Retiring Stamps and Colours - Blog Hop

Hi there, and if you came from Hayley's blog, welcome to your last stop on this morning's Blog Hop! For those who may have arrived here from my other blog, Paper Obsession, thank you so much for popping across - I'm delighted you made it!

So today we're highlighting some of the beautiful colours and stamp sets that will be retiring at the end of the month (boo hoo.. we'll miss you!).. if you want any of the products feautured, you'll need to get in quick.. once they're gone, they're gone!

First I'll show you a New Baby card I made using the gorgeous Nursery Necessities stamp set. I love this set so I have to admit I'm really sad to see it go!

This card was totally inspired by one I saw in the 2009-2010 Idea Book & Catalogue.. I just adapted it with my choice of stamps and colour scheme. I made the paper frill by cutting a long strip of Cameo Coral card (approx 2cm wide) and scoring alternately at 2cm then 1cm intervals, repeating along the length of the strip, then folding concertina-style. I stuck the frill down with Sticky Strip tape and tied Linen Thread around it.

Colour Scheme:

• Close to Cocoa (A6 base card and stamped greeting)
• Cameo Coral (frill and stamped elephant)
• Apricot Appeal (lower half of card and elephant's ear)
• Barely Banana (stamped moon and stars)

Stamps etc:

• Nursery Necessities stamp set
• Sticky Strip double-sided tape
• Linen Thread
• Corner Rounder Punch

My second project is a scrapbook page featuring a photo of my little boy, Harry, as a baby. I love scrapbooking with black and white photos as you have so much freedom in choosing your colour scheme!

I chose the lovely Barely Banana, Ruby Red and Basic Black. My Barely Banana cardstock was A4 size - to make it 'stretch' to a 12x12" layout, I trimmed the long side of two sheets to 11.5 inches, then cut the second sheet to the correct width and stuck it below the first one. I used the Striped Grosgrain Ribbon both as a design feature and to cover the join!

The black letter border at the bottom of the page was created using the Stampin' Around Nursery Letters wheel (also retiring) - I got it straight using the fantastic Stampin' Around Wheel Guide. The stars are part of the Nursery Necessities set I used in the New Baby card above. I cut out the larger one using the coordinating Stampin' Up! Star Punch.. easy!

My journaling labels were made using another retiring stamp set, Frames with a Flourish, stamped in Basic Black and Ruby Red ink. Such a versatile set both for cards and scrapping! The title letters are On Board Loads of Letters - bare chipboard letters which I inked with Basic Black ink.

Do you like the hat pin with pearls and clear beads? I made this up using the Pretties Kit I got last week - and this is retiring too (I can't quite believe it)! This kit consists of a tin crammed full of alterable white flowers, halfback pearls, round pearl beads (in cream and white), clear beads, rhinestone brads, hat pins and silver spacer beads. The kit is £23.25 but when you see how much is in it, you'll realise it's great value.

Colour Scheme:

• Barely Banana
• Ruby Red
• Basic Black, Whisper White (not retiring)

Stamps etc:

• Nursery Necessities stamp set
• Nursery Letters Stampin' Around Jumbo Wheel
• Stampin' Around Wheel Guide
• Frames with a Flourish stamp set
• On Board Loads of Letters
• Pretties Kit
• Basic Black Striped Grosgrain Ribbon (3.2cm)
• Star Punch
• Spiral Punch

I hope you enjoyed the Blog Hop.. and got a better idea of some of the beautiful products that are available just til the end of September. If you've seen anything you'd like to buy, please don't hesitate to contact me or any of the other girls on the blog hop - we'd be delighted to help!

Thank you so much Debbi for organising the Hop - if you didn't reach me via the Hop but would like to see everyone else's work, now's the time to pop across to Debbi's blog where it all starts. Thanks for joining me!

Sarah x