"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

Phindy's Place Challenge #51 - purple & teal

 Good Morning and welcome to a new Phindy's Place Challenge:  this week we are challenging you to use purple and teal.  I will admit that I found this a challenge at first, but once I got my DP picked I really enjoyed it and I'm pleased with the results!  I used the image Connected Girl, colouring her with Copics and Stickles.  Sometimes I have a hard time lining up mats, I'd just like to say that I *did* intend this one to be off-centre lol!  The sentiment is Joanna Sheen, the DPs are Bearly Mine, flower is Prima and the scrolls cut with a punch.

My card is for the following challenges:

Sweet Sketch Wednesday - sketch

Fab'n'Funky - all spotty and dotty

Simon Says - card for a child (Post Pals, will send this to my PostPal who loves purple!)

Digital Tuesday - little women

Papertake Weekly - truly dimensional (image raised on Pinflair, flower and sentiment also dimensional)

Card Cupids - two colours only

Stamptacular Sunday - girls and swirls

Top Tip Tuesday Challenge - Get Stitching

Good Morning!  It's time for another Top Tip Tuesday Challenge and this week I've done a tutorial on one of my favourite techniques, using the sewing machine.  I hope you'll check out the tutorial over on the challenge blog and I hope you'll find some hints and ideas to help you sttich on your card projects, whether you're a beginner or an old hand at sewing.  I did an enormous amount of sewing at one point and I still teach quilting, my obsession with cardmaking began when I went into the wrong Hall at a big craft exhibition and found rubber stamping lol!

OK on to my card and the snowdrops are flowering their hearts out at the moment, a little later than usual.  It's good to know that spring is coming!  The image I used is from a Fred She Said set called Spring Flowers which come with a paper pricking frame as well as digi images of crocuses, daffodils and tulips, which pretty well sets you up for all spring eventualities!
I've based my card on this week's Friday Sketchers Challenge and stuck to a cool green colour palette.  The snowdrop is coloured with Copics, I've inked the embossed circle with Pine Green Distress Ink, DP is Prima, border punch Martha Stewart and flowers made from a Little Claire die.  I've sttiched a double border round the image and then a straghit line around the DP.  Can't wait to see all the sttiched creations, hand, machine or faux, on this week's Top Tip Tuesday Challenge!
My card is entered for:
Friday Sketchers Challenge - sketch
Digital Tuesday - use a die cut
Bunny Zoe - flowers everywhere
Challenge up your Life - monochrome
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - nature

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.

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.