More August Paper Pumpkin Alternatives

I'm back with even more cards I made using the August Paper Pumpkin.

For this card, I just used a strip of the card piece and layered some lace under the strip.  I think I have had this ribbon lace for about 10 years!  I found it in my stash of ribbon and thought it looked really nice with this card.  In the Paper Pumpkin kit was a couple of pages of green vellum leaves and a couple of pages of clear vellum leaves.  I used my sponge brayer on the clear leaves to color them a light green.  Would you like to get this card for your birthday?

Another strip of the card with a scalloped edge of Blackberry Bliss under it.  I stamped the flowers using Calypso Coral ink on the Calypso Coral card.  The speckled strip was cut from the inside of the envelope that was included in the kit

For this card I layered the rectangle of flowers on Blackberry Bliss and Old Olive.  I stamped the flowers on the white part with the baby wipe technique but just used purple and pink inks,

I found a great app to organize my food recipes this weekend.  It is called Copy Me That.  I am always searching for low cal, Weight Watcher friendly dishes to make.  Before I discovered Copy Me That, I would print out the recipes leading to a bunch of paper I would have to sort through to find what I wanted.  Or if I got the recipe via my e-mail, I would move them over to a Recipe File that I had created and usually forget about them and not use them!  With Copy Me That, you add the button to your browser and when you find a recipe you want to save, you click to copy it.  You can then add a tag to it (chicken, beef, instant pot, Thanksgiving recipes, etc) and edit any part of the recipe.  I edit my recipes to show how many Weight Watcher points it is.   The app copies only the recipe, removing all the extra webpage stuff and you can link back to the original website if you want.  One thing I really like is that the app prevents your device from going to sleep.  No more having to touch your phone with greasy hands to "wake it up" and see what's next. The app is free and will sync across all your devices.  I have it installed on my laptop, mobile phone and my desktop computer.  There is also a section on the app for Meal Planning and Grocery List although I haven't used those functions yet.  You just create your meal plan for the week with recipes from your recipe box and then quickly create your shopping list right from your meal plan!  Give it a try and simplify your life!

Paper Pumpkin from August

I have made so many cards with the August Paper Pumpkin kit!  The colors in this kit are great - Blackberry Bliss and Flirty Flamingo plus your choice of green - Lemon Lime or Garden Green.  It is always so fun to see how many different cards I can make with the kit.

For this card, I stamped the Blackberry Bliss flowers at the bottom of the card and used the little heart shape stamp for leaves.  I started with my flower in the middle and worked to the sides to try and get them spaced right.  After stamping all the flowers, the Blackberry Bliss flower seemed to have a faint crosshatch on the stamp so I used my Aqua Pen and a little of the Blackberry Bliss in and went over each flower to make them a bit darker.   Then I fussy cut the bottom of the card so you can get a sneak peek of the strip of cardstock at the bottom of the inside piece.  For the sentiment piece, I used my 1" Circle Punch for the corners of the Blackberry Bliss piece to match up with the sentiment that came with the kit.

This card is similar to the one above.  But this time I stamped the flowers on the inside and fussy cut it.  I cut off about an 1" of the bottom of the top card so you could see a sneak peek of the flowers.  I cut one of the card panels in half and used half in the card above this one and the other half at the top of this card.  I scattered a few sequins around and adhered a small bow on one of the flowers.

This card was easy.  I used one of the cards that came with the kit.  I die cut the oval from the Stitched Shapes framelits and stamped a couple of flowers on the oval.  The ribbon is Berry Burst but I thought it went pretty good with these colors.  The sentiment is from the Occasions catalog - Incredible Like You.

I think this card may be my favorite.  I did the Baby Wipe Technique for the flowers.  You can see the technique HERE.  I forget about this technique but it is definitely a Wow!

This is a "Z" fold card which is pretty easy to make.  I again cut one of the pre-stamped cards in half and used half on the front of this card.  The sentiment is from Love What You Do.

This was another easy card to make.  The leaves are green vellum (came in the kit).  I stamped the flowers with Flirty Flamingo and used dimensionals to adhere them to the card.  

Hope you have enjoyed my alternative cards.  I will have more to show you in my next blog post.  Don't forget - if you would like to try Paper Pumpkin, I suggest you do it now so you can get the special 6th birthday kit.  You would need to put your order in by Sunday, March 10!!  If your order is less than $150, please use my Hostess Code found above in the top left.  Thanks!

Facebook Card Swap

The Stampin' Up demos in the southeast area of the US were recently challenged on Facebook  to make a card and send it to the person who left a comment on the post right before you.  It was a great way to connect with other demos in our area.  It was a huge success!  Around 200 different demonstrators participate and send each other happy mail. 

Below are the two cards I received. 

This card was sent to me from Kathy Donovan.  She did a great job watercoloring the image.

I was totally surprised to receive this darling bunny card.  It came from Christi Wroe.  Christi is the person I sent my card to.  She went above and beyond!!  A lot of time went in to this beautiful card.

August 2018 Paper Pumpkin

Do you have projects mounting up and don't seem to get to them (like me!)?  Maybe it is time to prioritize your projects.  Make a list of them and then number them.  Check off your list as you go and before you know it, they will be done!  What cards do you need most urgently now?  If you are like me those are probably birthday, get well and sympathy.  And pretty soon I'll be adding Easter, Mother's Day and Father's Day to my list.

At my Stampin'  get-togethers, I tell the gals they can use any sentiment they want for the cards we make.  Last week one of my friends who hasn't joined us in almost two years, came and concentrated on birthday cards.  She took two of the birthday cards I had designed (see them here) and made two of each.  Not only does she have a few birthday cards but it made it easier for her to make the second one.  So when you sit down to make a card, why not make two at the same time?!  It will make life simpler!

I worked on making cards from my Paper Pumpkin kits this weekend.  There are about three kits that I haven't done.  The cards I worked on Sunday came from the August Paper Pumpkin.  I don't know why I didn't do this kit when it came in.  It is gorgeous!!  I understand why I still have my December and February kits but why was I so busy in August??  I think that is when I was having a mental block about making cards and just had to take a break from card making and blogging.

The first two cards are made according to the directions for the August Paper Pumpkin.   Those flowers are already printed on the card.

The next card is a Z Fold card - so easy to do.  I cut one of the pre-printed cards in half to make the Z fold card.  I actually made another card like the one below but with a birthday sentiment.  But I have already mailed the other card and forgot to take a picture of it!

I just love this sentiment!

I'll be posting other cards from this kit as I make them.

Blog Hop - Keeping It in the Lines

Welcome to the North Carolina Demos February Blog Hop!  Whew - that's a mouthful!  So glad you are here and will get some ideas for your own card making from our cards.   If you have already visited Tracie's blog, I'm sure you enjoyed a wonderful project.  Tracie does great work!  I'm Sharon Maranich from the NC Piedmont area and I was born and raised in Charlotte.

This month's theme for the blog hop is your favorite coloring method.  Well, my favorite way to color is with the Stampin' Up Blends!  These markers make it so easy to blend colors and create beautiful works of art for all of your card making.  The colors, as the name suggests, blend beautifully, mainly because the colors are picked out and designed to blend with each other.  These blends take the guess work out and lessen the learning curve for coloring.  I love using the Color Lifter too.  It makes it easy to erase colors with it.  It is good for blending the dark and light colors.

For this card, I used the Dandelion Wishes stamp set.  I stamped the dandelions on the edges of the Basic Gray card stock with Versamark and used the white embossing powder to emboss them.  Next came the Pumpkin Pie Blends and I colored some of the flowers and all the little stems.  I used one of my favorite embossing folders - Subtle - to emboss both the Basic Gray card and stamped piece.  I matted the piece onto Pumpkin Pie card stock.  The sentiment was stamped on a Layering Circle die which was also matted onto a Pumpkin Pie circle.

This card uses the Love What You Do Photopolymer Stamp set.  I stamped the flowers and leaves along the edge with Memento Black ink on Very Vanilla card stock that was cut out with the Rectangle Stitched dies (my favorite!)  Next I colored the flowers with Bermuda Bay light and dark SU Blends.  I used the Well Written dies to cut out "miss" and the bird.  I actually die cut 2 of the "miss" - one is Bermuda Bay and the other in Night of Navy and staggered them just a little bit.  I matted the Vanilla piece onto Night of Navy and then onto the Bermuda Bay card.

There is a bit of a story behind the "miss" and "you"!  I bet most of you have experienced this before.  I was going to do both words with the Well Written dies and took them both off the magnet sheet and  put them onto my table.  Well, wouldn't you know it, when I got ready to die cut them, I couldn't find "you."  I looked everywhere and crawled around on the floor (picking up little bits of paper and the backs of the glue dots while I was down there!)  Finally I just gave up and stamped the "you" (from the Sale-a-Bration set, Part of My Story).  I was so upset because I had never even used the "you" die and now it was gone.  BUT .... when I turned my card over to put tape on the back and assemble the card, there was "you" stuck to the back of the vanilla card stock!  

