Aloha, all!
I am so excited to say that my craft room is almost all moved and unpacked. Just a bit of rearranging to do, and I'll be up and running and back in business! Well, it's more fun than business, but you know what I mean.
To begin, today I'm sharing the first of several Mother's Day cards I'll be making over the next couple of weeks. I had to get started this early because it's once again time for the Stampin' Up! Only Challenge! We at the challenge had a bit of a stumble a couple of weeks ago when our hosting got a bit mixed up. But we're up and running again, and I'm so happy to have a project to share in it.
I'm sure you'll recognize the main designs as being part of the "Painted" suite of products in the Stampin' Up! 2015 Occasions Catalog. The striped paper is the Wild Wasabi Stripe from the Painted Blooms Designer Series Paper (DSP) set. Once I had cut the piece of the striped paper, I cut a wider piece of Whisper White Cardstock, and stamped a column alternating the Double Rose stamp from the Painted Petals Stamp Set with the Double Leaf stamp set from the same set. I bought the photopolymer version of this stamp set, which makes it SO much easier to stamp images like this close to one another. My stamping's not perfect, but then it's handmade, not made by machine.
For the flower and the mother's day greeting (from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set), I used Rose Red Ink, which is one of the colors in the DSP set. When it doubt about a color to use, look at a DSP set with the other color you're using (in my case, Wild Wasabi) to see what other colors are in the set – Rose Red it was!
After I'd stamped the roses/leaves, I fussy-cut down the stamped side and adhered the striped paper to the left of it. I mounted it on a layer of Wild Wasabi Cardstock, and matted it with Rose Red Cardstock,tying a bow using the 5/8" Organza Ribbon before mounting the whole card front on a Whisper White Cardstock base.
Alerts about Retiring Products
Beginning today, I'll alert you at the end of my blog posts about any items that I used that will be retiring. Today, the only products about which you should have any concern are the Painted Petals Stamp Set and the Painted Blooms DSP set. These are in the 2015 Occasions Catalog which is current through June 2nd. While it's possible that the stamp set may carry over to the new Annual Catalog, I wouldn't count on it. It's also been rare that papers carry over from one catalog to another. I will have a preview copy of the new Annual Catalog later this week, and will update this post accordingly. But these are still available until June 2nd! Update: The Painted Petals Stamp Set is NOT in the upcoming Stampin' Up! Catalog. So, if you're interested in this set, it might be a good idea to purchase it now. Gorgeous set! You can purchase it directly from my Stampin' Up! store here.