Revisiting oldies but goodies

It's always fun to get new stamps -- ordering them, anticipating their arrival and then pulling them out of the package. But I have a lot (a lot, a lot) of older stamp sets that need some love, too. And it's fun to use those older sets with new colors, dies, papers, and embellishments. So that's what I did for this batch of birthday cards.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Botanicals
Paper: Thick Very Vanilla, River Rock, Very Vanilla card stock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, River Rock
Accessories: Frame-in-Frame 2 Cutting Plate (Taylored Expresisons), diamond dust sequins (The Makery), Dimensionals

This stamp set, Botanicals, is from 2004, and is great for clean and simple all-occasion cards. I also pulled out some retired card stock and ink; River Rock is a great neutral to combine with black and vanilla, and the whole effect reminds me of paging through a delicate, aged book. I think the scalloped and stitched frame works perfectly in this layout, and a few sequins add just a little sparkle.

I love the crisp look of the images in this set stamped with just black, but I need to try adding color with alcohol markers or watercolor paints.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Plane & Simple, Essential Messages (Hero Arts)
Paper: Thick Very Vanilla, Basic Black card stock; Going Places Designer Series Paper (DSP) stack
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Braided linen trim, mini nail head stickers (unknown), Dimensionals, foam tape (3M)

I've always really liked this airplane image from the Plane & Simple stamp set -- which is the "baby" of this group since it's only from 2011 -- and it looks great with the Going Places DSP. I used the DSP, matted with black card stock, as the background and stamped the sentiment in the lower right corner. (I always forget about stamping directly on DSP, but sometimes it works perfectly.)

I added a bit of linen trim and a few mini nail head stickers as embellishment and then added the hand-cut plane with Dimensionals.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Fishin', More Sayings and Such, Inside & OUt Birthday (Papertrey Ink)
Paper: Tranquil Tide, Gray Granite, Very Vanilla card stock
Ink: Tranquil Tide, Gray Granite, Memento Tuxedo Black; W-3 Ciao marker (Copic); Blends/Blendabilities markers: Crumb Cake, Blush, Soft Seafoam
Accessories: Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables dies (Lawn Fawn), clear droplets (Pretty Pink Posh), Dimensionals

From the "youngest" stamp set to the oldest: the Fishin' set was from 1996, and More Sayings and Such, which I used for the inside greeting, was from 1994. Oh, that makes me feel old!

I struggled a bit with this card; I just couldn't come up with a layout I really liked. I didn't want to do a lot of coloring, so I stuck with tone-on-tone stamping. I layered Gray Granite on a Tranquil Tide card base, stamping the cattails across both pieces. I added the splash image and colored, hand-cut fish to the gray panel and used a few clear droplets to add to the water effect. I wasn't sure where to add the sentiment, so I stamped it on Very Vanilla card stock and tucked it behind the gray layer to look like a little tag.

Here's a look at the inside of the card. Instead of just using a paper cutter to make a layer of Very Vanilla card stock for the inside, I used a stitched die to cut out a rectangle. I love that little repeated detail from the front of the card. I also stamped another image from the stamp set in the lower left corner to carry over the fishing theme.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Ruff Day, Birthday Greetings (Studio Katia)
Paper: Bermuda Bay, Whisper White card stock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Bermuda Bay, Granny Apple Green; Blends/Blendabilities markers: Basic Gray, Soft Suede, Mocha, Real Red, Bermuda Bay, Granny Apple Green
Accessories: Wonky Stitched Circles dies (My Favorite Things), Brights Designer Buttons, white crochet thread (DMC), Confetti embossing folder (Taylored Expressions), Bermuda Bay sequin trim, Tiny Attacher (Tim Holtz), Dimensionals

And now for a couple of bright and festive birthday cards. I think this image from the Ruff Day set (from 2005) is adorable -- I can just picture an excited puppy leaping around. I played up the bits of confetti in the image by embossing the card base and stamping tiny dots around the sentiment. I repeated circle shapes by die cutting the focal images, adding a button and sequins, and even rounding two corners of the card.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Bold Shapes
Paper: Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Basic Gray card stock; Happy Day paper pad (My Mind's Eye); silver foil
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Basic Gray
Accessories: Layering Squares Framelits dies, silver sequins (unknown), clear Wink of Stella glitter brush pen, Glue Dots, Dimensionals

And we round out the collection with the Bold Shapes stamp set, from 2003. This set has a variety of images for all occasions, and I decided to use the star and balloon for this card. Choosing my color palette from the patterned paper, I stamped two of each image, cut them out, and layered them on scalloped squares of coordinating card stock.

I wanted a touch of metallic, so I added a strip of silver foil and a few silver sequins. Then to jazz up the images just a bit, I added clear Wink of Stella glitter over the colored portions (see below).

That was a pretty long post, so thanks for sticking around to the end. And if you have any of those oldie-but-goodie stamp sets (or papers or ribbons or ...) I hope you pull them out and have fun playing with them!






Thanks for stopping by!