Broadway Star Paper Pumpkin

Yay!!  Another opportunity to spread the word about Paper Pumpkin.  These kits just keep getting better.  If you have not subscribed to Paper Pumpkin in the past, NOW is the time!  Please choose me as your demonstrator when signing up for Paper Pumpkin and use the Promo Code BLOOMO818.

I broke into my June Paper Pumpkin kit last weekend and made 2 of the cards per the included instructions and four alternative cards.  I still have materials to make several more cards.  I just love this kit - the Lemon Lime Twist and Lovely Lipstick go great together!

Card #1 per instructions included in Paper Pumpkin kit.

Card #2 per the instructions.

Alternative card #1 - I pieced the "Yay" together from the Hooray sticker that was included.  Peel and stick it with the balloons and stamp "It's your day."  Super easy!!

Alternative card #2 - I stamped the party hats, candles, etc. on the white sticker using the stamp set from Broadway Birthday (pg 69, annual catalog).  The die cut "WISH" is from the Broadway Lights Framelits.  I love how this bundle coordinated with the Paper Pumpkin this month.

Alternative card #3 - I die cut "happy" (retired Hello You framelits) from Lovely Lipstick cardstock and stamped "birthday" from Special Celebrations, masking "happy" that was on the stamp.

Alternative card #4 - The white piece with green dots down the side is one of the envelopes that came with the kit that I cut down.  The "hello" die cut is also from the retired Hello You framelits.  It is cut out from Gold Foil Sheets.

Card Swapping

I have been working on making cards to swap at Stampin' Up's On Stage event in April.  Marianne and I are driving to Richmond, Virginia for the event.  Unfortunately, it coincides with my anniversary but Sonny and I will celebrate before or after April 7!  In preparation for the announcement of the retired stamp sets, I am trying to make a card using each of my stamp sets (that are current.)  Not sure if I will finish this task before On Stage.  So far I am only to the C's and I have 58 stamp sets to work through!  But I have skipped around a tad bit.

Here are a few I did this week:

This card uses Botanical Blooms - well, to be truthful, it uses the thinlits that coordinate with the stamp set mostly.  The sentiment comes from Garden in Bloom.  I used the Sale-a-Bration Glimmer paper for the first time.  It's so pretty!!  The flower is Sweet Sugarplum and the leaves are Mint Macaron and Wild Wasabi.  

This card is from Cake Crazy - stamp set found in the Occasions catalog that I have my fingers crossed that it will be in the annual catalog in June!  I love this color combo of Bermuda Bay, Night of Navy and Crumb Cake - don't you?  I alos used the Bermuda Bay sequin trim (for the first time also!)

This card is my favorite though!  Guess what the pink swirly's are cut from!!???

Well, did you make a few guesses?  It's not Stampin' Up's cardstock .... it is paint chips!  I have a whole container of paint chips that I picked up a couple of years ago.  I thought they would be great for the flower to get various shades of pinks that coordinate.  I took this picture on an angle so you could see the dimension of the flowers.  Each one is 3 layers that are glued together.  I thought about doing a 5th flower but I was done!!!  Actually, this card doesn't even use a stamp set!   How will I ever get through all my stamps if I keep this up??  The flower and leaves are from the Swirly Scribbles Thinlits that coordinate with Swirly Bird stamp set.  "Hello" is cut from Hello You thinlits.  

I made mention of my husband having surgery in my last blog posting.  Well, it is a long story but the short version was that we went to the hospital last Tuesday.  He was prepped for surgery with an IV, etc.  When the doc came in, we discovered the surgery was NOT going to be laproscopic.  That was a deal breaker for Sonny.  He had the nurses remove the IV and we were outta' there!   He wants the shorter recovery time that is allowed by doing the surgery laproscopic.  From everything we have read and heard, he should be able to have it done that way with a 3 week recovery verses a 6 week recovery for cutting him.  So he is going to get the name of another surgeon that does the surgery laproscopic.  More than likely, he is going to wait until the fall to get it done now.

Serene Serenity DSP

These are the other cards we made this month at Stamp Club.

