Stampin' Addicts Retiring Sets Blog Hop

** If you are here for the Flag Day Giveaway winner drawing, please scroll down to the second post.**

Welcome to the Stampin' Addicts official good-bye party, the Retiring Sets Blog Hop! Have you scoured through the retiring list? I recommend you mark up your catalog with all the retiring sets, and by all means, grab those talking to you before they are gone! If you have been following the blog hop in order, you have just come from Yapha's blog featuring the Bugs & Kisses. Weren't her projects adorable?

Today I'm featuring the stamp set Dream Gardens. I think this is such an elegant and artistic stamp set, and I have used this set for so many techniques, including split negative, faux mother of pearl, and lots of techniques suitable for silhouette images. This set is also perfect for smaller, technique-heavy items, such as ATCs, inchies, or as you will see below, Simply Adorned Charm inserts.

For my first project, I thought I would brayer with some new In Colors. I used the reflection technique here.

Stamps: Dream Gardens, Pocket Silhouettes; Paper: Island Indigo, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Whisper White; Ink: Island Indigo, Pool Parade, Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral, Versamark, Versamarker; Accessories: Clear embossing powder, Brayer, Sponges, Signo white gel pen, Post-it notes, Pearl jewels, Elegant Lines embossing folder, Big Shot, Dimensionals.

Of course, the natural project for this set is any project having to do with tea. Here I made a little tea bag holder.

Left is the front view, and right is the inside view.

Stamps: Dream Gardens; Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Love Letter DSP; Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Versamark; Accessories: Black embossing powder, Basic Black taffeta ribbon, Scallop Trim border punch, Pearl jewels.

Hopefully no one will mind if I reuse a project from the past... I used this set to create Simply Adorned swaps for Convention last year. The special technique here is Poppin' Pastels, and this was one of my favorite uses for this set.

The left and right sides are the front and back of the charm insert, respectively. The swan comes from the geisha's kimono, and it was embossed in gold.

Stamps: Garden Dreams; Paper: Very Vanilla, Basic Black; Ink: Versamark, Basic Black; Accessories: Stampin' Pastels (Regal Rose, So Saffron), Gold embossing powder, Acrylic fixative.

And finally, my 3-D project, a fun little luminary.

Hopefully this is reminiscent of a Asian pagoda, at least that's what I was going for.

Stamps: Dream Gardens; Paper: Chocolate Chip, Basic Black, Vellum cardstock, Beyond the Garden DSP; Ink: Versamark; Accessories: Black embossing powder, Corner Rounder punch, Crimper, Stylus, Chipboard, Sticky Strip.

Don't forget to come back on Monday for more pictures and details on how to make these projects. If you aren't yet a member of Stampin' Addicts, you can sign up here. Make sure you check out the next stop to see what Lisa put together using Matchbox Messages. Her projects are always amazing.










The complete hop list:
1. Tanya (tanya27) -- From the Crypt
2. Sarah W. (WillsyGirl) -- Cardinal Christmas
3. Betty (kittystamp) -- Blowing Kisses
4. Rhonda (rhondag) -- Birthday Bliss
5. Holly K. (catrules) -- Always
6. Sara (lilyinkpad) -- Lots of Bots
7. Adriana (escape2stamp) -- Animal Stories
8. Yapha -- Bugs & Kisses
9. Heidi (hlw966) -- Dream Gardens
10. Lisa Y. (genesis) -- Matchbox Messages
11. Twila (tjdstampsalot) -- Pick a Petal
12. Kim (s1itcher46) -- Friends 24-7
13. Jennifer (jentimko) -- All Holidays

Thanks for stopping by!