Life Is Beautiful!

Happy Monday! Hope your week is off to a great start! We had a really nice and sunny weekend, I stayed busy trying to prepare my garden for some vegetabes and booked a chicago cleaning service. This is my first year starting from seeds unfortunately the plants aren't doing so well and I may end up having to buy some again when it's time to plant. What can I say I don't have a green thumb but love growing my own vegetables.

Today I am sharing a card made with last month's Hero Arts My Monthly Hero kit. And this is actually my first time making something with this kit, it sat on my desk for a few weeks now because I just didn't get the time to use it. Today Hero Arts is releasing their May kit and I am sharing a little info about that at the end of this post.

This Hero Arts kit includes several scenery dies which make wonderful silhouettes and work so well with a distress ink background. I started out by masking the bottom half of my card with post it notes, then using Antique Linen, Victorian Velvet, Seedless Preserves and Blueprint Sketch Distress Inks/Oxides with an ink applicator tool I created the sunset. The city scene and gondolier were die cut using black card stock and adhered to the card. Some foam tape from this kit was used to adhere the gondolier to the card. Birds, sentiment and "Venetian" cancellation mark are all stamps from this kit, sentiment and birds were stamped with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and the cancellation mark was stamped with Antique Linen ink. A CAS card that was quick to make! The card base is Hero Arts Dove White 100lb card stock.

If you like this kit then you're in luck, although released in April, it is currently still available here. Remember US orders do qualify for FREE shipping on orders of $50 or more. 

Hero Arts April My Monthly Hero Kit //

Distress Inks:  Antique Linen, Victorian Velvet // Seedless Preserves // Blueprint Sketch

Versafine Clair Nocturne //  Bristol Vellum Paper // Dove White Card Stock 100lb

Sharing with these challenges:

Crafty Friends Challenge - More than one die // Just Us Girls - Movement // My Time to Craft - CAS // Crafty Catz  - Add a Sentiment // Happy Little Stampers - Dies // Lost Coast Designs - Things Starting with B (Birds, Buildings) 

Anything Goes:

A Gem of a Challenge // Catch The Bug // Crafter's Castle // Jo's Scrap Shack  // QKR Stampede // Crafting With An Attitude // Cute Card Thursday // A Bit More Time to Craft // A Perfect Time To Craft // Crafts Galore Encore // Creatalicious Challenges // Create With TLC // DL.Art Linky Challenge F // Happy Craft Challenge // Not Just Cards // The Creative Crafters // Crafting By Designs // Crafty Creations // Creative Moments // The Crafty Addicts // Word Art Wednesdays 

Ok, now some info about the May My Monthly Hero Stamp kit. I won't be sharing a card made with this kit as I cancelled my subscription recently  and won't be getting this kit, but I do want to continue sharing info for those of you interested and I am sure somewhere in the future I'll be purchasing another kit (they are also available without a subscription while supplies last), but I won't be getting this one.

This is what the May Stamp kit looks like, it's perfect for cards you send to your crafty/artsy friends. 

There were also some wonderful add-ons released, availabe HERE as a complete lot or individually HERE. My personal favorite is this cross stitch stamp set...but it might be sold out by the time I place an order... 

Thanks so much for visiting! Enjoy the rest of your week! 

This post contains some affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links, at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Butterfly Garden - Again!

Happy Sunday! First Sunday of the month means a new theme at Penny Black and More challenge and this month it's all about Feminine Creations with an option of Anything Goes. Some great prizes are up for grabs again, hope you'll find some time to join us, and remember you may enter up to 3 times for more chances to win. This week we have prizes by Penny Black, Crafts U Love and a set of stamp and embossing folders. One of the winners could be YOU, but only if you join us :)

If this butterfly looks familiar to you, it's because I used it on this recent card. I just love the whimsical style and since the set is new to me, I had to play with it again :) It is from the Penny Black set Butterfly Garden. 

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I stamped on Xpress It Blending Card with Memento Tuxedo ink and colored with Copic markers. I think there is a matching die to this butterfly, but I don't have it and fussy cut using my Cutterbee scissors. A clear Wink of Stella brush was used to add some sparkles. The circle was die cut and inked with Mustard Seed Distress Ink. The words behind the circle are from one of Whimsy Stamps retired stamp sets (Basic Backgrounds and Borders - I think) stamped with Memento ink again on Xpress It card. The leaves, flowers and "with love" sentiment are part of the Penny Black set Butterfly Garden and I inked the edges with Broken China Distress Ink. Distressed the edges before adhering to a white card base - Hero Arts Dove White 100lb.

I did end up cutting the antennaes off and hand drew them in on the yellow circle. As you can imagine that's easier to do than trying to fussy cut around them. 

Penny Black Butterfly Garden // Memento Tuxedo ink // Xpress It Blending Card // Copic Markers // Cutterbee Scissors // Wink of Stella // Mustard Seed Distress Ink // Broken China Distress Ink // Hero Arts 100 lb Cardstock Dove White 

I'm also sharing my card here:

Double Trouble - Some Things // Make My Monday - Wings // Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes // CAS on Friday - Butterflies // Alphabet Challenge - C is for CAS // Crafty Calendar - Distress It // My Time to Craft - CAS // Penny Black Saturday Challenge - opt. Make your won Background

This post contains some affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links, at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Allsorts Challenge 518: Pretty In Pink

It's time already for a new theme at Allsorts challenge, Tracy is our host and she would like to see "Pretty in Pink". We have a wonderful prize by Buddly Crafts and hope you can join us for your chance to win!

Should be an easy theme, unless you're ending up with some difficulties like I did, but in the end it all worked out and I am sharing two cards today, even though my second one is where I had the trouble and ended up not really working for our theme. Thought I'd share it anyway.

The inky background was done with Distress Oxides and Inks, Cracked Pistachio and a little bit of Tumbled Glass with Spun Sugar Distress ink.

I stamped the orchid from the Penny Black set  Happy Together using Versafine Clair Nocturne  ink and colored it with my Zig Clean Color markers. Using the Penny Black stencil Oscillations (which includes 3 different stencil designs) and Spun Sugar distress ink I added a little more pink to the background  and wiped the ink pad across the distressed edges. No, I didn't get out my sewing machine (sad to say since I re-organized my stamp room I don't have a designated spot for it and haven't used it in a long time). Instead I used one of the stamps from Whimsy Stamps In Stitches stamp set, I was lucky enough to purchase this at a great price when Whimsy Stamps was clearancing it out a few month ago. Unfortunately the set is no longer available, but there are similar sets available here.  I used a clear Wink of Stella brush on the blossoms for some sparkle. The sentiment is from the Penny Black set Sprinkles and Smiles. 

Related Products:

Penny Black Happy Together // Penny Black Sprinkles and Smiles // Whimsy Stamps In Stitches - retired - Similar Options  // Penny Black Oscillations Stencil // Spun Sugar Distress Ink // Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide // Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink // Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool // Zig Clean Color Markers // Zig Detailer Waterbrush // Tonic Stamp Platform // Wink of Stella Glitter

Below is the card I initially had in mind for the challenge -  I wanted to heat emboss everything in white and use Loll's Splash Watercolor technique for the background with some pretty shades of pink and lilac and a little bit of a muted green.

Penny Black Happy Together // Stampin Up Sentiment - Retired // Versamark Ink // White Embossing Powder // Picked Raspberry Distress Ink //  Spun Sugar Distress Ink // Shaded Lilac Distress Ink // Bundled Sage Distress Oxide Ink // Zig Detailer Waterbrush // Bristol Vellum Paper // Post-It Notes // Cutterbee Scissors // Craft Mat - Similar 

The green and lilac turned out fine, but the Picked Raspberry ink (although not quite as purple as it appears in the photo) was more of a fuchsia color, not a pretty pink as I had hoped for. And the Spun Sugar ink I also used is pretty much invisible. I also wasn't happy with the white embossing. Another mistake that happend here was the post it note I used for masking stained my image pink (I really need to get some white post it notes!)  I didn't want to completely waste the card so I finished it by coloring the blossoms with  Shaded Lilac  ink and the leaves with Bundled Sage  ink. Of course I could not remove the pink stains caused by the post it note. I framed with some lilac card stock and then mounted onto white card base. The white embossed sentiment is one of my old favorites from a retired Stampin Up set (I think it's called Beautiful Beach). 

