Retired Accessories

The list of retired accessories was announced today. Remember these items are only available while supplies last. So if there's something on the list you're thinking about - act now! The few items listed in red are no longer avaiable already!

This list gets updated daily but isn't listed on the customer website so contact me soon to place your order.

Item # Product Description
109198 Accents & Elements Borders & Blossoms
109199 Accents & Elements Little Reminders 2
109197 Accents & Elements Tagged
100700 Album Leather Post Black 8-1/2x11
105385 Album Linen Post Mellow Moss 8-1/2x11
104520 Album Linen Post Natural 8-1/2x11
104517 Album Linen Post Navy 8-1/2x11
105382 Album Linen Post Real Red 8-1/2x11
105392 Album Linen Ring Mellow Moss 8-1/2x11
104510 Album Linen Ring Natural 8-1/2x11
104513 Album Linen Ring Navy 8-1/2x11
105388 Album Linen Ring Real Red 8-1/2x11
105067 Boxes & Tags Pockets & Pieces Assortment I
105068 Boxes & Tags Pockets & Pieces Assortment II
108798 Boxes & Tags Tiny Takeout Confetti White
107246 Boxes & Tags Tiny Takeout Kraft
105747 Boxes Stamp & Supply Extra Large
105748 Boxes Stamp & Supply Extra Large Divided
105744 Boxes Stamp & Supply Extra Small
105749 Boxes Stamp & Supply Jumbo
105734 Boxes Stamp & Supply Large
105746 Boxes Stamp & Supply Medium
105745 Boxes Stamp & Supply Small
101052 Brayer Attachment Foam
107293 Cards & Envelopes Greeting Very Vanilla Medium
109149 Designer Series Paper Brocade Background
109161 Designer Series Paper Cerise
109162 Designer Series Paper Charbon
109155 Designer Series Paper Creepy Crawley
109152 Designer Series Paper Darling Doodles
109150 Designer Series Paper Dashing
108503 Designer Series Paper Petals & Paisleys
109156 Designer Series Paper Linen Prints
109147 Designer Series Paper Notations No. 2
109148 Designer Series Paper Outlaw
109158 Designer Series Paper Uptown
109157 Designer Series Paper Wintergreen
107285 Envelopes Open End Very Vanilla Large
107284 Envelopes Open End Whisper White Large
107296 Envelopes Shimmery White Medium
107287 Envelopes Square Vellum Large
107310 Envelopes Square Very Vanilla Mini
107294 Envelopes Vellum Medium
107290 Envelopes Very Vanilla Large
107291 Envelopes Whisper White Large
101016 Eyelet Tool Kit
105317 Eyelets Bold Brights II
105379 Eyelets Silver
105315 Eyelets Soft Subtles II
107282 Fancy Fibers Bella
107283 Fancy Fibers Elizabeth
103352 Stampin' Glitter Romantic Red
103349 Stampin' Glitter Silver Shine
106650 Greeting Glue
102620 Liquid Glue - SOLD OUT
103145 Page Protectors Post 8-1/2x11
104523 Page Protectors Ring 8-1/2x11
103598 Paper Vellum 12x12
105543 Pastel Refills Bold Brights
105544 Pastel Refills Earth Elements
105547 Pastel Refills Neutrals - SOLD OUT
105545 Pastel Refills Rich Regals
105546 Pastel Refills Soft Subtles
105962 Perfect Layers Tool
104184 Post Extenders - SOLD OUT
106522 Punch Spring Bouquet Flower
109722 Simply Scrappin' Creative License Hostess Level 1
109611 Simply Scrappin' Happy Me Hostess Level 3
109596 Simply Scrappin' Out & About
109626 Simply Scrappin' Primary Colors
109649 Simply Scrappin' Round Up
109635 Simply Scrappin' Secret Garden
109663 Simply Scrappin' Winter Bright
107415 Simply Sent Friendship Shapes
109230 Simply Sent Happy Day
105580 Spectrum Pad Blue Frost
101492 Spectrum Pad Celebration
105579 Spectrum Pad Cotton Candy
101336 Spectrum Pad Pumpkin Patch
100000 Spectrum Pad Un-inked
103953 Stamp-a-ma-jig Imaging Sheets Refill
104432 Stampin' Around Cartridge & Ink Refill Clear Embossing
101460 Stampin' Around Cartridge & Ink Refill Whisper White
102391 Stampin' Around Ink Refill Clear Embossing
103017 Stampin' Around Ink Refill Whisper White
103151 Stampin' Emboss Powder Hologram Highlights
105677 Stampin' Kids Pad Bear Brown
105676 Stampin' Kids Pad Beetle Black
105675 Stampin' Kids Pad Boxcar Blue
105674 Stampin' Kids Pad Gumball Green
105673 Stampin' Kids Pad Poppin' Purple
105672 Stampin' Kids Pad Princess Pink
105671 Stampin' Kids Pad Robin Red
105670 Stampin' Kids Pad Yahoo Yellow
103174 Stampin' Pastel Applicators
100852 Stampin' Pastel Erasers
100081 Stampin' Write Marker Going Gray
100945 StazOn Ink Refill Timber Brown
103088 StazOn Pad Timber Brown
107235 Tag Sheets Bold Brights
107239 Tag Sheets Confetti White & Kraft
107236 Tag Sheets Earth Elements
107240 Tag Sheets Kraft
107237 Tag Sheets Rich Regals
107238 Tag Sheets Soft Subtles
100894 Watercolor Brush Flat
101551 Watercolor Brush Medium
101331 Watercolor Brush Small
105395 Wire Works Metallic
105652 Wrapping Paper Whisper White


