More swaps and Inspiration

Hello, like I promise you here s my second set of swaps organized between a few demos on ILWS. This time I used my markers to show how you can add more than one colour to your solid stamps. Using Soft Summer again (I know you re probably gone off it by now seeing me using it so much and is not even been released yet LOL), I have used the solid part as this set is another one of those brilliant two step stamping ones.

My favorite colour combo in the whole wide world, Cameo Coral, Apricot Appeal and Chocolate Chip, heavenly soft but still visually interesting at the same time. The coral layer was stamped in Coral ink using the seedy head stamp and the dogwood branch simply stamped onto a whisper white layer, doesn't it look like is been watercoloured?

Now where do you find inspiration, me personally I find it everywhere, a nice top a piece of fancy packaging in a shop, seeing all those yummy cards on various blogs could spark off an idea that I might use next, but I also drew inspiration from cards sent to me, and I wanted to share with you two cards I have received this last week. I was blown away by the card sweet Val sent me, just look what she did with the Botanical Blooms SAB set and the Stamp a ma Jig!!!!!!!

How clever and beautiful is this? Can I point out that she masked and stamped everything on one layer only the 3 pink heads in the middle are raised on 3 d foam pads. Incredible attention to detail as well as the centre of the flower heads were all doused with diamond glaze or glossy accents which gave them extra interest and texture. Val did say how delighted was with her free stamp set and she loves the SAMJ I know just what she means. Love it Val, is Bootifully bloomingfull.

And then a card that my dear Fi sent

Fiona is incredibly talented, her style is clean and not fussy at all and she manages to make the most stunning minimalist cards, a style which I cannot comprehend or even attempt to make it look good so I am very envious of her skill, she sends me a perfect card with every order and even DH now recognise her unique style. Love is as always Fi, and huge thanks once again ladies. I will start posting carss I receive more often as what good it is to keep them just for me?, I have some really clever ones from Christmas too and one stood out from sweet CASS she made the Crazy for Cupcakes look very festive by drawing a sprig of holly on top instead of the cherry, there are so many so I will start sharing them.

Ok now don't forget that you have today and tomorrow left to enter my draw for pre ordering from the new mini catalogue, here s what you can win , simply email me your pre order and I will add you to the draw, The draw will take place tomorrow night at 10 pm and email will be sent to the winners straight after and I will announce them here on the 1st of April. Go shopping here and treat yourself a little today. Hugs Monica xxx

Eastery swaps..

hello, gosh is Easter soon !!! I cannot believe that it is nearly the end of March, I know what s going to happen next before I know it it will be Christmas again !!!! I recently took part in a few swaps with other demos and here is what I did for one of them ( I will share the others in my next post).



I always think a bit careful when doing swaps with other demos as I know we use those as inspiration as well as take them to workshops and classes we conduct. So I try and either feature a technique or something a bit different. This time I choose a hinged card( this was an idea I have seen in one of the monthly magazines SU sends to us demos, but as it happens this was an US edition not an English one). Incredibly easy to make but wonderful and interactive. Pull the tab at the top and reveal your hidden message Cute huh? I have so many ideas this could work perfectly for, I cannot wait. I decided to use this cute little bunny from Greetings Eight ( new stamp set from the mini catalogue) and choose extremely Eastery colours for my combo, Regal Rose, So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Lovely Lilac and So Saffron striped grosgrain ribbon. I have also used the Polka Dot and Sanded background stamp, as well as the tab punch and the coordinating Totally Tabs stamp set. Image coloured with the Marvellous Markers.
Dawn one my dear Passionettes hosted the swap, and this is the card I made for her to say thank you.
Old Olive, Real Red and Basic Black make this card incredibly striking. Old Olive designer paper, Real Red card stock stamped with ruby Red and the seedy like flower head from the new stamp set *Soft summer* olive grosgrain ribbon and the main image coloured using the following ink pads, Real red, Really rust, Old Olive, Bravo burgundy and YoYo Yellow for the centre.
I know wanted to say a HUGE THANK you to those that have visited our new challenge blog Stamp With Us, it was incredible to read all those wonderful comments and I am enjoying reading how you all got into crafting yourself, if you ve not told us yet please do so I find it fascinating reading about it. Hope you will have a wonderful weekend, big hugs Monica xxx

A donkey ...

... for my sweet little Luca.


