Monthly Archives: April 2016

Paper Pumpkin March 2016 Alternate 4

Leave a reply

Well, here’s the fourth Paper Pumpkin March 2016 Alternate and this one also uses the All About Everything set that was free in the April kit. As I mentioned the other day, I gained a new team member recently and of course I wanted to make her a card. The April kit was perfect for this. It’s definitely time to celebrate and I used the two stamp sets to make a shooting star. Seems appropriate, yes?

Stampin' Up! Lovely Little Wreath and All About Everything

It’s really hard to photograph to get a good view of the shine. I rubbed the blackberry bliss card with the embossing buddy and then stamped the images from the Lovely Little Wreath and All about Everything in versamark and then sprinkled on the gold embossing powder. After my favourite part – heating with the heat gun – the images really popped. To finish off my one layer card, I stamped the greeting on the inside from Welcome Words in blackberry bliss with the second line being stamped off once. This is a really useful set (especially at the moment at work) and I’m not happy that it has been retired – grab it whilst it lasts if you need to welcome people in the near future.

I finished the envelope with a liner cut from the in colours designer series stack in blackberry bliss. I have a little more of that to use in the next month. I’m really going to miss blackberry bliss although I won’t miss what it tries to do to my Stampin’ Scrub. I tend to spray a blackberry bliss inked stamp with Stampin’ Mist on a paper towel and blot the colour off before I use it on the Scrub. Otherwise everything gets pink!

Every time that I go through the retiring list, I find more sets that I’m going to miss. I recommend that you take a look in case there’s anything that you can’t live without – some of them have a good discount on them.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Garden in Bloom for CAS on Sunday

Leave a reply

Last week when making my Design Team card for CAS Colours & Sketches, I started playing with the bee from Garden in Bloom. He didn’t make it onto that card, but I loved him and this is now the second card in a week to have at least one bee. Happily, the Garden in Bloom set is not on the retiring list so I don’t have to cram as many bees as possible into the next month! This week’s challenge as CAS on Sunday is a tic tac toe.

Stampin' Up! Garden in Bloom and Watercolor Wishes

What this means is that you choose the elements on a line in the grid and incorporate them into your card

I’d pulled out buttons and other embellishments in an attempt to try to use them up so the ribbon and button were easy and I just needed to add dry embossing. The ribbon is a piece of retired hello honey baker’s twine. I first worked on threading the thick twine through the vintage faceted designer button (40% off on the retiring list!), using tape to make a smaller stiffened end. Once I’d achieved this slightly fiddly task, I realised that the button with the twine through it was now a little wobbly. It worked much better to pull the twine out of the button and just use a glue dot to add the bow to the button! You live and learn, right?

I dry embossed a piece of very vanilla using the spring flowers folder and stamped the bees onto that. The stamping didn’t need to be perfect (and wasn’t due to the embossing) because I was going to mostly cover it. I also stamped three bees on scrap paper in archival basic black and cut out their bodies which I coloured using the hello honey stampin’ write marker. I attached the new bodies using a glue dot in the centre which allows the wings to be curled up a little – and showing the wings stamped onto the embossed layer. All that was left was a sentiment, which is from Watercolor Wishes (this hasn’t retired – phew!).

Stampin' Up! Garden in Bloom and Watercolor Wishes

The product which is on the retiring list which confuses me, is the envelope liners framelits. I use these on a high proportion of my envelopes and there isn’t a replacement. I’m not sure what’s happening there. I would encourage you to grab it as soon as possible if you don’t already have it – it’s lovely being able to easily line envelopes. Don’t forget to use the hostess code of RJ6V9VRQ (and don’t check the no contact) so that I can send you your freebies if you spend more than $50.

I have to say that there’s some really great stuff in the new catalogue – I can’t wait for the preorder to start (on May 3).

See you tomorrow,

Liz

The Retiring List is Live!

Leave a reply

The retiring list is here and there are some great bargains on it. If you prefer, you can also see it (with pictures) in the online store. Just click on the Shop Now button over on the left and the very first in the list is “Retiring Products”. There are some great bargains, but I’d advise browsing quickly and ordering even more quickly! Enjoy browsing.

I’m sad about my favourite ribbon – the 1/4 inch cotton ribbon – all of the colours are retiring but there’s new ribbon. As you know, I’ve been trying to use up my DSP recently – I need to work harder on that! The new DSP looks fabulous. And I’m struggling to decide which stamp sets I’m planning to order first!

All I’m allowed to show you at this point is the cover of the catalogue (until I get some product in my hands)

See you tomorrow,

Liz

 

Paper Pumpkin April 2016 Alternate 3

10 Replies

I really like the flower/starburst stamp in the Paper Pumpkin April 2016 set, Lovely Little Wreath. I decided to use it to combine two challenges today – Pink from CASology and “use three stamps” from Less is More. They are both CAS challenges which is my favourite (and only) style of card. But I have been trying to use up DSP and embellishments lately because I know that they will be retired and new ones will be available! So I’m actually using rhinestones! I’m planning to offer a paper and embellishment share because I always have too much unused paper and I bet you do too. A smaller quantity will work much better. A share means that you’ll be getting a quarter or a fifth of each paper or embellishment (and paying that fraction) which means you get a greater variety for less money.

So here’s my pink and “Use 3 stamps” card.

Stampin' Up! Paper Pumpkin Lovely Little Wreath

The sentiment is from the freebie in the Paper Pumpkin April 2016 kit – All About Everything and is stamped in melon mambo (yes, again!) on whisper white. It’s an awesome freebie – if you’re not a Paper Pumpkin subscriber, I encourage you to become one so that you can order the April kit (whilst supplies last). The extra stamp set is full of awesome sentiments. Then I stamped the flower from the Lovely Little Wreath set in melon mambo three times to satisfy the Less is More rules. Unusually, I decided to add some bling – I took my middle colour melon mambo blendability pen and coloured in some rhinestones – sharpies will work if you don’t possess the retired blendabilities. I added those to the centre of the flowers and I love the CAS look. My piece of whisper white is glued to a whisper white card base. I lined the envelope with the retired backgrounds DSP in melon mambo to coordinate with the card.

I encourage you to have a go at entering challenges – it’s a lot of fun and sometimes quite useful to have your options narrowed down!

I’ll add a second post later on today with the retired list, but don’t forget – if there’s anything you can’t live without, it’s best to get it before the list is announced.

See you later,

Liz

Paper Pumpkin April 2016 Alternate 2

Leave a reply

I finally finished my taxes yesterday – last minute but it had been quite frustrating trying to get it done – and so was able to reward myself with some crafting time. I had made a card using leftovers from the Paper Pumpkin April 2016 set, Lovely Little Wreath for yesterday’s post and that left a smaller strip of the leaves. Well, not wanting to waste that, I designed another card. I have no idea if bees tend to frequent cactus flowers, but I’m okay with that!

Stampin' Up! Paper Pumpkin April 2016 Lovely Little Wreath

This time I decided to use whisper white as my layer and first stamped the sentiment in mossy meadow. I coloured in the flowers and leaves with the Stampin’ Up! markers in mossy meadow and daffodil delight. Next I stamped the bee from Garden in Bloom using archival black ink. If you don’t have the bee (which is a shame, because I think he’s adorable and I am expecting him to appear on quite a few cards in the near future!) either click on Shop Now on the left and get him or a butterfly would work equally well. Although it wouldn’t be as adorable! I also used the daffodil delight marker to colour in the bee. Then I added the leaf strip from the Paper Pumpkin kit and the remaining spare flower. You get 15 in the kit and need 11 for the wreath. I’m still trying to design a card using the leftover from where the leaves are punched out! So don’t throw anything from the kit away!! I glued my whisper white layer to a mossy meadow card base.

I heard from my sister yesterday and she had had a fabulous time at the local onstage in the UK. And then I found out that one of the next locations for a local event in November is in Secaucus, NJ which is only about 45 minutes from me. She’s already talking about coming over to visit when it’s happening, and Julia’s keen too. So that’s three of us already within 12 hours of the announcement. If you want to come with us, just go to the “Become a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator” tab on the left and join the team.

Sometime this week I’m planning to share the gifts that I made for Julia who became a SU demonstrator a couple of weeks ago. But first, I have to play some more with my Paper Pumpkin kit!

See you tomorrow,

Liz