It's Monday, the start of a new working week and so I thought it would be a great opportunity to remind all you dedicated crafters out there that there are only another 7 days left to order from the retiring stamp and accessories lists before these items are gone for good. Lots of items have gone already but you still have until July 1st to pick up a bargain or two.

With this in mind, I'm back on the retiring products theme today and I'm actually sharing a card that isn't mine but one that I received in a swap at the UK regional training day in Telford last month and which features three retiring products. It's always nice to see what others have created and I received a few swaps that I really loved in their own right and would like to share with you. The first of these is this card by Kerry Newton:

I don't believe Kerry has a blog (she didn't leave details on her swap and I can't find her on an internet search), but if anyone reading this knows different do let me know as I will then update this post with a link to it.

There are so many things I like about this card: the colours (vanilla, crumb cake and indigo), the background stamping and blended colouring on the First Edition DSP, the feature gift card holder made using the Scallop Envelope Die and the little sentiment band and butterfly that just bring the whole design together. I think the card has quite a unique design, but one that is very effective.

Did you spot the retiring products? Yes, it's the Scallop Envelope Bigz Die, the First Edition printed designer series paper and the Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon. If you don't own these and would like to recreate this card, you have one week left to place your order before they're gone for good! Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Creative Elements, Petite Pairs

Cardstock: Island Indigo, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, First Edition DSP

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Basic Black, Island Indigo, Crumb Cake

Tools: Elegant Butterfly Punch, Scallop Envelope Bigz Die, Big Shot, Blender Pen

Finishing Touches: Basics Pearls, 1/8" Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon

As promised, today I'm going to share the swaps I made to take to Telford for the Stampin' Up! regional training day on Saturday; lots of excited crafty ladies (and a few gents!) spent the day crafting, swapping and getting up to speed with all the latest news from Stampin' Up!. As is customary at these events, we all created 'swaps' to share and showcase each other's work. I often find swaps a tricky concept - the desire to create something special, but at the same time simple enough that to create a large volume of them won't take hours or break the bank.

In my wisdom, I decided I would break the seal on a stamp set I bought at the start of the year, but haven't yet used: Summer Silhouettes. I loved the look of this stamp set and have seen many beautiful examples of cards 'random stamped' with the flowers in this set. This was however, my first challenge; as my dear husband so often says to me, "(you) don't do random" - and it would seem this follows me into my stamping. I lost count of the amount of card I cut, stamped and binned before getting to a design I was finally happy with! So I ended up with this as my 'first final design' (I know, bear with me!):

I loved the stamping and fussy cut edge, along with the sentiment and pierced border to ground it. However I didn't like the position of the butterfly, but couldn't move it without removing the ribbon, so here is my final (yes, really!) design:

It took hours to finish them and I still could have made twice as many - there were so many people with great swaps! I will photograph some of my favourites and share those with you later in the week. If you would like to be one of the first to know what's going on in the world of Stampin' Up!, get free products (yes, all still to come!), great training and business advice and a permanent product discount to feed your own crafting habit, then this is a great time to join my team - until May 30th, you can get £155 of products for £99; add in a business supplies pack and you get a whopping £200 of kit for £99 - bargain! Check out the Special Offers box on the right hand side of my page or Contact me to talk about how you can sign up and start benefiting straight away; if you sign up in May, you will be one of the first to preview and order from the new annual catalogue due out on July 1st and you will have the opportunity to attend Stampin' Up's! European Convention in November, which is being held in Manchester in the UK this year.

Pop back tomorrow for another project; I have so much to share this week, including some great cards that we are making at this week's card class. Until then, happy stampin!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Wacky Wishes

Cardstock: Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Island Indigo, Pool Party

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Daffodil Delight, Island Indigo, Pool Party, Wild Wasabi

Tools: Beautiful Wings Embosslits, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Piercing Tool

Finishing Touches: Daffodil Delight Seam Binding Ribbon

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I was on a team training day yesterday. One of the things we like to do at these events is share 'swaps', where we each make multiples of a card or 3D project with a particular theme in mind and then 'swap' with each other. This is a great way to share in each others creativity, inspire others and to be inspired and also gives lots of items to share with customers at parties and classes. The theme for yesterday's swaps was 'masculine' and whilst I often struggle with 'grown-up' masculine, having a 5 year old son gives me plenty of opportunity to design for 'young' masculine and I'm never short of ideas. As you can see in yesterday's post, Angry Birds is an ever-popular theme at the moment, so with this in mind I worked up a slightly altered version to a card that I seem to make quite a lot of these days. Here's my original card that I've made a number of times:

And here's the slightly altered version that I made for my swaps yesterday - can you spot the key difference?

