Retirement Has Its Benefits - Mystery Hostess Contest!

I can say that from experience!  I've been retired from teaching for three years now and I have to say I like it!  What I like best is not having to get up early every workday morning, because I'm a night owl!  I like a leisurely breakfast with some reading material or a crossword!  But, after two years of doing whatever I wanted, I got a bit bored and that's when I decided to become a Stampin' Up demonstrator!  Life has not been boring since! (And that's an understatement!)

But retirement of another sort has its benefits as well.  That's right, this is the last week to order those stamps and accessories on the retirement list!  And to add a little excitement to the last week, we will be having a

Last Chance Party!

Yes, place an order through me or online at my online store any time from now until Thursday night, May 30th and use the Hostess Code 6XRSSFD6 and you will be entered to be the Mystery Hostess and if we get enough orders, there may be more than one winner so we can spread the love (and free Stampin' Up Products) around!  Every order regardless of price will have one chance to win, but orders of $40 or more will receive extra entries for every $40 spent!  You will have an excellent chance of winning! 

This is your last opportunity to order items on the Retiring lists.  Here, once more are the links to those lists:

Retiring Stamp Set List

Retiring Accessories List

To order, use this link to my On-Line Store, making sure you see my name in the upper right hand corner, and enter the Hostess Code in the box on the first page.  Then order your products.  Or call me at 250-768-7379 or Email me with your order.

This week I will be featuring some of the stamp sets and accessories that are retiring, so that you may get some idea of how to use these sets.  My first one is a masculine card featuring the stamp set, Daring Adventure, which has a very cool sentiment - a quote from Helen Keller.

I used a Dynamic Duos Challenge #54 colour combination of Midnight Muse and Bashful Blue.  Bashful Blue is a retiring colour and the card stock is already sold out, although you can still get the stamp pad.  I don't know if I've ever put these two colours together, but I really like the crisp look, especially paired with Whisper White.  I've used one element of another retiring stamp set as well.  See the water drops on the sentiments.  That is a stamp from French Foliage, one I'm really sad to let go of.

I've used the layout from the Pals Paper Arts Challenge #159. 

The two sentiments are actually from one stamp.  I was able to make it into two sentiments by inking the parts of the stamp I wanted with a Midnight Muse Stampin' Write Marker, stamping, cleaning and then reinking the other part with the same marker.  I used Bashful Blue ink for the backgrounds, stamping off once (stamping once lightly on scrap paper before stamping on your panel) for the typed script.

The Midnight Muse panel is from the Print Poetry Paper Stacks from the Spring Mini Catalogue - again, only available until May 31st - a really good value at $8.50 for 48  4 1/2" x 6 1/2" sheets!

So don't waste any time!  Place an order this week and earn some chances at FREE Stampin' Up product!

Stamps:  Daring Adventure (w122600; c122602)*; French Foliage (w120845;c121166)*

Paper:  Print Poetry Designer Series Paper Stacks (129312)*; Bashful Blue (105120)** and Whisper White (100730) card stock

Ink:  Classic Stampin' Pads in Bashful Blue (126961)* and Midnight Muse (126860); Stampin' Write Marker in Midnight Muse (126856 as part of the 2012/13 In Colour Bundle)

Accessories:  3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon in Midnight Muse (126847); 3/16" Metallic Brads (119741)***

Tools:  Paper Piercing Tool (126189); Stampin' Pierce Mat (126199); Tabletop Cutter (106959)*

*Retiring item

**Retiring but sold out

***Retiring and on sale for 25% off

French Foliage Stamp Set

Print Poetry Designer Series Paper Stack

3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon in Midnight Muse

Daring Adventure

Tabletop Paper Cutter

Flashbacks Continued

One more day of lying by the pool and then we head back to real life. Not sure I'm ready, but all good things must come to an end.  What a segue!  All good stamp sets must come to an end as well, I guess!  Here are a few more blasts from the past celebrating some of Stampin' Up's retiring stamp sets of 2013:

The first is an old favourite for masculine stamps  - Countryside (w116998; c120495)!  This card was created using a Faux Mosaic technique.  Check out this link for how-to details.

Another well-used set is Just Believe (w116948; c120453) and here is a card made with that set.

It is such a beautiful set and I'm really going to miss it!  But my chief mourning is reserved for the untimely passing of French Foliage (w120845; c121166).

Here are the links for the first card and the second  card made with French Foliage.  All product lists are posted on the links.

Newly sold out Retiring Accessories are:

Jolly Jingles Stampin' Around Jumbo Wheel 

Happy Bday Stampin' Around Builder Wheel 

Take a Sip Stampin' Around Wheel 

Brights Collection Classic Stampin' Ink Refills 

Make sure you order any retiring accessories you want quickly before supplies run out.

Have a great day, and I hope it's sunny and warm where you live, too.