Sharing with these challenges:

Dream Valley Challenges - Pink Birthdays // Retro Rubber Challenge - Anything Goes with Stamps older than one year (this set was released a couple of years ago) Simon Says Wednesday - Happy Birthday // Moving along with the Times - Floral // Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Anything Goes // International Art & Soul - Birthdays // Colour Crazy Challenge - Coloring // Creative Fingers - Anything Goes // Pattie's Creations  - Flowers 

Mark your calendars: On May 18th Allsorts challenge is celebrating 10 wonderful years of challenges and we're having a special prize that week (which will actually run as a 2-week challenge). Brenda created this wonderful logo, you can post it to your side bars if you like a little reminder :)

This post contains some affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links, at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Imagine That Playground Guest

Hello and Welcome!
Last month I was one of the Top Two winners of "Imagine That Creative Playground" and along with the prize comes an opportunity to be a guest designer for the following month's challenge. Today I am sharing two cards made with one of the sets I chose, and then I will have another share using the second set I selected on May 16th when the mid month challenge inspiration is posted on their blog. By the way, the theme is "Anything Goes" and I am sure the "Imagine That Playground" team would love for you to join in!

Would you believe I didn't own a wedding stamp set already!! This one was perfect! The set is called Wedding Day. The image has been colored with copic markers on Xpress It blending card. The sentiment is part of the set. I just love the font of this sentiment. The card is mostly CAS. After coloring the image I added an Art Deco type frame which was part of this Hero Arts stamp kit, cut out with shiny silver card stock from the same kit. Pearls were added as embellishments and I mounted the card front on a Dove White 100lb card base.

Related Products:

For the second card I printed out the sentiment (which is also part of the Wedding Day set) on Vellum paper. While the ink was still wet, I sprinkled gold embossing powder over it and heat embossed. I wasn't sure if this was going to work, but it did perfectly and you would never know the ink under the gold was black and not versamark ink. The wedding cake from the same set  was printed on Xpress It blending card and I kept it mostly white but added some pink roses using copic markers. Paper strips from my stash and half a paper doily finish off this card. Some pearls were added as embellishments because I think they go so well with wedding themed cards.

Products used:

Wedding Day by Imagine That  - Digistamps // Hero Arts February Stamp Kit // Xpress It Blending Card // Copic Markers // Gold Embossing Powder // Heat Tool // Dove White Card Stock 100lb// Vellum Paper

I'm also entering these challenges:
Paper Shelter Challenge - Love is in the Air // Double Trouble - Words // Path of Positivity - Happiness // 613 Avenue Create - Weddings
Anything Goes:
Crafty Creations // Word Art Wednesdays // Lemon Shortbread // Through The Craft Room Door // A Perfect Time To Craft // Happy Craft Challenge // Crafting By Designs // Creative Moments  // The Crafty Addicts  // Crafting from the Heart // Get Creative Challenges // 


This post contains some affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links, at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support! 

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday - May Challenge

Hello and welcome to Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday  -  May challenge hosted right here on my blog. It was wonderful seeing so many of you joining in last month, be sure to scroll down to see if you were the prize winner or a top pick. The linky tool for the new theme is also at the end of this post.

This Month's Themes:

 Feminine or Add a Sentiment

Both super easy themes, feel free to choose one theme or the other, or combine as I did.

