Just Two More Weeks for the Occasions Mini!

Aloha, all!

     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!