Don't Be Scared

It has dawned on me that perhaps the word 'subscription ' scares you.

Are you afraid that you will want to cancel and won't get the cancellation notice in on time?

Are you afraid that you won't be able to find cancellation information?

Of course,  I am talking about Paper Pumpkin,  Stampin' Up!s monthly craft kit.

Right now I am working on January's Paper Pumpkin kit. It's a kit containing materials to create 24 - 24 mini Valentine's treat bags, complete with Cupid's arrows!

The bags are covered with gold foil hearts, lovely. Banners, pre-cut, are white cardstock and pink vellum! The included stamp set contains 8 individual stamps, among them are the sentiments I adore you,  love,  happy Valentine's Day  ...

There is just no way that these bags can turn out any way except gorgeous. You will be so pleased with yourself and the recipients will be over the moon!

So, back to the subscription... you may purchase one kit, or one month of Paper Pumpkin.  You can also purchase a three-month Paper Pumpkin,  for three consecutive months you will receive a different kit in your mailbox.

I have a month to month subscription ~ I gave SU my billing info and every month like clockwork,  I  get a notice that my Paper Pumpkin is on its way; it arrives around the 17th of the month and my bill is automatically paid with my bank card.

More than two years of Paper Pumpkin and I  have never missed a delivery and never had a payment problem.

Please don't let the idea of a 'subscription' scare you!

So, ready to give it a try?  Call me and I will get you started!

I Love You

I promised another card with the heart die cut edge featured in the new Love Notes Framelits Dies set just released in the Occasions Catalog.

What do you think? Same die, but different DSP ~ Falling in Love, plus ribbon and lace and a little glimmer and a beautiful very vanilla 'sparkle. '

I  know who'll receive this one, and my plan this year is to get it out in the mail in time to be delivered by Valentine's Day.

But of course,  this same design can be used for other than a Valentine's card, right? Do you have someone that you'd like to surprise with it?

Love it!

Love Notes

I  still love to get Valentine's cards and I love to know that my littlest ones will put my name on their list of cards to make and send.  AND, I can't wait till they are old enough for us to make them together ~ actually, Colin is old enough this year.  Yippee!

Oh, I  know just what we'll use.

In the meantime, you must see this new set of framelits: Love Notes Framelits Dies - page 14 in the NEW Occasions Catalog- and what I  have just made with them.

and

Look at that great die cut border on the top card! That just makes me giddy! Of course, there is a die cut for that. It cuts and scores so that you can lift up the sides of the hearts. 

There is a small, matching heart in the set of framelits ~ I  used it to cut hearts from Sending Love DSP and just adhered them with snail (I may try the green Tombow  next card).

You cannot distinguish it in this photo, but there is a slice of matching DSP on the right side of the inside panel.The DSP comes in my favorite 6 x 6 paper stacks - 48 double sided sheets featuring 16 designs!! The papers are bright and cheerful Real Red designs.

But the framelits ~ the heart border and tiny heart are only two of the 14 dies in the framelits set. This set is just too much fun.

The bottom card features a small 3D envelope! Oh, my! I wonder how many of these I will make before it's all over. The die for the tiny envelope is in the set of framelits! And there is another sized envelope die, plus a note card, and hearts and arrows. 

And I  haven't even mentioned the coordinating bundle-able stamp set which I used, Sealed With Love ...

Please stop back by for more ~ I  have used that heart edged die 

for a completely different look and feel ...

Oh, let's stamp!

Dazzling Diamonds Snowflakes

Let it Snow!

True confession: I do not like the black and white snowflake design in the This Christmas DSP. But at a recent card class I saw a card using the paper along with Basic Gray and Basic Black. I liked the color combination, but something was missing.

The suggestion was made to heat emboss the sentiment on the front. OK, I liked that better. 

But still ...

Then I remembered a technique I had not used in a while and decided to experiment:

If you click on this picture to enlarge it, can you see the difference in the two pieces of DSP?

The top piece is a 12 x 12 sheet right out of the package.

