Retiring Stampin’ Up Stamps

It’s that time of the year again when Stampin’ Up decides what products are going to be retired. Since there are more then just a few please go here http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/CategoryPage.aspx?categoryID=920 to view all the retired products.

PS. Rosemary is recovering fine after her surgery!

April Stamp Camp Date Change

A funny thing happened yesterday!  I had X-rays of my knees done and discovered that my left knee revision of 2009 has displaced.  This explains my moans and groans when I sit down, stand up, and walk.  An angel was on my shoulder while I was at my orthopedic surgeon’s office as within 4 hours they had diagnosed the problem, found a surgery cancellation opening for Thursday April 12th, walked me thru Central DuPage surgical scheduling, pre-op counseling, labs, EKG, and even found a wonderful internist who remained in his office on Good Friday afternoon until I could get there and he could do a pre-op physical.  So, we are cancelling April Stamp Camp as I will be in the hospital.  Instead, we will be doing these wonderful cards at the May Stamp Camp on May 4th and 5th.

I will share the Tea Shoppe and Gnome cards after I return from the hospital.  Mark your calendars now for May Stamp Camp on May 4th and 5th.  I am asking for your thoughts and prayers during my hospital stay and recovery. 

Blessings to you all, Rosemary – 630-759-3089

Beautiful Flowers

I totally forgot to share the beautiful flowers I received from my hubby today – our 25th Wedding Anniversary.  I received beautiful earrings from Jared’s with black diamonds and silver, and these gorgeous flowers.  Of course, I do have to give some of the credit to Karen’s Floral Touch.  I was Karen’s original mentor in the floral design business back in my flowery days.  I have a wonderful husband and a very creative florist friend.  There are so many beautiful flowers in this arrangement – Bells of Ireland, tulips, iris, roses, lilies, carnations, heather, and some tiny white florets that I don’t recognize.  I hope you enjoy these pictures.  Blessings, Rosemary

     

My Digital System card for April Stamp Camp

  

So remember the My Digital System card I showed yesterday?  This is the finished version after I added my creative touches.  I think, however, I will move my frog a bit more to the right when I do my next sample, and perhaps add a bit more brown Stampin’ Pastels.  The flowers are in Red Hood and More Mustard.  A small punched circle of basic black cs is the center of the mustard flower.  Black brads hold the medium flowers together and serve as a spiffy center.  I used a basic black Stampin’ Write marker to make tiny black centers in the small flowers on the left.  Crystal Effects highlight the “Birthday Banter” frog’s big lips and eyelids.  I also used Crystal Effects on the frog spots of the remaining two frogs as an accent.  A die-cut Framelit serves as the message placeholder.  I used the message that accompanies the frog in the “Birthday Banter” set:  “We may not be tadpoles anymore, but at least we haven’t croaked!”  The card looks much more difficult than it really is as the background, stems and 2 smaller frogs are already printed on your card stock.  I have stamped some of the flowers so they are ready for punching and adhering to your card front.  Of course, you may choose to use colors other than Red Riding Hood and More Mustard, and that is fine!

This is just one of the 4 cards we will be doing at the April 11th and 12th Spring Flowers Stamp Camp.  Check back in a day or two to see the next card using the beautiful Tea Shoppe stamp set.  We will be using tea stain on the tea card! 

Blessings, Rosemary – 630-759-3089

My Digital Studio, Birthday Cards, and a Ribbon Technique

     I tend to put family cards – birthday, anniversary, etc. – off until the very last second (sometimes PAST the very last second!)  So last month, I pulled up My Digital Studio (MDS) to do a quickie birthday card.  Of course if you are going to do 1 card, you  might as well do 4 as you can place a  4 X 5 1/4 design X 4 on a piece of 8 1/2 X 11 card stock.  This was the end result:

This was actually a card front that is a “stock” item in MDS.  I loaded it up, placed it X4 on my screen and printed 1 sheet of card stock.  As you can see, I did the 3 cards above each a little different – different background paper, different ribbon, different accessories.  My fourth cards features a ribbon treatment I had read about but never tried using the wonderful seam binding ribbon.    

I started by laying a piece of sticky strip the width of the card on the area I wanted to place my ribbon treatment.  Then I cut about 2 1/2 X the width of the card in Certainly Celery seam binding and shredded both long ends about 2/3” in.  I started pulling several strands of the seam binding from the right long end, and pushed the gathers along as I continued to pull.  I found if you try to gather too tightly, the ribbon curls around itself which was not what I wanted to show on this card. Loose gathering worked much better.  When I had the length I wanted, I placed the gathered ribbon on the sticky strip and pressed firmly pulling excess around each side of the card and holding in place with sticky strip.  You can see how this ruffled effect changes the look of the card when compared to the 3 cards above.  Something else I did with the marvelous Stampin’ Up Framelits:

Rather than waste the outline of the Framelit, I used it as a “window” on one of the other cards.  You just need to center the die carefully on your card stock so that the sides are even.

So, you are probably thinking – Big Deal Rosemary – so you used your MDS!  Well, the frog card we are doing for the April 13th and 14th Spring Flowers Stamp Camp, will include a MDS printed background.  We will add the finishing touches.   

This is the base card.  So try to imagine what we will be doing to this by adding our own frog and meeting the theme of Spring Flowers.  I must admit that Deb and I could not agree on this project.  Her preference was that we stamp everything.  My feeling was that we could let MDS do part of the work for us, and our creative selves would finish up the card. 

Check back in a day or two to see the finished card.  Hope you can make it on April 13th and 14th.  Blessings, Rosemary  630.759.3089