Here's a stamp set that is retiring.  It's called Countryside and we'll be saying goodby to it next Monday.  This isn't the best color but the card is made with the new Baked Brown Sugar and the yellow is Crushed Curry.  Crushed Curry isn't new but it's been out of the line for a year or two and now it's back. 

Remember that the retired stuff only has a couple more days before you won't be able to get it so if there's something that you want let me know.  And on Friday we can order out of the new catalog so for a couple of days we'll be able to order out of both catalogs.  I've got a long wish list of things out of the new catalog.  Do you have your list ready?

 

Here's another card from last weeks card class.  I saw this on Gretchen Barron's blog and I love it.  She had done several in different colors.  The bright colors make beautiful cards but I choose this color for one reason.

 

 

And here it is.  Can you see the brad?  We embossed it in Melon Mambo so it matched the card stock.  I don't know about you but I tend to hoard things and these brads are retiring this week so I thought we had better use them.  The embossing folder is retiring too.  And this is my favorite folder.  I can't believe it's retiring.  I'm very sad about losing this one. 

Simply Sketched with water color technique.

 

This is another card that we did at card class.  I don't use the watercolor technique very much so I thought that we needed to try it.  Mine didn't turn out to bad.  I know that it takes practice and maybe just a little bit of talent.  This stamp set is a hostess set out of the new book called Simply Sketched.  I just love it and if you love it you can get it by hosting a workshop.  The pink color is Rose Red and the green is one of the new in colors called Pistachio Pudding.  I love it because it's such a soft pastel.  The white is water color paper and it really makes a difference when you're water coloring.  I wouldn't have done nearly as well as Whisper White.  So get some water color paper and give it a try. 

One more dumb trick.

I've done some dumb things in my life and yesterday was no exception.  At card class we did this card.  It's a stamp out of the new catalog called "Wildflower" (I think).  Anyway my last lady was finishing up and I decided that I wanted to try a different card with this stamp.  So I cleaned the stamp and inked it up with versa mark.  My intentions were to stamp it and then emboss it with white embossing powder.  I saw a card online where they had done that and then colored it with chalks.  I really liked the card and wanted to try it.  Well, somewhere along the line my brain quite working.  I inked up the stamp and then promptly poured the embossing powder ALL OVER THE STAMP.  At least my brain kicked back in before I grabbed the heat gun.  Can you imagine what that would have been like.  So I cleaned up the stamp and decided that I should probably wait until I had a good night's sleep.  So I will try it sometime, just not today. 

 

 

So for this card the stamp is just inked with Midnight Muse and then stamped onto Whisper White card stock and a  ribbon was added.  I also dry embossed it but that part doesn't show in the picture.  Just think, next Friday I can start ordering out of the new catalog.  If you still need a new catalog please let me know. 

Spring is Finally Here!!

 

This is my favorite sign of spring.  My Eastern Redbud in full bloom.  I just wish it stayed in bloom a little longer.

 

I even ventured into the woods to get this picture of wild violets.  I know where there's some white ones but the mosquitos didn't want me there so I left.

 

Do you see a purple theme here?  My Mom's favorite color is purple and a little of it must have rubbed off on me.

 

This is one of the cards that we'll be doing at card class next week.  The color doesn't show up very well but this is the new Cool Cabana and it's much prettier in real life.

 

Since I don't use the chalks often I decided that we needed a card with chalk on it.  So I cut out the lattice die and laid it down on the Whisper White and just randomly chalked onto the white.  I really like the effect.

 

The piece of paper that I cut the lattice die out of is Old Olive and when I was done I thought that there must be something that I could do with the lattice piece.  So I used dimensionals and put it onto an Old Olive card base.  It sat there for a couple of days starting at me but I finally decided to put flowers and butterflys on it.  I used the Secret Garden stamp set and cut the flowers out with the framelits.  I stamped the images onto white and chalked them.  The butterflys were punched out.  I'm really disappointed in the color here because it looks like Sahara Sand but it's really Old Olive and it's much prettier in real life.  But it is a good example of using up everything. 

Since Stampin' Up! has new stamp cases for the wood mounted stamp sets they are selling all of the old style boxes.  And they are on sale.  I'm thinking that I'm going to order a bunch of these to use for storage.  Here's the sizes and the prices.  Let me know if you want any.

Item	Description	Price
134676	Stamp & Supply Boxes (10 Pack) 3-3/8" x 2"	$2.95
134677	Stamp & Supply Boxes (10 Pack) 4-1/4" x 3"	$3.95
134678	Stamp & Supply Boxes (10 Pack) 5-1/4 x 4-1/4"	$4.95
134679	Stamp & Supply Boxes (10 Pack) 6-1/4" x 4-1/2"	$6.95
134680	Stamp & Supply Boxes (10 Pack) 8" x 5-1/4"	$7.95
134681	Stamp & Supply Boxes (10 Pack) 8" x 5-1/4" with tray	$7.95
134682	Stamp & Supply Boxes (10 Pack) 10-1/4" x 5"	$8.95

Last Friday I posted pictures of the cards that we did at card class using a method called "flash cards"  I found this method online and it's by Connie Stewart.  You should check her out on You Tube.  I decided to show my customers another way to use the flash card method making it just a little faster.  So we started out with an 8 X 10 sheet of paper.  (I've got these instructions all here, just maybe not in the best order so bear with me)  Instead of cutting this sheet into the size that we use first we stamped it all over with our design.  You could use anything that will look good stamped randomly on the paper.  This one is with flowers but we had a choice of flowers, butterflies, dinosaurs, feathers, leaves, baby booties and snowflakes.  So decide what colors you want to use on the card and start stamping.

 

 

Here's the pieces that I cut off to make my paper 8 X 10.  I used these to stamp my greetings. 

 

Here are the dimensions to cut the two layers that I used on the card.

 

Basically start with an 8 X 10 piece and cut it in half length ways and then each piece in half and then these four pieces I cut in half again.    Remember that I stamped it first.

 

Now for the sheet that I used for the backing layer it's the same method.  81/2 X 11 and cut it in half length ways and then each piece in half and then in half again. 

 

Here is my stamped sheet cut up.

 

Now here's an exciting part.  I cut the greeting out using the word window punch and then I cut the back out of the bottom layer using the Modern Label punch.  No one's going to see what you did because it's all covered up.  With me so far?

 

Here's the only scraps that you'll have left over.  So now just assemble the cards.  I used dimensionals to pop up the greetings.  And you can put the greetings on any way you want.

 

So here's my finished cards.  After you've done this a couple of times it gets really easy and you could probably make 8 cards in about 20 minutes.  I didn't time myself.  But I ended up with 8 cards using only 6 sheets of card stock and almost no waste.  We had so much fun doing these but I really wondered if it would go okay because I had a dream that the people all showed up for class and I couldn't find any paper.  For all of you who've been in my craft room you know how unlikely that would be.  There's tons of paper there and Laurel and Deb both have all of their paper there too.  Not finding any paper was a nightmare.