I m VLOGGING dahling...

Hee hee heee apparently this is what is called, videos on your blog= vlogging psml. Blooming Nora !!!! this took forever to put together and is not even done( I cant figure it out how to edit it) but I m going insane with it, and I know I ve promised you a tut by Saturday( little did i knew just how long it would take me ) so I m leaving it at that, and I m not promising you a date for the next one but I m definitely making another. I need to learn to speak and work at the same time as well lol. This is the card I ve made with one of the images that I ve coloured( I must have 15 of those little blighters, it took me so long to get it right hahaha)

Everything used on this card and in the video is from Stampin Up apart from the brads ( Papermania makes them and they are a rose colour metal that went well with my cameo coral used in the layers). Choc chip, cameo coral and old olive were the colours used and I ve also used SU punches to layer my sentiment.
Now enjoy the video and please be gentle and remember that is my first one, (I could go on listing just how much is wrong with it but I wont, I just hope I ll get it right in the future). Hugs Monica

Is flipping fantastic

Helooooooooooo everybody. My Flip is here and I ve got the day off tomorrow, so this only means that you might just see a video tut on this blog as soon as Saturday. ( I m not committing to saying which year though LOL)

On a first inspection is really easy to use, small, really basic, and it plugs straight into my laptotp GREAT!!!!. So off I go to try and see if I can manage to EDIT it, and most importantly to upload it here .> Hmmm

ETA> I DID IT!!!!! YAY!!!! but ugh that voice! lol

Take one set and make.................

...................5 Christmas cards!!!! Yep you re reading this right and no I haven t lost it I am trying to get organized and thanks to UKS I can. There is a monthly challenge on there and all you need to do is make 5 chrissy cards per month and by the time the fat guy comes you should have a nice stash already. Rock on!!! lol
So I ve taken one set, it is Perfect Presents from SU and this is what I made:

I love this one but I will redo it because at the last minute I ve decided to add some stickles and they bled making a mess but I will fix it... I will lol. Real Red and Old Olive were the colours I ve used for everything even the ribbon, scallop punch and white signo pen. I ve colourede my image before stampin using the markers.

Second one was made using some very yummy coloursSage shadow and Alaways artichoke, I m in love and I think i will make more with this gorgeous combo and the tree looks so much better IRL you ll have to take my word for it, what s hapened here is the dazzling diamonds are so dazzling that it makes the image apear a lot lighter than it actually is, I ve used the same sage shadow ink pad to stamp the tree then heat and stick powder was added and dazzling diamonds poured over.. very blingy!!!!

My third is a fun funky combo

Real red, Basful blue and Pretty in pink, really girly this would be perfect for one of my single girlfriends. See those red dots? arent they fun? I ve made them with the very cute and dinky 1/4" punch, love them.

My fourth card I m not sure about, I just didnt quite get it right, maybe is the colours or the size of the elements I m just not sure but I will post it and if I can make it better then you will have something to compare.

Not quite navy, Bashful blue and Whisper white. I will revisit this one, also I ve got the wrong sentiment as I ve already used this one but there is another one in the set.

My final and my favorite for sure

one that my religious friends would love. Alaways artichoke, Bravo burgundy and So saffron were the cardstock colours while Chocolate chip and So saffron was used to stamp the star and sentiment. I just love the simplicity of this one and the colours really make it.

Hope you all had a good Easter weekend, and you ve enjoyed my seasonal offering wich is quite fitting with the kind of wheater we ve been having. See ya M xx

No stamps

Hello everybody hope, you re all well and you are ready to spend some quality time with your freinds and family this weekend, thats exactely what I will be doing as my sis and Bil are here with the evergorgeous LUCA.

Look at this.....

Isn t it cute? My baby Sis and Bil are buying their first ever home, a very exciting time in their lifes for sure even thought £180.000 buys them a one bedroom flat in London. So I ve made them a card as they ve already signed everything, they are just waiting to pick up the keys on tuesday. I ve set up a challenge on the Scrap a Gogo thread to make a shaped card and this was what I did. Everything I ve used was from Scrap a Gogo, a mixture of kits. Main papers and die cuts are Basic Grey, the topiary was created using punches and the baby was cut from the Accent Essential cart with my Expression. Used acetate for the windows \and some lace ribbon act as curtains ( definately not Laura s style of window treatment or my own for that matter lol, but thats what I ve chosen for this card).

