Author Archives: Karen Fontinelle

Halloween Favor Clear Tiny Treat Box

This Halloween Favor Clear Tiny Treat Box is so fun and easy to make if you need a little party favor or treat! It’s a good idea to always keep a package of these Clear Tiny Treat Boxes on hand for little gifts or treats. You never know when one might come in handy at the last minute! They are so easy and fun to decorate for whatever occasion, not just Halloween, of course!

These little clear plastic boxes come flat so you just assemble them by opening up and creasing the score lines to form the box. Be sure to take off the extra plastic that protects them. Then decorate away, inside or outside!

For this box, I just cut a strip of the Toil & Trouble Designer Series Paper, coming in the Holiday Catalog in September. I wrapped it around the box, barely creasing it on the corners, just to see how it would fit. You can start with the 12″ strip, however wide you would like it, and then see how much excess length you can cut off. Decide if you want that overlapping in the back of the box or in the front, hidden by whatever you decorate the front with. Then you can take it off and crease the folds with a Bone Folder to get a good, crisp crease.

For the front of my little Halloween favor box, I stamped the little bird ghost from the Trick or Tweet Stamp Set in the Holiday Catalog and colored it in with Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers. There are new colors coming in the Holiday Catalog, too! Love these!!! Then I punched him out and layered him on various circle punches and the small 1 1/8″ Scallop Circle Punch. I could have done even more, maybe tied ribbon around the box or added a greeting, but I just stopped here and put some candy inside!

Another idea to consider for Halloween treats is to join Paper Pumpkin before September 10th to receive the September papercrafting kit that is definitely going to be Halloween but not too spooky! I cannot wait!

Click to sign up!

If you would like to make a little Halloween favor box like mine, these Clear Tiny Treat Boxes are fun to have available, whether or not you join Paper Pumpkin! Be sure to put them on your order and be ready for the holidays!

Party Animal Dog Halloween Card

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This cute little Party Animal Dog is front and center on a Halloween card and all dressed up in his spooky Halloween costume! I just love the colors and the fun images for Halloween!

My main purpose for this card was to use the Stampin’ Up! Watercolor Pencils and Blender Pen. I selected this image that needed to be colored in from the Trick or Tweet Stamp Set in the upcoming Holiday Catalog. As far as the Watercolor Pencils, the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog has a set just called Watercolor Pencils. We’ve had those for a while. But if you would like some additional colors, during August you can order the Watercolor Pencils Assortment 2. It’s part of the Color Your Season Suite going on during August only! The pencils are not included in the Blended Season Bundle that includes the stamp set and framelits dies. But all of these products go away August 31 so don’t miss out! Stampin’ Up! “may” bring back the pencils in another publication, but we don’t know so if you want them and don’t want to have to wait until another catalog, go ahead and order them now!

Watercolor pencils are easy to use, especially with a Blender Pen. Just lay down some color (you don’t even have to color in every space) and the Blender Pen will sort of “melt” the color and you can smooth it out beautifully. You can also pick up the color from the pencil itself with the Blender Pen just by touching the tip of the Blender Pen to the pencil. That probably gives a little darker shade of color. You can also use an Aqua Painter or a small paintbrush. I’ve always like Watercolor Pencils for coloring!

The card is made with a base of Gorgeous Grape Cardstock. The designer paper is from Toil & Trouble. When I saw the ghost paper, I thought that would be a cute background. I wondered if it would be too much, so I checked and the back of the paper was purple-striped so I just used that different pattern at the bottom of the card layer. To cover the seam of the two papers, I adhered a piece of Basic Black 3/8″ Shimmer Ribbon.

The little dog is stamped on Thick Whisper White Cardstock with Stazon Ink since it is waterproof. That means it will stand up to the moisture of the Blender Pen. I also used some Sponge Daubers to sponge on some color on the tag so it wouldn’t be so stark white. The tag is made with the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch and popped up with Stampin’ Dimensionals. I also tied on a piece of the black ribbon. You might be able to see the shimmer a bit in the photo.

Check out the Color Your Season Suite and the Watercolor Pencils so you don’t miss the August 31 deadline!

Halloween Lovers: Join Paper Pumpkin Now!

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If you love Halloween, then you absolutely want to be subscribed to Paper Pumpkin in time for the September Kit in the mail! Join or reactive your subscription by Monday, Sept. 10th in order to get this kit.

