CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep it is very, very soon you know, but I m alright as I m already preparing for it, I have started my Christmas workshops with my first one this last Friday. Venue was my place ( I like to keep the cost down and the village hall s are so expensive now a days), 5 ladies joined me, I also like to keep the groups small and give as much attention as needed to each individual, also I find it I interact better and get to know everybody a bit better during the class, so I often hold 2 sessions on the same day but for this first one I ve ended up with only one afternoon session. A great time was had by all and they were delighted with the projects we got to make. Here s a few piccies for the day.

Oh yes that s right I even baked some scones and they have been well received. And I know you re thinking gosh she really is a domestic goddess, but I have to share that just an hour before they were due to come I realised I forgot to bake them so it was a quick 15 min. weighing my ingredients and another 10 min in the oven so as you can imagine, I didn t feel virtuous, I can assure you I felt quite the opposite. lol

We made a folder to hold a set of 5 cards. Papers used were from the dashing Collection and the set is the new Season Of Joy bootiful.

Here s my lovely ladies each holding one of the projects completed, so thank you for joining me girls and I m already looking forward to the next one. If you live near the DN 14 postcode and you will be interested in taking a class with me please get in touch at telemech01@aol.com and I will give you the details for my next one. Ok I m off to finish my Scrapagogo DT work, I have so loved working with Nov. kit is a special one, go subscribe for yours now YOU WILL LOVE IT!!!!! Hugs Mxxx

Carole s gift

Hello on the 17 of September it was one of my Passionette s birthday, now if you go back into my blog to the 1 st of April entry( yours truly s birthday) you will see what a wonderful gift Carole has made me, so I had to return the favour and this was my gift to her.

Now if you visit Carole's blog( you should she is one talented lady) you will see just how lucky she is to have a fabulous log cabin as her stamping studio, so I ve made her the decorated frame with her lovely space in mind I thought she could use it to decorate the walls. I have made those at the same time as my demo for the SU field training and I think she was pleased with them. I was I have to tell you the combination is a very grown up one and I found those frames at my local Home bargains store for an incredible £1.99. So I have cleared their entire stock people were giving me the evil I think they were all thinking they ve missed something great, which they kinda did if they were crafters LOL.

I have also made a little container for a set of nail polish perfect for a french manicure. The colours used were Pixie Pink, Bravo Burgundy, Sage shadow and whisper white. I have used the Season of Joy stamp set( great set you wouldn't think this is a Christmas set used like this would you? love that is called VALUE FOR MONEY and I m all in favour of that lol). The technique used is the glorious emboss resist and I have stamped and embossed the pixie pink layer with clear embossing powder and then sponged the Bravo Burgundy over. Got to dash I m teaching a Christmas workshop tomorrow and still have loads to prepare. Thank you for checking me out I do appreciate you stopping by. Hugs M xxxx

ETA. Emma asked this question so I thought I would answer it on this post, thank you Emma

****So beautiful as always, it's a real pleasure to see what you do next. Can I ask what sponges are best to use for this technique?*****
Emma for this particular ones I have used my sponge daubers they are my new best friends, I have two for every colourway ( say for instance I work with pink, I ve got one for a lighter shade and one for a darker one). However if you re covering a larger area you could rip and use bigger pieces of household sponge. Works a treat!! Look on my blog for more ideas using the same technique we have some new sets that I m dying to use this way. Hugs M xxx

Stampin'Up! Field Training

WOWZEEE what a fantastic time we all had!! We anticipated for so long now whether we were going to get a copy of the new catalogue and WE DID, also we anticipated if we were going to get some of our favorite sets that are current in the US catalogue and ... WE ARE!!! same with the punches and other yummy stuff, WE DID get MORE! not all of it of course but definitely a very good selection that is sure to keep your wish lists topped up for a while, I know mine is getting bigger every time I browse the catalogue lol. All in all it was a fantastic event, well organized jam packed with inspirational demonstrations and inspirational stories, also it was great to meet up with demos from across the country, it was like meeting long time friends as you do get to know them on the forum board so when you meet them in the flesh you feel like you already know them. Waves to you all fabulous ladies!!!

I was so lucky to also meet some of my Passionettes as well, six ( out of 19 ) of them travelled for the event and I have organized a shoe box swap earlier that day, the samples were great, the standard high and everyone seem to have enjoyed themselves (me probably the most as I was just so giddy the whole day). Here's a photo of us on the night unfortunately one lady Stevie had to dash home early as her little baby girl needed her feed.

From the top left we have Carole, Me, Bekka, Sally then moving down from the left we have Jo and Julie, great girls and I have a lot to thank them for.

We got to play with loads of new stamp sets and I got to handle the scallop border punch( OMG!! you so need to preorder this ASAP as you will want one when you ll see everyone using it on the forums it is FAB!!) so we created loads of fab projects and even our country manager the lovely Paula Iaciofano got stuck into crafting on the night, and I have got photographic evidence, Paula always looks impeccable and her shoes are often the talk of the demonstrators on the boards and she didn't disappoint this time either, she wore a gorgeous pair of patent heels in cream and black to complement her dress, gorgeous.

also behind Paula you can spot the lovely Kelly Francis, Kelly is Paula s assistant and shes a doll .

We also had an important guest all the way from the States in the name of Pam Morgan, Pam is the Vice President of Demonstrator Services and Development for SU and has been a demonstrator herself for 15 years and for the last 10 she s been working for Stampin Up! HQ, a very inspirational lady I could have chatted and listened to her all night. I was humbled and honoured to be asked to demonstrate at the event and I have chosen to demo a technique( emboss resist), I don't honestly think I did ok as I was just besides myself with nerves, if you attended one of my workshops or know me you know I don't really get nervous and I am very confident, however the thought of demonstrating for demonstrators has obviously altered something in my head and I can't remember how I got through it, I just know it wasn't great lol but of course my fellow demonstrators were supportive for which I am grateful. The other lady that was asked to do a demonstration was the fabulous Michelle, now this lady is a STAR let me tell you, and her demo was GREAT!!!! here s a picture of the two of us with Pam

ermm wait a minute what s that in the background?? could it be the new catalogue cover? hmm lol

Here s a picture of me at it and the card that I ve demonstrated on the night.

I will show you more stuff done with the same technique and colours next time till then hugs. Monica xxxx

A different kind of stamping

OMG!!! Look what I did with some SU stamps? This is Luca s ( my sweet nephew) card and cake for his 1 st birthday party this Sunday. I know the cake is slightly over the top but hey he is special and I can spoil him as much as I want to I am entitled to it lol.

Now before everyone send s the food hygine brigade ove rto my house let me tell you that my stamps have been thoruoughly cleand and disinfected. Not sure if is the right way to do it and I am not saying to you that this is safe I dont know if it is but I have taken additional steps in case it isn't. I first scrubbed my stamps using the cleaning solution SU sells and the stampin pad. I then washed them with a toothbrush and ashing up liquid, I then took a cloth and mixed some Milton according to the instructions and let put my stamps face down onto the cloth forn the recomended time. I then wiped them further with food grade ispopropyl alchool, then the extra step was to separately stamp the images ( inked using food colouring paste)onto flower paste and cut out then stick them to the actual cake, the party guets are far too small to be even sniffing sugar ( well my nephew apparently is not allowed any sugar till his 18 according to my sis lol... love you Laura) so they can be removed before the cake is cut but i think you should be allright eating it. Made the snakes and the palms using a mixture of half sugar paste and half flower paste. I love ho wit turned out and if it looks a bit bare and wrong at the top is because we are missing the big number one candle in front of the star burst.

Then there was the card. I wanted everything to be coordinated from the invites to the cake I even stamped plain white serviettes and cut out little animals to stuck onto cocktail sticks !!!

Made using Always Artichoke card stock, So Saffron, Real red, Ballet Blue, Old olive, Pumpkin Pie, his name was spelt with the Big deal alphabet and I ve made the capital *L* from letter *I*. The ballons are from Big Bold Birthday set all from SU> Hugs M xxxx

UStamp goodies

Hello how are you all? dear me I am at the chasing your proverbial backside stage lol! I have been crafting like mad the last few days but is all stuff that I can t share yet, I m going to a demonstrators field training day in High Wycombe on Friday, and I am so excited!! I m weeing my pants every time I think of it, not only will I get to meet some of my lovely passionettes and other demonstrators from across the country, we are also going to get a copy of the NEW catalogue!!!!( well I hope we will lol) then Saturday from there will be travelling to London to attend Luca s first birthday bash soo busy.

Anyway I do have some candy and this are a few of the Ustamp projects released so far, I have to say I loved the high quality projects and learned lots so far, just hope it may long continue.



This ensemble is so fab looking, there is a gift bag that s big and sturdy perfect for something heavy ish, the CD cover is a fab idea and one I will be using lots in this digital age, what anice way of presenting someone with a CD containing family photos good gift idea this one, then a sweet treat punch that you can fill with choccies or jewelery etc, and we even decorated some of the little containers that SU sells their brads buttons eyelets in. GorgeousNext one is this cute creation by the talented Sarah, loved it so much and made mine into a SU wish list, as you can see only one page of wishes ( what? is not that much is it ***GRIN**)And finally this was my little project that I designed for UStamp, a lovely mini book with pockets perfectto use for loads of things mine was to document our holiday this Summer. All the projects were made with the European UStamp kit.
So hope it wont be as long before I update you again hugs Monica xx
ps. WOW ladies you do like the sound of that border scallop punch don't you? I have taken loads of preorders for it so far and you still have time to preorder yours if you haven't already, everyone that preorders one from me goes into a draw for a chance to win a scallop border punch absolutely FREE, there will also be a special offer specially for those that preorder just email me to find out at telemech01@aol.com. Orders will be placed on 1 st of October .M xxx

OMG!!! STOP PRESS!!!

Hello all, I HAVE GOT SOME BIG NEWS FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stampin'Up!!! will carry the amazing SCALLOP PUNCH within their new catalgoue, this punch is like the threading water one by Fiskars but with no holes in the scallops, you can preorder them NOW they are going to be £10.95 and one of you is going to get it for FREEEEE!!! So evryone that preorders one now gets put in a draw for a chance to WIN one. What are you waiting for? email me at telemech01@aol.com to place your preorder.

Do you GOGO?

Do you? I am and I m going to show what I did with their August Kits, yes I said kits and not kit as I do get a selection of the Create scrapbooking kit now which means I am trying my hardest to scrap as well as card make. And the first combo month worked well and i loved doing a layout, I dont scrap hardly at all which is so sad as I do take hundreds of photos that I do nothing with. So here it goes the apple of my eye featuring on my scrapbooking entry

Cute huh? This was made for my sister and BIL to record the buying of their first ever house in London and I used Luca for this as i didn't want just a picture of a house, so my journalling goes to read:

***Two days before this photo was taken mummy and daddy moved you into your very first home****

I adored the stamp in this kit in fact I adored the whole thing, the colours and the papers were divine but I did focused on the stamps because you know me stamps is what I like BEST!!! The bubbles stamp I have used to mimic the curves lines in the birdie paper( this was to die for, those little birdies are actually flocked, too cute!!!) the house stamp was used to replace the letter *O* and it houses the address. A few other elements were added all from the Create Kit and some tiny rub ons were used to decorate my journalling strips.

Now my cards

Sometimes simple is the hardest to achieve but this only took a few minutes. for this I ve used some of the stickers that come in the kit to simply spell the word HI, note the frilly ribbon? I know I ve promised to show you how is done and still haven't, I will show I promise!!! again...I put my cutting skills to the test with this next one, I have cut around the wine paper while one of the cards were layered with a button, those buttons were ballon shapes and I have sniped off the tail.

My third project were a birthday duo.

I used the stamp again to stamp the flowers onto shrink plastic and make a pair of earrings, i have coloured the flower heads with chalk inks before punching a hole and shrinking them.

I have also made a card to match again using my ink pads to watercolour the flower heads.

So all in all another fantastic kit from the GOGO HQ, love them and I will always love them!!!!!

Hugs M xxx

A true FRIEND..................

..............is YOU friend!!!! is just one of the new sets finding is way into the new SU Catalogue, and I soo love this set the sentiment is beautiful and just right for good friends. I have quickly made a card to show you all how it can look and wanted to try a different combo as well so I ve combined the two with pleasing results I have to say I do like how it turned up the colours are gorgeous together. Really Rust, Cameo Coral and Sage Shadow.

I ve dyed some of the Mellow Moss taffeta ribbon using my Sage Shadow marker and the pearls came from the Pretties kit. Hope you like it!!!! hugs Monica xx

Woohoooo

Hello, WOW as the release date(Oct.1 st) of a new Stampin'Up! catalogue full of new fresh and exciting product is drawing closer, the retiring list from the current catalgoue has been announced. Those items are only available until stocks last so I would urge all of you to check your wish lists and if any of the retiring items are on there order them as soon as you can, I would hate for you to miss out on them once they are gone they are gone forever. Also peeks from the new catalogue have been released and all I can say is WOW!! they look so goooooooooooooooood. *smile* no, that s not right *grins** hee hee. I am now taking pre'orders for hardback copies of the new catalogue at a special offer price of £2.50( contact me to get your copy)


If you re a member of one of my Stampers 10 clubs you will automatically get a copy of the new catalogue delivered to your door, if you are not a member and would be interested to join one I have 7 places left in one starting first of October, please get in touch to secure a place also visit this post for more details.




As you check the list out you will find out that the prices have come down ( YIPEEEE!!!!), this is because SU have promised us lower prices throughout the new catalogue and the prices in the retired list show this. Keep your eyes on me because I will show you some peeks using ine of the new sets. Hugs Monica xxx