Birthday Princess…………….

Hello there, have you had a great Bank Holiday weekend? We did and mine was spent between looking after family (there were 16 of us at some point here on Sunday) and fretting about my Internet access, we had three days with no access and that hurt.
So that's partly the reason for not blogging even though I have loads to show you.
I am sharing today a pretty girly card fit for any princess out there.
I am loving this Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder (I think is everyone’s favourite) and I just cannot stop using it. I have simply embossed a piece of cardstock vellum using this folder and the Big Shot and simply punched out large scalloped ovals from it to make up the pretty and full skirt. The bodice was simply cut using the tab punch and a piece of Pretty in Pink  designer paper (I love these papers the best because they coordinate so well with everything).  Then I punched a small half circle from the top to create the collar shape and topped this with a string of pearls.  A pretty in pink narrow grosgrain ribbon bow acts as the sash to this lovely dress and more tiny pearls are placed around the vellum layers.

The card stock vellum from Stampin’Up! is actually the perfect vellum for embossing in your Big Shot as is got a substantial weight and it doesn’t tear easily, it also gives you a deep impression as you can see above. I have used 7 scalloped oval shapes for the dress, four pieces for the bottom layer and three for the top. I simply adhered them with dimensionals, I used one for each layer.
As I was considering my combo I wanted a neutral that showed off my vellum and worked with the Pretty in Pink, Sahara Sand was the best match Crumb Cake was a bit to Earthy and didn’t work so well so Sahara Sand was my choice in the end.
 The Happy birthday banner was made using the new hostess set in the Mini catalogue called Something to Celebrate.
I hope you like my pretty card if you have any questions please do ask. Till next time BIG HUGS xxx

Birthday Passionette

Hello there hope you had a good weekend, our trip to London was FAB sadly we were so engrossed in our activities I forgot to take any pictures, the only ones I have are on a double decker bus and one at the Champagne and Sea food bar in Selfridges LOL.
On Saturday Dawn one of my lovely Passionette celebrated her Happy Birthday and this is the card I made her. She maybe didn't get it till Monday as I only posted it Saturday morning before leaving for London, sorry hun.

Dawn is such a lovely person and she loves pinks, so I have used a combo of Regal Rose, Crumb Cake and Basic Black. The stamp set I have used is one of my most loved sets from the mini catalogue it is called Strength and Hope and I like it even more because is a charity set, buy this set and support the Breast Cancer charity (SU are donating £1 from every set sold). I love butterflies and this one in this set has such a pretty shape to it.  I simply stamped them in Regal Rose ink and cut them out then a string of pearls were added to the bodies.
Here’s a close up

Have you spotted the gorgeous main panel? I love this effect, you simply ink the embossing folder with a ink of your choice using the brayer then you add your card and crank it through the Big Shot, voila instant aged panel very pretty, especially when topped with more little pearls. The sentiment a banner made with the Curly Cute set, this set is one of my faves, I love it !!
I have added a double bow made with the seam binding and will show you that in a video very soon.
Dawn I hope you had a lovely day my sweet and hope you liked the card.
Right off I go to bed I am bit tired tonight, till next time thank you for visiting and big hugs xxx

Mr and Mrs OWL PUNCH

Ha ha that would be a funny name  don’t you think? Hello I hope you are enjoying a relaxing weekend. I am just about to set off for London along with my two friends Julie and Fiona for a girly getaway, if you are a regular reader you might remember we did this last year as well and coming back my car broke down and we ended up stranded in Milton Keynes. I am hoping this time we will have no such bad luck, and I am really looking forward to a super duper few days.
I am sharing a few gorgeous items today made by one of my lovely downline. Gill fetched these sweet little makings last time she came to visit and I couldn’t help taking a picture of them as they were so cute.

