Paper Pumpkin’s first kit of 2020 is all about L-O-V-E. Whether you want handmade favors for Valentine’s Day, a bridal shower, or a remarkably romantic wedding, this month’s kit has everything you need to help you celebrate your favorite friendships and love stories. So make it a “LOVE”-ly year with Paper Pumpkin!
Kit details:
Makes 20 treat bags + 10 mini cards and envelopes
Card size: 3″ x 3″ (7.5 x 7.5 cm)
Envelope size: 3-1/8″ x 3-1/8″ (7.8 x 7.8 cm)
Bag size: 3-1/4″ x 4″ (8.2 x 10 cm)
Coordinating Stampin’ Up! colors: Crushed Curry, Highland Heather, Mint Macaron, and Rococo Rose
Get more from the I’ll Bee Yours Kit when you buy the Heart Punch Pack (item 151292) from the 2020 January–June Mini Catalog. Both punches coordinate with the heart stamp in the kit so you can craft for love-filled occasions now . . . and later! Think: weddings, showers, birthdays, and more! Check out the flyer advertising this super-versatile punch pack in your January kit!
Check your mail for these new Stampin’ Up! mini catalogs, for the spring Occasions Catalog and the new Sale-A-Bration Brochure! I hope you got lots of Christmas cards and sales brochures for bargains, but don’t miss these two new catalogs from Stampin’ Up!
There is something different about the Occasions Catalog, which might even cause you to not notice it is Stampin’ Up! Did you catch it? It is “landscape” position so the pages open from the side longways! It might take some getting used to but it allowed Stampin’ Up! to present the products better in the catalog. So we will try it and see how everyone likes it (or not!).
Sale-A-Bration and the Occasions Catalog both begin on Friday, January 3rd so circle that date on your calendar! It’s a big one for us stampers! If you are new to Stampin’ Up!, Sale-A-Bration is the time period during which for every $50 you spend on Stampin’ Up! products, you get to choose one free product from the Sale-A-Bration brochure! There are some special offerings for $100 purchases, too.
Note that the Holiday Catalog ends on Thursday, January 2nd so get whatever you want from that. Remember, the Year-End Close-out ends on December 31….a few discounted items. And the Clearance Rack had items added to it before Christmas and you might have been too busy to check it out, but there are still a lot of choices left, so check that out as well!
I ordered both catalogs for my regular customers, as I always do. They will arrive separately, perhaps at way different times! My Sale-A-Bration came way after my Occasions Catalog. Give it a little more time and keep checking your mail and catalogs and holiday junk mail you have gotten and see if you received them. If they never come, I’ll have Stampin’ Up! send out another one.
If you are new and interested in Stampin’ Up! products and would like me to be your Demonstrator to help you with any orders, just send me a note with your contact information so I can send you the catalogs. They WILL be available online on January 3rd if you just prefer seeing them online. Also, let me know if you want/need the annual Stampin’ Up! catalog as well.
Ask your mailman/maillady if they are reading your Stampin’ Up! catalogs at the post office and if so, to please deliver them to you promptly! It’s always a good feeling to change over to some brand new products after all the holiday projects (as much as we loved the Holiday Catalog!).
By now you have probably used up most of your fun Let It Snow Specialty Designer Series Paper unless you are a paper hoarder! And we all want to hoard this fun paper with the glittery snowmen on it. However, if you did actually cut up the sheets with the snowmen, you know it required drastic steps, perhaps destroying parts of the snowmen design. I know you didn’t throw away a bit of the scraps, so look through them now and see what you can make! You might still be able to salvage some snowmen!
On this first card, I had a smallish piece of designer paper with the two snowpeople on it. I just added extra layers so it would make a full card. And I jazzed up the snowmen by adding some stick arms and a scarf and hat. These pieces were from the Let It Snow Embellishment Kit. Don’t forget to use the cardstock cheat trick by punching out or die-cutting some pieces from the center of the cardstock that is going to be covered up anyway. No one will ever know!
On this card, I was able to save these two snowpeople and just made a smaller card! Make a 4 1/4′ x 4 1/4″ card or 4″ x 4″ size, whatever the piece of designer paper will fit best. On this one, just a little designer paper at the top and bottom of the snowman paper was enough to set off the focal point snowmen. Once you add a greeting and embellish the card a little bit you will have a great card even with a smaller piece of designer paper than you might have used.
