Birthday Passionette !!!

YAY !!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEKKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello, like me title and first line of my blog post suggest a member of my wonderful Stampin'Up! team is celebrating her birthday today. Bekka is one of my career building demos and she is doing really well. This girl is the sweetest, kindest most helpful person you'll ever meet. She truly is wonderful and I am so lucky to have her in our team, she helps me more than I help her and I do feel like she is my upline an not the other way round, and for this I am eternally grateful to her. Here is the card I have made to celebrate her special day!!

Bekka's favourite colour is teal and she also loves owls, after her main love for lighthouses. Now SU have not got a owl set in the catty yet or a lighthouse one( please SU give us some owls and lighthouses for next year so I can use them for sweet Bekka's cards LOL), so instead I have used my punches and my Coluzzle system to create this little cutie. Taken With Teal, Certainly Celery, Tempting Turquoise, Elegant Eggplant and Chocolate chip were the colours used. To make the owl I have cut an oval with my Coluzzle and then used various strips of scalloped pieces of card and overlapped them. The wings were made with the Oval punch, the ears made with the flower punch the eyes use the 3/4", 1/2" and 1/4" circle punches. The gorgeous sentiment shape was obtained from the large scallop oval punch and a craft knife. Simply cut away 2 straight lines either side of the stamped sentiment. Looks fabby doesn't it? And I'm pleased to tell you that Bekka loved her card.

Bekka I hope you have a wonderful day today and you get spoiled lots my love, big squezee hugs !!!!!!!

Right got to go because I have a VIV(isitor) coming over today and I have his travel cot to get up and sorted and install those bloomin stair gates everywhere LOL. yeah THE BOY is coming over for the weekend and I couldn't be happier **BIG GRIN**

lots of hugs Monica xx

Sunday musings..

Hello.. I feel so tired today!!! We had the SWUS launch party last night and we ended up being very late, then I was up at 5 am then at 7 again it was not good. So I think I will need an early night tonight.

The first project went live today and it is one designed by myself.

A girly ensemble in yummy summery colours.

I have used Tempting Turquoise, Pink Passion and So Saffron. The patterned paper is from the Rainbow Sherbet collection a very nice and brightyfull combo. I was really upset to find that there were no pink peanut M&M's I was really convinced that there were, hmm in my defense I have not bought any for years.

The outside of the shoe was stamped and embossed in clear powder with the seeing Spots set and the gorgeous flower was made with the scallop circle from Pink Passion and So Saffron card stock. Here s a close up

Looks good enough to wear huh? don't forget you can still join in with the Online classes just click on the buy it now button at the top right hand corner of this page.

That s it for me this time, I hope you had a great weekend hopefully I will be more chatty next time, hugs Monica xxx

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!!

to each and everyone of you that reads this blog of mine. I wish you a better 2009 filled with joy and accomplished dreams and lots and lots of crafting time. Made this card yesterday for a cyberstamping challenge I hosted for my Stampers 10 groups, colours are Cameo Coral, Mellow Moss and So Saffron. Hugs Monica xxxx

What a lovely week

.. I had. As you know if you've been reading my blog I had a few days off from work and my lovely sister with that delicious nephew of mine came to stay over. Well as you can imagine I had the most fun filled days, Luca is at such an interesting age (nearly 15 months) he is discovering the world every day, he also talks ( most of it is totally foreign to us but I bet it makes a lot of sense to him) nearly walks and loves playing with everything else apart from his toys. He spent nearly the entire week here

Absolutely loved pushing his head in there and rolling the drum in fact he was trying to get his whole body in there at one point he kept lifting his little legs to try and get in . So very funny but it was such an eye opener on just how demanding they are and OMG!! how much stuff do you need for them? I am sure those with children would understand. But he is coming on great and I love him to bits

And yes this t-shirt is so right about him being loud!! I wonder who he takes after???

Ok so the only crafty thing I have to show you is a recent scrapbook I have made for Luca s album and I scrapped some photos of his first beach holiday this Summer in Andalucia.

My UKS team is hosting the weekly challenge on there so this was my entry. All made with SU stash, Haiku papers, various stamps and rub ons, I love it but I need to add my journalling on strips I think on the bottom left corner to balance everything out so i will tweak it a bit.