Paper Pumpkin has just what you need—a frightfully delightful kit in a scary-cute, special edition box. You’ll get the handmade Halloween look without the fuss.

Click this link to go to my personal Paper Pumpkin page: bit.ly/paperpumpkinjoin

We promise: Paper Pumpkin’s September kit will not give you nightmares, but you WILL be haunted by the spooky box, wrapped in a whimsical spider web. And the contents? Not scary . . . just adorable, and everything you need for a successful Halloween crafting experience.

Hints: There will be a quantity of 24 treats to make inside! If you need more for those cute trick-or-treaters, just order extra kits. You can change the number of kits each month. Get an extra kit or two and make them with a friend or neighbor. I know my trick-or-treaters loved the “test tube” treats I passed out from a previous Paper Pumpkin Kit so I even ordered a refill and had more for the next year!

If you have canceled your previous subscription, just sign up again! If you have skipped a month, make sure your subscription is activated so that you don’t miss this Halloween Kit. Even if you are not into Halloween, you will find alternate ideas online for using your kit, but it is mostly Halloween so if you prefer, just skip this month and resume the next month.

JOIN PAPER PUMPKIN HERE!

Get your spooky Paper Pumpkin Kit mid-September! Sign up by Sept. 10th!

Please tell your friends who might be interested! And SHARE on Facebook and other social media!

Frosted Floral Wishing You the Best Card

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This Frosted Floral Wishing You the Best Card is a little difficult to photograph but is really beautiful in person. If you look closely at the top part of the designer paper on this card, you might be able to see the shimmer of the paper, kind of a pearlized look. I think the paper feels a little bit lighter weight than others which gives it that elegant, rich look and feel. It’s the Frosted Floral Designer Series Paper, available soon in the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalog.

The card base is Mint Macaron, although there are many different colors you could choose to go with this paper. I cut the cardstock lengthwise, 4 1/4″ x 8 1/2″, so the fold would be at the top of the card. The designer paper is adhered to the Mint Macaron and then I embellished it with a greeting from the coordinating First Frost Stamp Set in the Suite. Just think how many ways you could use this greeting and this paper! The striped paper underneath the greeting is just a narrow strip of another designer paper in the Frosted Floral collection and tied with a little bow made with the Crumb Cake twine in the Nature’s Twine pack. There is also a new Linen Thread coming in the Holiday Catalog that would be pretty.

The greeting is punched with the 1 3/4″ Circle Punch and the 2″ Circle Punch. I adorned it with a few of the Share What You Love Artisan Pearls. These pearls are teeny tiny and in several pretty colors, but when you mail the card, be sure to add a piece of paper inside the envelope, preferably crimped with a Paper Crimper if you have one, to protect those pearls as they go through the mail. I recently heard that some Demonstrators testing various ways of mailing cards with these kinds of embellishments felt that putting a small piece of paper towel inside the envelope protected everything the best! Make it almost the size of the envelope so it doesn’t slip away from the area you want it covering.

You will love this beautiful Frosted Floral Designer Paper when it comes out in September and can use it for many occasions. Here is another card I made with another pattern. This Frosted Floral Wishing You the Best Card will serve you well for wedding cards, graduation, and all kinds of occasions.

Girls Stamp Camp Projects

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Almost a month ago now, I had the pleasure of having five girls and four moms over to do some stamping! The girls are all friends in Girl Scouts and/or school and they were so wonderful to work with. I initially thought that being 11-year-olds and in our rather short time frame, we wouldn’t get that many projects done. The former teacher in me always overplans, regardless, even with adults, because you never really know how fast or slow people will work. And I like nothing better than thinking up projects on my own or browsing the internet (of course!) for ideas so I had PLENTY from which to choose.

My first thought was to decorate a gift bag for them to carry home their projects and teach them how they can recycle the bags they might get at a store by decorating with paper and maybe some stamping and embellishing. The one in the photo I made a while back in this post, but it was a good sample and I used this same retired paper for the girls because I had enough of it, in different colors. They stamped different flowers in matching colors. I also had die cut their first name initial with the Large Letters Dies to glue on the tag. I love decorating bags like this.

To teach them how to make a card, I thought a birthday card is always handy to have on hand. One girl made hers for her dad who had a birthday coming up. I found this design somewhere online. It was easy to make with the Balloon Bouquet Punch and the In Color 2018-2020 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper. My sample used all the same colors but some of the girls and moms traded balloons so they could have each balloon a different color. I love when people put their own twist on a project.

When I first became a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator, at my first workshop we made a sticky note holder (whatever brand you like to use!). This one just takes a piece of cardstock folded to fit a pad of notes inside and then decorated on the front. For this one, we used a piece of the Garden Impressions 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper on the front and then stamped a daisy with the Daisy Delight Photopolymer Stamp Set and punched with the Daisy Punch. These stamps and punch were very popular last year when they came out in the catalog and still are this year. Some people punched two daisies to layer, which was cute also! For the daisy center we used a Clear Faceted Gem.

The thank you card used the Stampin’ Up! Note Cards & Envelopes and I die cut the butterfly ahead of time with the Springtime Impressions Thinlits Dies. I got this idea online from Mary Fish. We placed a colored piece of cardstock behind the die cut and popped the butterfly up on Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals. Some call this the Eclipse Technique. For a little bling, we added the Glitter Enamel Dots.

And what’s a stamping event without candy and chocolate?! We assembled the Clear Tiny Treat Boxes and decorated with some retired designer paper and ribbon. Of course one of my favorite things to do is to cover chocolate candies with a small strip of designer paper, so I showed them how to do that for some chocolates to put in their Tiny Treat Box.

Who would have thought we would get through this many projects with 9 people in about two hours or less?! But we did, and still had extra time, I hurriedly cut some more paper and grabbed some small chocolate candy bars and we made the small Halloween slider treat with the Cat Punch. This is a fun little project that is surprising that when you pull on the ribbon at the top, it pulls the candy bar up and out of the cardstock wrapper.

I always like to make a lot of projects, I wonder if these broke a record in how many we got done in two and a half hours with nine people! The girls said they should come back for “every occasion” and were amazed at all my stamp sets on the shelf. I’m just glad they enjoyed the stamping experience. I told them all to come back to me when they are 18 and I’ll sign them up to be Demonstrators!

Color Your Season Wreath Card

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This Color Your Season Wreath Card is just one of the hundreds of cards you could make with the Blended Seasons Bundle. It is a set with which you can make cards and projects for all four seasons (if you are lucky enough to have four seasons where you live!). Here in Houston, Texas we have summer, summer, summer, a day or two of fall, a month of winter maybe, a week of spring and then back to summer, summer, summer. But it’s always nice to think that there is light at the end of the tunnel of summer where we can at least put out some pumpkins and fall colors and leaves and pretend that it is autumn!

Just think what you could do with just this stamped wreath from the Blended Seasons Stamp Set! Just stamp it and then color in the leaves according to the season. The wreath on this card to me looks like spring. If you colored the leaves darker greens, perhaps, it might look more like summer. And of course fall colors for a fall wreath.

The thing is about this special Blended Seasons Bundle is it is only available now during August. And August is flying by if you ask me! Be sure to take a look at the options in this suite and see if you want the stamp set only, or the Bundle with the stamp set and framelits dies. You can also order the new assortment of Watercolor Pencils, which is separate from the Bundle. These may or may not be available later on, so if you like Watercolor Pencils in Stampin’ Up! colors (years ago when I started Stampin’ Up! sold Watercolor Pencils but they were not in official Stampin’ Up! colors, that’s why these newer ones are special!), you should probably purchase these now while you can.

This Blended Seasons Bundle and Watercolor Pencils are only available until August 31! Less than two weeks!

Images © Stampin’ Up! 2018

SHOP THE COLORFUL SEASON LIMITED-TIME PRODUCTS TODAY!

Toil & Trouble Halloween Witch Card

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Unless you have been inside a craft store, you probably won’t believe it is less than twelve weeks until Halloween! We are in the midst of summer and back to school, but as a mom of three, I remember that there is just a small pause after school starts while kids get acquainted, before birthday parties start, before sports and activities kick into full gear, before big school projects get assigned. THEN it all hits and before you know it, it is Halloween and we know it is a slippery slope to all the rest of the holidays until the end of the year! So the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalog comes out at a good time, early enough for us to take some stock into what we want to make for the holidays and get our supplies purchased and ready to go!

