Happy Birthday Paper Pumpkin - Alternatives

When I bring the mail in, it's usually promotional flyers, bills, junk mail that goes straight in the recycle bin  .... but once a month, I get a bright red box that makes me smile.  It makes my day!  Paper Pumpkin is a monthly project kit subscription.  Each box is a surprise but it always contains a project that is completely designed, cut, and ready to create.  You also get exclusive photopolymer stamp sets each month and mini ink spots.

Sometimes I make up the Paper Pumpkin projects exactly like they are intended.  But often times I prefer to make alternative projects to share and inspire you.  The February Paper Pumpkin kit has been sitting on my desk over a month now and today I decided to create it.  A friend recently asked me about alternate projects to make with this kit so I hope she enjoys these cards I made today.

For this card I cut apart one of the cards from the kit and made this candle.  It measures about 1 1/2" x 3".  I tied some white yarn around the candle and popped it up on dimensionals.   I adhered the candle flame to the Night of Navy card with glue.  I used one of the kit inserts for the white piece across the card and stamped the sentiment on it.

For the next card, I used another piece that I cut down from the card kit and matted it onto Flirty Flamingo card stock.  I used the Stitched Labels die to cut the oval.  I punched out flowers from Crushed Curry and the gold paper from the candle flames in the kit.

I think this one is my favorite!  I made a spinner card (with 2 pennies) so the Taco Truck (Sale-A-Bration) could move along the card.  It's been a long time since I made a spinner card and had to go to Splitcoast Stampers for a tutorial!

This is the original card from the Paper Pumpkin kit following the instructions given.

When you pull the tab at the bottom, you can see the rest of the message.

This next card is similar to the card above.  I cut down the DSP card and used the Adhesive Strips down the sides and top so the pull down piece slides down to reveal the message.

Most of the cards were CASEd from others I found on Pinterest.  I hope they give you some ideas to make your own alternative projects from the Paper Pumpkin Kit.

Spring Time! March Blog Hop

It's spring time and time for the March blog hop by the NC Stampin' Up demonstrators. We do a blog hop on the last Sunday of each month.  Glad that you have joined us this month.  Now let's see what spring'y cards I have for you!

First is this cute Swirly Bird card!  I won't tell you how long it took me to get all those colors embedded behind the black swirl!  It's not hard - just time consuming to run all the different colors through the framelit.  But I think it was worth it!  The sentiment comes from Sunshine Sayings - a great stamp set for putting together sentiments.

What is spring without flying a kite?  How many years has it been since you have run with a kite coaxing it to stay up in the air?  I can't count the years! Plus I was never very good - or patient to fly a kite! I remember beach days when my kids were young and they would get their daddy to fly the kite with them - not me!!

This card also uses the Swirly Bird stamp and framelits as well as Layering Love.  I just love the font and the words in this set!  For a little sparkle, I adhered a few sequins.

Finally, I have a cute little box (that I CASE-d from a UK demonstrator) that I made using Sale-A-Bration products.  I made the box with the Inside the Line DSP and made a belly band around it using the Sale-A-Bration Glimmer Paper (Sweet Sugarplum.)  I die cut the bee from Mint Macaron Glimmer Paper also to coordinate with the little bee on the DSP.  The box was super easy to make and only takes a few minutes.  Here are the directions if you want to make one:  It should hold a few small chocolates for a sweet little treat.

Cut your DSP to 6" x 12" (so you can make 2 from one sheet of paper)
Score on the long side at - 2, 5, 7, and 10"
Score on the short side at - 2" and 4"

That's it!

I hope you have enjoyed my spring projects.  Hop along to see what Laurie has to share with you HERE!!

Here is the complete list of our blog hop participants:

Jo Anne Hewins
Michelle Irinyi
Tracie Evans Langley
Sharon Maranich (you are HERE)
Laurie Meier
Sue Root
Lisa Tedder
Frances Wagner

How Much is That Doggie in the Window??

How much is that doggie in the window!  Doesn't this card make you sing that song?!!  He's just so cute!  I used two stamp sets on this card - Balloon Builders and Painters Pallette.  The doggie is made from stamps in the Balloon Builders set, stamped with Smoky Slate ink.  The frame is from Painters Pallette.  I stamped the frame in Versamark, embossed it with silver embossing powder and cut it out.  The inside of the frame is die cut with the Layering Squares framelits.  I cut off the top and the legs on the bottom and glued them directly onto the Pop of Pink designer paper.  The frame itself is popped up using the wonderful Foam Adhesive Strips (pg. 182.)

It was hard to see the free Sale-a-bration glimmer paper sell out so fast, but SU! did a great thing by adding some new items right from the catalog that we could choose for FREE instead. Several Designer Series Papers are on that list including Tasty Treats. This DSP is so much fun.  There's not much time left to take advantage of the Sale-A-Bration sale!!  If you place an order with me, please use the Hostess Code at the top of my blog (on the left).  Thanks!

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.

Paisley and Posies

Today started out snowy and now the sun is shining and there's not a bit of snow left on the ground. When I woke up and looked out the window (while still snuggled up under the covers!), the snow was falling and all the trees were coated with the beautiful white snow.  It was so peaceful to lie there and watch the snowflakes fall.  When I got up, I took a few pictures.  Good thing because by 1:00 pm, it was all just a memory!!  It's pretty cold though (highs in the 40s).  For the past couple of weeks we have been having spring like weather and the flowers and trees are blooming.  Tomorrow's high is supposed to be 43 and rainy with warmer temps coming back by Friday.  Sonny is having surgery on Tuesday so I am glad the weather will be a little better for me to take him to the hospital.

I found a couple more cards that Ashley made when she was here at Thanksgiving.  She used the Paisley and Posies thinlits and stamps to make these cute birds sitting on the Swirly Scribbles thinlet.  I love it!

This next card also uses the Paisley theme.  The DSP is retired but you can still order the stamp set and thinlits to make these cards.

And a few hours later:

End of Sale-a-Bration and In Colors Retiring

It's almost that time again! Retirement for the In Colors.

If you are familiar with the Stampin' Up! In Colors, you know that we have a set of 5 colors that only last for two years.  Then they retire and are replaced with 5 new colors.  So, you may be wondering about the 5 retiring colors.  You can see them above.

NOW is the time to stock up on reinkers for your ink pads, on cardstock, designer paper and on the ribbon or embellishments you enjoy in these colors BEFORE they are sold out.  (They tend to sell out pretty quickly.)  AND if you order this month, you can enjoy FREE Sale-a-Bration gifts on your purchases.  A win-win for you!!

This is the final month for Sale-a-Bration.  You won't be able to order the Sale-a-Bration items after March.  Here are a couple of cards I have made using stamp sets from Sale-a-Bration.

I just love this chick!  I used my Watercolor Pencils to color them.  The DSP is some retired paper I have in my stash that I thought went well with the chicks.

This card uses the elegant Delicate Details.  It makes great backgrounds.  For this card, I embossed the images using white craft ink and white embossing powder.  I adhered a strip of glimmer paper between two of the borders.  (Sorry for the fuzzy picture.)

You're Sublime

When Ashley was here in November, she had fun playing with my stamps.  She is such a good little artist and doesn't have to CASE like I do!  Here are a few of the cards she made using You're Sublime.

This card is done in Elegant Eggplant and Daffodil Delight.  She stamped the Paisley and Posies (still available) stamp on the background.  The Daffodil piece was cut out using the Sunburst Thinlit.  She stamped the camper onto white cardstock and stamped the polka dots all over it with Perpetual Birthday Calendar.

This card uses the cute little crab from You're Sublime.  The embossing folder is a retired one but you could easily substitute the new Seaside folder.

I'm sure you will see the Beatle connection in this next card!  She is a HUGE Beatles fan and just doesn't understand why I didn't go see the Beatles in concert when I was a teenager.  The closest they came to Charlotte back then was Atlanta.  We didn't just get in the car and drive that far back then nor was concert going a regular thing for a teenager!  She hand wrote "We all live in a ...."

February Stamp Club Cards

I just realized I never shared my February club cards.  So ..... here they are!

I love the new embossing folders - celebrate and Happy.  They deboss the cardstock and when you put ink on top of the debossed letters, they appear like magic!  For this card, we used some retired DSP from a birthday stack.  (I have lots!)

Everyone enjoyed making this lighthouse scene and were amazed that it really wasn't that difficult.  The lighthouse was stamped with Cherry Cobbler and Smoky Slate and then masked to stamp the water and sand.  You know, I love this lighthouse stamp!

For this card, I used the Stylish Stems Framelits Dies (pg 42 of Occasions catalog) and put a 2 1/2" square of Falling in Love DSP behind the flower.  We stamped the scallops on the side in Mint Macaron and Blushing Bride with the Sale-a-Bration set, Delicate Details.

And we did 2 calendar pages this month - for February and March.

The background on the February calendar are the hearts from Perpetual Birthday Calendar (stamped in Red) as well as a single heart from Work of Art (stamped in Blushing Bride).

The March calendar uses the Owl Punch - which I have not used in a long time!  I made his "arms" by punching out a small heart and cutting it in half.  I could not find a branch stamp, so I drew my own!

NC Blog Hop Favorite Occasions!

Welcome to the February 2017 NC Demos Blog Hop - whew!  That was a mouthful!  This month we are concentrating of Favorite Occasions.  We are using stamps from the Occasions Catalog with an emphasis on a Spring Holiday or event.

If you follow my blog, you might know that I am obsessed with the High Tide stamp set.  I have made several cards using the beautiful lighthouse stamp.  You can see them HERE and HERE and I still have others I haven't posted yet!  But I thought this card would be perfect for this year's anniversary card for my hubbie!  What do you think?  We will be celebrating 44 years of marriage on April 7.  (How did that happen?  Seems like we were just dating a few years ago!)

Not only do I have an anniversary card to share, but there are several birthdays coming up so I thought it would be great to catch up on some birthday cards so they will be ready to go when I need them!

This card uses the "celebrate" embossing folder from the Occasions catalog along with "you" from Hello You Framelits.  The stripes running down and the "swish" are from Gorgeous Grunge.  I stamped them in Bermuda Bay, Peekaboo Peach, Rich Razzleberry and Watermelon Wonder.  This was a really easy card to make.

Here is another stamp set that I have been having fun using.  It is in the Occasions catalog and is called Crazy Cake.  There are so many variations that you can put together using this stamp set.  It is a two-step stamp set but since it is photopolymer, it is easy to line up.  I love two-step stamps and that is what got me hooked on Stampin' Up 12 years ago.  (I just passed my 12 year demonstrator anniversary on Feb. 16!) The cute little frog popping up from the cake is from the hostess set, Love you Lots.  I don't normally get the hostess sets but I got this one right away and have used it so much! The sentiment is from Sunshine Sayings.  I stamped each cake part onto white cardstock (except the one on the bottom which is stamped onto Sweet Sugarplum cs), cut them out and popped them up with dimensionals.  That made it easy to line up the frog and the stars directly onto the card.  The colors I used are Rich Razzleberry, Sweet Sugarplum, Marina Mist, and Perfect Plum.

Here is another card using the Crazy Cake stamp set.  These cake pieces were stamped directly on the white cardstock panel using Tempting Turquoise, Cucumber Crush, Peekaboo Peach and Denim. Unfortunately, I could not find the flame for the candles in the set.  It is really teeny tiny and probably got stuck to something and will never be found again.  But I found a candle flame in the set, Sprinkles of Life that that worked.  The sprinkles on the sides of the turquoise card are also from the Sprinkles of Life set.

Here is one last card using Crazy Cake to show that you don't have to use all the parts of the cake.  I stamped you're from Watercolor Words (just mask off the "the best")  I love the color combo of Dapper Denim and Emerald Envy.   (This layout was cased from Brian King.)

I hope you enjoyed my anniversary and birthday cards and they will inspire you to make a few of your own.

Enjoy the blog hop and hop right along to the see what Laurie Meier has prepared for you.

Debra Ballance-Byrd -
Tamra Davis 
Jo Anne Hewins 
Michelle Irinyl 
Melissa Kerman 
Tracie Evans Langley -
Sharon Maranich (You are here)
Laurie Meier 
Lisa Tedder
Frances Wagner -

Hexagon Embossing Folder

This weekend, I played around with the new thick embossing folder - Hexagons Dynamic Textured Impressions Folder (pg 46, Occasions catalog.)  If you are like most, you have a hard time making masculine cards.  Well, this first card does it.  It is a technique that one of NC demos has been doing and I thought I'd give it a try.  I did mine a bit differently than she does though.

I took a piece of Aluminum Foil and rubbed some Staz-On ink all over it.  Next, I adhered the piece of Aluminum Foil to black cardstock and ran it through the embossing folder.  Next step was to rub VersaMark on the Foil and sprinkle on some embossing powder - whatever color you desire!  I decided on copper.  There is such a glare on the piece, it is hard to see it well but I hope you get the idea.  Next I adhered the panel to a piece of Basic Gray cardstock that I had stamped with one of the grunge stamps from Touches of Textures (in Basic Gray ink.)  I adhered the whole piece to black cardstock.  I stamped the sentiment (retired) in Versa-Mark and embossed it with copper also onto black cardstock.  Don't forget to rub the piece first with the Embossing Buddy!  I mounted the sentiment piece onto Basic Gray and used dimensionals to pop it up.

My next card is a bit simpler!  I rubbed Early Espresso ink onto the embossing folder and embossed a piece of Tip Top Taupe.  The Espresso ink goes into the crevices of the embossing folder giving the illusion of chicken wire!  I stamped the chick with Staz-On ink and used the watercolor pencils to color him (on shimmery paper).  Everything is matted onto red cardstock.

Hope you enjoy these cards and will make some of your own!