Stampin' Around wheels
100360 Acorns
109812 All about Birthdays*
109690 All about Christmas*
109812 All about Gratitude*
109676 Autumn Dots
104070 Bloomin'
107466 Bodacious*
105750 Bouquet*
107481 Butterflies & Blossoms
104065 Fishy
100267 Happy Jacks
107563 Ho Ho Ho
104312 Hot to Dot
104279 Leaf Prints
106062 Leaves Awash*
107479 Rough around the Edges*
101927 Snowman Fun
107465 Speckled*
105521 Spooky Skyline*
108979 Spotted*
107480 True Hearts
105033 Wings & Things

* Jumbo Stampin' Around wheels

Time to say goodbye

Hello from snowy wintery Willis Point! Do you have snow at your place? It has been snowing off and on since early saturday morning. Isaac and I have had lots of fun in the snow over the past couple of days. Unfortunately though, the snow kept us home from a few different social outings, bummer...

Well, the time has come - to say goodbye - the retired stamp list has been released. Now is the time to sit down with your catalogue or go on line to the catalogue and decide which stamp sets you really really want to purchase before they're gone forever. You have until January 1, 2008 to order your favorites!

Here's a quick list of the retiring stamp sets. The page number precedes the named stamp set.



26 - Bitty Boos Too

26 - Home is Where the Haunt Is

28 - Carved and Candlelit

29 - Booglie Eyes

31 - Dotted Autumn

32 - Simple Snowman

32 - Thankful Season

33 - Glorious Garlands

36 - Holiday Tag Team

37 - It's Snow Time

38 - Hung Up on the Holidays

39 - Merry, Merry

40 - Frosty

42 - Flaky Friends

44 - Cold Play

44 - Sparkling Sayings

46 - City of David

46 - Solemn Stillness

47 - Hebrew Holidays

51 - Heart Flutters

54 - Figures of Speech

56 - Big Celebrations

59 - Symbols of Solicitude

60 - Stinkin' Cute

61 - Monkey Business

66 - Dog-Gone It

67 - Double-Line Doodles

70 - Heartspeak

71 - Farm Fever

73 - Flowers & Flourish

78 - I'm Here

80 - Peek-A-Boo

81 - Bundle of Joy

82 - You're Neat

85 - By Land

92 - Circus Train

92 - Silly Sealife

97 - Sassy Stems

100 - Looks Like Spring

104 - Abundant Joy

106 - Serence Sunflower

108 - Autumn Fest

110 - Bareback

119 - Label Classics

126 - Wing It

132 - Background Sampler

132 - Letter Patterns

136 - Dot Spot

136 - On the Spot

137 - Aida Cloth

137 - Linen

137 - Well-Worn Words

138 - Fine Lace

141 - Season by Season

145 - All About U

146 - Elegant Inspirations

147 - Friendship Flowers

147 - In My Thoughts

148 - Palabras Maravillosas

149 - Alphabits

149 - Genuine Articles

152 - Business Boosters

152 - Stamped from the Heart

153 - I Did It

154 - It's a Date

156 - Letterpress Alphabet

156 - Letterpress Numbers

157 - Headline Alphabet

157 - Headline Numbers

158 - In the Loop Alphabet

158 - Typeset Alphabet Lower

158 - Typeset Alphabet Upper

158 - Typeset Numbers

161 - all Monogram upper case letters



Off the Dormant List - Bodacious Bouquet & Word by Word

Contact me with any questions or with orders. Remember, we only have till the end of the month to order any of the above stamp sets.

Alicia

Let It Snow

Isn't this a cute and cheerful Christmas Card? Actually, I suppose you could you this throughout the winter months for just about any occassion.

This was a make & take card that Melanie brought to our meeting last week. It was a lot of fun to make. There is sparkles (Dazzling Diamonds) in the center of the snowflakes but you can't tell from this photo. The biggest challenge of this card was making sure to fit all of the letters in across the white cardstock! I made it on the first attempt!

