It's Not Just for Christmas

Star of Light stamp set can also be sued to make generic cards. Here's a birthday card I made using the stars from that set.
And inside I continued with the slanted layout in my stamping.

Graduation Time!

It's graduation time. April's Paper Pumpkin had some beautiful gift card projects. This was one of them and perfect for the three high school open houses that we are invited to here locally. The "envelope" in the background wraps around the white card. See that striped area on the envelope; that is a little pocket to hold the gift card. Love Paper Pumpkin!

February Paper Pumpkin... Hello Sunshine

February's Paper Pumpkin kit was fun. It made nine cards, three each of three designs. This is one of the designs.  The sentiments are stamped, the rest of the cards were preprinted or die cut adhesive pieces and you got a little packet of gold and pink sequins. 

And the kit came with these pretty envelopes. They were the same on the face of the envelope but there were three different liner designs. Very pretty preprinted envelopes. The kit came with 13 photopolymer stamps and a Blackerry Bliss ink spot. Such pretty colors!

As usual there were extra pieces left over, so this is a card I made using stamps in my inventory and extra pieces. I decided to just use the kit cards as an example. I liked them, so why reinvent the wheel!

Here's the second card from the kit. What a pretty gold adhesive swirl to add to the card. 

And there was an extra gold swirl so this is my card using some retired Lullaby DSP and a flower punch for the orange flower. There were plenty of sequins in the pack for the extra cards and you always get lots of extra glue dots or dimensionals if included. 

The third card design. The background is preprinted. So, again the only stamping was the sentiment on the little banner die cuts. 

And my version of the card using some retired DSP and the little flower stamps from the Paper Pumpkin kit. I used the last leaf die cut from the kit on this card. The flowers were punched using circle punches.

I didn't subscribe to Paper Pumpkin for a long time but it really is fun to get that little box in the mail each month. Sometimes I use the contents for other projects than the ones intended but I've always used them. And I have the stamps from the kits quite a bit. I store them in the clear DVD cases that you can order from Stampin' Up! I have been able to store 4 months of stamps in each case.

I have a Brother P-Touch label machine that I use to make the labels. It's a pretty slick little gadget. Think I have some of my dad in me as he would have loved having one and labeling everything in sight. 

Paper Pumpkin Alternative Idea

 I made cards in this style with the supplies and stamps in the January 2016 Paper Pumpkin. The kit for January had supplies to make little treat holders and a banner. I made 8 treat holders for the Confirmation Class students but didn't think I would get much use out of the banner. So, made valentines instead. I usually send valentines to all my nieces and nephews or their children. It's just another way to keep in touch throughout the year. And who doesn't like getting something other than junk mail in their snail mail.
The bottom card uses some gold sequin trim, gold twine and sequins I already had in my supplies.

November's Paper Pumpkin

The top card is from the November Paper Pumpkin.It is one of two card designs in the package.

I started getting the monthly Stampin' Up! Paper Pumpkin's in April of last year. I didn't think I would enjoy them so much. I only subscribed when I did because of a special the company ordered and it would count as a Sale-A-Bration order. (Sale-A-Bration starts again, soon!) Anyhow, there are always a few extras in the kits of some things. And of course I can't throw them away. There was an extra pre-cut holly leaf and a few red pearls left, too. So, I used some of the scraps from the punched out holly leaves as a stencil and inked a sponge dauber up with Old Olive to make two of the leaves in the bottom card. Then added the left over pre-cut holly leave. I like the way it turned out.

Since I already had lots of Christmas cards made I decided to use the Paper Pumpkin cards as holiday thank you notes. It's been a great incentive to write the notes as gifts are received since they have a Christmas look and sentiment. And we are blessed with lots of Christmas goodies/gifts from the parishoners at this time of year. Such generous people!

A few more thoughts on Paper Pumpkin. There are lots of bloggers who take the supplies and make alternate items with them. So, even on the few months when I haven't had a need for the projects as outlined I have found other things to make and use.  And it is fun to get that little box each month and see what is inside!

Here's another card using the little "plant" monster. I made the top card first using white card stock and then sponging with Basic Grey in hopes the spider web would pop more. But I wasn't pleased with it. So, the next time I just used teh white as it was. Then I decided to try it with a black embossed spider web. Which do you like best? You'll notice the DSP in the background is different sizes. That's because I made a mistake cutting for the bottom two cards. I wanted the orientation to be in a certain direction because I thought it sort of looked like eyes. Darn, if I didn't cut it the wrong way! Even though I had another sheet of that design I decided to use it as cut. You will also notice the bottom cup is slanted a bit. I wish I had done this on all of them. This was a "happy accident". I stamped the boo and it was crooked. So, I decided to place the cup so that BOO was straight on the card. I like this look better. Too bad, my happy accident happened as I was putting together the last card. Oh well!

Little Green Monster

This is a CASE from Rachel Tessman. I can think of some people who are going to love getting this card and a few who may not be so happy because they'll have the little tune running through their mind all day long. I know it's been running through mine ever since I made it. I used the Rotary Alphabet stamp for the lettering on the cups. It takes some practice. I've found I need to stand to get a straight no smudges image. When I'm sitting I have a tendency to rock the rotary stamp. And I use a piece of scrap plain paper to place under the portion of the rotary stamp that is blank.
The "happy birthday" comes from the retired, You're My Type stamp set. I wanted something with a similar font.

Paper Pumpkin July 2015 Alternate Card

I usually wait a bit before using my Paper Pumpkin kit because I want to see what others are creating. I search for Paper Pumpkin with that month and get so many ideas. This month I found a great resource in Stamp Your Art Out by Rachel Tessman. Very creative! The layout for this card came from her post.

Paper Pumpkin July 2015: Thanks a Latte

I got email notice last week that my August Paper Pumpkin was on its way. I hadn't done my July Paper Pumpkin yet. I hadn't even unwrapped the contents.
These are the cards as instructed in the kit. They also came with envelopes. The kit had supplies to make 8 cards all alike except for changing the expression and the plant. Pretty!
But of course, I didn't want to make 8 cards all alike. So, tune in tomorrow to see another card design.

Last Post for May's Paper Pumpkin

I still had two large pieces cut from the bags on my desk. They were pieces that had the prepunched circles. I had managed to cut them so I could layer another piece of card stock or DSP to cover them. But I also had a little bit of the Thick Twine left. And it was just enough to lace through the punched holes. So, I stamped on some Whisper White card stock with my Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight and Bermuda Bay ink. (Island Indigo ink was included in the kit). Then I punched them using my 2-1/2" circle punch. I made two cards like this and that means I got 21 cards and two gift bags out of my May Paper Pumpkin kit.
And the best part I still have the five photo polymer stamps to use that came in the kit. Woohoo!

Still Showcasing Paper Pumpkin Cards

Last week I started sharing the cards I made using May Paper Pumpkin supplies. I still had some of the confetti strips and white circles. So, I dug in my Designer Series stash to find a party piece, hoping it would have colors that would blend with the Bermuda Bay strip. I was delighted to find this large scrap that had Bermuda Bay in it. I paired it with Raspberry Ripple card stock from my stash. I had just the right amount of DSP to use the three circles and strips left. So, three more cards added to the 16 already makes 19 cards.

Banners and Balloons with Paper Pumpkin

I still had pieces of the cut up bags and four of the little bag tags (you get two extra ones in the kit) to use. So, I pulled out my Banner Framelits and came up with this card. I had to pull some of my own Designer Series Paper (Daffodil Delight banner), Whisper White and Calypso Coral card stock and Island Indigo baker's twine. I made 4 cards like this... that's 16 cards

Paper Pumpkin Balloons

I paired the Calypso Coral balloon from the kit with a round balloon cut using my Balloon Framelits to make this quick and simple card. The round balloon is cut from another piece of the cut up bag. I used Island Indigo, Daffodil Delight card stock, Island Indigo baker's twine and some candy dots from my own supplies. I made two cards like this... that brings the total to 12. And there are more to come!

Paper Pumpkin Inspiration

If you search on Pinterest for Paper Pumpkin you can find lots of fun alternative uses for the kit supplies. That's how I found this card from Stamp Your Art Out.  I like the way the card base was used to make the fun z-fold. I used my Balloon Framelits again for the balloon this time. Other items not included in the kit are the Whisper White, Daffodil Delight  and Calypso Coral card stock and the Calypso Coral ink. I made three cards like this... that's 10 cards.

More Paper Pumpkin

This card is very similar to the one in the pack I just added the string of banners to the corner and offset the circle a bit.

So, for this one I had to use some of my own Daffodil Delight card stock and the Balloon Framelits with my Big Shot for the string of banners. I made two cards like this. If you are keeping track that is 7 cards so far.

Paper Pumpkin for May

May's Paper Pumpkin had the supplies to make four gift bags and six cards as pictured above. Since most of my gift buying is for people who live in other states I am a big gift card/certificate giver. So, I decided rather than make all four bags I would create cards out of two of them. Here's the first card I made using the cut out balloon section of the bag. Since there were two on each bag I made four cards like this.

The Island Indigo Base is the back portion of the card base from the kit. I cut the front of the card for tomorrow's card to 4" X 5-1/4" and that left the stripe along the edge. So, I then cut this mat to 4"X5-1/4"  keeping that stripe along the edge. I had to use some Whisper White (for small balloons), Daffodil Delight and Calypso Coral cardstock and Calypso Coral ink from my own supplies. Otherwise the supplies for this card came from the Paper Pumpkin kit.

Paper Pumpkin turned Graduation

I took up the offer for special pricing for a three month subscription to Paper Pumpkin that Stampin' Up! offered at the end of Sale-a-Bration. So my first box arrived in April and it was mostly ideas for Mom and Dad's day cards. I already had my Mother's Day card made so I set it on my shelf.
Last week I realized I needed to get busy on graduation cards because local grads have begun their open houses. So, here's what I came up with. The kit is perfect for grad cards because I can tuck the gift check in the little holder behind the card and they look like gifts. Luckily the stamps I wanted to use fit just perfectly on this size card.
Can't wait to see what May and June Paper Pumpkin kits will have.