Since Halloween is right around the corner (ha!), here is a card I made to get us in the mood! I love all things cute an lovely for fall and Halloween and I think this new Toil & Trouble Designer Series Paper in the upcoming Holiday Catalog fills that bill! You’ll find cute witches and cauldrons, like the ones on this card, plus little spiders, bats, lovely pumpkins, and even some generic paper patterns that you can use for backgrounds or trim on Halloween cards or even on other cards.

I started with this cauldron paper, which lends itself to being cut into strips which can then be used in various ways.

For the card base, I used Basic Black Cardstock with a layer of Crushed Curry, then a layer of the designer paper with one of those “generic” backgrounds, the stars. I chose a piece of Whisper White to die cut and layer on a scalloped piece of Crushed Curry. I was just going to glue on the witch, cauldron, and greeting, but I decided it needed a little more spookiness! I used my Sponge Daubers to sponge on some spooky colors of ink for the background. I just hand cut the images from the designer paper, but you can purchase the Cauldron Framelits Dies if you prefer. My greeting is from the Trick or Treat Stamp Set, also coming in the catalog.

Since the inside of the card is Basic Black I adhered a piece of Whisper White inside for a greeting. To embellish it a bit, I added a strip of the designer paper on the side and even the little cat which is on the designer paper. I like the way it turned out for my first Halloween card of the season!

Hopefully, your Holiday Catalogs are starting to arrive in the mail if you are one of my customers. If you are looking for Stampin’ Up! products, just send me your contact information and I can mail a complimentary catalog to you! We wouldn’t want you to miss out on these great holiday products!!

I hope this Toil & Trouble Halloween Witch Card gets you in the Halloween and fall mood. I know I am in the mood, especially for cooler fall weather and time for crafting!

Shop Stampin’ Up! Online!

Animal Expedition Playful Animals Birthday Card

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Who wouldn’t love this Animal Expedition Playful Animals Birthday Card? While whimsical and playful, these animals on the Animal Expedition Designer Series Paper, is not just for children! It would make cute cards and projects for children or babies, but it can be for anyone.

Even if you do not want to invest in the entire Animal Outing Bundle, I think just owning the paper can be a very good investment! And if you really love the paper, stamps, and the dies, then buy the paper and the Bundle! The Bundle saves you 10%! I’ve seen so many cute samples using this entire set! But, so far, I only own the paper because I think it is so cute! If you don’t mind some scissor-cutting, you can trim out the animals in the paper without the dies, while you are watching TV or working on your project. Or you can use various dies and punches that you may already own to cut out the animals. The paper is just adorable!

To make this card, I chose Lemon Lime Twist Cardstock for the card base with a layer of the smaller animal pattern. I used the greeting from the Detailed With Love Stamp Set. It is die cut with an oval in the Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies and layered on a scalloped oval in the Layering Ovals Framelits Dies. The ribbon is the Lemon Lime Twist 1/4″ Ombre Ribbon. And just for fun, I added some leaves from the Leaf Punch and sponged them a little bit on the edges.

This is one of those basic card designs that are easy for anyone to make – just a card base, a piece of designer paper and a greeting, maybe some ribbon or another pattern of designer paper, and that can be it. If you want, you can embellish even more. Keep the design and layout in mind when you need to make a card and don’t know where to start!

Remember the Stampin’ Up! Bonus Days going on now! Spend $50 and earn a $5 coupon code to use on your order in September! For every $50 you spend, you will receive a coupon code. Be sure to write them down or print out the email from Stampin’ Up! so nothing happens to your codes! Stampin’ Up! cannot replace lost codes.

This would be a good time to purchase the Animal Expedition Designer Series Paper and perhaps the entire Animal Outing Bundle along with some of the new ink pads, if you don’t have all the new colors already! Don’t forget the Reinkers! Get as much on your order as you can so you can take advantage of Bonus Days! Only two weeks left in August! OMG! You’ll want those coupon codes in September when you start shopping the Holiday Catalog beginning September 5th.

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE TODAY!

Sign Up For My Stamping With Karen Mailing List!

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Are you on my Stamping With Karen Mailing List? I know we all get a lot of emails, but if you like stamping and Stampin’ Up! then you want to join my Mailing List!

I am sending out a weekly newsletter every Tuesday to keep you updated and to see new, exclusive projects each week!

