Mojo Monday 97 and Simon Says Challenge

I have another two-fer today - Mojo Monday and Simon Says Challenges.

I chose the Happy Hopper image called Bunny Bath for this card. My friend Kari sent this image in for the House Mouse and Friends Merry Go Round swap that I am currently hosting. I thought the image fit the sketch for Mojo Monday perfectly. The sketch is shown below. Since I am using this card for a swap, I decided to stick with an A2 size. I think a 5x7 might have been a better fit for the size of the image. I just have a really hard time making A2 cards anymore. They seem so tiny. :)

I also thought this image was perfect for the Simon Says Challenge this week, which is distressing. Had I stamped this image myself, I would have used kraft cardstock to fit with the rest of the card. However, since it was stamped on white, I used Vintage Photo Distress ink to help blend it in better. I also tore the top edge of the paisley paper, roughed it up and edged it with the Distress ink. Finally, I sanded the edges of the scalloped circle and hit it with a little distress ink as well. In addition, the papers I used have a distresed look. Distressed/shabby used to be my usual style for cards, but I don't much of it anymore. It was fun to use my old techniques again.

Supplies
Stamps: Happy Hopper - Bunny Bath (Stampabilities); sentiment (Technique Tuesday)

Paper: Kraft cardstock and red cardstock (unknown); paisley DP(Creative Imaginations); striped DP (no-name giant Costco pack)

Embellishments: Circle, scalloped circle and long rectangle Nestabilities (Spellbinder); metal photo corner (Oriental Trading); Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink (Ranger); buttons, twine

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits; distressing

Finished card size: A2 (4 1/4 x 5 1/2)

A Chubby Little Fairy for Three Challenges

This card fits three challenges - Dare You to Digistamp, Stamp Something and Digital Tuesday.


This the first time I have submitted a card for the Dare You to Digistamp challenge. The challenge this week is a sketch, which I have posted below. I chose another wonderful illustration from Mo's Digital Pencil for my digital element. She's called Chubby Fairy. I think I can honestly say, I have never before seen a chubby fairy and I just couldn't resist her. I colored her with Prismas/mineral spirits and added some stickles to her wings. I used a metallic gold gel pen to color her wand.

This is also my first time to submit a card for the Stamp Something challenge. This week's theme is Bugs, Butterflies and other winged somethings.

The theme for this week's Digital Tuesday challenge is simplify. I think this card fits - it's pretty simple for me anyway, so I hope it will be acceptable.


Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps: Chubby Fairy (Mo's Digital Pencil); Sentiment (Hero Arts)
Paper: Pink cardstock (Bazzill); DP (Kay and Co.)
Embellishments: ribbon; pink rhinestones
Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with odorless mineral spirits
Finished card size: 6" square

Harry Needs a Hand - Simon Says Challenge

I finally had time to make a card for this week's Simon Says Challenge. The image I used is a freebie that I downloaded from Mo's Digital Pencil called Harry Needs a Hand. I just love Mo's illustrations. Even if you think you don't like digis, you should check out her blog and her Etsy shop. She is quite talented - and a very nice person too. :)

The challenge for Simon Says Challenge this week is a sketch, which I have posted below. I just realized that I have my 2nd layer of paper turned the wrong way - oopsie! LOL! Oh well. I really like this sketch. It's simple, but still interesting and very versatile. I'm going to be filing it away for future use.

Supplies

Stamps: Harry Needs a Hand (Mo's Digital Pencil); Sentiment (Martha Stewart)

Paper: Green and red cardstock (unknown); DP - Christmas Stack (DCWV)

Embellishments: Ribbon, metal frame, buttons, twine

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits

Finished card size: 6" square

Just Magnolia and CK Sketch Challenges

I'm barely making it in time for this week's Just Magnolia challenge, which is buttons. I am also combining it with Jenny's sketch challenge on the CK/PaperCrafts forum.

I chose one of the Magnolia stamps that I purchased recently - Tilda in Cherry Dress. At least I think that's what it's called. There is another one called Cherry Tilda where she's wearing little boots, but I think I got the names correct. I colored Tilda with Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits and cut her out. I was going to sit her on the edge of the square, but this is kind of a big Tilda. She is much bigger than my other sitting Tilda stamps. Since I had to move her up a little bit, I added the ribbon and sat her on that. I also added the sentiment tag and three pearl hearts to the image area. The sentiment stamps is Hero Arts. The buttons required for the Just Magnolia challenge are in the centers of the flowers, which were created with my EK Success Retro Flower punches. All the cardstock for this card is from Bazzill and the DP is Kay and Co. I ran the green square behind Tilda through my Big Kick with the Fiskars Squares Texture Plate.

Christmas Mojo

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I've posted a card! I've just been super busy and the weather here has been so beautiful that when I do have some extra time, I want to be out enjoying it. I'm back with another Christmas card that fits four challenges - well actually five if you count Susan's Christmas in July challenge on the CK message board. The other four are: Mojo Monday, Cute Card Thursday, Cupcake Craft Challenge and Digital Tuesday Challenge. The latter three are all Christmas theme challenges, and the Mojo sketch fit my image perfectly. It's shown at the bottom of this post.

I've been following the Digital Tuesday challenge blog for awhile, but this is my first time to submit a card. I am very new to using digital stamps, but so far I am really enjoying it. The image I chose is called "Not Even a Mouse" and it's from Mo's Digital Pencil. Maurie (Mo) has just recently started creating and selling digital illustrations. I just happened on her blog a week or so ago through a link on another blog that I follow, and I fell in love with her work. All of her illustrations have tons of charm and personality.

Above is a close up of the image. I colored it with Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope it doesn't take me a whole week to make another card!

Supplies

Image: Not Even a Mouse (Mo's Digital Pencil)

Paper: Pink cardstock (Bazzill); green cardstock (DCWV); DP - Christmas Stack (DCWV)

Embellishments: Circle and scalloped circle Nestabilities (Spellbinder); border punch (Fiskars); ribbon, buttons

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits; paper piercing; digital art

Awesome Digis

I have just started playing around with digital stamps, and I'm always looking for unique images. A week or so ago I discovered Mo's Digital Pencil Too. Maurie (Mo) is very talented and her images are different than anything I have found so far. Her characters have a lot of personality and are whimsical and fun.

I purchased several of her images last night and today she has posted an adorable freebie on her blog. I hope you'll go check out her work and support a fellow artist.

Mo's Blog - Digital Pencil Too

Mo's Etsy Shop

Giving Shelter - A Spoonful of Sugar/CK Challenges

I just had a friend tell me that I'm obsessed with doing challenges. LOL! Maybe so. This one is for this week's A Spoonful of Sugar challenge and also for the PaperCrafts/Creating Keepsakes Message Board challenge.

The Spoonful of Sugar challenge this week is a sketch, which I have posted below. The image I used is called Giving Shelter by Rachelle Anne Miller. I think this is one of the cutest images ever. I love that little snail. I colored the image with Prismas/mineral spirits and sponged some blue on the background. White backgrounds are starting to not look right to me for some reason - just on my own cards though - not anyone else's. I cut the image with my square Nesties and matted it with a scalloped square, also cut with my Nesties. I scallop punched the two horizontal pieces, but that got covered up quite a bit by all the stuff. I added a few more flowers than the sketch indicates, but that was so I could meet the requirements of the other challenge (see below). I guess you can't have too many flowers, right?

The CK/PCMB challenge this week is hosted by Barbara/lillyscrapper and is what I would call a recipe challenge. Our card was to have the following elements: A "critter" (I'm pretty sure a snail and a lady bug are both "critters"); 1, 3 or 5 flowers (I have five - not counting the flower in the image); at least one ribbon (I tied ribbon through the buttons); and at least one punch (I used two border punches, three retro flower punches and one MS butterfly punch).

Christmas in July - Whiff of Joy Challenge

I made a couple more Christmas cards tonight. The first one is for the Whiff of Joy challenge this week.
The sketch for the challenge is shown below. I chose one of the Herb the Snowman images for this one. I colored him with Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits. I added some flourish die cuts, blue gems and snowflake embellishments.

The card below is another one for Susan's Christmas in July challenge on the CK message board. The image is Sitting Alva from Magnolia colored with Prismas/mineral spirits. I used a sketch that Susan also created a few weeks ago. I embossed the circles with Cuttlebug folders and Sizzix Texture Plates. The pink trim and metal word charm are goodies I found in my stash. I think the top right corner needs something, but I was having trouble finding something that really worked tonight. I may add something later if something comes to me.

Tilda from the Heart - Three Challenges in One

I am submitting this card for three different challenges this week - A Spoonful of Sugar, Just Magnolia and Stampin' for the Weekend.

The challenge for A Spoonful of Sugar is hearts. In addition to Tilda's little heart cookies and the little hearts on her shoes in the image, I used a heart to stamp the sentiment on, a couple of heart brads and a heart charm.

The sketch for this week's Just Magnolia challenge is shown below. I did add a couple of flowers to the upper right corner, otherwise I followed the sketch pretty closely. For the image I chose Baking Tilda. I cut the image out and popped it on top of the oval, which I edged with distress ink. I scallop-punched the horizontal strip and added a polka dot and sheer ribbon over the top. The flowers are made from various sizes of daisy punches and layered.

Finally, the Stampin' for the Weekend challenge this week is a color challenge - chocolate covered strawberries. I used deep pinks and browns.

I can usually whip up a card fairly quickly, but this one took me quite awhile. I spent a lot of time layering and blending the colors in my image, then just playing around with different elements until it looked right. I am very happy with how it turned out.

Supplies
Stamps: Baking Tilda (Magnolia); sentiment (Hero Arts)
Paper: Pink cardstock (DCWV); brown cardstock (scraps); DP - Bohemia (My Mind's Eye)
Embellishments: oval and scalloped oval Nestabilities (Spellbinder); primitive heart die (Sizzix); daisy punches (Marvy); scallop diamond border punch (EK Success); ribbon, brads, heart charm
Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits
Finished card size: 6" square

Simon Says Paper Piece!

Believe it or not - this is my very first ever attempt at paper piecing. I have always liked seeing the technique on other people's stamping, but never felt moved to try it myself. I often need a little push to try something different. I finally got the push I needed with this week's Simon Says Challenge, which is to use the paper piecing technique. How fun! I can't believe I never did this before. :)


The image I used is Magnolia - Rainy Tilda, and I paper pieced her raincoat and boots. I was going to also paper piece the umbrella, but I thought it was getting a little too busy, so I just left it plain red. I colored the non-paper-pieced parts of the image with my Prismas. I kept the layout and embellishments simple this time. I was still hungover from my snowflake extravaganza last night. :)

I 've also been giving myself little color challenges from time to time. I'm trying to challenge myself to use different color combos or colors that I might associate with one thing for other themes. I usually think of red and green for Christmas cards, so I challenged myself to use these colors for a non-Christmas theme card. These little self-challenges kind of take me out of my comfort zone a little bit.

Supplies
Stamps: Rainy Tilda (Magnolia); Sentiment (Hero Arts)
Paper: Green and red cardstock (DCWV); DP - Wild Asparagus (My Mind's Eye); the paper used for the coat and boots is a digital download called Nanny's Garden from Raspberry Road Designs
Embellishments: Circle and scalloped circle Nestabilities (Spellbinder); buttons, ribbon
Techniques: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits; paper piecing
Finished Card Size: 6" square

Sending Warm Wishes

The theme for this week's House Mouse and Friends challenge is seasons. I chose to do another winter theme card. Maybe they make me feel cooler somehow in the heat we've been having.

This card didn't turn out exactly like I pictured it. I'm thinking maybe I went too far with the snowflakes. The little ones on the image are the pieces that were cut out of the border when I punched it. I also added some snow texture paint to the image. The background of the image is sponged with blue ink and I highlighted the snow with blue chalk ink. The photo is really kind of deceptive. The sentiment is stamped clearly. I'm not sure why it looks faded in the photo.

Supplies
Stamps: Stocking Full of Love (Stampabilities); sentiment (Hero Arts)
Paper: white cardstock (DCWV); blue cardstock (Bazzill); DP - Blue Poinsettia collection (Fred She Said Digital)
Embellishments: Circle and scalloped circle Nestabilities; snowflake border punch (EK Success); scallop border punch (Fiskars); snowflake punches (Oriental Trading); rhinestones; ribbon
Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits
Finished Card Size: 6" square

Blue Poinsettias - And No Stamping

I finally gave in. I made a card with digital downloads and absolutely no stamping. Eeek! I never thought I would do such a thing, but when I saw some cards on Donna's blog made with these lovely poinsettias I had to try them too. I decided that Janet's sketch challenge on the PaperCrafts forum on the Creating Keepsakes Web site was a great time to try these out.

The poinsettia and the blue pattern paper are from Fred She Said. The package included the blue poinsettias, as well as traditional red. It also included several background papers and sentiments. While I have used digital stamps before, this is the first time I have used a download that was already colored.

To add a little more dimension to the poinsettia, I tried a trick that I learned from my blog buddy Emily. I covered the flowers with VersaMark and heat embossed them in clear. I think it really adds a little extra pop to the image. I'm definitely going to be using that little trick more in the future. Thanks Emily!

I added some tiny silver glass marbles to the center of the flower. The flourises are a metallic silver paper cut with my new Quikutz Flourishes die. I added rhinestones to the swirls. The sentiment is a Making Memories rub-on that I had in my stash. The scalloped borders were cut with two different Fiskars border punches and I ran the background piece through my Big Kick with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder.

I enjoyed using the digital images and paper for this card. Now that I've finally tried it, I think I'll be using more digital downloads in the future.

Sunflower Tilda - Double Challenge

I created this card for this week's Just Magnolia and Stampin' for the Weekend challenges.

The Just Magnolia challenge this week is to use one or more charms. I added a butterfly charm to the flower embellishment in the top right corner of the card.

This week's Stampin for the Weekend challenge is a sketch. Two sketches were provided to choose from. I chose Donna's sketch, which is showne below. I tend to choose my images before I determine whether they will work right with a particular sketch. In this case. I had to use an oval instead of a circle because Tilda wouldn't fit in my largest circle Nestie. I also had to cut her out and pop-dot her on top to keep from cutting off part of the image. The flowers I used are premade paper sunflowers that I have had in my stash forever. I can't even remember why I bought them, but I'm glad I finally got the chance to use them. I modified the top part of the sketch so that I could add some ribbon and a charm to the card. Instead of the two buttons I used a large flower with a button center. I added tiny green buttons to my corner embellishment to work with the green in the top part of the card. The DP I used for this card is actually from one single sheet. It has also been in my stash forever and it was orginally designed for scrapbook layouts.

Supplies

Stamp: Sunflower Tilda (Magnolia)

Paper: Blue cardstock (Paper Studio); yellow cardstock (unknown); DP (Paper Wishes)

Embellishments: Oval and scalloped oval Nestabilities (Spellbinder); scalloped border punch (Fiskars); retro flower punch (EK Success); buttons, ribbon, butterfly charm, paper sunflowers

Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits

Finished card size: 6" square