Sunday Retirement Showcase - Happy Ribbon

Morning all, well it's Sunday again already, time seems to be going so quickly at the moment. My boys are growing up too fast, the weeks are flying by, getting closer and closer to when I have to go back to work! Hmmmm not a happy thought! It is also getting closer to the 31st May which means you don't have long left to get those items on the retirement list before they are gone for good. A happier point is that it's getting closer and closer to when the new catalogue comes out, I am loving some of the new items and already have a wish list as long as my arm. If you would like a copy of the catalogue just drop me and email and I will get one in the post to you when they become available.

So as part of my mega tidy up in my craft space I bought a ribbon box as I have lots of reels and I hardly ever use them because I just can't see them. So now most (I hadn't realised how many I had, I need another box!!) of my ribbons are in my box and I can see all of them poking out through the holes at the end. The problem being I could now see how pretty they were but still had no idea what to do with them. So once again I opened Pinterest to see what I could find. I found a lovely card by Lisa of I'm in Haven which had Happy down the side of the card with ribbons going across the card the same colour as the letters and then birthday stamped at the bottom. Unfortunately I couldn't find the post that the photo was from which is why I haven't linked directly to that post. Here is my card recreated with retired Stampin' Up! supplies.

I'm going to give this card to my brother in law but it could easily be changed to be more feminine. I don't feel it's as good as Lisa's but I'm happy with the result and I will be looking for more ways to use up my stacks of retired ribbons so that I can buy some of the ones in the new catalogue.

Thank you for stopping by to read my blog, I'll be back on Tuesday with another card to show you.

Supplies:

Sunday Retirement Showcase

Morning everyone, I hope you've all had a lovely weekend so far? We had a really fun day yesterday as there was a mini fair in the town to celebrate the Queen's birthday. Little monkey got his face painted with a Batman mask and then had a great time on the bouncy slide and hook the duck. After all the walking we did we were exhausted so going to take it easy today and have a lazy day!

As many of you will know Stampin' Up! have released the list of all of the products that will be retiring when the current catalogues end on 31st May. Anything on that list is only available until that date and while stocks last. It got me thinking about all of the stamp sets and tools that I own that are either retiring this year or have retired in the past. Ordinarily I do my best to keep them off my blog because I like to show you cards made with the latest Stampin' Up! stock. However someone said that we all need inspiration sometimes and so if you also own these old sets you don't want them gathering dust. I have a lot of retired items because I have been using Stampin' Up! products for about 3 1/2 years now and the reason I bought them is because I really liked them so I don't want to stop using them or sell them. For that reason I have decided that on a Sunday only I am going to showcase cards made with retired products. That way if you also own these sets you've got fresh inspiration and if you don't you will hopefully take something from the card that you can use with current sets.

To start off with I will be making cards using products that are on the current retiring list. As I said above that means that they are only available while stocks last until the 31st May. So items were even sold out before the list went live so if there's something you really want, act fast! If you want to see everything that is retiring but still in stock please click on the 'Going, going, gone' box on the left hand side.

Today's card is showing the Going Places DSP Stack and Going Global stamp set which are retiring from the Spring/Summer catalogue and and the Itty Bitty Banner Framelit Dies retiring from the Annual catalogue. I really like the Going Global product suite and I'm quite sad that it's going. I usually struggle making men's cards but since finding this set I have managed to make several cards from my husband and father in law. I love all of the different papers in the paper stack, there's quite a few to choose from. This is one set I wish was staying! I'm not sure if you can see very well from the photo but the star itself has been scored on each outer and inner point allowing me to make it stand up on the page rather than laying completely flat.

The sentiment is from Sunburst Sayings which I'm quite pleased is staying in the new catalogue as I haven't had a chance to use it much since I bought it. I hope you like what you've seen today, as usual I have listed all of the products I have used below and by clicking on the image it will take you through to my shop. Thanks for reading.

Supplies:

Using your scraps

Hello everyone, I have a question for you. Are you the type of crafter that can't bear to get rid of any bits of scrap card or do you bin everything straight away? I've heard several people say that if it won't cover a card blank then it needs to be thrown away. I just can't do it, what if I can't finish a fantastic creation just because I threw out that small scrap of card. Unlikely I know, which is why I now have an overflowing scrap box! This is what inspired me to create today's card as I needed to clear some space so that I could close the lid again.

This card could easily be made with any colour scheme as it just uses up scraps of coloured or patterned card you have laying around. As I have used the Moonlight paper stack a fair bit I found that I had several small pieces left over that wouldn't be any good for covering a card blank but made a perfect pile of presents once the ribbon had been put over the top. To finish it off I then used a sponge dauber to ink the edges of the white card which was then matted on to Soft Suede card stock. As I don't like waste I used my new Stampin' Trimmer to cut out a frame of Soft Suede so that I could use the inner part of the rectangle for another creation. 

 The ribbon was stuck down using the new Fast Fuse Adhesive, which is great once you get used to it. I have to admit when I first tried it out I did not get on with it at all, it nearly ended up in the bin the same day it arrived along with the card it was getting stuck to! However I stuck with it (literally at some points as my phone almost got stuck to my card too!) as a lot of people have said how good it is and now I quite like it, I'll still stick to my SNAIL for most of my projects but for sticking ribbons and anything else you want to be truly permanently stuck I would recommend Fast Fuse. The clue is definitely in the name, it sticks really quickly and is very strong, there's no time for repositioning with this one. It is also fantastic for sticking down pieces you have run through an embossing folder as you need very little pressure to roll the glue out and so it doesn't lose any of the texture.

Supplies:

All supplies are from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated.

Stamps: Sassy Salutations

Card: Whisper White, Soft Suede and Moonlight Designer Series Paper Stack

Inks and Pens: Soft Suede and Lost Lagoon Ink

Tools and Embellishments: Stampin' Trimmer, Fast Fuse Adhesive, Lost Lagoon Satin Stitched Ribbon and Sponge Daubers. 

If you would like to order any Stampin' Up! products feel free to contact me using the details at the top of the page or alternatively you can order from Stampin' Up! directly using the button on the right remembering to find my name in the demonstrator list before completing your purchase!

A Male Happy Birthday Card

Evening everyone, I think I have said before that I struggle with cards for men so I'm really hoping that my friend likes this one. I am going to have to practice making some masculine themed cards so that I've got some to fall back on in the future. For this one I have used pool party for the background but I think it would work equally well with smokey slate or basic gray.

The background piece for this card has been embossed using the arrows TIEF and then stuck on using Stampin' Dimensionals so that it doesn't look all lumpy where the bakers twine wraps around the edge of the card. The sentiment is from Tag Talk and I have used the co-ordinating punch in order to cut it out neatly, this is also stuck on using dimensionals. I do like making nice simple cards sometimes as you get a good result relatively quickly.

Supplies:

All supplies are from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated.

Stamps: Tag Talk

Card: Whisper White and Pool Party

Inks: Island Indigo

Tools and Embellishments: Arrows TIEF, Silver bakers twine, Stampin' Dimensionals and Bracket Label Punch

If you would like to order any Stampin' Up! products feel free to contact me using the details at the top of the page or alternatively you can order from Stampin' Up! directly using the button on the right remembering to find my name in the demonstrator list before completing your purchase!