Retiring Products and Accessories

There are more retiring products to tell you about. These two lists are pretty long (and I'll admit to being a little more than confused ...) The new catalogue must be full of aMAZing new products as there are TONS of awesome products being retired or re-vamped.

First up is the Retiring Definitely Decorative list. ALL the Decor Elements products are going! There are some beautiful decals here that won't be available after June 1 so snap them up now! Here is a PDF with the list of products on it and here is a link to my on-line store where you can purchase these items now.

Next up is the SUPER LONG list of Retiring Accessories. I was expecting the 2010-2012 In Colours papers and accessories to go but I must admit I was not expecting some of the other items. Here is the PDF link for that list as well as a link for my on-line store. They have separate sections for each category of retiring products so take a moment and browse around.

Have fun shopping!

Retiring Stamps

Today Stampin' Up! released their list of retiring stamp sets. It's pretty long! I was initially surprised that they would be getting rid of so many stamp sets but with the new, smaller catalogue being launched in June a complete refresh was in order. Click on the icon on my sidebar to be taken directly to my website so you can browse through the retiring sets. You've got until May 31st to snap them up before they disappear forever!

Iron Stamper winner

As promised, I have drawn a winner from all the comments on my Iron Stamper series. There were a total of 17 comments so I went over to Random.org and the lucky winner is ...

#3 on my list was ... NANCY ... with the comment "Lovely! I really like the doily stamp and the crochet flower :)"

Congratulations Nancy! Please email me (alisonday at eastlink dot ca) with your mailing address so I can get some goodies off to you!!

I'll be back tomorrow with something new to share. Have a great night!

Project 12 Layout for March 2012

Here is my latest installment in my Project 12 album - a bit later than I had originally planned to post it but I blame Catching Fire. If you haven't read the Hunger Games series ... be warned. Once you get sucked in, all else gets put on the back burner! Now I really need to get book #3 back!! Monday's another holiday after all!
But, back to the business at hand ... if you're interested in seeing my P12 layouts from January and February please click on the links. This month I am using this sketch from Pagemaps March 2012 sketches.

Sometimes I use the sketch literally and sometimes it is more of a spring board for my own inspiration. Here is where this sketch took me this month.

I have a little problem with wanting to use more photos than a sketch calls for .. I'm sure there are therapy groups for it! 

This month I am using Beyond The Garden Designer Series Paper. (I am working on another little project using this DSP which I hope to have ready to post soon. It's super cute - you don't want to miss it!) You really need to click on the link and check out all the fun patterns and colours in this line. I decided that the blue and yellow complimented the colours from my pictures and then accented with pops of Melon Mambo.

And now for the close ups, starting with the left hand page.

And then the right hand side. 

And finally the embellishments.

I created the flowers using my Blossom Punch, 1-3/8" Circle Punch and 1" Circle Punch plus some buttons from the Neutrals Collection. Underneath are some different coloured doilies. I cut these out using my Paper Doily Sizzlet Die in shades of Whisper White, Daffodil Delight and Melon Mambo for my other project which only required the centre portions so I used the outer portion to embellish this layout. Pays to be a pack rat at times!

The title uses more of my Alphabet Soup On Board letters which I inked up with Melon Mambo. It's a bit hard to see but I used my Calendar Alphabet & Numbers stamp set to stamp the year.

Under this flower I used a small piece of 1/2" Scallop Dots ribbon in Melon Mambo. I also used it to add a knot detail (see below.)

The extra doilies came in handy to accent this picture of Marley's latest lost tooth.

Hope you enjoy it. Have a great Easter Weekend everyone!

Up, Up & Away Cards for All Ages

I've mentioned my Birthday Cards for All Ages class and if you've visited my Events Page or Event Brite site you may have seen a sneak peak of the type of cards we will be making. Here's a closer look at the stamp set we'll be using.

I have really tried to think outside the box, as well as come up with some fun cards that use the images in a more traditional fashion. Here's what you can make next Friday April 13th (I know, I know, Friday the 13th ...)

Make any 3 of these cards for $10.00 - additional card kits can be purchased for $3.00 each. Please visit either of the links above to register. Hope to see you there!

Happy Birthday Christine!

It is Greg's sister Christine's birthday today. Her 40th! Now don't tell her, but we are meeting up later for dinner!! Here's what I have for her.

The colour scheme was inspired by this Stampin' Royalty challenge picture. I translated the colours into Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight, Lucky Limeade and a little bit of Always Artichoke. I used a card base of Very Vanilla and made a frame using my Labels Collection Framelits. All edges were inked with Soft Suede to give a slight vintage look.

