the set Butterfly Basics (long retired from Stampin Up). 

Pauline

Such a beautiful and stylish design! Please visit Pauline's blog to find out how she made this card.

We have a guest designer this time and that is Fiona Whitehead. So happy to have you joining us, Fiona!

Fiona's Card

So gorgeous and creative! Please visit Fiona's blog to find out how she made this card. 

Top Picks from Challenge No. 27

Many thanks to each one of you who took the time to join our last challenge of "Something to Celebrate". Our Top Picks are below listed in the order of entry. 

No. 11 Claudia (Ellie's Pick)

No. 38 Loopyloo (Pauline's Pick)

Congratulations to both of you!!

Below is your top pick logo, you may place it on your own blogs if you like to :)

For the time being I am discontinuing the guest designer invites but hopefully will bring them back some time in the future.

To play along in the current challenge please use the linky tool below.

A few things to remember:

(Complete list of guidelines and copyright info can be found here.)

• You may share up to 5 different projects.
• You may combine with as many other challenges as you like to.
• A short mention of products used whenever possible is expected, especially the focal point.
• New: While you are free to link up your creations using pre-colored digital art (AI generated, digital pre-colored toppers/images, digital papers etc.), they will be excluded from top picks. 
• Please include a link back to this blog.
• Back-linking to a recent project is allowed.
• Linkup closes on Sunday, September 14th at 11:59pm CST

B is For............Bird, Blue Bloom and Butterfly

Hello and welcome! It's time for a new theme at Allsorts challenge and this time around it's my turn to host. For my optional theme I selected "I Spy Something Beginning with B". Lots of favorites beginning with a "B" so I hope you will join us and there is always the "Anything Goes" option. We have 2 prizes of coordinating stamps and dies to give away.

I have two projects to share today:

A couple of weeks ago I made this card using a new to me stamp set by Stampin Up and today I am sharing an Artist Trading Card (ATC) I made using the same products but a bit differently. 

B is for Bird on a Branch

I used a mix of red, orange, yellow and brown Distress inks for this card. A white pencil was used on the bird's and dragonfly's wings. I used the Direct to Paper technique around the edges of the ATC but a couple words got lost from the ink so I cut those out from white cardstock. The background was stenciled using Aall and Create's stencil Tulips (the same one I used on the card I made previously).

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I am entering this ATC here:

• ATC Around the World - Any ATC Goes
• Stamping Sensations - Birds, Bees and Butterflies
• Tag-Along (and ATC's) - Any tags or ATC opt. Travel

B is for Blue, Blossom and Butterfly

For the above card I used washi tape to mask off the edges then using the "smooshing technique inked up the background with Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide ink. Stamping on the background was done with Aall and Create's set Foliage #496 (retired) and Sent with Love #831 (retired). The rose (also from set #831) was stamped on a separate piece of cardstock which was also inked using the smooshing technique, and then fussy cut. The butterfly is part of the Aall and Create set Spread Your Wings #729 (retired).

For a little more interest I added a piece of cheesecloth behind the rose and used a Wink of Stella clear glitter brush all over the rose but it's not showing in the picture. 

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I am sharing the rose card with these challengese:

• Beautiful Blossoms - Flowers
• Creative Artiste Challenge - Anything Mixed Media Goes
• The Flower Challenge - Add Embellishments (cheese cloth)
• Triple B - Blooms, Butterflies or Birds

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