I ve also had to say thank you this week to someone, and I chose to say it with a bottle of wine. I ve decided to do a card and a tag in one.

Now I ve seen plenty of wine tags and this is nothing special as I had to do late at might and my bed was calling me lol, but where it is diferent is in the fact that it is a pocket and there s room for a tag within the tag for you to add your message, so this killed the need for a separate thank you card and because it was for a male made more apropriate. I m just upset that my close up piccie ended up wrong and all out of focus. I ve used Night of navy cardstock ( I love this colour) my cuttlebug stripe embossing folder, Basic Grey stripy paper, the cricket embelishment was decoupaged from a sheet of paper made by Dovecraft, SU tab punch, thanks stamp ( oh I did use a stamp) from SU Circle of Friendship, big jumbo brad and some paper cord from IKEA>

Have a fab weekend. See ya xxx

MySTERY......................

Hello guys, well like promised here I am with my exciting news. Throughout march Stampin Up has got an offer on, for each workshop worth £350.00 or more (excluding postage) the hostess gets an extra £25.00 in free merchandise now this is huge as the hostess ends up with one free level 1 hostess set of stamps and £65.00 to spend as she likes. Now I know just what you re thinking, that sounds so good but I will need to not eat for 3 months to be able to afford to spend £350.00 at once. Well fear not you could still be in with a chance to get your hands of those freebies, this is how, place an order with me (no minmum spend required) by the end of this week and when we reach the £350.00 mark I will use a random generator to pick a mystery hostess( each order will get a number starting with no.1 and it will be alocated in the order I receive the orders) and she/he will end up getting those fabulos benefits. So if you ve had a catalogue or you ve seen the online one and you were thinking of placing an order NOW is the time to do it. What do you think, Could you be my mystery hostess for march?

Ready to place your order, or want to find out more? get in touch at telemech01@aol.com

I couldn t post an entry without showing you a bit of candy so here it is just for you

Stamps used- polka Dot background, Simply said and Wonderful words

Cardstock-Whisper white and Real red

Ribbon Real red

Misc.-white embossing powder, Su siver brads, Pearls from SU pretties kit, SU Crystal brad , some silver cord ( my personal stash), SU distressing tool.

I love sundays

Well I like the ones when there s no chores to catch up with and c****y jobs to be doing altho there s plenty of them I could find but nothing is desperate right now lol. So I ve played and managed to do nothing fit for showing hinestly everything I ve tried just went in the bin apart from one thing but I m not going to show you it today, you will have to wait till tmrrw. yeah I m planing on blogging tmrrw. as well only cos I ve got something very exciting for you. So I m showing you some older stuff this time, I m starting with the birthday card for the swap that I didn t have a photo off to show you in my last post.

I cannot stop using *Simply Said* I just love the versatility it provides. Firstly I ve stamped the heart sentiment outline in Cert. Celery and I used the same ink to stamp my birthday wishes sentiment form *Sincere Salutations* set, then for my blue heart I took my solid heart stamped in Versamark pad first then in Basful blue pad then I ve stamped on a piece of whisper white, I took my heat and stick powder poured it over the image then heat it with my heat gun until it changed then I ve sprinkled ultrafine glitter all over and heat again to fix it. This powder is amazing it is not like an embossing powder altho it works in the same way it is like a glue that grabs your glitter and then when heat gently it just melts the glitter into that glue and this means that there is no shedding of the glitter, like there would be when you would just use glue. I love it and i find myself using it all the time. PP papers are from the Cutie Pie collection the white layer was punched out using the spiral punch from SU.
Next is a card I ve had to send to a dear friend.

I ve used the truck from * Loads of love* and my *loads of love accesories* to make this bright card. The papers were from Cutie Pie set Certainly Celery and Old Olive cardstock and heat and stick treatment was added to the flowers. I ve coloured the truck using ink pads as I wanted a softer look and coloured the flowers with markers. Hope it brightened her day.
Now my next one I should not post today really as it was made for Trisha my teamie and her birthday is not till tmrrw. but will go and warn her not to look on the thread as soon as I m posting this.lol



I know this is not a SU set hee hee, but I just wanted to use this Bella as I so like it. I did add a SU sentiment so that counts lol. I ve used papers from either Dovecraft or Papermania ( can t honestly remember and I ve had since january and only got round to use them) Love the brightness of this card I ve used Prismas to colour the image and yep you guessed it more heath and stick for the frosting on the cupcake. I ve left this image big so you could click on it to see the shimery effect better.
Ok I ve git something to share with you, I m seriously considering adding some video tutorials to my blog, I m not sure what you guys think? Is just that i know many crafters out there are quite visual and you know what they say a picture is worth a thousands words, and I always love watching tutorials and I know you guys would probably do too. So I will do some reaserch on this and keep you posted. That s it for today see ya !! M xx
ps How good it is that that little girl have been found alive an well? I was so happy when I found out altho only God knows what she might have experienced over those weeks. God bless her xxxx

Mid week posting

Hey guys!! Hope every one of you that visit me is well, here I am on a wednesday night bloggin! woohoo how good I m I getting? lol

Before I show you what I ve been up to recently I need to tell you how I ve had a really nice suprise that really touched me recently, my blog was nominated as being inspirational I mean WOW!! talk about getting that warm glow feeling. Check out this blog it is fabulos I ve found so many talented crafters because of it. Oh and thank you for thinking my work is inspirational.

Right then, like promised in my last post, I will share with you some cards I ve made for a swap I m hosting on UKS. I ve joined in four groups (the themes for me were, male cards, get well cards, wedding cards and birthday cards) I ve only got 3 to show cos I haven t photographed the birthday ones but I will do. Ok so my first one is the wedding card.

Because of the number of cards I had to do I ve decided to keep things simple as you can see altho it looks quite simple it is not as there s quite a few layers and detail. I ve used lovely textured blanks made form PaperMill cardstock, SU very vanilla and so saffron was used for the layers and long tags, I ve embossed the vanilla layer with the CB swiss dots folder and every time I use one I thank God they exist, love them. Now for my focal image I ve used the heart from the *Simply Said* set from Stampin Up this is such a versatile set I must have used it so far for all occassions going( I m getting my moneys worth lol), I ve stamped and embossed the heart in gold then I ve coloured the flowers with my SU markers ( I ve used Barely Banana and a touch of So Saffron) , I ve punched the heart out with the 1 3/8 circle punch and layered it onto a scaloped layer a trail of glitter adds some sparkle. The long tags were cut with my Expression form the tags bags and boxes cart, and the sentiment is SU from the * Ocassional Greeting* set, all this is topped off with some wide grosgrain ribbon ( my most favorite) in Very Vanilla.

The next card is my Get Well Soon card, and I ve choosen a pink and green combo definately a nice fresh bright combination, just what you ll need to brighten someones day if they re under the wheather.

I ve used the gorgeous paisley background stamp as I just love the effect and you get instant result and fast, I ve used a Pretty in Pink base stamped with Pixie Pink , a green scalloped border was cut on the expression from the Accent Essential cart, the white layer was stamped using a cute little stamp from the Shapes and Shadows set from SU with certainly celery ink , and the sentiment from the Sincere Salutations set, was stamped in Pixie Pink ink. The floral embelisment was made by first stampin into the versamark pad and then into the pixie pink ink, heat and stick powder was poured all over the image heated and then glitter was sprinkled all over, heat again and you end up with a shimery image that is quite textured and best of all theres no shedding of the glitter. Added more texture with some trim that i ve bought from one of my trips to Romania and a crystal brad for extra sparkle.

Last one for today is my male entry and of course I just had to use my beer mug from the *cheers to you* set from SU.

Chocolate chip card base embossed with the CB distressed stripes folder, More mustard cardstock and some dotty paper from PM for the layers, the mug was coloured using the markers and then diamond glaze applied over the image. I ve used my stamp a ma jig to stamp the sentiment in a continuos line as it didnt work for my layout the way it is placed.

I m not sure if you d realised by now but I ve used the same layout for all those cards and I just wanted to show you that if you sell your cards and you need large numbers this is an easy way of doing them so you dont spend hours devising layouts. I will hopefully see you again in a couple of days with some more projects till then hugs ans stamping kisses. See ya!!!

I ve been tagged

Yep I ve been tagged and although I love the concept, I dont normally respond to them not because I m a boring git but because I m never sure of who to tag next, as everybody seem to have already been tagged, so what I m gonna do from now on is I m gonna play but not gonna nominate people, so if you are reading this and you have not been at it, please consider yourself tagged by me.. HA! HA!

1. WHAT WERE YOU DOING 10 YEARS AGO?

I was trying to acomodate to life in the UK( gosh it dosent seem like I ve been here longer than 3 years)

2.WHAT WERE YOU DOING 1 YEAR AGO?

Pretty much the same, working in my local Post Office and craft in every spare minute.

3. NAME YOUR 5 FAVOURITE SNACKS?

Dried apricots

The new SUN BITES form Walkers( love those)

Bread and Cheese with some caramelised onion chutney

Chocolate

Nuts

4.NAME 5 THINGS YOU WOULD DO IF YOU WERE A MILLIONAIRE?

Each year i choose to support 2 charities, so I would save myself the headache and give to them all equally.

I d have a studio built to my own requirements

I d buy loads of shoes, I mean loads of designer shoes

I would buy every stamp I like the look of

I would take all my crafting friends on a crafting cruise, somewhere hot and exotic

5.NAME 5 THINGS YOU LIKE DOING?

Love to cook, and I ve recently discovered veggie meat and sausages( love them but not enough to turn completly veggie, I like a bacon buttie too much lol)

Love to craft... just love it

Love to travel( I wish i could do more of it)

Love ironing( by far my most enjoyable chore, i do have one of those mother of all steam generators thinghy, so is a breeze)

Love walking my dog( not so much in the terrible wheater but I still do it)

6.NAME 5 THINGS YOU WOULD NEVER WEAR AGAIN

Colour blue( dosen t look good with my warm skin tone)

Bright eye shadow( oh the good old 80 s)

A tight perm( dont ask I looked terrible)

A Jumpsuit( yuk and it was a shade of baby pink, my skin tone dosent suit pink either)

Oh and I m deffo not gonna wear any flourescent colours again( gee mine are all based around colour, mind you colour is an important factor in my life)

7.NAME YOUR 5 FAVOURITE TOYS!

Cricut Expression

Big Kick

Embossing folders

Stampin Up s Stamp a ma jig

Stampin Up s cutting tool (gotta love that distressing tool)

8. YOUR FAVOURITE QUOTE.

I am too poor to afford cheap things

Ok so i ve got a card to show you, I ve made it for Sarah one of my team mates over on UKS, I just hope she liked it I do feel blessed for being part of such a nice team of girls. I ve used the In the Spotlight hostess set rose red and old olive cardstock, versamark, pumpkin pie, rose red and old olive ink, old olive wide grosgrain ribbon, and the swiss dots cuttlebug folder, scallop punch and 3/4" punch, a jumbo eyelet and crystal brads. I adore the simplicity of this card and the colours are just yummy together.

This was a quick post, i ve got some more cards to show you tmrrw., I ve been working on them for a swap I m holding on UKS.so keep your eyes on this blog. hugs and stampin kisses See ya!!!!

Go go gourgeousness

Hello, is that time again when I get to show you what i ve been up to using my yummy kit form Scrap a gogo. I adored this kit, the lace cardstock is to die for, and the papers well just put it this way, they were totally me, gorgeus colours and great designs.I ve made this card for a coleague at work who had a very rough time. Used an assortment of papers from the kit and a swirl that I ve cut on the Expression from the Accent essential cart. The flower element came as die cuts on a sheet, and I ve covered a little button with some coordinating paper for the middle of the layered flower.

The next project was a gift for my sweet sister. The kit included this super folder like thingy, with a window for a photograph, so I just couldn t resist using a picture of Luca when he was only 5 weeks old( he was getting stripped ready for a bath when I ve captured this so if you look closer that s why his clothes are all over the place lol, but it was the only photo that fitted the frame perfectly so had to use it) I just love how it turned out. I have used the lace cardstock on the reverse side and attached it to a strip of pale blue card. I ve scored the strip at equal distance from the middle point and only glued from the scored line to the edge. I ve used diferent elements suspended from some fine cord to create a moblie. Is suprising to open it and find this fun element. Used some stickers and more of the lace cardstock to embelish.

Laura love it and so did my brother in law. Aww he s my most precious little thing in the whole wide world. Love him xxx

The next card was made for my mum, we celebrate Mother s Day on the 8 th of march every year back home. I ve used diferent size circles to make the layered flowers and used some more of the lace cardstock. I just loved the colours in this kit.I ve sent this card to mum but I ve taken the word mum off and added the word *mama* instead. I just hope she will like it.

Made a thank you card as well

Everything used for this was in the kit including this wonderfull flower clip. Pretty straightforward and self expalnatory but the colours makes this card stand out from the crowd. I ve used the stamp( it was a love heart within another love heart this month, very sweet) to stamp on the reverse of the stripy paper and used my scalloped scissors to edge it. Love little square notes like these. So this was my offering for february, I m still very much enjoying those kits more and more, and I find it really refreshing and challenging for me to work using patterened papers and very little stamping. If this post inspired you to give Gogo kits a go have a look.here

Before I go I have to post a card that I was not happy to have to make. Last week one of my colleague at work suddenly lost her mum, she was a very fit and active 77 years old lady, never took a single pill, and then one day her heart decided to stop beating all of a sudden. I ve been asked to make a card so we could all sign it. This is what I ve done


RIP AUDREY........... I will miss you coming to collect your pension. Monica

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 ve completed a layout

I know you d probably be as shocked as I am but i have actually made a scrapbook layout in my preparation for a workshop that Anna has hosted last night. It was a fabulos night, the ladies were all seasoned crafters so they ve sailed throught the make and take I ve designed, and managed to bag themselves a great range of Su stamps and goodies. It was such a succesful workshop, Anna s hostess benefits were two free sets of stamps and £60.00 worth of free merchandise ( she got some great benefits), Anna thanks for having me and thanks to all the girls for coming, waves and hugs to you all. And sI ve also met the gorgeous Avril who is a total virgin as far as stamping goes and she s ordered the fabulos carmaking kit *Happy Day* and I cannot wait to see how she gets on with some paper, rubber and ink, Avril already makes beautiful intricate works of art cos she loves to cross stich( Man I wish i could do that as i love the effect). So Avril if you re reading this, I would love to see what you ve come up with.
Ok so i d better show you the page, my subject is of course my delicious little nephew Luca ( love this little boy so much ahhh )

Everything on here is from SU, I was talking with the girls last night and altho most of them were primarily cardmakers they did scrapbooking as well , but they seemed to have started with cardmaking wich is where I ve started, so I ve explained how when I ve finally got scrabooking I never asociated it with stamping, it was more on the waves of patterned papers chipboard, ribbons, buttons and all of the accents but since I ve joined SU I m starting to see scrapbooking in a whole new light, so I ve tried it here, I ve used nothing but stamps with very little patterened paper, and you know what? I really like how it turned up. Used that little cute giraffe form the *bundle Of Joy* and the complete set called *Little Pieces* that I ve punched out and stuck with 3 d pads. Colours used throughout were Alaways artichoke, Bashful blue, So saffron and Choc. chip.

I ve made another criss cross card, and I ve made it just cos I wanted to use my cutie pie papers.

Easy peasy and so colourful. Used the * In the spotlight* hostess set with a jumbo eyelet and a rhinestone brad, makes the whole thing look very blingy. used So saffron cardstock, rose red and certainly celery inks, here s the inside of the card

Sentiment for the *Sincere Salutations* set

Right i m off cause I m in work tmmrw. morning so need to catch up on some sleep. Hugs to you all. See ya!!!!

Colouring with markers tutorial

Hello girls, I m sorry it took me a bit longer to update this time, but things are hotting up and I m trying to keep on top of it all. Right then as promissed here is my version of a colouring tutorial but instead of watercolours I am going to use markers( Stampin Up markers). Now the secret with colouring is to try an create depth to your image ( adds interest and makes the image come to life) and you can only do this with three or more shades of the same colour. For today I m going to be using Barely Banana,Apricot Appeal, Summer Sun,Pumpink Pie and Bashful Blue.

So once you ve decided on your colours is time to get starting. I ve stamped a few images and showed the colour process in steps rather than having to post 10 photos (Blogger might say NOO ). My stamp is from the Cheers to you set from SU and I ve settled on the beer pint so I could make a male card at the end.
Ok so what I ve don here was, starting with the lighter shade Barely Banana I ve just filled the image randomly theen added a bit of Apricot Appeal here and there, dont be tempted to cover the image neatly from edge to edge be random leaving some white spots.
Now that you ve got your lightest colour down start adding the others as you can see in the first image(left) I ve just went on the outside of the image ( again not neatly) with the Summer Sun marker, in the next step(middle image) I took my strongest shade Pumpkin Pie and only drew around the edges being careful not to add too much ( if you think is not enough you can alaways add more after). Now you take you lightest marker again and blend it all in. You could also blend it in very successfully by using a watercolour brush just be careful as to not put too much water as this will lighten your image to much and then you would be tempet to add more colours and you d end up rubbing more to blend and your paper will start to peel and go all bobbly and nasty.
After you re happy with how your image looks and you ve blended it all in to make the image pop further take the Bashful Blue marker and trace around the outside of the image.


And this my friends is it!!! I love those markers cos they give really bright effect and there just enough shades for you to achieve great results without having to spend £300.00 on a set that s got God knows how many hundreds of diferent shades ( I m not Michelangelo and dont want to feel the pressure of using 20 shades on one image I m only making birthday cards!!!) I m not saying SU markers are cheap they re not but what I m saying they are affordable compared to others on the market and having tried the Marvys SU are much more pigmented. I LOVE MINE!! and here is the finished card

Now would you like to get your hands on those babies? I am starting a marker club, we need four people and it runs for 4 months, each month for £35.50 you get a set of markers and a full pack of coordinating cardstock , by the end of the club you will have collected the whole marker set (all 96) with a case to keep it all in, and the whole collection of cardstock all coordinating of course. Please let me know at telemech01@aol.com.

Now I m going to show you one more card I ve made for my sample board wich is coming together nicely. I just loveit, this check the background on this card base.

Dont you just love that? I m in heaven as dots and paisley are my favorites ( I sound like Brucie lol) Certainly Celery card blank was stamped with the Paisley Background in Old Olive, a distressed layer in Pumpkin Pie, one of Bashfull blue that I ve edged with my pinking shears, sentiment form the Happy Everything set stamped in Old Olive and Pumpkin Pie( used the Stamp a ma jig), Old Olive ribbon, a flower and a half backed pearl from the pretties kit, all equals to a very nice and easy to produce card. Love how quick and how efortlessly all my cards are coming together now. Enjoy whatever you are doing and thank you for stopping by. See ya !

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!!

Stamp a ma jig tutorial

Hello again!! I seem to have managed to blog a bit more frequently lately, which surprises me to be honest but hey while the going s good... lol.

For today s post I ve decided to show you a mini tutorial on how to use the *stamp a ma jig*, yes I know it sounds weird but let me tell you this baby is great!! Question:

How many times have you made a card and you spent ages putting it together, only to spoil it by the final *adding* of the stamped sentiment? I know so many crafters that turned to peel offs, for exactly this reason. I am an experienced crafter let me tell you( Lord knows I've had enough practise for the last 12 years) but the amount of cards I discard is quite big,because of my inability to sometimes stamp straight and in the place I want the sentiment to be, and not half an inch out. But I won't do that no more because I have found this little gadget, and I am going to show to you how it works. So you can get a better understanding of just how cool this is I m gonna do it twice.

I am using a two step stampin hostess set from Stampin Up called Heartfelt. I firstly stamp my image on a white base(i ve used SU markers to add the two different colours on my stamp)

Now next step is to take your stamp a ma jig. This is what it looks like, a black handle with 2 straight 90 degree edges at the top ( is got a left and a right side) and a clear plastic sheet smooth on one side and rough on the other(you could use either but the rough side grabs the ink better).

So this is what you have to do, start by butting the clear sheet right into the corner. Now stamp your chosen image onto the clear sheet making sure you but the stamp against the handle like this.
So what you have now is the image of your choice stamped onto the plastic sheet.
Clear? i hope so.. next I take my clear sheet and place it over my image stamped on the card, position it exactly where i want it, and cos is clear this is v easy
When you are happy with your placement butt the handle next to the clear sheet, remove the plastic sheet ink your stamp and stamp again by placing the stamp next to the handle.
Is that cool or what??? my bloom looks perfect!!! I am so made up with this but this is not all, I have now decided I want to add some wording to my topper so you ve guessed it I ve stamped my chosen word onto the plastic sheet, position it over my image
placed my handle next to the clear sheet, remove the clear sheet and stamp straight on my image. Perfecto!!! Every time!! Here is my finished card

This is one gizmo I m actually going to get a lot of use out of, just think how handy it will be for those nestabilities? being able to cut the shape, stamp you image smak in the centre then run it through to get the edges embossed....fab!! Or how about mixing different fonts from two or more different stamps to spell a one of a kind personalised message? ohh my brain hurts thinking of all the possibilities. I ve used Always artichoke, pretty in pink and whisper white cardstock, versamark, alaways artichoke, old olive, pixie pink and ruby red markers, glod brads all Stampin Up.

I love this set and I ve followed my previous post habit of taking one stamp set and making 3 cards, but I can only show you 2 tonight as I ve still have one to photograph. I just love the colours in this next one... love them

Old olive, tempting turquoise and whisper white card stock, black, tempting turquoise and old olive inks, Heartfelt and Circles of friendship stamps, tempting turquoise grosgrain ribbon all Stampin UP, black frilly ribbon May s Arts. Note how I ve stamped the sentiment on a black punched circle and white embossed? I ve just fancied a change but how good are those stamps? you can still read the words clearly even tho have been embossed.. love that!!

Finally I ve got to show you a sweet birthday card i ve made for my team mate over on UKS, it is her birthday tmrrw. I just hope she likes it!!

I ve used white ribbed white card from PaperMill, certainly celery, pixie pink card from SU, pretty in pink, pixie pink, versamark, certainly celery, old olive SU inks, stamps from PapertreyInk, ribbon and brads unknown. Thank you so much for stopping by see ya!!

january s DT yummies

Hello, is that time again when I get to share with you what i ve been up to with the gorgeous kits i get from Scrapagogo. so without further of a do I m gonna start with my first card

I m always trying to come up with new ideas for my DT (wich is a lot of hard work let me tell you, specially when your mojo decides to up and go somewhere.. where mojos go lol). Is not so much that I m trying to come up with incredible designs, cos I think at the end of the day as cardmakers we just want to see cards that we could replicate ourselves not impossible looking ones, so i thought men cards are often left out and grandads are not often catered for, so with this in mind I ve created this card. The kit had the most gorgeous flock self adeshive lettering, so pretty simply I ve layered lots of colour coordinating circles topped with one letter on each.My next offering is this little beauty

Yummy colours, I just love the way everything blends, the end result is bright and zingy in this card, the fabulos trim was used to act as the stem for this gogrgeous layered felt flower. It was soo funny to finish this card and only to find out that i ve done this to it

See? It happens to us all and if it didn thappen to you yet let me tell you there s time LOL. I have since then put it right, just wanted you to know that

This next one I love, I make a quite a few wedding cakes over the year and I always give the happy couple a handmade card to say thank you and wish them well

I loved this paper so much and decided to pick out the detail using a glitter pen, the effect is beautiful and shimery IRL, the distressed hearts are dimensional and I ve used more of the flock letters but I ve completely covered them in glitter for extra sparkle. Can you see that beautiful amarylis in the background? For Christmas I ve had big vases full of them with white crystals on stems, and eucalyptus leaves.

Next I ve made a manly Valentine, I love the muted colours, the fitting ribbon, while buttons and the chipboard corner offer enough visual interest but still keeping it masculine looking.

I ve used a chipboard die cut to cut an aperture on the front of the card, so that my sentiment had to be placed on the inside layer, but of course due to my rubbish photographic skills you cannot see this, but is there and it dosen t look bad( you ll have to take my word for it lol).

Ive got one more card I ve made with this utterly yummy kit, and it was a recently made one for a fellow Gogo subscriber(Heather) and a challenge set by me on the gogo thread over on UKS.

The big scalloped circle on the background was part of the free stamp 4 jan. wich I ve stamped in versamark ink and the little middle circles ones are from my stash and I have no idea who they belong to. Those kits are becoming ever so popular with them seeling out with the speed of lighting, Lorraine and Janice really are pros at putting product together and I hope you found at least one good element to inspire you to make your next card or make you think about subscribing to their monthly kit. You can find more by going here

Stampers ten is now full(woohoo), thank you to all that joined, I will make this the best stampers 10 out there because is my first one lol. Let the fun begin!! see ya!!