Art Impression Rubber Stamps Shoppes Tryfolds (also avail. on Amazon) // Penny Black Patisserie // Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink // Zig Clean Color Markers // Zig Detailer Waterbrush // Penny Black Oscillations Stencil // Pumice Stone Distress Oxide // Hero Arts April Stamp Kit (birds) // Hero Arts Dove White 100lb Card Base

Related Products:

I love how these stamps from 2 different manufacturers work together! The city stamps are from Art Impression Rubber Stamps - Shoppes Tryfolds. These AI stamps are new to me. The set includes 3 stamps (I only used 2 here) and are meant to create tri-fold cards with them, but of course they can be used for traditional cards as well. The gorgeous lady stamp is from the Penny Black set Patisserie. Everything was stamped on watercolor paper using Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and I used my Zig Clean Color markers and Zig Detailer for some simple watercoloring. A Penny Black stencil - Oscillations - was used to add a design for the street with Pumice Stone Distress Oxide ink. The birds  and the sentiment are both from the Hero Arts April Stamp Kit (sad to say I haven't had a chance yet to use the rest of this kit!), both stamped with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink.

Also sharing my card here:
Double Trouble Challenges - Something, Everything, Anything // Path of Positivity - Anything Positive // Alphabet Challenge  - C for CAS // Colour Crazy Challenge - Coloring // Crafty Catz -Add a Sentiment //  Paper Shelter Challenge -Add a Sentiment //  
Anything Goes:
Lemon Shortbread // Through The Craft Room Door // Colouring in Scrapland // Crafting from the Heart // CuteNCrafty Challenge Blog // Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenges // Lil Patch of Crafty Friends // A Gem of a Challenge // Creative Fingers  // Jo's Scrap Shack  // QKR Stampede // Crafty Creations // House That Stamps Built 

This Month's Prize: 

I am running low on physical prizes, so this month the winner will get to choose a $6 Gift Certificate from  either Bugaboo, Tiddly Inks or Mo's Digital Pencil Shop. The gift certificate will be purchased by me next month after winner has made contact.

Last Month's Winner & Top Picks:

(Challenge themes: Wings, Tails or Spring Blossoms)

As always, due to the GDPR no winner or top pick links or photos will be posted for privacy protection. But last month's linky tool is still available here where you can see the winner's / top pick's wonderful creations.

 Scrappy Horses

Congratulations, you  are the prize winner of a Whimsy Stamps rubber stamp. Please email me at ellibellescorner at gmail dot com by May 15th with your complete mailing address to claim your prize. 

It wasn't easy to choose 3 from all the wonderful entries but I did manage and they are as follows in order of entry:

15. Chris 

48. Viv 
82. bharati

Well done! Your top pick logo is below, feel free to post it to your own blogs if you like to :)

 To join in simply leave a direct link to your blog post with the linky tool below.

Guidelines at a glance:

Three entries total per month please.

Your blog post must inlclude a link back to my blog.

Your entry must follow the challenge theme!

You may combine with any other challenges.

May use any brand of stamps and products.

Please remember: this is a public blog, meaning any papercraft you link up or any comments left on this blog will be visible and clickable by third parties. The blog owner is not responsible for republished content from this blog on other blogs or websites without permission. 

This post contains some affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links, at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Allsorts Challenge 517: Mother's Day or Feminine

Hello and welcome! Sorry I haven't posted in almost 10 days. I did make a few cards during this time, but I was working ahead on some posts and had nothing I could share yet.

But today a new theme started at Allsorts challenge and we're back to our regular -weekly - schedule. Mervi is hosting this week and she picked the theme of "Mother's Day or Feminine". Hope you can join us for a chance to win some Woodware stamps.

I so love the style of stamps from the Penny Black set Butterfly Garden! It's a new to me set, and I think it is also from a more recent release from a couple of months ago.


Related Products:

I heat embossed the butterfly using white detail Embossing Powder on Bristol Vellum paper. Then watercolored it with my Zig Clean Color markers. It's been carefully fussy cut with Cutterbee scissors to add to the design. The background was done with a dotted stencils, unfortunately I don't rememer who it's by, but I think any stencil would look nice behind the butterfly. I used Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink for stencilling, last time I used this stencil with yellow ink and didn't wash it off (please tell me I'm not the only one who doesn't wash the ink off their stencils!!) so the two colors mixed gave this pretty shade of light green. The paper strips are from my stash and the Mother's Day sentiment on the card front is an older one from a Whimsy Stamps set and no longer available.

I continued with the stencilling on the inside as well and used another stamp from this set along with a sentiment from the Penny Black set Friendship. I thought this sentiment was perfect for the occasion.

Penny Black Butterfly Garden // Penny Black Friendship // Whimsy Stamps Sentiment (no longer available) // Versamark Ink // Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink // Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide Ink // Mustard Seed Distress Ink // Ranger Detail Embossing Powder White // Heat Tool // Tonic Stamp Platform // Dotted Stencil - not sure which brand I have // Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Brush // Bristol Vellum Paper // Zig Clean Color Markers // Cutterbee Scissors

I'm sharing with these challenges:

CAS on Friday - Butterflies // Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Penny Black Stamps // Alphabet Challenge - CAS // Colour Crazy Challenge - Coloring // Paper Shelter Challenge   - Add a Sentiment

Anything Goes:

Simon Says Wednesday // Crafty Catz // Crafting With An Attitude // 

Many thanks for visiting! Hope you have a wonderful weekend! Rain in our forecast, but it could be worse (supposed to snow just north of us - hope it stays there!). 

This post contains some affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links, at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

More Springtime for Penny Black and More Challenge Reminder

I am back today with a couple of Springtime/ Easter cards for the current theme at Penny Black and More challenge. Still plenty of time to join us if you haven't already or maybe you'd like to play along again - remember you can play along up to 3 times - for more chances to win. Our theme is simply "Springtime" so if it has a spring feel to it you can share it, just be sure to follow our simple rules which you can read about on the challenge blog.

  It's no secret that I love the Penny Black bunnies (and their animal stamps in general) and although these particular ones are wood mounted and have been retired some years ago, I reach for them every year for spring themed cards.

Both were stamped with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and watercolored with my Zig Clean Color markers and a Zig Detailer waterbrush. I used Winsor and Newton watercolor paper. 

Here I used the stamps "Bunny Kiss" and "Happy" (sentiment). The butterfly die is part of Penny Black's Flowing Butterfly die. I die cut it with white card stock, trimmed off the one I wanted to us and inked with Mustard Seed Distress ink with a little bit of Wild Honey ink on the edges of the butterfly. The paper strips are from my drawer of paper scraps. These particular ones are by stampin up but long retired. 

The image stamp I used on the second card is called "What a Spring". Another wood mounted one by Penny Black, unfortunately not so easy to find now but you might have some luck on ebay or etsy. Again stamped with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and watercolored with  Zig Clean Color markers and Zig Detailer brush on Winsor & Newton watercolor paper. The sentiment I used here is from an old Easter stamp set by Stampin Up called "Gifts of Spring". I used the scallop circle die from Penny Black's die set Pinwheel that I received as a gift from our wonderful team leader Brenda a year or two ago. Paper strips are from my stash, and here you can see why I keep even the smalles pieces of papers! They worked here so perfectly especially the pink stripes matching the way I colored the tulips so well. And you can always use some polka dotted paper in black and white :) 

I embellished with a button and some May Arts Natural Jute Twine. Mounted onto Hero Arts Dove White 100lb card stock to comlete the card

Sharing here:
Simon Says Wednesday - Spring Mood Board

Stamploration - Stamps and Watercolors

Cardz 4 Galz - Pretty Papers // Moving along with the Times - That Spring Feeling // TIME OUT Challenges  // TIME OUT Challenges - Embellishments // Brown Sugar  - Spring or Fall // My Time to Craft - Easter // Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Spring Colors // The Fairy and the Unicorn - Easter Rabbits // Dare 2B Artzy Challenges - Animals // International Art & Soul - Easter //

Paper Minutes - Anything Goes

Thank you so much for visiting!! 

Wishing you a Happy Easter, hope it's filled with lots of sunshine!

Related Products:

Currently FREE SHIPPING (USA only) at $50 or more at Scrapbook.com. 

Use Coupon Code FREESHIP423. International costumers can use Coupon Code FIVEAPR423 to receive $5 off an order of $50 or more! Ends 4/18.

This post contains some affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase something through the links, at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!