Have I mentioned that I've been traveling on the U. S. Mainland for the last week?  And we'll not be home again for yet another week, and I'm missing our Hawaiian Garden!  I especially miss that gorgeous Pink Hibiscus that you see lying on the table in front of today's greeting card share.

     This Hibiscus is in a large bush just outside my kitchen window, and it blooms up a storm every day of the year!  Oh, occasionally some little bug will get after it and we have to prune it pretty severely.  But that's rare, and it comes back as big and seemingly more beautiful every time.

     And it's because of this Hibiscus that I'm so very fond of the Stampin' Up! Stamp Set, Greenhouse Garden.  Of course, here in Hawaii, we don't grow these lovelies in a greenhouse – they're all outdoors!  But do you see how close in color our Hibiscus is to the Regal Rose that I've used in the stamp on the left of the card – and to the Regal Rose Card Stock that forms the background for the central stamped squares? 

     But the stamp set is retiring.  Oh, my.  This may be one of those sets that I decide I have to keep just because of our Hawaii Garden.  It's perfect for scrap pages featuring the garden, and it will be hard to give it up. 

     We also have Hibiscus of other colors in our garden, including a Daffodil Delight-colored flower in the front garden, which is placed very close to the Real Red flower that is the most popular Hibiscus in our area of Hawaii.  The yellow Hibiscus in our garden is the State Flower of Hawaii, and its center – or Stybus – is an orange not a red color.  And our red Hibiscus has a red Stybus, which would not show up really well on a stamped image.  So this is where artistic license comes in!  But don't those flowers look lovely anyway? 

     The layout for this card is just a bit different from how I first envisioned it.  I'd wanted to punch the stamped images with the 1-1/4" Square Punch.  But the flowers were just a hair too large for them to be shown off nicely punched at 1-1/4."  So I punched them with the 1-3/8" Square Punch, which meant that I had to cut the 1-1/2 squares for the mats by hand (well, by paper cutter!).  I decided to leave the background rectangles (which I'd already cut) the same size and just squeeze those squares in there.  When all was said and done, I decided I liked it just the way it came out!

     Oh, and there's another retiring stamp set that I used for this card – the Heard from the Heart Stamp Set will retire at the end of this month, along with Green house Garden.

     I still have almost another 4 weeks to use these beautiful stamps here on my blog – and you have that same amount of time to buy these stamp sets.  And then they retire for good!

     Here's a layout for this card.  And don't forget that, if you have an image that's small enough, use that 1-1/4" Square Punch for the stamped image and the 1-3/8" Square Punch for the mat – it makes the card a LOT easier to make.  And a lot more fun to make, too!

     I am still showing off retiring Stampin' Up! products, and there's only one product in today's bookmark that's not retiring – and that's the Whisper White Card Stock on which some of the images are stamped.

     But first let me tell you about the book club to which I belong.  It is the best – and biggest! – book club to which I've ever belonged.  There are no rules – heck, you don't even have to read the book!  You just have to be an active, fun member of the group and suggest a book now and then.  I think that there were 15 or 16 people at last week's monthly meeting, and we had a great pot luck lunch at the Hilo Zoo and Rainforest Garden.  Was that a treat for all of us!!

     And I truly believe that the reason we are so successful is that my friend who started it is someone everyone likes and whose ideas people enjoy experiencing.  So when I noticed that Maureen had changed her e-mail tag line to the sentiment that was on one of the stamps in the Stamp Set, Flight of the Butterfly, I knew that I had to use this stamp in a project for her.  And what better project for a book club leader than a bookmark!

So – what's retiring?

• Flight of the Butterfly Stamp Set (available until the end of May)
• Butterfly Punch (available while supplies last)
• Concord Crush Classic Ink (available while supplies last)
• Concord Crush Card Stock (it's on the back of the bookmark – available while supplies last)
• Blushing Bride Classic Ink (available while supplies last)
• Blushing Bride Card Stock (available while supplies last)

What's not retiring?  Just the Whisper White Card Stock!

