TIME TO SALE A BRATE....

Hello has Santa been to visit? I hope he did and I hope he got you everything you wished for. I also hope you had a wonderful time we certainly did, it was lovely to be able to have a few lay ins and watch telly, read a bit and even craft. I managed to complete a few projects for the future Stamp With Us online classes( the next round starts at the end of January woohooo!!) and redo a swap that Royal Mail managed to loose before Christmas ( although it might still get there).

What I am swapping you might ask? well as you know January is round the corner and with that so is the biggest sale campaign that SU is offering every year, you probably guessed it by now or indeed seen it advertised is SALEABRATION time. Now Saleabration means one thing and one thing only FREE STAMPS ...swoon, and you just wait till you see them, I am in love and cannot wait for tomorrow to come so that I can place my order and earn some for FREE.

Below there s a little info on how you can qualify.

AS A CUSTOMER- For every £45 you spend you will get ONE FREE STAMP SET of your choice( there are 4 different ones to choose from), you spend £90 and get two free sets and so on.

AS A HOSTESS- Host a workshop with totalling sales of £300 or more and receive a FREE stamp set!!!

AS A DEMONSTRATOR- Sign up and become a demonstrator during Sale A Bration and receive an extra FREE set of your choice from the main catalogue (up to the £38.95 value).

And if you do decide to start your own business and join my team of fabulous Passionettes, do get in touch with me to find out my SPECIAL SIGN UP DEAL I have running for the entire Saleabration period 30Dec 2009 -28 February 2010.

As you can see this is a fabulous time for anyone with Stampin'Up! And this is not all. As you know I like to do a special Offer for all of those who can't wait to get their hands on the new stamps.

Place an order of £45 or more with me between today and 5th January 2010 by 10pm and get not only one Free SAB sets of your choice but be in with a chance to win one of those fabulous prizes. For each 11 orders placed with me the following prizes will be up for grabs.

FIRST PLACE - A ink caddy plus 12 ink pads of your choice (choose a full colour family or simply choose any 12 you like)

SECOND PLACE - A free level 2 hostess stamp set of your choice

THIRD PLACE - A free level 1 hostess stamp set of your choice

FOURTH PLACE - £25 worth of money to spend as you wish

FIFTH PLACE -£ 25 worth of money to spend as you wish

SIXTH PLACE -£25 worth of money to spend as you wish

You loved my last draw and this time will be no different, join in the odds are FABULOUS, out of 11 people 6 will get an extra prize on top of your free stamp set, this really is a GREAT DEAL.

What do you think? Tempted? if you are, and lets face it how can you not be all you have to do is send me your order at telemech01@aol.com before 5 January at 10pm. I will choose the winners via a recorded video, you get to see your name going into the draw then one by one the names will be pulled out. The winners will be notified by email on the 6th of January. Good luck !!!

This special offer is offered by myself not Stampin'Up! It cannot be combined with any other Special Offer or as part of your Stamper's 10/Virtual hostess commitments. Thank you for understanding xx

Here's a sweet sample I have made for one the swaps I mentioned earlier. It is from the wonderful set Happy Moments and I simply adore this little birdcage stamp.

Isn't it sweet? I kept it very simple and used a stricking clasic combo. Real red Basic Black and Whisper White with a bit of black gingham. Now before you look to close can I just say that this one didn't make it into the swap, I didn't used my SAMJ so my stamped sentiment isn't straight, needless to say I will keep this one for myself LOL.

I have inked the stamp using the markers and I stamped the hanging thread from the Tree Trimmings set. This has to be my fave stamp from the set, LOVE IT>

If you want to see the rest of the sets on offer please go here.

Don't forget to place an order just email me at telemech01@aol.com. Hugs Monica xxx

HAPPY CHRISTMAS...........

... to you and yours, I hope your holidays will be filled with joy and special moments. I also want to thank you all soo much for all your support over the last year, I really do appreciate it.

I will leave you with a few pictures of my decorations. Like you might know every year I choose a different colour scheme and base my decorations on that. So this year I found the most wonderful felt little ice skates in shades of sage, cream and chocolate, so my combo was born.

sorry the pictures are not great as you know taking any good ones without flash is never good, but I rather have blury pics then use a flash.

You can see them hung from our mantelpiece. Also I found the most exquisite reindeer's made from overlapped leaves and drenched in the most sparkly glitter, they are really gorgeous and everyone that visited so far has fallen in love with them. Clicking on the image should make it bigger for you to see them better.