The bottom piece was trimmed 4 x 5 1/4. just 1/4 inch smaller than a regular card base. Before adhering it onto the card front, I stamped the entire surface with Versamark Pad and then sprinkled Heat and Stick fine embossing powder covering the sheet. After shaking off excess powder, I heated it with the heat tool.

The piece became sticky, perfect for holding the Dazzling Diamonds Glitter. I covered the piece with the sparkly glitter, tapped off the excess and again heated it with the heat tool.

What a difference!

I realize that it is difficult to see, but I think you can detect the sparkle. The sentiment was stamped in Real Red and then matted on both Real Red and Basic Black cardstock labels.

This one is headed out to Randall Pierce ~ great choice for a guy, I think!

And I think I'll make more, as I have leftover paper. 

Merry Christmouse!

Merry Merry! 

I accepted a creative challenge this week to take a card from the holiday catalog and make a change or two to make it mine. The challenge also specified the stamp set be a retiring 

one.

I was late purchasing the Merry Mice stamp set and had yet to use it, so that's what I inked up.

On page 23 of the holiday catalog there are three merry mice cards and I chose little Mortimer with the pine sprig to CASE ~ Copy And Share Everything. Mortimer was the main character in a children's Christmas book that I read to my grandchildren, Mortimer's Christmas Manger, it is a lovely story! 

On the original card showcased in the catalog, Mortimer has been colored in with a blender pen and markers. He is matted onto a solid piece of red card stock and then onto a merry piece of Warmth and Cheer DSP.

Considering how c-c-cold it was here today, I decided that he needed an even heavier sweater and so used the Cable Knit Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, plus a swatch of Warmth and Cheer DSP for the mats and a crumb cake card base.

I colored the little scene with aqua pens and classic stamp pads and I brightened up the ornament cap using Gold Wink of Stella and added a gold star from the Metallic Enamel Shapes embellishments to his tail.

The 'Merry Christmouse' sentiment is from the stamp set, along with 'Wishing You a Festive Season' and  'It's Time to Deck the Halls.'

Merry Mice is retiring and is on sale right now for only $13.60, a 20% savings. I know what you are thinking, 'it's too late for Christmas cards.'  But it's not too late for Valentine's. Mortimer could just as easily hang a heart from his pine sprig. He could be also be holding a heart and singing a love song or happy birthday ~ he can celebrate any winter occasion with you!

Let your catalogs work for you. Look at the sample cards and then copy them, or change them up a bit (or a lot, if you're feeling creative!).  If you get stuck for ideas, call me; that's part of what I do as an Independent Demonstrator!

Merry Christmouse from Mortimer!

Here's what I used to create this card:

Merry Mice Stamp Set

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=142145&demoid2121276

Cable Knit Dynamic Textured Embossing Folder

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=143537&demoid2121276

Real Red Cardstock

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=102482&demoid2121276

Warmth and Cheer DSP

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=141991&demoid2121276

Crumb Cake Cardstock

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=120953&demoid2121276

Aqua Painters

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=103954&demoid2121276

 Wink of Stella  Gold

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=141898&demoid2121276

Enamel Metallic Shapes

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=141678&demoid2121276

classic stampin' colors of your choice ...

Every now and then at Christmastime Mama would spray paint the boughs of holly cut from the bushes beside our front porch, or from the holly tree in the back garden. Not every year, some years the dark green leaves and brilliant berries remained their natural color for the fireplace decorations and the cemetery decorations.

But spraying the holly was a task. The round dining room table was covered with newspaper. The leaves had to be washed and almost polished before they could be gilded. And the holly leaves were prickly and the berries rolled off the table unto the floor, and don't step on them.

It was a sign that Christmas was indeed drawing near, in just a few days, because we didn't decorate the day after Thanksgiving, not even on December 1 or December 15. Somehow Christmas came together in no time, it seemed. I liked it that way and Mama surely must have as she worked full time and had raised her children with the fact that Santa decorated the tree, she only (only) had to do the mantle and door, lamppost and banisters, vases and cemetery arrangements.

So, when Stampin' Up! produced the Holly Textured Impressions Embossing Folder in the annual catalog, way back in June, it was at the top of my list. I have embossed Garden Green card stock and it is lovely.