     Wow, have I enjoyed getting away from cards a bit more than usual these days!  This may become a habit – well, maybe not – but certainly I should do this more often!  I hope you're a bit better than I am at doing different kinds of projects – and I'll bet you have lots of fun doing it! 

(Fun note:  The book that's in the photo is one written by one of the members of our book club – "The Road to Hana Maui" by Lynn Nakkim.  Look it up sometime.  It's one of the book club books I've actually read!)

     Week before last as I was going through my stamp sets to mark those that are retiring, I found three retiring sets that I had never used!  What?  Well, then, why did I have them?  It's possible that I received them as "freebies" somewhere along the way.  But in any case, I decided that as long as I owned them and they're still current, I might as well use them – at least once!

     The stamp set that I used for this card is called, Best Friends Forever.  Hmmm, I wonder what gave that name away?  The colors that I used for this card are also going to be retiring, and I'm trying to make as much use of them as I can before I have to say, "Goodbye," to them at the end of the month.  The colors are:  Blushing Bride and Pear Pizzazz.  I have to tell you that I never realized what a lovely combination they make all by themselves until I made this card.  It's definitely not a color combo, or even a color feel, that you find here often.  But I did really enjoy the look once I finished with it.

     I think what really sets this off is the set of Labels Framelits that I used to cut out the BFF stamped image as well as the two mats behind it.  As I lined them up to see how they looked on the front of the card, I thought that a bit of texture might be a real complement to the stamped background images.  So I adhered the Blushing Bride and Pear Pizzazz layers together, then ran them through the Sizzix Big Shot with the Elegant Lines Embossing Folder.  Now that gave it some character that I really liked!  Then I adhered the stamped layer to this group, and attached the group to the card using Stampin' Dimensionals just to give it a final bit of shadow to complete the soft look of the card.

    Not much of a layout here.  But lots of products!

Here are the products in this card that are retiring:

• Best Friends Forever Stamp Set (available until the end of May)
• Pear Pizzazz Classic Ink (available while supplies last)
• Pear Pizzazz Card Stock (available while supplies last)
• Blushing Bride Classic Ink (available while supplies last)
• Blushing Bride Card Stock (available while supplies last)
• Confetti White Card Stock (the card base – available while supplies last)

And the one product that for sure is not retiring:

• Elegant Lines Embossing Folder for the Sizzix Big Shot

Still Available!

• Labels Framelits Collections.  This was in the 2012 Occasions Mini Catalog that has expired.  BUT Stampin' Up! has continued it! We are all thinking this means that it will be in the new annual catalog next month!

     While I'm sure that I'm having a good time seeing old friends and family this week, I do know that I'm missing my craft room time!  I hope you're having enough good crafting time for the both of us – and having fun doing it!

     It seems like just last week that we greeted the 2012 Occasions Mini Catalog!  But that was back in January, and here we are nearing the end of April and also the end of the Occasions Mini.  Sniff!   And many of us are hoping that some of the stamp sets and embellishments in this mini catalog are carried over into the new 2012-2013 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog.  It's hard to predict, though, as Stampin' Up! introduces its new type of Annual Catalog as well as a new type of Mini Catalog later this summer.

     So the Design Team at the Stampin' Up! Only Challenges blog decided to give one last shout of Hurrah! for this Mini Catalog by sharing some of their favorites products that may only be available for two more weeks!  In my case, while I've considered the stamp set, Apothecary Art, a "favorite," I'm almost ashamed to say that I've been admiring it from afar.  Until yesterday morning, I'd not even broken the rubber out of its pack! 

     But now it's all mounted and ready to use!  Oh, I hope it stays in the new catalog (wish, wish, wish!)   But even if it doesn't, it will remain a favorite.  And I used another favorite Occasions Mini Stamp Set – Loving Thoughts – for a greeting to set off the Apothecary Art stamp.

