CANDY TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This post will stop at the top of my blog until the draw is finished, so please scroll down for new posts.
Hiya are you well? I am all packed and ready to leave very soon, so very excited but not looking forward to the M25, hopefully it shouldn't be too bad but that is wishful thinking I know as M25 is ALWAYS bad!!!



I mentioned in my previous post that I have some reasons to celebrate, and here it is. I have reached another promotion with Stampin'Up this time is Gold for me. I have to say it was down to my amazing team as we had some fab promotions this last few months so this pushed me up a level, so I want to say HUGE thank you to them I feel lucky and I am grateful to each and every one of them they are all STARS. So I thought I would share this with you and celebrate with some candy. Here s what s for grabs

One level 2 hostess stamp set with a matching wheel *Spring Solitude*

A selection of papers and card stock in yummy colours

Some felt blooms, clear buttons, ring circles, ribbon an ink pad and antyhing that I will find in my stash to match those colours. Now what do you need to do to be in with a chance? I thought I would have you get your cattys out. I want you to guess the Stampin'Up colours in this picture, look carefully as to not miss any. PLEASE NOTE THAT I WILL NOT ENABLE THE COMMENTS UNTIL THE DRAW DAY. I don't want any of you to be influenced by any other answers. FUN? I bet it is LOL

The winner will be picked by a random generator next Friday. Good luck

And I have a sweet card to share, I have once again been inspired by some yummy clothes I have bought recently in those colours, I just love them !!l

Stamp set used Live Your Dream and Polka Dot background. I will refrain from posting colours this time. Have fun guessing check back tomorrow as I have a scheduled post with a pretty card to show. See you soon Big Hugs M xxx

Birthday Passionette !!!

I HAVE SCHEDULED THIS POST BEFORE i LEFT FOR MY WEEKEND AND IT DIDN'T WORK, SO APOLOGIES TARA THIS IS SO LATE!!! M xxx

YAY!! Is sweet Tara's birthday today!!!!
You know I'm having fun and games at our first SWUS Retreat but I have scheduled this post before I left . Here is the card I have made for Tara


Her favourite colour is lilac, and I have to say I still struggle with this colour. I can only think to pair it with Green and it took all I had to steer away from that. But I am pleased with how it turned up in the end, even thought it took me ages to decide. Sorry about the bad angle I was trying to get it photographed in my lunch hour on Thursday before I have sent it, so I have rushed and only took a few shots unfortunately none were very good. The colours used here are Lavender Lace and So saffron. The lavender lace layer was stamped with the Baroque Motifs and the edges were sponged with Orchid Opulence. Martha Stewart fancy punch and the flowers are from the stamp set Happiness Always (level 3 hostess). Tara HAPPY BIRTHDAY my love, I hope you like your card and I hope you will have a super day. Hugs M xxx

A gift for Josh...

Hello again, ooh I am sooooo excited, there s only 3 more sleeps till our first SWUS Retreat!!!!!!! I am still busy packing and double checking kits and I cannot wait, I just know we are going to have the best time ever, I love crafty get togethers. Sadly I cannot share anything with you yet but I have a few projects that I have done a few weeks ago. On 4th of July Claudia one of my bestest friends celebrated her Birthday, you may also remember from this blog that in January she gave birth to her first baby boy the ever so sweet Joshua. Here's a few items I have made her.

Firstly the card

Tempting Turquoise and So saffron, a really fresh and summery combo. The stamp set used *True Friend* is one I haven't touched in ages and what I've decided to use. I love how you can create your own beautiful backgrounds with just one stamp and some ink, and I have used Tempting Turquoise to stamp the main medallion onto whisper white, I have also added a clear gem to the center of each one. The saffron flower has been glittered using the heat and stick powder and dazzling diamonds, the turquoise circle was made with the tab punch, the slightly bigger saffron ones were cut out with the Coluzzle system. Some saffron striped grosgrain ribbon ties everything together.

Then I have made a waterfall album, using some photos of baby Josh. Some of them are not very good ones as I have pinched them off facebook so they were very small, but Clau and Leigh can easily replace those ones as they are only stuck down with repo adhesive.

The Cover

Of course I used Wild About You, this is probably my most loved set, I have made cards for 65 years old, men and women, children you name it, I just love it! And just how cute are those paisley elephants? To make them I have stamped the paisley background in Bashful Blue then I have clear embossed the elephants over and cut them out. The stick on letters come from my scrapbooking stash. Basic Gray, Bashful Blue and Certainly Celery is the colour combo.

First page

The photos I have worked with are absolutely adorable, Leigh( Josh's dad) is a wonderful photographer and I really wanted to keep the pages clean and simple. Not only that but because of the nature of the album pages needed to be flat with no bumpy embellishments. Next 2 pages, I have stamped the cute tiny owl from the Forest Friends in versamark and added a square clear button over it, the eyes lined up with the holes perfectly. I have also added some journalling labels for mum and dad to add a few facts and details.Next two pages and again simple accents and stamped backgrounds. Just how adorable is Josh? I cannot wait to meet him in September.A celery giraffe of course, what else? LOL, and the last two pagesThese are the ones that will need changing but how about that cheeky grin. I smiled putting every page together, such a cutie pie.!!