Recipe for this card: Big Deal Alphabet and Cold Play stamp sets; Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White cardstock; Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Basic Black and Purely Pomegranate ink; Purely Pomegranate double-stitched ribbon

Ok, now here's my take on 'Let It Snow'. I loved Melanie's playful card but didn't have the same stamp sets, so I came up with my own design.

Recipe: Ballet Blue, Very Vanilla and Cherise double-sided designer paper; wide Very Vanilla grosgrain ribbon, basic black ink and ballet blue ink. I used the 2-way glue pen to add the dazzling diamonds to the snowflakes.

Thanks for the inspiration Melanie!

Time Well Spent

Look what I received in the mail last week!! A new stamp set! A gift from Shelli Gardner, the CEO of Stampin' Up! Ok, so I wasn't the only one to receive this - all demonstrators received this stamp set!! This stamp set, Time Well Spent, will be available to Hostesses only in the Spring/Summer 2008 catalogue. Give me a phone call and we'll book your party for the new year!

My group of demonstrators is going to use this new set for our swaps in December. This should be lots of fun to play with!

Happy monday to all of you! Have a good week.

Here Kitty, Kitty

Happy Monday everyone. Looks like the rain has stopped for the time being. Isaac and I are hoping for a non-rainy day because we've got a date at the playground today!!

Tonight is my demonstrator meeting! I always look forward to getting together with the group of girls because, not only are they great girls that I love to spend time with, but we also get to stamp a great variety of projects! And yes...we do talk business too!

For each meeting, every other month, we swap cards with one another. This is a great way of gathering samples and ideas to keep us going and it helps keep our clients interested. Here is my swap card for tonight. There wasn't any specific theme this month, just had to be current Stampin' Up! products.

This stamp set is called Here Kitty, Kitty and the wheel, Meow, coordinates with it. I just love this cute and friendly set! The card is Elegant Eggplant with Basic Black to highlight the More Mustard and Naturals White cardstock. I stamped the kitty with basic black ink and then coloured it with the pencil crayons and aqua-painter. I stamped the hat and mouse, coloured them, cut and punched them out and then used Stampin' Dimensionals to make them 'pop' up. I added the More Mustard brads just to finish it off.

I have many of the stampin' wheels but don't very often use them because I found them difficult to use. Well, I finally invested in the Stampin' Around Wheel Guide, and wow! what a difference. This wheel guide allows you to follow the edge of the ruler with your wheel, therefore making it easy to make perfectly wheeled images, no more crooked lines or overlapping images! I just ordered two more wheels last night!! Can't wait to use them plus dig out the ones I've already got! The wheel guide sells for $13.50 and is on page 192 of the current catalogue.

Here's a couple of 3x3 cards. One is using the Here Kitty, Kitty set and the other , Yappy Day, the puppy dog set. The Yappy Day also has a coordinating wheel, Good Dog. Both sets can be found on page 75 of the current catalogue. At the Craft Fair this weekend I sold oodles of the 3x3 cards and these 2 cards were quite popular with everyone!

I had a fantastic weekend displaying at a local Craft Fair hosted by Denise and Roger at Sayward Farms. It was such a great setting, the vendors, about 11 of us, were set up in their barn (a very nice barn!) over the two days. The outdoors and the inside of the barn were beautifully decorated for the holidays and we had Christmas music playing, it really put us in the Christmas mood! I was thrilled with the number of visitors that we had through and it seemed that they really enjoyed the quaintness and the personal feeling that you got while shopping with us. I met and made lots of new aquaintances which I always enjoy. Hopefully, I see many of you again very soon!

Wishing everyone a great week ahead,

Alicia

Willis Point Craft Fair

The First Annual Willis Point Craft Fair went off without a hitch! The weekend was full of firsts: first Craft Fair for Willis Point, first time for me organizing and planning a craft fair, a few of us (including me) had never sold their products at Craft Fairs before, and it was the first time alot of our vendors had ever visited our beautiful community! With that said, it couldn't have been more fun! The community, as always, showed their support by coming to see what we were all about and by spending their money to support the very talented vendors on sight.

I was told not to have great expectations for the first year and so at the end of the day on Sunday when we counted our admission ($1 admission) and determined we had 131 people come through over the 2 days everyone seemed thrilled with that! With the $1 admission our shoppers were offered complimentary hot apple cider or coffee with some yummy little treats.

This is a photo of our display and my neighbour Linda shopping. I've also got my friend Carolyn helping me with my business. As the organizer it was important for me to have someone at my table at all times. At my table I had hand-stamped silk scarves (hanging behind us) for sale, along with money/gift certificate holders, greeting cards, retired stamp sets, enclosure cards, and hot chocolate sachets.

This photo nicely shows the beautiful jewelry my friend Bonnie makes, called Lotus Line Jewelry. All of her jewelry is made with sterling silver. She's got great creativity with colours and designs. If you'd like to have a chance to view her jewelry or even purchase her jewelry she'll be at the Commonwealth Craft Fair Nov 17/18.