OK - that's all for me today.  I hope you have been inspired to create your own masterpiece.  If you need help or want to add any of these supplies to your own stash, please let me know.  I'll be more than happy to help you on your stampin' journey!  Enjoy the remainder of the Blog Hop.  Next stop for the blog hop is Sue Root.  I'm sure she will have something amazing to share with you!  

We do this Blog Hop each month on the last weekend of the month.  So don't forget to join us at the end of March!

Happy Stampin'!  

Sharon

TONI CAMPANA

JO ANNE HEWINS

TRACIE EVANS LANGLEY

SHARON MARANICH - you are here!

SUE ROOT

ROBBIE RUBALA

 SUE STAPP

ANITA TRIPPI

FRANCES WAGNER

Paper Pumpkin is Celebrating it's SIX year anniversary!

There has never been a better time to give Paper Pumpkin a try.  Because it's Stampin' Up's sixth birthday celebration, they will be pulling out all the stops!  You'll get an adorable kit, a special box, and most importantly, you'll get TWO stamp sets instead of one.  $20 for a Paper Pumpkin kit is always a steal, but in March the deal is even better!  

Did you know that each and every kit is backed with a money back guarantee?  If you don't like the kit, if there are problems with any of the items in the kit, just let Stampin' Up! know and they will solve all issues, even if it's a refund.  Stampin' Up! has the BEST customer service of any company I have seen.

Because it's Stampin' Up's birthday, they have decided to create a kit that is perfect for making birthday cards. 

• The March kit features eight full-sized mailable cards.
• Coordinating colors are Basic Black, Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight, Flirty Flamingo and Poppy Parade.
• This kit has an element that is sure to "pop"!
• The FREE stamp set is even bigger and better than your typical Paper Pumpkin stamp set and can be used on a variety of crafting projects.

Click HERE to sign up for your Paper Pumpkin Kit.  Keep in mind you can cancel your subscription at any time. Be sure and sign up by March 10 to receive this special March birthday kit.  If you are ordering on-line, please use my hostess code - M9P32XZY.

12 Month Subscription Math

12 Month Subscription = $209

(1 Kit every month for 1 year (#137861)

Add $41 to your order & get:

FIVE Sale-a-Bration Items FREE

+

$50 Stampin' Rewards FREE of products of your choice

Even with a three month subscription, there is a Savings.  (see below)

February Stamp Club

Yesterday was my stamp club meeting.  I have decided to try something new this year.  Instead of the gals having to order $20 from Stampin' Up, they can either do that or just pay $20 for the class.  I have heard from several people who dropped out of Club that they just didn't need anymore stuff and found when they purchased stamps, etc. they just weren't using them at home.  But they were willing to pay for the class instead.  Works for me!

I also switched up how I did the class.  I couldn't decide which cards to offer for club, so I just put 8 cards out (in their basket with pieces precut) and told them they could make 4 cards - any ones they wanted.  It was funny - only 4 cards were picked.  One gal made 2 each of two birthday cards.  So I will be saving the other cards for next month.  I've got a couple move gals coming next week since they couldn't make it today.  We'll see if they pick anything different.

These are the four my friends picked to make today.

 

Amazing Life stamp set from Occasions Catalog (pg 28)  The happy, flowers and cake were colored with SU Blends.  I used the Rectangle Stitched Dies - my favorite thing in the catalog!!

So Hoppy Together - from Sale-a-Bration - is such a fun set.  Nancy had fun coloring Mr. Frog!

This humming bird is a big hit! This set is another one from Occasions Catalog - Humming Along.  I didn't purchase the framelits so the girls had some cutting to do but it wasn't difficult.  The bird was water colored with ink from the stamp pads.  The lesson I learned - don't color him with the Blends because they soak through the card stock and you can see it on the back. He was colored with Mint Macaron, So Saffron and Calypso Coral.

Another variation of the Amazing Life birthday cake.  A ink wash was put down first before stamping the cake.  Everything else was colored with the Blends.

This was the favorite!  I embossed the flower and humming bird in gold and it looks amazing!

