Well, we're almost there – many great Stampin' Up! products are going to be unavailable for purchase as of close of business tomorrow, Tuesday, August 31, 2010.  Sniff!  I'll really miss them!

     I made today's card with a set that I fell in love with at the beginning, but then didn't use nearly enough – Bouquet Bunch.  It's so sweet!  Maybe it's just because I haven't been in a "sweet" mood this summer with my husband's illness.  But now that he's better and the "sweet" is back, the set is going away!  I hope you don't let it get away from you if you've been eyeing it for yourself. 

     Can you look at that little bird on the potted tree and not just think, "Cute!"?  You can't really see the little squirrel over there in the bottom right corner so I made a little photo just of him.  He is definitely putting on a "Thinking of You" look – and wondering why I've been ignoring him.  I really miss the little critters here in Hawaii, pain in the rear though they may be when you have birds to feed on the mainland.  But (as is common) I digress!  This set is made to order for those of us using clear mount rubber stamps.  Nothing has to fit really close when you are putting all the elements of the stamp set together.  So just having the clear mounts works well in making cards with this set   If you purchase a wood mount set, you probably should use a Stamp-a-ma-jig to line them up. 

     There's another product that I first thought of when I started putting these colors together – that's the 5/8" Satin Ribbon in Chocolate Chip.  Yes, it's in the Summer Mini Catalog, but it's NOT in the 2010-2011 "Big" catalog.  So my assumption is that this is going to go away with the Summer Mini, too.  I could have sworn that I bought some of the Chocolate Chip ribbon, but it's nowhere in the Craft Room to be found.  And, while the Early Espresso ribbon is definitely brown, it's definitely a lot darker than Chocolate Chip.  So another thing to consider if you're planning a last minute order from the Summer mini.

     Here's what the Bouquet Bunch Stamp Stamp Set looks like.  If you'd like to order it, you can do that 24/7 on my website.  Or call me (808.854.6145) and I can place the order for you by Tuesday!

     Oh, and I just had to let a bit more of our garden show as the card's backdrop.  It just seemed to be made as a backdrop for this picture!  Great view from the Craft Room!

     What would summer be without travel?  Of course, it would still be summer.  But if you have kids, there just isn't anything better than a road trip!  OK, I know that there are those of you who might have had some, well, disasters doing this.  But by and large, it's a great time for everyone. 

     And what would Stampin' Up!'s Summer Mini Catalog be without something related to travel or vacations.  I think that they outdid themselves this year, with the Travel Journal Designer Series Paper and the coordinating Stamp Set, Sentimental Journey. 

     Our daughter and her family took a road trip this summer from their home in North Carolina to our family's cabin on a lake in northern Minnesota.  What a trip they had – and grandma will be making a scrapbook of that trip for sure!  We'll be visiting later them later this year and everyone will get involved in putting the pictures in the scrapbook.  What fun!  I think I will have to take several packs of this paper with me!

     BUT – I'll have to buy it soon!  Because this paper set and the stamp set will disappear from Stampin' Up!'s repertoire on Tuesday, August 31st!!

     All kinds of travel are covered in both the papers and the stamp set – planes, cars, boats – and the colors are perfect for whatever activities and scenery you found to photograph while YOU were traveling this summer!   Here are pictures of the products that you can buy, but only until August 31st!

     Oh, and just like yesterday, a bit of a sneak peek at some 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog products!  Yup, there's that Decorative Label punch again!  What you probably can't tell at this small a resolution is that this scrap page is 8" x 8"!  That's new for Stampin' Up! AND there are two brand new albums in the Holiday Mini from which you can choose!  I can hardly wait to get mine!

     At this point, my husband is feeling quite well, thank you, and his surgeon has asked that he get out a bit if he can.  This is all while we are awaiting a date for the surgery.  It's going to be quite extensive, and requires the operating room to be reserved for a full day.  But with all the drugs the medical types are pumping into Harry, he really is able to get out a bit.  So out we've been getting him.

     One trip has been to the Foster Botanical Garden in Honolulu.  This is a great trip because Harry really misses his garden at home, and he can look at some plants that are similar to what he has at home.  Great for him and for us. 

