A Gnomey Christmas Card

I love Tomte gnomes and this card uses 2 of Mo Manning's gorgeous images which come as a set - Bjarne and Folke - and one of her FREE digital designer papers - Colorful Trees. I layered all the digital images together, coloured and then added a 3D element with die cut pine leaves and pine cones.

Of course it's Christmas so I couldn't help but add a little sparkle. I applied stardust stickles to the thin white border around the image and the tips of the pine leaves.

These images and so many more are still available until the end of the year for 50% off HERE

Sorry, I Frogot!

What do you do when you get back from a holiday away and realise it's your turn to post a DT project and...of course!...you're not organised!!! You choose one of Mo's fabulous images that comes with a pre-coloured option, matching digi paper and sentiment 😀. Meet I, Frogot by Mo Manning, the perfect choice for my crafting lapse LOL.

I added a few hand coloured die cuts and popped a wobbler behind the frog to zhuzh up the card.

Mo Manning's Choir Angel on Christmas Baubles

About a moth ago I posted a Christmas bauble I had done using one of Mo Manning's gorgeous new angels. For this week I decided to complete the set using the other 2 angels, the one above is one of my new makes using Choir Angel Celeste. I was really happy to have her completed safely and added to my set. She looks great with my original bauble using Choir Angel Beli.The background paper I used is included when you purchase Choir Angel Beli.

So what happened to the third angel in the series you ask! Sadly things didn't work out well for me the day before this post! I was outside spray varnishing the bauble I made using Choir Angel Aureil when it dropped to the ground and smashed!! The joys of working with glass baubles 😢 To add an insult to the breakage, I had used a bauble that I had added glitter to the inside of as I didn't have any blank ones left. Of course the glitter has now spread everywhere! The central image and moldings remained intact so I did manage to get a photo to show you. I do see a replacement coming in my future too 😉

For these baubles I used air hardening clay instead of the paper clay I used for my original bauble - see instruction post HERE. I have to say the clay was harder to work with and shrunk slightly as it dried, but it did do the job.

CASE me a Christmas Card with Michelle Lupton

It's that time of year again when Michelle Lupton organises her CASE me a Christmas Card Event. This year she has invited around 80 crafters to join her and there are a series of hops on Instagram and YouTube with prizes on offer. My hop is today on instagram and you can find me there at @debpamment

I got to CASE the fabulous work of @donnamikasa and this is the card I chose. I used the sponged background, different sized die cuts, large sentiment and foliage elements. Of course I had to add some coloured images too! These cuties are Little Elf Kippa and Little Elf Tippi by Mo Manning. Please be aware that the links for these images are for a store that will be closing soon! Mo has a new store open HERE, but she is happy to move images to the new store if requested once these links expire.

Another Little Christmas Bauble

 

Last year I used one of Mo's images to make a little Christmas bauble for my tree and I took step by step photos. This year I couldn't go past one of Mo's new angels to create a new bauble. You can check out how I did this HERE

For this bauble I used Choir Angel Beli and the digital paper that comes with her. She was printed at 2" high on copier paper and coloured with copics. I didn't want to print her on regular blending paper as that wouldn't curve around the bauble as well.

I do plan on completing the set with the other 2 angels Mo has in her new store, I just need to source some new bauble blanks first! Hopefully I'll have them done by Christmas.

Joyful Fairy by Mo Manning

When I saw this fabulous image called Joyful Fairy I knew I wanted to colour her up and frame her for my sewing room. She really appeals to the patchworker in me 😃

I decided to give her some dimension by layering the patches in her skirt, her wings and her ponytail. I glued each piece on just at the top and then curled them up. It really looks so much better IRL! 

The beautiful background paper is included with your image purchase.

And here she is all framed up and hanging on the wall.

Love Is by Mo Manning

How cute are these two! The image is Love Is by Mo Manning and is currently available on Mo's Patreon Page. Mo is currently setting up a fabulous NEW shop though - there are some gorgeous new images there - do yourself a favour and go check it out HERE!

A Special Anniversary Card

Today I have a very special 60th anniversary shutter card for you. I love the reminiscing of past and present and how the couple still love each other, even after 60 years.

Now I'm not sure why I did this to myself but I saw a tutorial yesterday on YouTube for this style of card and headed off into a rabbit hole to try it myself, and I got it done with only 90minutes to spare before my posting time!!!!

It's a fun card but PRACTICE putting together the mechanism BEFORE you start cutting up your images, I'm SO GLAD I decided to do this as I may not have had a card to showcase today otherwise!!!

The images I have used are by Mo Manning and have both been cropped. The bridal couple is Wedding Couple B and the elderly couple are Jack & Ginger.

In the video below you can see the mechanism in action.

Duke Done Differently

As with many crafters I enjoy all sorts of different crafts. One I enjoy is quilting and recently I saw a fun technique called collage quilting where fabric scraps are your colouring medium. I then went in search of a few YouTube tutorials on the techniques and thought it would be fun to try. My next issue was finding an image to use. Of course being on Mo Manning's Dream Team made me wonder if a digi mage could be used. Like with anything out of the ordinary it's always good to check with the artist if your technique is an acceptable use of their artwork. I was delighted when Mo agreed to my request and I decided to use the gorgeous Duke, partly because he reminds me of my dog 😉

I printed him off at just over 12" tall, transferred the lines to a piece of fabric and got to work. The plan was to use up scraps from my fabric stash and that's why he ended up blue - but I'm so happy with it and learnt a lot along the way. The fusible I had hiding in my craftroom was quite old and didn't always stay ironed down so I ended up using a decorative stich along the edges of the fabric pieces, not the way a true collage quilt is made but I was happy with the result anyway. I added wadding and a backing, did some more quilting to sandwich the 3 layers together and finished off my piece with binding. I now have a cute soft wall hanging ready to go up.

Here's a little idea of the steps the process took me. 

My sincere thanks to Mo for letting me use her artwork this way.

Ilana by Mo Manning

Today I'm bringing you a card using Mo's gorgeous Ilana image. There's just something so wonderful in the way Mo poses her images and I love the sweet cheekiness of this adorable girl.

Using striped DPs is always fun as you can orientate the stripes in different directions to really enhance them as a design element.

Spring Awakening by Mo Manning

Today I'm bringing you a fabulous Mo Manning image called Spring Awakening which is available free from Mo's Patreon. 

Here in Australia it's the Winter Solstice today, which means we're halfway through Winter and hanging out for Spring to come, so I'm living vicariously a little here 😀

King for the Day by Mo Manning

Recently I have been doing some men's card by request. Today I'm bringing you this one using an image called King for the Day What bloke doesn't love a good lounger and being in charge of the remote.

I used some papers that created a lounge room backdrop and added a masculine sentiment to finish him off. 

Fishing by Mo Manning

Here's another requested card for an man, my brief was anything "boating" related. This time I've used Mo's Fishing image. This is another image that has been around for some time but is still a fabulous choice when making a card for a man. 

I find men's cards need to be a little simpler in design but the sponged sunset background and scalloped frame seem to work well. 

The Engineer by Mo Manning

Recently I had a request to make a few men's cards, in particular with trains or sailing. Well I couldn't go past using Mo's The Engineer for one of these cards. The image is an older one of Mo's but he's still a fabulous choice.

A couple of die cuts and colouring to create the "tunnel" and I had a perfect backdrop for him 

Little Princess in Lilac and Lemon

This gorgeous image is called Little Princess and is by Mo Manning. I ended up using a soft colour palette of Lilac and Lemon for her as she's just so sweet, and I couldn't see her in bold colours. Perhaps I was influenced by the fabulous costumes of The Queen in the Bridgerton series...perhaps ;)

Baby Fairies by Mo Manning

Today I'm bringing you a card with one of Mo's sweet Baby Fairy images. This cutie is one of 3 in the set and, although I love all 3, I think this one is my favourite!

It's a tad hard to see but the teal background is embossed with a beautiful floral swirl which ties in so well the theme and adds so much extra texture IRL.

Late by Mo Manning

What the perfect image for a belated birthday card! This is Late by Mo Manning. He would work well with Mo's Alice in Wonderland images as he's perfect for the White Rabbit, which is what inspired my fun colour palette.

Janny Texting by Mo Manning

This week I've used the fabulous image Janny Texting by Mo Manning. After colouring her up I decided to re-colour her and video the process. Mo's DT has started doing live colourings on Facebook, but I haven't felt comfortable doing one of those - hence the video instead.  

This is the image I coloured up in the video. I did her fairly quickly and probably spent more time on the original image making sure the blending was perfect, but I'm still happy with how she turned out! I popped her onto a second card using the same layout as the first.

For anyone interested - here is the link to the colouring video....and please excuse any glitches, I'm pretty new to all this! And next time perhaps I'll record in landscape mode rather than portrait 😏

Mona by Mo Manning

This sweet little image is called Mona by Mo Manning. I love colouring black hair and using bright blue as a highlight. And how well does the stark black work with the pink and lime green?! Such a fabulous image to play with.

I repeated the spotty theme with the stamped background using a set by Altenew, and an embossed spotty panel. The black rhinestones finish off the theme.