Did you spot it? Instead of sponging around a template for clouds as in the first card (I use the top of the cupcake from the Cupcake Builder Punch for this  - it makes a great cloud!) I partially embossed the background using the new Cloudy Day Textured Impressions Embossing Folder and sponged blue in between the clouds, leaving the bottom right hand corner un-embossed to allow me to stamp my sentiment onto a flat card surface. Another small difference is that instead of using Chocolate Chip cardstock for the slingshot, I used Crumb Cake, stamped in Chocolate Chip ink with the Woodgrain stamp. This last decision was prompted more by the fact that I had a large number of Crumb Cake card offcuts from a previous project that were perfect for use here (if you're reading this Chris P, this one's for you - I told you I'd find a use for those Crumb Cake offcuts!!) Punch art is great for using up all those odds and ends of cardstock left over from other projects, although having set out to make 30 of these, I did wonder if I should have chosen something a little more straightforward!

Anyway, I was really pleased with the way the all turned out. The design of this bird is slightly different to the red bird on yesterday's bookmark - I think the eyebrows make him look angrier. Here's a close up of the detail:

I love the beak too - there's just so much going on in this card, even after making so many I don't really tire of it. All my swaps were exchanged yesterday so I can't show you a photo of all 30, however I did make a few extras for some upcoming birthdays so I'll leave you with this last group shot of the little red fellas getting ready to be launched from their slingshots:

On that happy note, I'm off to start prepping; the Easter holidays are finally over and the children are back to school tomorrow. i'll be sad to see them go, but on the up side I'll have more time to spend in my craft room and I have lots there to keep me busy. I'll be back tomorrow with a new project - and possibly a 'sneak peek' of one of the cards we will be making in Wednesday's card class. So come back tomorrow and check it out; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Wacky Wishes (Hostess), Woodgrain

Cardstock: Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Basic Black, Whisper White, Crumb Cake

Inks: Real Red, Basic Black, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue

Tools: 1 3/4" Circle Punch, Small Heart Punch, Owl Punch, Itty Bitty Shapes Punch (circle), Big Shot, Cloudy Day Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Sponge Dauber, Stamp-a-ma-jig

Finishing Touches: Linen Thread

It's rained pretty much all day today, so I thought I'd share a blue card for a 'blue' mood, at least as far as the weather is concerned! This is a card I designed and made for a recent team 'Rainbow Swap'. Across my wider team, we all chose one of the colours of the rainbow, then made five cards with that colour as the basis for the colour scheme and sent them to the others in the same colour group. In return, we received a 'swap' of a different design but with the same colour scheme. I was in the Blue colour group; here is the card I made: 

I used one of the flower stamps from the Mixed Bunch stamp set and the co-ordinating Blossom Punch for my bold all-blue card. I used Pool Party as my base card, then layered flowers across the front in Island Indigo, Pool Party, Island Indigo and Midnight Muse. A simple greeting for any occasion and some ruffled ribbon and rhinestone detail on the uppermost flower added just enough sparkle to turn this card into something special. I got a lovely set of cards in return (but unfortunately haven't had the chance to photograph them - I will share them another time).

The Mixed Bunch stamp set and Blossom punch used to make this card is the stamp set that will feature in my card and technique class next week. The class will be held on Wednesday 17th April, 7.30-9.30pm. The class costs £10: we will be making four cards using the various stamps in this set and learning a number of new techniques along the way. All stamps, punches, cardstock and embellishments will be provided; all you need to bring is a basic toolkit (wet/dry adhesives, pencil, ruler, rubber, scissors, bone folder and cutter if you have one). If you would like to attend this class or any of the others currently planned, please contact me at joanne@thecraftyowl.co.uk for more details.

I'll be back tomorrow with a 3D project made using the Blossom Punch. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Mixed Bunch, Tea Shoppe

Cardstock: Whisper White, Pool Party

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Pool Party, Island Indigo, Midnight Muse

Tools: Blossom Punch

Finishing Touches: Ruffled Ribbon, basics Rhinestones