Stampin'Up! and Haiti

Hi there, I am sure you have all watched the terrible and traumatic times Haiti has witnessed recently. You cannot help but feel for their immense pain and suffering as well as rejoice when you hear miraculous stories like the most recent one about the girl they found alive after being buried in the rubble for the last 15 days.
I am so proud to be associated with a company that cares and takes action whenever there's heartache and help is much needed.
You've probably read that Stampin'Up! have decided to actively take part and help the victims affected by this terrible disaster. We can all make a difference. Here's how

From now until 28 February, 2010, £1 from every Greenhouse Garden stamp set sold will be donated Red Cross’ International Response Fund. The Red Cross is already well-established in Haiti, and this money will be used to provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support to help those in need.

A lovely way to make a difference and help those in need, and what a beautiful set they chose, I adore this set myself and I will match Stampin'Up!'s kind gesture by donating a further £1 to the Red cross Fund from each sold set.

Here's a bright and very cheery card made with the gorgeous Greenhouse Garden

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The colours are Pink Passion, Summer Sun and Chocolate Chip. This set is a 2 step stamping one and I have set myself a modest challenge of selling at least 5 sets which I think is very do able/ BUT if I double this by the end of Feb and I end up selling 10 I will add every person that purchase this set from myself into a draw and one lucky winner will receive a £25 Stampin'Up! voucher. In adition to that everyone purchasing this set from myself will get the following class for free.

Contact me today to order your set and make a difference. hugs xx

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

Hello, I am back home safe and sound and is fair to say that my start to the 2010 is not been so good but you know what? Mum is doing a bit better and she is out of hospital for now and I am focusing on that and keeping positive.

Last Friday it was Louise's Happy Birthday. I hoped to update my blog on the day but my wireless just wasn't up to speed that day, then I travelled back and have been catching up ever since arriving. Louise's favourite colour is green and in particular Old Olive, here's the card I made for her.

Old Olive, Real Red and Basic Black. The stamp set is the wonderful Level 3 Garden Dream. I have used the bigger blooms to stamp the background and the tulips ( at least I think that's what they are) were coloured with the markers. Louise I hope you had a wonderful day and I hope you liked your card.

Next I have a few thank you cards to show you, those were sent to the girls in my team that helped out at the event on Saturday 16th. I am so very grateful to them they are all true stars.

I used a combination of SAB sets ( I love that frame) and the centre flower is from my neglected Simply Said stamp set, I simply have to many stamps and too little time LOL.

Colour combo is Tempting Turquoise and Lovely Lilac. I love glitter and all that sparkles and I simply run a length of snail tape at the bottom of my Turquoise layer and sprinkled with Cosmo fine glitter for a really blingy accent. Black gingham ribbon and the black brad grounds the strong colour scheme. I really like how they turned out hoped the girls liked them too.

I have lots to get on with Stamp With Us classes start on the 31st of January, that is a week away and I only have 2 classes ready so I better get on with it. Have you booked your place yet? I cannot wait to catch up with some special friends over there, click the link to find out how you can register.

Speak soon, Hugs xxx

Team training..

Hello well here I am back to the place I used to call home. I am saying *used to* because I have been in England so long and that is where my home is NOW, but is still wonderful to be back. Mum is doing ok still in hospital but improving every day, I am meeting the consultant and specialist later today so hopefully they will be able to give me a full report. I wanted to thank all of you that got in touch with me wishing mum well, it means a lot to me.
Last Saturday the Passionettes, a few other demonstrators and guests got together for a Team Training Event in Peterborough. It was organized and run by myself and Bekka and we ended up having a wonderful day. I said it before we are so lucky to have Bekka on board she is a real asset to our team due to her main job. When not a Stampin'Up! demonstrator Bekka is training and developing people and businesses, exactely what we need. The day ended up packed full with training and chatting and swapping and as to be expected crafting, only downside to the day was that it went far too quick, before we knew it it was 4pm and time to go.
Want to see some of the projects?
Because of the fabulous Sale A Bration period all our projects were based on the yummy stamp sets you can earn for free during the promotion period.
Here's a cute little treat holder

Really quick to make and very versatile, you could use it for whatever treat you want, the opening is made with our large Oval punch.
Colours used are yummy ones
Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose and So Saffron the colours of the famous Neapolitan ice cream.

I love how versatile the frames in the Vintage labels set are, perfect layered with other punches or even stamped as a background like showcased here on the pink layer. See the little dangling heart? I love it, so sweet.

We also made a lovely little tote to house some 3x3 thank you notes, as demonstrators we are always on the lookout for nice ideas to use as gifts for our hostesses and this tote would be just the job, in fact if you book a workshop with me during January/February you will get one of those filled with decorated little notes as a thank you( book now!!). Those make excellent gifts for everyone really, we all need to say thank you a lot and what better way than to have some of those made on hand ready to be given away.

