Going, going, gone!

This is one of my favorite times of year.  School is almost out, the weather's getting warmer, and the Stampin' Up! retiring lists are appearing!  I know some of you are thinking that the last one is a little sad - and sometimes it is - but I focus more on the excitement of new products just around the bend.  This year Stampin' Up! announced a new catalog strategy which includes our current 2011-2012 Idea Book & Catalog expiring on May 31 and the new 2012-2013 Annual Catalog going "live" on June 1.  That means that some of those stamp sets you've been drooling over all year will be going away a month earlier!

You can view the list in a PDF file here - listed by page number in the current catalog...
or you can view the pictures in my online store here...just click on Retiring Products on the left.

Starting today, I'll be featuring samples from some of those retiring stamp sets.  Starting with Flight of the Butterfly.  This set has been one of my customers' favorites since it first appeared.  With the coordinating butterfly punch, it's a real winner.  Some of these samples were made by me, others were on display at events, and others were saved from websites as inspiration.  I've been collecting these images for years - long before I had a blog -so I'm not sure where they came from.  If you see one of your creations, please let me know so I can give proper credit.

This gorgeous creation also features Baroque Motifs, which is retiring as well.

A very crisp, clean sample using colors from our Brights collection, along with some square punches.

This card uses some already retired Designer Series Paper also, 

but you could easily pick a current paper to recreate it.

A sweet card with some great texture added with the Big Shot and some Basic Pearls.

This one uses only a phrase stamp from the stamp set 

and uses the Beautiful Butterflies Big Shot die to set it off.

A great idea for this set!  Bookmarks are always a great gift for teachers, moms, and kids alike.

Love the dimension on this card created with the tone-on-tone circles and one punched butterfly.

Another of my favorites.  This stamp set features a solid butterfly stamp and detail accent stamps (like the dots, flowers, and outline).  Very fun & very easy.

A soft version using the stamps to create a tone-on-tone "background" paper along the bottom.

This card combines Flight of the Butterfly with Inspired by Nature (sadly also on the retiring list) 

and a die cut butterfly made with our Big Shot.

That's it for today.  Visit again tomorrow when I will feature another retiring favorite.  Visit my online store here to get yours before it's too late!

See you soon,

StamperNan