Pink Cat Studio Release, Heart Shaped Window Card Tutorial and European Trip - London Shopping

Hello Friends! I was suppose to post this earlier today but well, life don't always work out the way you want it. You know, I was beginning to feel a bit defeated because I'm a bit behind on everything. I had this grand plan to start off the year on top of things and well, I got sick and it took longer to recover than I had expected. But. . .on the brighter side, maybe it's meant to be. . .and everything after this will be wonderful.

I have a tutorial for you today. . .yup, I am trying to stick to my resolution on creating video tutorials more often. I'm getting better at creating the video. . .it's always hard learning a new computer program but as I go through the process, it's getting so much easier! Hooray for that!!! Now, if only it could upload to YouTube a lot faster everything would be perfect. . .:) LOL! Patience, Maria . . .I do have to learn to be more patient. I always want things to happen instantaneously which you all know is a ridiculous thing to expect.

Okay. . .now let's get down to the fun stuff! Guess what today is? Well, today is the release of Pink Cat Studio's digital images, which by the way is every Thursday. New stuff each week, how fun, huh!! I love seeing what's in store at Pink Cat Studio each week. It's always something cuuuute. . .and this week is no exception!!

I decided to create a heart shaped card with a heart shaped window! Scroll down for the template. Click on the template photo and right click your mouse and "save as" to you computer file. Store it as a picture file. When you are ready to print it, open up a new "Word document" and insert the file to your page. Resize the template as desired. To resize click on the photo on Word and drag the corners to the size you want. I resized my template to measure 5.5 x 5.5" because I wanted my card to measure that size.

Melissa of Pink Cat Studio created background images as well which I used to create the heart on the inner panel of the card. I colored the background image by using the same technique that I used to color the images on my previous post. Click Here for the Tutorial.

I also created a video on the process of creating this heart shaped card if you care to check it out!! I colored my image with my Copic Markers and added a few dots using Scribbles Iridescent Paint. I also embossed the front of my card using Stampin Up's textured template to create the dot texture. I don't think you can see the embossing too well in the picture.

Anyway. .. check out the video and see how I created this card.

Isn't this image cute or what? I really love this image. I had fun creating a card for it. To create the glittery heart on the image and the punched hearts, all I did was heat embossed them with glittery embossing powder.

If you want information on the materials I used to create the two cards, feel free to email me. My post is rather long so I'm not going to add the recipe to this post.

Be sure to stop by Pink Cat Studio and check out all the cute images they have to offer. The Pink Cat Studio design team also created such awesome cards and projects for this release, be sure to check them out!


Alicia Weiman
Emily Leiphart
Inge Groot
Kerry Donovan-Casey
Kristen Catalano
MacKenzie Bruckler
Maria Bell
Suzanne J Dean
Tracey Cuccia
Tori Hemmingway
Vicki Garret

European Trip - London Shopping

Shopping. . .hmmmm, that's a fun subject, huh! The photo above is the famous Harrods Department Store. Remember Dodi Al Fayed? The man that was in the car with Princess Diana when she passed away? Well, Dodi's father is the owner of Harrods. Did I go into the store. . .nope! What was the point. . .I couldn't afford the prices anyway! LOL! Actually, I didn't shop much in London or a matter of fact, anywhere else in Europe. Really! The exchange rate from dollar to pounds was I believe, 1.5%. . .and the dollar was weaker, by the way. Basically, the dollar was worth only 71 cents or somewhere around there.

London sure had a lot of fabulous stores inside beautiful buildings. Not at all like in the US where stores are in malls. Many of the stores were situated in historic buildings. . .so beautiful. I loved it. Let's talk about fashion. The Europeans do know fashion, that's for sure.

Here is a little advise when you travel to Europe. Don't dress like an American! LOL! Why? Well, you'll stick out like a sore thumb. At our hotel, there were ladies in their pink sweat pants and sweat shirt, white jogging shoes, with their colorful ski jackets. I'm sorry, their outfit SCREAMED "tourist" and "pick my pocket"! I have nothing against sweat pants and shirts. .. not at all, I wear them all the time. . .at home! In winter, it seems, Europeans wear only 3 colors, black, grey, and brown. LOL!

What's wrong with looking like a tourist? Well, one thing you have to be conscientious of. . .safety. Our tour guides kept reminding us that Europe is notorious for pick pocketers and if you look like a tourist, they will target you immediately. Another thing is if you dress rather shabby, many Europeans are not ashamed to deny you service. It's an assumption that if you dress shabby, you're, how shall I say this. . .. cheap. Forget the concept of "customers come first". LOL! It doesn't apply to all stores and restaurants. . .but many European shop owners are not shy about denying you service or literally kicking you out of their store. It happened to one of our group members when we were in Italy. . .I mean, literally shoved them out of the store!

Some of the members of our tour group were ignored at a bar that they were hanging out at when we were in Switzerland. Why? Because they wanted to share their drinks and I guess the waitress felt they couldn't afford the prices. Switzerland is a whole other story. I cannot even begin to tell you how EXPENSIVE the restaurants and bar prices were. I'll save the story when I get to my "Switzerland post". LOL!

Back to shopping and fashion. In winter, scarves, snow caps,boots and coats were the "in" fashion wear. I must say, their boots and coats were lovely but the prices, forget it! Every time I stepped into a store, I would evaluate the prices and would come to the conclusion that I could probably buy them in the US for half the price.

This photo is of the "Burberry Department Store". I don't know if you ever heard of Burberry. It's quite a popular department store in London. I have to wonder how people in Europe survive considering how expensive the prices are. The US average income is higher than all of Europe but many people in Europe, in general, dress better than we do. It's just a generalization and don't apply to all Europeans or Americans but from what I saw, they do love to dress up. I guess Europeans are wise shoppers. Maybe it's more about quality rather than quantity.

Before our trip, I read articles on what is the proper dress wear for Europe. I didn't want to look out of place and my clothes consisted of only black, brown, and grey. LOL! The article was right! Keep in mind, this applies for winter wear and not for summer. If you're traveling to Europe in the summer, the dress wear is different. I brought two nice coats, boots, and several black/brown slacks and 2 nice jeans. I also brought a few turtlenecks and clothes that I could layer. It worked out great and I actually fit in perfectly.


There are Starbucks, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, and Kentucky Fried Chicken in London. In Belgium, Burger King seem to be the big thing. According to our tour guide in Paris, McDonalds is one of the most popular place to eat for Parisians! McDonalds! You've got to be kidding me!!! By the way, Parisians is what people in Paris call themselves. .. not "French". French is a generalization of people who live in France but "Parisians" apply to those who live in Paris. Anyway, that's my story for the day. . .:) I have more to share but I'll save it for next time!

Anyway. . .hope you like my commentary of my trip today! LOL! Please keep in mind, what I wrote are primarily my observations and some of them are information that I learned from our tour guide and not necessarily hard facts. Okay. . .I better end it here. I hope you all have a beautiful Thursday!