#CTC227 Favourite Retiring Bundle

Well this is a sad day - facing up to having to say Goodbye to our favourite bundle

You probably don't need any reminding of how much I love this bundle on page 135. Just because it's retiring though, doesn't mean it's leaving my craft room any time soon!

I decided it was time to get on board the Floating Frame technique that has been trending of late. I had a rough idea of how it should work but to be sure I was on the right path watched the Floating Die Cut Frame video by Jennifer McGuire on YouTube. Even better, I didn't need to rush out and buy the Glad Press 'n Seal, as it has been sitting in my craft room since I used to use it piecing the retired Rose thinlits pieces back together.  

I diecut Whisper White hydrangea flower 'blanks' from the Foliage Frame Framelits and used my Stamparatus to line them up in a negative and stamp the Floral Frames image with Memento Black ink. I used my Pacific Point marker and scribbled ink onto a palette, then picked it up with my Aqua brush to do my colouring. I also diecut some of the larger leaves from the Foliage Frames using Tranquil Tide cardstock.  

I created the layout and picked it up with my piece of Press 'n Seal, laid it on a piece of cardstock the same size as my card and diecut a Stitched Rectangle shape from the centre of the 'frame'.  After removing the centre and piece of backing card, you lay the whole lot face down and go through the process of adding mini Stampin' Dimensionals to each piece! (Tip: the bigger the images you use, the less time you'll spend here #askmehowiknow). 

I have used the greeting from Picture Perfect Birthday (also retiring soon) and stamped it in Memento Black ink on the centre of my Lemon Lime Twist card.  Next tip: Use the Stamparatus and slide the Press 'n Seal with the uncovered dimensionals carefully into the top corner - because your card is the same size, it's the perfect way to get everything lined up without worrying if you're straight. Pop your card into the corner and gently lower -  job done!

After I started to remove the Press 'n Seal, I remembered reading people discuss the care needed as you may rip the surface of your inked images. I didn't get as far as learning any solutions but did remember that heat gun was useful for removing tape. I gave the top a bit of a blast with my heat gun, and stopped when it started to shrivel - it came away a lot easier.  

Definitely won't be the last time I use this technique. So pleased with how it turned out and the greeting really suited the brilliance of the blue hydrangea against the Lemon Lime Twist. A fitting tribute to my favourite retiring bundle.

The crew would love it if you would play along as well. Make a card by next Sunday evening and post to our Facebook page with the link on the right including "#CTC227" so we can find it. For now, please hop to the delightful Kelly's creation:

#CTC205 - Birthday Card with a Christmas Twist

CASEing a Birthday Card and giving it a Christmas Twist this week:

I've stopped in at page 136 of the annual catalogue and the picture on the far right:

I think I passed over this before, as the colour combination didn't call out to me.  However, I thought giving it a Christmas Twist could be fun, so I did:

I enjoyed using the Santa's Workshop suite last week and decided to go back to it again. The star of the show is the Santa's Workshop Specialty DSP. I have been holding off cutting into that lush white velvet textured diagonal paper, but finally made the move, and to make it stand out a little more, I added a mat of Basic Black. I've then cut the frame from another of the sheets which had scallops and a velvet dot, and made it a faux ribbon (as was used in the cased card). 

I set up my Stamparatus with the large circle image from Swirly Frames on page 137. I've diecut the same size from Layering Circles framelits, and popped them into the negative in my Stamparatus then stamped in Black Memento then The DSP figures (other than the one above which I diecut using Santa's Signpost Framelits) were fussy cut and added to the same negative in my Stamparatus, and then they were lined up and adhered.  I decided not to trim them to the circle shape as then I could keep the whole of the image and not lose any little feet!

I liked the heat embossed image in the original, and have recreated that with Black embossing powder on Poppy Parade cardstock with the greeting from Half Full, banner cut and popped onto the card to finish. The image and greeting are raised up on Stampin' Dimensionals.

As you can see, it was hard to stop at one, and once my Stamparatus was set up, this was so easy to recreate. This could be a great project for anyone taking part in the Sending Love project Stampin' Up! are behind here in NZ. I'll be having an open house in Cromwell on 4 December for those in the area to pop in and make or fill in a card to be sent to someone who may be lonely this Christmas.  I hope this brings them cheer. Here they all are together:

Why don't you play along, we have lots of new members recently and we'd love to see more of you making a card for the Challenge and posting by next Sunday evening - just add to our Facebook page with the link over on the right.  Now it's time to hop over and see what Liz has created this week: