A Whole Slew of Retiring Products for Pals Paper Arts

As you know, there is only 1 week left until all the products retiring from the old 2014/15 Annual Catalogue will be gone for good!!  And I didn't want you to to accuse me of holding out on you, so I got out a whole slew of them, some that I haven't used very much in the past year, just to give you an idea of what you may be missing out on if you leave these to die an unnoticed death! Seriously, if you google these stamp set names you'll come up with many more great projects and then there's Pinterest!  This card was inspired by Pals Paper Arts Challenge #252:

This sketch, by Kerry Willard Bray, features a hexagon shape, and I thought of getting out the Six-Sided Sampler Stamp set, but it's not retiring and I wanted to be a bit more creative than that. So my next idea was Mosaic Madness. This stamp set is retiring and you can pick up the wood mount and the clear mount sets, each 25% off. I liked the Mosaic Madness set, as well, because of the long horizontal elements that would work for the horizontal panel on the sketch.  Let me show you what I mean:

• My background DSP is from the Bohemian Designer Series Paper collection, so I used a colour palette from that set for my card: Blackberry Bliss, Rich Razzleberry, Delightful Dijon, Island Indigo and Bermuda Bay. These are all very rich, full-bodied colours which manage to work well together.
• I would have put my horizontal panel across the middle of my mosaic pieces as the sketch indicates, but they are so small that, even when I trimmed the horizontal piece right down, you couldn't see much of them. So I opted to put it at the bottom of the mosaic pieces. The mosaic pieces were punched out using the Mosaic Punch, which is retiring and on sale for 50% off.
• Speaking of the long panel, I stamped it in Rich Razzleberry with one of the long horizontal stamps from the set, but it was not long enough to go entirely across the card. It turned out to be a job for my trusty Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. (If you haven't used this terrific tool before, I have a video tutorial for you explaining how to use it.) Then I covered it with Versamark ink and added Heat & Stick Powder. I heat set it with a Heat Tool and then quickly added some Dazzling Diamonds Glitter and heat set it again for that sparkly look.
• The sentiment is from the set, A Round Array. It is also retiring and the clear mount is on sale for 20% off. I punched it out with the 7/8" Scallop Circle Punch and mounted it on the base made with the Label Love Stamp Set. This set is, you guessed it, retiring June 2, and the wood mount version is on sale for 25% off, while you can get the clear mount for 15% off. The shape was punched out using the Artisan Label Punch, again, on sale for 50% off until June 2!

And it's Tuesday again, and that means new:

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!

Sneak Peek Products from the new 2015/16 Annual Catalogue, available June 2, 2015:

Bohemian Designer Series Paper, Delightful Dijon Classic Stampin' Pad

Product List

Mosaic Madness Wood Stamp Set [130246]	Mosaic Madness Clear Stamp Set [130249]	Label Love Wood Stamp Set [130619]	Label Love Clear Stamp Set [130622]	A Round Array Wood Stamp Set [129087]
A Round Array Clear Stamp Set [129090]	Blackberry Bliss 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [133675]	Island Indigo 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [122923]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad [133642]
Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad [131171]	Island Indigo Classic Stampin' Pad [126986]	Rich Razzlebberry Classic Stampin' Pad [126950]	Rhinestone Basic Jewels Embellishments [119246]	Heat & Stick Powder [100625]
Heat Tool [129053]	Dazzling Diamonds Stampin' Glitter [133751]	Paper Snips Scissors [103579]	Mosaic Punch [131267]	7/8" Circle Scallop Punch [129404]
Artisan Label Punch [130920]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	SNAIL Permanent Adhesive [104332]	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]

Painted Petals and Butterflies for Freshly Made Sketches

I hope you had an amazing weekend - as amazing as you are amazingly amazing! All this in salute to a lovely stamp set and coordinating Designer Series Paper that will no longer be available to order after June 2. Just 8 more days! The stamp set is Painted Petals and the DSP is Painted Blooms and both were found in the 2015 Occasions Catalogue which is good until June 2.  Another product I used here from the same catalogue is the Butterfly Thinlits, but the good news is that you will see them back in the 2015-16 Annual Catalogue along with another set of butterfly framelits and a new butterfly stamp set! For this card I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #187 for the layout:

The butterfly on this card required several steps to finish it, including watercolouring, die cutting and using Heat and Stick Powder to adhere some Dazzling Diamond Stampin' Glitter to it.

