Featuring the Old & the New

Welcome to the first installment of the Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration Blog Hop! You'll notice that we're all familiar faces if you've been hopping with us each month; we've just combined in to one group. As you hop along, please be sure to comment and show some love on every blog! We are always excited to hear from our followers! You should have just left stop number 1 - (Erica B of Stamping Starlette). If so, you are in the right spot. If a link doesn't work or you get off track, you will find the full blog hop lineup below.

Today we decided to pull out our oldest Stampin' Up! set, and use it alongside our newest Stampin' Up! set. My oldest stamp set is called Meow, Meow. I hosted my first two Stampin' Up! parties in 2003 (one in September and another just a few weeks later in October). At my second party, the demonstrator told me that she thought I'd make a great demonstrator. Since I already wanted everything in the catalog, that was just the push I needed. I did end up signing up under her in January of 2004. In the meantime, I spent a lot of time on the Stampin' Up! website (which didn't have near as many features as it does today!)

Stampin' Up! was celebrating their 15th Anniversary in 2003 and each month that year re-released a previously retired stamp set and for that one month only. Meow, Meow happened to be the one that was available in November (or maybe October) that year. Since I AM the crazy cat lady, I had to have it! I'm not sure when it was originally retired, but the dates on the stamps from when it was released was 1998.

Here is a picture of Meow, Meow.

Aren't they cute? I just realized that I left out one stamp when I took the picture, but you'll see it on my card!

I had three new stamp sets on my last order. Since I really do Love My Cat, I used the heart outline from Groovy Love as a background. "I (heart) my cat" was the stamp I forgot to include the the first picture.

I used the Blendabilities to color my basket and bow on the cat. Even though I didn't "blend" any colors together, I really love how smooth the ink appears with the Blendabilites. I didn't color the cat because I all 3 of the cats that have truly been MY cats were all either black and white or grey and white. I've had many other cats over the years growing up on the farm and they were all my babies; but Miss Bull, Butler and Abby have held truly special places in my heart.

Thanks for joining us today! Click on that Next button to visit Jennifer and continue on the hop.

Blog Hop Participant List:
1. Erica B. of Stamping Starlette
2. Darcy J. of DJ's Stampin' Place
3. Jennifer B. of Northwest Stamper
4. Diana E. of Stampin' Fun with Diana
5. Donna S. of Organized Chaos
6. Cynthia R. of Ink-a-Doodle Creations
7. Kim R. of Stamping with Kim
8. Kathy P. of Katrina P's Creative Corner
9. Shellie G. of Craft Smashup