The Under My Umbrella Stamp Set is one of my favorite kind of outline stamps. It has several stamps that are just perfect for stamping on patterned paper to give them a pretty patterned color. No markers, or brushes, or colored pencils needed! It’s also the perfect stamp for this time of year. Tomorrow is April and in many parts of the United States it’s a very rainy month, leading to the old saying, “April Showers Bring May Flowers.” And what could be better for April Showers than a lovely umbrella?!
Aloha, all!
The area where I live, as well as the area where my friend, Cheryl Hamilton, lives are pretty much the middle of a rain forest. So we get some good rains all year. In fact, we measure annual rainfall in feet, not inches, though I do think that Hilo, Hawai’i, has Haiku, Maui beat by about 4 feet. So both of us can pretty much relate to the need for umbrellas. That’s why we decided to make the Under My Umbrella Stamp Set the featured set for today’s session of Island Hopping.
But It’s Retiring!
When we chose this set earlier this month, we knew that we’d hear by now if this set was going to retire and not carry over to the new Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog. Sadly, this set and its accompanying Umbrella Builder Punch will be retiring at the end of the current Annual Catalog. The good news is that I still have another 5 weeks to have fun using it for my cards. And you still have those same 5 weeks to think about buying both of these fun products!
Having Fun With the Hydrangea Hill Paper Set
While I’m very sad not to have this stamp set around after May 3rd, I was happy to have the beautiful Hydrangea Hill Designer Series Paper set to use with these stamps. I loved trying to make up my mind about which the papers in that set would be the best for my umbrella. You can see that I couldn’t choose just one. So I ended up using three different prints from the paper set to make not one but three umbrellas. Right now I’m working on a set of tutorials that will be ready to be published soon and the Hydrangea Hill papers are featured in one of the 16 samples in the set. Oh, and I should point out that the Hydrangea Hill paper and all of the products that coordinate with it will be around in the January – June Mini Catalog until June 30th!
A Stamping Tip
Often when I’m stamping on Stampin’ Up!’s Designer Series Papers, the ink does not settle into the paper evenly. That happened this time when I was using Memento Tuxedo Black Ink on the Hydrangea Hill prints. One way to fix that would be to stamp the image twice. But you and I both know that doesn’t work well unless you use a stamp positioning tool. In this case, the stamp positioning tool was Stampin’ Up!’s Stamparatus.
If you read yesterday’s post, I used the Stamparatus for stamping on those Easter Cards. But the purpose was different – I wanted to make multiples of a card quickly. For this card, I held the paper in place with one of the Stamparatus’ magnets and stamped the image with the Stamparatus twice (three times in one case). Because both the paper and the stamp stay in the very same spot, you don’t get thick lines or “ghost” lines.
Those Stamped Images are Everywhere!
Not only did I stamp and punch some umbrellas for the front of the card, I also added one to the front of the envelope that I made to go with this card. I don’t always make matching envelopes, but I thought this would be a fun envelope to arrive at someone’s house during an “April Shower.”
While on was on a roll with this, I kept going and added a different umbrella image to the inside of the card. It’s peeking out in the photo at the top of this article. But I wanted you to see one other stamp from this set – the garden boots! For the inside of the card I punched a handle for the umbrella. There wasn’t enough space on the envelop for that, though I may go back and draw a little bit of one before I send it out next week.
I especially love the boots. I’d love to have a set of rubber boots with this fun print on them. As I no longer have a garden, I’ll just have to watch other people wear them. Hmmm. Maybe I can go visit Cheryl and wear some in HER garden!
The Bottom Line
This stamp set and it’s coordinating punch are going to retire as of May 3, 2021. The good news is that the punch is on sale for 60% off! It’s now only $7.20, down from $18. And the stamp set, with its 15 stamps is only $16. Besides the 4 umbrella/boots stamps, there are 4 floral stamps and 6 sentiments. Oh, the the raindrops! Do you see that rain on those umbrellas? That’s a stamp that I applied repetitively on the background of the umbrella layer on the card!
Finally, don’t forget to visit Cheryl Hamilton’s blog today. Guess what stamp set she’s using. (Oh, did I already tell you?)
And have fun with whatever is keeping you busy with your crafting these days!