• The sentiment, stamped on vellum with Blackberry Bliss ink is from the Painted Petals stamp set as well and is one of my favourite!
• This card is the subject of a step-by-step photo tutorial that I will be featuring in my June Newsletter. If you have never use Heat and Stick powder, or if you just love butterflies you might want to make sure that you will receive my June Newsletter.  You can do that easily by just signing up here, with the understanding that you can unsubscribe at any time:

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Because I am providing a step-by-step tutorial in my newsletter, I will not be leaving a list of supplies used today. You will find that listed in detail, along with measurements in the photo tutorial.

I just wanted to remind you, if you had put it off, that this is your last week to order from both the 2015 Occasions Catalogue and the 2014/15 Annual Catalogue. June 2 will be a cross-over day. You will be able to order from the old Annual Catalogue at old prices (where there are duplicates in the new Annual Catalogue) and also from the new Annual Catalogue.  Old Hostess rewards apply on June 2, but that will change on June 3 to the new way of calculating Hostess rewards, using percentages of sales. You can still get bargains of up to 50% off on many items, but many have also sold out. Check below for an up-to-date list of retiring products and get your orders to me as quickly as possible, or shop online at your convenience at my On-Line Store.

2015 Retiring Stamps and Accessories

I also should remind you that as of May 31, 2015, My Digital Studio and all related products will be discontinued. You have until May 31 to order any of the downloads that you want to have in your collection. After May 31, you can continue to use the software, but there will be no printing services provided. You can, however, have your projects printed through other providers if you want. There will be no more support for the software and the website will be gone after May 31.  Here is where you can check out the downloads available until then:

My Digital Studio Retiring Products

Thanks for dropping by today. Please leave a comment! I like to get to know my readers better.

Sheltering Tree Sympathy Card for As You See It Challenges

I have a friend who is going through a very tough time at the moment. Her husband was diagnosed with cancer this year and her grown daughter recently had a fall in a foreign country, where she was living and died from her injuries. I can't imagine that pain my friend must be feeling and I didn't want to send a sympathy card with the same pat niceties. Because it isn't nice and words just don't cut it in a situation like this. I just want her to know that I'm thinking of her and that I care. My friend's love of art and colour, led me to the Sheltering Tree stamp set and the soft colour palette of Crumb Cake and Blushing Bride, with some Basic Black as an accent. Featured in this card is the new Neutrals Colour Collection Paper Stack. It consists of four patterns with each of the Neutrals Colour family, two, two sided sheets of each.

I used the layout for As You See It Challenge #088 for this project:

I love the broken column of paper with the sentiment in the space between and the flag and washi tape embellishments.

• On the Crumb Cake base, I added a piece of the Crumb Cake script design from the Neutrals Colour Collection matted with a narrow border of Basic Black. 
• I stamped the images from Sheltering Tree Stamp Set on Whisper White, with Crumb Cake for the trunk and Blushing Bride for the blossoms. I stamped the blossoms several times, without reinking, then repeated the process with fresh ink and extended it below the tree as well.
• I trimmed the Whisper White cardstock to 2" in width and cut it in two pieces, backing each one with a narrow border of Basic Black. 
• The so-appropriate sentiment is from the stamp set, An Open Heart, which I stamped using my Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Whisper White, then trimmed to fit in the Word Window punch one end at a time to be rounded off. I inserted this in the space between the two parts of the vertical panel and glued everything down.
• The washi tape is in Crumb Cake and the Basic Black banner was punched using the Banner Punch and added to the top, with a large Rhinestone Basic Jewel to adorn it.
• Given that the background DSP is all words, it highlights the sentiment so well. It's just hard to find the right words that will bring some kind of comfort in this situation.

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!

Sneak Peek Products from the new 2015/16 Annual Catalogue, available June 2, 2015:

Neutrals Colour Collection Paper Stack

Product List

Sheltering Tree Photopolymer Stamp Set [137163]	An Open Heart Clear-Mount Stamp Set [135002]	An Open Heart Wood-Mount Stamp Set [134999]	Crumb Cake 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [120953]	Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121045]
Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708]	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [126975]	Blushing Bride Classic Stampin' Pad [131172]	Window Word Punch [119857]
Banner Punch [133519]	Epic Day Designer Washi Tape [131269]	Rhinestone Basic Jewels Embellishments [119246]