Remember, sometimes the opposite side of the paper can be used long after the holidays. Often, we aren’t as familiar with the other side of the paper as we are of the well-known image.
If you have really small pieces of this Let It Snow Designer Paper, remember, you can make tags for gifts! Usually we run out before all the packages are wrapped, so it’s a good idea to make extra tags! Especially if you haven’t started wrapping packages yet1
Have fun making your last minute holiday cards, tags, and treats!
Here is a card I mostly copied from one I found online except I think she die-cut all the holly leaves and adhered them to the card. I simply stamped them randomly on the card front and colored them in on my Christmas Gleaming Holly Leaves Christmas Card.
The card base is Garden Green although you could also use Cherry Cobbler as the sample I saw did. I used Shimmery White Cardstock, one of my favorite papers. I think you can kind of see the shimmer in the photo a little bit on the colored areas. Even in person, you can barely see it, but it is there! It’s also the next best paper on which to watercolor if you don’t have real watercolor paper.
I stamped the holly leaves and berries in Memento Ink and colored in with Stampin’ Blends. It takes a little time to color even only using green and red. I used two shades of green to give a subtle bit of variation in the leaves.
There is a stamp in the Christmas Gleaming Stamp Set that makes those little dots. I stamped some of those around in Garden Green just to fill in the space a little bit around the leaves. I didn’t want to stamp too many holly leaves because then I’d have to color them in!
The greeting from the same stamp set is stamped in Cherry Cobbler Ink and die cut with a Layering Circle Die and Scalloped Circle Die in the same set.
The ribbon is the Cherry Cobbler Diagonal Stripe Ribbon (no longer available). The greeting is then popped up over the ribbon using Stampin’ Dimensionals.
This is a relatively easy card to make except for the coloring taking a little bit of time. But coloring is relaxing and therapeutic!
Have fun finishing up your Christmas cards, if you are still working on them!
Little houses seem to be trendy this Christmas from what I have seen in the stores and on social media. Mostly the houses are wooden blocks and then painted with one embellishment on the front like a wreath or a heart or something. So here are my Little Wooden Decorated House Blocks that I made one evening and, if I do say so myself, I think they turned out pretty well! At least everything is still stuck on so that is good!
When I was at Hobby Lobby I came across these wooden house blocks although they were painted (printed?) on the front with a word like “Joy” and a painted wreath. I should have taken a “before” photo! When I saw them, I thought why not cover the front with designer paper and then add a wreath or something.
I didn’t know “how” I was supposed to do this project so I started with ModPodge, but I think mine was so old and stinky when I came back to the block the paper was all discolored. I was able to rip it off and wiped off the block and started over. I sanded the fronts of the blocks just a little bit and then just used our Multipurpose Liquid Glue to adhere the paper to the block.
I looked through my designer papers and chose what I thought would work. I used the Toile Tidings Designer Series Paper, the Wrapped in Plaid 6″ x 6″ Specialty Designer Series Paper, and the Let It Snow Specialty Designer Series Paper (sold out). I laid the side of the paper I wanted to show face down on the table. I spread out the glue all over the front of the block (I think a foam brush works well and then you can just throw it away) and then laid the block face down on the paper. Sometimes I lined it up with the edges at the bottom and one side and sometimes I didn’t. After the glue had dried, I used an exacto knife to trim away the excess paper. Just cut off the large excess with scissors first to make trimming easier. If you still have slight edges to trim off, try a sanding block or very fine sandpaper or a nail file to sand the edges. You can even do more sanding for that distressed look along the edges.
You can either buy some tiny wreaths at the craft store or get some greenery that you can twist into a wreath. I also bought a little bag of red berries and twisted those around the greenery. Once I had the wreath made, I adhered each one to a house with hot glue. Then I used some retired twine with a sparkly red thread in it to tie a bow and adhered that with the Multipurpose Liquid Glue. You have to hold it on for a second or you could use hot glue.
On one house I put the bottom blob of hot glue in the wrong place for the bottom of the wreath so that it showed through the center of the wreath. Then I remembered I had these little Christmas trinkets from Stampin’ Up! from a year or two ago, so I held the hot glue gun on the blog of excess glue to soften it and stuck on the gingerbread man! “There are no mistakes in stamping!” It was so cute I added a trinket to each wreath!
I ended up adding just a bit of white acrylic paint on the house sides but you might not need to unless you have the raw wood. For the back, I ended up adding Real Red Cardstock just like I did the designer paper. I guess I could have just painted that area too.