So I am hoping mum and dad will take some pleasure in browsing this little album, but I couldn't post those out without sending Josh something and after spending ages thinking what to get him I have finally settled onto a little elephant from Russ, a soft toy made from Eco friendly cotton.

I fell in love with him and I can just imagine baby Josh nibbling and sucking on his trunk. Too cute. Oh and apparently one of J Lo's babies was photographed with one of those recently, so I thought to myself, if is good enough for J Lo.... LOL.

Well that s it from me today, off to sort some clothes out for the weekend as I'm in work all day tomorrow, then Friday morning hairdresser and after that I am travelling down to Guildford. I will have some posts scheduled while I m away and I have some recent reasons to celebrate, so I might have some candy for grabs who knows? See you soon M xxx

Etsy finds

Woohooo is me again !!! gosh I must be feeling ill LOL>

Ok unless you know me personally you might not know that I am a definite girly girl, and a mag pie for sure as I love everything that shines and shimmers and sparkle, all girly things like make up and shoes and clothes and handbags and jewellery... hang on did I say jewellery? I did, and a few weeks ago I have discovered something that truly made me go weak at the knees. I come across this wonderful talented seller on Etsy . Well I could have bought the whole entire shoperoonie. I love dots and rounds and spheres and these beaded ones are lush. I ended up buying this and this to matchI also ordered a pair of earrings like these ones and a pair like these in a colour called clementine mmmm. Honestly I cannot tell you how excited I am about them so much so that I went on a mahoosive shopping spree and bought everything I needed to make my own beaded spheres. Of course I first had to learn how to bead as I have never did any beading in my life, and managed to find some tutorials for the basic stitch which I have now mastered, but not found one that clearly explains how to decrease this particular stitch (is called peyote or gourd) around a wooden sphere. I also don't really have any spare time to sit down and bead at the mo but soon I shall be a bit more free again so please if you are beading master or indeed know someone that is and can help let me know I would be forever grateful to you. Here s my first attempt at some and while the beads are covered they are by no mean perfect, and I want perfect otherwise I wont be able to wear them. I also know that realistically I cannot afford to keep spending lots of money on more jewellery from this wonderful artist on Etsy(I wish I could) and it would be great if I could learn properly to make them for myself, I could have them in an array of styles and colours to match my every outfit ahhhhhhhh.

I also have a card to share, and I really like how this turned out apart from the scalloped layer, is too wide and spoils the overall look a bit, never noticed it only after I took the photo.

Scene in the Garden stamp set, the vase was stamped three times using the the SMAJ to perfectly align the images and then they were watercoloured using the wonder crayons which I absolutely love, card stock is Brocade Blue the designer paper is Certainly Celery, Choc Chip grosgrain ribbon and some gold brads. I have added some dazzling diamonds to the reeds for a subtle sparkle and the sentiment is from the Sincere Salutations set. Thank you and I so hope I will have some comments from some beaders extraordinaire. Big hugs my blogging buddies M xxx

Birthday Passionette !!!

Helloo, well like promised I am here sooner than last time when I blogged. I had a week full of birthdays. The first one on Friday was my lovely downline Jules birthday. She is the most successful member of my SU team and an extremely lovely, lovely lady, I am lucky to know her and lucky she is in my team. I have made and sent her this card

Julie s favorite colour is brown and she is also well known for her love of cupcakes, however I knew she would probably get her fair share of cupcakes cards and goodies so I went for an old favorite of mine A Rose is a Rose. I have not seen a bad card made with this set, I love it!!! I paired the ever so yummy Chocolate Chip with So saffron and Really Rust for a tone on tone effect. I used a nestie to cut a window in my chocolate layer which was embossed using a cuttlebug folder, and stamped the So Saffron layer behind the frame with the big stamp from the Fresh Cuts set. What you probably can't see very well from the picture is that the saffron layer has embossed gold edges, to do this I simply swiped a versamark pad over the edges then dip them in gold powder and heated them. Julie I hope you liked your card and I hope you had a wonderful day my love . Hugs M xx

Next I am sharing the card I have made for the SWUS weekly challenge, the theme was children birthday and I have made a card from one sister to another. I used the Big Bold Birthday stamp set

Colour scheme is a bright and girlie one, Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie and Regal Rose, I have used a bit of designer paper here, Sweet Always and Pumpkin Pie. The sentiment was pieced together using the Daily Flexible Phrases. I love those zingy summery shades. So have a go yourself and don't forget you can win a free pass to our next round of Stamp With us online.