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First Frost All-Occasion Card

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One of the most beautiful suites in the upcoming Holiday Catalog is the Frosted Floral Suite, and here is a First Frost All-Occasion Card I made with the stamp set and a strip of the designer series paper. All the paper is printed on shimmery white paper which gives a beautiful elegant look to every sheet. I chose not to use the most dramatic of the papers with the gorgeous flowers but instead chose another pattern that would kind of go with the stamp. You can see the beautiful patterns of the paper below on both sides.

For the card base, chose Blackberry Bliss and then a layer of Pear Pizzazz. I added a one inch strip of designer paper on the side. The stamp is from the First Frost Stamp Set. I colored the stamp with various Stampin’ Write Markers. I had quite the selection of markers I was using so I’m not sure what ultimately made it on the stamp. I think I used Merry Merlot for the stems, maybe Blackberry Bliss and Night of Navy for the flowers on the stems. I used the “thumping” technique with the two colors, which means tapping the markers on the stamp. The leaves are colored with Pear Pizzazz and Mossy Meadow with a bit of yellow applied first. The stamp has that look to it that you see (can’t think of a descriptive word at the moment) that looks like maybe you missed some spots but you did not. It is stamped on Shimmery White Cardstock to match the shimmery designer paper.

The stamped image of the flowery sprig is die cut with the Stitched Shapes Framelit Die and layered on the Blackberry Bliss scalloped oval piece.

The greeting on the card is from the First Frost Stamp Set. I stamped it directly on the card front with Blackberry Bliss ink. This is where the Stamparatus can come in handy! If you don’t want to stamp the greeting crooked or miss a part that didn’t get inked well, etc. use the Stamparatus and a clear window sheet. Put the window sheet over the paper in the Stamparatus so that you can stamp on that and see how you have the stamp placed for alignment. Once you have it how you like it, remove the window sheet and stamp directly on the cardstock. If you need to re-ink and re-stamp you can with the Stamparatus! It’s great!

This month would be a good time to purchase the Stamparatus if you haven’t already! It will really come in handy for making multiple Christmas cards. I remember last Christmas thinking I wished I had my Stamparatus to use at that time! This Christmas I have it and it will make stamping Christmas cards much easier and quicker. I say this is a good month to purchase the Stamparatus because it is just under $50 and with every $50 of product you order during August, you earn a $5 coupon to use in September! Add an ink pad or buy more products from the new Annual Stampin’ Up! Catalog this month to get your Bonus Days coupon(s), then you will have those to spend on the Holiday Catalog in September!

Put this Frosted Floral paper and Suite on your Holiday Catalog Wish List now so you can make some beautiful cards like this First Frost All-Occasion Card and many, many more!

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE DURING BONUS DAYS!

All Is Bright Merry Christmas Card

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My Holiday Catalog preorder arrived very late Friday night (sometimes UPS must like to tease us knowing how impatiently we are waiting for our Stampin’ Up! order to arrive!) and then with my birthday festivities this weekend I barely had time to even look at all the new goodies! However, here is an easy to make All Is Bright Merry Christmas Card! It just takes a few minutes and would be a good layout if you are making a lot of similar cards for the holidays.

The designer paper, All Is Bright, has those photographic images plus other festive designs and some a little more plain. It is the perfect paper for making traditional Christmas cards. You will enjoy the entire All Is Bright Suite of products!

I used Real Red for the card base and just cut a piece of the designer paper to fit on the front. I thought Gold Foil would look great on the front of this card so I die cut a piece with the Stitched Labels Framelits Die and layered a greeting from the set Merry Christmas to All. You can make your own greetings with the individual words so it’s very useful.

For a little bling, I added some Mini Gold Sequin Trim. You can see on the photo below how I saved maybe an inch or so of the trim but using two pieces and adhering them with SNAIL adhesive plus Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The Holiday Catalogs have probably been mailed from Stampin’ Up! so if you are a regular customer of mine, yours is most likely on the way! If you are interested in Stampin’ Up! products, particularly holiday products, please email me at Karen@Karenstamps.com and I’d be happy to send a Holiday Catalog or even an Annual Stampin’ Up! Catalog if you would like one.

This Holiday Catalog, I believe, is going to be very popular! Once you start seeing samples of cards and projects, you will want even more products! I already want more and I got a lot of things just the other night! The Holiday Catalog goes live Sept. 5th.