Aren’t they just the cutest? I love everything about this card, Gill cut the wood effect dsp freehand then punched branches (from the extra large bird punch) in old olive and always artichoke, the tiny flowers are from the Boho Blossom punch in Pink Pirouette. Then she used the sweet Owl punch and created the handsome pair, a few bling accessories and you know who’s the pretty girl!!! I particularly like the 2carat bobby dazzler
Here a little close up for you
They are so cute and I need to point out that the sentiment was computer generated.
Gill also came bearing gifts….

Aww, I think this is such a great idea to decorate a bottle of wine, she did say that Michelle Last was the inspiration behind this tag, I love it and I love the sentiment as well, although the inside clearly stated that I could share it with hubs if I wanted to .
Right must dash as we are leaving in 30 minutes and I still need to load the car.
Enjoy your weekend whatever you are up to, till next time big hugs xx

Big Shot Class

Hello there hope you are well. Guess what? I have a cold, why when you get back from a warm break you always end up with a cold? I personally think is something to do with germs spreading during the flights back home.

Anyway Sunday I hosted my monthly class , IT WAS SO GOOD to be back and I really enjoyed seeing the girls again, a few couldn’t make but we were still a good number of 12, well 13 if you include me. We played all morning with the Big Shot !! The projects we did were all designed by the lovely Jenny Moors and everyone loved them. Thank you so much Jenny you’re a very sweet friend.

we made a lovely gift bag using an envelope and 3 cards all using various dies and embossing folders, the girls had so much fun cranking out their pieces on the Big boys .

Christine a lovely lady I work with, made a  fabulous selection of cakes for us including the biggest chocolate cake I have seen.

It weighed a ton, it was very delicious, so we all ended up well fed and watered and consequently a very good time was had by all.

Here’s the lovely bunch of girlies who make me laugh so much.

Tope left we have Alison sampling a piece of that cake, next across and from the back we have Linda, Joanne, Pat and Louise.

Middle row left we have the gorgeous Barbara, figuring out the Big Shot is Carol and Linda- (Carol loved the big Shot it was the first time she has used one),bottom right we have Alison again with the lovely June, and in the picture below we have Issy in blue, Carol in stripy top and Linda.

Thank you ladies for coming look forward to the next instalment. Next month we meet again on the 12 June and is Masculine cards all the way.  I will have the details up very soon.

It was Linda’s birthday the day before the class, (you can see Linda in the Big shot picture above next to Carol she is wearing a cream and brown cardi) and Linda loves Nature walk stamp set so when I made her card I made sure to use this lovely set.

I have used the matching papers Botanical Gazette and a combo of elegant Eggplant , Old olive/pear pizzaz.

I inked the stem of the flowers with markers and added extra colour with my aquabrush you might see it better in the shot below.

I have also coloured the butterfly in here with a mixture of greens purples and yellow.

I love Teneale’s style of distressing with torn corners and edges so inspired by her I tried to recreate a similar look for Linda’s card. I might need a bit of practise LOL> I added some big pearls to the side of the panel and one in the centre of my seam binding bow.

Ok need to go to work now thank you for popping by see you again soon. I need to shoot a video I think I might attempt that at some point.

Till next time Big Hugs xx

Birthday Passionette-ETA this post should have been up yesterday

Hiya, today is Jo’s Happy Birthday. Jo is one of my lovely Passionettes and she is a darling, such a down to earth person kind and very funny, I love her to bits. She loves blue and she cannot stop using Crumb Cake so it was only natural that I combined the two.

Crumb cake card base, Baja blue layer embossed with the Vintage Wallpaper folder and the Big Shot, half 1” circles in Pear Pizzaz were used to create the big scallop edge and the glorious Top Note die cut shape in Very Vanilla was stamped using the lush Vintage Vogue stamp set. The flowers  stamped in Baja Breeze ink and the middle ones rolled into the Pear Pizzaz ink pad to create the two tone effect, the border was inked and stamped in crumb Cake ink and the small leaves dotted about in Pear pizzaz ink. I love the soft combo of this card and  I hope Jo likes it too.

