Throwback Thursday: Botanicals

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Do What You Need To Do To Make Yourself Feel Better!

If you follow my blog then you probably know that I often struggle with the whole idea of retiring stamp sets and discontinued items.  I know that I live in a consumer-focused world and that by being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator I am a contributing member of this society of materialism.  Most days I am okay with that.  I love our products and I, like everyone else, like fresh and new products to play with.  Some days though, I find myself staring at my shelves of retired items and it makes me sad.  Sad that I have perfectly wonderful, beautiful supplies that I no longer use because they have been labeled "retired."  Some people part with their retired items.  I don't happen to be one of them (that's another story for another day).  As a matter of fact, I have even been guilty of purchasing retired items because of their beauty and then I stop myself from using them because of their status..."retired."  So the other day I was thinking about placing another Stampin' Up! order in an effort to refresh my supplies and I hesitated.  I have many stamps that have never seen ink - they are as fresh as anything - so why not play with them?  I know what you're thinking..."They're retired!"  Yeah, yeah...and so is my mom, but I still talk to her and spend time with her and enjoy her!  So there!  So I decided to create a special space for my retired and discontinued items that I still keep and love.  Every week I am now going to share Throwback Thursday with you!!!!!  Every Thursday I will ink up one of these much-loved stamp sets and put them to work!  One thing I appreciate about Stampin' Up! is that there is often a current "similar" stamp set available if you want the same look and feel of the retired set.  I will do my best to identify the current set that could give you a similar look.  I hope you enjoy Throwback Thursdays!  I know I will :)
Today's Throwback Thursday features the Botanicals stamp set.  I stamped all of the images onto a Naturals Ivory card base using Basic Black ink (except for the script background - I stamped that image with Crumb Cake ink).  I love how you can create an elegant one-layer card with this set.  You can absolutely create a similar look with the Nature Walk stamp set.  You might even pair it with the En Francais background set.  See what you currently have that might mimic this one-layer look!  Your stamps are calling to you :)