I received such wonderful support and compliments from both the shoppers and the vendors, I really appreciate it all! I had alot of fun doing it and everyone was so easy to get along with. Some of the 'seasoned' crafters provided me with so much knowledge and ideas of what works and what doesn't work, I really appreciated the feedback. As I announced to all of them in the end, I will do it all again next year and I look forward to it!!

Happy November everyone!

Alicia

Happy Thanksgiving

Isn't this card pretty! This was one of many excellent cards I made last weekend at my day long Demonstrators meeting. We have Sonia to thank for this card. We achieved this multi-coloured look with a brayer and the Pumpkin Patch spectrum pad. A spectrum pad is an ink pad with multiple colours lined up. So we brayered over a piece of glossy card stock, wiped it slightly with a paper towel to remove any excess colour sitting on top and then stamped the leaves, from Artfully Asian, with Chocolate Chip ink. This was layered onto Chocolate Chip cardstock. This was then placed on the Pumpkin Pie cardstock.
Notice the stitching around the edges of the main image and the greeting - we cheated - no sewing here (or there)! Thanks to the All in a Row stamp set we simply stamped that on there! 'Happy Thanksgiving is from the Holiday Wishes stamp set. And we finished off the card with Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon.

I know I am a few days early but it's never too early (or too late) to give thanks, right?! As always, I have so many reasons to be thankful - my health, my happy healthy son who continues to amaze and make me smile, my husband who thankfully has his health 100% this Thanksgiving. So many times we find ourselves being thankful that we have Grandma and Grandpa close by to call on short notice for all kinds of things. I am thankful, after about 15 years, to have recently been reconnected with my friend Jennifer, we were the best of friends through 11 years of school, it's so much fun having her in my life again! I could go on and on now that I think of it and take stock - friendship and family being number one on that long list!



This next card was Melanie's design. It's very 'fall like'. We started by inking the 'Sanded' background stamp with Chocolate Chip ink, stamped off once and then stamped onto the Wild Wasabi cardstock. The designer paper used is from the Apple Cider set which we layered onto Close to Cocoa cardstock and then gave the edges a torn or worn look. The scalloped flower shape is one of our newest hand punches, called Scalloped Circle. The little pumpkin and scrolled leaves at the bottom left is from the Autumn Apparitions stamp set. And 'Happy Thanksgiving' is from the Holiday Wishes stamp set.

To complete the card we lightly sponged the card and the edges with Chocolate Chip and then added the Wild Wasabi double-stitched ribbon.



I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving this weekend. Enjoy your trational turkey dinner or maybe you'll save yourselves lots of work and go out for dinner - whatever or where ever - just enjoy!

New entries

Every couple of months, as a demonstrator, I can enter creative challenges within my group. I thought I would share with you what I have entered so far.

This first card was entered for the christmas card challenge. The challenge was to use new stamp sets from our current catalogue or Holiday Mini catalogue. This tree stamp is from the Fun and Fast Notes set. By using the masking technique I was able to get a set of 3 trees for this card. The background holly is from the Background Basics set. Colours used: Glorious Green, Gold, Real Red and Whisper White cardstock. I 'glitzed' up the trees with Gold and Siler ink using an old Blender Pen. 'Merry Christmas' is stamped in Gold ink and is from the All Holidays stamp set.

This card falls into the 'use 2 or more In Colours' catagory. I really like this card, its fun! (and fast)...stamp set from the Fun and Fast Notes set. The background flower, stamped in Versamark, is from Vases In Vogue (a hostess set). In Colours used are Wild Wasabi, Purely Pomegranate and Groovy Guava. For a finished look I added the Purely Pomegrante double stiched ribbon. I coloured the image with Blender pens.

Here's another entry for the same category as above...this card is super super easy! For the 'sky' I used the Sky Blue double-sided designer paper. The flowers and leaves are from the In the Spotlight set (another hostess set). One of our new punches, the Scalloped punch, works very well with this large flower. The centers of the flowers are another small stamp from the same set that I have punched out with the 3/4'' punch and then attached with a little 'bling', our new rhinestone cirlcle brads. The stems of the flowers are from a very cute set, Stem Sayings. I have used our Stampin' Dimensionals to adhere the flowers, letting them stamp out a little more!

Ok, this is all for tonight. Thanks for taking a look. Hoping for another bright and sunny day tomorrow!

Grandma celebrates 90 years!

Well, as I had mentioned in my last post, Isaac and I were headed to Sk to celebrate Grandma's big milestone birthday. At the age of 90, Grandma is quite hard of hearing and is slow to get around but she still enjoyed having Isaac around as constant entertainment. Isaac, all on his own, really cared for her too! It was so sweet to see Isaac giving her little snuggles and kisses whenever we were with her.

Isaac enjoyed getting up close and personal with Great Uncle Stewart's many tractors! He was all about wanting to see a combine. Well, he didn't drive a combine but he did drive this humongous tractor! I enjoyed this first ride too. Once we were done with this tractor Isaac told me he'd be fine to do the other tractors by himself!

This is one of my sweetest memories to date! Isaac was singing 'happy birthday' to me with the others! That was the first time he'd sang (happy birthday) before, it was beautiful!! A true gift! And then, of course, he helped me blow out the candles which is always fun too!

All in all, we had a good trip visiting with all kinds of reletives. Alot of the time, Isaac was the only child in the group so he was treated royally with all kinds of attention and sometimes even new things to entertain him with. A lucky guy!

Thanks for checking on what I've been up too!

Alicia

My grandparents

Doesn't my grandpa have the greatest smile! He was always happy and loved to tease and could sit and visit (with anyone) all day long!

This is my Grandma and Grandpa Patten, my mom's parents. These pictures were taken in 1985, on their 45 wedding anniversary.

My grandma was always busy in the kitchen cooking and baking and always took such great care of us whenever she was around (which I am lucky to say, was often!).

I used a retired Simply Scrappin' kit, In Full Bloom' along with the stamp set which is also retired. Along the side of the Sage Shadow cardstock I stamped and coloured with the Stampin' Write Markers to enhance the look of it. The rest of the embellishments are simply just stickers from the kit. Thats what makes these kits so fun and easy to use.

Isaac and I are headed to Sk this thursday to celebrate Grandma's 90th birthday! It will be a special time indeed!

This is the cutest picture ever! When Isaac was about 4 mths old I took him to meet his Great Grandma. It was tea time at the Home and Grandma insisted on taking him to tea because all of her friends were waiting to meet her great grandson!

Soon we'll have new pictures to treasure...

A Scrapbook First

Ok, so its taken me a very very long time to finally get a couple scrapbook pages completed, and then its taken me even longer to finally post them!

Now don't laugh at the early 90's hairdo's and outfits - my peach top - yikes!! Anyways, this is my family. And probably the last time we had family photos done with just the 4 of us.

This scrapbook layout is actually from Regionals (attended last April). I didn't have time to complete it that day so I brought it home and using the paper included came up with my own layout.

I used a new stamp set called Priceless which I had a lot of fun playing around with. I stamped the swirly bits along the side and used my 1 1/4" circle punch to punch out the flowers. The Cool Caribbean 12x12 cardstock is from last years In Colour family, along with a little bit of Marigold Morning. The other colours used are Old Olive and Real Red. The letters used for 'family' came from the Big Deal Alphabet stamp set.

Thanks for having a look and hope you're not laughing too hard at the pictures!

Alicia

Baroque Motifs

This is a beautiful new stamp set featured in our new catalogue. It's turned out to be extremely popular!

I made this card with my friend Bev at her Stamp-a-stack a while back. This card also features our In Colour colours; River Rock and Purely Pomegranate along with Very Vanilla.

This next card, stamped by Melanie, would make a beautiful wedding or silver anniversary card. Melanie stamped the motif on Soft Sky card stock and then embossed it with white embossing powder. The cake is done the same way. Notice how she has added a fine line of silver embossing to the edge of the white cardstock behind the stamped cake. 'Congratulations' is also embossed in silver.

Another pretty detail is the scalloped edge along the bottom of the card. To achieve this she would have used our Slit punch. The card is finished nicely with a white organdy ribbon bow at the top.

I love this card! It is so bright and cheerful. It is not a colour combination that I would ever come up with on my own! Lucie chose Summer Sun, Ruby Red and Glorious Green for her colours. The stamped images were stamped on Very Vanilla and then softened by sponging over with summer sun ink. Notice how the flowers are not just a solid colour? Lucie would have used her Stampin' Write markers to colour directly on the stamp to achieve the mulit-coloured flowers in just one step.

The ruby red brads at the top corner finish this off nicely. One of my favs, thanks Lucie!

Being a demonstartor has so many great benefits - one being that I receive such great works of art each month when we swap cards.

Enjoy the sunshine today!

Pretty Stationery

Good morning to all. Happy long weekend! We're around home this long weekend as Darren is putting paving stones down in the driveway. He's got his friends here helping along with Isaac hanging around. Everyone needs a 3 year old stading around in the way telling you what to do right??

And where am I? In the house, all by myself, minding my own business!!!

Last weekend we celebrated my friend Lisa's birthday. I wanted to make her something special so I came up with this pretty stationery pack.

I am thrilled with the way it turned out! Lisa seemed very happy to have received it. There were lots of oooh's and ahhhh's from the other girls (not so much from the guys...)so I took that as a good sign.

The folder was created with one 12x12 sheet of Always Artichoke paper. Along the left side I added a strip of crumpled Rose Red. I got the crumpled look by spritzing the paper and then crumpling it into a ball and then gentley unfolding it and letting it dry. To attach it I used Sticky Tape because Snail just isn't strong enough for the texture of the paper.