This first one was super simple! (I actually CASEd the idea from Stamp with Brian who CASEd it from someone else!)  I used a piece of DSP from the Serene Serenity pack.  This paper is filled with gorgeous inspirational pieces on one side and the other side has abstract patterns that are great for backgrounds.  I paired the DSP with Delightful Dijon and it matched perfectly.  The card itself is Tip Top Taupe - a color I have not used very much.  The sentiment uses Thoughtful Banners (a must have!) punched out with the Duet Banner Punch (both borrowed from my sister but on my "must have" list.)

This next card served double duty this month.  It was my swap card for Allison's monthly meeting as well as a card for my club ladies to make.  It showcases all the new In Colors.  I made a template with the Starburst Thinlit and sponged the color onto the white card.  The flowers are from Crazy About You and Flower Patch and punched out with the corresponding punch (Flower Medallion) and die (Flower Fair thinlits.)   The sentiment is Hello You Thinlits.  And for the finishing touch, I added a bit of silver metallic thread under the flower.

Hope your weekend was a good one.  We drove over to Reed Gold Mine on Saturday.  I didn't strike it rich though!  In fact, I didn't even pan for gold!  Reed Gold Mine was the first place gold was discovered in the U.S.  They were putting on an American Revolution reenactment that I though Sonny would enjoy.  It was ok but something to do on a Saturday!  Sunday we spent most of the day on the lake "chilling."  Ashley is house hunting in Hawaii.  She has discovered that her money will not go too far there in the housing market.  She spent most of Friday with a realtor looking at homes and was pretty disillusioned that evening.  She only saw one condo that she would even consider.  They are all pretty old, small and very expensive - like 2 bedrooms for $600,000+.  Sunday she went out on her own visiting a few open houses and found one condo that she really liked - again pretty small for the money, but that's the price she'll have to pay for living in Hawaii I think.  At least it made her feel better - that there are a few nice places for sale there.  The problem is the nice ones go almost as soon as they hit the market so you are going to have to be in the right place at the right time.  The one she found yesterday will have 2 weekends for open house before they will even start to take offers.  I so wish I could be there to house hunt with her.  I love to do that plus I have been with her every place she moved to look for houses. 

Thank You Cards

Are you in need of Thank You cards?  Well, these are a few that I included in my Stamp Club's purchases last week.  I always like to put a little something in their bags each month - ribbon, buttons, cards (which I don't sign so they can use them later ), etc.

The card above uses the Banner Blessings Photopolymer stamp.  You won't find this stamp in the catalog but it is available for purchase.  I really like it.  You can see a couple of other cards I made with the set HERE.  The other stamps I used in this card are Four Feathers and Gorgeous Grunge.  Doesn't the Certainly Celery go great with Coastal Cabana??

This cute little fellow is a single stamp that I have neglected!  I just think the little koala bear is darling.  The stamp actually read "thinking of YOU" but I stamped THANK from the Sale-a-Bration set, Simply Wonderful, cut it out and glued it on top of "thinking of"!  The Melon Mambo background paper is the Sale-a-Bration Irresistibly Yours DSP

This was a simple card.  I uses the Under the Tree DSP (from Holiday Catalog) and Hello You Thinlets.

Again .... Hello You Thinlets with the Sale-a-Bration Simply Wonderful stamp set and Best Year Ever DSP.

Sneak Peek Thinlet

I got my pre-ordered goodies from the Occasions Catalog and the Sale-A-Bration catalog on Monday and had a little bit of time to play around with them.  You will be able to start ordering from the Occasions Catalog January 6th.  I am sharing a sneak peek of one of the new 15% off Bundles that will be available called Crazy About You and Hello You Thinlets.  The stamp set has 33 stamps (2 flowers that coordinate with punches - one of them is new), one leaf and 30 nice size greetings!!) The Thinlets are four dies - hello, thanks, happy, you.

I kept the card really simple.  Ashley needed some masculine thank you cards so I thought this was spot on using the Under the Tree DSP from the Holiday Catalog (one of my favorite DSPs).

Inside using the piece that was cut out from the thinlit.