Finally, the roof just begged for some snow, so I used my Shimmery Crystal Effects as the adhesive and sprinkled on some Ice Stampin’ Glitter (not available). I didn’t cover the roof fully but just did some swirls all around.
I think these will be cute for gifts and holiday decorations! You could probably even use some generic design of paper and then have different things to hang on the front of the house for different seasons or occasions so you can change them out.
You know the best things will go fast! Well, it’s all the best stuff, just depends on what YOU want! And even if it arrives after Christmas, if it is for YOU, it doesn’t matter, right?! Your treat, either way!
Almost every year I have been making one variation or another of a Rudolph gift bag so here is my Easy Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer Gift Bag! Usually, I have decorated a kraft shopping bag like in this popular post HERE. Another year I made a smaller 2-4-6-8 bag to look like Rudolph HERE.
This is a similar bag, but a little larger that you make with half a sheet of 12″ x 12″ paper. It’s good to have at least the assortments of each color family of 12″ x 12″ paper on hand because even if we don’t use this size paper real often, sometimes you need a large piece for a project.
Start with a 6″ x 12″ piece of Soft Suede Cardstock or whatever color of brown that you like. Score at 4″, 5 3/4″, 9 3/4″, and 11 1/2″. Turn the paper so the short edge is at the top and score at 1 3/4″. This will make the bottom flaps of the bag. Cut those short bottom tabs up to the 1 3/4″ score line. Cut off the little 1/2″ tab on the bottom. Fold on all the score lines and crease well with the Bone Folder. Adhere the tab on the end to the other side to assemble the bag. Then adhere the flaps on the bottom. I used the Tear & Tape Adhesive. (There’s a piece of white cardstock underneath just for the photo.)
Before you completely assemble the box, fold on all the score lines and SEE how it is going to go together. See which area will be the front. I found it was easier to glue on the pieces while the bag was still flat, but either way works since it is so simple!
I used a 2″ Circle Punch for the Red Glimmer Nose, a 1″ Circle Punch for the white part of the eyes and a 3/4″ Circle Punch (retired) for the black. You can use whatever punches or dies you have according to what sizes and look you want your Rudolph to have! Just glue them on to make your reindeer’s face.
For the antlers I used the Sprig Punch. I punched out 3 of the sprigs out of the Whisper White Thick Cardstock since I wanted them sticking up over the top of the bag and thought the Thick Cardstock would be a little stronger. One of the sprigs I cut apart and added one piece to each sprig. I colored all the sprigs with my Stampin’ Blends, two of them with the Light Crumb Cake and one with Soft Suede just to make it a little interesting and adhered the darker piece to the full sprig.
Just fill a cello bag with treats and tie with a ribbon! Put it inside the Easy Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer Gift Bag and you’ve got a fun gift for someone!
I wanted some quick and easy cards the other day (because who has any time with Christmas racing to get here?!) so I made these Quick and Easy Toile Tidings Christmas Cards. I love this toile paper, probably because I have some toile fabric covering the seats of a couple of chairs.
Then the card just needed a greeting so I chose this one from theSo Many Stars Stamp Set. It is stamped in Garden Green Ink on Very Vanilla Cardstock, which was die cut and then layered on a piece of Garden Green. I made the circle one first but then I changed to the oval die cuts. The greeting is kind of large. The greeting seemed to beg for another little something so I added a couple of Toile Tidings Glitter Enamel Dots.
That’s all there was to it, so if you need some easy cards, just use this Toile Tidings Paper. I love all the little scenes on it! In fact, you could use this paper after Christmas, during the winter for cards or to write thank you notes after the holidays.
(Did you know you can expedite your Stampin’ Up! order? There is a drop down box when you check out for shipping. It IS extra ($20 for 2nd Day Air and $35 for Next Day Air, on top of regular SU shipping) but if you need it, you need it! Warning: 2nd Day Air CAN be addicting for large orders! (What’s another $20 if I’ll get it in two days?!) You have to place your order by 11:00 am MT (that’s noon Central Time) for it to go out that day.
You might be surprised to hear I have not completely finished my holiday decorating, but finally yesterday I came across my Shiny Brite box of ornaments. While I can’t vouch that they are all Shiny Brite ornaments, I do know they are “vintage” (which means from my childhood!).
The other day I came across an article about Shiny Brite ornaments and their history that I found quite interesting. I was pretty sure that I had an old box that said Shiny Brite. I even see a written “10 cents” on the side of the box! I know these ornaments hung on our family’s Christmas tree every year. Now I put them all in a glass bowl as a decoration rather than hanging them on a tree.
