Mo meets Sweet Sketch Wednesday

I'm trying to enter a few challenges because I want to, rather than for DT obligations etc.  So, just in time, here is my Sweet Sketch Wednesday card, which uses a Mo Manning digi called Checking Facebook.  This week's Mo's Challenge has a challenge called Recipe for Friendship.  I was a bit phased by the description but this is a modern day take on keeping friendship going.  I was reading about shadows not having to be grey and used blue for the shadow, what do you think?  DP is Prima, lace is from stash and the tiny buttons came from the Craft Barn.  The sentiment stamps are Joanna Sheen.
My card is for the following challenges:
Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch
Mo's Challenge Blog - friendship recipe
Penny's Challenges - best friends
Paper Sundaes - girly girl

"Once upon a time there was a train...

who was afraid of a few drops of rain.  He went into a tunnel, squeaked through his funnel and wouldn't come out again."  Yes, we were big fans of Thomas the Tank Engine and the Reverend Awdry's books when my DSs were small, every night we had Thomas stories at bedtime!  I've not looked that up but I'm pretty sure it's word for word from the start of the book about Henry the Green Engine:).  Thomas seems bit more politically correct these days, Annie and Clarabelle the silly carriages are no longer the only females on the rails lol!  But the boys loved their Thomas stories every night, the videos and the Brio track too.  So this image from Mo Manning was a compulsory buy when I saw a card using it.  I coloured it and it's been sitting on my desk waiting to made into a card.

DP2 has a sketch challenge this week which was the push I needed to get the image out of the sidings and into the platform.  I've given it Card Candy red, yellow, green signal lights but can you believe I've got 97 varieties of card candy but no yellow!  So my signal is orange.

The card is very simple, even though it's for a small boy I like to keep masculine cards uncluttered.  The colouring is Copics, I've let my image spill over the edges of the Nestie die, sentiment is Lily of the Valley.  I've no idea where the geometric paper came from, it's a single sheet of 6" paper, but it worked fine with a white railway fence made with a MS punch.  My card got a thumbs up from older DS, all 6'4" of him, he remembers his Thomas days:).

My card is for the following challenges:
Digital Pencil Too - sketch
Fussy & Fancy Friday - card for man or boy
Delightful Inspiration - masculine, no flowers
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle - what's on your work desk right now - the image was!
Some Odd Girl - manly challenge

Too Much Candyfloss!

Loved this new image from Mo Manning and knew it had to be pink candyfloss, remeber how sticky everything got, hair, face, clothes?  Mo's challenge this week is Distressing, I used Distress Inks on the background and distressed the edges of the brown mat outside the deckled edging.  The DPs are Papermania and Stampin' Up, sentiment is LOTV (circle) and Hero Arts (yum).  I've based my card around this week's layout at Sweet Sketch Wednesday.

My card is for the following challenges:
Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch
Mo's Challenge - distressing
Charisma Cardz - birthdays in pink
Tuesday Throwdown - stripes (Stampin' Up paper)
Make It Monday - anything goes

Sprout!

 Here's another card using one of the fab fundraising digis that Jak Heath has organised for Help For Katie.  If you don't know about this, or you've not yet donated and bought your digis, you need to click here, find out more and most importantly, donate!  My card is for Jak's Thank You competition. 

Sprout is a Mo Manning digi, I've coloured her  using Copics, edged with Distress Ink and added a little Stickles to the seedling, which was in danger of being invisible!  The DP is Basic Grey from Sugar Rush, with peach card embossed with the Tim Holtz brick wall, a MS leaf border punch, some raffia and a little scroll punch added in.

My card is also for the following challenges:
Friday Sketchers - sketch - I've not added a sentiment, will do that when I use the card
Basic Grey - flower power (paper and of course that seedling!)
Crafty Calender - new beginnings
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - get punchy
Digis with Attitude - use a digi person
Moving Along With the Times - spring

A good book has no ending

This is a lovely image by Mo Manning, what could be better on a sunny day than a good book to read and a quilt to lie on? I based my card layout on Mercy's great sketch from Crazy4Challenges and my colour scheme on One Stop Craft Challenge, which wants to see pink and brown projects this week. DP2 has an Anything Goes Challenge (using Mo's images) and Paper Sundaes' Challenge is a birthday card.

