Cake is the answer…who cares what the question is?

Today’s post features the stamp set, Piece of Cake, which is scheduled to retire the day before Stampin’ Up’s 2020-2021 Annual Catalog launches on June 3rd. Look at the Last Chance Products page in the Stampin’ Up store to see what else is retiring. The items on this list are available until June 2nd or until supplies run out.

Piece of Cake coordinates with the Cake Builder Punch, which eliminates the need for fussy cutting if you want to pop up the images from the card. The set features multiple kinds of cakes such as birthday, wedding, plain, decorated, etc. so you’re not limited to just making birthday cards with this one.

Here are two cards I recently made with this set:

The base of this wedding card is a silver foil-edged card, which also comes in gold. The card bases come with coordinating envelopes. Right now, the silver ones are sold out, but the gold are still available.

final

The next card is a more masculine birthday card featuring the Country Club Designer Series paper, also slated for retirement. Golf is on my list of least interesting sports, but this set of paper has some amazing argyle prints on the reverse sides.

final-2

Product List

I’ll bee on my way now

If you couldn’t tell from my earlier posts, I really love Stampin’ Up’s Honey Bee stamp set. Unfortunately, this set will retire on June 3 when the new annual catalog launches. Today’s post is my final tribute to the Honey Bee stamp set and the Detailed Bees die set.

I wanted this series of cards to be soft looking, so my color scheme is Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, a touch of Early Espresso, So Saffron, and gold.

This first card didn’t require any stamping at all. I used the large bee die from Detailed Bees set and the largest oval die from the Stitched Ovals sent. Instead of sandwiching my paper between two cutting plates. I sandwiched it between a rubber embossing mat and a cutting plate so the paper has a raised detail to it. Then, I used a sponge dauber with Sahara Sand ink to give the paper an antique look and highlight the raised images. The design for this card was inspired by the technique featured in this YouTube video by Allison Okamitsu.

final-1

My next card in the series is simple and requires no other techniques beyond stamping and coloring. I love using Wink of Stella on the bee wings because it gives them a subtle gossamer look. Unfortunately, you can’t see the sparkly wings on this picture, but they’re there. I also daubed Sahara Sand to soften the edges of the paper. I colored in the bee with a So Saffron marker and stamped the sentiment in Early Espresso. I sketched in the “bee trail” with a Sahara Sand marker.

final

My final card takes advantage of the Golden Glitz Delicata ink featured in the January-June Mini Catalog, which unfortunately is currently unavailable. If you can get your hands on some, I highly recommend it.  I really liked this ink because it provides an embossed look without having to take the time to pull out my heat embossing tool and embossing powders. Also for the bee images, the Delicata ink shows more detail than embossing powder would. The only caveat with this ink is that you must be patient and let it dry fully before handling your paper again.

final-2

Product List

<!——– ———->

The Bee-ginning of the end

Over the next few weeks my blog posts will feature Stampin’ Up products scheduled to retire when Stampin’ Up’s 2020-2021 Annual Catalog launches on June 3rd. Look at the Last Chance Products page in the Stampin’ Up store to see what else is retiring. The items on this list are available until June 2nd or until supplies run out.

Today, I begin my farewell to the Honey Bee stamp set and coordinating Detailed Bee dies. This set is by far my favorite from the January-June 2020 Mini Catalog.

Most of the time when I design a card, I don’t have the finished product figured out. I end up making different elements and then decide how to put them together. Sometimes this approach works very well and other times the end result is a bunch of different pieces that didn’t end up working together. That’s what almost happened with this card. I had the bees stamped, the paper colored, and the ribbon figured out, but when I tried adding a tag with the sentiment on a white tag, it wasn’t adding up. I was about to give up when I realized that putting embossing the sentiment in white on a black tag was the perfect thing to do. I don’t know why it took me so long to figure that out, but I’m glad I did.

final-3

This card features the Golden Honey DSP from the Sale-a-bration catalog. Hopefully, you got some when it was available. The flowers on the Golden Honey paper are black and white. I colored them in with Purple Posy Blends. The great thing about Blends is that you can use them to color things other than paper. I used the dark Highland Heather Blend to color in the white stripes on the ribbon.

Product List

April Paper Pumpkin: My Wonderful Family

Once again, I was not able to hold my monthly Paper Pumpkin workshop, so posting my alternate card ideas descended to the bottom of my task list. The April kit was all about family.

This Paper Pumpkin box includes a stamp set, a Pear Pizzazz mini stamp pad, and the supplies to make these cards:

0420_PP_FACEBOOK

Here are the stamps included in the supplies:

0420_PP_STAMPARTWORK

In addition to the Happy Mother’s Day and Happy Father’s Day sentiments, it also contains other phrases and words you can use to customize your creation to give to another family member. Unfortunately, one minor complaint about the collection of words is that “Step” or “In-law” weren’t included. I suppose you could mimic the script as best as possible and write those if you felt the need to.

My first alternate card slightly alters the card with the branch of leaves on it so you can read the wonderful wording behind the leaves. It’s difficult to see on the picture, but it reads, “Life’s greatest blessings begin and end with family. It is in families that we learn to love, teach what is most important, and grow together in love and laughter. Grateful for you. Happy to be yours.”

final

Instead of overlaying the leaf branch atop the paragraph, I snipped up it into several pieces and placed them around the paragraph. Instead of putting the “I’ll always be here for you” sentiment on a tag on the front, I stamped it on the inside of the card.

My next card required no creativity on my part. I slightly altered an example from the leaflet included in the kit. The card in the kit featured a pink hydrangea. Where I live, hydrangeas grow blue, so it seemed wrong to have a pink one on a card. I had to make a blue one.

final-2

My final card is my stamps only card. This card required a heap of different ink pads. If you’re an avid stamper, you’ll probably already have them. If you’re a beginner, experiment with supplies you already own and create your own version. I used a sponge daubing technique to achieve the gradient on the tree leaves. To do this, first ink the leaf stamp with a light color ink and then use a sponge dauber to tap on some darker ink. For these trees, I used Granny Apple Green, Call Me Clover, Shaded Spruce, Crushed Curry, and Cajun Craze.

final-1

Product List

If you’re not already a Paper Pumpkin subscriber, I highly recommend subscribing. The kit is all inclusive, so even if you don’t have any other paper-crafting supplies, you’ll be able to make the projects.

Retirement Party

Over the next few weeks my blog posts will feature Stampin’ Up products scheduled to retire when Stampin’ Up’s 2020-2021 Annual Catalog launches on June 3rd. Look at the Last Chance Products page in the Stampin’ Up store to see what else is retiring. The items on this list are available until June 2nd or when supplies run out.

Today’s projects feature the 2018-2020 In Color collection and the Celebrate with Cake stamp set found in the 2019 Beginner Brochure.

(Note: some of these cards use retired products. Don’t let that stop you from coming up with a version of your own though!)

The 2018-2020 In Color collection featured vibrant colors that I think are well suited to the playfulness of the Celebrate with Cake stamp set. (Lovely Lipstick was my favorite from this group.)

InColor20182019

I love the little bird and his hat from this stamp set. The bird and the hat are two separate stamps, so you can stamp the hat in a different color (or not at all).

final-6

I based this card off several versions of the hearts flying from the mailbox theme I saw online.

final-5

This final card features the flowers. The stems and flowers are on different stamps for easy separation of color. The set is clear photopolymer so it’s easy to line up the separate images.

final-7

Product List


final-6