It’s blog hop time again – and this time, we’re mourning the loss of some of our favorite Stampin’ Up! products.  Of course, just because a stamp set is retired doesn’t mean you can’t still use it, and the ones I’ve chosen will stay in my stamp stash for years to come.

You may have gotten here by way of the amazing Christine Giuda’s “Dancin’ Stamps” blog.  Christine is a good friend and also a very talented artist.  Her beautiful mixed media projects make me drool.  And she is a master at watercoloring.  Since this hop is a circle, you can easily hop back to Christine, or keep hopping forward until you get back to her blog.  Either way, you’re going to see some wonderful projects!

So here’s the set I’ll miss the most.

I love Perfect Blend, but I didn’t use it nearly enough.  It’s such a fun set with the “take-out” coffee cup.  I paired it with some Flower Pot designer series paper and some Daffodil Delight seam binding ribbon, two more retiring products.  Products not retiring are the Lost Lagoon and Blushing Bride card stock, Papillon Potpourri stamp set and coordinating Bitty Butterfly punch, and white tea lace paper doilies.

This is another set I didn’t use enough.

The Stippled Blossoms set made it so easy to create an elegant card in just a few minutes.  I used Night of Navy for the flowers.  I stamped the flower detail full strength, then stamped off one time for the background.  The leaves are Garden Green, again, stamped off one time for the background.

Another product I’m seriously going to miss is the Modern Label punch.  It pairs so well with the Word Window punch (which, happily, is not retiring).

And, finally, a product from the Holiday catalog that was carried over through June 2, but it didn’t make it to the annual catalog.

Four Feathers is a wonderful set, and there are coordinating framelits to die cut the feathers.  You can still bundle the two products and save some money!  I suppose the feathers trend is on its way out – as is the chalkboard trend.  But I’m still going to use them!

Two other retiring products – Coastal Cabana and its four 2013-15 In Color friends, and the Back to Black designer series paper.  And I just noticed there’s a little glitter at the top of this card.  More leftovers from my cone-glittering marathon.  Seriously, as much as I love glitter, I think I’ve had my fill for a while.  I may never get all the glitter out of the basement.  I’m sticking to glimmer paper and Dazzling Details for awhile, I think.

So that’s it for me.  I’m sure as I start pulling retired products from the shelves I’ll find more that I’m sad to lose.  But really, I’m kind of looking forward to a good stamp purge.  Not that I don’t love them all, but I’m running out of room and I’m looking forward to some of the new products!

Your next stop on the hop is the very talented Marsha Reed’s Coffee Pot Stamping Cafe blog.  Marsha is another good friend, and is responsible for the gorgeous Mother’s Day flower challenge a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks for stopping by Stamping with Buffy!  Have a wonderful day.