Customers who know me well know that I sell off almost all of my retired stamp sets once they are no longer demonstratable. I keep very few and I use nothing retired in my work. Usually.
My daughter Caroline is turning ten on Tuesday and I made her two separate invitations: one for her family party and one for her friend party. Being ten, double digits and all that, was a big deal for her. I wanted invitations that reflected her new-found sense of self. I decided to use the old Girlfriends stamp set. The funny thing is, I've never owned that set. My friend and former demonstator, Jessica, knew I had girls and had stamped a whole bunch of the images for me before giving the set back to another friend. I held onto the stamped images knowing I'd find the perfect use for them one day. I felt that this occasion was the day.
Here are her Family Party invites:
The great thing about these invitations is that I photocopied the original images that Jessica had stamped for me, onto a separate piece of card stock so that I wouldn't use up the images and I can save them for future use (thank you's, the next 10th birthday in our family.)
The colored images are colored by my girls. We sit at dance lessons each Friday for a few hours as one daughter and then the next two, rotate in and out of the studio for lessons. I brought the images and some colored pencils with me to the waiting room one week and I cut paper while they colored images. We got the work done in half the time and it's personalized from them, which I always prefer.
Here are her friend party invites:
I used the same basic layout but used a different image, thinking that this one was more appropriate for this type of party. Again, the girls colored these images that same day at dance.
I used Green Galore, Pixie Pink and Whisper White card stock and retired grosgrain ribbon. Very simple and yet very cute.
Best of all, they show that there is a time and place, even in my life, for retired stamp sets!