I used only one stamp set, Petal Prints (retired), to create the image on the front of the folder and on all 6 cards I included inside.

Here is a what the folder looks like inside. The bottom of the folder is folded up and I have stamped the leaves along the folder edge.

All 6 cards are meant as note cards. I did not add any sentiments of any kind to any of them, that way Lisa can use them as she sees fit. Notice the different embellishments I have added to the top 2 cards. The card on the left has a button in the center along with black and white gingham ribbon. The black between each paper layer really makes the card 'pop'. On the other I used Rose Red designer paper and got the stitched look using a stamp from the All in A Row stamp set. I cut out the center of the flower, added some sparkle to it and attatched it with Stampin' Dimentionals so it stands out on the card

One of my new favorite things is the watercolour paper! The flower on the left card is stamped on the paper and then softened with an aqua painter. I sponged the edges of the paper with Always Artichoke to soften the overall look. This one was layered with Always Artichoke and So Saffron.

These last 2 cards are both done with the watercolour paper. They're much prettier in person! The left card is Always Artichoke with Perfect Plum, a nice combination, and simple too! The last card is a bouquet of delphiniums with the leaves stamped tone on tone on the Always Artichoke cardstock.

Ok, I am having major issues getting my last picture uploaded. I wanted you to see that I had also stamped the flower on the backs of the envelopes. It's so cute and definitely ties everything together quite nicely!

I have been given notice that my quiet time inside is now over and I must tend to my motherly duties... Well, I hope you have enjoyed this post! I am looking forward to making many more of these cute gift ideas!

Lovely as a Tree

Rain rain go away! Haven't we had enough rain?! Now, lets get on with summer sun and fun!!!

Ok, this is one of my new stamp sets - Lovely As A Tree. This set has been around for a while now but just finally decided that I needed this set, and I have quickly fallen in love with it.

This card here, made by Stacey, was a swap card I received from her at Regionals. I just realized that this isn't a great photo, the colours are not true to life. The tree image was stamped in VersaMark and then coloured with our Stampin' Pastels using the Poppin' Pastels technique. The Weathered background stamp(retired) was stamped in Handsome Hunter on Sahara Sand and Happy Fathers Day from All Year Cheer II(retired) was stamped at the bottom in Basic Black. To tie it all together she has added a piece of black grosgrain ribbon with a small piece of Hemp twine knotted over top. The card colour is Handsome Hunter.

This next card was created by Lucie, another demonstrator in my group. For the background Lucie used different leave prints from the Lovely As A Tree to create the colour on colour (Creamy Caramel)background. The tree was stamped in Basic Black and then coloured with a Blender Pen and ink. The tree is matted on Chocolate Chip and Naturals Ivory. 'Dad' was stamped using the Collage Alphabet set(retired). Accessories used were Antique Gold brads and Hemp Twine wrapped around the bottom of the tree. Also notice the tearing technique used along the bottom of the matted picture.

This last card is one I created using Bravo Burgundy. I stamped the background with VersaMark just using different leaf prints from the set. I stamped the tree in Basic Black and then coloured it with Blender Pens and ink. I matted the tree on Handsome Hunter and Night of Navy cardstock. To add a little pizzazz I punch the corners with the Ticket Corner punch and added a small piece of ribbon from the Prep School ribbon set (retired). The sentiment is from the retired Warmest Regards hostess set.

Till next time,

Alicia

On Board Accents

Finally took the time to play around with chipboard. Chipboard is basically a heavy cardboard that is fun to decorate and adds great shape and dimension to your card. Chipboard is very very versatile - you can colour with Craft Ink, cover it with designer papers, combine it with lots of different embellishments, etc.

I used a flower piece from our new On Board Blossoms & Basics set. This set includes more than 200 elements and works well with the Pick a Petal stamp set.

I covered the chipboard flower with Apricot Appeal Print Paper just by using a glue stick. To remove the excess paper I just used my paper snips to cut around the edge of the flower and then used my sanding block to smooth the edges. The center of the flower is a 1 1/4" circle that I stamped with an image from the Pick a Petal set. Behind the flower is Almost Amethyst Print Paper. Along the edge of the Certainly Celery cardstock I did some faux stitching (love this technique). The saying from Curvy Verses is stamped in Apricot Appeal . I also attached a simple piece of Certainly Celery grosgrain ribbon to finish it off.

Like everyone else, Isaac and I are trying to stay cool in this wicked heat. No, this is not a complaint...we have a pool to cool off in when it gets unbearable.

Alicia

Introducing our new Catalogue!

This new little beauty arrived last week. I've been so busy reading it from cover to cover, over and over again, that I haven't had time to tell you about it!!