Pear Pizzaz seam binding is providing a different texture amongst the raised up flowers.

I stamped the flowers firstly straight onto my die shape then stamped again and popped them on dimensionals, for a really fab looking effect, very 3 D.

Rhinestones complete the soft and feminine look and the lovely sentiment comes from the new level 2 hostess set Something to Celebrate and was punched with the lovely Modern Label punch.

I hope you like it and Jo I hope you have had a fabulous day. While away I missed a few of my team’s birthdays and I will share their cards with you within the next week.

I need to show a lovely surprise that awaited me. My travelling documents for my next holiday, want to know the best bit about it? IS ALL FREE !!

You might not know that each year Stampin’Up! demonstrators can achieve an all expenses paid trip to fabulous destinations where they end up being spoilt rotten. I was lucky enough to visit Monaco last year (read the summary of this trip HERE), I am getting ready to spend some happy times in Prague this year and feel extremely lucky to have achieved next year’s trip to Vienna. Is so fab to spend a few relaxing days with my fellow demonstrators who have achieved the same trip, revisit old friendships and form new ones.

Of course those incentive trips are the reward for the work I put in but also they depend on the work my team are putting in, without my supporting customers or my lovely team, trips like this simply would not be possible.

If you are an ambitious individual that loves the thought of being their own boss get in touch with me and request more info about being a demonstrator yourself. We need more Passionettes in our team .  You can email me for more details at telemech01@aol.com

Thank you for popping in see you again soon, till next time big hugs xxx

I am back, bet you didn’t miss me..

Hello there I hope you are well, I am not sure you noticed my absence (I hope you didn't! LOL). Anyway  I have just returned home after spending two relaxing weeks in Paradise.

This was our second time in Cuba and we stopped at this wonderful hotel. It was fabulous and I rarely recommend hotels or resorts as I think holidays are such a personal thing (we all have different requirements for our holidays) but I would thoroughly recommend this one to anyone who is looking for some serious pampering and a very relaxing time.
I really needed both after the last few months and I am back feeling refreshed and trying to get to terms with the jet lag.
I am already missing this

This

this

This

I am missing our friendly and very accommodating butler, my outside shower which was amazing, I even miss the fun towel art which some days was elegant and some days hilarious.

But most of all I miss the wonderful people that made our stay unforgivable, Cubans are warm, happy and very genuine people.
 We were also very blessed to form some amazing friendships with quite a few other couples (the pool above looks very peaceful but let me tell you I have photographic evidence that at times it told a very different story LOL).
One thing I struggled with was the Internet Connection, while it was available it was slow and temperamental so if you have contacted me and you are waiting for a reply still please bear with me as I am slowly catching up.
Hope to see you very soon again with some lovely inspiration, I am desperate to get crafting. Till next time big hugs xxx

Make a monster- colour a monster

Hello there, FINALLY I got to play with my make a monster set!! Love this one mainly because of is colouring potential and was glad that finally I got an opportunity to use it.

I am on a watercolouring kick right now and this time I have played with the reinkers to add colour to my cute monsters.

I used the aquapainter and blobbed a tiny bit of reinker onto the lid of an ink pad and off I went.

I used watercolour paper as is very forgiving and ensures you get good results every time. I have not thought my colour scheme very well unfortunately as I have chosen Old Olive card instead of Pear Pizazz to coordinate with my ribbon. Elegant eggplant layer was run through the Big Shot and the Square Lattice embossing folder and a simple Pacific Point layer was added behind the main panel. Quick card fit for any boy’s birthday.

I used Old Olive and Pacific Point and for the right hand side monster I combined those 2 colours, to much fun.

I hope you enjoy my offering see you again very soon, hugs Monica xxx

Springtime Vintage Day

Hello there a few weeks ago now I had a lovely day spent with Gill one of my downline, it was the first time we met since she signed up and we hit it off straight away.