Can I just say a huge thank you to all of you that took time to leave me so many wonderful emails and comments on my last entry, you are very lovely and I was really touched. BIG HUGS Monica xxx

I m seeing spots...

..... literally!!!!!! after completing a colour challenge on SCS, you had to use choc chip, sage shadow and very vanilla.............GORGEOUSLY beautiful and yummilicious!!!!

I ve used the Seeing Spots set from Su( I still think this has got to be the most versatile set ever) and started playing about with the stamps and some of the circle punches, in fact I ve used them all to punch out different coloured circles and frames from those 3 colours listed in the challenge, I have also used sage shadow and choc chip inks. Can I just openly admit that I adore the end result? I love how everything coordinates and works together, no fancy papers and ribbons just a single jumbo brad and a bit of linen thread as accents. The sentiment from the same set was mounted on 3 d pads, very minimalist and perfect for a man or somebody that s not into cute and girly. Love it!!! I am working on another tutorial fro you all but I m in work this Saturday then I m out shopping for some clothes and .. SHOES ( always need more shoes) so it would probably be Sunday by the time I ll post one. Hugs Monica xxx

You could see more beautiful cards using this color combo here

FREE Stamps?

Hello everybody, Would you like some free stamps and free product? Well with SU and my help you can !!!!!. I m starting another Stampers 10 club, because I ve got a few more enquiries for one. The way the benefits for party hostesses work, is by reaching a certain sales figure. You need a minimum of £150 in sales to qualify for one set of free stamps and £15.00 in money to spend as you wish from the catalogue( the more you spend the more freebies you get, example for a £500 club the hostess will receive 2 free stes and £60.00 in free merchandise). Now Stampers 10 is an ideal set up to get you receive the benefits but without forking out £150.00 in one go. I call it a virtual party. You get 10 memebers, it runs for ten months, they each agree to spend a minimum of £ 15.00 /per month, each gets to be the hostess in turn ensuring she gets the freebies. You also get a free copy of the catalogue, so by joining you get the chance to spread the cost while building up your collection, and still being able to enjoy the free benefits. Is that simple. Are you intersted? If yes please drop me an email at telemech01@aol.com

Ok now I ve got some yummies to show you. I m constantly playing with diferent colours, to try and find new exciting combos and with spring in mind and after a stampin session with my lovely downline Sally yesterday, I ve been inspired and pulled out one of my all time favorite(certainly celery) and tried diferent things. Firstly I ve got to show you this little beauty

I v edone this for the march challenge on UKS the theme is spring. Well it can t get any more spingy that this really, yummy ice cream like colours for a sweet and not too fussy card. I ve used my markers for this card to show really just how versatile those are. They are great, I use them to ink the stamp instead of the ink pads ( is cheaper and it gives you instant access to all the colours) making easy later one to only choose to buy the ink pads in the colours you really use a lot, I ve used two colours for the sentiment wich I absolutely adore( what friend wouldn t ?), is from the Ocassional Greetings set, I ve even used the markers to colour the flowers, see how beautifully everything matches? that s what Stampin Up is all about. I ve used the same colours throughout, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink and So Safron. I ve also used two background stamps to add a bit of interest, the paisley was used for the pink layer and the polka dot for the so saffron layer wich I ve embossed with white embossing powder.

My second card is still using the Certainly Celery and the So Saffron but I ve mixed things up a little and introduced some ruby red, I love the result.

What do you think? I ve dyed some ribbon using the markers again, with the intention on using it on this card, but while it was drying I ve completly forgot about it and finished the card without the ribbon on. DOH!!lol at least you can still see just how lovely the white ribbon has taken the dye. I ve also used the ruby red marker to stamp the word *FRIEND* from the above stamp and to colour diferent elements from the *Seeing Spots* set, I ve used some of the punches to make the medalion. The background was done with a stamp from the same set. I ve still got two places left on the markers club ,let me know if you re interested.

