Happy Home Watercoloured Duo & New Weekly Deals

Think these finish off the Happy Home series for now... another double scene for you...  

A couple of cards to show the difference between Whisper White and Shimmery White card for Aqua Painter watercolouring... 

The card to the left is on Shimmery White...subtle, smooth and slightly shimmery!

And the one to the right is on Whisper White... looked the same at the production/wet stage... but every brushstroke evident when dried... which gives its own effect... but we all much preferred the smoothness of the Shimmery White... 

And interestingly all my ladies last week preferred the Shimmery White over the Watercolor Paper too

And here are this week's Weekly Deals... very happy to see Perfect Pennants on there... a favourite amongst my ladies. My order going in early Friday if anything you want here and you can collect from me....

PS hopefully my posts are now back to their usual coffee time! February was a busy month - and a poorly me for over half of it!!

More CAS Corner Garden....

Continuing on with my theme of Corner Garden stamp set, embossing and keeping it clean & simple

Turning to silver this time... standard A6 card... standard medium mat...

First up  - just silver embossing the flowers and the wing tips of the butterfly.... rest of the butterfly in Soft Sky & Lost Lagoon... wording from Petite Pairs in Lost Lagoon

And then adding a bit of water colouring to those flowers with my Aquapainters and Soft Sky, Mint Macaron, Lost Lagoon & Crushed Curry inks, but keeping it VERY subtle! Also adding some ribbon and a different butterfly ...

Butterfly is stamped using Versamark ( using the 1st layer - or background - small butterfly stamp from Watercolor Wings), then silver embossed, then die cut - and finished off with a Lost Lagoon stamped body . Then that butterfly is layered on another plain die cut Mint Macaron butterfly underneath...

Both together again....

Wonder if you can tell which is my favourite flower - and which is my least!!!

How I shall miss thee! Retiring List Stamps Review

As promised…here is my review of stamps on this years Retired List that I shall sorely miss using…. click on the product picture to go straight to my store or click on the project picture to go to the relevant earlier blog post…

So not in any particular order…..

Around The World. Gosh this has had a lot of use for mini books & Project Life. Think this will probably be a keeper… Still available in wood and clear.

Apothecary Art. Used this set so much over the years…really sad to see it go… still available in Wood & Clear. Ooh… Wood only £2 more than clear. Though the co-ordinating Labels Collection Framelits now out of stock so gone forever… Can’t believe I didn’t blog these Diorama cards before…

Memorable Moments. Really great Numbers and Words set. Hope there is a good “replacement” for me in the new catty…… or these will have to be another keeper! Still available in both wood and clear – again wood mount less than £2 more than the clear now….

@So Social. Just really really surprised to see this go so soon… We have had great fun using this is in our Project Life sessions and on quite a few cards too… Think this may have to be a keeper for me actually!! Still available in both Wood & Clear.

Sorry no projects to share as I can’t find them in my Pictures folder… but I can share one of the cards in its previous form… and note that the Make Note Rotary stamp in that one has also retired… and now I have just realised why all my customers have rushed to buy this little stamp at just £2.75!! I think there may be a few of you that will need the Word Window punch now too!!

 

Embellished Events. Many of you will be surprised to see this on here… but I use this stamp set for my “Beginners” classes…as there are great images and words too… so one stamp set, a couple of inks and a bit of card mean ladies go away with a simple kit they can make cards etc with for so many occasions straightaway….and then forever more… Only left in Wood…

It really is a great little set… and used for some of my favourite cards – whether the very very simple ones or the easy but fancier… none of which I appear to have blogged before…..

 

Label Love – still available in Wood & Clear. Artisan Label punch retiring too…. but punch has already gone forever…

Petite Pairs… EDITED TO ADD… Appears this has had a reprieve – I can definitely see it in the new catty!!
I used this one SO much over the years. Though I am sure SU! will give me a good replacement in the new catty….. Still available in Wood and Clear mount. But no reduction on this one!

Wildflower Meadow So Sad! Still available in wood , clear and the embossing folder is still there too…

And lastly my one definite keeper – Dictionary – gone for good in stamp form – though still available as a MDS download… I really hope that there is a great new alternative to this stamp….

Remember my Convention swap card… which I naughtily nicknamed the car tax disc card!

And  the Too Kind stamps used here are also on the Retiring List… still available in Wood only… Definitely one I will miss…

And here was a CAS Christmas Santa’s List card that I don’t appear to have shared on here before…

So another bit of a trip down Memory Lane here… and as a result - unfortunately for me - now a few more stamp sets moving over to the Keep Box… Maybe Memory Lane is not such a good idea for me after all!!!

Sheltering Tree Tabbed Square Pop Out Swing Card aka Square Lever Card

A card challenge and a colour challenge here….

First the colour challenge…our lovely Team challenge setter, Julie Wade has been missing doing her colour combinations work for the team and so popped what she is currently using on our Team Page last Friday. Pistachio Pudding , Always Artichoke, Sahara Sand & Basic Black .

I took one look …and thought…WOW! So I rushed off to make a few cards… and … I love it… it really is an amazing combination Julie!! THANK YOU!

Then my card challenge… I have seen a few Pop Out Swing cards around on the Internet over the past couple of months – so I have had the card format pinned and on my To Do List for a while.

So I found my pinned projects- both by fellow SU! demos and both which have video tutorials – the first one by  Dawn Griffiths and the second by Julie Davison.

But these are for the standard US 8 1/2” x 11” cardstock. So I converted to  a size more suitable for our European A4. And made a sample… coming soon!

But something was not working for me…!! So I went back to the drawing board and searched around the internet a bit more… and found the Splitcoast Stampers Lever Card Tutorial by Laura Lipe. That card solved the bit that wasn’t working … so another sample…coming soon!

But then I decided I really wanted a large square card! So here it is… But actually with a completely different solution for the bit that was bothering me….!! More on that another day!!

Edited to Add... Click here for the Tutorial ...

Yes sorry… that is code for no tutorial today… as my back is still agony after about 10 minutes on the PC…. but I have a cunning plan come April…. so I hope that then I will be able to hit that backlog of Tutorials to share…. watch this space… and keep your fingers crossed…..

Presenting… the new Stampin’ Up! 2013-14 Annual Catalogue–and Grab Your Greetings promotion

Proud to present...... the new 2013-14 Annual Catalogue from Stampin’ UP!

Here is the link to the on line versions but for those of us that prefer the hard copy.... they are available at my Launch & BOGOF events over the next week – or can be collected for £4 or posted for £7.50.  Just contact me to arrange yours! (note these prices cover copies of the Autumn Winter catty due out 1^st Sept and Spring Sumer catty due out 1^st Jan too)

For those of you plotting your Christmas cards…. and that panic over the lack of Christmas stamps in this catalogue….. Note that there are some carryover Christmas items shown there as a separate link too……. and remember that the Autumn Winter catalogue will be released from 1st September.

And if that is not enough for today..... we also have a fantastic new GRAB YOUR GREETINGS promotion for July only.... which I know will please many of you ....as there are 3 VERY POPULAR greetings sets at 25% off.... ( that many of you have been itching to get!! And which are 3 out of the 4 of my most used sets.....) namely SASSY SALUTATIONS, SWEET ESSENTIALS & PETITE PAIRS.... images shown below....

For those of you local & wanting to avoid the extra P&P charges….my next planned order will be placed 13 July......

And finally ....as there are a number of live Stampin’ UP! promotions at present.... I have added a new Current Promotions page to my blog to sum them all up!! Grab Your Greetings, Best of Butterflies, Best of Flowers and Single Stamps Assortment 1