The joys of Paper Pumpkin!

If you've been on Stampin'Up!'s web site or even watched my posts off and on, I do refer to My Paper Pumpkin a little. It is a monthly subscription kit that comes to your house with all you need for about 30-45 minutes of creative goodness, in a red surprise package!  You won't know what you're getting ahead of time and I have to say, opening it up is at least half the fun!  It will be some project, often cards, but could be decor, gift giving or party related paper craft projects. It's FUN!  You will also build a collection of stamps and inks as you go that you can use again and again!

Are you curious what you can do with some Paper Pumpkin supplies that have been laying around?  Take a look!

Paper Pumpkin is on special from now through September 10th!  It's half price for the first two months!.

You must be a first time subscriber for this offer and I am sure you won't regret it!  The normal cost is $19.95 per month (includes shipping) and you can cancel or pause your subscription at any time, no strings attached!  All the details are at this link:

https://mypaperpumpkin.com?demoid=2094978

DON'T FORGET TO USE THE PROMO CODE "HALFOFF" TO GET YOUR SAVINGS!

Any questions, be sure to contact me!
Sarah

how about some more?!

Man, it is freezing cold here today!  We had quite the storms yesterday that left lots of rain and hail in town and snow on the mountains. I am giving my goose down vest a try this morning before I turn on the heat, which is tempting!!  I just looked at the forecast and it will be 90 again on Friday. This, folks, is Montana!!

Have you ever had a week that you were kinda dreading because of all the commitments and things you had scheduled, then your load unexpectedly lightened just a tad?  I'm having one of those and was able to get down in my room yesterday for some fun. My goal was to finish up some cards from left over "kit" pieces. I'll post those soon so you can see what I did with what I had. Meanwhile, here are a few more samples from the 2015 Stampin'Up! convention I just went to.

I know the picture quality isn't the best, but hopefully you can see some of the details in these cards. They were posted on a wall and it was "combat" photography with me and several thousand other demonstrators ~~ haha!

By the way, I've set the dates for my August monthly card class!  It will be Thursday, 8/6 at 6:30 p.m. and Friday, 8/7 at 9:00 a.m.  Contact me if you are interested in this very fun hobby of papercrafting!

Have a great day today!
Sarah

some more sample card fun!

Quick post for today... more pictures of cards that I liked at convention!  Hope they inspire you. Contact me if you have any questions of how to make these or other cards. All supplies can be found at Stampin'Up! with few exceptions!

More great ideas coming tomorrow!!!

Sarah

Tons of fun and inspiration from Convention 2015!!

I got back last night and just uploaded my pictures to start reliving all the wonderful memories I had at convention!  There were lots of laughs, oohs and aahs, food, fun and friends. It was a wonderful getaway and I'm stoked to hit the ink and paper today if possible!  I want to share some of the fun with you!  Here are some pics from convention and some sample cards that caught my eye! (Just to be clear, these are not cards I have made, just ones on display from demonstrators across North America!)

Aren't they great!  I'm always amazed at the creativity of so many people with the same stamp sets that I have!  I will show you some more tomorrow!
Happy Stampin'!
Sarah

Yippee! Convention time!

Guess where I am headed tomorrow??


If I can find some cheap/free Wi-Fi, I will post from convention with all the latest!  I'm looking forward to getting a copy of the Holiday Catalog, as well as stamping demonstrations, displays, classes, prizes and fun!

On the road again...
Sarah

A Little Thanks

I love big background stamps and am always looking for new ways to use them. The new dahlia background stamp is fun and BIG!  I decided to stamp it on my base layer, using Blushing Bride ink on Blushing Bride paper.  I then cut it in the middle vertically, after it was stamped.   I adhered each piece to my card , a gate fold card design (5.5 x 8.5 piece of paper, scored at 2.75 on each side to make the gate folds).  I added a sentiment piece, button and baker's twine to complete the look!

Note, the sentiment is only glued on the left gate of the card so it is still able to be opened!

My plan today is to get a bunch of cards ready to the assembly stage (all stamping, cutting and embossing) and then hopefully take a bunch of cards to assemble in the camper this weekend, in case it rains!  We'll be outside alot if the weather cooperates, but never hurts to have a backup plan!  My husband loves to study maps and so I like to have something to do in addition to reading and eating ;)

There are some great weekly deals lately. Check them out in the store and in order to get them before they are gone, order online!