Lovely combo of Sage Shadow, Elegant Eggplant and Pale Plum. White satin ribbon adds a touch of elegance and the sweet clip adds a fun accent. This label has to be my favourite one from the set. The sentiment is from the other SAB set Whimsical Words.

Well it looks like wireless is available here everywhere so I have edited my scheduled posts in favour of real blogging, I much prefer it this way. Thank you for visiting me speak soon. Hugs xxx

We have a winner !!!!!!!!!!

Hello and Happy Sunday thank you all so much for entering my Birthday draw and thank you all for your lovely wishes. Like always I used a random generator to choose the winner and here's our winner

And just so it happens is my lovely Vicky, I can assure you that this is no fix LOL here s Vicky comment.

Oh "Happy SU Birthday" Stampin'Up! Mummy!....lol Hope you've had a lovely day preparing for your class. I have to admit Monica I do rather like the turquoise one because I am in love with the medallion stamp but I like your other one too...lol

Yummy prizes, haven't got this set!

Big hugs
Vicki x

Huge Congrats my love I will add it in the post as soon as possible, thank you all for entering.

I made lots of these cards last week.

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This were the thank you cards I sent with each of the SAB orders. Cute little thank you notes made with my fave SAB stamp. I really like this birdcage and kept it simple. I have used markers to add two colours to the stamp, colours used are Tempting Turquoise, Chocolate Chip and Pink Passion. And I promise you this will be the last card I show with any turquoise on for a while LOL I think I am stuck in a rut now.

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This card was one we have made as a make and take at our Team training Event on Saturday 16th. I decided on a different colour version for the event( too much turquoise everywhere). The image was coloured with blender pens and ink pads, love the faux embossing simply done by randomly sticking punched out 1/2"circles.

I have scheduled a few posts for next week while I am away looking after my very poorly mum, she has been in hospital since New year's Eve but is now making wonderful progress. My sister s been there with her she returned back to London this weekend and I am going to take over looking after her. If you get in touch with me and I am a bit slow in replying you will know why.

Big hugs have a wonderful Sunday !!!

Happy Stampin'Up! Birthday

.. to me.

Helloooooooooooooo how you're doing? Have you had a great and warm weekend? The weather is getting warmer, snow and ice are starting to thaw and the roads are much better. And today is my Stampin'Up! Birthday I AM 2 YEARS OLD !!!!
Gosh it is hard to believe really so much had happened since I first joined.

For a trip down memory lane here s my first post as an Independent Stampin'Up! Demonstrator. When I sent for my Starter Kit I never imagined that two years down the road my life would have changed so much, I am walking a wonderful road enriched by all the wonderful people I have met through Stampin'UP! my customers, my Passionettes the many wonderful demonstrators, it truly is the best thing I have ever done and I am grateful for it all . I love my life as a Stampin'Up Demonstrator !
And because is my birthday I have PRESENTS and CAKE and some PRIZES UP FOR GRABS !!!
Firstly the presents

I took the colour combo from my new look blog. I do love colour and I am very much into Teal, Turquoise and Pinks right now.

And the colours on this card are Taken With Teal, Pink Passion and Chocolate Chip, I love that Chocolate Chip it goes with everything. The presents pile from Happy Moments were coloured with the same colour inks and popped on 3 d pads.Here s a close up I did three layers of dimensional and slighlty curved my decoupaged image looks quite nice IRL

I don't think I need to tell you how much I love this Medallion background Stamp, I think it has to be my all time favourite stamp ever made and I mean EVER. It is just fabulous.

Fancy some CAKE next?

Here you go!! Happy Moments SAB stamp set which is available to earn FREE until the end of February 2010, Bella Toile background Basic Gray, Real Red and Certainly Celery is the colour combo, and I made a HUGE cake by stamping the image twice then cutting down the layers, I only added colour to the tiny flowers using markers . Buttons are pretty ones form the Latte Collection and *GASP* No ribbon on this card !!! I think by the time I added the Happy Birthday banner it looked finished to me.

Now of course I want to say thank you so very much to each and every one of that visits me and give you the chance to WIN a little prize.

THIS CANDY WILL BE DRAWN ON 17 JAN2010 BY AN ONLINE NUMBER GENERATOR- UK ENTRIES ONLY thank you

You will receive A Little Bit of Happiness, a gorgeous stamp set this was one of last year's Level 1 hostess sets and no longer available, A Regal Rose ink pad, a pack of glue dots I love glue dots and I always use them to secure ribbon, buttons etc. to my cards, and some beautiful crochet flowers along with some yummy filigree brads.

What do you need to do to be in with a chance? well just leave me a comment and tell me which card you prefer from the two. You don't have to link to my blog or follow me unless you wish to, but I know bloggers like to share those candy opportunity with their friends, so do tell your friends .

Thank you so much for your support over this last 2 years GOOD LUCK . Hugs xx

What have I done ????

Oh my Gawd look at this



I fancied a change but I think Kate my hairdresser took it a bit to literally. Will let you know once is finished if Im going to be locked in for the next 3 months xx
EDITED NOW I AM HOME

Well here it is my new hair style. I am pleased with it I think, and I am saying I think because I have not had my hair shorter than shoulder length for the last 20 years and it feels a bit alien, but I am sure it will pass. I am home now so I took a photo in the freezing cold, well I thought the snow will make for the perfect background no need for a studio set up haha . What do you think?

-- Post From My iPhone

Sale a Bration video...

Hello how are you? I have been a busy bee recently there's lots of crafting going on but I just can't share any of it at the moment, however I have a video for you today. I recently took on a new job and that is to provide some videos for the fabulous forum I love to spend my spare time on, ILWS ( short for In love with stamping) is a lovely place to hang out and make new crafty friends and like I said I spend an awful lot of time on there as we have a demonstrators only hidden part, and I always felt guilty for not supporting them a bit more. So this is my way of saying thank you to those that run the forum. Come on by and say hello I would love to see you there (check the ILWS link on my top menu bar).

Here is the cute project I made.

This has got to be the world easiest treat holder and you're probably done this since kindergarten , but there are a few neat tricks I am sharing on here so I hope you will watch the video ignore my bad editing( I have gone a bit rusty), and my terrible nails (I have an appointment on Friday and I cannot wait) and ENJOY !!!.

Hope to see you again soon, Hugs Monica xx

AND THE WINNERS ARE...........

............ watch the video if you want to find out.

Huge Congratulations to all the winners and thank you so much for your support ladies. Of course I wish you could have all won a prize but don't worry each order will have a little prize from myself, although you are all winners as you all get a FREE STAMP SET. Enjoy your goodies.

Now you probably stopped to visit me and noticed that my blog is changing, I fancy a change and I want to apologise for the mess that it is in at the moment, it will be perfect soon with a lot of help from my lovely downline Jo. I have some really exciting things coming soon so please bear with me.

Now let's talk SNOW!!! Oh my, is getting serious I mean is 6" already ( it never stopped all day) plus is supposed to carry on snowing all through the night. Going to work today was not fun is really terrible through our estate, so I am not looking forward to snow tomorrow. I did grab tons of old bed sheets tonight and covered my car so at least I won't have to spend 20 min in freezing cold clearing and scrapping snow of it.

Ok for something crafty I had a spare 10 minutes today and I wanted to see if I could get a card done, well I did but you can tell I only spent 10 min.

Pretty card, but if you look closer you will spot a few mistakes. I really ended up rushing about, because lets face it you know you can't really make many cards in 10 minutes unless they are like simple and I mean really simple. My theory was if I am going to make this work I needed BIG stamps and that s how I ended up with the A Rose is a Rose. Old Olive card base, ink and striped ribbon, Pretty in pink and Pink Passion. Is a nice card well apart from the sentiment being placed into the leaf, but I could build on it. It was just for a bit of fun.

I will see you again soon , till then stay nice and warm if you can. Hugs Monica xx

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!!!!!!!!!!

..to you !! I now I am a few days late but a few things have been keeping me from the cyberworld. We saw the New Year with dear friends whom I love and we were in bed by 1am as hubs was rather worst for wear I have to say LOL. However when woke up he was the one feeling absolutely fine and I was the one feeling rather dreadful. Managed to get myself a stonking cold from somewhere, mind you not hard as half the population is suffering at the moment. Now do you like my New year card? isn't it sweet? I wish I could tell you that i have made it myself but I won't say that because this card was made by Molly my friend's daughter. I have shared Molly's work on my blog before she is so talented and her card making is really coming along, she is slowly building a nice collection of SU stash and was delighted with her new Crop o dile she got for Christmas. Thank you Molly for allowing me to share your work, it also saved my bacon as I didn't make a New Year's card.

What I did make were more swap cards using the New Sale a Bration sets.

Colour combo, More Mustard, Tempting Turquoise and a splash of Pink Passion. Simple layout but because those are 4 x4 inch notes you can't really do much. I am pleased with how the turned up and I just hope they arrive in one piece. There s only a few days left to get your orders in my SAB Draw and be in with a chance of winning some fabulous prizes.

I like many of you made ONE resolution for this New Year and that is to shoot more video. I am working on one/week. Here s hoping big hugs I hope you had a wonderful weekend. Monica xxx