     Along with these Occasions Mini Stamp sets, I broke out my last few sheets of the Twitterpated Designer Series Paper (the Baja Breeze and Blushing Bride sheets are truly a favorite), some of the Large Basic Pearl Jewels, and a strip of the Riding Hood Red 3/8" Pleated Satin Ribbon.   Oh, and I can't forget the Labels Collection Framelits!!!  Surely they will stay in the catalog (wish, wish, wish!)

     There are a couple of techniques that I used in my design of today's card.  After I'd stamped and colored in the flowers on the Apothecary Art stamp, and then cut it out with the 3rd smallest size of the Labels Collection Framelits, I colored in the white space between the stamp and the cut edge with a Baja Breeze Stampin' Write Marker.  I thought that this helped coordinate the stamped layer with the Baja Breeze Designer Series Paper Sheet.  While I stamped the flower image using Basic Gray Classic Ink, I wanted the edge of the stamp to be a bit darker than the rest.  So I used the small end of my Basic Gray Stampin' Write Marker to trace the edge – but after I colored with the Baja Breeze marker.  I had no idea if there would be any bleeding.  There wasn't, but I didn't want to chance it.

     The green color used in the stamped image is Pear Pizzazz.  Blushing Bride and Pear Pizzazz are colors that will retire this year from the Idea Book and Catalog, leaving space for more colors to be added as 2012-2014 "In Colors."  Can hardly wait to see what they are!

     I hope that you'll find something that you really love from the Occasions Mini to use on a project this week!  If you're anything like me, look around to see if there's something you bought "way back when" and haven't yet used!  And if there's something you still need from the Occasions Mini, well you have another two weeks to buy it!

     Here it is another Tuesday and time for the biweekly Stampin' Up! Only Challenge on SUOChallenges.com.  But this just isn't any old challenge week.  Nope, it's a week when we on the SUO Challenge Design Team are congratulating one of our own – Michelle Laycock – on reaching her 10th Anniversary as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.

     Congratulations, Michelle!

     And, of course, we were to make a Card of Congratulations for the occasion!  There are going to be lots of opportunities for needing Congratulations cards as the Spring progresses, so we challenge those who like to participate in challenges to make such a card and enter it in the Stampin' Up! Only Challenge this week.  What fun for all of us!

     For my card today, I wanted to use bright and cheery colors.  And I also wanted to try to use up some of the Designer Series Papers I have hoarded since the beginning of the current Stampin' Up! year because I'm going to have one less month to use them this year.  Stampin' Up!s new annual Idea Book and Catalog is going to be starting on June 1st this year instead of July 1st!  So the rush is on!!  The paper that I ended up choosing for this was the Hostess set of Designer Series Papers, Cheerful Treats.  The colors that I used to highlight the Designer Series Papers are Melon Mambo (the bright pink), Concord Crush (the gorgeous grape color – which will retire as an "In Color" with this catalog), and Lucky Limeade (the fab green, which will be staying with us for another year).

     I used two stamp sets for this card.  The strip on the top is from the set that coordinates with the Designer Series Paper and it's called Borderlines.  There are three stamps in this set and each of them is replicated in one color or another on the Designer Series Paper.  The Congratulations greeting is from the set called Curly Cute.  Love all the curls in the five greetings in this set! 

     As is so often the case, I tied this card together with some ribbon, in this case some Concord Crush Stitched Poly Ribbon.  I'm almost out of the ribbon, but was really glad to have enough for Michelle's card!  Oh, and there are some of those twinkly little Basic Rhinestones  top and bottom, too.  Gotta have some glitz for a Congratulations card!

     I also (at long last) have a sketch for this card!  I had to measure the heck out of those strips to make the design work as I had envisioned it when I first started.  But I had a blast making this card for Michelle, and I hope you'll have fun with the sketch making a fun card for a friend or family member of yours!  One thing you might note is that the ribbon covers the bottom of the square on the left and the top of the square on the right.  You could certainly make those squares shorter if you wanted to use a different size ribbon.

     Here we are at the beginning of April, and what a month it will be in Stampin' Up! land!!  To begin, we are now able to order some products that will be in the 2012-2013 Idea Book & Catalog.  The line of products is called "Summer Smooches."  But I'm not having any problem in using it right now and right here, in the middle of Spring and with Easter and Spring Birthdays coming up!