Keep this simple design in mind for your Christmas cards. It works pretty well as you can see from this All Is Bright Merry Christmas Card!

Subscribe to Paper Pumpkin For a Spooky Papercrafting Kit!

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It’s hard to believe in the middle of the heat wave that is summer that we can think ahead to Halloween, but here’s an easy way to get into fall crafting with the September Paper Pumpkin Kit with a spooky Halloween project inside the exclusive Halloween-designed box. You will love finding this special box in your mailbox mid-September and getting excited about Halloween! I personally love Halloween and have boxes of decorations, not the gory, scary stuff but the cute and fun Halloween things! I will be looking forward to this kit for sure!

You may think there is no rush, but it wouldn’t hurt to subscribe TODAY and then you don’t have to think about it anymore! You can go to paperpumpkin.com, fill out the information, and then choose me as your Demonstrator OR you can just go to my personalized link for Paper Pumpkin HERE and you’re right there on my Paper Pumpkin site! If you have any questions, just ask! Here is a Stampin’ Up! video to help you and see the process.

Even if you have subscribed to Paper Pumpkin in the past, you are always welcome to come back! If you subscribed in the very beginning of the program several years ago now, I think you will find now that the kits are much improved and everyone loves them! The good thing is that there is no risk or obligation to continue for any length of time. Try Paper Pumpkin and if it doesn’t suit you, just cancel. If you like Paper Pumpkin but know you will be super busy one month, just go into your account and skip that month. It’s all up to you! Just subscribe or amend your account by the 10th of any month. You can add kits any month if you want to give one for a gift or have a friend coming over you would like to craft with!

Once you are a Paper Pumpkin subscriber, you also have access to any available past kits in the Stampin’ Up! Online Store. Sometimes it is the full kit and sometimes it is a refill to the kit. If, for example, you subscribed to a certain kit and wanted to make more, you could order just the refill since you would already have the stamps and ink spot. Therefore, the refill would be of less cost.

If you like Halloween, be sure to subscribe to Paper Pumpkin and see what this spooky kit has in store for us!

JOIN PAPER PUMPKIN TODAY!

Last Day to Save 50% Off the August Paper Pumpkin Papercrafting Kit From Stampin’ Up!

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Treat yourself! Join Paper Pumpkin for 50% off the August 2018 Kit! Use Promo Code BLOOM0818

Use my direct link to subscribe today! Kits will be mailed out mid-August! Sign up by August 10th to receive the August Kit. No risk, no obligation!

TODAY is the LAST DAY!

Each Paper Pumpkin Kit has all the supplies needed in the kit, including adhesive, for making the project! For first time subscribers, you will receive a free acrylic block with which to mount the stamps in the exclusive stamp set in the kit. You will also get a cute little square ink spot in one color to complete the project. These are great to save for other projects and for use with the Stamparatus!

The Blooming Summer Savings with Paper Pumpkin is too good of a deal for YOU to pass up! Normal basic monthly price is around $20 but for August get it for around $10. Shipping is included!

If it is not for you, then cancel before the 10th of the next month – September 10th. Or if you will be busy, just skip a month! Paper Pumpkin is pretty flexible!

This offer is for new subscribers (or a new email address). Please share with any friends who might have fun with Paper Pumpkin!

JOIN PAPER PUMPKIN HERE NOW!

Use Promo Code BLOOM0818

Rooted in Nature Masculine Birthday Card

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This Rooted in Nature Masculine Birthday Card was fun and interesting to make and you could use it for other occasions as well. I hadn’t used this stamp set and designer paper yet (amazingly!) so I looked in the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog for inspiration. This card is my take on one of the samples in the catalog! Can you tell which one?

I wasn’t planning to make it a birthday card and I planned to use one of the greetings in the Rooted in Nature Stamp Set. And this is why you should always check everything in your Stampin’ Up! order when you get it! I’ve never had this happen before, and honestly, rarely have any problems with my orders. Rooted in Nature is a two-pack stamp set with so many stamps. I had only used the tree from the first pack. Then I opened the second case for the greeting I wanted to use. That sheet of rubber was the same as the stamps in the first case!! The labels for the stamps were correct and the cover on the case was correct….just the stamps weren’t! Of course I called Stampin’ Up! and of course, they are sending me a correct set!! So I had to choose a greeting from another set! And I remembered I needed a birthday card for my nephew!

The card base is Cajun Craze and then there is a layer of the Nature’s Poem Designer Series Paper. Too bad it doesn’t show up more! I should have made the top layer a little smaller! I chose Shimmery White Cardstock for the stamping because I knew I would be doing some watercoloring in the background and Shimmery White holds up to the water. Regular Whisper White Cardstock is likely to pill or get rough from the water.

I stamped the tree with Mossy Meadow Ink, trying not to get the tree trunk inked up and then used a Soft Suede Marker to color directly on the rubber for the tree trunk. Sometimes I stamped directly but usually I stamped off once or even twice. Then I stamped one tree and die cut with the Nature’s Roots Framelits Dies. It is adhered with Stampin’ Dimensionals to pop it up.

Before adhering the tree, I watercolored the background with some Balmy Blue Ink and Soft Suede for the ground. I used my Aqua Painter and just tiny bits of ink in the lids of the ink pads. So fun!

For the greeting, I chose a birthday greeting in the Beautiful Bouquet Stamp Set because it was the right size for the space. It is die cut with a Layering Oval Die and layered on a piece of Tranquil Tide cardstock die cut with a scalloped oval die in the same set. For a little extra, I cut a small piece of the 5/8″ Burlap Ribbon to go under the greeting.

This card shows that even though what you thought you had planned to make, various factors, including maybe your creativity, may change that! In this case, partly my own idea of stamping more trees than the sample in the catalog and then not having the greeting I thought I was going to use changed the original idea of the card! But now I have a birthday card for my nephew that I might not have had otherwise! (Also a good idea to check your birthday book of dates before the middle of the month to see what birthdays are coming up!)

Remember, Bonus Days are going on, so if you were interested in the Rooted in Nature Bundle of stamps and dies, you would save 10% with the Bundle and also get a $5 coupon code to use with Stampin’ Up! in September (when the Holiday Catalog goes live!) This has been a very popular Bundle, I’m just slow in getting around to using it! You can make many cards like this Rooted in Nature Masculine Birthday Card.

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE!

Easy Fancy Petal Promenade Z-Fold Birthday Card

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I wanted to make a card for a long-time friend who has a birthday the day after mine, so I came up with this Easy Fancy Petal Promenade Z-Fold Birthday Card. What can make a more beautiful birthday card than the Petal Promenade Designer Series Paper! I just love it, and as you may have seen on a video previously, this paper was photographed in the Stampin’ Up! studio from fresh flowers and then made into a paper design by the graphic designers – I think they mentioned digitally removing a spider or ladybug hiding in the flowers!

One of the coordinating colors for this paper is Petal Pink, so that is what I used for the card base. I decided to jazz it up a bit by making a z-fold card. So simple, yet it makes you look like a specialty card designer! Just make the card as usual, then fold the front of the card in half back on itself! It’s best to score first so half of the card front (4 1/4″) is 2 1/8″. Just score and fold back, hence the name “Z-Fold”.

The designer paper is layered on to the card using the photographic flowers on the front panel, and the opposite side of the paper that looks like a granite pattern on the inside of the card. Since I was using a light color of ink, I used my Stamparatus to stamp the greeting inside the card on the designer paper (stamp first, glue second!). As I thought, the first stamping looked too light, but I could stamp it a second time and then it was inked up well enough to look good. I even glued another “back” of another pattern of paper on the inside of that front fold. It’s the one that looks like bokeh dots.

The greeting on the front of the card is stamped in Petal Pink Ink on Whisper White and die cut with the Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies. I was hoping I could layer this on top of the Petal Pink die cut piece from the Stitched Labels Framelits Dies and I think it works. The thing is with a Z-Fold card is you want the stamped greeting on the inside of the card to be hidden behind the greeting on the front of the card. You need to think this through a little bit while you are making the card.

For a little bling, I added the Share What You Love Artisan Pearls on the greeting on the front of the card. I first looked at sequins and some of my other embellishments, but decided, as I often do, on the Artisan Pearls. They are so teeny tiny they add a nice accent without being too bold.

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Pick up some of this gorgeous Petal Promenade Designer Series Paper on your next order and start making some easy cards and projects that will be beautiful like this simple Z-Fold card.

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