Retiring Stampin’Up Sets!

Sorry about the short notice, but I’ve been kind of maxed out the last month or so.  Stampin’ Up gave us the retirement lists about that long ago, but I didn’t even look at them until a few days ago. Off to the left on the side bar are links to the PDF files of retiring stamps and accessories.  So I could mark big red “R’s” in my catalog, I asked Russel to put them in order by page numbers.  I will be e-mailing those lists to my customers.  In that e-mail, I will reference this blog to see some of my favorite cards made with those retiring stamp sets.  The list is long and bloody and major changes are in store in new catalog, including a color refresh, but first, let’s mourn the retiring sets.

First up, the Build a Blossom stamp set and punch will be retiring.  It’s a two-step stamp set, allowing for lovely color combinations, one of my favorite techniques.  The ornament was made with the large petal on the punch.

 

These next two cards were made with the Build a Blossom punch medium and small size petals and the greeting is from the retiring Merry and Type set.

Belles and Boughs is going away.  sniff  The jewelry tag punch and Tiny Tags set is also retiring.

 

Christmas Lodge first came in the Holiday Mini in 2011.  I was so happy when it was in the current catalog.  Now, it’s going away for good.

Delightful Decorations and the ornament punch are retiring.  sigh

Elements of Style, another of my faves.  Also the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder.

Perfect Punches.

The Summer Afternoon hostess set is retiring, as is the Praying Hands set.  sniff

Snow Swirled is going away. 

Tags til Christmas is also going away. 

These are just some of my favorite cards made with the retiring sets.  You can contact me on how to get any of these sets, but they all will be available only until June 3.  With the color refresh, a lot of accessories will sell out before then. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) –:¦:- *** ((¸¸.·´*~Kathy~.·´*)****¨¨)) -:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

May Creative Images Meeting

We had three former members, good friends, join us last Wed. night and we all had a good time.  Very happy to see Dee, Pat and Genny again. They brought exchange cards, too, so we had lots of cards.  Our exchange card theme this month was “Seaside Adventure.  Therese used her bathing beauty from January’s stamp camp transfer on canvas taught by Jeannie.  Click on any card to see details, then “back” to return.

Dee made the palm trees with white micro glitter and gold outline stickers, colored with Copics or whatever she used.  I love this technique.  You can see more about it in my previous post.  On the right, Ella made this little fussy cut girl on a sandy beach.  Definitely bright and sunny!

Genny did this lovely Father’s Day card with a water colored lighthouse.  Jeannie made this great card with three sailboats with lots of bellies for interest. 

This next card is my three bathing beauties done from the stamp camp, with flip flops and tiny shells added.

 

Pam used one of my favorite SU sets for this lightly color washed beach scene.  I always think of my sister when I see this stamp.

Pat water colored this beautiful, relaxing, beach scene.  It feels more New Englandy than Florida.

Tange made this lovely, simple card with the same SU set Pam used.  She stamped it and then used bleach in a water pen to remove color.  Will have to try this again, soon. 

Eleanor did the project, a technique new to most of us, white embossing on black cardstock, colored with pastels.  You can see a tutorial on Splitcoast here.  Here’s four of her samples.  Gorgeous!

Most everyone took to heart my concern that not many of us ever finished the project at the meeting, especially when someone goes to the trouble to teach it to us and provide everything we need to do it.  Almost everyone finished their cards!  I got pictures of most of them.

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For contrast in techniques, here’s a Black Magic card I made long ago that is similar, but uses white craft ink instead of white embossing and pencils instead of pastels.  Both have great end results, especially if you can’t find your pastels!  LOL

Tange’s birthday was in April and Jeannie gave her a belated birthday card at the meeting.  Tange is one of a kind!

Last, but not least, Ella submitted her proposed project for the January stamp camp.  The colors behind the fussy cut silhouettes are from brightly colored bits of egg shells! 

That’s it for this month.  Thanks for stopping by.  Comments always welcome.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) –:¦:- *** ((¸¸.·´*~Kathy~.·´*)****¨¨)) -:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

Fun Times With Pat J.

Last week I got together with my friend Pat for a stamping day, including lunch, show and tell and a trip to Spring Hill to see a new stamp store.  Lunch and the store were okay, but the time stamping with Pat was the highlight.  She showed me two techniques (actually had done them so long ago I forgot) and got me started on being able to do them myself. 

First was a gorgeous stenciling technique with gold leaf.  The stencil was filled with gold embossing paste and after it had dried a bit, gold leaf was pressed into it.  Here’s two of her samples, one on black with the gold leaf and one on gold with white:

Here’s the one I started working on, showing the paste, offset spatula and brush.  All the gold leaf hasn’t been brushed off, yet.

Here’s the stencil.  I liked this so much, I have the paste and the stencil ordered.