Countryside

French Foliage

Just Believe

Pacific Sunset

No, I'm not posting from a South Pacific Island (I wish!!).  This is the name of a maple tree in our back yard - a Pacific Sunset maple, and from this photo, I think you can see why.

 

Aren't the colours lovely?  So warm and glowing!  This is what I see everyday when I look out my kitchen window.  This tree actually inspired my next card:

 



 



I used the Mojo Monday #266 sketch for this one, designed by Julee Tilman, and it created a lovely, balanced design.

 



The palette, taken from the autumn colours on my maple are Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, More Mustard and Cajun Craze, with a little Soft Suede thrown in there for good measure!  And it uses a sentiment from the Trust God stamp set, to comply with The Paper Players' Challenge #120, where the theme is "Give Thanks".  Thanks, Ann Schach, for that topic, because even though Thanksgiving is over here in Canada, it is still an awesome idea to be grateful everyday!

 

The stamp set I used for this card is a favourite of mine, and Ann Schach's too, I'd say:  French Foliage.  It has such a lovely vintage feel to it.  I started with a card base of Pumpkin Pie and added a piece of So Saffron embossed with the Square Lattice embossing folder.  I added a vertical flag from some Orchard Harvest DSP mounted on Pumpkin Pie, then stamped the rectangle panel with images from French Foliage.  I distressed and sponged the edges and mounted it on Cajun Craze.  The small square panel is a piece of Polka Dot Parade DSP on Pumpkin Pie.  I punched out a circle of Very Vanilla using a 1 3/4" Circle punch and backed it with a 2 3/8" Scallop Circle punched out of Cajun Craze.  The image is also from French Foliage and the sentiment, again, from Trust God.  The horizontal flag is made from Victorian Crochet Trim and I added a Naturals Designer Button threaded and tied with some linen thread.

 



So try this one out - great for lots of occasions!  Thanks for dropping by!

Stamps:  Trust God  (w126700; c126702), French Foliage (w120845; c121166)
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie (105117), So Saffron (105118), Cajun Craze (119684) and Very Vanilla (101650) card stock;  Orchard Harvest DSP(126895); Polka Dot Parade DSP (126902)
Ink: Classic Stampin' Pads in Soft Suede (126978), Early Espresso (126974), Pumpin PIe (126945) and More Mustard (126964)
Accessories:  Victoian Crochet Trim (118481); Naturals Designer Buttons (127554) tied with Linen Thread (104199)
Tools:  Stampin' Sponge (101610); Square Lattice Embossing Folder (119976); 1 3/4" Circle Punch (119850); 2 3/8" Scallop Circle punch.(118874)

In Praise of Walking

What a gorgeous day it was today!  I live near a large lake and the sun was absolutely sparkling on the water this morning!  It looked like someone had spilled thousands of diamonds on the surface.  When I'm not camping or visiting kids and grandkids or keeping my Stampin' Up business going, I do like to walk with friends or my DH!  He likes to ride his bike, and I have one, but I prefer walking because you see so much more when you do.  There is a group of fellow retired teachers who get together once a week to walk by the lake.  It is such a pleasant time and exercise time flies by when you are concentrating on the latest news from your friends, rather than on the exercise itself. 

This is the best time of year to walk in these parts.  It's not as hot as mid-summer, and not as crowded with people once kids are in school.  You see the beautiful warm autumn colours start to form, and you don't have to put up with as much wind and rain  as you encounter in the spring.

Speaking of warm autumn colours, I created a card that is eligible for two different challenges this week: 

I was going for three, when I realized I was missing an important part of one challenge...WINGS!  Darn, and I did the resist technique specifically for that one, too!  Oh, well.  Here's a close up of the clear emboss resist technique I used.

 

 

I'm entering this in the Pals Paper Arts 142 colour challenge:

The card is also eligible for the Paper Players challenge # 111:

 

 

Elegant Eggplant, Lucky Limeade and Pumpkin Pie proved to be very interesting colours to work with.  Definitely fall warmth, almost Halloween shades, but I decided to use leaves as the theme.

 

On the background panel I stamped the En Francais stamp in Elegant Eggplant on Whisper White.  I sponged over that with Elegant Eggplant around the edges and Lucky Limeade and Pumpkin Pie in the middle.  I stamped the leaves from French Foliage in Versamark and embossed them with clear embossing powder.  I sponged over them in Elegant Eggplant and Pumpkin Pie to bring out the designs.  The sentiment is from the Trust God set and I fussy cut two of the leaves from French Foliage for the trim at the side.  Love the elegance of the Whisper White Organza ribbon.



 

So I'll hurry and post this, and then, when you have read the post, you can go on a walk in the lovely weather as well!  Enjoy the fresh air, and take along someone to talk to!