Hello there, my title probably made you smile today, and my heart smiles when I think that my gorgeous nephew Luca will receive this in post tomorrow morning( I made sure he will wink, wink). you see Luca is nearly 1 and a half now and is growing up (FAST!!) to be a typical little boy, full of energy, loud and every now and again mischievous. So of course like every parent out there my sister is trying to lay down the rules that will bring peace and harmony to the household( I know what you are all thinking here, well those that have kids of their own at least LOL). Of course this new plan of mummy's doesn't meet Luca's approval and like expected he did rebel against it at first. Perseverance is key and I have heard reports that the plan is finally starting to work (daddy joined in mum's efforts so they work as a team) and my cute little angel is GETTING THE PLAN!!!!LOL How sweet is that?
So of course Mimi (that's what Luca calls me, oooh you just don't how much I like that) thought that this kind of good behaviour should be rewarded and she bought him a little present, a DONKEY!! Now this is not your everyday donkey but the softest and squishiest donkey out there. Is supposed to be a pillow and it just feels gorgeous ( found it in my local Aldi for a bargainous £4.95) but what s so perfect about it is that Luca adores anything furry or fluffy, he just loves snuggling up to furry things and I just know this will make his day.
A quick card was made to travel with the donkey to London and I have used a layout shared at a demo training event I attended last night in Sheffield. The stamp set is my fave's *Wild about you* and colours used are Kraft, Choc Chip, Creamy caramel ink, and Bashful Blue. Lookie at that new grosgrain striped ribbon (mmmm). Will keep you informed on how the donkey and Luca get on. Hugs Monica xxx

Hello

how are you? Sorry been a bit slack with this blog of mine but you see nice weather means I get the changing furniture and wanting to decorate bug, so I have been dressing up my conservatory and finally finished dressing the downstairs cloakroom( it takes me forever to decide on the pretty bits). Still a few things left to do but I will take some photos when finished( I know you'd like seeing them only cos I know I would hee hee). I want to share with you what we did at our last class, but before I show you the lovely projects we did I wanted to show you something special that one of my class attendees has made for little ol' me. This is a criss cross card made by Molly.Molly attends my monthly classes along with her mummy, my friend Fiona. Can you believe that Molly is only 12 year old? she is one of my younger class attendees and she does a fabulous job with all the projects (heck her stamping is even better than her mummy's LOL, I know Fiona would agree as we often have a laugh about it). Honestly this little girl is talented with a capital T and I just know she will be a crafter for the rest of her life as she is just brilliant, I mean check out that bow, see what I mean? you ve got it when you can tie bows like that!!!. Molly loves spending time on my blog and after a crafting session with one her friends( they both tried the criss cross card with great results) she came round with this little beauty for me. Gosh I cannot tell you how nice receiving this card felt and how it brought a lump to my throat reading the little message she wrote for me. Thank you so much Molly you are a little star and a very clever girlie. Hugs M xx

And this is what we did in our class, a origami lidded box and a matching card using the fabulous A Rose is a Rose stamp set.

The ladies loved both projects and it was great to see so many perfectly executed examples, I get all the perfectionist in my classes, honestly they fret over the littlest of imperfections, they re so not like me hahaha. We used Old Olive, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard as the colour combo, we had a variety of sentiments and we made a focus of the sentiment on the card by using a hardware frame.The scalloped frame and the rounded mat on the front of the box have been cut using my Expression and we punched holes in the corners using the Cropo dile, now I cannot remember the last time I used my big bug but Blimey I will enlist his help again it was fab preparing for this class, v. speedy woohoo!! The corners of the lid were done with the scalloped edge punch. Next class is on the 4 of April and we are starting a series of techniques based classes, on the 4Th we will decorate a lidded tin to house all the technique cards collected during the technique based classes so that you can refer back to when needed. Get in touch if you would like to attend or if you need more info. Hope you will have a great weekend and to all those yummy mummy's out there, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY for tomorrow, I hope you will get spoiled rotten and get some rest. Lots of hugs M xxx

Sooooo HAPPY!!!

Hello my dears, gosh my title describes how I feel at the minute perfectly. You know I told you I have some news a while ago? well here it is. Along with some dear friends we decided to embark onto a fabulous journey, a creative, fun and good for the soul journey. Is going to be exciting and with lots of happy times and friendships shared between crafting friends, and we all know those friendships are THE BEST. In times like this when we all hear about how bad the economy is doing with all the doom and gloom emphasised by the media I find it overwhelming that every crafters blog out there is filled with positivity and happiness, is so easy to be affected and to let your mood drop but what good would that do us? not much I know. And I am even more glad then ever to have this wonderful hobby that keeps me happy and of course to be able to share it with so many wonderful people is the biggest bonus in the world!! With the risk of sounding cheesy I feel BLESSED!!

So it is my absolute pleasure to invite YOU, yes you my lovely blog reader to come and STAMP WITH US. . There's going to be lots of exciting info coming in the weeks ahead and I am sure you wont want to miss any of it but for starters I would just like you to feast your eyes on this, because THIS my friends is up for grabbings. YAY!!!!!

Hee heee how positively fabaroonie is this candy hey? I mean there s just heaps of stuff, there's ink pads and markers and designer papers, felt blooms, ribbon, yummo hardware frames, buttons, die cuts, heck there s even glue and glitter not to mention 2 stamp sets wich are both hostess sets that can only be earned with qualifying workshop orders and then there s even a punch to punch those tag stamped images out the easy peasy way. Honestly this is a FABULOUS giveaway and you will find directions on what you need to do in order to be in with a chance here on the blog. And of course I cannot wait till we start all those challenges and to see all your fabby samples, ooh is going to be fun, I just now it!! LOL

So in the light of my fabby news I have made a cheery card to go with my cheery mood and here it is , took me less than 15 minutes so by no means a masterpeice but lovely nonetheless.

So saffron, Tempting Turquoise( made a boo boo as this was suppossed to be taken with teal), and Real Red. Happy colours and I have used the new papers from the mini called Washington apple. Hope to catch up soon hugs Monica xxxx

Sarah's card

Hellooooooooooooooo, I am a bit excited as I have some new stuff to show you today, you see one of my Passionettes, Sarah celebrated her Happy Birthday yesterday so I had to make her a card and I thought I might as well use my newest toys,hee hee.

As a demonstrator you get the chance to preorder new product a month in advance and I have received my preorder this week. First in the mini catalgoue and first on my list was the oh so gorgoeus Sof Summer, I love this branch and I have endless ideas on how to use this set. Sarah.s favourite colour combo is purples and greens and this is what I have been using for her card, Orchid Opulence, Ceirtainly Celery, Basic Black and I added a hint of So Saffron to brigthen the overall look. I have stamped the polka dot background stamp onto the orchid layer with basic black ink, now this set is a two step set wich means it has an outline as well as a solid image and I have coloured it here using my Marvelous Markers, then over stamped the outline in Basic black using the Stamp a ma jig to ensure correct placement.( markers used orchid opulence, close to cocoa, bashful blue, so saffron,ceirtanly celery and garden green) And LOOK at this !!!!!My new and absolutely fabulous oval punches, just how much are you going to love those huh? I know, I know A LOT!!

I have combined them here with the coordinating stamp set Oval All, I have stamped the sentiment (it said thank you) onto the orchid card then using the oval scallop I punched it out and added some white dots with the white Signo pen, I then stamped my *Birthday wishes* sentiment from the Sincere Salutations set and before sticking onto the orchid layer I run the Certainly celery marker over the edge. I love the effect and I know those punches will be soo popular, don't forget that you can preorder them through me for a chance to win some cool prizes( scroll down to the Ohhhh my.... post ). The buttons are new too there s some gorgeous ones in there, positively yummy. Oh and check out my ribbon treatment, I am trying out various ways, trouble is I cannot remember how I tied it LOL>

Sarah I hope you had a fabulous day and I hope you will like your card. Got to make a sympathy card tonight so I have to go, these cards always take me ages as I don't like making them.

I also have some veryyyyyyyyyyyy exciting news to share with you very , very soon and I know you will love it!!! Lots of hugs M xxx

Easter pretties

and a VIDEO!!! Blimey O'Riley how long since I've done one of those? I started last Friday shooting a video of a different basket and decided against publishing it, it was a cute basket but nowhere near as cute as this. I found the instructions on Leslie's blog and I have adapted the measurements slightly.

Aren't they cute? Combo used is Barely Banana, Regal Rose in the shape of Sweet Always designer paper and a touch of Old Olive.
And here's the matching card
How lovely is that pile of eggs? I have achieved the effect using a bit of masking and my trusted Stamp-a-ma-jig. In seconds this clearly fabulous tool enables you to create something special with such ease, I love it every time I use it. The eggs were stamped in Basic Black ink ( did you know SU basic black and basic gray ink pads are waterproof?) and coloured using the Marvelous Markers.
And here s a picture of the cutest little basket ever!!
The stamp set used for those two projects is the Loads of Love accessories and you know is one of my favorites ever purely for being so versatile. Hope you like my pretties today and here the video on how you can make this litlle cutie for yourself, if you do have a go post me a link so I can visit. Hugs Monica xx