Aloha to My Favorites!

Aloha, all!

     Aloha mean many things, including the "Hello" greeting I give you each time I write a post on this blog, and often including a "fond farewell and good wishes" as we say, "Goodbye."  So then, I send an Aloha along with a goodbye to my absolute favorite Stampin' Up! Stamp Sets ever.  The two sets are my favorite Two-Step Stamping set, Flower Fancy, and my favorite "go-to" greeting stamp set, Sincere Salutations. 

     My recollection is that Flower Fancy was the very first Two-Step Stamping set that I ever had.  Yes, it's that old!  And I just loved that it looked like I'd skillfully watercolored in the deftly sketched flowers.  I'm still amazed at how much I like the whole effect of the casual elegance of the set.  These are but two of the flowers in the set.  As the next month goes on, perhaps I'll have a chance to use the set again.  But there are so many retiring sets that I love, I really want to share as many of them as possible with you!

     I also love the the font that is used in the Sincere Salutations stamp set, and the unique way that the words are arranged – and how they fit on my greeting cards so well!  Sigh, I truly will miss having that set available for so many occasions!

     Now that I look closely at this card, I find that everything in it – except for the Basic Black stamp set used for the words and outlines and the Whisper White Card Stock – will retire at the end of May also!  The two colors that I used for this card – Pear Pizzazz and Poppy Parade are in the 2010-2012 set of "In Colors" and they'll be replaced by new colors in June.  We'll find out all about those new colors fairly soon, but I'm going to miss these lovely colors for sure.  (Did you notice that two of the flowers are a lighter color?  It's still Poppy Parade, but I stamped the image off on a piece of scrap paper before I then stamped it on the card!) Oh, and the Pear Pizzazz Stitched Poly Ribbon – so easy to use in greeting cards! – is also on the retired list. 

     If you see anything in this card that you might want to buy, you would do well to purchase it as soon as possible, especially the accessories.  While the stamps will be available until the 2011-2012 Catalog expires on May 31st, accessories are only available while supplies last!  You can shop any time day or night on my website.  So just click here if there's something you'd like to order while there's still time!

     I don't have a sketch for today's card because it uses the same sketch as the one I used last Tuesday.  But I did as I suggested you might do, and made the background card stock for the 1" squares just slightly bigger, and also adjusted the size of the layers of the larger motif to fit the stamp set I used.  It really is a lot of fun fussing around with all these measurements!  But if you'd like the exact measurements for this card, just let me know in a comment below and I'll take care of it!