 

Stamps:  En Francais (w109521), French Foliage (w120845; c121166), Trust God (w126700; c126702)

Paper: Elegant Eggplant (105126), Lucky Limeade (122926), Pumpkin Pie (105117) and Whisper White (100730) cardstock

Ink:  Classic Stampin' Pads in Elegant Eggplant (126969), Pumpkin Pie n(126945) and Lucky Limeade (126984);  Versamark (102283)

Accessories:  5/8" Organza Ribbon in Whisper White (114319)

Tools:  Stampin' Emboss Powder in Clear (109130); Finishing Touches Edgelits (127010); Stamping Sponges (101610); Decorative Label Punch (120907)



MOJO Monday - Masculine or Feminine?

Well, I just got back from six days of camping on Shuswap Lake in the interior of British Columbia.  It was a beautiful spot, gorgeous weather, but my hubby and I just got bored and came back 2 days early!  Camping used to be more fun when our girls were along, but when there's just the two of us, and not a lot of sights to see, six days can be a bit long.  We have the nicest queen sized air bed, but even that gets a bit uncomfortable for long periods of time. 

But we're home now and our two lovely cats, Pickle and Beetle were very glad to see us.  We made them stay in while we were away, because the last time we were gone and allowed them out during the day, they refused to come in at night for our pet sitter.  They both got in a tussle with a raccoon or something and had to go to the vet and one needed antibiotics.  Have you ever tried giving medication to a cat??  You may end up needing medication yourself!

Today, along with washing up all our camping clothes (to rid them of the odor of Eau de Campfire), I worked on a card design for the latest MOJO Monday sketch.  I made two versions, because I have two birthdays coming up, one for a male friend of ours and one for my niece.  Here they are:

The Masculine Version

The Feminine Version

And here is the MOJO Monday 257 sketch:

Both versions use a card base of Crumb Cake card stock and some DSP from the Orchard Harvest series.  For the masculine design, I used a Cajun Craze panel overlapping a More Mustard panel which again overlapped an Early Espresso panel cut into scallops using the Large Scallop Edgelit.  The feminine version used Early Espresso overlapping More Mustard and a Lucky Limeade piece cut with the Large Scallop Edgelit.

Both versions use a Very Vanilla panel stamped with the En Francais background stamp in Early Espresso ink, on top of which I stamped the postmark and a leaf from the French Foliage set in Versamark ink and heat embossed them with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder.  I sponged the edge in Soft Suede ink and found, with the new format Classic Stampin' pads, that I could get it to hold a bit of embossing powder, just to create a spilled metal look in some places.

The front panel for each was stamped on a 2 1/2" circle of Very Vanilla with more of the French Foliage designs:  the writing background in Crumb Cake and the leaf embossed with Gold and the edges sponged with Soft Suede again and embossed in gold in some areas.

The masculine design uses Antique brads and Metallic brads as embellishments and a sentiment from the Loving Thoughts stamp set stamped in StazOn Jet Black ink on vellum.  The feminine card uses some paper daisies and a Brushed Bronze Designer button with an Antique Brad as its center.

So lots of elements to these cards, but fun to make!  And before I leave you, here's a picture of our two cats, Beetle and Pickle, the rascals!

Stamps:  En Francais (w109521), French Foliage (w120845; c121166), Loving Thoughts (w125843; c125845)

Paper:  Orchard Harvest DSP (126895); Crumb Cake (120953), Cajun Craze (119684), More Mustard (100946), Early Espresso (119686), Lucky Limeade (122926) and Very Vanilla (101650) card stock, White Vellum card stock (101856)
Ink:  Classic Stampin' Pads in Crumb Cake (126975); Early Espresso (126974), Soft Suede (126978); Versamark Ink (102283); StazOn Jet Black (101406)
Accessories:  Paper Daisies (119243); Antique Brads (117273); Metallic Brads (119741); Pearl Basic Jewels (119247), Brushed Bronze Designer Series Buttons (127833) 
Tools:  Large Scallop Edgelit (127019); Window Frames Framelits 129021); Gold Stampin' Up Emboss Powder (109129), Heat Tool (129035), Stamping Sponges (101610)



French Foliage

Burnished Bronze Buttons

En Francais 



A Chill in the Air

I don't know about you, but the older I get, the faster time flies.  Which is a sobering concept, because we all know where it's headed - my time, that is.  Someone postulated that the reason for this phenomena could be the length of a day in relation to the amount of time you've been alive.  For a toddler, a day seems like an enormous amount of time, because he is comparing it to his short lifespan up to that point.  For a senior, a day is like a flash in the pan in comparison to the time already spent on this planet.

Whatever the reason, I can't believe how fast the summer has blown by.  I am already planning my fall classes and (Dare I say it?) my Christmas Stamper's Dozen classes.  (I have added a new page to my blog with all my classes listed. Check it out!)

