Another Charming Café

One of my favorite stamp sets in the 2018 Stampin’ Up! Occasions Catalog is Charming Café. I can just imagine enjoying a lovely al fresco breakfast with coffee and pastries with peach jam (read to the end if you want to know why peach). There’s also a set of Café Builder Framelits Dies that coordinates with the set. If you bundle the stamps and framelits together, you can save 10%. But hurry! – it’s retiring May 31, so add it to your order today!

The framelits allow you to create an elaborate window card with ease, but I opted for an even simpler route with my card.

The Details

I stamped the round frame in Basic Black Archival Ink on Whisper White Cardstock. Then I colored the flowers with Classic Stampin’ Pads and a Blender Pen. My flowers are Fresh Fig and Sweet Sugarplum with Emerald Envy Leaves. I used a touch of Powder Pink as well, then gave the entire center a wash with Soft Sky Classic Ink and an Aqua Painter before die-cutting with the coordinating framelit.

Next, I stamped the café, again in Basic Black, on another piece of Whisper White, and die-cut it. I used Fresh Fig, Peekaboo Peach, Smoky Slate, Sweet Sugarplum, and Emerald Envy to color the image, then added it to the center of the frame with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I have a bit of Fresh Florals Designer Series Paper left from the current Annual Catalog. I need to use it up, because new designs will be available in the 2018-19 Catalog, and they will be available in all the colors. I used the Fresh Fig lattice pattern for the background on my card front and added it to a Sweet Sugarplum card base. Finally, I added my stamped pieces to the front of the card.

Almost everything on this card is retiring the end of May. The stamps are guaranteed through May 25; all other products are “while supplies last.” The retiring elements on this card are the Designer Series Paper, the Sweet Sugarplum cardstock and ink, and the Peekaboo Peach and Emerald Envy ink. The Basic Black Archival Ink is also retiring, but StāzOn is returning to our catalog in June. So, basically, the Whisper White Cardstock and Smoky Slate and Fresh Fig inks are the only elements on this card that are carrying over.

If there are retiring products that you absolutely love, be sure to stock up now before they’re gone. While I know you’ll love the new color palette, there are also some retiring colors that are worth stocking up on. For me, that’s Peekaboo Peach and Island Indigo. The new Mango Melody is very close to Peekaboo Peach, but it’s a bit brighter and a little yellower. I love Mango Melody, but my family used to grow peaches, not mangos, so I’m a little partial to peach colors (Peekaboo Peach and the retired Peach Parfait).

Random Childhood Story about Peaches

I’m from a Virginia farming family, and we specialized in apples, peaches, and polled Hereford cattle. “Polled,” I found out when I was around 6 years old and finally could read the sign in front of the farm and ask what it meant, means “hornless.”

After one too many spring freezes resulting in a failed peach crop, my dad pushed out all our peach trees and planted….Well, honestly, I don’t know what he planted. I just know he was tired of fighting the weather and decided Georgia could have all the peaches they wanted to grow, but apples were a much better fruit for Virginia. Peaches were always secondary to apples on our farm, so it wasn’t a big thing, except there’s nothing like fresh peaches just off the tree.

When I was about 10 years old, my cousin and I were spending a week at my grandmother’s house. It was peach season, and there were bushels of peaches stacked at the gate, ready to be sold. We decided if we took just one or two from different bins, it wouldn’t be noticeable. Long story short, I ended up eating a LOT more than one or two peaches. They were just so juicy and sweet and it was so hot that day. And then I ended up with the worst case of hives ever, so I had to confess to my gluttony. My grandmother was the best! She concocted a paste to stop the itching and never scolded me for eating the profits. One would think that would turn me off the fruit, but it’s still my favorite. I love peach everything – especially my mom’s peach jam. It’s the best!

Be sure to order you favorite retiring Stampin’ Up! products, as well as any returning products you need to stock up on, today. If your order is $50 or more, please use the hostess code ABKFJ7ND and receive a free gift from me. If your order is $150 or more, please do not use the hostess code, because you’re going to want the rewards for yourself!

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

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