Yesterday it was my good friend's Claudia s birthday as well, she lives in Seattle now and I will share her card and pressie in a post tomorrow. Clau hope you had a fabulous and Happy Birthday and the party went well. M xx

And guess what? I am heading to another family celebration in a couple of hours. Have a wonderful Sunday big hugs Monica xxx

Hee hee

One post a week, that s shocking!! Hello my lovely blog readers, well I won't say nothing as I feel so bad about being quiet but I live in hope that things will get better, lets face it they can't get any worst!! I am still crafting and I have also been busy finalising details for the Stamp With Us first ever Retreat I am soo excited for this, there are only 11 days left woohooo!!> By the way registrations closes today so skip over and book your place now if you want to come. I have 2 cards to show you today I have followed the same sketch for both as I really liked it, is the sketch posted for this week challenge over at SWUS.

I adore circles, balls, spheres, polka dots in fact everything that's round I love, so this suited me down to the ground, it came together in minutes. The trees from Lovely as a Tree were embossed in black powder (I love how embossing looks on cards, you get this wonderful dimension on your image while still keeping the effect subtle), then I sponged using a dauber Certainly Celery in, and a bit of Old Olive on the lower part and Bashful Blue and a bit of Tempting Turquoise for the top part. Then circle was cut with the Coluzzle system and the scallop edge was made with SU straight edge punch from a piece of Old Olive card. Oval All provided the sentiment this was again sponged on the edges before it was layered onto a old olive scalloped mat. Designer paper used was Bashful Blue and Celery, wide Old Olive grosgrain ribbon and basic black card blank. I really love this set and I hope it never, ever retires. So why not have a go yourself at the challenge this week? We have some free giveaway places to our next round on Stamp With Us Online starting on the 1st of August. Each week for the whole month of July we will pick one lucky entrant to join us for FREE. I am looking forward to lots of lovely entries and good luck!!

Then I got carried away with the sketch and did another, this time with an oval center piece instead of the circle.

I love this year's key colours, they are everywhere!! Rich shades of berry like colours paired with yellowy mustards and deep purples they suit me very nicely. So I settled on a combo of Rose red, Elegant Eggplant and Summer Sun overstamped with More Mustard. And yes I have used a Martha Stewart lattice punch, I must be the only person in the land that only just got this punch but in my defense I did order it at the beginning of March and only took delivery of it last week . Soft Summer is such a gorgeous set and I wanted to have a play at an old technique cracked glass, I love techniques and don't use some of them too often.

I stamped on whisper white CS then I have embossed several layers of clear embossing powder over the surface, I think all in all I did about 5 layers. I could have gone on and on but I got bored of it in the end LOL, the thicker you do it the nicer the effect, now beware do not do it too thick either. On the last layer I have sprinkled some dazzling diamonds before heating so it added a bit more interest to the whole image.

I have a close up here for you and while you might not be able to see the diamonds you can hopefully see the cracked lines, very pretty. You could also rub some ink with a sponge dauber over the cracked lines to emphasise them. Have a great rest of the week and I will see you later on this week for sure as I have a few birthdays to announce. Lots of big hugs and thank you for still visiting me and leaving me those lovely comments. Monica xxx

One of the best weeks..

... of my life!!! Truly!!! I took a bit of time off recently( you probably noticed as I went quiet) and I had two people that mean the world to me here for a full week. My beautiful sis and the oh so gorgeous Luca. And what a week it was, we visited more parks that I can count

at some stupid ungodly hours, check this photo he was on the wonky donky at blimmen 7.30 am, jeeez!!! Not even Nico was impressed being dragged out the house at that time LOL.However seeing that big smile on his face made me forget I would have rather still be under my goose down Summer duvet.

We've been making new friends

We played, discovered and learned more new things ( check that hair out!!! it has been chopped off since) We bathed in the paddling pool till our toes went all crinkly, then when it got too hot we found ways of cooling off

Hmm, lovely background in this photo, well we needed the orange bucket to fill the paddling pool.

And we celebrated mummy's 32 Birthday!!!!!

I love this picture of them both, looking at their happy faces makes me go all warm inside. I loved having them and I am extremely grateful to my brother in law for being so lovely about them spending all this time with us, even though I know he missed them both terribly. He is the best and I truly love him for it. I did managed to get a bit of crafting done late at night and here is the card I have made for Laura s birthday.

Laura loves greens and turquoise so I have based my scheme around her faves. Certainly Celery, Night of Navy and Tempting Turquoise card stock, Celery designer paper( retired but still in stock), Tempting Turquoise grosgrain ribbon, Blooming with Beauty and Occasional Greetings for the sentiment but I have replaced the friend word with the word sister which was stamped using the Short order alpha, the hydrangea pot was embossed in black and watercoloured using the ink refills from SU, I love how vibrant the whole image ended up. I have also made another card for her from Luca. Is a surprise slider card.

Combo is Old Olive, Regal Rose and More Mustard. I have designed this as an extra class for our Stamp With Us site, we had a live chat on Friday and I posted a full tutorial on this type of card, so if you missed the chat logg onto the site and download the full instructions.

Here s the inside

Again the word mami was stamped using the short order alpha, then the following stamp sets were used:

Happy everything, All in the family and Live Your Dream. I know I kinda went to town here LOl. Laura loved seeing her precious little boy walking into the kitchen to hand her this birthday card.

Thank you for putting up with my rather long post today, hugs Monica xxx