Farewell Fancy Fan

Another line of products that found it's way on to the retiring list this week was the Letter Press Plates for the Big Shot.  So, as a tribute to the Fancy Fan plate, and to the retiring In-Colours, I designed this dramatic card.

Any-occasion card featuring the Fancy Fan Letter Press plate, the Summer Solstice (not retiring!) stamp set with sentiment from Fifth Avenue Floral.

I have to say I am going to really miss Poppy Parade and Concord Crush.  They are such rich, saturated colours and are so striking when paired together!  Here is how I put this card together...
Starting with a piece of concord crush card stock, I ran it through my Big Shot using the Fancy Fan Letter Press Plate that had been inked with Versamark.  I then covered the entire surface of the card stock with clear embossing powder and heat embossed it.  The result is stunning!  Gluing that to a mat of poppy parade card stock, I then stamped the flower image in black Staz-On on watercolour paper.  Masking the flower, I then stamped the leaves.  Removing the mask, I coloured the stamped images using my poppy parade, more mustard and lucky limeade markers.  I had originally planned to watercolour the image, but wanted the rich, vibrant colour afforded by the markers.  After colouring the image, I then fussy cut it out.  I adhered some leftover Sale-a-bration ribbon in lucky limeade to the card front, adhered the flower with dimensionals and then tied a double bow and adhered it with a glue dot.  The sentiment is stamped in concord crush on very vanilla card stock and then punched out with the decorative label punch.  The entire card front is adhered to a concord crush card base.  Simple and elegant...how I'll miss these products!  However, I KNOW the new catalogue will be chock full of fabulous new items that will make me forget all about them!  May 7th (the date that we demonstrators get to see the online version of the new catty) can't come soon enough!!  Are you itching to get your hands on the new catty?  If so I can have one mailed to you FOR FREE!!  Just drop me an email with your mailing info and I would be happy to have one sent out to you before it goes live.  That way you can make your wish list and be ready to order come June 1st.
On another note...there are only three days left to order from the Occasions Mini!  If you still have items on your wishlist from the best mini catalogue ever, you had better get to ordering.  The last day to order is April 30th.

Farewell to Fifth Avenue

Today's post is another in my series of Fond Farewells.  This time we're bidding adieu to Fifth Avenue Floral.  This was the very FIRST stamp set I ever bought.  I purchased it to use for my brother's wedding invitations, which I volunteered to make after having tried stamping for all of 10 minutes!  I had no idea what I was getting myself into!  Suffice to say this stamp set has been VERY well used!  The design for this card was inspired by a contest winner in a recent issue of Stampin' Success, our demonstrator magazine.  Check this out...

Simple Thank you card featuring the Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set and sentiment from Sincere Salutations

Pretty simple, eh?  This card took me less than 10 minutes to create.  I started with the rich razzleberry card base and then stamped the flower image in Versamark.  I then heat embossed the images using melon mambo embossing powder.  I added a bit of ribbon, the sentiment, stamped in rich razzleberry ink and viola...quick and easy card.  Of course, I couldn't resist doing a little something on the inside, so I stamped the same floral image in melon mambo ink on a piece of whisper white cardstock and adhered it inside the card.  Although this stamp set will disappear from the catalogue come June 1st, it is one I will most certainly keep in my stash...it's just too pretty to let go!

Embossed roses for MU5

I am SOOOO glad to have a heat tool again!  My order arrived and in it was my brand new Stampin' Up! heat tool.  It is super!  Heats up fast...way quicker than my now dead non-SU model.  So, I had to put it to work on a card for this weeks Friday Mashup challenge.  Here is the challenge:

and here is my doubly embossed card:

Card for MU5 using Fifth Avenue Floral, Four Frames and Just Because stamp sets

If you're wondering why most of my cards are "Thank You" ones, it is because I am heading toward the end of both the school year and the Stampin' Up year.  I will be needing TONS of thank you cards over the next few months, so many of my samples will be of a thankful nature.  This card could work for just about any occasion (expect maybe Christmas!), so just imagine an alternate sentiment if you'd like.  Here is how I put this card together.
Starting with a piece of watercolour paper, I stamped the rose image three times using Versamark.  I then heat embossed it using the new melon mambo embossing powder.  Then I took my aquapainter and watercoloured the roses using rose red ink...did you know that colour is pretty much a richer, more saturated shade of melon mambo?  I then set the roses aside to dry.  While that was happening I took a 5" x 3 3/4" piece of very vanilla cardstock and ran it through my Big Shot using my perfect polka dots folder.  I layered it on a 5 3/8" x 4 1/8" piece of Woodland Walk DSP.  I then adhered the now-dry roses in the upper left corner.  I wrapped a piece of rose red seam binding around the corner and then threaded a big designer button with another piece of seam binding before adhering to the cardfront.  I adhered the whole thing to a garden green cardbase.  For the sentiment, I stamped the polka dotted frame from the Four Frames set in wild wasabi on a scrap of very vanilla.  I then stamped the thank you from the Just Because level one hostess set in rose red and punched it out with my decorative label punch.  I layered it with another decorative label in wild wasabi and then adhered it to the card using dimensionals.  The final touch was a few basic pearls to highlight the sentiment.

So there you have it:  a pretty, feminine card for someone special!