With fall classes in mind, my September Technique nights will be focusing on Techniques for Backgrounds.  I created a card featuring the layering technique for the background.

This card was made using the French Foliage stamp set, which has been around for awhile, but I just recently acquired it.  I'm so glad I did, and I have been eagerly awaiting that chill in the air that signals autumn is on the way so that I could use more than just the water marks stamp.


.The card base is Early Espresso and the Cajun Craze back panel was embossed using the Stripes embossing folder.   On the layered panel, I stamped the French script in Early Espresso, stamping off once to make sure it wasn't too dark.  I then stamped all the different leaves from the set in different colours, also stamped off once.  I used Crumb Cake ink for the water marks and added them  over top of the other stamps.  Next, I inked up the Paris Postal stamp in VersaMark ink and stamped in two places, then covered the images with Pewter embossing powder and heat set it.   Finally, I added the sentiment from the French Foliage set in Early Espresso at the bottom.  On the bottom of this panel, I added some Early Espresso, cut with the Finishing Touches Edgelits.

On the main leaf image, I used a Rock-and-Roll technique with Summer Starfruit and Pumpkin Pie.  The sentiment, from the Blooming with Kindness stamp set, is heat embossed with Pewter embossing powder.

I used some 1/8" Taffeta ribbon in Early Espresso to add a finishing touch.

This will be one of the cards we make at our Technique Nights in September.  Hope you can make it to that!  Don't put off exploring your creative nature, because, as we all find out, Time really does Fly!

Stamps:  French Foliage (w120845; c121166); Blooming with Kindness (w126420; c126422)
Paper: Early Espresso (119686); Cajun Craze (119684); Crumb Cake (120953); Very Vanilla (101650)
Ink: Classic Stampin' Pads in Early Espresso (126974); Crumb Cake (126975); River Rock (126977); Summer Starfruit (126991); Pumpkin Pie (126945); Chocolate Chip (126979); VersaMark Ink Pad (102283)
Accessories: 1/8" Taffeta ribbon in Early Espresso (119959); Pewter Embossing Powder (124114)
Tools: Stripes embossing folder (123128); Finishing Touches Edgelits (127010); Big Shot (113439)

French Foliage

Finishing Touches Edgelits

1/8" Taffeta Ribbon in Early Espresso

Pewter Embossing Powder

The Winnah!

Just a quick post today, because I am overwhelmed with workshop and class prep, and swaps to prepare for Convention (getting sooo close!). 

I wanted to post the results of my draw for a free stamp set.  This contest was posted on both my blog and on my Facebook business page.  The winner of a free stamp set, World Treasures, is Rachel Bohn.  Please email me, Rachel with your address and we can arrange delivery.

I also wanted to show you a card I created for a dear couple whose car was totalled just as they were turning left to come to church Sunday morning.  Miraculously, they are mostly unharmed, except for soreness and trauma, even though their airbags deployed and the other car, who was speeding up to beat a red light, flipped over. (The driver of that vehicle was also unhurt!) I think I will be using this card or a version of it as the last of my Technique Class cards next Wednesday!

I used a subdued palette of Chocolate Chip, River Rock and Pink Pirouette along with Very Vanilla card stock. The sentiment panel is background stamped with En Francais and the water marks from French Foliage.  The sentiment itself is from the Trust God set.  The flower on the Pink Pirouette is stamped in Early Espresso ink and sponged with Pretty in Pink.  It is from the Everything Eleanor stamp set. 

The flagged sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes.  Everything was sponged in Soft Suede and the edges distressed.  I added some button-like brads from Vintage Trinkets.  I decided against adding a ribbon to keep it from being too cluttered but there are definitely things I could change to bump it up a bit to the next level.

Also, Stampin' Up has a promotion for July to give you a "Reason to Smile".

Have a great Wednesday, and congratulations again to Rachel Bohn for winning the Blog Candy!

Stamps: En Francais (w 109521; set of 1; $21.95); Trust God (c 126702; set of 7; $17.95); Everything Eleanor (c 124164; set of 8; $32.95); French Foliage (c 121166; set of 6; $17.95); Teeny Tiny Wishes (w 115370; set of 24; $45.95)

Paper: Chocolate Chip, River Rock, Very Vanilla and Pink Pirouette card stock; Fan Fair Designer Series paper (126918; 12 sheets of double sided designs; 12 x 12; $13.50)

Ink: Classic Stampin' Pads in Soft Suede (126978); Early Espresso (126974); Crumb Cake (126975); Pretty in Pink (126955); (all $7.25)

Accessories: Vintage Trinkets (118764; 48 pieces; $7.50) 

Tools: Stripes Embossing Folder (123128; $9.95); Stamping Sponges (101610; 3 sponges; $4.25); Labels Collection Framelits (125598; 6 dies; $32.95)

En Francais

French Foliage

Trust God