My image is coloured with Copics and edged with Distress Ink, cut with a deckle edged Nestie and mounted onto pearlescent card. The DPs are Basic Grey Capella and I've used a Martha Stewart doliy edge punch. Sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and ribbon is from stash.

Fairy small easel card

I saw some differently shaped easel cards at the weekend at the Craft Barn and decided to have a play with this to enter Mo Manning's DP2 easel card challenge. Digital Tuesday also has an easel card challenge this week and Cute Card Thursday's theme is "Anything but square", which also fits the different shape. Simon Says Challenge this week is a recipe: 1 image, 2 patterned papers (that green is patterned, it's a Basic Grey blotchy), 3 types of embellishment (flowers punched out, tiny flower buttons and gems). Donna's Den of Crafts is a new challenge blog with a birthday theme for its first challenge and my colour combo is from Crazy4Challenges who have light pink, light purple, light green for their colours.

My fairy is coloured with copics and Stickles, edged with Distress Ink. DPs are Basic Grey Kioshi, sentiment is computer generated. Flowers cut out with a punch, buttons and gems are from stash. Card and images are cut out with Nestie Label 3.

Dance Yourself Dizzy

I treated myself to a couple of Mo Manning images the other day and finally got round to printing them out, here's my first card from them, using the imcomparable Mummu.

My card is based around Jane's lovely sketch at Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge, I'm also entering it for Stamp Something's Digi Challenge and this week's Charisma Cardz Challengewhich is flowers. Pile It On's theme is Quirky, which I think is Mummu to a T and Digital Tuesday Challenge has Trendy, again I think she's right on trend:).

Image is coloured with Copics, sentiment is computer generated. The DP is Basic Grey Capella. The flowers are cut with my gorgeous new Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers die, top layer is from wide mesh ribbon. I've stitched with straight and zig-zag stitch to add interest and texture.

Birthday Bronte

This is a birthday card for Daisy, who will be one in a few weeks time. It uses an image from the very talented Mo Manning called Bronte and Louis which was a free image provided for Mo's Papercraft Planet group. I love Mo's drawings with Bronte the dog in and this is no exception :).

I'm entering it for Mo's Challenge Blog, DP2, this week's challenge is birthday cards and also for Allsort's Challenge which follows a sketch by Emma. On the DT, Sally-Ann of Digi Boutique split her DP into offset wedges and I've CASEd her idea here.

Bronte and Louis are coloured with Copics and cut out (because I messed up the background), then decoupaged onto the circles, I've sponged Distress Inks onto the main circle. The DP is Basic Grey Cupcake and the tags are jewellery tags.

Bella & Bronte get their skates on again

This card is for Mo Manning's Challenge, which uses a recipe this week of three different papers, two ribbons and one decorative edge. I've used the sketch from this week's Card Positioning Challenge and I'm also entering it into DU2DS's Glitter Challenge.

Image is coloured with Copics and lots of Diamond Stickles. It's mounted onto a Nestie scalloped rectangle (my decorative edge). The three DPs are Stampin' Up. The blue ribbon was originally cream and has been coloured with Copics. The sentiment is Papermania. I think I've used this image more than anything else so far for Christmas cards!

Bronte & Bella get glittered

Last week's challenge over at Mo Manning's blog was a glittery, blingy one. I didn't get time to take part, but this week I've managed to make a card for this week's Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge, which is to follow a sketch by Caryn. I've made up for missing last week with lots of glittery bits on it :). This is also a card for Charisma Cards' Challenge, which is "Merry & Bright" this week, which is even the sentiment on this card. Digital Tuesday's Challenge this week is Holiday Wishes, Papertake Weekly's Challenge is Digi Sparkle and Cute Card Thursday Challenge has has Glitter Me Silly as it's theme. Allsorts Challenge is to Bring Out the Bling and Cupcake Craft Challenge's theme this week is Snow Much Fun. Crafty Creations also has Snow for it's challenge this week. Whew that's eight challenges in one card!