     Meanwhile, Harry shows off the album I made for him that features his very own garden.  Last week I shared the pages featuring our pets, and today I'll start showing off some of the garden pages.  The overall colors throughout the scrapbook (pet pages not withstanding) are Garden Green/Certainly Celery and Pumpkin Pie/So Saffron.  The scrapping technique for today's two-page spread is one that I use a lot with the small (6" x 6") page spreads:  I take a whole bunch of photos and make them into a collage and print that as a larger photo on one page.  Then, on the facing page, I feature 2 or 3 individual pictures of the objects in question.  Here I'm featuring the tropical rhododendrons, or Vireyas, that are current blooming in our garden.  The photo at the left shows how you can get 11 nice pictures on one small page!

     The paper for this page is from the Designer Series Paper, Flocked Together.  I really wish I had "found" this set earlier!  This coming year I'll pay better attention to ALL the designer series paper sets so I don't miss anything.  The stamp sets featured on this page – as well as on the right side page – are Paradise and Tropical Party.  I originally thought this would be too busy, but I really like the effect when it's all put together in the scrapbook.  You can see that I matted the photo with So Saffron and Garden Green.  I didn't mat most of the photos in this album because of my time constraints.  But sometimes, I just had to get out the card stock and the paper cutter and mat away!

     On the right, I used a page from the Designer Series Paper Jackpot. Now, because my dear husband runs the local ACBL bridge club in Hilo, Hawaii, I already had a big stash of this Designer Series Paper.  And I'll be keeping it for Bridge Club use even after it retires.  But I digress.  The fact is that this paper is NOT just for cards and games.  Look at that lovely diamond pattern in So Saffron!  OK, it's Diamonds as in Hearts, Spades and Clubs.  But it's also diamonds as in a cool pattern!

     As the new papers come out I promise that I'll be much better at looking at them ALL to make sure that neither I nor you just discount a set because the paper that the catalog features just doesn't appeal.

     ALERT!  These Designer Series Paper sets are going to retire July 1st!  They are absolutely perfect for scrapbooking and, if you're a scrapbooker as I am, you might just want to stock up a bit before they're gone for good.

     I only have computer time late at night as the rest of the time I'm spending with my husband.  But I really hope to be back here with some analysis of the Stampin' Up! retired products lists and some suggestions for what you might want to snap up before it goes away.  Meanwhile, please keep my dear husband in your thoughts and prayers!

     Just a quick break from packing to head off to Honolulu where my husband's in the hospital waiting for me to return from home.  I decided to look for some Stampin' Up! magazines to take with me and Cholla the Cat just had to help.

     What's even more interesting than the cat hiding behind the stamp pads and hardware is how empty the stamp pad tower is!  I have already packed away all the retiring colors, and have the carryover colors already arranged with their new family groups.  By this time next month that tower should be filled up again with all new stuff!  I'm hoping more than that that I'm home with my husband to enjoy playing with the new colors.

     Back later this week to post some of the scrapbook pages.

For this Spring's Royal Blog Tour, I chose the Stampin' Up! Stamp Set, Paradise because, after all, Robin's Craft Room really IS in Paradise, here on the Big Island of Hawaii.  Paradise, the stamp set, has some beautiful leaves like palms and monstera, and we have all of those right here in our own gorgeous garden.

     When I used to purchase note cards in shops, many of them had photographs as their central images.  With our luscious garden, I'm thrilled to show off a photo of it as the cover of a note card that I send to someone special.  The card that's featured in the front of the above display uses two of the images from the Paradise Stamp Set.  For the two leaves, I stamped Certainly Celery card stock with some Garden Green Ink and trimmed them very close to the inked image.  For the floral images (which look exactly like the flowers that bloom in bromeliads and ti), I stamped Really Rust Card Stock with Really Rust Ink. (Alert!  Really Rust is one of the Stampin' Up! colors that will retire at the end of June.  It goes so nicely with the Garden Green that you might want to stock up now before it goes away!)    I've layered two of the photos, which are 5" wide by 3-3/4" high, onto Really Rust Card Stock and two of them onto So Saffron Card Stock, all of which are layered on a card base of Garden Green Card Stock cut to 5-1/2" wide by 4-1/4" high, which is mounted on a folded card made of Confetti Cream Card Stock. 