One word - excellent!. This catalogue is jam packed full of great new stamp sets along with some very exciting new accessories! To have a look at the catalogue follow this link http://www.stampinup.com/

Although it's very tough as a demonstrator to see your favorite stamp sets retire from year to year it's always easy to move on and find new favs! Granted, there is always the odd stamp set I just can not part with regardless of it retiring.

Stampin' Up! has introduced new textured paper in all colour families but in 12x12 size only. The majority of the Simply Scrappin' kits are new and oh, are they nice! There is just oodles of new designer series paper which I am having a very tough time deciding on just a couple to begin with.

We have a new In Colour family for this catalogue. The colours are: Groovy Guava, River Rock, Blue Bayou, Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky and Purely Pomegranate. Are these not fun names or what!!

Here is a card I designed for our June swap. I used the new stamp sets Pick A Petal and Hugs And Wishes. This card is very simple and doesn't use much paper or ink; Regal Rose, Very Vanilla and Basic Black. To give that swirly effect to the wings of the dragonfly I used the faux shaving cream technique. To do this ink up your solid stamp and then take another solid stamp and just rub it or swirl it across the inked stamp. Notice the bling bling for his eyes - I added rhinestone brads! To soften and blend everything together I sponged the edges of the very vanilla cardstock with regal rose.

Well, keep checking back for new and fun card samples. I will be hosting an Open House in August to allow everyone a chance to see the new and exciting products. I will also have many many stamp sets to sell at a reduced price along with ribbon samples and other retired products.

Enjoy the beautiful warm weather that seems to finally have arrived!

Alicia

HAPPY FATHERS DAY

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there. Darren, Isaac and I had a great 'family' day yesterday. We headed out first thing in the morning to the old Historical Site on the hwy, (can't remeber the correct name for it...). We enjoyed multiple rides on the miniature trains along with a tractor ride around the little village. Isaac enjoyed every moment of it. We will definitely go again!

Afterwards we enjoyed a wee bit of sunshine on Grandpa and Grandma's deck and then headed to Uncle Nelson's for dinner. A very good dinner I might add!

Isaac ended his day with a bike ride to the school yard and back. He sure does a great job of riding his big bike!

These are a few of the fun Father's Day cards I made. I cased the little oragami shirt on Splitcoast stampers and then found instructions on this very easy fold.

The above card is created with Always Artichoke, Mellow moss and Naturals white cardstock. I did some faux stitching along the edges of the mellow moss and then lightly sponged the naturals white with mellow moss ink. The designer paper is from Four Seasons. I made the little tie with Sahara Sand.

The other two cards are created with a combination of Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, Vintage Violet, Naturals White and again, the Four Seasons designer paper.

The background on the card on the left was stamped with one of four stamps from the Fresh Fillers set. (this set is retiring). This card is also folded differently than the other - the front of the card is folded in half again. The remaining block of paper with the shirt and tie on it is like a flap on the front of the card.

On the other card I did some faux stitching again but used the Night of Navy stampin' write marker to connect the holes to make it look like I sewed it with navy thread. (just not handy with a sewing machine so faux stitching works for me!!)

I had a lot of fun making these cards and in fact sold all of them but one! So this one will go into my favorites folder. The first card made with Always artichoke and mellow moss was created with that specific layout in mind as it follows my latest demonstrator challenge. Each month, we as demonstrators in my group, have challenges to keep us 'challenged' and allows us to get creative in ways that we might not always think to do. This also gives us lots of ideas to keep our customers interested.

Wishing the sun would shine,

Alicia

Three for You

Another little something to get excited about - the Three for You Punch Box. You can see what's included here; 3 stampin' spots, 9 piece stamp set and the trio flower punch. I seem to always gravitate to anything floral. I quickly took time yesterday morning to create a card with this set. Hope you like what I came up with!

The card is created with Almost Amethyst cardstock, coordinating paper from the Palette O'Prints, and the whisper white is blocked on Lovely Lilac. I stamped the flowers with Almost Amethyst and Lovely Lilac. The words say 'just for you'.

Enjoy your day!

Alicia

Rhinestone Sparkle

Check out these pretty little gems - rhinestone brads! Now we can add a little bling bling to our cards and scrapbooks! I can not wait for some spare time to go and get creative with these hot little numbers!

This is just one of the many many things that our new catalogue has to offer! The brads are offered in two shapes - squares or cirles, and two colour families - Fire or Ice! Here's a little preview...

Ok, I am having some major issues blogging today - can't seem to get the photos placed where I want them so its time to move on...I hope you're excited about what you've just seen!!

Enjoy your day,

Alicia

One month to go...

till we bid farewell to our current catalogue. Remember to contact me if there is anything you would like to order from the current catalogue.

I must also mention that we have been notified from head office that there will be a price increase in the next catalogue, due July 1. The price increases are largely due to Stampin' Up!'s increased costs for supplies such as; paper, rubber and wood, along with the increased cost of producing the finished product.

Stampin' Up! has assured us that there will be no increased shipping costs which is nice to know since we all know how expensive it is getting anywhere these days!