Right then I m off back to work now, I ve posted this in my lunch hour lol. Hugs Monica xx

I m not happy

I think I ve broken my camera, well not really broken it, but did something to it and now all my settings are gone to pot, and I don t know how to make it better so you will have to put up with not so good piccies for now till I can sort it out. First of all I want to show you the card that belonged in the last post (take one set and make three cards)

I ve found this colour combo on SCS and decided to try it myself (not quite navy,so saffron, bashful blue,brilliant blue, and black staz on), I dont think I m overly hot on it but like the way the card came out, I ve also found a pocket card tutorial on there too (I tell you that site is fabulos!!) Note the wonky embossing at the top? hee hee I ve done that with my crop o dile and it was the last step, as you can see it didn t quite worked out like I wanted it to, but I wasn t going to start the card all over again. Oh no lol

Right my next card I ADORE!!!!! I wanted this set for like EVER!! if you remeber back when my gorgeous nephew Luca was born I ve hand drew this image to use for his card. But would you belive it I still haven t got it yet? I did however manged to get a few stamped images from a fellow SU demo Claire (thank you so much darling)

Isn t it just adorable? I ve coloured the little fella with SU markers (watch out for a tutorial coming up on this), used papers from Le Jardin collection and the colours used I think make such a change from the pastel ones used for babies( I m not saying I don t like pastels, I do a lot, but I want new fresh combos to work with from time to time so it dosent get boring) more mustard cardstock, choc chip and this delightfull blue in the paterened paper. YUM!! Also grosgrain ribbon and bits from the Hodgepodge Hardware.

In the same set there is a gorgeous teddy bear and used this along with my Big Deal Alphabet set to create this baby girl card.

Im so annoyed as this photo in particular it is so much better IRL, certainly celery cardstock, rose red layer edged with my pinking shears, polka dot background stamp( I love this stamp!) and pink passion ink were used to stamp the dots and the letters. Teddy coloured using a mixture of markers and ink pads. Cute? I tell you what, very very quick to make!!!

One more card to show you today and this time is a waterfall card. I have not made one of those for like 10 years lol, but I recently made one for the GOGO design team assignment and loved it, so I ve tried another one for the limited supply challenge on SCS, you were supposed to only use circles on your card apart from the sentiment

Sets used for this are In the spotlight, Seeing spots and Little pieces, cardstock certainly celery and choc chip., inks used are tempting turquoise, pumpkin pie, chocolate chip, summer sun brads and a jumbo eyelet, also used the dotty backround stamped in versamark on the choc cardstock.Here s a view of the pulled tab

Sentiment comes from the Sincere salutations set.

Now I see so many questions about watercolouring all the time on the boards, and I have seen so many brilliant tutorials out there on the subject, but I thought I will add my own to the list of many so please tune in later this week and I ll try and lift some of the mistery that is watercoloring. Till then see ya!! M xx

ps All images are copyrighted to Stampin'UP 1990-2008!!

More cards

Hello, I ve got quite a few cards for you today, I ve been a busy bee mainly cos I ve got so many birthdays to make cards for this month. Firstly a thank you card i have to make for a lovely and kind lady over on UKS. Paddy hope you liked it. ((HUGS))

I ve used Hero Arts stamp for the background, 7Gypsies papers, the main image is by Stamp n Store, ribbon May Arts and the sentiment is by SU from the retired riveting set.

Next one is for my BIL who s birthday is tmrrw.

I ve used the new papers from Dovecraft, the big *birthday wishes* is a stamp I ve had for ages and it came as a job lot so don t have a clue whos is it. ribbon and circle sentiment stamp SU!, and the metal fancy brad is by MM. I ve used a colorbox spectrum pad to stamp the main image I just love the diferent colours together.

I had to make another card with those cute frogs from SU! here it is

Isn it sweet? Love them froggies... I ve coloured my image with the stamp pads, i ve used the pile of love hearts from the *Loads of Love* set to clear emboss the red layer, paper pierced a corner with the piercing tool , a round tag onto wich I ve stamped and cut out a little love heart from the *Happy Hearts* set , grosgrain ribbon, all of this from SU!

Lastly is a very bright one and was made entirely with the Seeing Spots set and it was inspired by one of the cards on SCS. I need to ask permission before I put a link to her card for you too see so i will edit later when I obtained permission.

All supplies from SU!!

Well that s all for today off I go to finish some more projects for the ScrapaGogo using the febs. kit, it is just divine, I love it . Ok then got to go see ya!