The tree was mostly decorated with ornaments made by myself over the years.

I have spent nearly an entire month 8 years ago making handmade angels with knotted knees and raffia halos and cute little bags to hold a choccie treat. Felt filigree angels some flocked snowflakes and garlands made from tiny bits of mirror to catch and reflect the light make for my perfect tree, is special because is mine, I LOVE CHRISTMAS. The NOEL ornament came from B&Q for a staggering £0.99.

Here s a close up of an angel, the only thing that spoils it is my hand drawn features. I cannot draw to save my life which is why I become a rubber stamper.

They were a bit time consuming I seem to remember but they are so sweet, I remember I made them from some of my old linen trousers and even some of hubby's shirts. The wings were cut from thin ply in a heart shape then painted and distressed, each one different.

Thank you once again for your comments and your support, have a wonderful and Peaceful Christmas everyone , hugs Monica xxx

Birthday Passionette...........

YAYYYYYYYY is Jackie's Happy Birthday today. Jackie is a new ish member of my team and she is just lovely. She has the most lovely smile and infectious laugh such a happy girlie, I always love being around her she makes me laugh lots. Her favourite colour is RED just like mine and this is the card I have made for her.

Real Red, Basic Black and Whisper White . I have used the Garden greenhouse again ( told you I liked it ) and a bit of Baroque motifs, sentiment from the handy A Bit of Birthday Cheer set.

Jackie I hope you liked your card and I hope your day was extra special, I was thinking how nice to have your birthday of Christmas Eve. I enjoyed today so much and really felt excited about the holidays. To see people in the community wishing Happy Christmas to one another and to see their happy faces really made me realise how wonderful that I am alive to experience it. I know soppy and daft but I do love Christmas so much. I am off to watch Avatar with my lovely and then Church tonight. Happy Christmas Eve to each and one of you my lovely blog readers, I have a scheduled post for tomorrow . Big hugs Monica xxx

I am ready....................

.......I am! Readyfor Christmas a whole day early, I normally still have things to buy and do on Christmas Eve but not this year, I AM DONE!!!

How about you ? I bet you've all been ready for weeks. I have been quiet for too long and I missed it, I missed blogging and blog hoping, but I knew if I decided to peek I would have done nothing. I have made an incredible 412 cards this month. I know it is just unbelievable but I had a lot of customers this past year you see plus my lovely and quite big team plus all the neighbours and relatives and I still managed to leave out a few good friends for which I am ashamed, please forgive me if you haven't received a card from me.

Firstly my team.

This is my second Christmas as a Stampin'Up! demonstrator and last year I decided to start a tradition and send them a little Christmas ornament. A little something that they could keep and pull out every year. I am kinda thinking in years to come they might even end up with enough ornaments to decorate a small tree.

Last year I have sent a white glittered snowflake, I thought I blogged about it (I am sure I took pictures) but cannot find it in my archives so maybe I didn't.

This year I sent a glittered star

I couldn't get enough stars of just one colour so I opted for a mixture of gold red and green. They are quite glittery. For now I sent one to everyone in the team along with one of those cards

Basic Black, Pixie Pink and Whisper White and the gorgeous Tree Trimming stamp set. Very simple but I loved the touch that made them special, the sentiment laid across the stamped ornament. It came to me as I was playing with different ways of adding it to the cards. Sentiment from the Basic Phrases set.

Then I had to think about all my customers those that have supported me over this last year. I had a few more to make than those for my team here they are.

Those are slightly bigger 4"x4" and the colours are Kraft, Real Red and Bashful Blue. I have used a cool technique for our monthly team meeting in December using tape and glitter so I have recreated this for my customers cards.
I have used the Happy Everything stamp set and the star punch to punch my aperture. Now I want to add that although I have designed and cut everything for those cards myself I was lucky enough to have a few good friends come and help assemble them one Sunday morning. I want to say a huge thank you to Jane, Joanne, Ali and Linda for helping me, girls you are true stars I just wished you could have stayed a bit longer to help me with the other 200 LOL.

I will see you soon we have a Birthday Passionette tomorrow. Hugs Monica xxx

Birthday Passionette...........

Hellooooo.....(echo hello, hello, hello)

UGH the Christmas rush got the better of me. And as I am sure you know exactly what I mean and I won't bore you with details.