I stamped the card to the right about a month ago. I used the Autumn Leaf Prints stamp set. I have only had this stamp set for a short time but it has become one of my favorite! I am sad that it's retiring. I made this card for one of my monthly demonstator challenges. The challenge was to use paper from the In Colour family since it's retiring also. So the colours used are True Thyme, Cranberry Crisp and Marigold Morning cardstock. I used a word window frame from the Hodgepodge Hardware set. I applied some white craft ink to the metal tag and let it dry for a minute or two and then rubbed it to give it a more weathered look (kinda hard to see in the picture). I also added a clip from Hodgepodge Hardware and a piece of ribbon to the top corner to finish the card off.

Time to tend to my son...

Happy stamping

Alicia

Artfully Asian Swaps

Good morning all, Isaac is busy having a snack and watching a tv show so I thought it would be an ideal time to blog!

The three cards I am going to show you are all created with the Artfully Asian stamp set. This stamp set is NOT retiring. It's on page 89 of the current catalogue.

Isn't this card beautiful! This was one of Bev's swaps for Regionals. Bev stamped the Certainly Celery cardstock with the Linen background stamp. She then layered with Elegant Eggplant and Old Olive cardstock. Notice the finished corner with the Eggplant grosgrain ribbon. To colour the flowers and leaves she either used her Stampin' Write Markers or her blender pen and classic inks.

I received this pretty card from Miwa Komori, from Burnaby. Miwa has layered Close to Cocoa with Pretty in Pink cardstock. She has stamped the Crosshatch background on the Pretty in Pink. She stamped the main image on Very Vanilla, coloured the flowers and then used a little bit of Crystal Effects over the flowers to give a more dimensional look. I love how she used the hemp twine tied in a knot around the basic black. And to finish it off Miwa carefully cut out a few different leaves from the stamp set and added them to finish off the card.

This last card was created by Kari Metzger, from Vancouver. Kari layered Mellow Moss with Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla. This card has a very soft feeling to it. Kari stamped the background leaves with Mellow Moss and then lightly sponged it all over. The image is softly coloured in with Perfect Plum and Pale Plum markers. Thank you Kari!!

I have said it before, and I will say it again - Regionals was soooo much fun!! Thanks to all the demonstrators whom I swapped cards with!

Wishing everyone a sun shiny day!

Alicia

Retiring Stamp Sets

It's that time of the year again...out with the old in - with the new. Every year Stampin' Up! retires current stamp sets to make room in their new catalogue for new and exciting stamp sets. This year's list of retiring stamp sets came as an enormous shock to all of us demonstrators as Stampin' Up! says goodbye to over 200 sets!! I know, that's a good portion of the cataolgue. I will loose 32 sets of what I currently have in stock. It is heartbreaking but its also exciting to dream about what we'll have to choose from very soon. To view the list of retiring stamp sets go to www.stampinup.com, specials and promotions, 2007 retired list.

The cards pictured above (stamped by my good friend Stacey) were stamped with Petal Prints, which is retiring. This stamp set is one of Stacey's favorite sets along with many other demonstrators including myself! I can say with certainty that this particular set will be staying with my collection!

For those of you thinking about adding to your stamp collection or if you've been eyeing up anything in particular lately now is the time to get them before they are gone!! For those of you that purchase 2 or more retiring stamp sets I will cover the shipping and handling on your purchase. Give me a call (544-0202) or email me www.alipine@telus.net

Here are two more card samples I have using Petal Prints. I received both of these cards at Regionals a couple weeks ago. The card on the left is credited to Melissa Jung and unfortunately, the card on the right didn't have the demonstrators name on it...

Happy Stamping!

Alicia

New Home!!

Here's my new home!!! This is looking at the front entrance and little gated courtyard! The courtyard is so sweet with a pretty garden that the deer can't feast on.

We moved into our new home on May 6th and 7th. Thankfully, with the help of many friends/family we were able to get everything moved in quite quickly. My girlfriends dawned rubber gloves for much of the day to help with the cleaning - a huge thanks! to them!!

I made Isaac's room my first priority. I am glad I did as he loves his new bedroom/playroom. He spends much of his time in his playroom with all of his toys. His favorite thing being his giant train table with Thomas the train and friends. We've added a small sandbox to the deck where he can play safely as the yard (with pool) isn't quite ready for him yet!

I wish I could just snap my fingers and have all boxes unpacked and everything put away in its proper place...In my dreams right!! Oh well, it will take time, slowly it will all come together. My parents are coming in a week or so, so I'll probably put them to work! Mom says she loves to cut the lawn - well, just wait till she sees what we have waiting for her!!! And Dad, there's countless little things for him to do too!

My goal for thursday is to get my stamping room up and running again! As with our old house, I will also have a great stamping room here. I look forward to having friends over for workshops very soon!

Happy Stamping.

Alicia