But gold holly ...

I love it! And I added a green sprig, too.

In fact, this one card uses many of my holiday favorites: holly embossing folder, Warmth and Cheer DSP (in my fav 6 X 6 paks) , Warmth and Cheer Washi Tape, Holly Berry Builder Punch, Tin of Tags Stamp Set and Stitched Shapes Framelits!!!

The base of the card is Whisper White ~ a landscape orientation that opens upward ~ 4 1/4 X 11, scored at 5 1/2.

A second piece of Whisper White is cut at 5 1/4 X 4 and will be covered with strips of design elements before being adhered to the base: 

  5 1/4 X 2 1/4 gold foil, embossed

  5 1/4 X 3/8 washi tape design

  5 1/4 X 1 1/2 plaid DSP

Adhere the embossed piece at the bottom of the base and build upward.

Run washi tape up against the gold - if you use a different width than shown, you will need to trim the plaid DSP.

Adhere the plaid DSP above the washi and trim if necessary.

Stamp the sentiment in Real Red on a scrap of  3 x 3 Whisper White.

Cut out with the next to largest Stitched Shapes circle framelit ~ color edge of circle with Real red.

Punch one small and one large holly leaf out of Garden Green card stock using the holly punch.

Punch one berry out of Red Glimmer Paper using the holly punch.

Adhere holly pieces with glue dots at the top of the circle.

Adhere sentiment in the middle of the designer strips - a little jauntily askew. 

Here's what I used:

Whisper White Card Stock:

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=100730&demoid2121276

Gold Foil Paper:

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=132622&demoid2121276

Warmth and Cheer DSP:   (ON SALE)

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=141991&demoid2121276

Warmth and Cheer Washi Tape:  (ON SALE)

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=141994&demoid2121276

Tin of Tags Stamp Set:  (ON SALE)

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=142180&demoid2121276

Holly Berry Builder Punch:

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/Product.Detailaspx?productID=141843&demoid2121276

Stitched Shapes Framelits:

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=145372&demoid2121276

Red Glimmer Paper:

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=121790&demoid2121276

Garden Green Card Stock:

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=102584&demoid2121276

Real Red Classic Ink Pad:

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=126949&demoid2121276

Mini Glue Dots:

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=103683&demoid2121276

Joy to the World

Sometimes I do things a little differently, or just plain backwards. I wanted to work with the Tin of Tags Project Kit this month so I ordered it last month to have it  on time for classes and workshops.

I did not order the coordinating Tin of Tags Stamp Set, at least not at the same time.

I thought that perhaps I had plenty of holiday sentiments in stamp sets that I already have in my collection, and I do, and I still enjoy using them. 

But then I changed my mind. As I was looking through the sentiments contained in the Tin of Tags Stamp Set, I realized that several would be very fitting for use throughout the year, not just with Christmas giving but for any giving. AND they were offered as a special when the Stitched Shapes Framelits were released the first of November!

Now, as it happens, I first used the stamps on Christmas cards last week. Then just today I used them on Christmas tags,but not with the tags in the Tin of Tags Project Kit. 

This was fairly simple and very enjoyable. Above you see the final creation. Below, are the simple steps:

I used Smoky Slate to stamp the snowflake on a scrap of Whisper White Card Stock- the lovely large snowflake is included in the set. I use gray when I am looking for a silver coloring. I usually stamp first before cutting.

The sentiment was stamped in Real Red which is dark enough to show up over the snowflake. Clear photopolymer stamps make stamping over and lining up easy.

Stitched Shapes Framelits gave it a such an appealing finish.

Then, Layering Circles Framelits provided the perfect size for a base cut from Silver Foil.

I love them ~ I will be making more!

Tin of Tags:

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=142180&demoid2121276

Layering Circles Framelits:

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=141705&demoid2121276

Stitched Shapes Framelits:

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=145372&demoid2121276

Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad:

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=126949&demoid2121276

Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad:

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=131179&demoid2121276

Silver Foil:

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=132178&demoid2121276

Whisper White Card Stock:

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=100730&demoid2121276

Big Shot:

https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=143263&demoid2121276