Santa Napping by Mo Manning

I know Christmas is over for another year but this image is just a fabulous one for AFTER Christmas too. I think Santa deserves his rest, as do many of us after the craziness of the season! I know I'm taking things a little easier this week ;)

The image is called Santa Napping. The side table with the lamp is a separate image that comes with Santa, along with his boots. It's fun to play with the different elements to create a little scene.

For the Tree by Mo Manning

With just a few days left before Christmas I decided to use Mo Manning's For the Tree for my card. It evokes memories for me of trimming the tree with my kids when they were younger. I miss those days!

Since this will be my last post before the BIG DAY I want to wish all my followers all the very best for the Season and nothing but good things for 2024.

Christmas Elves by Mo Manning

Today I'm playing with 2 of Mo's gorgeous little elves. Meet Little Elf Tippi (with the lights) and Little Elf Kippa (with the baubles). It looks like they're working together to trip the tree. The sentiment is included with Tippi when you purchase him.

I used a digi paper for the background, sadly this company is no longer in business, but I love the papers I bought in the past and tend to use them quite often.

When a Dwarf plays Santa

With Christmas coming it's always fun to see an image and re-imagine it. This is Mo Manning's Dwarf 6 and instead of seeing a dwarf with his ale tankard, I saw Santa at the end of a Hot Cocoa break.

I used Mo's gorgeous free digital paper Colourful Trees for the background to add to the festive spirit.

Gnome Christmas by Mo Manning

It's the first week of November when all things in my house begin focusing on Christmas. I have begun my Christmas shopping and of course, my Christmas crafting!

Today's card uses a mix of elements from 2 different image sets - Father Christmas Gnome Set and the Gnome Tree Set. Gotta love a Gnome ;)

Until Next Time

Happy Crafting 

Rowena by Mo Manning

Since Halloween is just around the corner I decided to use Mo's cute witch Rowena for my card. We don't tend to celebrate Halloween as much here in Australia as they do elsewhere, but I like to play anyway.

I am currently enjoying patchwork and quilting again so decided to combine my 2 crafty loves by using an MFT quilt die for the background. The best part of these dies is you can use all of the pieces to create various versions for future cards :) 

The spiderweb corners and little spider are die cuts from La-La Land Crafts

Bee my Honey by Mo Manning

This week I've used the gorgeous Bee My Honey by Mo Manning for my card. I've been eyeing this cutie off for a while so it was time to colour her up. She's such a delicate and magical little thing that I decided to go slightly off the traditional bee colours, going instead for a lime green and white palette. One of the things I love about this craft is testing boundaries with your colouring.

Sneaking a Peek by Mo Manning

This week I decided it's time to sneak in a little Christmas card, and Mo's Sneaking a Peek fit the bill perfectly. Like I did recently with my Queen Bee card, I layered up sections of the image for added texture and depth. I know it's hard to see in photos but it looks great IRL! 

I layered my image onto one of Mo's free digital papers, this one is called Snowflake.

Love From Us

Today I'm showing a card I made using 4 of Mo Manning's boy images - in order from left to right - For Teacher, With Love Boy, Guilty Bert and Harvard. I love that they all have their own personalities and yet work together so well as a group.

I used inks and colourless blender on the white background before colouring them in. I don't do enough card using boys so this was a lot of fun. 

Bee by Mo Manning

I had great fun using "Bee" for my card today. I layered her onto a fabulous digital paper from the Honeybee Journal Kit by Irresistible Prints. This meant her wings would end up at the same level as the "hive". I then printed her and her flowers out a few times so that I could separate and layer them up to add dimension. Firstly I layered up her whole body and then just her head. And some of the flowers were up 4 layers. It looks fabulous IRL. The fairy and bee's wings all got treated with a touch of glitter for more fun.

Joy and Wonder by Mo Manning

I had great fun layering up some digital elements to create a background to print Mo's cute little pooch on before colouring. This adorable image is called Joy and Wonder. I just love the movement the fur has, and that sweet expression as he ponders the butterfly.

Until Next Time

Happy Creating

Mei with Peonies from Mo Manning

I just love the innocence this image has, it paired well with the soft colours I used. This is Mei with Peonies from Mo Manning.

For the background I stamped a crackle effect with yellow and pale blue on one diagonal half before embossing the panel. I then ruled some fine lines and hand drew in some crosses on the base card before I popped the central panel up. Such a simple design but it gives it a wonderful look.

Button from Mo Manning

Who wouldn't want to find this little Button Mushroom hiding in the forest? What a cutie!

I used a fairly simple design for the finished card, adding pops of red to tie in with my main image.

Sugar and Spice from Mo Manning

This fabulous image is Sugar and Spice from Mo Manning. I love that you can see both the sugar AND the spice in her expression, and depending on the way she's coloured you can emphasize either of these character traits.

I've printed her onto a digital paper with a frame, one of my favourite things to do. A bit of glittered cardstock helps to add interest to the matted image too.

Cowboy Jesse from Mo Manning

This lil' cutie is Cowboy Jesse from Mo Manning, isn't he a cool dude!

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut a center step card and the saloon doors. The letters for the "saloon" were cut using an Altenew alphabet set called "Inline Alpha". I love using this set because the little cut outs add so much interest.

Dede and Pod by Mo Manning

This sweet image is called Dede and Pod. I made this card to welcome a little girl into the world, such a precious time for any family. 

Once again I layered the image onto a digital paper frame and patterned paper. This time however I held my breath as I die cut the word "hello" out of the image. I then die cut several more in white, and layered them together to give the finished pop up effect in the image, This is such a fabulous technique to add texture with your sentiment. I can thankfully say I have never stuffed up the image at this stage (knocking on wood as I type!), though it is quite frightening wondering what will come out of the die cut machine! PLUS make sure you keep all of the little coloured pieces to add back into the picture - like the middle of the e and o - these go down with the first layer of white to complete the picture.

Here's a side on view of the layered die cut.

Fairy Tuttle by Mo Manning

Yes I know, another fairy! This little one is Fairy Tuttle and she was brought out with the Christmas images. As you can see here though, she's perfect for other occasions too with her sweet face. Her layered clothes make colouring fun, she looks great with patterns, coordinating colours or clashing colours. The fabulous artwork shines no matter what!

Fairy Cari by Mo Manning

I seem to be on a bit of a fairy kick at the moment! This stunning image is Fairy Cari and I've been wanting to colour her up for a while!

Once again I have overlayed the image onto a digital paper before printing out and colouring. It really is a wonderful and easy technique to master!

Eliza

This beauty is Mo Manning's Eliza. She one of the glamour images that Mo has been drawing up and she's perfect for those of us with adult daughter's and their friends.

I've given her a faux sequin look to glam up her "little black dress" and she's ready to party. You can't see it here, but some of the "sequins" are actually clear glitter pen, so she reall can dazzle in the right light. I thought the lace embossed background was an elegant way to finish the card off.

Fierce Fairy Felix

This little guy is Fierce Fairy Felix by Mo Manning. I've chose him for this card as I'm giving it to a friend who has a health battle ahead. I hope he helps a little.

The background texture is stamped on and I created the sentiment on my computer and printed it out. 

Giggling Fairy

Oh my - how fun is this little guy. This is Giggling Fairy by Mo Manning. I just love his chubby little baby legs and that smile that you can't help but share.

The inserts in the die cut background were embossed after I cut out the negative pieces in white. I glued the original die cut to a pieces of scrap card before gluing in the embossed sections and popping it up on the front of my card using 3D foam. 

Gothic Fae by Mo Manning

This stunning image is Mo Manning's Gothic Fae. She's perfect for those older girls who like a bit of sass in their fantasy folk.

I printed her onto a layered digital paper background before colouring her up. This is definitely a favourite technique of mine. I wasn't quite sure how these colours were going to work, but I took a leap of faith and am rapt in the result!

A Wedding Card

Last weekend we were honoured to have been invited to a friend's son's wedding. We have know the groom since he was about 4 and have watched him grow into a lovely young man. His friendship with my son also spawned a wonderful friendship between us parents. 

For the card I made for them I used Mo Manning's Wedding Couple B. I chose this version over Mo's Wedding Couple purely and simply because the groom's hairline was better suited to the real life groom.

I cropped the image a little and asked my friend what colour suit her son was wearing and what colour flowers his bride would be carrying. This gave me my colour scheme. A simple embossed background behind the image gave the whole card an added sophistication.

Monster Stickers by Mo Manning

When Mo showed us her new sticker range including these fabulous Valentine Monster Stickers I knew they would be perfect to make a card for my hubby for our recent anniversary. They may be designed for Valentine's Day but they can certainly be used for other occasions.

Given that they are digital files I had the freedom to re-size. I made a full set - a card, a matching envelope with patterned insert, and some stickers to seal the envelope. I used printable sticker sheets for the stickers and cut one sheet using my Cameo, and the other sheet I cut using a circle punch. I'm really looking forward to personalising my envelopes with these in future.