The rolled flowers came about because of this post on Scrapbook & Cards Today and I am really happy with them. I've attempted them before but never been happy with how they looked. For whatever reason, this time they turned out! Here's a closer look at them. 

Clearly, this is not a card you can put into the mail so it's a good thing we will be seeing her in person!

The sentiment is from Create a Cupcake and I had a bit of fun with Christine on the inside. My pictures didn't turn out but inside I used the candle image 41 times (one for luck, you know!) and the sentiment "It's not about how many candles you blow out but how many cupcakes you get!"

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great long weekend everyone!

Sweet Shop, Buttons and Balloons

As promised, here is the card I made for my husband's "graduating" soccer player. Yesterday I showed you the one I made for her Mom (see it here.) 

As this card was for a 6 year old girl, I knew I wanted it to be fun. What's more fun than candy? The Sweet Shop DSP in the Occasions Mini is perfect for making fun cards. Here's what I came up with.

The card base is Whisper White card stock onto which I've layered pieces of  Lucky Limeade and Wisteria Wonder card stock and then two different patterns from the Sweet Shop Specialty Designer Series Paper. I stamped images from Button, Button in Island Indigo, Calypso Coral and Pool Party then used a matching brad from the Printed 2011 In Color Designer Brad collection to jazz it up a bit. The last little bit of detail is the Lucky Limeade 3/8" Ruffled ribbon I attached to each side of the button strip.

Here's a close up of that ribbon and the stamped button strip.

Inside the card I wanted a sentiment that reflected Greg's feelings of "wishing her well in her future endeavors". Since I didn't have anything  that said that specifically, I went with this sentiment and some images from Up, Up & Away.

My Birthday Cards for All Ages class on April 13th will be featuring this stamp set and I have been having fun creating all sorts of examples. Please head on over to my Events page to get more details on the class and to RSVP. Use your coupon - if you got one! If you want to be in the running to get future coupons take a moment now to put your email address into the box on your right and get my monthly newsletter. You'll get  tips, sneak peaks and first dibs on all my classes so sign up today!

Mixed Bunch Cased Card

Today I want to show you how you can take a card that someone else has made and make it your own.

We've all been there. You need a card but the inspiration well is dry. Staring at all your beautiful products just seems to make it worse. Where to begin?

This was the situation I faced this past Saturday. My husband had invited the families of our two oldest girls' soccer teams over for an End of Season BBQ (in the pouring rain ... but I digress). He's coached our girls since Marley started playing 3 years ago and this year he is saying good bye to one particular player who he has coached for 2 years - first with Marley's team and then with Paige's team. Her mother has also been an integral part of the team, as Assistant Coach and General All-around Go-to Person, so he asked me to make a Thank You card for her. Two hours before the party started! Now, I am a BIG proponent of the Quick Card but pulling off 3 cards (one for her, one for her daughter and then another for the Team Manager of the other team) in that amount of time while still finishing the prep for the party was a bit much.

My fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrators to the rescue! We regularly meet and swap cards so I just looked at my Swaps Board, picked one then went hunting for similar products. This one is by Maureen Pollock (I looked to see if she had a site you could check out but can't find one - sorry.)

And this was what I came up with.

I started with a piece of Calypso Coral card stock and layered a piece from the Everyday Enchantment DSP pack from the Sale-a-Bration promotion. (I know that's all over with now but I've still got some and it was really nice stuff so it's just going to creep into the odd project or two!) I embossed an image from Mixed Bunch with White Embossing powder and then used my Blossom punch to create the 3 flowers. The sentiment is from Thank You Kindly and is also embossed in white.

Here's a close up of the embossed flowers. I added a Large Pearl jewel accent to the middle of the middle flower and tied a piece of (now no longer available) Calypso Coral 1/8" Organdy Ribbon around the whole grouping.

Inside I embossed a couple images from Flight of the Butterfly.

Tomorrow I'll show you the one I made for her daughter. It features the stamp set I'll be high lighting in my Birthday Cards for All Ages class on the 13th - more details tomorrow.

Hope you're having a great Tuesday. I've now got to organize a birthday party and find a babysitter for Thursday night! Gack!!

New Class - Mother's Day Gift Box Set

Come on out and create this gorgeous gift box display for your Mom.


