The April Paper Pumpkin Kit is going to have something different….brand new Stampin’ Up! Distinktive® stamp images.
This is it! The deadline is tomorrow, April 10th, to get signed up for Paper Pumpkin, the papercrafting kit that Stampin’ Up! sends right to your mailbox each month with a fun project inside, all materials, stamps, and ink included! What could be more fun to look forward to!
What are Distinktive stamp images? Stampin’ Up! says…….
Distinktive stamps give you photo-realistic images with just one stamp. They have a special texture that gives added depth and dimension in a single step.
These stamps are available only from Stampin’ Up! and are made using a patent-pending process.
Distinktive stamps are available in red rubber and photopolymer; Paper Pumpkin’s April kit includes photopolymer stamps.
Shop Distinktive stamps in the online store by searching “Distinktive,” or look for the Distinktive icon in Stampin’ Up! catalogs.
Join Paper Pumpkin today and your April Paper Pumpkin Kit will be in the mail in just another week. Get the first set of Distinktive stamps to appear in Paper Pumpkin. You must subscribe (or reactivate) your subscription by April 10th to receive this kit. Do it now so you don’t miss out!
The link above is my personalized link for my Paper Pumpkin page to make it easy for you to sign up. If you have a Demonstrator you want to use, then go to Paperpumpkin.com and search for their name.
Maybe you already had some of this Delightfully Detailed Laser-Cut Specialty Paper or maybe you got some free during Sale-A-Bration, but it’s time to use it on a card something like my Delightfully Detailed Paper Birthday Card.
This paper is beautiful but has to be handled with a little bit of care. Be sure to keep the tissue paper in between the sheets in the package and it’s not a good idea to cut it with the Stampin’ Trimmer. Using a scissors and cutting out a larger piece than you need, then trimming that down, is a lot easier.
It seems I rarely use Very Vanilla in my cards, so I flipped the Delightfully Detailed Specialty Paper over to use the Very Vanilla side. One side is white and one side is vanilla so take your pick!
I wanted a monochromatic kind of look, so I used a Very Vanilla card base and layered the laser paper on top. As I said, I cut out a larger piece than I needed with scissors, then sponged very lightly some Multipurpose Liquid Glue on the back side of the paper so it would adhere to the card base. I managed to do this without a gluey mess! Then I just trimmed off the excess with my scissors around the border of the card. Of course, you could also make a smaller layer with the laser paper like we normally do on a card.
For a greeting, I die cut this label piece from the Stitched Labels Framelits Dies and stamped a greeting from the Detailed With Love Stamp Set to make it a birthday card. You could use any greeting. This would make a lovely engagement, wedding, or anniversary card as well. The ink is Calypso Coral and the ribbon tied on the ends is the Calypso Coral 1/4″ Ombre Ribbon.
This is a pretty easy card to make except for the little bit of fussing with the laser-cut paper, handling it carefully so it doesn’t get tangled with itself or tear. You will also find the Beautifully Detailed Laser-Cut Specialty Paper in the Occasions Catalog which is white on one side and Petal Pink on the other.
Here are some other cards I made with the laser-cut paper and a colored card base. This paper comes with 8 sheets, 4 each of 2 designs. The other sheet has sections that you can cut apart to use on cards or other projects rather than the one big floral sheet. You can color the designs as well with markers or sponging color on or using the Sponge Brayer.
This Delightfully Detailed Laser-Cut Specialty Paper provides a different kind of paper that gives a different look to our cardmaking and other projects. It’s always fun to change things up a bit! If you already own this paper, try this Delightfully Detailed Paper Birthday Card or make up your own design!
Once you start using theFable Friends Stamp Set you can hardly stop using this cute bunny for Easter cards! You can make this Fable Friends Bunny Garden Impressions Easter Card or you can change the greeting and have it be a baby card, birthday card, or other occasions. And what a relaxing way to spend some time coloring in this cute bunny!
I decided to show a little love to my package of the Garden Impressions 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper. I placed a strip of 2″ x 5 1/4″ blue floral pattern on the layer of So Saffron Cardstock. This is all layered on a Whisper White card base. The bunny is colored in to match the flowers on the Garden Impressions paper and I just LOVE how the bunny looks – a little like Peter Rabbit I think! While I first thought the blue color was Night of Navy, some of it is, but some is Pacific Point. I chose to use Pacific Point as the scalloped oval color and the color of the bunny’s jacket. The Night of Navy was too dark but the Pacific Point was perfect!
Go check out the Fable Friends Stamp Set for making Easter cards and treats! You will find it in the Stampin’ Up! Online Store from the Occasions Catalog!
Are you on my Stamping With Karen Mailing List yet? If not, sign up today so you don’t miss out! Every Tuesday I send out a newsletter with any Stampin’ Up! news and offers, plus projects with complete instructions.
This is a good way to keep up with all things Stampin’ Up! so you don’t miss any good offers. I also try to choose projects to put in my newsletter that you would enjoy making or at least give you an idea for something you can make on your own.
And when you do sign up, you will get an email with a link to a FREE GIFT! This gift has ideas for easy gift-wrapping that we all need sometimes at the last minute!
At Christmas time I send out special holiday emails with a new project each week leading up to Christmas called “The 12 Weeks of Christmas”.
With it getting close to “new catalog” time (can you believe it?!) you will want to stay on top of all the breaking news!
Just click the link below and put in your first name and email. It’s just that easy!
Sale-A-Bration is coming to an end tonight, as hard as it is to believe, so I thought I would make one last card with a favorite Sale-A-Bration stamp set, So Hoppy Together! Funny thing is, I didn’t want this set in the beginning, but as I saw some cute samples other people made, I had to have it. I have to say I have enjoyed using this stamp set for many whimsical cards with these cute frogs!
The frogs are easy to stamp in Memento Ink and then color in with Stampin’ Blends markers. You could also use Stazon Ink and color with watercoloring techniques with ink refills or the Stampin’ Write Markers. I just have fun when I am coloring these frogs. Each one has a different look! And the sayings are good too! I used a paper from the Botanical Butterfly DSP for the layer on the card. The opposite sides of the paper have other designs!
So today we wrap up Sale-A-Bration, Stampin’ Up!’s biggest promotion of the year! Who doesn’t like getting free stuff?! I hope you placed an order and got your free item(s) and maybe more! It’s always fun to get something extra!
If you haven’t ordered yet, Sunday, March 31 at 11:50 pm MT is the absolute deadline. You can order any of the catalog items or items in the Occasions Catalog. It’s all in the Stampin’ Up! Online Store! And when you have your order entered, it will prompt you to add your Sale-A-Bration items at the bottom, one for every $50 you spend….or two for every $100..or one higher value item for $100….lots of combinations!
Be sure to place your order TODAY! Sunday, March 31! If the frogs in So Hoppy Together aren’t your favorite, pick something else like the Botanical Butterfly Designer Series Paper or the Hello Cupcake Stamp Set or the Pizza Boxes or the beautiful Petal Promenade DSP or the TWO rolls of the Rich Razzleberry Velvet Ribbon!
Hard to believe, but this is the last weekend for Stampin’ Up! Sale-A-Bration! Seems like the holidays just ended, the new Occasions Catalog came out and Sale-A-Bration started! Whether you have already placed your order or not, the deadline is tomorrow night for sure! We all like free stuff and what is better than Stampin’ Up! free stuff during Sale-A-Bration!
Here are some of my favorite projects I made with SAB products!
Those are just a few projects I’ve made during these Sale-A-Bration months! I thought this year had really good products to choose from. Obviously, they were great because several sold out! But we knew it was “while supplies last”. And this year, the supplies did not last!
Be sure to check your Wish List and basic supplies. Maybe you just want to stock up on ink refills, adhesives, new ink pads, cardstock, ribbons, whatever! You can get to $50 easily….and more, for sure! Or splurge on something like the Stamparatus!
You can also order a 3-month Prepaid Paper Pumpkin subscription to get SAB credit, even if you already are on a month-to-month subscription. It will work out!
Go ahead and shop and then choose your free Sale-A-Bration items with every $50 you spend!
The other day I saw on Facebook a Stampin’ Up! post of a stamping technique that a French Demonstrator, on the Artisan Design Team, had used on a card using the acrylic blocks. I had already been reminded of an Easter card I made of an oval shape and decorated like an Easter egg, so I used her technique to make a Watercolored Easter Egg Notecard.
You can use the largest oval framelit in the Layering Ovals Framelits Dies to make this card although it is a little small. If you want a larger card you will need some kind of template. I just used a notecard in the Note Card & Envelopes since the egg will be small anyway. Fold the note card and position the largest oval die over the note card (closed) but having it off the card a bit over the fold. In other words, you do not want to cut a portion of the fold. If you do, you will have two ovals cut out of the Note Card but they won’t be connected by the fold. Just slide the oval off to the left a little bit so you will still have a fold.
You can see how I made an Easter egg-shaped card HERE a few years ago. The die will cut through the two layers of the card and still have a fold as long as you move the die to the left of the fold.
This is how I colored my egg card. I used a larger acrylic block that the egg could fit on. Then I chose several colors of ink pads and picked up ink from each color with my Aqua Painter one at a time and colored it onto the acrylic block. Instead of picking up the block and stamping it on the card, I placed the front of the egg card down onto the acrylic block loaded with stripes of colors of watery ink. Just press and then lift up carefully.
Depending on how much ink and how much water from your Aqua Painter (or brush) that you use and how you lay down the colors, you will get a different look on your card each time you make one. It’s really fun to do a technique where each time the final look will be a surprise! You could also color directly on the card, but Whisper White cardstock doesn’t hold up really well to very much water. I would recommend using Shimmery White Cardstock.
To decorate my Easter card, I used the Easter greeting from the Fable Friends Stamp Set. It is stamped in Highland Heather ink and layered on Highland Heather Cardstock, both die cut from the Layering Ovals Framelits Dies. For a little bling, I added some self-adhesive Basic Sequins.
As I was getting an envelope for the note card, I decided to color the envelope flap to match. It doesn’t match exactly because I didn’t use an acrylic block, I just colored directly onto the envelope flap. This does make the flap a little “warpy” and the glue on the flap inside gets a little damp so make sure the flap is open. And finally I stamped the bunny from the Fable Friends Stamp Set in Highland Heather on the front of the envelope.
This is a pretty small little Easter egg card but very cute and fun! You can try this technique or you can make one like the one I linked to from three years ago. Of course you can use this ink-on-the-acrylic-block technique to make lots of different kinds of cards, even just stamping the block onto cardstock and leaving a rectangular stamped shape as the Artisan team member did. Get out some ink and an acrylic block and experiment for yourself in making whatever cards you like or one for Easter like my Watercolored Easter Egg Notecard.
March 31, 2019 is almost here, so time is short! Sale-A-Bration comes to an end that night and the “free stuff” will be all over! Don’t miss out! Stock up on some basics for your stamping or choose those things you’ve been lusting after in the Stampin’ Up! catalogs. With every $50 you get to choose a FREE Sale-A-Bration item. Upon reaching $100, you can choose two free items OR one $100 category choice…..and so on! No limit! And with a $150 you also get Stampin’ Rewards….and with a $250 order you earn an EXTRA $25 in merchandise (plus Stampin’ Rewards).
If you would like to JOIN Stampin’ Up!, this is the week! Check out the extra benefits PLUS you can choose to get the special Craft Tote Bag along with your Starter Kit.
