Happy to be back

Hello sweet bloggers,

Happy New Year to all of you! Wish you all (and meself) a healthy,  happy and abundant 2014.

I am sorry for my sudden absence, the reason being that I lost my 97 year old mother in law so  we had to suddenly fly to the UK and spent a week with my hubby's family. It was a sad time yet it was a celebration of her life well lived. After the funeral we visited New Delhi to see my dear mum and spent a few sunny days in Goa with her. It was lovely as the pictures will tell you.

Down below is a beach in Goa - idyllic and beautiful, a quaint island state with a strong Portuguese character.

A famous church in Goa called Bom Jesus where the body of St Francis Xavier has been lying since many centuries.

Inside the church is this beautiful coffin where the saint's body is housed. Wish this was a clearer picture but if you look intently, you can see his head on the right hand side.

 I saw these lovely vases in a hotel in Goa and had to show them to you.

 This is a picture with a very dear friend in a beautiful Crafts Village in New Delhi taken with this man from Rajasthan (a colourful Indian state with beautiful palaces, jewels and fabrics) playing a flute. Can you spot how long his mustache is??? He decided to park these funny turbans on our heads when we asked him for a picture. Again I wish the picture quality was better.

 At last a card to show you which I made in the UK for my sister in law. I managed 20 quick cards and left most of them for her to use. She wanted thank you cards to give at the hospital where my mother in law was admitted. This was made with bare minimum embellies as that is all I had. I purchased everything from The Range including the card stock to make these quickies.

Will come and visit you soon after unpacking our bags.

Love,
Monica 

Thank you, Sue

Hello sweet bloggers,

Here is another card to show you which is non-Chrismasy. The image is a stamp from a set I bought for Zeenya many years ago from India. I have coloured in the tulip with my Prisma pencils. The happy birthday sentiment came from Sue - what a coincidence that it fitted in so well with the image. The washi tape is my newest buy and I love it.

This is Aleeza with her play dough art work.

I will enter this card in the following challenges:

http://kraftyhandschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - anything goes

http://time4scrap.blogspot.fr/ - anything goes

http://emergencycrafterschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - anything but Christmas

Wish you a happy Sunday,

Monica

Happy Birthday card

Hello sweet bloggers,

Here is another card done in seconds with my cling stamp from Stampendous. I have used Brilliant pearlescent ink pads and the crystals are from Prima while the double ribbon is from mys stash.

Down below is Zeenya with her art work at the Visual and Performing Arts Concert on Tuesday. She was one of the two kids from her grade to be chosen to demonstrate her art piece in front of the theatre. So as many of you said, she is coming back to Art which makes me want to burst with happiness. If there is anything I wish for my girls it is that they do art, art and more art. And of course I want them to make the world into a better place.

This is a close up of Zeenya's free hand art piece. Her art teacher is lovely and I have much gratitude for her for motivating my daughter to enjoy and excel at art. 

This 3D art work by Zeenya was also chosen to be displayed at the concert. VPA stands for Visual and Performing Arts. 

I will enter my card in:

http://4kraftygirlzchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/ - anything goes

http://alldressedupchallenges.blogspot.ca/ - CAS

Thank God it's Friday,

Monica 

Anything but Christmas

Hello sweet bloggers,

Hope this finds you in good health and cheer with Christmas fast approaching. The schools break tomorrow for Christmas and then we are off to travel.

Here is my card to show you, it all started hap hazardly and still looks that way to me. The lovely sticker on this card came from Merry and I love it. There is something about roses that makes me like them so. I have used the green ribbon to hide the tell tale line that is left behind after embossing. The sentiment is from Spellbinders and I have used my pink metallic Sakura pen over it.  Thought I must put something on the top so good old pearls came to the rescue.

 

I will enter this card in:

http://www.addictedtostamps-challenge.blogspot.com.au/ - anything goes
http://craftycreationschallenges.blogspot.com/ - anything goes
http://divasbydesignchallenge.blogspot.com/ - anything goes

http://emergencycrafterschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ - anything but Christmas
http://ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.com/ - anything goes

Wish you a happy Thursday,

Monica 

Recycled card

Hello kind peeps,

Here is a card made with a recycled image from a super market brochure. The snowflakes border is from the same brochure as well. All I did was to layer the image on to a gold paper and add a ribbon along with lots of scoring on the top and bottom of the card. 

Aleeza had her Christmas concert yesterday but I could not take pictures as she was too far. Here is a shot of her friend and her with lights in their hands. The money from the sale of these lights will go to the Philippines.

The evening was called The Festival of Lights and down below is a display created by older children made out of milk cartons.

I will enter this card in:
http://ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.com/ - always anything goes
http://unstampabelleschallenges.blogspot.com.au/ - Christmas, no stamping
http://archiscraps.blogspot.com/ - Gingerbread

Wish you a wonderful Tuesday,

Monica 

Cute lil' giraffe

Hello lovely peeps,

Here is a card I made yesterday with my new clear stamp from Hobby Craft in London. I have coloured it with my Prismas. I have used pop up fabric glue on the giraffe' dots and the leaves have been die cut from scraps using tiny Wonder House dies. The orange layer has been recycled from a brochure and the paper is from Kaiser (I think) and it was left over from a previous card I made. I think the leaves may be overshadowing the image and I did consider using buttons initially but ended up with this leafy affair.

I will enter this card in:
http://creativefingerschallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/ - anything goes
http://sisteractcardchallenge.blogspot.com/ - anything goes
http://stempelsonne.blogspot.com/ - anything goes with a stamped image as the central theme

Wish you a happy Sunday,
Monica 

Natural wreath

Hello kind bloggers,

Here is my card to show you for today made with dried up grass that I found in the play ground downstairs. It was actually curled into a circle and all I did was to shape it a bit more with my fingers. I drew a circle lightly with a pencil on the green layer to make the wreath sit nicely. Then I stuck holly leaves under the wreath and added liquid pearls around the wreath. My famous Joy sentiment completed the card even though it's font is a trifle casual for this card. I have to add that I had lots of fun making this card.

I will enter this card in:

http://brownsugarchallenge.blogspot.com/ - Christmas

http://cutitupchallenges.blogspot.com/ - use a die cut

http://paper-craftingjourney.blogspot.co.uk/ - Christmas

Wish you a happy and healthy Saturday,

Monica