Retirement party!

I'm sure you've heard by now - the Stampin' Up! retirement lists are here! Click HERE for the list of retiring stamps and HERE for the accessories. Check the list - they update the items that are sold out (sniff!) and you'll want to get your favorites now!

How would you like to win $25 in hostess dollars? To get a chance to win, all you have to do is place an online order using my special hostess code. Here's how:

Go to my online shop HERE and fill your cart. You can order any amount to qualify. You do have to have an account to shop online.

At the bottom of the screen is a box to enter the hostess code, which is: E3E97XF4
Don't forget to enter the code! Only orders that use the code will be entered, and the order has to reach $150 in order to earn the benefits, so feel free to tell your friends!

The hostess code will close on May 7 and I will notify the winner on May 8.

If you don't win but you would like your very own hostess benefits, you can get your own code! It's like having an online workshop. You can share the code with anyone in the US and you get credit for the order. Please contact me at loririder (at) verizon (dot) net if you'd like to have a virtual party and earn hostess benefits for yourself!

OK, time to get shopping! Don't wait before that stamp set or color or paper you wanted is gone - for good!

It's sad to say good-bye...

This post is a difficult one to write. After several years of being part of the team at Our Creative Corner I have decided it's time to step down. I will really miss this fabulous team - I can't quite believe it's been this long, but I joined in September 2009. WOW. Time goes by so fast!

The OCC will be undergoing some changes as our leader, Linda Coughlin, will be handing the reins over to a new artist. More details will be coming about that, but for now Linda asked us to repost a former project as a way of saying "good-bye (for now)." I looked back over everything I made for the OCC and it was really hard to choose just one project, but in the end I settled on this card.

This fussy-cutting hydrangea card represents a couple things I think of as my style: clean and simple, and, well, fussy! For more details on the card you can click back to my original post from 2011.

I'm kind of at a loss for words as to how to sum this experience up - I've had the pleasure of working with so many wonderful and talented stampers, and I've loved the challenges I've gotten to play with over the past 3.5+ years. There have been times when if it weren't for the OCC, I probably wouldn't have been stamping and blogging at all, so I'm grateful to have had this opportunity. Best wishes to all my former and current teamies, and to the new OCC as it goes forward.

I hope I'll have a chance to be on another DT in the future - I'm guessing the spring and summer are going to be pretty busy and my posts may be sporadic. But I'll still be here when I can, work and other commitments notwithstanding!

Pretty Punch Art

Hello again - well, the good news is that I'm feeling better, but the bad news is that I'm getting busier and finding it harder to get any stamping done. I'll keep trying, though! Anyway, today is Saturday so of course we have a new Our Creative Corner challenge for you. Rudlis is hosting today and asked us to use fashion/mannequins/style/stitching/etc. as our inspiration point. This was tough for me - I don't have any of those trendy dress stamps or dies, so I had to get creative!

 

I made this sweet little dress with a couple different punches and Twitterpated DP in Riding Hood Red (one of our retiring colors). The skirt is from the blossom builder punch, and the top is part of the owl punch - I cut the sweetheart neckline and the skirt's scallops myself. I added the ribbon punch for a belt with a punched flower and rhinestone trim. For the stand, I used a thin strip of Early Espresso card stock with a decorative label punch base and a mini ornament punch for the finial. The banner punch and red DP are non-SU - I embossed the DP with the dot folder. To set off the punch art I added the label with pierced edge and a strip of espresso DP. The sentiment, which I embossed in white, is from the retired set Watercolor Trio.

 

OK, you have your challenge - please join in with us this weekend! Make sure you check out what everyone else on the DT created as well. We are grateful for your participation! Have a great weekend!

Thoroughly Modern Madison

Good morning! I'm back with my second challenge for Our Creative Corner. Here's what I came up with:

My hubby would never go for this bedroom, LOL! But sometimes I think the modern aesthetic is just very cool so that's what I was going for. This is my card:

This is one of those cards that when I sat down to make it, I really had no idea what I wanted to do. I actually started out using a sketch challenge but in the end I changed the layout completely because it just worked better this way. Since I have such good timing, I finally broke out the Madison Avenue stamp set that was recently available during Sale-a-Bration. Yeah, I didn't stamp too much during SAB. But these images spoke to me as a way to create some modern patterns with these bold colors (Raspberry Ripple, Island Indigo, More Mustard, and Soft Suede). Thanks to the Stamp-a-ma-jig the two background panels came together fairly quickly. I tried to use the Madison Avenue flower for the focal panel but it wasn't working somehow. This flower from World Treasures pulled everything together and keeps the modern feel. I added tiny punched circles from the cupcake and owl punches to bring in the indigo and mustard colors. My texture comes from the embossed stripe background, the popped-up elements, and the indigo brad. For my sentiment I grabbed the retired set Pocket Silhouettes and one of the bitty banner dies - after I cut it out, I glued it onto suede card stock and cut around it to make a layer to match the rest of the card.

I hope you'll play along with this challenge - I will admit that it might not be an easy one, but isn't that the point of a challenge? :) Be sure you visit the rest of the team and give them some love for their projects too. Have a wonderful weekend!

Just believe in spring

Is spring actually coming? Today (at least here) the sun is shining and it's almost warm enough to go out without a coat... I'm hopeful that the snow will fully melt soon! I think I was channeling spring when I made this card. Something about it feels fresh, like the spring air outside...

My club will make this card tomorrow. I like to do something with a technique so we're going to do two-tone embossing. Not that there is much to this as a technique - but it's something we haven't done before. I also used the Mojo Monday sketch from this week.

The whole card came from the embossing - I wanted to use colors and I only had Gumball Green and Pool Party, LOL. I thought they would look striking with this image from Just Believe on Early Espresso card stock, and I think I was right - it turned out just like I hoped it would. The circle flower image is from the same stamp set, and the sentiment is from Itty Bitty Banners. I used DP from the 4x6 pack in the spring catalog - the name escapes me right now. And the large scallop trim was cut with the Tasteful Trim die and then embossed with the fan embossing folder. It all went onto a vanilla card base embossed with the woodgrain folder.

I just feel happy after making this - happy to be feeling better and back to stamping, and happy that spring is on its way! I hope you like the card and really appreciate your stopping by today!