Lucky Nellie

Hi there. Hope you're all having a good Saturday. The weather has been quite nice here today, fresh but a bit of sun.

My friend bought me this little elephant stamp the other day, she said it was to remind me not to put my weight back on!!! (cheeky moo!) (I've recently got to my goal weight by losing 2 stone). She said she expects me to use it and not just put it in a drawer, so there was the challenge! I was looking through some of the blogs that I follow and came across a perfect sketch on 'Clean and Simple Stamping' Layout #31 and thought I could quickly use 'Nellie' with my new Basic Grey papers. Some of the entries are gorgeous. You should take a look. It's a great site for quick and easy cards, which sometimes, let's be honest, we could all do with :o)

I stamped Nellie onto a piece of pink marbled paper from my BG Eva pad, and then stamped her again on one of the pink patterned papers. I cut the same paper for the side panel. I thought the pattern had a little bit of a 'trunk' like pattern to it, can you see it?! I used the printed acetate that had come with the stamp which had the image printed on it, lined up my *new* Stamp-a-ma-jig (SAMJ) and then stamped Nellie in the right place on the paper saving wastage. My SAMJ has saved me money already, and the environment too, can't be bad! I then cut out a strip using my 'Sunburst' border punch in 'Imagine' and inked the edges of the card in pink. To finish I added a dotty ribbon.

I had to improvise a bit because I couldn't find an acrylic block anywhere, so I used a glass photo frame that doubles up as a great block for sticking your small stamps on..result! So now I have done two stamped images. I've finally done what I have been threatening to do for a while, I've stamped something...woohoo!!!! Be proud of me Hedgie!

I stamped the word 'lucky' because I'm very lucky to have her as my friend. She's been such a good friend to me while I've been off work, picking up Natasha from school, making me laugh out loud, taking me to get groceries, to hospital appointments etc. etc. Oh yes, and nagging me to do some stamping!!! Oh and did I mention that she brings me chocolate, now what more could a girl want. There's a stamp out there somewhere with a phrase to do with chocolate and good friends. If you know what it is please can you leave me a comment to let me know, it's been bugging me today!!

Stamp: Prima Marketing Clear Stamp - Elephant, Colorbox Chalk Inkpad in Pink Pastel
Paper: Basic Grey 'Eva' paper pad, 'Color Me Silly - Imagine'
Accessories: Fiskars 'Sunburst' Border Punch, Offray Microspool dotty ribbon from local haberdashery, SU! Stamp-a-ma-jig

I bought her one of those Basic Grey Notch & Die Tools for her birthday, but even though I got mine over here in the UK I couldn't find it anywhere. I decided to get it for her from the States, so ended up paying $25 plus to get it over here, only to receive a letter from Customs to say that I needed to pay another £15 plus VAT for them to deliver it because of the value!!! That has to be THE most expensive delivery charge so far!!! She's worth it though....maybe ;o)

ps - saw it last night on line in a UK store for £25!!! Ouch!!