Gillybean Crafting : Coast to Coast Creators Blog Hop - All Things Retiring (Stampin' Up!)

Fourteen of the month so you know what that means! It's team blog and Insta hop day! This month we are showcasing products that are retiring from either the Annual Catty or the January - April mini catty. Basically everything on this card is retiring (sniff, sniff) but the bundle I chose to focus on is Forever Fern.

This sketch came from some business training I did with the mini catalogue and it works so well for any DSP that you want to showcase.

I needed to use this amazing Fancy Flora DSP which will end with the mini as I really didn't give it the love it deserved. Even better, this piece has many of my fave retiring colours: Evening Evergreen, Soft Succulent and a shade of pink close enough to Blushing Bride that I was able to tie it in. I loved how this paper really popped on the deep Evening Evergreen cardstock base.

Using the Forever Fern stamps set, I stamped in Evening Evergreen on Soft Succulent cardstock and Blushing Bride on Basic White. I love how pretty these leaves/blooms look in the pink tone. The Forever Flourishing Dies made quick work of cutting these out. I grouped them like a bouquet and tied them with the retiring Soft Succulent ribbon.

The strips of paper are the back side of the DSP and also the Fine Shimmer paper in Gold. I'll be hanging on to this paper for sure to add to holiday projects. And of course, we need some embellishments so out came the retiring Champagne Rhinestone Basic Jewels.

I made a second version of this card using a different piece of the DSP with a different colour scheme. It uses the retiring White Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon (sniff, no white ribbon anymore), the Forever Fern items again as well as the retiring In-Colour Matte Decorative Dots (don't worry, we are getting new embellishments as we still have these colours for another year). I thought the Textured Shimmer Paper (the Balmy Blue strip) would also retire but it is being carried over, yay!

I can't wait to see what products everyone else chose to showcase. Be sure to hop around and check them all out!