As a Mother myself I know how much we do for our families and am always in awe of all MY Mum did for me. I lost her at the age of 14 and gained a new Mom who is equally dedicated, loving and supportive. I do have problems coming up with what to give her each year though. As a recipient now of many a hand made item, and as an avid Crafter myself (shocking, I know), I turn to what I know and love to inspire me. This year, Ina will be receiving these little boxes filled with her favourite goodies (Licorice All Sorts!).

How about  you? Wouldn't YOUR Mom appreciate receiving these from you this year? 

Cost - $15.00
Includes: all supplies necessary to make the boxes in the picture above.
Does NOT include: goodies to go inside the boxes!!
Please bring your own scissors, bone folder and adhesives. 

IMPORTANT: RSVP by April 11, 2012 otherwise I can not guarantee I will have enough product to go around! You can RSVP on my website if you plan to pay by cheque or cash or use my Eventbrite site if you'd like to pay by credit card. I will ONLY be ordering enough product for those registered so be sure to sign up early to avoid disappointment!

No matter how old we are we still need to show our love and appreciation for all our Mom's do and have done for us over the years. This box set can be used as Home Decor to remind your Mom how much you love her after the goodies you fill it up with are long gone. These boxes are food safe so fill them up with your Mom's favourite chocolates, cookies, candies or anything else she would love.

Hope to see you there!

PS - If you can't make it but would still like to make this gift set, you can purchase the supplies to make it yourself along with my Step-by-Step instructions for $10.00. This will NOT include the stamped or embossed images though. I encourage you to use your own supplies of stamps and punches to make it your own or order what you need from me.

Iron Stamper - Saving the Best for Last?

Well, I'm not sure if it's the best of all the projects I made for the competition but it's pretty unique. Take a look  and judge for yourself.

I really wanted to make an Easter card but have no Easter stamp sets so I had to think outside the box. In yesterday's post I extolled the virtues of the simple card - giving something is better than spending so much time making a card than you end up not giving because you've missed the event! I still firmly believe that but to make this card I had to throw out that mentality and GO BIG! I will say that if you are going to go to this much effort with each and every card, you'd better be planning WELL in advance. Something I am not always so good at!

How I made this card: I started with a card base (regular size of 4-1/4" x 5-1/2") of Blushing Bride which I ran through my Big Shot using the Labels Collections Framelits Dies being careful to make sure the card still had a folded edge. I then ran a piece of Whisper White card stock through the Big Shot using the next smaller size Labels Framelits and inked the edges. To create the grass I first used my Woodgrain Background stamp on a piece of Lucky Limeade Textured card stock and then cut it out with the same size Framelit I just used for the Whisper White. I figured out where I wanted it to be on my card and trimmed it to size before using my snips to cut the "grass" fringe. I love these scissors for making super precise, super sharp cuts!

Next was the sun. Quite simply I used my 1-3/8" Circle punch and then cut random "rays" from the same piece of Daffodil Delight card stock. Once I'd adhered them I felt it needed some dimension so I used my Stampin' Write markers to add life to the sun. Next time I would do this step ahead of time because in the process I made a boo-boo on the white back ground. But, since there are no mistakes in paper crafting only "opportunities for embellishment" I stamped out a little bird from the (now gone forever - so sad!) Elementary Elegance stamp set, cut it out and covered up my mistake.

Then I tackled my basket. I will not bore you with the details of how to make this basket (maybe I'll save it for a class or something) but needless to say it was actually pretty easy. 1/4" strips of Chocolate Chip card stock, some patience and a good strong adhesive and Voila! The eggs were another challenge. I don't have an oval shaped punch (now on my wish list!) so I had to cut them free hand. I used my Circle Circus stamp set to create the back grounds and then just cut away. One is adhered directly to the back of the basket and the rest are popped up with Dimensionals. The stuffing is simply some Vellum paper which I ran trough my Crimper and then cut into 1/4" strips. 

I felt the basket needed one last embellishment so I took one of the medium sized Paper Daisies, lightly dipped it in my Blushing Bride ink and then scrunched it up a bit to make it smaller and more layered. To finish it I added one of the Large Pearls.

Phew! That was a lot of talk about a single card!!

This is the last post in my Iron Stamper series. I do hope you've enjoyed it. Do you like seeing a series of projects using the same group of products? Please leave me a comment and perhaps I'll do more of this in the future. Suggestions of product lines or stamp sets would be appreciated. Remember, all comments left on this series will enter you into the draw for a prize. I'll give you all a week to make comments and draw a winner on next Sunday (Easter Sunday!!)

For those of you who received my newsletter today I look forward to seeing you when you cash in your coupon! Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone!