I love creating alternative cards with Paper Pumpkin Kits  I would love to see your finished creations that are inspired by this tutorial! 

Today is my alternative card ideas using the August 2021 Paper Pumpkin Kit – Hope Box. 

This card was super simple to make.  I stamped the sentiment onto watercolor paper with Versa Mark.  I used white embossing powder and embossed the sentiment.  Next I used my Aqua Brush to put stripes of colors on top of the lines of the sentiment.  I used Bermuda Bay, Polished Pink, Pear Pizzazz, Bumblebee, and Highland Heather.  I used one of the butterflies and a few purple rhinestones scattered around.  The watercolor piece is mounted on Highland Heather and the card is Soft Sea Foam.

These next two cards are what I call a two for one. You use one cardbase from the Paper Pumpkin kit and create two cards. I love how the gradient really adds a nice pop of colors and goes so well with the fun patterns from the banners.

1- Cut the Melon Mambo Cardbase in half at 4 ¼”. Trim down the Melon Mambo side to 4” x 5 ¼”. Remove the top section at 1 ¾”.

2- On the White card (that you cut off from the back of the Melon Mambo piece) create a blend of colors using Blending Brushes and Bumblebee, Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, & Blackberry Bliss. Trim down to 4” x 5 ¼” and remove the top section at 1 ¾”.

3- On the larger pieces. Stamp the greeting. ( I used the retired stamp set, Ridiculously Awesome.) You can choose to stamp in Blackberry Bliss or VersaMark and heat emboss with White Embossing Powder. If you choose to heat emboss, make sure to apply a generous amount of powder (embossing buddy) to the top of the Blended Background so the powder doesn’t stick to any wet ink.  I used my stamparatus & inked the sentiment a couple of times with Blackberry Bliss ink.

Place the greeting on the top  of the Blended Background and the bottom right corner of the Melon Mambo piece.

4- Swap pieces so you have a blended piece with a Melon Mambo piece then add to your cardbases. I placed the Blended Background pieces on top for each of my cards – see images above.

5- Randomly stamp the flower image from the stamp set that came in the kit with Pool Party ink on the Pool Party 1” strip. Then cut down the middle to create two ½” x 4” pieces.

6- Attach the strip over the seam between the two papers on the cardbase.

7- Cut each banner in around the half mark making one side small and the other a little bigger. I cut some at 2” and others at 1 ¾”. Mix and match patterns and sizes, then attach them to the card with dimensionals. Make sure not to cover any of the greeting. Add sequins.

All Done!

Beach Trip

 Wow - it's been almost a month since I posted anything!  Life sometimes gets in the way.  This past week I was at Ocean Isle Beach for a whole week.  We had such a great time that we are going to book a condo again for next year.  We started our trip by driving to Pinehurst on Friday, meeting up with Ashley and having dinner and drinks at a brewery there that Sonny had gone to with the guys a few days before on a golfing trip.  From there we drove to Fayetteville and spent the night there since Ashley had been at Ft Bragg for a couple of days and we were able to share the room with her thanks to the Army!  On Saturday, we drove to Wilmington for the night and explored around Wilmington and had dinner on the pier at Wrightsville Beach.  Sunday we headed over to Carolina Beach to have some delicious Britt Donuts on the boardwalk.  They have been in operation for over 80 years!  They offer one-of-a-kind handmade, raised doughnuts in one variety - glazed!  They are made from scratch and follow the original 1939 recipe without using any premixed ingredients or preservatives.  As you place your order or sit at the counter (as we did), you see doughnuts being rolled, cut, fried, and glazed.  They are served warm and melt in your mouth.  We ordered a dozen  and they were all gone when we left!!  Yes, I need to get back to Weight Watchers!!

After stuffing ourselves with doughnuts, we headed to our condo in Ocean Isle.  The week was just perfect.  The ocean was actually warm and not freezing like it was last year in Emerald Isle and Ashley and I went in the water every day except Wednesday.  It was really windy on Wednesday & the sand was blowing all over us plus it was cloudy thanks to the tropical storm.  We could only take the sand blowing for an hour before we packed our things up and went to the condo.  We had brought Stampin' Up supplies so we made a few cards and watched Sweet Magnolias on Netflix.

Wrightsville Beach bar on the pier.

Ocean Isle - walkway that connects with our condo & the beach.

Windy!

Beautiful sunsets.

We found a cute wine shop so we stopped & had a flight.  

Luckily, they had beer for Sonny!

Friday night there was a concert in the park... lots of people.  I might have been doing a little shagging in the grass!

When we were at the Friday night concert, I was talking to the lady sitting beside me.  It turns out that she was originally from Charlotte & we went to the same high school!  She asked me what year I graduated from South (1966) and when I told her she said "you're old!".  How rude!  She graduated in 1969 but Sonny & Ashley both told me she definitely looked older than me by about 5 years.