Lasting Lily Sale-a-Bration stamp

I don't care for gardening, but I do love pretty flowers!  I don't have any of these lilies in my yard but I did when I lived in Washington state.  They are so pretty!  This is a Sale-a-Bration stamp that you can get for free with a $100 order.  Lasting Lily is a Distinktive stamp meaning there's lots of detail in the stamp; it does all the work for you.  I won't lie to you - I had a few challenges getting a good impression that showed the beauty of the stamp but I finally "got it."

TIPS:

• Lightly tap the ink to the stamp versus putting the stamp to the ink.
• OR apply the ink using a sponge dauber.
• The images will vary depending on the "jucieness" of your ink pad.
• I found that darker colors worked best on this stamp to show the detail.

Remember - in God's garden, no two flowers are alike - so make your garden your own!  

I stamped this lily with Coastal Cabana and the leaves with Granny Apple Green.  I took my colors directly from the ribbon that I wanted to use.  I love this Reversible Ribbon!  I embossed the Coastal Cabana piece with the Tufted embossing folder.

These lilies were stamped with Berry Burst.  After stamping the lilies and the stems (Pear Pizzaz), I took a pencil and lightly drew a rectangle.  I filled in the rectangle with my Black SU Marker.  The finishing touch is the silver edged ribbon adhered with a few glue dots.

This stamp set, Lasting Lily, can be found on the last page of the Sale-a-Bration catalog.  With the Sale-a-Bration Second Release of products, you can get the framelits that go with this stamp set.

Refer to an earlier post to see the items available for Sale-a-Bration.

Cards to Share

Brrrr .... it's cold again!  We were spoiled a couple of weeks ago and had spring like weather.  Some of the trees are blooming and makes you think it's spring!  Let's hope we don't get any freezing weather to kill the flowers and get the peach trees again.   I went to church this morning and met mom and Angela for lunch at Red Robin.  They give you bottomless fries and their fries are so good - not a good thing for Weight Watchers for sure!   I like their hamburgers and instead of a burger roll, I get lettuce for my "roll or wrap."  Plus I picked up some BBQ for dinner.  Yesterday was the annual men's BBQ sale at my church and they were selling the BBQ they had left for $5.  Not a bad deal - a pound of BBQ, a huge baggie full of cole slaw and BBQ vinegar sauce - all for $6!

I want to share a few cards I have received this past week.  This first one is from my upline, Carol.  The DSP is from the Sale-a-Bration catalog - yours free for a $50 order.  Some of the paper in the pack is black and white imagery that can be colored.  The butterflies also can be punched out with the Butterfly Duet Punch from the Occasions Catalog.

I received this card from another Stampin' Up demonstrator, Kathy Donovan from Virginia Beach.  We were challenged to leave a comment on a Facebook page and send a card to the person right above us who commented.  It was a good way to meet another demonstrator and also to share the cards we make. 

This final card I received from a friend who now lives in Pittsburgh.  Gayle was my neighbor for a few years and was in my stamp club.  She found me when she moved here and was looking for a Stampin' Up demonstrator.  As it turned out, her back yard backed up to our front yard!!  I hated for her to move and miss her.

Sale-a-Bration Hoppy Together

Hope you had a sweet Valentine's Day!  I did.  I had a few ladies over in the afternoon and we played cards.  One of my friends brought me camellias from her yard which prompted me to look at my camellia bush to see if it was blooming.  Yes, it was!  It always sneeks up on me.  I'm not much of a gardener so it thrills me to see something blooming in my yard!  When we lived in Gig Harbor, WA, our yard was full of all kinds of flowers.  The lady that lived there before us would stop by when we first moved in to help me with the gardening.  Actually, think she knew I'd kill everything and wanted to prevent that!  I kept up with the plants for a year or two until it was just too much!  I just don't have the green thumb that she had (as well as my mom!)  Both of them could put a stick in the soil and it would bloom!

Last night we went to an Irish restaurant with the Catawban group for dinner and a comedy show.  The food was delicious and the show very funny.  It was a nice outing.

Well, we're halfway through Sale-a-Bration (ends March 31) and Stampin'Up! has added three new Sale-a-Bration gift options for you to choose from!  Click above (Order Online) and place your qualifying $50 order to get one of the new (or old) Sale-a-Bration sets for FREE!  Click HERE to see the new options.

Here is a card I made this week using the Hoppy Together Sale-a-Bration stamp set.  Isn't that frog cute???  I know there is a bit of a glare on the balloons but I couldn't get it to go away.  After stamping the balloons (from Happy Birthday Gorgeous), I colored them with my Blender Pens and poured glue on them to make them shine.