     Doesn't this look as bright and cheerful as those daffodils and crocuses popping their heads up this time of the year?  I do miss having that experience living out here in the tropics (but I don't miss the snow that precedes them!). 

     I just love all the colors that make up the set of Designer Series Papers called (as you might imagine) Summer Smooches.  There is a stamp set that goes with this product line called Bright Blossoms, and the little leaves that are stamped beneath the brad is one of the stamps.  The Summer Smooches Button Brads, however, while they're available now – and during the entire month of April – will ONLY be offered during April.  Yes, it goes wonderfully with the new papers and stamps and so forth.  But it's a special JUST for this promotion during April.  You can see a list and pictures of all the items in this month-long promotion by clicking the link at the top of the right column on this page.

     And, yes, there is ribbon and I'm sure you'll be seeing it here at some point during the month.  I have used it in a project that I'm going to highlight in my next newsletter as part of my upcoming classes (and yes, finally, I have figured out how I'm going to be doing my Newsletters going forward – so you won't have to wait another 3 months for one!).

     Now off to make a few Easter cards!  I'm definitely NOT missing Easter cards this year because I just love Stampin' Up!'s Easter Sets!  I hope to be able to post quite a few during the week!

     I just received my latest box of Stampin' Up! products in a box that contains lots of FREE Stampin' Up! Sale-a-bration products that my customers earned each time they ordered $50 worth of products.  There's also a Stampin' Up! Shopping Bag in the box that the hostess for this order will receive FOR FREE because the order was over $150!  And there's even a few things for me in this box.  Now if I could just get to it to open it!!!

     I hope that this will not be the LAST box that arrives for my customers during Sale-a-bration!  But you only have one more week (and a couple of days) before it's over for yet another year.

     For the next few posts I'm going to be featuring some of those products that you can order for free – and you've already seen quite a few over the last month or two!  Don't be disappointed – and I promise that Cholla will NOT be allowed to sit on your box for any length of time after it arrives.  (I do have to have a talk with her about this.)

     After the holidays, my absolutely most favorite time of the Stampin' Up! year is SALE-A-BRATION!  This is the time of the year when, for every $50 you spend on any kinds of Stampin' Up! products, you get something FREE from the Sale-A-Bration Catalog!  And if you spend $150 or have a workshop that gets up to that amount, you get even more!!

     This information is also over on the right side of my blog, and you can click on either place to find out more about what you can get for FREE! 

     For a quick look at some My Digital Studio designs (digital stuff you can get for FREE!) check out my New Year's Blog Post here.  And for sure I'll be adding some fun projects made with Sale-A-Bration products over the next few weeks!

     Today's project is one born, if not out of necessity, at least out of a desire to hide something.  Well, not something important, but something that just felt out of place.

     Yesterday afternoon, my dear husband came home from a business meeting carrying this lovely box of tea bags.  I have ALWAYS wanted to have one of these boxes to present to people to select their own teas!  I just love it when I'm at a restaurant and the "tea steward" (well, wine has stewards, why not tea?) comes to the table with a box and elegantly opens it to display all kinds of tea bags.  Of course I never think of these boxes when I'm anywhere that might actually have them for sale.  So all these years I've gone without.

     Until yesterday!  Oh my – was I thrilled to have it!  Except.  Except that there was a BIG brass plate smack in the middle of the outside cover that advertised the not-very-elegant company that made the gift.  Rats!  And then I thought of all that paper and ink in my craft room – AND the brand new stamp set, Tea Shoppe!  Off I went this morning to do the great cover-up of the day!

     Because I'm currently working on a project for the Create with Connie and Mary Occasions Edition that requires use of the Sale-A-Bration papers, Everyday Enchantment, I decided to stick with that for the Tea Box.  Both the main background paper and the Poppy Parade print that serves as the mat are from this paper set.  The mat for the sentiment is the same paper, and the two brads are from the Everyday Enchantment brads, also in the Sale-A-Bration catalog.

     There are two products from the Stampin' Up! 2012 Occasions Mini Catalog in this cover-up:  The stamp set, Tea Shoppe, and the papers cut with the Labels Collection Sizzix Framelits.  I have been going to the framelits daily since they first arrived in my craft room, and I can tell you that you'll be seeing a lot of them from now on!

     I mentioned Create with Connie and Mary Occasions Edition – which is still in its Preview Week!  I hope you won't miss a one of the fab card ideas as well as a few tutorials that are around this week for EVERYONE!  And there's Blog Candy to be given away.  You should check out the delightful Connie Babbert's creation today, because SHE is giving out today's Blog Candy – a free subscription to Create with Connie and Mary Occasions Edition!  But hurry over to the Create with Connie and Mary blog for the link today, because you have to comment on her blog today to be entered into the Blog Candy giveaway.

     As I'm sure you can see, I had fun with my cover-up project.  It was quick and easy, too!  I hope all your projects for the week are just as fun, quick and easy as mine have been!

     Today is the day that I get to be featured on the Create with Connie and Mary Occasions Edition blog!  And that means that today is the day I get to pick names for blog candy!  All you have to do is leave a comment aboutmy card for today and your name will be included in the drawing for a FREE subscription to the Create with Connie and Mary Occasions Edition!

     But first my card – after all, you have to have something about which to comment, don't you!  

     As the title of my blog says, it's a little bit more "over the top" than I usually make.  But, as this is a special "occasion" for me, I thought, "More is better!"  And with all the fab products in the Stampin' Up! 2012 Occasions Mini Catalog, that's easy to do!

     With this picture of my card, you are only beginning to see the "more."  But it's still a lot fussier that I usually make my cards, don't you think?  On the other hand, I had so much fun "fussing" with this, that I may just do more of that. There's that word, "more," again!

     I'm sure you can see that the whole card is cut with the largest of the hearts in the Hearts Collection Sizzix Framelits now offered by Stampin' Up!  I discovered in making this that the framelits will cut through two thicknesses of card stock.  That's a bonus if you're trying to make a card with as many panels as this one!

     From this photo of the front of the card you can see quite a few products from the Occasions Mini Catalog. 

• First and foremost is the Stamp Set, "P.S. I Love You."  The stamped heart in the very middle (which is actually on the back panel of the card), as well as the sentiment and the stamped frame around it, are all from the same stamp set, as are several sentiments inside the card.
• Then there are the delightful Twitterpated Designer Buttons (in Blushing Bride and Baja Breeze)
• And the Twitterpated Designer Series Paper
• And finally the Blushing Bride Pleated Satin Ribbon.

     Now for the inside of the card – yes, there are FOUR panels to this card, with all of them including a stamped image or sentiment from the "P.S. I Love You" stamp set!  The final panel has a bit of an addition from another Occasions Mini, images from the Stamp Set, Take It To Heart.  All of the Designer Series Paper on the inside is also from the Twitterpated Designer Series Paper Set. 

     I had so much fun with this card that I'll be making several for really good friends (and my very own sweetheart) for Valentine's Day this year!   In fact, I've been having a lot of fun with ALL my projects for the Create with Connie and Mary Occasions Edition, and I'd love to share them all with you!  But I can only do that if you're a subscriber to the Occasions Edition.  The Occasions Edition is now in Preview and there's an Early Bird Special price if you sign up this week!  And of course you can always try to win a FREE subscription by commenting on this blog post today!

     I'm not the only one offering blog candy this week.  Keep an eye out for others who are offering it by checking the Create with Connie and Mary blog the rest of the week.  Did you see that gorgeous card that Artisan Award Winner Elizabeth Price showed off yesterday?  Was that not the most fabulous card??  I can hardly wait to see her projects for the Occasions Edition – or to see what the rest of the team has to offer.  You don't want to miss the projects either.  So leave a comment and then head over to Create with Connie and Mary!