Time to say goodbye!

It's April and spring is in the air! There's also a lot of exitement in the air for Stampin' Up! demonstrators. Although it is tinged with a little sadness.

The excitement is because there is a brand new catalogue on the horizon with lots of cool new stuff. The sadness is because some of our favourite things have to go to make room for the cool new stuff.

If you have been following the Hop in order, you have arrived here from Deborah's blog. As you can see, we all have favourite products we hate to see go!

So this month at the Watercooler we are saying goodbye to the 2014-2016 In-Colors. I think this has been my most favourite group of In-Colors - ever! From Mossy Meadow to Lost Lagoon to Hello Honey to Blackberry Blisss to Tangelo Twist - I love them all. If I had to pick my most favourites from this group, it would have to be #1 Mossy Meadow, then it's a toss-up between Lost Lagoon and Blackberry Bliss.

First up is my Mossy Meadow card. I saw a tutorial graciously shared by another Stampin' Up demo - Lyssa Zwolanek - in which she used the Brick Wall Embossing Folder to make bamboo. While I was following her tutorial, my mind was going over ideas for using my piece of bamboo in a project. I kept picturing stalks of bamboo with leaves growing out of them. Like this:

My card base is, of course, Mossy Meadow cardstock as are the leaves cut using the Botanical Builder Framelits. The sentiment is from the Tin of Cards stamp set and stamped in Mossy Meadow. The fern leaf image in the background is from Butterfly Basics, stamped in Pear Pizzazz.

For the bamboo, colour used are: Early Espresso, Crushed Curry and Pear Pizzazz. The cardstock is Crumb Cake.

When I looked up the symbolism of bamboo, I discovered that when giving a gift of bamboo to someone, the number of stalks means different things. For instance, a single stalk is never given as a gift, and a gift of four stalks of bamboo is considered extremely rude and could be considered a death wish.

Three stalks of bamboo is one of the most favourite number combinations to have in a home. It brings three kinds of luck: Happiness - Fu; Long Life - Soh; Wealth - Lu (career promotions). I'm really glad I Googled bamboo - and also that I have got into the habit of using uneven numbers when stamping repeat images or using embellishments!

Next up - Blackberry Bliss!

 Funny story about this card. It was supposed to be Lost Lagoon. But, the butterflies insisted on being Blackberry Bliss. The Lost Lagoon versions just weren't working - they will have to find another project!

The DSP is from the Neutrals Paper Stack - I love this script design in all the colours - this one is Soft Suede. I cut out phrases and single words and glued them onto the gold foil strips. Those gold strips are leftovers from the Tin of Cards card kit. What a fun time I had putting that together with my Mom one afternoon. And lots of left overs to use on other projects - like this one!

Now, about those butterflies - I had not intended to have a stack of them. After all, do you ever see butterflies piggybacking? But, first, the Blackberry Bliss die cut didn't pop enough on its own - so I laid some strips of the Gold Glitter Tape from Sale-a-Bration on a scrap piece of Whisper White carstock and die-cut the solid image butterfly. Then it looked naked without some embellishments. I had the Papillion Popourri stamp set and matching punch out already as I had used them for my Lost Lagoon version. It was a simple matter to stamp a BB butterfly and punch it out. Obviously, I thought there wasn't enough bling on this card already, and the Gold Thread was also right in front of me. So - why not use it? Here's a closer look:

My third project is the twist for this Hop. We were each assigned a fellow-Hopper and directed to check out their blog and CASE (Copy And Share Everything) one of their projects. I was matched up with Deborah. After scrolling through one fabulous project after another, I finally settled on this one from her January 7 Watercooler Blog Hop post:

She used a Bundle I was really hoping would be carried over into the new catalogue. But, no. So this is also a farewell to the A Nice Cuppa stamp set and Cups & Kettle Framelits. Here is my version of Deborah's card:

The tea pot is cut from the Bohemian DSP and embellished with strips of Gold Glitter Tape. I had just received the Bermuda Bay Sequin Trim and, as an afterthought, use it to pour out of the tea pot. It's blueberry tea, by the way. The cup is die-cut from Whisper White cardstock and sponged with Tangelo Twist.

Now it's time for you to visit Marsha and see the fabulous treats she has in store for you! Just click on 'Next' below to be on your way. Enjoy!