WWYS - Going Global

Morning all, I hope you're having a good week? It seems like a bit of a long one to me but it's not been too bad. I had better warn you now this is a bit of a photo heavy post, sorry! As I said on Tuesday I do love a good challenge blog and I have stumbled across a new one. It's called What will you stamp? and the idea is that each week a different Stampin' Up! set is chosen and the challenge is to use that stamp set. I think this is a great idea as I have so many stamp sets that I bought because I really liked them and then have either used them once or not at all. This weeks challenge is to use the retiring set Going Global, this is actually one of my favourite sets and I'm so sad to see it leaving. I think it is great for those hard to make masculine cards, so if you like it make sure you grab it quickly!

There are so many possibilities with this set and I really love the 'You are my greatest adventure' sentiment and think it goes really well with the compass. Here is what I came up with:

I often find that when I finish a card I either love it or think it's a bit rubbish, this was one of the rare occasions where I really loved the finished result! The strip of marble effect paper down the middle is just gorgeous and the wink of stella on the compass just finishes it off nicely. It's not often that I brag about one of my own cards but I really do love this one.  

The marble effect paper was made using shaving foam and re-inkers. I have to admit I bought the re-inkers because I thought I should. Most of my pads have never needed re-inking as they last so well hence why I have been looking for other things I can do with them. This is why I tried out the floating re-inker technique on a previous post (click here to see it) and why I have tried out the shaving foam technique on this card. Yet another technique that I can't believe I haven't done before.

As you can see from the above photo it is so so easy! First you spread shaving foam (must be foam not gel) onto a flat surface, I used a plate, and spread it out until it's roughly flat. Then add a few drops of your chosen re-inkers and swirl together with something thin, I would suggest the thin end of a paintbrush. Don't swirl them too much otherwise you end up just mixing the colours together. Place your card stock in the foam and gently pat down over the entire surface. Using tweezers take the card out of the foam and wipe the shaving foam off. I would suggest leaving it for a couple of mins first so the ink doesn't smudge. Then leave to dry and you end up with a gorgeous marble effect!

I hope you like my card as much as I do and thank you for stopping by to read my blog. If you wanted any of the supplies to make this card then please use the links below to go straight through to my online shop.

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: