Retired... but still amazing!

Retired products. Things are constantly changing in the Stampin' Up! world, and many demonstrators work on keeping only current products in their stash. I am not one of those. I am a hobby demonstrator, meaning I sell products, but that is not the only or even the primary point of my involvement with Stampin' Up! I get to enjoy the discount, have early access to new products, and enjoy other benefits of being a demonstrator. However, when products retire, I do not get rid of them. I only buy products that I myself like, and so when they retire... I keep them for myself to use. I do get rid of things, but only when I decide that they have become things that are no longer of interest to me and I won't use any longer.

The projects I am sharing today are made from retired products. The DSP from two years ago, called Sweet Talk, is a very sweet Valentines paper. I used it to make Valentines for my school kiddos. I dug it out this year, and used up all of the paper that I had cut down to make a whole new pile of Valentines. I used it along with my scrap paper from my "red" box and "pink and purple" box. These are scraps of paper that is not Stampin' Up! cardstock. It is, in my opinion, not as good quality, and was paper that I bought as I started my paper craft journey. I bought it from various places including dollar stores. I have felt guilty about just getting rid of it, and some of it has worked its way to school to use with my students over the years. Today... I used a whole bunch of it up to make these Valentines. 

I used a retired set of punches, two hearts, one scalloped and one plain. I also used the sentiment from the Sweet Conversations stamp set, also retired, to make a simple banner for these cards. On the back, a simple stamp saying To and From, from the very old Tags 4 You stamp set, so that I can write out their name and sign it too. I know that my kids won't truly appreciate the time and effort put into these... but I feel good about what I have made. I made enough that I have plenty for school as well as for my daughter to use at her place of work as she is a daycare employee. I think I may even have some leftover for another year. Extras piles up... and then I have a set of multiple years of designs. 

Another card that I made today came from the retired set Best Catch. I have a bunch of retired colour papers as well, so I put some of those to good use in making this card.  As I often do, I went to the internet and searched Stampin' Up! Best Catch, and looked at images of things that other crafters have made. I found one that I really liked by Julie, The Paper Pixie. She did such a wonderful job designing this card that I changed little of the base design. I am not sure I got the colouring just right, but I used my Stampin' Blends to make it look somewhat like a trout. I like how it turned out. I also took my blending brushes and added Balmy Blue and Misty Moonlight to the background to bring a bit more depth to the background. 

The dies that I used were from the Best Catch accompanying die set, as well as some retired oval layers. I used Crumb Cake ink to dress up the back layer, doing a tone on tone print on the first layer of paper. Inside, I used the hat and fishing bag stamps to stamp the corner of the message layer. All of it went onto a base of Pear Pizzazz, and layer of Chocolate Chip, also both retired. 

With very little actually current product, I spent my whole day crafting for ME, not for my business. That is what got me to where I am now - loving what I do and loving being creative. The process of making things is so soothing for me. I love that I can go to my craft room and just set aside all of the things that are inside my head and create things that are beautiful. I have gotten to the point where I think that I actually am good at this, and capable of making things that I am proud of. 

I think the whole point of this is... just because things get old does not mean they are not useful anymore. I made wonderful things today with things that are old. It goes for me too. Just because I am not as young as I once was, it does not mean that I am past my prime. I am capable. I am useful. I am worthwhile too. 

Just remember that yourself.