Follow The Recipe - Challenge #18

At Catered Crop's "Follow The Recipe", our challenge theme is made up of the ingredients the designer of the winning card used in his/her creation, and this week we had two winners and you can see their winning cards here.

This is a really fun challenge to try...and I hope you will give it a go. We get to pick recipe ingredients used in the winning entry. With a choice of  two themes, I selected 'gardening' which led me to combine two Mo Manning digital images (The Big Guy Gardening and Potter's Bench) to create a perfect retirement card.

These are all of the ingredients were used in the winning cards, but the ones in red are what I used in my creation.

• Colors – primary colors like red, yellow, blue (and green), and a little brown for dirt
• Stamps and Stickers – anything that grows from a seed, gardening, back to school, worms!
• Patterns – circles, checked/gingham, notebook paper
• Color Mediums – stamping ink, markers (ProMarker, Copics)
• Embellishments – buttons, ribbon, thread/twine
• Tools – border punch, die cut shapes, embossing plates
• Techniques – make a bookmark, mat your panels, tie ribbons through your buttons, machine sewing (I did faux sewing)
• Theme – garden, back to school

Hope to see you at our "Follow The Recipe" challenge at Catered Crop.

I'm also entering this in these challenges...

Cute Card Thursday - Clean and simple

Ellephantastic - Layers

Craft Us Crazy - Anything Goes

Top Tip Tuesday - Straight Edges
AI Factory - Anything Goes
Crafty Ann's - Scallops and/or Fancy Borders
Crafty Sentiments - Punches & Dies
Totally Papercrafts - Food & Drink

Gather up those acorns...

.. because we are in for a horrendous winter!

Hello blog friends... I was able to get a bit of coloring in today between household stuff, cooking our traditional pot of Halloween gruel chili, and greeting Trick 'r Treaters.

I made this card using one of Mo's images called "Winter Delivery". According to the 2010 Farmers’ Almanac, "this winter will see more days of shivery conditions: a winter during which temperatures will average below normal for about three-quarters of the nation". (an interesting read and has lots of natural cures/remedies). I guess it's to be expected as we had a very brief Autumn here in the KC area. You know what that means for me? More time in the Wired Angel's Craft Grotto!!  'Might have to run to Mo's store and stock up on images for coloring for when I'm snowed in!

This little squirrel, gathering up all of the acorns he can find, instantly reminded me of the Fall colors that I love - probably my all time favorite colors and perfect for a Thanksgiving greeting.

Thanks for stopping by... enjoy the rest of your weekend, and be safe in all you do.
(p.s.... go "Yankees"!!)

Mo's Digital Pencil - Challenge #4

I've been having a lot of fun working each week on the challenges at Mo's Digital Pencil and it’s hard to believe it’s week four already.

This week, Sandy, our October hostess, has put together a challenge to make a card using an unusual fold.. one that is anything other than a typical half-fold card.  So with Halloween just days away, I think this might be my last chance to play with Halloween supplies for a while.. or at least until next August or so.   I can't believe that I've come to enjoy this holiday as much as I do.   But only if the tombstones and skeletons and such are kept out and we limit it to pumpkins, witches and haunted houses. But that's another story for another day.

So, here's the card I made using one of Mo's very first digital designs.. you have to check out her blog and shop to see some of the most amazing images.

I love this little bat cat and enjoyed making this top flap card.  It's nice to get out of the comfort zone with typical folded cards.

 

Phew.. ‘so glad my photo turned out okay as I ate all of the props!

Thanks for stopping by.. enjoy your day, and be safe in all you do.


Details: White, black, orange cardstock, misc. designer paper, prisma pencils, copic markers, gingham ribbon, vintage button, twine, white gel pen, glitter pen.

Mo’s Digital Pencil – Weekly Challenge #3

Good morning everyone. I hope you are enjoying a wonderful Fall day.. and for my friends ‘down-under’.. a beautiful Spring day. Wherever you are, I hope you get some time to hang out in your craft area.

We are already at our third challenge at Mo’s Digital Pencil. And this week, Sandy, our hostess, has challenged us to make anything but a card. It’s nice to have that kind of a break from cards all the time. Thanks Sandy! So check out the info for this week’s challenge and join in. You can see all of Mo’s wonderful images at her shop.

 

This package was made to hold Shortbread ‘n Chocolate Cookie Mix… hmmm…. probably my favorite type of cookie. I used a plain white lunch sack to create this gift package. It could easily be adapted to any type of mix you might like to make for gifts.

Check out what the design team has put together this week. There’s so many great ideas for gift-giving and the talent is amazing.

Thanks for stopping by.. enjoy your day, and be safe in all you do.

Several Challenges Rolled Into One..

My card today is made for three challenges… first, the Christmas Stampin’ All Year Long weekly challenge…hosted this week by Vicki of  Summerthyme Studio. Second, for  Adela’s sketch challenge at Paper Craft Planet (sk082909), and last for the 11th Copics Challenge hosted by Mary G.

For “CSAYL”, Vicki’s challenge is to create a card using the traditional Christmas colors of  Red, green, and a dash of silver or gold.

For the sketch portion, here’s Adela’s layout challenge for this week.

And for the Copics Challenge, we are to use our favorite colors.. well mine are definitely cranberry tones and deep, warm green. These are the colors I find most comforting in my home.

For my card, I used an image from Mo’s Digital Pencil… part of the Bella ‘n Bronte collection that she has created. I’ve working diligently on Christmas cards using several of Mo’s images. The details are a blast to color using Copics or Prisma pencils.

Thanks for stopping by.. enjoy your day. Until next time,

Details: Copic markers, red designer paper, SU Handsome Hunter, SU circle punches, SU corner punch, DeNami ribbon, Bow Easy bow maker, SU Dimensionals, 80# white cardstock, Sakura gel pen, Sakura glitter pen.

Two challenges in one post!

Happy Hump Day everyone. I hope your day and week are going well. Today I’m posting a card that I created while tackling two challenges at once…that’s a stretch for me, but I certainly admire those who do two and even three challenges in one project on a regular basis!

This digital illustration from Mo’s Digital Pencil is entitled “Cinderella”… not only is the image adorable, but the possibilities are endless.. ‘birthday’, ‘just because’.. from a grandma, for a little cutie in your life.

 

As soon as I saw this new illustration that Mo created, I envisioned soft pastels, and it was perfect for the Whachadoin’ Wednesday Challenge that Mary Jo Price hostesses each week. She used a pic of a little girl’s bedroom as inspiration. I also used today’s sketch challenge at Split Coast (SC243) which you can view here.

I colored the image with Prisma pencils and the papers are from DCWV, Nursery Baby Girl pack.

Thanks for stopping by… enjoy your day.. be safe!.

Happy coloring!!

Mercy’s Tuesday Sketch Challenge #36

Hi everyone.. I hope that you are enjoying your Tuesday.

I’ve always enjoyed seeing all of the card creations of a super-talent lady, Mercy Kerin. I’ve been following Mercy’s amazing work (and that of her talented design team) and thought it was about time I jumped in and got involved a bit trying some of her terrific sketch challenges.

Here’s the card I made for Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #36 (MTSC36).

My card is made using the cute illustration “John” from Mo’s Digital Pencil. If you haven’t been there for a visit, I encourage you to check it out.

Aren’t little guys always the cutest after a bath when all the layers of dirt wash away.. and then while they are fast asleep? That’s when my two always looked like little angels.

Thanks for stopping by.. and enjoy your day.

Details: I colored this with Prisma and Lyra pencils, blended with OMS, papers are 80# white linen, DCWV Citrus designer pack, Ribbon from Michael’s, SU heart punch, DMC floss, SU mat pack, Fiskars pinking shears, SU Tempting Turquoise.

More Mo Inspiration

Hello everyone... 'hope you are enjoying your Wednesday. It's pretty damp here in the KC area. Lots of rain this week and more thunderstorms on the way. But a great time to be inside and catching up on crafting projects.

If you have been a follower of Mo's Digital Pencil, you know who this is... it's Mummu and she's just one of the favorite characters of Mo's viewers! Mummu can be found in all sorts of scenarios, knitting, riding her bike, and even hanging laundry... (I finally found a perfect card for using a miniature clothespin).






And my final card for this post is entitled "Harvest Dance".


All can be found at Mo's online digital store where there are new sketches available every day… can you believe that? What’s a stamper to do??

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your day, stay dry, and be safe in all you do.

More from Mo’s Digital Pencil

I always had a fondness for reading bedtime stories to my sons when they were tots. I love the quiet time and watching their expressions…wide-eyed then slowly drifting off to sleep. There were many times when I intentionally left out a few words or skipped a page to do a ‘sleepiness’ check.. but they always caught me and I was busted!! These are special memories that still make me smile.

Remember the story of Little Red Riding Hood… her grandmother eaten whole by the wolf? Wow…that’s enough to give a little kid night horrors…

This card is made using one of the Red Riding Hood images from Mo’s Digital Pencil. .. so in keeping with a “Grimm’s Fairy Tale” version. I’m sending it to a friend of mine out West who has the worst luck with guys… so it reads “Once upon a time”… I think she’ll get a huge chuckle out of it.

This is little Bella and Bronte from Mo’s collection. I scaled the digital stamp down in size, used watercolor paper and colored with Doc Martin’s ph watercolors.. new art stuff I’ve added to my stash, and so much fun to use.

and here’s a closeup

This is another rendition of Bronte waiting for his treat. This is a fry box made using a Sizzix die and it holds doggie biscuits. Perfect little gift to bring to a friend’s pup. This is one of my projects for the craft fair at AppleFest in Weston, MO this October.

Thanks for stopping by today… enjoy your day, and be safe in all you do.

Digi Days

I’ve been busy with some projects that I wanted to show you. These are some of the latest sketches from a new company in the digital stamp world… Mo’s Digital Pencil. If you haven’t tried digitals you should check them out. But beware.. they are addictive! This is an opportunity for instant gratification…No waiting for the UPS man to show up!

This little baby is part of the “Bunch of Babies” set. I used Prisma pencils, Nestabilities die to emboss the circle around the little guy, SU corner and slot punch, misc designer paper, white cardstock. Ribbon is from Michael’s and diaper pin from Creative Impressions, the sentiment is computer generated.

This image was inspired by a character in one of Mo Manning’s children’s book “The Aunts Go Marching”.

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day, have a few laughs along the way, and be safe in all you do.

Time Out To Salute…

Hello everyone in blog land. I hope that your day is going well and you are enjoying summer.

I had the opportunity to visit my oldest son for “Family Weekend” which happened to follow a very significant event…the successful completion of Army Boot Camp. Completing Boot Camp signifies officially becoming a ‘soldier’… and the ceremony includes soldiers removing their camouflage caps and donning the Army black beret for the first time.

To mark this event, I made a card using “Time Out To Salute” from Mo Manning’s digital collection. Mo also has different hats for our armed forces (and rumor has it that there will be hats for firemen, policemen, etc. in the near future).

 

This card was a huge hit. The hats are adhered with Velcro so they are interchangeable.

And here’s a picture of my personal Patriot in his new beret.

Thanks for stopping by… enjoy your day, have a laugh or two, and be safe in all you do.

 

Details: White linen, SU Kraft and red linen paper, Copic Markers, Velcro, Sentiment: MFT, SU ticket corner punch.

Coloring with Prismacolor Pencils

Hello stampers.. and welcome to my first tutorial. Because so many of you have so kindly asked and left me so many wonderful comments, I’ll be showing you how I use Prisma and Lyra pencils to color my images.

For this tutorial, I’m using an image from Mo’s Digital Pencil. This type of sketch is ideal for coloring, blending, and shading.

I printed this image onto Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, 80# weight paper. Sometimes I use the same manufacturer’s white linen cardstock which gives a textured look to the coloring, but it’s entirely up to you.

To get the most out of this tutorial, why don’t you grab this image and follow along… that will give you a really good feel for what I do when I’m coloring.



Supplies you will need:





An image for coloring



Gamsol (or odorless mineral spirits, aka OMS)



Tortillons and/or blending stumps (see this link for more information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortillon)



Sanford’s Prismacolor Pencils (these are wax-based pencils.. watercolor pencils will not work with this technique) or Lyra Polycolor pencils.



Lyra Skin Tones Polycolor pencils.





oh… and a glass of wine (makes the blending go smoothly!!)





It’s important to determine the direction of your light source when coloring an image. In this image, I’ve decided that my light source is coming from the lower right-hand side… just about where the small pumpkin is on the right.



Begin by lightly coloring pumpkins using various shades of orange. Notice that I made the pumpkins on the left a bit darker by simply loading more of the color I used on that one. I did that because it’s farthest away from the light source. Then, take a sip of wine.



For the pumpkins, I’ve used the following Prisma pencils:


Orange PC918


Vermillion Clair PC921


Orange Mineral PC1033


Pumpkin Orange PC1032


Crimson Red PC924


Spanish Orange PC1003





and now I’ve blended them using a tortillion dipped in Gamsol. This may look ‘yellow’, but it’s just the quality of the photo.. the pumpkins are really done in different shades of orange as indicated above.







Here I’ve added color to his sweater, jeans, shoes, face and the pumpkin he’s holding.. I used Electric Blue PC1040 for his jeans, Limepeel, PC1005 for the sweater, Beige Sienna PC1080 for his sneakers and Lyra 93432 from their Skin Tone collection.





and then blended everything.





If you were to stop at this point you’d have a lovely picture.. but no depth.. Now the fun begins. I’ve now added another layer of color around the areas that will be darker and some Magenta to the tops of the stripes on his sweater.







and then blended them to remove any indication of pencil lines… then a sip of wine.









Now I’ve added a darker green (Moss Green PC1097) to some areas of the sweater on the left side, added deeper shades of orange and Carmine Red PC926 to areas of the pumpkins, and Denim Blue PC1101 to edges of the jeans.







I’ve added some blush to his cheeks and blended everything.






Did some more blending on his face after loading a bit more Peach PC939 on his cheeks.. and blended again.







This is just a lighter version of the photo above and also shows where I very lightly added some Chartreuse PC989 around the boy and pumpkins…







and then blended it moving away from the image.



The final image (better photo)

…here I’ve cropped the photo.





I have found that coloring with pencils can give me some of the best shading and highlighting. Even though I own about 300 Copic markers, I still elect to use this coloring technique for most of my coloring.





Some hints:

• Reserve a tortillon or blending stump for every color that you use.. one for light greens, one for dark greens, one for light skin tones, one for darker skin tones. It prevents bleeding of previous colors that might still be left on the stump. They are inexpensive and well worth having many on hand.

• Hold the blending tortillons on an angle – about 15 degrees or so when blending so you are using the side of the stump, not the point.

• Don’t over-sharpen pencils.. I prefer not to have a sharp point to lay color. The pencils have very soft lead and will tend to break if you over-sharpen.

• Don’t forget that ‘white’ is a color… and leaving some areas white or VERY light help to create depth in your work.

• Remember that there are many shades of a color that you can create…for example.. pumpkins range from medium/dark yellow shades to dark orange-red shades.. so use colors to lighten and darken your work. For example.. use some dark yellows in the pumpkin in the lighter areas… and lay bits of red for the darkest areas. Don’t forget to blend out the pencil lines.

I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial. For me, coloring is a fantastic stress reducer, a great focal point for your card-making projects and very satisfying when it comes out right!!

Once you try this method of coloring I would love to hear about the comments you get on your work, so please drop me a line. If you need more information just let me know.

Enjoy your day…. make sure to have a few laughs along the way, and be safe in all you do.

Monday, Monday

Hello everyone in blog world.. and welcome to the start of a new week… which often means we’re refreshed from a great weekend, have great inspiration from other crafters and are now anxious to get back to our craft rooms to rock and roll!

I’m not wishing our long-awaited Summer away.. it took sooo long to get here after we experienced a crummy and very short Spring. But, I do LOVE Fall.. it’s my favorite season. Pumpkins, leaves that turn color and become crisp, beautiful sunsets and sunrises… comfort food, fireplaces, the color of bittersweet and cool nights when a light sweater is perfect. Those are the things I love… how ‘bout you?

So, for me, Summer means that Fall is just around the corner.. and I can start to create cards for Fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving.

These images from Mo’s Digital Pencil are so inspirational and perfect; she has done it again. She’s knocked the cover off the ball.. and out of the park.  Look at these little punkin’s ready for pumpkin picking on a beautiful Fall day.

Here’s Patrick.. this cute image reminds me of “where’s Waldo”.. he blends in so well, doesn’t he? I think I chuckled all the way through coloring this little guy. I paper pieced the two pumpkins on the bottom right from an extra image, and also paper pieced the pumpkin in the bottom front – both were popped up with SU dimensionals. Photos just can’t seem to capture the dimension we often add.

Many of my followers have asked if I would give more information on how I use Prisma and Lyra pencils.. if there’s enough interest, I’ll prepare a tutorial on my blog so you can follow along.. just leave me a comment and let me know. I would love to show you a few tricks for using pencils.

As always, thanks for stopping by.. and be safe in all you do.

Details:  Both digital images from Mo’s Digital Pencil, plain white and linen cardstock, black cardstock, SU Kiwi Kiss cardstock, SU designer paper, Sizzix leaf dies, misc designer paper, SU dimensionals, computer generated sentiment for Patrick, SU sentiment  from “Tiny Talk” on first card.