Rogues Gallery of Retiring Products

As you know, I am holidaying up in northern BC with my middle daughter, Kristen and her family. We came up to celebrate my only granddaughter's First Birthday!  This is the little lady here, bedecked in dandelions as could only be expected for the daughter of my dandelion loving offspring! (See this post.)

And here she is again! Quite a contrast as she sheds the niceties and digs into her birthday chocolate cake with gusto!

Since I have no access to my new catalogue pre-order goodies, I am concentrating on sharing some of the retiring products from the 2014 - 15 Annual Catalogue as a public service, to make sure you don't miss out on something that you really wanted, but hadn't had an opportunity to order yet. I searched my archives to show you some of the retiring stamp sets and some of my best designs using them. The name of each stamp set has the link you can click on to take you to the original post.

Without further ado, here is the rogue's gallery for five of the retiring stamp sets:



Apothecary Art



Apothecary Art



By the Seashore



By the Seashore



Chalk Talk



Chalk Talk


Daydream Medallions



Daydream Medallions



From My Heart



From My Heart

Are you missing any of these sets? If so, you have until June 2 to get your hands on them. Email me with your order or shop at your convenience at my On-Line Store!

Beautiful Wings with the Curvy Keepsake Box

Today I have a couple of projects to share with you for an up-coming Mom and Me Class this Saturday. The moms and kids will work together to make a very fancy Curvy Keepsake Box covered in butterflies. Some are from the Beautiful Wings Embosslit that is retiring this year after gracing the pages of Stampin' Up! Catalogues for ever! The big butterfly on top is from the Butterfly Thinlit dies! There is another Top Secret project that I can't share yet because the kids will be making for their moms for Mother's Day while the moms work on this project:

This project was cased from Diane Ouellette, who in turn cased it from Connie Babbert. Thanks for your inspiration, ladies! You can see a butterfly theme happening! Let's take a closer look at the Butterfly Box:

• It has been awhile since I last played with the Curvy Keepsake Box, but I wanted a 3D project for the kids to enjoy. It would be great for candies or snacks, but also for keeping small treasures in.
• The colours I used were Melon Mambo, Basic Gray and Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper. I think they suit each other quite well in a dramatic way. I used the Butterfly Thinlits to die cut the butterfly out of the Glimmer Paper. I tried using the Dryer Sheet Technique to get all the little bits out of the butterfly wings, but due to the type of paper, it didn't work as well as it usually does. Oh, well, poking out all those little pieces will be a great job for the kids to do! 
• The Basic Gray cardstock really shows up the embossed design from the Beautiful Wings Embosslits well. As I mentioned they are retiring and are on sale for 50% off!

• On the sides, the labels are made using the Daydream Medallions Stamp Set, also on the Retiring List. The design was stamped in VersaMark Ink on the the Basic Gray cardstock and heat embossed using Iridescent Ice Stampin' Emboss Powder. Usually, it's hard to tell when the Iridescent Ice powder is heat set on White or Vanilla. But it turned dark on the Basic Gray and it was so easy to tell when it was set. Rather dramatic actually! I die cut the backing with the Floral Frames framelits.
• The center of the frames was stamped with an image from the Hello There Stamp set which is a retiring Hostess Set from the Annual Catalogue. I stamped it in Melon Mambo Ink and punched it out with the 1 1/4" Circle punch. It created a tiny border of white around the solid Melon Mambo which helped it stand out on the Basic Gray. I love how that worked out.
• As you can see the butterfly die cut on top was snipped in half, with each half mounted on one side or the other of the little handle once the box is closed. It doesn't interfere, however, with the box opening and closing.

If you have kidlets between the ages of 5 and 12 and live in the area, please let me know if you'd like to attend this event this coming Saturday from 1 pm to 2:30 pm.

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the Stampin' Up! products used to make this card today!

Product List

*Daydream Medallions Wood Stamp Set [131976]	*Daydream Medallions Clear Stamp Set [126467]	*Hello There Clear-Mount Stamp Set [133922]	*Hello There Wood-Mount Stamp Set [133919]	Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper [135315]
Melon Mambo 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [115320]	Basic Gray 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121044]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Versamark Pad [102283]	Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad [126948]
Iridescent Ice Stampin' Emboss Powder [101930]	Embossing Buddy [103083]	Heat Tool [129053]	**Beautiful Wings Embosslits Die [118138]	Butterflies Thinlits Dies [137360]
Floral Frames Framelits Die [127012]	1-1/4" Circle Punch [119861]	Fuse Fast Adhesive [129026]	Glue Dots [103683]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]

*Retiring June 2

**Retiring June 2 and on sale for 50% off.

Floral Fiesta for As You See It Challenges

It's Friday! You made it through another week! Give yourself a pat on the back. And that means that it is time for another challenge from As You See It Challenges. This week, it is a sketch challenge that is quite unique again. I had a lot of fun with it, using all sorts of flower images to create a Floral Fiesta!

• When I saw the dark border on the right of the diagram, I immediately thought of a floral pattern, hand-trimmed and mounted on dark cardstock, so that you could see the individual shapes of the edge flowers.  It took me a couple of panels of this Park Lane DSP to get one with the fancy edges in a place that wouldn't be covered by the banners. I mounted it on Basic Black cardstock for the contrast and also because I love the Old Olive/Basic Black colour palette.
• As I searched for a shape like a wreath for the top panel, I came across an old set that I actually haven't used much lately.  It's Daydream Medallions and I used the middle-sized one and stamped it in Old Olive ink, then used the the Floral Frames Framelits, which coordinate, to die cut it as well as a Circle Collection Framelit to cut out the middle.
• I used the Flower Shop Stamp Set to stamp the large flowers and the Petite Petals set to stamp the smaller ones and I punched them out with the Pansy Punch and the Petite Petals Punch respectively. They are mounted on the card front using dimensionals to create vertical dimension, after curling the petals upwards using my Bone Folder.
• The sentiment is from the Flower Patch Photopolymer Stamp set and it makes a great greeting considering all flowers in this card.

There's some exciting news from Stampin' Up! regarding Sale-A-Bration! For the month of March, the last month of Stampin' Up!'s biggest promotion, they have added FOUR new Sale-A-Bration rewards!! And they are totally amazing!  Have a look:

I'll be ready to take your orders, Mar. 1 so that you can earn some of these four great new rewards. Really, how often have you wanted there to be Blackberry Bliss buttons?? and how about that Designer Vellum stack??

Enjoy your weekend! Get a little crafting time for yourself and I'll see you again on Monday!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the Stampin' Up! products used to make this card today!


Product List

Daydream Medallions Clear Stamp Set [126467]	Daydream Medallions Wood Stamp Set [131976]	Petite Petals Wood Stamp Set [133152]	Petite Petals Clear Stamp Set [133155]	Flower Patch Photopolymer Stamp Set [134207]
Park Lane Designer Series Paper [133694]	Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121045]	Old Olive 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100702]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad [126953]
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708]	Neutrals Candy Dots [130934]	Paper Snips Scissors [103579]	Floral Frames Framelits Die [127012]	Circles Collection Framelits Die [130911]
Pansy Punch [130698]	Petite Petals Punch [133322]	Big Shot [113439]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]
Glue Dots [103683]