The ornaments are even in a vintage crystal bowl! Maybe I should add some greenery too. Besides my big tree in the family room, full of ornaments, I have my dad’s small tree that he started putting up when it was too much work to put up his big tree, but I have certain small ornaments on it and these are a little large. So I think a bowl, where they won’t fall off a tree limb, is maybe a safer place and makes a nice table decoration.
Here’s the box. Like I said, I can’t say for sure all these ornaments came in this box, but some ornaments must have!
If you are interested in these old ornaments and perhaps have some yourself, please read this article I came across on Facebook. (I don’t know how to embed part of the article like I used to know how to do so I’m just putting this link!)
This Wrapped in Plaid Gatefold Christmas Card is fairly easy to make especially if you just copy my design! Gatefold cards are easy enough and yet look impressive to the recipient, especially knowing that you made it! It is still the size of a regular card and you can decorate the card base any way you like.
The card base is 8 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ as per usual. Instead of scoring and folding in half, score from each end to fold over the center of the card. Score at 2 1/8″ from each end of the Cherry Cobbler Cardstock. Crease and fold with the two ends meeting in the center.
For the inside of the card, cut a piece of Whisper White and stamp whatever greetings you like. I added a tree from the Perfectly Plaid Stamp Set. You could also stamp right on the inside of the Cherry Cobbler Cardstock, but since it is a little dark, you might prefer the Whisper White layer for your personal greeting and signature.
For the belly band cut a strip of Shaded Spruce 11″ x 1 1/4″ or whatever width you would like. Fold around the card, crease the folds, cut off the excess length and have the overlapping ends meet at the front center of the card. You might think you would want the belly band to meet at the back, but if it meets at the front, the tree piece that you add will cover up the ends. I added a piece of Gold Shimmer Ribbon around the belly band and held in place with Mini Glue Dots.
You can add whatever you like for the center of the belly band. I used the Pine Tree Punch to punch a tree out of a piece of Whisper White and then die cut this piece with the Layering Circles Die. Behind that, I die cut a slightly smaller piece of Wrapped in Plaid DSP that I wanted to show through and adhered to the back of the punched tree. This was layered on a Cherry Cobbler die-cut circle, which is then layered on a die-cut scalloped circle of Gold Foil.
As I was looking in my drawer for embellishments, I came up this clip-on star that had been on the Clearance Rack. Perhaps you already own these clip shapes. If not, just punch out a gold star from whatever you have. And for a little extra bling, besides the gold accents in the Wrapped in Plaid DSP, I adhered a few Gold Glitter Enamel Dots. These dots, along with the Gold Shimmer Ribbon are items that are in the Christmastime Is Here Suite.
Remember! Today is FREE SHIPPING with a $50 order at Stampin’ Up!
You may have seen these on my Facebook page last week when my website wasn’t working, but I thought I would go ahead and post these Snowman Season Tic Tac Holder Stocking Stuffers here on my blog so more people will see them. They are easy and fun to make and lots of us want some stocking stuffer or little extra gift ideas for people for Christmas.
I had fun making these Tic Tac holders with the Snowman Season stamp set and Let It Snow designer paper! Just punch a hole in his belly so you can see the Tic Tacs! Or don’t. I used the 3/4″ Circle Punch (retired) since the 1″ was a little too large for these snowmen. But if you are making another design and can use a 1″ Circle Punch, it’s good to show a bigger area of the mints inside!
The first Snowman Season Tic Tac Holder is a strip of 2″ x 9″ cardstock, scored at 1″, 1 5/16″, and 4 3/16. Then turn and score from the other end with the same measurements. Punch each end with the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch or whatever you like. Or leave it squared off. Kind of pinch the top together along the score lines and then decorate. You have to punch the snowman (this one punched from the DSP with the Snowman Punch), then through the DSP, then through the cardstock if you want the Tic Tacs to show. Tie at the top. I used some retired Real Red ribbon.
This snowman is cut out from the Let It Snow Specialty Designer Series Paper. (It is no longer available but I know lots of you have it) Then I stamped, colored and punched out his hat and punched out his arms with the Snowman Punch.
The second one is kind of like a book just folded around the container. Cut cardstock at 3 1/4″ x 4 7/8″ Score at 2 1/8″ x 2 3/4″, round the corners if desired. Cut a piece of designer paper 3 1/8″ x 1 7/8″ to layer. Stamp and punch snowman. Use a 3/4″ Circle Punch for the belly. Be sure to wrap the ribbon around before adding layers to the front.
Have fun! Great stocking stuffer! There are different sizes of Tic Tac products so just modify your design to fit. This idea has been around a long time and is always fun to make!
It’s time to make some gift card holders that you can use at Christmastime for those people that you plan to give a gift card to and for those for whom you buy last-minute gift cards to finish off your shopping! It’s a great way to make the gift card itself something extra-special with your cardmaking touch!
There are all sorts of gift card holders you can make. Basically, you just need a card with a little pocket inside! This one I made is pretty easy. It has a belly band to hold it closed and inside is a pocket to hold the gift card and also a place for a greeting and/or a personal message. You can put it right under the treat or mail it in an envelope.
To begin, start with a piece of cardstock 7 1/2″ x 6″. On the 7 1/2″ side, score the paper at 2 1/4″ and 5 1/4″. Turn and score the 6″ side at 1″ and 5″. Then cut away both 1″ sides down to the last score line as you see in the diagram below. You can cut those bottom tabs at an angle just to fold them in easier. That bottom portion folds up to make the pocket to hold the gift card and then the top folds down. Easy peasy!
To decorate the holder, cut the Toile Tidings Designer Paper or whatever you want to use. Cut two pieces at 3 7/8″ x 2 1/8″ and one piece at 3 7/8″ x 2 7/8″. One piece goes on the inside pocket. Adhere and then use some circle punch partially inserted into the pocket to punch out a half-circle at the top, if you wish, just to make it easier to grab the gift card. You can also cut out a plain piece of cardstock on which to stamp a greeting or write a personal message for inside the top of the gift card holder as you see in my sample.
To make the belly band, if you want one, cut cardtock 7″ x 1″ and designer paper 7″ x 3/4″. Stamp a greeting, punch out, and layer however you like. I used the Itty Bitty Christmas Stamp Set. It’s so handy!
And here’s an example of the same pattern using the Garden Green designer paper, perhaps better for a man than the red and a little plainer.
Remember, tomorrow, December 11th is FREE SHIPPING for orders $50 or more!! It’s one day only.
Don’t start inputting your order until Dec. 11 or it might not take the free shipping. Just get your list ready today! You can use it on regular orders, Year-End Closeout, Clearance Rack, Paper Pumpkin Prepaid Subscriptions! What fun!
Today is the last day to sign up for Paper Pumpkin and get the December Kit!
Stampin’ Up! surprised us this morning with the news that they will offer FREE SHIPPING on Wednesday, December 11th! Isn’t that something we all dream about when we are placing our orders?!
This special offer is ONE DAY ONLY! The good thing is you have time to think about your order until Wednesday and then be sure to get it in!
Details:
Orders, before tax, must be $50 or more in order to receive free shipping.
December 11, 2019 12:01 am (MT)–11:59 pm (MT)
If you are using a coupon code, please remember that the order amount must still meet the qualifying threshold (above) to be eligible for free shipping.
With the exception of month-to-month Paper Pumpkin subscriptions, all Stampin’ Up! products qualify for the promotion, including year-end closeout.
Free shipping only applies during the 24-hour period the promotion is live in each market; this means that the order must be opened and closed on December 11, 2019. (This means do not start your order before the appointed time or the computer might not take the free shipping.)
Prepaid Paper Pumpkin subscriptions are eligible for FREE shipping under the same rules as all other Stampin’ Up! items during the promotion. (Even if you have a month-to-month subscription, you can, at any time, purchase a prepaid subscription in the Online Store which counts toward hostess rewards, if you are going to reach that level ($150 or more). Your month-to-month subscription will resume as soon as the prepaid subscription is used up.)
Month-to-month Paper Pumpkin subscriptions are NOT eligible for free shipping. Subscriptions billed and shipped for December will be charged for the normal amount ($22.00 usd shipping included) + tax. Important note: December Paper Pumpkin billing and shipment will be delayed until December 16 due to increased workload in the distribution center.
I think my blog FINALLY got fixed yesterday with one person fixing one thing and miraculously it was back! At least a test worked yesterday, we’ll see if this post publishes as soon as I push the button! So if you wondered where I was, my website was down! Hopefully, everything is back to normal today! Just in time for FREE SHIPPING from Stampin’ Up!