Image coloured with Copics, Stickles and Perfect Pearls. Snow falling was added with Liquid Pearls, which had Glimmer Dust added for even more sparkle. Snowflake was cut with a new Spellbinder set I got at the NEC last week, it has Liquid Pearls and Glamour Dust added. The sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and the ribbon from stash. Papers are Basic Grey. Glue pen and more Glamour Dust are on the snowflakes and around the edges of the image and the sentiment. Bellan and Bronte are certainly glittered and so am I now:)

Autumn elf

This week Mo Manning's digital challenge is to use colours that remind you of Autumn. I love this image which is one of the first Mo images I bought and he works really well in Autumn colours. Truly Scrumptious also has an Autumn theme to use with its sketch. The slight complication to combining these challenges is that Mo's challenge can only use two embellishments and the Truly Scrumptious sketch could use lots! I've limited myself to two embellishments: flowers and card candy (faux brads). There's one Prima flower and the others are cut with a punch but hopefully the different species still count as one :)

Mo Manning image coloured with Copics and Promarkers, edged with Distress Ink in Scattered Straw and Tea Dye. Papers are a mixture of Basic Grey and Summertime Designs.

Bella & Bronte's Purple Challenge

There is another new Challenge blog on the block - this time it is from the wonderful Mo Manning who creates digital art. Mo is very generous with her freebies if you check out her online groups, so there's no excuse not to enter :).

The Challenge this week is to use purple and I've combined this with Papertake's sketch challenge, which has another of Dawny P's very usable sketches.

I've coloured Bella & Bronte go ice skating with my Copics and added Dusty Concord Distress Ink around the edges. The sentiment is an old standby from Imagepac and ribbons and gems are from stash. The papers are all from Artylicious CDs. I do love this image, poor Bronte looks very unimpressed with his new sport :).

Bronte Goes Ice Skating

This is the first Christmas card I've made with Mo Manning's wonderful digital art. It stars Bronte, the grumpy sort-of cattle dog that Mo's family gave a home to. The image is coloured using that classic, favourite colour combi of red and green, to enter Copic Creation's challenge this week. I used Woodware Fluffy Stuff for the fur trim on the hat and muff, just squeeze it on and heat it to make 3d, fluffy snow. Or, in this case, furry trim :). Isn't this a fabulous image to use? I love it...

The Merry Christmas is a clear stamp I've had in for ages, added to one of the Creative Expressions circles that are designed to fit Nestabilities. I've embossed with brown ink that isn't intended for embossing and didn't like the cool, metallic grey-brown that I ended up with. So I coloured it with my brown Copic - much better. All the DP is Basic Grey Infuse, which is not a Christmas set as such, but I think it works really well on a Christmas card. I cut along the wiggly design lines for the centre strip, added a narrower piece of pink stripe and then the most beautiful velvet ric-rac that I bought at the quilt show. I couldn't resist it but it was quite pricy, so it'll be on special Christmas cards only :).

Last in the mending pile...

I love this image by Mo Manning, called Darn It. I think it's a bit like the saying that the cobbler's family have the worst mended shoes; he's got to the end of the mending and now it's just his own trousers, so no small stitches or matching thread...

I've made him for several challenges:

• Digital Tuesday's Challenge #20 is male cards

• Sketch & Stash Challenge #17 has the sketch I've used
• DareU2Digistamp's Challenge #19 is to use blue, green, white and cream
• Pile It On's Challenge #11 is Oh Boy - more masculine card theme - a second entry here :)

Sketch & Stash ask what new or neglected stash was used: Darn It is a new image that I've bought and love using. The red buttons are from a Sizzlits die that came with my Big Shot, never used it before, shamefully!
I'm not sure whether this is eligible for DareU2Digistamp as I've added in the red, though the criteria doesn't say no other colours may be used. I began with the blue, green and cream palette but it looked really insipid, so I gave him red slippers, changed a paper and added the buttons and the mat, which gives the card a lot more interest.

Image is coloured with Copics, edged with Distress Ink. Red paper is Basic Grey Cupcake and the other papers are K&K Hopscotch.

