A Fond Farewell to Beautiful Butterflies — Mother’s Day Box

I am going with a theme over the next week — A Fond Farewell to ______.  I’ll show projects that use retiring products that I love.  I don’t mind it when Stampin’ Up! retires products because it forces me to remove them from my craft space to make room for fun new products.  However, there are always a few things that make me a little sad to see on the retiring list.

I’m featuring one of those products today — the Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die.

I decided that rather than make another decorated bag for one of our moms for Mother’s Day, I could fit a gift into one of the Kraft Gift Boxes. Now, I’ll have a gift bag and a box for my mom and my dh’s mom.  I love the size of these boxes, and they are so fun to decorate.

Mother's Day BoxI used some other retiring products on this gift bag –  the 5/8″ Victoria Crochet Trim (Why does this have to retire???  I love this stuff!), the 3/8″ Pistachio Pudding and Crisp Cantaloupe Ruffle Stretch Trim, a Pistachio Pudding Boutique Detail, and the 7/16″ Natural Trim Ribbon.  The dsp I used, Venetian Romance is also retiring.

Mother's Day Box Top ViewI used a sponge dauber to add a little bit of Crumb Cake ink to the Tea Lace Paper Doily to tone down the bright white look of it.  I embossed the Mother sentiment from Amazing Family (also retiring) with Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder.

Mother's Day Box Side ViewBecause I wanted the recipient to be able to open the box without having to mess up any of the decorations, I just draped a piece of the 7/8″ Cotton Ribbon down over the front of the box and sewed a Vintage Faceted Designer Button on with some Linen Thread.  This piece is only attached on the top of the box and hangs over the front of the box.

So what things are you sad to see on the retiring list?  Are you trying to use them again before they retire next month, too?  Enjoy your Thursday!  Thanks for stopping by!

Artisan Finalist Blog Hop — Day 8

2013artisanfinalistAWe are moving right along and are now on Day 8 of the blog hop for the Artisan Finalists who were not selected for the design team.  It’s been going by so fast — there has been a blur of eye-catching, spectacular projects these past few days.

Today I have a 3-D project for you.  We had to make two for our entry, and this one was my favorite.  I’m not sure what to call this one.  I have seen these before made out of tin or other types of metal, but I wanted to make mine out of paper.  I’ll call it a hanging pocket for flowers.

Artisan 3-D Hanging Flower BoxThis was definitely a trial-and-error kind of project.  Once I got the dimensions right for the project, it was easy — I was just able to have fun decorating it.  It’s hard to tell from the picture, but the sides form a “V” shape.  They start out wider at the top and taper to a point at the bottom.  I used lots of sticky strip to adhere everything together.

I started by sponging Whisper White Craft ink onto the Natural Composition Specialty dsp.  After assembling the pocket, I adhered the tiny pearls all the way around the pocket.  I don’t know about you, but I always have those three long strings of attached pearls left on my Pearl Basics Jewels sheets.  Since I hate to throw things away because one never knows when something might come in handy, I had several sheets left with just these rows.  They were put to use on this project, so it wasn’t as time consuming as one might think to attach all of the pearls.

Artisan 3-D Hanging Flower Close Up of Big FlowerTo make the big flower, I used some ribbon scraps and did lots of sponging and used gold smooch spritz (oh, how I miss that stuff!).  I dyed the flower trim for the center of the flower with the smooch spritz too.  I used lots of layers here.

Artisan 3-D Hanging Flower Close Up of TrimI layered some Crumb Cake Seam Binding Ribbon at the top, and then added some Flower Trim (which has also sadly been retired — I LOVED that stuff!), which I also lightly sponged with Crumb Cake ink.  I embossed the Friend banner with gold embossing powder.

Artisan 3-D Hanging Flower Close Up of FlowersAnd then I got to make the flowers.  I just love this color combination — Crumb Cake, Midnight Muse, Summer Starfruit and a touch of Gumball Green.  I inserted a piece of green flower foam in the pocket and used some green flower stems I found at the craft store.  I covered the foam with some of the First Edition Specialty dsp (another item I sorely miss), which I shredded and crumpled.

