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.

I 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.

I 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.

Because 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!