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!

From the Heart for As You See It Challenges

Well, Happy Friday to you!  It's time for another As You See It Challenge!  This week's challenge is one I've been looking forward to ever since Amanda passed on the designs!  I absolutely LOVE the colours:

What do you think?  Doesn't this make you want to run to your craft room and get stampin'?

All excited, I headed to the newly cleaned Craft Cave and...I couldn't figure out what stamp to use.  It seems like these are Christmas colours, but when I looked for a suitable Christmas stamp, I couldn't find the right one.  They are all so small and outlines.  This palette seems to call for large and solid for some reason.  Once I let go of Christmas, I began to see some other possibilities, but I settled on the From My Heart stamp set. It's an older one.  I still have it in the old wood mount stamp case. (I should really change them all over.)  Anyway, I chose the saying by James Taylor:  The secret of life is enjoying the passing of time.  Once you hit 60, I'm not sure if that's still possible, but I'm trying!

• I wanted to give the Cherry Cobbler and the Baked Brown Sugar starring roles to accentuate the warmth of this colour scheme, but the silver gives a contrasting dazzle as an accent, in the narrow border behind the Cherry Cobbler panel, in the ribbon and in the word, Enjoying.
• The DSP in the front is from the Lullaby Designer Series Paper.  I started out with just the plain Cherry Cobbler behind the sentiment, but when I added the Baked Brown Sugar stripes, I knew I had the right look.
• I stamped the sentiment three times on Very Vanilla card stock, once in Baked Brown Sugar, once in Cherry Cobbler and once in Versamark ink and then had Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder added to it and heat set it.  The Baked Brown Sugar version was die cut with the framelit from Apothecary Accents framelits.  The red version, I carefully hand snipped the scrollwork in the middle, and for the silver version, I just hand-snipped the box around the word "Enjoying".  I layered them on the card, over the Cherry Cobbler 1/2" Seam Binding ribbon and the Silver 1/8" ribbon.
• It was all too nicey-nicey symmetrical when I put it all together and badly needed one more element on the bottom right.  I tried several things but finally ended up with a heart from the Essentials Wooden Elements and I stamped a little heart on it in Cherry Cobbler, from the Holiday Home stamp set, and added a Rhinestone Basic Jewel off center.

Remember my post yesterday, when I had trouble translating an idea onto paper here?  I told you I was going to add pearls coloured with the Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities and show you the results.  I just felt the card needed something else to pull it together, so here is the before photo:

And here is the updated card with the pearls:

Which do you like better?

Thanks for dropping by, and have a great weekend!  Maybe pop on over to As You See It Challenges and give this week's challenge a try!

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 products used to make this card today!

Product List

From My Heart [132007]	From My Heart Clear-Mount Stamp Set [126557]	Holiday Home Photopolymer Stamp Set [135095]	Lullaby Designer Series Paper [133695]	Silver Glimmer Paper [135314]
Baked Brown Sugar 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [131296]	Cherry Cobbler 8-1/2X11 Card Stock [119685]	Very Vanilla 8-1/2X11 Card Stock [101650]	Versamark Pad [102283]	Baked Brown Sugar Classic Stampin' Pad [131174]
Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad [126966]	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder [109131]	Cherry Cobbler 1/2 Inch Seam Binding Ribbon [120992]	Silver 1/8" Ribbon [132137]	Essentials Wooden Elements [132258]
Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents [119246]	Embossing Buddy [103083]	Heat Tool [129053]	Paper Snips [103579]	Apothecary Accents Framelits Dies [127003]
Big Shot Die-Cut Machine [113439]

Let It Go! for As You See It Challenges

Every once in a while, you have to just..." Let It Go, Let It Go!  Can't hold it back anymore!  Let it go! Let it go! Spilled some glitter on the floor!  I don't care what Brian King's going to say!  Turn the heat gun on!  The gleam never bothered me anyway!

I'm talking about glittery glitz, sparkle and shine, vintage gold, and all that good stuff.  I've avoided it for long enough.  I needed a glitter fest and I got it, making this week's As You See It Challenges sample!

First let me show you Amanda's fun design for Challenge #32:

And here is my Design Team sample:

• Now, you know with the way glittery bits tend to photograph, if you can see a little glitter, there has got to be a whole lot irl (in real life)!  And there is.  Every edge on this thing has been sponged with Soft Suede ink, dipped in Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder and heat embossed!  Some pieces, like the middle of the flower were covered in Versamark and covered completely in Iridescent Ice!  Even the buttons are embossed, twice:  once with Pool Party and once with Gold Embossing Powders.
• I got the idea from a card that my upline, Desiree Spenst, gave to me.  I've kept it for months because it is so beautiful and I've been wanting to try it for a long time. 

• When I saw that large oval on the card, I immediately thought of this shape from Apothecary Accents Framelits, and that made me think vintage and here we are today!  The sentiment, in the From My Heart stamp set, is made for this shape and also has a vintage feel to it.
• I added a bit of a faux patina effect on the oval beneath the sentiment.  I used the Oval framelits to cut it out, ran it through the Big Shot with the Beautifully Baroque embossing folder. I sponged it with Soft Suede and Pool Party ink and rubbed the VersaMark  inkpad over it all.  Then I covered it with Iridescent Ice embossing powder and heat set it.     
• The middle of the sentiment, the word Enjoying, is stamped a second time in Pool Party ink and cut out by hand, then popped up with dimensionals in the center of the sentiment.

Here I'll stand and here I'll stay!  Hope you like my card! (But don't tell Brian King any way!)

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 products used to make this card today!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
Product List

132007	126557	115318	101650	122924	102283
126978	126982	101610	101930	109129	129053
130917	119880	129327	132975	119247	127003
129381