Only One Week Left!

There's only one week left to purchase items from the 2011-2012 Stampin' Up! Catalog!  Have you placed your order?  You don't want to miss out on your favorite items!  This is your last week to order before they're gone forever!

Click here to see what all is retiring or contact me and I can send you a pdf file of both retiring accessories and retiring stamp sets.

Don't forget to place your order!  Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Say Goodbye to Floral Fillers

Yep...another goodbye!  This goodbye is to a newer stamp set.  It hasn't been around that long but I guess it's time was up!  I had to use retiring craft ink on this card.  I am really going to miss that stuff!  I embossed the butterflies with Regal Rose Craft Ink and Clear Embossing Powder.  I punched the butterflies out with the soon-to-be retiring Butterfly Punch.  The little scallop borders are made with the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch which thankfully is sticking around!  :D  The background is made with the retiring Perfect Details Texturz Plate and the Big Shot.  I'm going to miss that design but not the Texturz Plate so much.  They were kind of difficult to use and you don't get as clean of impression as you do with the embossing folders.  After texturizing the background I did rub Regal Rose Classic Ink over the design to highlight it a bit.  The butterflies are floating on a piece of Regal Rose Textured Card Stock.  The textured card stock is another item that is retiring that I'm really going to miss.  Bummer!  Like I said the other day.....you have to get rid of the old to make room for the new!  But why didn't they ask me what to get rid of?  :D

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

A Fifth Avenue Floral Goodbye

Here's another card made with a retiring stamp set.  It's time to say goodbye to Fifth Avenue Floral.  I'm not quite as sad to see this stamp set go.  I like it and I've used it alot but it's time to move on.  Isn't this a great technique used on the card?  It's kind of a shadow effect.  I'm sure it has a name but I don't know what it is.  I'll let you know if I find out! 

I stamped the flowers (and sentiment) with Whisper White Craft Ink and then embossed with white Embossing Powder.  Then I took a Versamarker (this is an item I'm sad to see go....) and kind of outlined what I embossed.  That's all there is to this card.  Simple yet striking!

FYI....the blue isn't part of the card.  I just had to put the card on a colored piece of card stock so it would scan correctly!  Yes, I've gone back to scanning my cards since I can't seem to photograph anything well!

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Goodbye Pocket Silhouettes

Pocket Silhouettes is one of those stamp sets I'm sad to say goodbye to.  It's just a good general purpose stamp set.  I'm so glad I was able to use it one last time (although it might be staying in my stamp stash for awhile yet....).  I CASEd the general idea for this card but of course had to embellish it just a wee (HA!)  bit!

 I colored the little flower stamp with my Old Olive and Real Red markers and stamped it on Whisper White card stock.  Then I ran it through the Big Shot with Square Lattice Embossing Folder (which is hard to see from the picture).  It really adds a lot to the card.  I tore the bottom edge and then adhered it to the Crumb Cake card stock.  This is another one of those color combinations that is so striking.  I stamped the flower image on the Crumb Cake card stock with Versamark and then stamped the sentiment (Loving Thoughts) with black.  A few more layers, some punched flowers with pearls and some Real Red Satin Ribbon to finish it off.  I'm kind of sad to see the 5/8" Satin Ribbon retiring too.  It really adds an elegant look to a card.  Oh, well....change is good, right?  :)  I just need to remember that! 

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Now You're Cookin'

Are you planning a Memorial Day picnic?  Here's the perfect card to use as an invitation.  Isn't it cute?  I just love it!  The stamp is an a la carte stamp, Now You're Cookin', that's retiring in less than two weeks.  It's one of those stamps that I didn't really need, I finally bought it and then it retires.  Par for the course!  Oh, well...I did get to make this cute card with it!  The designer paper that coordinates perfectly with it is the Domestic Goddess designer paper.  I love the combination of Pool Party and Calypso Coral.  How about you?

It's a cool and rainy day here in Colorado so picnicing isn't foremost on my mind today.  It's the perfect kind of day to get things done in the house.....clean (no), laundry (maybe), make cards (yes!). 

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Upsy Daisy One Last Time

In this week's classes we used stamp sets that were retiring.  On today's card we used the Upsy Daisy stamp set.  It was difficult to come up with a card idea for this set because I did use it quite a bit when it was newer.  As I was scrolling through ideas I saw that someone had embossed on desinger paper.  Wow!  The light bulb went off!  I don't think I had used that technique before and if I had it was quite a while ago.  The card is simple but very striking with the white embossing on the designer paper.  I used the Paisley Petals designer paper which, like the stamp set, is retiring.  The green on the card is Always Artichoke which I haven't used in a while either!   I hate to see old things go but it's SO exciting to see new stuff!  (By the way....the new catalogs are here so let me know if you'd like one!). 

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!  Today's card is the one I made for both my mom and my mother-in-law.  I need to thank fellow stamper Wanda Williams for the inspiration on this card.  Thanks Wanda!  The stamp set I used on this card is Fabulous Florets.  It's one of those that will be in the new catalog but has been hiding on my shelf for awhile.  It was nice to get it out again!  The designer paper on this gorgeous card unfortunately is going away. Bye-bye Paisley Petals. I water colored the flowers with both Not Quite Navy and Baja Breeze inks and I used So Saffron on the centers.  Then it was layer upon layer for a fabulous card!

I do need to apologize for my absence.  Busy, busy, busy is all I can say.  I've been working on a project on My Digital Studio as well as working on a new blog site (yes, you'll get all the details when it's ready!).  I would probably have the MDS project done by now but I can't seem to make a decision.  Whether it's the background paper or even the size of the project I keep changing my mind!  I at least am getting a better idea of whats going on each page.  I'll definitely share some of the pages with you when I'm done (if I'm ever done!).  I'm also trying to get ahead on upcoming classes.  Yikes!  Now can you see why I've been AWOL?! 

Speaking of My Digital Studio....have you tried the free trial download yet?  Now is the perfect time to give it a try.  MDS 2 is coming out later this fall and will be even better.  If you decide to purchase the current MDS product now you'll receive the upgrade for FREE!  So don't wait!  Give MDS a try.  You'll love it!  Just go to the SHOP NOW page on my website and download your free trial of MDS Express!  You'll find it on the upper right part of the page.

Have a great day!  Take care and Happy Stamping!