Is Stevie's Happy Birthday today !!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is one of the nicest people I have met in my entire life and I am so glad to have her in my life and is all due to Stampin'Up!

Stevie's favourite colours surprisingly are the same as Chel's, green and brown. She does prefer a lime kinda of green and when I designed her card I kept this in mind.

Here we go

I had this stamp set a while now and I am glad I have finally inked it up. I knew I would love it but I didn't know I would love this much.

I chose to make an easel card and I have used a colour I ever hardly use in fact I struggled to find a sheet spare it is Gable Green and it is such a glorious colour, I really love it and I have ordered a full pack the other day. I am now excited about future colour combination, is funny how we stick with our most used colours sometimes. Ok so stamp set is called Garden Greenhouse, colour combo is Gable Green , Choc Chip and Whisper White. Sentiment from the Sincere Salutation set.

Stevie I hope you liked your card and I hope you had a wonderful day.

I am now off to write a few more Christmas cards and stick a few more stamps on, don't forget tomorrow is the last day for 2nd class post after that you will have to go up to 1st class, and if your cards are handmade and have lots of layers that will cost you a whooping 0.61 pence per card not bad if you have 10 but if you have 300........................................Big hugs and I hope your preparations run smoothly, remember Christmas is not all about perfect gifts and perfectly roasted spuds, don't stress about it. Monica xxxx

Birthday Passionette...........

... Oh yeah another Passionette celebrated her Special day this Friday gone, this time was my good friend Paula. I known her nearly 12 years now and I can say wholeheartedly that she really is such a special person. Hubby's birthday is the day after hers so we try and go out for a special meal every year. We did just that Friday and what was supposed to be a nice enjoyable experience ended up a bit of a nightmare, the place we went to is supposedly quite good and indeed the last and only time me and hubs went there we had a fab night, however Friday was different we ended up waiting 1hour and 10 minutes for our main course, needless to say we were not impressed but we still had a laugh.

Paula's favorite colour combo is classy black and white and I knew exactly what I wanted to create for her. I saw this gorgeous set made by the lovely and very talented Jo at Convention and set to work. here s what I came up with

Now I told you how much I love the new Medallion background, but for definite my second favourite is Bella Toile. Such a fabulous detailed stamp that looks wonderful stamped and layered on the same colour ink/card. And that ribbon!! oooh I love it!!

The flowers were made with the 5 petal punch simply layered and held together with a filigree and a crystal brad. The eyelet punch adds to the feminine overall look. Paula I hope your Birthday was everything you hoped for and I hope you liked your card and goodies.

Ok off I go to finish packing for tomorrow night, I have my monthly downline meeting cannot wait to meet with the girlies again. Speak soon Hugs Monica xxx

Birthday Passionette...........

...........Hello it was Chel's birthday yesterday !! I hope you had a Happy Birthday Michelle and I hope you didn't end up doing any decorating. You see Chel is a bit like me gets the decorating bug 4 weeks before blimmen Christmas LOL. I make all the birthday cards for my girls based on their fave colours, and Chel's favorite colours are brown and green. I have used both for her card ......in tiny amounts LOL.

here it is

A bit of Certainly Celery, Bordering Blue and an even tinier bit of Chocolate Chip to ground everything. Flight of the Butterfly stamp set was stamped in white craft ink on both Bordering Blue and Certainly Celery card cut out and mounted on a piece of Whisper White card that has been edged using the eyelet border punch. The background was stamped in white craft ink on celery using the bootiful Bella Toile( I love this background so elegant). Sentiment reads ** hope your day is as happy as it gets** how sweet is that? tiny pearls and a fabby sating bow finish off what I think is a very elegant looking card. Now I made this a while ago ( I use a birthday book to make sure I don't forget birthdays) and didn't have the matching punch at the time, I cut the flutters by hand. Michelle I hope you like it darling, big hugs xxxx

Oooo I also want to show you this...

I have treated myself to this absolutely gorgeous spottiness. The lovely and talented Jane with a posh name makes those beauties and I just had to have one as soon as I saw them. Now let's play a game which one do you think I went for? leave me a comment and do tell. Even hubs liked it. It holds tons and I have used it for the first time last night, I did a workshop for a bunch of excited ladies, hello Lorraine and everyone I hope Doris still has the red nose LOL.

Ok I am off to bed early tonight as I have had a hard week and I am v tired, speak soon have a great weekend.

Not enough time to load the video but..............soon. Big hugs Monica xxx