Here are the Sale-A-Bration choices (as I write this!):
When my daughter was here for a visit last week and pulling out lots of paper and stamps, some retired, when we went to put away the Garden Impressions Designer Paper I honestly couldn’t remember if it was current or retired! I hadn’t used it in a long time! So I thought it was time to USE IT, along with the Butterfly Gala Stamp Set and the Butterfly Duet Punch to make this Butterfly Gala Thank You Card With Floral Garden Impressions.
The Garden Impressions paper is a pack of 6″ x 6″ sheets so it is a little easier to work with. So many pretty floral patterns and on the other side a more generic, plain design. This pattern with the Night of Navy background and So Saffron flowers jumped out at me so I chose to use that. The card base is Night of Navy with a Whisper White layer. The strip of designer paper is 5 1/4″ x 2″. The ribbon is the beautiful Gold 3/8″ Metallic-Edge Ribbon, so useful to have on hand.
The butterflies are stamped with the Butterfly Gala Stamp Set, colored with Stampin’ Blends markers and punched out with the Butterfly Punch. Unfortunately, at the moment, the punch is back ordered and unable to be ordered until they get more in stock.
The greeting on the card is from the same Butterfly Gala Stamp set, along with some other very nice greetings. Luckily I didn’t mess it up when I stamped it just above the ribbon. Well, somehow I did get a slight black ink smudge in the upper left corner, but I was able to cover it with the butterfly wings! The large butterfly is popped up with Stampin’ Dimensionals and the other two are just adhered flat with Glue Dots.
Remember, Sale-A-Bration is going on just one more week!! Wow, does time fly!! You can still get the Botanical Butterfly Designer Series Paper FREE with a $50 purchase, at least as I write this! I’m surprised this paper didn’t sell out early on because it is so fun with the butterflies on one side and some black and white designs on the other. If you like butterflies, you do want this paper!
If you didn’t want to take time to color in butterflies, you could simply make this same card without them! The Garden Impressions 6″ x 6″ DSP is pretty enough! Stamp a greeting, maybe add a ribbon and you’ve got a lovely card. Check out these products in the Stampin’ Up! Online Store and get your Sale-A-Bration order in before you miss out!
It’s time to get signed up for Paper Pumpkin, the papercrafting kit that Stampin’ Up! sends right to your mailbox each month with a fun project inside, all materials, stamps, and ink included! What could be more fun to look forward to!
The April Paper Pumpkin Kit is going to have something different….brand new Stampin’ Up! Distinktive® stamp images.
What are Distinktive stamp images? Stampin’ Up! says…….
Distinktive stamps give you photo-realistic images with just one stamp. They have a special texture that gives added depth and dimension in a single step.
These stamps are available only from Stampin’ Up! and are made using a patent-pending process.
Distinktive stamps are available in red rubber and photopolymer; Paper Pumpkin’s April kit includes photopolymer stamps.
Shop Distinktive stamps in the online store by searching “Distinktive,” or look for the Distinktive icon in Stampin’ Up! catalogs.
Join Paper Pumpkin today and be all set to receive the April Paper Pumpkin Kit in the mail mid-April. Get the first set of Distinktive stamps to appear in Paper Pumpkin. You must subscribe (or reactivate) your subscription by April 10th to receive this kit. Do it now so you don’t have to put it on your “To-Do List”!
The link above is my personalized link for my Paper Pumpkin page to make it easy for you to sign up. If you have a Demonstrator you want to use, then go to Paperpumpkin.com and search for their name.
It’s time to start making Easter cards like this Fable Friends Bunny Easter Card. Isn’t that bunny the cutest thing?! This is an easy card to make so you could make multiples and make lots of people happy to receive a card from you during the Easter season. The Fable Friends Stamp Set is great for Easter but you can also use it for other cards, like for a baby.
The card base is Lovely Lipstick with a layer of Whisper White under the designer paper which is from the All My Love Designer Series Paper. Don’t tell anybody, but I stamped the bunny on the middle part of the Whisper White paper, die cut it and then used that piece as the layer. Nobody will ever know that there is an oval hole in the Whisper White layer unless they take the card apart! You can save a little bit of paper this way although I don’t always think of doing that little trick.
The bunny is stamped in Memento Black Ink. This is the ink that works with the Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers. I love to color with these markers! Just pick out whatever colors you like. The bunny is easy to color! This oval piece is layered on a scalloped oval Lovely Lipstick piece.
The ribbon is the Crumb Cake 3/8″ Classic Weave Ribbon . This ribbon has a very nice soft feel to it. I just tied a knot to keep it simple and popped the bunny up on Stampin’ Dimensionals.
The greeting is from the same Fable Friends Stamp Set and layered on a piece of Lovely Lipstick.
That’s it! That’s all there is to this easy Easter card using the Fable Friends stamp set. Easter is a month away so you have time to order this stamp set, add a few things, and reach $50 so you can take advantage of Sale-A-Bration! Get a free product with each $50 you spend. Don’t miss it!
I might not have little kids around the house any more to brag about the cute things they said or did, but a mother can still brag about her adult daughter’s artistic creation, this Beautiful You Card! I suppose I could say happiness is when you ask your daughter what she would like to do the next day of her visit and she says, “Stamp!” That’s never happened before!
She does enjoy doing the Paper Pumpkin Kits I send her but she doesn’t want the ton of supplies her mother has, which is one of the great reasons for people to subscribe to Paper Pumpkin – get all the supplies and design you need to do some crafting once a month without buying and carrying an “inventory” of stamps, paper, and ink! This time she was interested in creating some of her own cards and projects for friends getting married or having babies or celebrating birthdays!
We also tried out several techniques, like salt and ink, alcohol and ink, embossing, watercoloring with ink refills, watercoloring with Brusho crystals, embossing with the Big Shot, die-cutting, coloring with Stampin’ Blends, using Sponge Daubers, and many other things. She had already picked out this Beautiful You Stamp Set to use so she used one of her backgrounds for this stamped image which she had colored and cut out. Then, just like her mother, she played around with several choices of ribbons until she was happy with the look and figured out a way to incorporate the Lemon Lime Twist Ombre Ribbon with the Whisper White Polka Dot Tulle Ribbon.
Some projects she didn’t have time to pull together but she has paper and stamped images and ribbon all ready to take home with her to complete. I’ll be interested to see what she eventually makes for her friends out of her new stash!
It was nice to have a stamper in the house and nice to have a relaxing visit without the Christmas hoopla going on, as nice as that is at the time with everyone home! It’s always nice to visit with one child at a time, or even two when her brother came home to visit her over the weekend! She wishes she could stay longer but the airfare would be $400 more to stay another couple of days! Crazy! We didn’t even run around to go out and do “fun” things because we were already having plenty of fun staying home, relaxing, stamping, even baking bread and pizza and making a chocolate tart! (Check out www.thefoodnanny.com, my new passion, I don’t even know why!)
So try to go back in your mind and think like a new stamper! Try your supplies in new ways, try out a new technique just for fun. You don’t have to create a masterpiece at the end, just try something new or something you haven’t done in a long time! Everything old is new again….or whatever the saying is!
And don’t forget Sale-A-Bration only has about another week to run! Purchase $50 worth or more, or multiples of $50, to get your FREE Sale-A-Bration products. Maybe you’d like this lovely stamp set in the Annual Catalog on your order so you can make a card like my daughter’s Beautiful You Card.
Late yesterday spring arrived, finally, and here is a Floral Card For Spring With Brusho to celebrate! My daughter has been visiting for a week (not long enough!) and she wanted to stamp and learn some new techniques! We played around with several things including the Brusho Crystal Colour (yes, that’s how it is spelled!). I haven’t used it much, even though it was something I wanted right away when it came out! There are different ways you can use Brusho. Mostly you just need to play with it!
We used real Watercolor Paper by Stampin’ Up! because that works the best, along with the Aqua Painter. You can apply water to the paper with the Aqua Painter or move the ink crystals around with it. You can also just pick up with crystals mixed with water and use as a watercolor paint to color in an image. The Watercolor Paper is a high-quality cotton paper that absorbs the water and doesn’t pill like Whisper White Cardstock does when you use water on it and try to move color around. Even if you don’t use watercolor paper often, you might like to keep a package or two on hand in case you come across a project you want to try with watercoloring.
The Brusho is fun to use because you get five little pots of color – Brilliant Red, Gamboge (orange), Moss Green, Prussian Blue, Yellow. You can use them individually or combine them or do whatever you want! It is recommended you do not even OPEN the pots as the powder is so fine and you’ll have tiny crystals all over. Just poke a hole or several holes in the lid with a Paper Piercing Tool or push pins or something so you can shake out minute amounts of color when you want them.
For my card, I stamped the flowers from the Petal Palette Stamp Set with Stazon Ink since it is waterproof. Then I just shook out a tiny amount of Brusho onto a clear block and picked it up with my Aqua Painter to color in the flowers and leaves. If the shade isn’t exactly what you wanted, you can go back and add more color for a deeper color or shading or blending.
I just wanted kind of a light blue, sky background for the card so I sprinkled just a very few crystals on the wet watercolor paper (I applied water around the flowers with my Aqua Painter) and kind of let it move on its own and helped it with the Aqua Painter so it went where I wanted it. Very easy and simple, not to mention fun!
The card base is Real Red to match the flowers and the greeting is from the Petal Palette Stamp Set. I had to add a little bit of bling with the Gold Faceted Gems.
My daughter and I also made some backgrounds while we played with the Brusho so we will have to make those into cards or something.
Take some inspiration from this Floral Card For Spring With Brusho and make your own card for spring to send to someone who just might really need a card that day!
St. Patrick’s Day is coming Sunday, March 17 so here is a fun St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock card you can make or get an idea from to make your own card. I imagine people will be celebrating St. Pat’s all weekend!
My husband went to an engineering college in Missouri and since St. Patrick was the patron saint of engineering, St. Pat’s weekend was quite the party weekend there – actually the whole week was I think! I guess I went to two of them when we were dating and he was still in college. I think I remember someone (some people?) being thrown into a vat of awful green stuff. We were reminded of some of this disgusting stuff that went on, all in the name of college and fraternity fun back then, when we went back for a reunion and new fraternity house last fall. One of the men was wearing his St. Pat’s jacket from when he was on the St. Pat’s board during college. Apparently it was quite the honor to own that jacket, although technically it must be a biohazard from the tales he told of what was done to that jacket before it was given to him, with the admonition never to clean it! So even though we are not Irish, St. Patrick’s Day holds those college memories for us. I think I have a green garter from the occasion and probably a green sweatshirt or t-shirt or other souvenirs.
If you are Irish or know someone you want to give a card or St. Patrick’s Day treat to, here is a fun card to make. If you don’t have a shamrock stamp, just find some little hearts and stamp those together to make a shamrock! Or punch out some hearts, big or little. Add a touch of gold and a greeting and you’ve got it!
My card uses Call Me Clover Cardstock (pretty appropriate for St. Pat’s, don’t you think?) for the card base with a Whisper White layer. I put a strip of green patterned designer paper along the side. The paper on the other side has alligators from the Animal Expedition Designer Series Paper. I just wanted some strip of green paper so look for whatever you have, but I can say the Animal Expedition Paper is super cute!
The greeting is from the same stamp set. I stamped that in Memento Ink also and colored in the letters with my marker, even adding some stripes and dots for fun. I had a scrap of Gold Foil so I die cut that to fit to add a touch of gold. Of course, I had to add a bit more bling and gold, so I added a few gold Metallic Pearls on the front of the card.
If you are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day on Sunday or this weekend, make a little something green with whatever you have in your stash! You might be surprised when you look through your stamp sets to find a shamrock or St. Pat’s greeting or balloons you can color green or any number of things. Try something today!