Apart from chatting lots we decided to have a go and make something. I needed to make something for a dear friend and we decided to make one of those cute envelope die baskets.

It was soon after the last Quarterly Team Training and my inspiration came from seeing the one Val my talented downline demonstrated for us. We pretty much followed her example but added  a few extra touches with the Bigz Flower Die.

I made mine from Baja Breeze card stock and added some Springtime Vintage papers to the flaps of the envelope and handle.

The flowers were embossed with the Lattice folder so very pretty. I filled the basket with yummy Belgium truffles.

I also made a matching card

Simple layout but I had a bit of fun with the seam binding, and as you can see I cannot seem to stop using the embossing folders, LOVE TEXTURE on projects.

The rose red layer around the sentiment was achieved by punching twice with the designer label then the stamped sentiment was punched out using the word window punch.

I went gaga with the tiny pearls and added one to many but it made the centre of my flower extra special. I ruffled the seam binding but instead of pulling a thead from the centre I pulled one from the edge.

I also shimmered everything but of course you wouldn’t know that if you looked at the pictures.

And you can check that amazing texture along with the new buttons on the picture above, loooove it!!

Gill’s basket was even cuter her bow is to die for and she chose a completely different colourway than myself.

Rose red card base with the same Springtime Vintage dsp just so very pretty.

I hope you enjoy my offering today and before I go there is one more thing I need to show you, if you are the person that sent me this beautiful card….

let me thank you and ask that God blesses you like you blessed my day. You are very sweet and I appreciate it lots.

Right I will see you very soon till then big hugs xxx

Just for men

Helloooo, I trust you are well while reading this. Been busy relaxing over the last few days and I went a bit quiet, but here I am today with a man card!!  Before I go onto it though I need to ask what did you think of the wedding? I started the day early with a leisurely champagne breakfast and didn’t move from the TV till much,much later in the day. And  OMG didn’t Katherine looked absolutely stunning? What an amazing show and how happy did they both looked? I cried several times during the ceremony especially when they sang the national anthem( I know soppy that I am), giggled when cheeky Harry had a peek and fed it back to his brother, William whispering to Kate the words that every bride wants to hear on her day “You Look Beautiful” (and she really did) I thoroughly enjoyed it all. I feel they will be very happy together and I wish them well.

Ok back to my man card. I know it almost sounds like is a big thing because let’s face it most of us seem to shy away from making those cards. Is not that they are hard they simply do not offer you the same freedom in terms of creative touches, they cannot have ribbon on, cannot have bling etc. etc in a word there just isn’t enough fun to be had by a enthusiast crafter creating those cards.

Bottom line is we will all need them at some point and I have recently made this one.

Summer is nearly here and this individual stamp is the perfect answer to masculine birthdays throughout the summer months.

I chose a colour pallet of Soft Suede and More Mustard that is the perfect backdrop for my watercoloured scene.

I use our wonder crayons and watercolour paper and managed to finish my masterpiece in less than 1 minute.

I am not kidding you, is hard to believe how easy it is to do, I mean I know is hardly a hard task for there’s not that much to colour but still one minute in my book is fast.

I used Tempting Turquoise and Pacific Point crayons for the sea and More Mustard and a touch of Ridinghood Red for the sunset.

The main image was stamped in black Staz On and then I simply took the crayons added the dry colour to my scene both lighter and darker shades one on top of the other and then with the aquapainter I have blended everything effortlessly.

The last thing I did and I hope you can see it in this last close up above was to add some white staz on ink to the sails, I used the refill bottle to add a bit to a flat surface then picked it up with my aquabrush and laid it on my image. In real life it looks very effective and stands out quite a bit which is fun.

I added a bit of contrast with an Early Espresso button and a few Early Espresso card stock circles and tied some linen tread. The sentiment is from the new hostess set in the mini catalogue  Something to Celebrate.

i hope you enjoyed my offering today look forward seeing you very soon.

Till then BIG SQUISHY HUGS xxx