Wickedly Sweet Paper Pumpkin Projects -- Part 1

Last Friday was Paper Pumpkin Power Hour for some of my stamping friends and me, and I decided to work on the September kit.  Here's a photo of my treat bags in process:

My friend Lea was super-productive and managed to finish both her September 2015 kit and the kit from last September:

Here are my finished treat bags and tags:

And here are close ups of them:

I really love the stamps that came in this kit!  I have some cute note cards I created with them and some leftover tags from the kit to show you tomorrow!

If you aren't already a Paper Pumpkin subscriber and would like to learn more or sign up, be sure to click here to go to my Paper Pumpkin website.  (And, to show support for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the October boxes are going PINK!  Plus, Stampin' Up! will donate $1 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for every active Paper Pumpkin subscriber and an additional $1 for every new subscriber.  So, it's a great time to join the fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle

Thankful with Lighthearted Leaves

Hi everyone!  Happy Tuesday!  Since it's Tuesday, that means new Weekly Deals are up (you can see them in my store by clicking here.  

World Cardmaking Day is coming up this weekend, and I am very excited about the special class I have planned for that.  Here is one of the cards we will be making:

The Lighthearted Leaves set is really one of my favorites right now -- so many fun ways to make cards with it!  The card above features a special kind of emboss resist.  Can't wait to show everyone how to do it on Saturday!  You may also spot the Woodland Textured Impressions embossing folder in the background, and on top of the Gold Satin Ribbon, one of my favorite new embellishments from the Holiday Catalog, an Iced Rhinestone Embellishment (with the center colored to match the card a bit better).  The "thankful" greeting is from the Six Sayings host set (available exclusively when you host a Stampin' Up! party -- ask me how you can get this set!)

While I was designing the card above, I had fun experimenting with emboss resist techniques and colors, and here is one of my favorite pieces that came out of that experimenting:

I plan to finish it into a card, and will be sure to share that here when it is done.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

- Michelle

Weekly Deals!

Hi Everyone!  Here are this week's weekly deals (in case the showcase isn't displaying, please click the link on weekly deals to go directly to the Weekly Deals section of my online store):

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Great stuff this week!  I'm especially tempted by the Remarkable You Stamp set.  I received some gorgeous samples made with that when I swapped at Inspire.Create.Share (Stampin' Up!'s Convention) this summer.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Loved receiving these!  (Apologies, only had stamper information connected to one of these cards, if you created one of the others, would love to give you credit . . . please let me know!)

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!

- Michelle

SUper Friends Holiday Catalog New Product Stampin' Time

Hi Everyone!  Hope you had a wonderful weekend!  Fall is only a couple days away, and you know what that means . . . pumpkin spice flavored food and drinks popping up everywhere!  ha ha :)  Seriously, I do love this time of year . . . the leaves turning colors, cooler temps (hopefully soon . . . and maybe even some rain!), and lots of fun celebrations.  Speaking of which, my SUper Friends group got together just a little more than a week ago to have a sort of celebration of the new Holiday Catalog.  We each picked a new stamp set or sample from the catalog to inspire us, and set to work creating.  Here are the projects that emerged from our frantic and fun time of creating together:

And, here's a candid shot of the group at work:

Lots of fun to get together and play with new stamps, papers, and more!  Love having crafty time with my SUper Friends!!  How about you?

Thanks for visiting!

- Michelle

Paper Pumpkin Thanks Yous

There was a beautiful red box in my mailbox yesterday -- this month's kit Paper Pumpkin kit magically appeared!  I won't spoil what was in it because I know some people may still be waiting for theirs.  However, I did want to share both a great special coming up for next month, and some cards I created last month for my Paper Pumpkin customers.  First, for the cards, I used the Promoting Paper Pumpkin stamp set, which demonstrators were able to purchase at Convention, and CASED a sample we were shown there.  (I did add a bit of sparkle and some flowers to dress up the cards a bit).