This was one of those rare projects that turned out exactly like I had envisioned before starting it.  I was able to finish it within one day, and I was sad to have to give it away.

Now you should hop on over to Breelin Renwick’s blog and check out her amazing project.  Or if you prefer, you can work your way backwards and go visit the fabulous Wendy Weixler.  Either way, you can work your way around to see all ten beautiful projects.

2013artfinalistback copy

2013artfinalistnext copy

Enjoy your Saturday evening!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Amazing Family
Ink:  Versamark, Whisper White Craft, Crumb Cake, Midnight Muse
Paper:  Very Vanilla, Natural Composition Specialty Designer Series Paper, First Edition Specialty Designer Series Paper, Comfort Café Designer Series Paper, 2012-2014 In Color Designer Series Paper Stack, Print Poetry Designer Series Paper Stack, Crumb Cake, Summer Starfruit, Midnight Muse
Accessories:  Tea Lace Paper Doilies, Paper Daisies, Blossom punch, 1-1/4” Scallop Circle punch, 5/8” Flower Trim, Gold Glow Smooch Spritz, Linen Thread, Natural 7/16” Trim Ribbon, Very Vanilla ½” Seam Binding Ribbon, Victoria 5/8” Crochet Trim, Summer Starfruit 3/8” Stitched Satin Ribbon,  Crumb Cake ½” Seam Binding Ribbon, ¾” Circle punch, Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons, Pearl Basic Jewels, flower stems (non-SU),  Scallop Edge Border punch, Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder

A Butterfly Birthday

Cheryl's Birthday

I made this card for one of my fellow demonstrator friends, who has a birthday today.  Even though we are separated by many miles, I always look forward to seeing her and other great Stampin’ Up friends at convention each year.  I hope you have a great day today, Cheryl!

This card features some of the new Gingham Garden washi tape, which will be available with the new catalog on May 31.

Have a great Monday!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  Bring on the Cake, Amazing Family
Ink:  Island Indigo, Pool Party
Paper:  Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Gingham Garden dsp (available May 31)
Embellishments:  Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch, Gingham Garden Designer Washi Tape (available May 31), Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack, 1/2″ Circle punch, Island Indigo Baker’s Twine, Pearl Basic Jewels, Elegant Butterfly punch

A Theme for Mom — PP144

It’s all about Mom today at the Paper Players.

Now, I know that Mother’s Day is next Sunday, but for those of us who need to get a card in the mail pretty soon in order for Dear Mom to receive her card on time, it’s a good thing that Anne Marie Hile made this challenge for us today.

doily mother's day copy

I was inspired by a picture of a beautiful shower curtain I saw in a Garnet Hill catalog recently.  I tore out the page and pasted it in my inspiration notebook.

garnet hill shower curtain

The gray on this card is actually one of the new colors, Smoky Slate.  It’s such a pretty gray.  It almost looks silver on the white card stock.

I hope you can make time to join us in the challenge at the Paper Players this week.  You need a Mother’s Day card anyway, right?  Go check out what the other talented designers made:

Enjoy your Sunday!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  Amazing Family, Hello Doily
Ink:  Smoky Slate (available May 31), Pool Party, Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Basic Gray
Paper:  Whisper White, Pool Party
Embellishments:  Tea Lace Paper Doilies, Pool Party Baker’s Twine, Color Spritzer Tool, Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons

Amazing Mother

Amzaing Mother

We’re doing a shoebox swap at a team meeting today, and this is the card I made for it.  It’s good to have a Mother’s Day card ready to go.  Now, if I can just remember to get it in the mail at the right time.  🙂

I was inspired by this card made by the very talented Mercedes Weber.  I made quite a few changes to it, but it was definitely my starting point and inspiration.

Have a great Saturday!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  Amazing Family
Ink:  Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Basic Black
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight, Very Vanilla, Pool Party, In-Color dsp stack
Embellishments:  Apothecary Accents Framelits, Daffodil Delight 1/4″ Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, Tea Lace Paper Doilies, 5/8″ Flower Trim, Bitty Butterfly punch, Elegant Butterfly punch, Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, Pearl Basic Jewels