Happy Hump Day!
Sarah

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Pretty Petals thank you

You've probably realized by now that I love paper... It's exactly like the addiction I have with fabric when I'm quilting, so I've very comfortable with the notion!! I know with my head that it is possible to have too much, but my heart loves to splurge some more anyway. I love the 6 x 6 paper packs Stampin'Up has this time in the catalog.... more paper, more designs, less expensive!  I've made several projects already, but this one stands out because of the contrast with the black and coral colors with just a hint of olive green. What do you think?

The layout isn't anything out of the ordinary, but the colors are awesome. Personally, I can always find something to go with a great coral color. I wear it and craft with it often!

Hope your week is off to a good start.  My card supply is quite low so I've been making alot of cards to restock in the stores I sell in. The locations are listed to the right and if you frequent these fine establishments, check out my cards!

Happy Monday!
Sarah

and anniversary!

While weddings are deserving of all sorts of celebration, anticipation and excitement, anniversaries are where the rubber meets the road, so to speak!  It's always wonderful to congratulate a couple on another year together, even in the midst of wonderful or tough life circumstances. I love celebrating anniversaries!  Here's my card, inspired by the great new stamp set "Timeless Love".

This is a very nontraditional color scheme and background paper for an anniversary card, paired with a very traditional theme of flowers.  It was fun to play with and design. I stamped the flower arch twice to make a circle . The flowers are colored using blender pens and several different inks, bringing out the tones of the background paper. I used Stazon ink so the colors/black ink wouldn't bleed. I also used Stazon to stamp on the velum overlay and attacked it with brads. This was a super fun card to make and it inched me out of my box a little bit as well!

Have a great weekend!
Sarah

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Wedding Season!

We are right smack dab in the middle of wedding season and we've got our share of invitations! Even though we can't attend them all, I will be sending cards so I needed some more wedding cards in my stash.   I returned to the Bohemian stack of paper and color scheme to inspire me again:

This is a bold new stamp which leaves no doubt of your hearty congratulations to the happy couple! There were several colors in the background paper that I could have chosen to draw out, but I went with Blackberry Bliss and Island Indigo, the two darkest tones. It's also my first use of my new Label framelits.  These will be used alot!
 I love how it turned out!

Thanks for taking a look at what I've been up to!
Happy Stampin' !!
Sarah

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Interconnected stars!

I've had this idea in my head forever... another card I made in a dream!  I wanted to do a gate fold card with intermingled stars. I may have seen one sometime or somewhere on Pinterest, so I can't claim it's a completely original idea, but the card is my creation ;)

Since we are still so close to the 4th, the stars and color scheme seemed obvious to me!  Here it is:

As you can see, the stars interconnect when the card is closed and un-connect when the card is open. Here's the inside:

 This was a fun card to make, a little tricky with the gluing the stars on, but I really liked it. In fact, this is one of the cards for my card class this week. Come and join us if you are interested in making a card like this. By the way, you could substitute any framelits and not use the stars.  See my calendar for class info! Did you notice a slipped in a little piece of red paper that was embossed with our new brick wall folder?  I'm going to be using that alot! For these supplies or any others, it's easy to order online and for the remainder of this week, my hostess code for ordering is 2P37U2PT.

Hope to see you soon!
Sarah

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Happy Birthday America and Jenny Cade!

I LOVE the 4th of July!  I always have. I love the colors, the fireworks, the summer, the swimming, the burgers and everything associated with this wonderful celebration of our nation's birth and what that stands for, FREEDOM!  I have some great childhood memories of really fun 4th celebrations but the we really upped our game in 1987 when I had a baby girl, about 10:30 at night, while the fireworks were exploding!  We've been celebrating ever since and this year will be no exception. Here's the card I made to celebrate this great day:

Stampin' Up has some fun new paper that is pre-embossed with a glossy white design ( and the new In-Colors) and by using a sponge dauber, you can add color to the non-embossed areas of the paper, as I did here with some red ink on a stripe pattern background. We also have a new star punch!  I heat embossed my greeting on vellum paper and attached with some Washi tape. Fun and easy to make card!

Have a great 4th!
Sarah

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog