March Paper Pumpkin Alternatives

I've almost finished with the March Paper Pumpkin.  I think I have enough scraps for 3 more cards.  Then what??!  I have a new stamp set I haven't used so I'll be making cards with Ride With Me next.  Stay tuned.

This is the first card I've made with the door stamp.  I used the SU Blends to color the door.  This would be a great stamp to send to someone who is moving into a new home.  (I'll have to remember that!)

This is a notecard that came with the Paper Pumpkin and I used Under My Umbrella for the umbrella and flowers.

I love these meerkats peeking out of the boots.  And how about the frog down in the corner - did you miss him?  

This is my favorite I think.  I found that border (?) in the Good Morning Magnolia stamp set.  I used Dapper Denim for this card which is a retired in-color but I had the ribbon to match plus the retired "crackle" paper that I stamped the boots onto.  Don't you love the sentiment?  Great for these crazy times.

I know one thing - I need to stop baking during this panademic!  The scales are starting to be mean to me.  Sonny is getting used to having sweets every night with his tea plus I'm eating my share of the cakes, cookies and pies I've been making.  I'm trying to make them a little healthy by using applesauce in place of oil in the cakes and Splenda instead of sugar in cookies.  Sonny finished off the chocolate cake on Monday and was looking for his next treat yesterday.  I ended up making an apple tart but did it in two days.  He was looking for it last night but I'd only made the dough so he had to eat one of his Little Debbie cakes!  I finished making the tart this morning.  The instructions said to eat it immediately!  So I had a bite!  It was fairly easy to make.  I made a crust and put in my fluted tart pan that I've had for probably 5 years and never used!  I peeled and cored 4 apples and used my food processor to get them really thin.  The apples went in on top of the crust and I baked it at 400 for 40 minutes.  When I took it out of the oven, I drizzled caramel sauce on top .... yum!

Organize with Evernote!

I'm pretty proud of myself!  I have entered all my stamps - retired, current and paper pumpkin and my dies - into the Evernote program (free!)  I even entered the new stamp set I received on Monday!  Now to keep up and keep them organized!

These are my retired stamps!  It's funny - while I was entering them into Evernote, I reacquainted myself some of the oldies but goodies and pulled 3 or 4 out to make cards with.

These are my dies / thinlits.  I have to admit I have a few more of them that I haven't entered yet.  That's tomorrows job.  I had them in a basket but they outgrew their basket so I moved them to this plastic tub.

These are my current stamps!  My retired definitely outnumber the current.  And in another couple of months, I will be moving some of these over to the retired side.  Actually there are 3 or 4 Sale-a-Bration sets in this group that should actually be retired since Sale-a-Bration is over.

These are my Paper Pumpkin stamps.  I have them inside the clear envelopes that Stampin' Up sells.  On the side is a paper list of all the stamps so I can quickly look at it to see what I am looking for.  They are organized in the envelopes with the date and month and title of the stamp sets.

Here are a few cards I made from an old Paper Pumpkin kit from December 2016.  It was meant to be a journal and came with a Rotary Stamp instead of photopolymer stamps.  It included patterned paper and printed window sheets.  I didn't need a journal or scrapbook so made them into cards.

April Paper Pumpkin - All About Family

HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY!

You know how much I love the Paper Pumpkin kits.  I'm not fooling you on that!  I know some don't like the fact that you don't know what the kit looks like in advance.  But, I like the surprise of opening the box and "oohing and aahing" over what's inside!  The March kit knocked it out of the park I thought.  So, I am anxiously awaiting to see what April has for us.   So this much I know about the April kit - It will be a fun, family appreciation themed card kit for you to share your hearts with those you love most:  mom, dad, daughter, son, sister and brother.  The kit will include Mother's Day and Father's Day sentiments.  The Paper Pumpkin team knows that everyone's clan is unique.  With that in mind, they provided sentiments that would include anyone in your life who feels like family; for instance, "brothers" and "sisters" who have helped you along the journey of life.  The kit contains supplies for 8 cards and envelopes.  I always have bits and pieces left over to make several alternative cards.  The coordinating colors in the kit are:  Crushed Curry, Early Espresso, Melon Mambo, Mint Macaron, Pear Pizzazz, Shaded Spruce and Soft Sea Foam.

You need to subscribe by April 11 to receive the April Kit.  You can subscribe HERE.

 

No Matter the Weather

I'm feeling pretty productive.  Yesterday I was able to put all my Paper Pumpkin stamp images into Evernote.  It was actually fun to remember a lot of the past kits.  I still need to go back and enter key words on each one but I think I'll have lots of time to do that!

I actually took a walk today.  Every day this week I've told myself to get off my butt and go walk.  Well, Monday and Tuesday were out because it was raining.  Wednesday and Thursday it was too cold.  Today I didn't allow myself to find an excuse since it was almost 80 degrees.  So, I bundled up a few cards from the March kit and popped them in friends mailboxes along the way.  The March PP Kit is really a good one for what's going on in our country.  One of the sentiments is "No matter the weather we're in this together."  Fitting don't you think?  Most of these cards are alternates that I made up myself or CASE'd them from other sources.

I used watercolor paper for this one and fussy cut all the boots.  I used Blueberry Bushel, Lovely Lipstick, Call Me Clover and Crushed Curry.

I love this little bunny!

This is one of the original cards from the kit and a favorite of mine.

These are some ferocious storm clouds!!  I used Basic Gray which came with the kit but next time I'll use Smoky Slate I believe.

I cut out one of the umbrellas from the Pleased As Punch DSP.

The background paper is the Golden Honey DSP that is available with Sale-a-Bration.  I used the SU Blends to color the flowers in the background.  The white piece is die cut with the Sweetly Stitched dies.

The background paper for this card is from Tropical Oasis DSP.



Enjoy these spring pictures from my walk today.

Lovely Day Paper Pumpkin

Are you enjoying your "stay at home" vacation?  So far, it hasn't bothered me too much .... except I'm cooking more than usual.  Yesterday I was really wanting a pizza from Jet's Pizza.  I was determined that when Sonny came home from golfing, we were going to turn around and drive to Mooresville and get that pizza!  Luckily, he called me on the way home to see if I needed anything so I ordered that pizza online and he picked it up.  It tasted soooo good!!  I used my week's worth of WW points for it but it was worth it!

Several have asked me about my daughter, Ashley.  She is an Infectious Disease Pediatrician so this coronavirus is right up her alley.  Luckily, she is now working at the military medical school - USUHS (United Services University of Health Sciences) as an Assistant Dean of Clinical Sciences and is deemed essential to the university so she will not be treating patients.  Yay!  If you don't know what her job is, I didn't either!  Here is her bio.  She has her plate pretty full during this time.  The military issued a travel ban for all a couple of weeks ago.  Ashley and her crew had to scramble around to get over 400 students back to DC who were doing residency or other training away from the medical school and find them something to do.  Then yesterday, the President of the school announced that the seniors will graduate  early on April 1.  With the travel ban still in effect, now they have to figure out what to do with these students who really aren't doctors yet!!

Today's card feature the Paper Pumpkin kit from February.  The kit was all about birthdays.  The included stamps has a large flower, smaller flower and a ton of birthday sentiments with a "congratulations" thrown in.  It makes 9 cards, 3 each of 3 designs.  Of course, I didn't stay on script and made quite a few more by adding in some additional supplies.

Many of the sentiments in the kit were backed on dimensional so it was so easy to adhere them to the card.

I die cut  the birthday sentiment after adhering it to the cardstock with  adhesive sheets.  I heat embossed (in gold) the flower on the Blueberry Bushel cardstock

Another heat embossed card - this time on Merry Merlot and layered onto gold paper.

Have a lovely day .... which happens to be the name of the February Paper Pumpkin kit!

Fun times!

Today is my last day in Maryland.  It has been a great visit - a little sightseeing and a lot of just visiting and chilling with my sweet daughter.  We're going to try to arrange another visit in April and bringing Sonny with us then.  Ashley has several small projects for her dad around the house and it will probably be time to work out in her yard!  Right now she has daffodils just starting to bloom and a whole bed of Lenten Roses right outside her office window.  I cut some and put them in a vase but her cat keeps trying to eat them!

Here are some pictures from my visit.

Sunday at the Korea Memorial - one of my favorites.

Reflecting Pool 

Vietnam Wall

White House in background

A stop at Old Ebbitts Grill 

Monday (President's Day) - Ashley took Marianne to the airport about 6:30 (while I slept!).  That afternoon Ashley and I drove about an hour to this cider brewery in Virginia.  It was a beautiful place and we loved the cider!!  We did a tasting and then enjoyed our picnic lunch with a pint.

This is Corky!  He became my friend and kept sitting up on his hind legs begging for me to give him a piece of cheese or a cracker!

We took Courtney to the cider brewery on Saturday and she fell in love with it too!

Yesterday Ashley and I had a creative day!  After church, we went out for breakfast and then came back to her house and made cards.  I can't tell you how many Paper Pumpkin kits she has that she hasn't done more than open the box!  So we tried to remedy that!

Ashley worked on the July Picnic Paradise kit.

I worked on the April Sentimental Rose kit.