A day in the life of Bronte the dog

This is a very simple card using Mo Manning's digital art. Bronte was a rescue dog that Mo had, who was thought to be a cattle dog. Both our dogs are rescue dogs and these images are just right for me :).

Coloured with Copics, matted on to the reverse of double sided card which is used for the main DP. Sentiment by Elzybells. There, I said it was simple :).

Darn It - Passion for Promarkers Challenge 11

Darn It is a digital art download from the talented Mo Manning. I've coloured him with Promarkers for the Passion for Promarkers sketch challenge this week, which uses any colours. Thank you, as someone who has only a small collection of Promarkers (so far) I appreciate the chance to take part with a limited palette - and what a great idea to have the pens themselves as prizes!

There are buttons and bows (well knots then :) ) on my card so I'm entering it for the Simon Says Challenge this week and also for Dare U2 Digistamp's fortnightly challenge which is Distressing. There's Scattered Straw Distress Ink around the image and sentiment, also a lot of Worn Lipstick ink around the circle, which started out as a sort of plainish red.

I've aimed for a more masculine look with the colours, but I'm having trouble getting the colours to show on his clothes, they look a bit washed out :( . Promarkers used: Gold for hair and thimble, Cocoa for trousers and socks, Vanilla for shirt, Poppy for thread and accents, Pastel Beige for outline and Pastel Pink for skin. Sentiment stamp is from a floral Inkadinkado clear set. The plain and patterned reds are Basic Grey from the Cupcake set and the other two I've had in for ages. Buttons and perle thread from my sewing stash. The image is layered onto dark brown card, the other papers are edged with the Cocoa Promarker.

Not even a mouse

Here's my second card using Mo Manning's digital art: Not Even a Mouse. Isn't it the most beautiful image? It's in three layers, decoupaged. I got really excited that I actually have the right colour Promarkers to enter the Passion for Promarkers challenge this week and used them - only to notice that I should also have followed a sketch! Oh well, off on holiday tomorrow so I doubt I'll get another card done for it in time :). Hoorah, I've used Distress Ink (Worn Lipstick) on the edges of the image and the scalloped shape, so I can enter it in this week's Simon Says Challenge!

I've printed the image three times, coloured and layered it and added Glossy Accents to the tiny dots on the china. Cut out and matted using Nesties, cardstock and brads from the Stamp Attic, sentiment is an old stamp I've had for ages. I love the image and the detail, it was lovely to colour, don't think I'll be mass producing this for Christmas somehow, with 3 layers ;).

I was a bit worried last night that I'm regressing in my craft life a bit. I began with knitting, then cross stitch, then discovered quilting and became very creative. I did a bit of dressmaking which was also creative and produced something original and then I sidestepped into stamping. So last night I realised that, if I was asked what I'd been doing all evening, all I could really say was that I was colouring in pictures. Hmm... maybe I didn't do it enough at nursery school :). Maybe the easy answer is that I was enjoying what I was doing.

New Digital Artist!

I'm posting again today, because I've just found a really exciting new digital artist - called Mo Manning - here's her blog. Mo illustrates children's books for the educational market and she says business is slow at the moment. But this is a blessing in disguise for us crafters as someone suggested to her to try digi stamps, and she's having lots of fun coming up with the most gorgeous images to use that I've ever seen out there on the big wide web.

I'm going to call her work digital art not stamps; read what Mo has to say about this on Elaine's blog (in the comments under her fabulous card), interesting and thought provoking comments. The art is available on Etsy; I've got a list a mile long :), however There is a group called Mo's Digital Pencil with this lovely cat, called Sinatra, available as a freebie to try out.

I couldn't resist making a quick card with him and entering him in this week's Digital Tuesday Challenge, which calls for a Clean & Simple card. Sinatra is a lovely, detailed image who didn't need much adding, perfect for this. He's coloured with Copics and cut out with an octagon Nestie (sorry Mo, trimmed the copyright, will write it on the back, though I don't sell my cards). I've used a Woodware punch on a strip of pearlescent card that matches the yarn and matted him onto the blue. The background is Basic Grey paper from Porcelain and I've used some Inkadinkado sentiments around it. Different typefaces, same set :).