Blogging Friends Blog Hop – Retiring Products

Welcome to this month’s “Blogging Friends Blog Hop!”

Who are the ‘Blogging Friends’? We are Stampin’ Up! demonstrators all across the U.S. and Canada. Most of us haven’t met in person, but love Stampin’ Up and want to share with you! Please join us on the 1st of every month to see what wonderful things we have created!  Each month we’ll have a different theme; this month it’s: Retiring Products!

Yep, it’s that time of year again where we make room for the new by saying goodbye to the old! Click on the Farewell image to be taken to the online store with retiring items. Some items are even at a discount!

Well, it turns out I have made quite a few cards over the past year with some of the products that are now retiring. Some I’ve shared and some I haven’t yet. I decided to gather up a bunch of them to share with you today – since pretty soon these will be retired and I don’t want you to miss out!

Some of these I’ve done at my classes and some I’ve modeled after ideas I’ve seen online, or I’ve been given a sample and asked to recreate something similar. These all have some retiring products on them, and I’ll point those out.

Here is a simple yet elegant card using the Sassy Salutations greeting:

This next birthday card uses the Big News stamped greeting, and the heart punch from Itty Bitty Punch Pack to make the bottom of the balloon (just overlap the hearts).

Here is a very fall-ish card using the For All Things set. It also has the Gold Metallic Baker’s Twine and some Typeset Designer Series Paper:

This next one also uses a few different retiring items, featuring the Vivid Vases single stamp. It’s also got the flower from the Itty Bitty Punch Pack, the Silver Metallic Baker’s Twine, the Stylish Stripes embossing folder, and Crystal Effects on the flowers to make them shine… ALL retiring!

Stepping back (or really far forward) to Christmas time, here is a fantastic winter tree scene using the White Christmas set:

Here are some more that I’ve already featured on my blog, but wanted to highlight them again now that the items are retiring.

This is an older card, so I know the DSP used isn’t around anymore, but I wanted to point out the stamp and punch used. It’s the Festival of Trees stamp set with coordinating Tree Punch. I wanted to show you this stamp doesn’t have to be used only for Christmas. 🙂
If you click on the following pictures, they will take you to their original posts.

This one was my first try at the Northern Lights technique, of which I still need to try again.. I think I see a video in the future for it 🙂   It’s got The Open Sea for the ship, and the sentiment is from Project Life Remember This:

Here is a lovely set that can be used any time of the year to support the troops, For Your Country:

This next one was my Bokeh technique, and highlights the sentiment from the Hello Life set:

And, last but not least, I have to show of a kitty cat card (or 3)…
This set, You Little Furball, made me so happy, then I was extremely sad to see it on the retired list. BUT….. for all you animal lovers out there… you will NOT be disappointed by the new catalog! WOW…I can’t wait to start sharing some of the samples I make with those as soon as I can get my hands on them! 🙂
Here are the three with this set that I’ve posted here a while back:

I couldn’t help it… It is such a fun set!

I hope you enjoyed looking through these, and if you want to purchase anything before it’s gone forever, click on the catalogs on the left of my blog or the “Shop Now” link in the menu at the top.   Hopefully everyone gets what they are looking for, but you have to act fast – since some items are ‘as supplies last’!

Thanks for looking around this time, and click on through to see the rest of the hop!  Tammy is next on the list, and you can get there by clicking the picture below –
Thanks!
Mak

In case you’ve never ‘done’ a blog hop before, it’s really easy!
Click on the image below, and you’ll be taken directly to Tammy’s post, the next blog in the hop. Keep clicking on that image at the bottom of each blog post, and you’ll hop through all of the participating blogs, back to where you started!  If you’d prefer to hop about at your leisure, you can click on the individual links for each blog. Happy Hopping!

Participating Blogging Friends, in order of appearance:

Crystal Komara
Anna Masciovecchio
Libby Fens
Anne Power
Mary Blocher
Danica Ferrante
Deborah Smart
Jessica Mink
Jodi Horsley
Leanne Johnson
Michelle Clark
Lorene Yoshimura-Tanigawa
Mary Ann Rossiter (StampinMak) – You are here!
Tammy Gill
Rick Adkins
Lisa Reber

 

Convention People Pics – Part 1

WOW did I do a good job of making sure to get PEOPLE PICTURES!!!!  I’m so proud of myself. 🙂   But first…. the ‘in progress’ pics of that swap card I showed you with the wonderful butterfly images (click here to see that one)…

EESH! I know, right? what was I thinking… But, it turned out beautifully. I have to admit, I had help, too.  I put the family to work… (they volunteered!!) well, except for the other kitty. He just wanted to make sure I knew he was there.

There are a lot of elements on this one, featuring the various butterflies of the Bitty Butterfly punch, the Bold Butterfly framelits, the Butterflies thinlits, and Watercolor Wings stamp set… The butterfly colors are Wisteria Wonder, So Saffron and Marina Mist. The little ones are sponged and glittered. YAY for the Dazzling Details glitter glue. Can you image that much loose Dazzling Diamonds?? The main butterfly also has some bonus bling… Rhinestones and the new Silver Metallic Thread. So shiny.

It’s also got the fabulous Brick Wall embossing folder. I sponged multiple colors on it to give it depth and make it look more realistic.  The cardstock is Smokey Slate and I used Smokey Slate and Mint Macaron inks.

To finish it off I used the Greetings thinlits twice.  I hope you like it, and even after 50 of these, I think I still like it, too. 🙂

On to convention people pics!!! The easiest way to share so many turns out to be in collage format! Yay for technologies.  Here’s the first group of folks… I’ve got a bit of everyone in this one… Upline, sidelines, Stampin’ up folks, friends.. All of them!!

How fun is that?? This isn’t even all of the pictures…. Now the trick is to get all their names on here! LOL… That may take a little more time. 🙂  Maybe I’ll just tag them all from Facebook!!

While I figure out the easiest way to do that… here is another pic from our little sightseeing adventure….

Didn’t I say it was gorgeous? yep. so neat. Our guide George was kind enough to send this to me.
Stay tuned this week for more!!
Enjoy!!
Mak

Back in Business after Convention

Whew!!  What a few weeks.. I unintentionally took a little break from here to take care of my kitty and attend Convention!  And oh boy has it been crazy!

The good news is kitty is home and getting healthy checkups! YAY!!  We had a few setbacks along the way, but the Doctor is confident all this will be behind us soon!  Here’s a pic of Zoie just chilling out on my lap…

As if that craziness wasn’t enough… Convention was last week!!! WOW! That is a good word to sum it up. I will have lots of updates over the next few days, as there is too much for one post!  To start things off, here is a picture of one of my swap cards I made for an organized swap:

Not like I picked something quick and easy, eh? I’ll have more details on that one with some ‘along the way’ pics later.

And, a few of us did some sight seeing before the stamping began, and it was worth it! Check out one of the spots we visited up in the mountains:
Crazy gorgeous!

Stay tuned this next week as I will have lots more pics! 🙂
I even managed to snap a few selfies and added a current pic to my site, heh…
Enjoy!!
Mak

Just Ducky for PCCCS151

Well, good news! Zoie will be coming home any day now!! YAY!!!  Happy dances all around! She’s getting much much better, and back to growling at the vets when they want to bother her for tests or feedings. LOL.

With that good news, I selected the perfect stamp set for this week’s Paper Craft Crew Card Sketch PCCCS151:

I used the Barnyard Babies set… not just for the animals – and there are many, and super cute, too – but for the quirky sentiments that go with them!
Here’s my card for this one:

Just Ducky!  I found it fitting. I also used the Sheltering Tree set so the little duckies were not out in the bright sun unshaded!
There are a lot of accessories going on in this one, it was fun to piece together…
Cherry on Top Designer Series Paper Stack, Black and White satin ribbons, rhinestones, glimmer paper with the Itty Bitty Accents star punch, Mint Macaron dotted lace trim, rhinestones, and the Decorative Dots embossing folder!
The tree has multiple colors used, all to coordinate with the DSP: Crushed Curry, Cucumber Crush, Tip Top Taupe, and then I added some Mint Macaron in the mix.
I colored the duckies with a blender pen and the ink pads – which is a great tip if you don’t have that color marker (or you just want to make it a little lighter)! I used Crushed Curry and Delightful Dijon for the yellows, and Pumpkin Pie for the oranges.  I also sponged a little bit of Cucumber Crush over the embossed paper to make the dots stand out even more.

I hope everyone has a great day, and if you missed it, I added a class for this coming weekend! Let me know ASAP if you’d like to join!
Thanks!!
Mak

Vintage Leaves for PP251 and Zoie update

Hey folks…
Update on Zoie…She’s hanging in there! Not out of the woods yet, but I think we can see her coming home soon. YAY!
You can tell she doesn’t feel well because she willingly went to go sit on hubby’s lap. 🙂  That didn’t last long, and she was curled up on mine in no time.

For today’s card I accidentally skipped a season. 🙂  I jumped right to a fall card. Not on purpose, but when I decided to use the Vintage Leaves set (with matching framelits), I automatically went to fall colors. Heh. Here’s the card sketch from The Paper Players #PP251:

Along with the Vintage Leaves and matching framelits called Leaflets, I used the Woodgrain embossing folder. The leaf is sponged in multiple colors – right on the stamp – then I stamped it on White. Then I sponged more green right on the paper.  Colors included Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze, Old Olive and Garden Green. Here’s how it looks:

I added some splash of gold embossing powder and looped up some of the super thin new gold Metallic Thread behind the leaf.
Tip:  Do your heat embossing *before* you add the thread.. it starts to shrivel up with the heat gun.. oops!!
The sentiment is from The Sheltering Tree, and is Garden Green ink with Clear embosssing powder in Vellum. I also added a few loops of the Metallic Baker’s Twine around the card to act as another layer instead of paper.

I hope everyone likes it and enjoy your Friday!
Mak