Fun with an “Old” Stamp Set

Aloha, all!

     This is the time of the year when I start looking at all my Stampin' Up! Designer Series Paper sets and try to get them all used up before Stampin' Up! retires them at the end of June.  Stampin' Up! also retires lots of stamp sets with each new annual catalog. They retire stamps based on business decisions unknown to most of us, which means that, just because a stamp set is "old" doesn't mean it's going to be retired.  Still, as we get closer to the end of the Stampin' Up! catalog year, I start to worry that some of my favorite old-timers might not be around after July 1st.  So I try to get them out and use them a lot – just in case!

     So when I saw this week's sketch challenge from Create with Connie and Mary, I was ready to use some of those papers and an older stamp set.  One set of Designer Series Papers of which I still have quite a few sheets is Pawsitively Prints II, which was made to go with the Build-A-Bear Workshop collection of dies and stamps.  I really like the prints, plaids and stripes in that set, so you may be seeing a bit more of them over the next 7 or 8 weeks.  The paper that I chose for today's challenge has flowers in Poppy Parade, So Saffron and  Tempting Turquoise.  Actually, the solid colored paper immediately behind the print is also part of the Designer Series Paper set, in a light shade of Poppy Parade. 

     Then I had to go looking for a stamp set.  I bypassed the fabulous new stamp sets from the Stampin' Up! 2011 Summer Mini Catalog and went rummaging through my stash of "old" stamp sets. It wasn't long before I happened upon the stamp set, Simply Said.  And don't those flowers in the heart shape look like they were just meant to go with that paper?!  I stamped them with Poppy Parade ink, then colored the flowers in with the three colors in the paper, along with some River Rock to fill in some of the smaller shapes (looks like that's what they did with the Designer Paper, too).

     For the final touches, I tied a bow with some Poppy Parade 1/2" Poly Stitched Ribbon over a strip of Tempting Turquoise Card Stock cut with the Tasteful Trim Sizzix Die.  It will be fun to write a note to a friend this weekend and enclose it in this card!  That's always a fun thing to do, and I hope you take the time to send off some of your own pretty cards to your friends and family – I certainly hope you're not one of those people who makes cards and then just stores them away to use "some day"!

     The sketch for today is based on the sketch from Create with Connie and Mary.  Both Connie and Mary are two of my very favorite Stampin' Up! artists and I hope you'll take the time to join in their challenge this week, too.  So here is the sketch from the Create with Connie and Mary blog, and another sketch with the measurements that I used for my own card based on their sketch.  Have fun with whatever you do with them!