     Next, I just had to make a box to hold these lovely cards.  This box not only holds these four greeting cards, it is also just large enough to hold four A2-sized envelopes, too. Rather than use a photograph for the cover of the box (save them for the cards!) I wanted to use Designer Series Paper.  I can't believe that I'd spent eight months of this Stampin' Up! year totally overlooking the paper set, Flock Together.  While I love bird-watching, the birds in that paper set didn't really reach out and grab me.  But once I started looking at the foliage in the set, I was sold.  There are three of the designs from Flocked Together on the front of the box, one of them stamped with palm leaves from Paradise, and all matted with some Really Rust card stock and tied together with some Certainly Celery 1/4" grosgrain ribbon.  A delightful repository for my cards!

     The final touches for any gift box of greeting cards are the envelopes.  In a commercial greeting card shop, you're liable to find just a plain old envelope to go with your greeting cards.  For this lovely handmade gift, though, there has to be something just a little special about the envelope.  The Paradise stamp set has perfect images for stamping in the lower left corner of an envelope.  For this set I used Very Vanilla Medium (A2) Envelopes.

     Here is the whole stationery set ready for me to give as a gift.  Someone who posted a comment on my blog during the Royal Blog Tour will receive this very gift!  I'll post the winner's name, next week.

     I have a page of directions for making this box and will post it here – also next week.  So stop by then to pick up your copy of the instructions!  

     I'm going to take a bit of a break from the attention that I've been paying to the retiring Stampin' Up! colors to show off something of what you'll be seeing when the 2010 Summer Mini Catalog is released on May 1st.  I know that I tell you every time a new catalog comes out that I'm "so excited"!  But this time, I'm really, really excited because there is a whole section featuring tropical colors and stamps – and I live tropical!  OK, maybe we don't sit around sipping Mai Tais all the time.  But we do enjoy a lot of what tropical is here on the Big Island.

     Despite the fact that we don't sit around sipping Mai Tais, my first card featuring the new Island Oasis Designer Series Paper and the Tropical Party Stamp Set, features a tropical beverage.  Love those coconut cups! ( I couldn't resist really showing off our garden in the background when featuring this tropical-themed card.)

     The Designer Series Paper, as always, is double sided, and this card features two sides of the same sheet of paper.  The colors on the card reflect the colors of the little umbrellas – Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie and Tempting Turquoise.  These are great tropical colors.  I can hardly wait to show off some of the other colors featured in this set.  It may have to wait until the end of the month, though, as my first workshop featuring this catalog is going to feature some projects using this paper set and I have to conserve.  But I'm still playing with a lot of the paper.

     To make the coconut cup stand out a bit, I stamped some Close to Cocoa card stock (oh, no!  Close to Cocoa's retiring!!) with Chocolate Chip Ink and cut out the coconut to glue onto the image stamped on Whisper White Card Stock.  I also stamped the umbrella part of the image on a scrap of the Designer Series Paper and cut it out to give the stamped image even some more texture.  I drew the line at cutting out the straw, and just colored it in with the Tempting Turquoise.  The greeting is (as so many of my greetings are) from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set.  Great Father's Day card!

     I had three of my neighbors over for a bit of crafting yesterday.  I use them shamelessly as my focus group when I have something new that I want to try out, such as this card and color combination.  But we all sit around and make cards using papers and inks and stamps that I gather on the dining room table (I have GOT to get the craft room cleaned so we can work in there) and have a great time.  Deme decided to make the same card, but she switched out the papers and brads a bit – another great use of this new set!  Later this week I'll show off Lucy's card using different paper, stamps and layout.

     This card layout is one that you'll see frequently.  For one thing, you can show off different designer papers and the central motif is definitely resizable to fit whatever kind of stamp or embellishments you'd like to use.  Here is the layout for the cards as shown.  Have fun with it!

     I am spending a lot of time these days focusing on all the lovely Stampin' Up! colors that are going to be retiring.  I want to spend as much time as I can with them before I have to leave them to go on to the new colors that will be introduced this summer. 

     Yesterday, as I was entering our garden on my way back from my afternoon walk, my attention was drawn to some orchids that have been blooming along the side of the driveway for the past couple of weeks (yes, they do last a long time!).  Ah, "Orchid Opulence" came to mind because, after all, this is an orchid.  But then my mind focused better and I realized that was I was seeing was Pixie Pink.  I ran and grabbed my camera and then set out to make a card featuring Pixie Pink. 

     Then I figured that, as long as I was at it, I should try to work in some other retiring colors.  Hmmm.  The center of these flowers is a bright yellow – Yo Yo Yellow!   And the leaves just jumped out at me when I ran the picture over a sheet of Green Galore.  What a bright card came out of this!   Ah ha!  They're all in the Bold Brights collection, too!  This card was just meant to be.

     I added some texture with a Stampin' Up! exclusive Sizzix Texturz Plate, a bow of Whisper White 5/8" Satin Ribbon, and a birthday greeting from the set, Teeny Tiny Wishes.  Actually, many kinds of greetings would be appropriate for this card.  But I missed a friend's birthday (it was last month!) and this will be a fun card to send her. 

     Note that I made the Scallop Trim Border with the punch that was featured in the now retired Sale-A-Bration Catalog.  This punch will be available again, but Stampin' Up! advises that won't happen until the new Catalog is released on July 1st.  Meanwhile, if you're in the area and would like to use my punch, just come on over and punch away!

     Here's the layout for the card.  There are tons of stamp images in the Stampin' Up! collection that you could use in place of the photograph.  Or maybe you have your OWN photo that would fit right in there.  Have fun whichever way you make the card!

As I said last week, we have a new garden cat, whose name is Honu, who has made our indoor cat, Cholla (from New Mexico, thus the name of the cactus that is ubiquitous where we lived) just a teensy bit jealous.  In fact, we have to keep some windows closed as the cats have taken to trying to claw each other through the screens!  Not so bad this time of the year when it’s not really very hot at all.  Hopefully they’ll get over it before spring arrives and starts to warm things up a bit!

I managed to catch both cats in something of a Christmas pose, so just had to make a quick scrapbook page with Stampin’ Up!’s My Digital Studio. 

This digital papercrafting program is just so neat – and things ship quickly, too!  I’m going to start on some Valentine’s cards for my Stampin’ Up! friends before long.  If you’d like to be on the list to receive one of the cards, just add a comment below and then I’ll e-mail you to get your address!  I’ll need the information by January 23rd so I can get my order in and still have time to mail them before Valentine’s Day.  I’ll certainly remind everyone about this a few times between now and then.

As I said last week, we have a new garden cat, whose name is Honu, who has made our indoor cat, Cholla (from New Mexico, thus the name of the cactus that is ubiquitous where we lived) just a teensy bit jealous.  In fact, we have to keep some windows closed as the cats have taken to trying to claw each other through the screens!  Not so bad this time of the year when it’s not really very hot at all.  Hopefully they’ll get over it before spring arrives and starts to warm things up a bit!

I managed to catch both cats in something of a Christmas pose, so just had to make a quick scrapbook page with Stampin’ Up!’s My Digital Studio. 

This digital papercrafting program is just so neat – and things ship quickly, too!  I’m going to start on some Valentine’s cards for my Stampin’ Up! friends before long.  If you’d like to be on the list to receive one of the cards, just add a comment below and then I’ll e-mail you to get your address!  I’ll need the information by January 23rd so I can get my order in and still have time to mail them before Valentine’s Day.  I’ll certainly remind everyone about this a few times between now and then.

For some reason some of my posts here didn’t make it out to you last week!  But here is a retrospective of what should have been as I got ready for Christmas.  Hopefully I’ll figure out what "went wrong" and make sure it doesn’t happen again!

—————————–

Finally all the Christmas cards are made and sent out!  But there is a trail of paper and ribbon and label scraps throughout the house.  I thought I’d escape to the craft room for a few minutes before I tackled the house cleaning.  But I couldn’t believe the disaster that awaited me.  So I went out onto the lanai (porch) just to look at the garden, only to be faced with two very bare Christmas trees.  More work!!  Is there no rest for the wicked???

Ah, yes.  Here at the computer, where my desktop is as neatly arranged as it was yesterday and the day before and the day before that.  Lovely how computers stay uncluttered (at least on the surface, which is the only thing I see anyway).

But I can look out the windows of the house while I go do my cleaning up chores.  Here’s another of the poinsettias that are growing in one area of the garden.  I just can’t get enough of looking at them actually growing in the garden!  No piddly little house plant here in Hawaii.  In the Kailua-Kona area, whole hillsides are covered with these flowers that bloom during the late fall/early winter time.  I’m happy for just the small display that I enjoy every day.