The other technique is one I saw the first time at a class at Priceless.  It uses silhouette stickers and ultra-fine glitter.  The class I took used different colors of glitter, which I didn’t get into it then.  The glitter is expensive.  Pat used white glitter and colored in the silhouettes with Copics.  Here’s a few of her cards.  Gorgeous.

These next two use the same sticker design, one gold, one black, and they’re colored differently. Love them both.  I’ve bought what I need to do this technique myself.  This is much prettier in real life.

Here’s some other cards Pat showed me and she gave me the first two.  The first one uses a different fold and herringbone embossing folder and . . .

this one uses a window die and Lovely as a Tree.  The black layer is actually shiny gold and very classy.  Going to make some of these. 

On the left, these flutters make a very simple card and on the right, the flutters are colored and layered on rounded squares.  Very cool.

This card is gorgeously colored with tiny punched butterflies for embellishments. I think this was white on gold, again, not black.  Hard to tell. Pretty, either way.

We’re going to play again soon with embossing folders and my Big Shot.  Thanks, Pat, for letting me post these cards.  Thanks for stopping by.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) –:¦:- *** ((¸¸.·´*~Kathy~.·´*)****¨¨)) -:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

April Creative Images Meeting

We had six members at last night’s meeting, but only four exchange cards.  Jeannie brought a guest, Phyllis, someone I’ve known almost 9 years, though we hadn’t seen each other in years.  Jeannie sent me and Therese an e-mail that Phyllis would be there, or we would’ve just looked at each other wondering where we knew each other from.  Nice lady.  Hope she joins us. Phyllis is a total newby to stamping!

Our exchange card theme this month was “Embossing,” and everyone did at least some on their cards.  Our project, since Herman is no longer with us, was to make new name tags.  First up, the cards.  Pam’s card is in black and white, a flower shop, with the honeycomb embossing folder at the bottom, sponged for contrast. 

Ella used a different embossing technique, embossing green glitter for the flower sprays.  She fussy cut the little girl for a lovely focus point.

My card also used the honeycomb embossing folder.  I sanded it lightly to reveal the white core of the cardstock.  I ran some brown and peach CS and a piece of the bee paper through the folder, too, then cut out little hexagons to attach to the honeycomb.  Sounds tedious, but kind of like piecing on a quilt.  I’ve always liked fussy cutting, too.

Jeannie didn’t know which embossing we were supposed to do, so she did both.  She used the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder on the white CS and gold embossing on the butterfly.  Ribbon and feathers and ric rac finished it off nicely.

  

I was the only one there last night that needed and/or  wanted to make a new name tag, so here I am with Phyllis and my new tag.

Here’s a close up.  Yes, that’s a cute little beaver  and pinecone stickers, three layers on each.  They were given to me months ago by Wanda and I kept track of them enough to finally use them.  I had die cut the letters off mirror gold CS with an alphabet set given to me years ago by my Aussie Buddy, Tracy.  I got pearls and glitter CS from Therese.  Everyone enjoyed watching me put it together and I got feedback as I worked along.  It fits perfectly into a plastic badge holder.

That’s it for this month’s meeting.  Thanks for stopping by.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) –:¦:- *** ((¸¸.·´*~Kathy~.·´*)****¨¨)) -:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

March Creative Images Meeting

We had eight members Wednesday night, but we will be down two in the future.  Herman has a new job with Hospice, but it is shift work and he will only be able to attend meetings once in a while.  Lona says she has been too busy with her guardianships and that Wednesday would be her last meeting for a while.  We’ll miss you both.

Of the eight who were there, we had seven exchange cards.  The theme this month was “Stampers’ Choice,” so lots of different cards. First is Ella’s peaceful butterfly.  She covered the butterfly with crystal lacquer to give it dimension and shine and added jewels.  Lovely.

Helen made these bright slices of watermelon with some banner dies.

Herman made this soft layered, sponged card.  We’ll miss Herman’s cards.

Jeannie made this pretty layered birthday card with some fussy-cut bathing beauties.

I used the honeycomb embossing folder on some white-filled gray CS and took a sander after it to highlight the embossed hexagons on this sympathy card. 

Lona made this pretty collage card by stamping on acetate, running it through a Xyron machine and coloring with Perfect Pearls.

 

Therese has quite a collection of humorous stamps and this one is a great addition.  If he was bald and skinny, he could be my fisherman brother.  Love the coloring job.

Tange had the project Wednesday.  She showed us three coloring/blending techniques, samples below.  Then she handed out little rings to put our tags together with stickers of instructions on the back.

That’s it for this month.  Thanks for stopping by.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) –:¦:- *** ((¸¸.·´*~Kathy~.·´*)****¨¨)) -:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)