Retired Sets

Winds of Grace

Stampin' Up! 2007
Card created by S. Bourdeau in 2019

I am a demonstrator, and it is a great feeling when I am able to sell new product and help pay for my card making and crafting habit.  As a demonstrator, I am part of groups that help give me ideas about how to increase my sales from people that have been doing this much longer than I, and from those that have sold millions of dollars and have literally millions of sales under their belt.  

One of the things many demonstrators do is only use new product so that they can showcase it and entice people to buy it.  I am a bit different.  

I remember looking at Stampin' Up! catalogues when I first started trying to make cards.  It was hard for me to commit to one stamp set as they were costly (I was young with two kids and another on the way), and I felt guilty spending all that money on a hobby.  Later, I was a bit older, and having tried to use other products, had not had much fun or success making things I appreciated very much.  I again went to a Stampin' Up! workshop, and was reminded what had made me fall in love with card making in the first place.  With Stampin' Up!, it was just easier.  Easier to coordinate, better quality stamps and paper, and so on.  

I still look at the cost as a bit of an investment, partly why I became a demonstrator - to save money.  But part of that mindset makes it hard for me to just sell off my old stamp sets when they retire (for Sale-A-Bration that is at the end of a 3 month period of time, and some of them I have just started using now!!).  I spend money carefully, and buy sets that I love.  If I find that I haven't used a set, yes, I find it easy to let it go.  But sets that are retired, some long ago and that I have found used and added to my collection anyways, are still part of my go-to sets of stamps.  I love them, they still are helping me to make beautiful cards, and so why should I have to part with them.

The great thing is, no matter what stamp set I use, the techniques that I use and teach with them can be used with other sets; ones that you have, or new ones that you would love to try.  The colours and papers can change, you can add different and new embellishments, but the stamps will carry on as long as you want them to.

Look through the new catalogue.  Find things you love.  But don't worry if they don't last long in the catalogue.  They will last years in a collection that you love, and provide you many years of enjoyment in your crafting!