And, it was fun to be able to dress up the back Paper Pumpkin style as well:

As for the special, Stampin' Up! has announced that next month's kits will help support the Breast Cancer Research Foundation:

To show support for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we're going PINK . . . or at least our October boxes are! And because we know our subscribers want to share the love too, we will be making a donation on their behalf to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF).

Stampin' Up! will donate

• $1 for every active Paper Pumpkin subscriber.
• Plus, an additional $1 for every new subscriber.

Together, we will make a difference!

More About BCRF

The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) advances the world's most promising research to eradicate breast cancer. Founded by Evelyn H. Lauder in 1993, BCRF has raised more than $550 million to fuel discoveries in tumor biology, genetics, prevention, treatment, survivorship and metastasis, making it one of the largest non-governmental funders of breast cancer research in the world. This year BCRF has invested $58.6 million in research, to support over 235 researchers at leading medical institutions across six continents, including $11.6 million to the international Evelyn H. Lauder Founder's Fund focused on metastasis. By spending 91 cents of every dollar on research and public awareness programs, BCRF remains one of the nation's most fiscally responsible nonprofits. BCRF is the only breast cancer organization with an "A+" from CharityWatch, and has been awarded Charity Navigator's highest rating of four stars 13 times since 2002. For more information, please visit: www.bcrfcure.org.

Additional Details: 

• New subscribers are those who signed up between September 11 and October 10, 2015 and have not been a Paper Pumpkin subscriber at any time in the past. 
• All funds will be donated in US dollars.
• Mini spoiler alert! The October project inside the pink box is just as awesome as always, but we should probably let you know that it is not a pink project. That's all we're saying. ;)
• Funds will be donated based on number of subscribers instead of boxes shipped. But, if you want more than one pink box, you can always increase your subscription quantity by logging into your account at PaperPumpkin.com before October 10.

So, how can you subscribe if you aren't already?  If you'd like to learn more or sign up, be sure to click here to go to my Paper Pumpkin website.

Thanks for visiting!

- Michelle

Weekly Deals and Mini Treat Bag Framelit Alternate Ideas

Hi Everyone!  Here are this week's great weekly deals:

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I love both of the framelits that are on this week's deals!  I've shared some alternate ideas for creating different sizes of treat bags with the Mini Treat Bag Framelits before, and thought this would be a good time to share those with you again!

Here's the link to a post where I shared how to make the following box with handle and mini treat bag:  http://michvanstamps.blogspot.com/2015/04/mini-treat-bag-thinlits-alternate.html

And, here's another idea -- putting two treat bags together to form an extra large bag like this one:

Here's the link to the post where this idea first appeared:  http://michvanstamps.blogspot.com/2015/08/convention-gifts-double-treat-bag-and.html  and yes, I still plan to make a video on how to create one of these!  :)  Need to get going on that!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle

Lighthearted Leaves Cards

There's been a whole lotta stampin' going on for me the past few days!  First, a private workshop on Thursday with some terrific ladies, then my always-amazing SUper Friends got together on Friday for a Holiday Catalog Product Play Date, which turned out to be some crazy cardmaking fun!  (It was fun to see everyone trying new techniques and ideas as well as new products, and we all worked together at the end to make sure we finished everything up!  Thanks to Mercedes Weber for sharing her great idea for doing that at Convention!)   And, finally, Sunday was the Holiday Catalog Open House and Crafters' Flea Market.  Whew!

Anyway, I thought today I'd share with you my samples for a make and take I did at both the workshop and the Open House.  Here goes:

I created a mask using the Leaflets Framelits dies, and sponged Crushed Curry, Tangelo Twist, and a hint of Blackberry Bliss through that.  Then, I stamped the leaf image before removing the mask.  On the top card, I added some background images using Gorgeous Grunge and a smaller leaf image in Crushed Curry (with a little Tangelo Twist sponged into the leaves).  Greetings for both cards are stamped in Blackberry Bliss.  The bottom card is "stepped up" with one of the Very Vintage buttons (sponged with a bit of Blackberry Bliss around the edges -- turns out the Blackberry Bliss ink is dark enough that it stains the button a bit, even though most of the ink does wipe right off).  There is a bit of Linen Thread tied in a bow through the button.

These cards are created on note cards, and it was fun to stamp up the envelopes to match, too.

Inspiration for these cards came from this beautiful card I received in a swap with Mel's Card Stock Creations at Inspire.Create.Share 2015 (Stampin' Up!'s Convention):

Turns out the Butterfly Thinlets dies are on this week's Weekly Deals (through 9/21/15), so if you haven't gotten yours yet, this is a great time!

Thanks so much for visiting!

- Michelle

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Owl-o-ween Boo! Card

Busy day today (had my SUper Friends group here this morning, have kids home from school now, and need to work on prepping for the Holiday Catalog Open House this weekend!!!), but wanted to write a quick post and share with you a card I created for a recent Wow! Card Swap!  

Here's the card in progress -- lots of fun die cutting, made easier to line up with the Magnetic Platform for the Big Shot, of course!

Some itsy bitsy spiders:

I couldn't find my Basic Black candy dots, so improvised using some Brights and a permanent marker:

Almost done -- don't you like that great starry background from the Happy Haunting Designer Series Paper and the embossed and white-inked trees with the Woodland Textured Impressions Embossing Folder?!

And, here's the finished card:

I used the new Fine Tip Glue Pen to add some gold Stampin' Glitter to the eyes and mouth of the owl's trick or treat pumpkin (is that the right name for those?).  Actually, used the Fine Tip Glue pen a lot on this card to get the detailed die cuts and Spider web doilies in place!

Thanks for visiting!

- Michelle

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Chalk It Up to Loving Paper Pumpkin (part 3)

For the past couple days, I've shown you some of the cards and other projects I've created using the supplies from the August Paper Pumpkin kit, Chalk It Up to Love.  Today, I have another set of 5 cards I created with materials from the kit (plus a few extras).  These are A2 size cards that I made using pieces cut from one of the boxes in the kit.  The card bases are either Basic Black or Pink Pirouette.  I used strips of Very Vanilla card stock on the cards as well.

By the time I created these cards, I'd used up all of the Basic Black tags that came in the kit, but fortunately had quite a few ovals on hand (actually leftover from making these cards earlier this year), which I was able to use.  And, I still had lots of the flowers I'd punched out and some leaves I cut from Gold Foil with the Bird Builder Punch.

I'd also been making cards from the Watercolor Wishes kit right before I created these, and ended up using the stamp set from that kit for the greetings on these.  The doodle embellishments are from the Chalk It Up to Love stamp set that came in the Paper Pumpkin kit.

How do you like the Subtles Candy Dots (Pink Pirouette) in the flower centers for the cards above and below?

(The hearts stamped under the "thanks" are also from the Watercolor Wishes stamp set).

I used a gold pen to doodle the flower centers and some dots on the greeting oval for this card.  Here are some close ups:

For the last card, I really went crazy with the flowers and leaves:

 I also sponged around the oval with the Rose Pink Chalk Ink (from the 2015 Occasions Catalog):

I hope you've enjoyed these projects!!!  Can you believe I was able to make 17 cards, 2 embellished boxes and one flower adorned tag from this kit?! 

- Michelle

P.S.  If you'd like to join in on the Paper Pumpkin fun and create fun and fabulous projects like this, be sure to click here to learn more or sign up (and new subscribers who sign up before September 10, 2015, at 10:50 PM (PT) and use promo code: HALFOFF can get half off their first two months!)  Plus, subscribers can purchase past kits -- you can see what's currently available here (as of the writing of this post, you can still get Chalk It Up kit refills, so if you like these projects, you should hurry over and pick one or more up!)