Retiring Pennants Parade

I hope you ordered all you needed while the shipping was free this week and before the things you wanted sold out.  I hope I did too!!  Stampin' Up has been really hustling this week in getting the packages shipped out.  I put two orders in on Monday and one on Tuesday.  I received one of the orders today and the other two will arrive on Monday!  Usually they take several days longer than that.  And I placed an order late this afternoon and it is already in "picking" so I should get it sometime next week.  

I pulled out my retiring stamps from my current collection today and went through my retiring stamps and really cleared a lot of them out.  I will be putting them in the used stamp sale Saturday, May 3 at Stampers Alley in Mooresville.  Now I just have to sit down and price them - the part I don't like to do since it is not an exact science.  I had so many retired stamps that I haven't wanted to part with but I am just running out of space and I really don't use them that much anymore.

Here are a few cards made with some retiring items.

This card uses the following retired items:

• Gumball Green card stock
• Pennants Parade stamp set
• Gumball Green Dahlias
• Itty Bitty Punch pack (I'm really going to miss it!)
• Houndstooth  embossing folder
• Ink for pennants:  Midnight Muse, Summer Starfruit, Primrose Petals

Another card using Pennants Parade

The card above is one I received in a swap.  Unfortunately, I don't know whose card it is but it is a great one!  The Lattice Die is the retiring items in this one.  I'm holding on to my die because I like it so much.

This is a simple card to make but makes a big Wow!  I either got this in a swap or shoebox - can't remember!  The embossing folders - Flower Garden and Stripes - are both retiring.

I'm really struggling with my vision.  On the days I play cards - Hand and Foot, bridge, mahjongg - my eyes get sooo tired they almost hurt.  Today was Hand & Foot.  I go back and forth between using my readers and no glasses so don't know which is the best.  I am not supposed to go back to my eye doctor until June but I think I will be going sooner than that and see about getting some glasses.

March Stamp Club Cards

I am waiting for my Tuesday Stamp Club gals.  They should be arriving in about an hour.  So, I thought I would share the cards we will be making.  I am concentrating on Easter and will let them choose which ones they want to make this month.

Using the Single Stamp - Ears to You and Melon Mambo ink - easy one.

Easel Card

 The Easel Card will be the most difficult for them to make but it is really easy when you figure it all out.  I used Blush Bossom card stock (retired).  The Cross is made from the Lattice Die (Elegant Eggplant).  The leaves are punched with the Bird Punch.  I used Nestabilities for the oval and ran it through the Dotted Embossing Folder.  The flower in the center is from the Flower Trim in the mini catalog (pg. 5).  I love these flowers!  They come in Vanilla but it is so easy to die them.  You can color them with markers or reinkers or just smush them into your ink pad.  For the ones we are using today, I just cut about 12 flowers from the card and sprayed them with a mixture of rubbing alcohol and 5-6 drops of reinker.  I mixed it up in my Stampin' Spritzers (big catalog, pg 179).  They are a good deal - you get 2 bottles for $2.95.  I have several that I have mixed different colors into. 

Easter Blessings is also a Single Stamp in the mini catalog (pg 24) as are the doilies (pg  5).  Another deal!  24 doilies for $2.95!  I used a background from A Good Egg stamp (retired) on the Eggplant card.

This card makes me smile and think of SPRING!

 I am trying to make the best of the Sale-a-bration stamps - only a few more days!!  This one uses Bloomin' Marvelous.  I stamped the flowers in some retiring in-colors - Island Indigo, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade and non retiring, Summer Starfruit.  I cut 1" of the Sale-a-bration DSP for the bottom and wrapped a small piece of ribbon around it.  My club ladies will be able to choose from the ribbon from Sale-a-bration - Pool Party, Is. Indigo or Calypso Coral.

Another Sale-a-bration - my favorite!  This one is Feeling Sentimental and I thought the That's the Ticket stamp went with it perfectly!

For this card I used the Natural Composition DSP.  Wow!  I just got this DSP - don't know what took me so long.  It's great - it is a heavy weight paper and the patterns are already embossed on the paper and glossy.  I sponged Soft Suede around the edges and sponged Vanilla on the center of the paper and made that embossing POP!