My Paper Pumpkin - Craft Carnivore

Label Me Pretty

Posted on June 25, 2017September 25, 2020 by Craft Carnivore

Today I’m featuring the last installment of my Paper Pumpkin series with the June kit, One in a Melon. This time I decided to play around with the little pre-printed note card that comes in the kit.

Here’s what the original looked like:

And here’s my alternate design idea:

When you’re in a funk about finding a new design, just turn everything sideways! You’ll gain a new perspective and hopefully some new ideas of how to carry on!

I decided to use a different stamp set with this card, Label Me Pretty. It has a matching punch, making it super easy to align and get a nice, crisp outline of the image.

But other than the stamp and punch (and a bit of bling), everything else came right from the kit.

the watercolor banner I placed sideways
the leaves are the laser cut stickers that come with the kit
the Melon Mambo twine is also from the kit

You know I’m crazy for anything that sparkles, so I jazzed up the card with some of the Glitter Enamel Dots:

Now get outta here and go do something creative today. I command you!

Pear Pizzazz

Posted on June 24, 2017September 25, 2020 by Craft Carnivore

Somehow I didn’t think that the word pizzazz had two Zs in it! Who knew? But I have to admit that I’m really liking the shimmer ribbon in the new catalog, and in this case, in the Pear Pizzazz color.

This is another of my alternate uses for the My Paper Pumpkin kit, One in a Melon. Here I’ve used the tissue paper (that you would normally put in the gift bag) as the front piece for my project. Love those little watermelon seeds! Yummy!

I’m amazed the bow came out so pretty here! Usually I struggle with ribbon, and fuss with it endlessly, but somehow it just all came together!

I also have gotten a lot of use out of the Metallic Sequin assortment. The container you get is filled with sequins and three different shapes and five different colors:

Hearts, Stars, and regular sequin shape
Gold, White, Clear, Silver, and Black

(Unfortunately, when I just went to look up the item number for you, I discovered that those sequins have been discontinued! I do apologize for going on and on about them, but at least I used something from my stash? That has to count for something, haha)!

All in all a successful venture, I think. I again used different pieces of the kit and tried to kick it up a notch. That explains the watermelon rind in black, the angled square watercolor paper, and the word “Sweet.”

I think you’ll find lots of different ways to use leftover supplies from the My Paper Pumpkin kits, in easy and unique ways.

How about you take off and do something creative today? Your brain will thank you!

One in Two Melons

Posted on June 23, 2017September 25, 2020 by Craft Carnivore

Sounds like the beginning of a joke, doesn’t it! That’s just my clever way of saying “here is another post featuring the One in a Melon kit from Stampin’ Up!”

My Paper Pumpkin June Alternatives

I guess it would be redundant to say my My Paper Pumpkin. Hmm. At any rate, today’s card is a mash-up of one of the first projects I shared with you.

I began by taking the tag off the bag, and the little clothespin, and then I made a card from the pieces parts.

Disassembled the gift bag and cut down a piece to use as a card front (3 ⅞” x 4 ⅜”)
Cut a piece of Basic Black cardstock ½” x 3 ⅞” and adhere to the card just under the bag piece
Cut a piece of the tissue paper into a banner and glued that down on to the cut bag piece
Take the tag from the gift bag and adhere it to the front of the card, at a slight angle, and overlapping the tissue paper banner
Using Tombow mono adhesive attach the little clothespin to the tag, laying it flat
If desired, use a white gel pen to make little polka dots on the small piece of Basic Black

Again, really easy, quick, and makes a nice impression. See it here:

Adorbs, right! I just love the color combos on this card: Melon Mambo, Emerald Envy, Daffodil Delight, Lemon Lime Twist, Basic Black; it all just feels so summery!

I know that it’s hard to send cards in the mail when they have bumps and protuberances, which is why I chose to turn the clothespin to lie flat. Did you know that the Post Office has a special stamp just for cards that are square or have the goose bumps? The stamp is a blue butterfly; I think the cost is 71 cents. Ask for the “non-machinable” stamp. They’ll know what you’re talking about.

Tomorrow I’ll have another quick card for you. It’s so easy to use up the leftover parts of the My Paper Pumpkin kit!

Now head out there and do something creative today!

Fun with Folds, a Criss Cross Card

Posted on June 27, 2016September 25, 2020 by Craft Carnivore

Criss Cross, it’s a pocket card!

Recently I was ~~totally wasting time~~ browsing on Pinterest the other day and was reminded that are some fun folds out there for card making. And I came across (see what I did there?) a criss cross card. And because I was ~~super lazy~~ super smart I grabbed one of the previous My Paper Pumpkin kits to use, Pocketful of Cheer. I really love the colors in this kit, especially since it showcases one of the new In Colors, Emerald Envy. Up first, a little collage (because I was playing around on PicMonkey):

Let’s look at these a little closer, okay? Here is the “pocket” part of the criss cross card:

I love the Emerald Envy – what a great color!

The base of the card is made from two of the card bases in the Pocketful of Cheer kit, and the striped strip of paper on the bottom also comes from the kit.
I heat embossed the big flower from Rose Wonder using white embossing powder.
I “watercolored” the rose with my aqua painter, and I used Flirty Flamingo ink for the blossom and Emerald Envy for the leaves.
I fussy cut the rose and attached it to the front of the criss cross card.
For a bit of pizzazz I used the Emerald Envy Enamel Dots.

I made the insert using more pieces from the kit and some Emerald Envy card stock:

And I just realized while looking at this that I have the patterned paper square going in the wrong direction. Oh well, now it’s even more unique, right? Before you ask, let me point out some things I used that are not from the Pocketful of Cheer kit:

the balloon stamp
the happy birthday stamp
I made the bow with a piece of Emerald Envy card stock and the Bow Builder Punch.

The stamps are both from a different My Paper Pumpkin kit. I did, however, use one of the envelopes in the kit, and made a few adjustments so everything would fit.

Hooray! The flowers are pointing in the right direction! Success!

So there you have it: my first Criss Cross card. Until next time!

Father’s Day Recap: what I didn’t get to post

Posted on June 24, 2016September 25, 2020 by Craft Carnivore

Father’s Day 2016 …

… it came and went so quickly! I didn’t have a chance to show you the cards I made!

The first card was for my son-in-law, who is a first-time dad this year, and the other was for my husband, who has been a dad for a whole lot longer. 😉 Father’s Day weekend was also alumni weekend at Hiram College in Ohio, so hubby and I trekked over there and took care of our little grandson for the night while his parents reunited with their college friends to celebrate their ten-year reunion.

Here’s the card I made for my son-in-law:

I love easy … like Oprah loves bread.

I am so glad I had the My Paper Pumpkin kit on hand. It gave me a chance to create a very unique card.

First, the card base. This is one of the two bases that came with the kit.
Next, I cut a piece of Floral Boutique Designer Series Paper to attach behind the card front. You could substitute ANY patterned paper behind the card front, by the way.
Then I stamped the greeting from the Guy Greetings stamp set (in the new In Color, Dapper Denim).
And finally, for a bit of jazz, I used a few of the stars from the In Colors 2016-18 Enamel Dots.

This card was pretty simple, it required very few products, but it packs a big punch.

This is the card I made for my hubby. I had made the card front previously, but I went back and stamped a greeting on the inside. This card features a tiny bit of double time stamping, as well.

Father's Day Collage using Guy Greetings from Stampin' Up!

Hope your Dad/Hubby/Uncle/Grandpa/Brother/Son (you get the point) had a great day!

My Paper Pumpkin April 2015 Variations

Posted on April 30, 2015September 25, 2020 by Craft Carnivore

I love getting My Paper Pumpkin delivered to my door every month, even as a seasoned stamper and scrapper. Sometimes the kits spark new ideas and sometimes the stamps have just the “sentiment” that I needed to round out my (ever-growing) collection of rubber and photopolymer.

So today I’m going to show you a couple of variations I came up with for this month’s My Paper Pumpkin, which comes with some unique kraft paper envelopes and Pacific Point and Crushed Curry ink spots. Here is my take on the card as it is presented in the directions that come in each and every box:

Cute, right? And everything you need is included: the cardstock, envelopes, pre-cut bows, twine, adhesives, and ink. But I got to thinking that maybe these could be dressed up a bit, quickly. And simply. Obviously you could go whole hog with these and bling them out to the max, but I wanted to do something that wouldn’t take a lot of time but would spruce up the “ingredients.”

For this variation I used a sheet from the Painted Blooms Designer Series Paper. I kept the Crushed Curry bow, I used the ink spots included, the card base in Crushed Curry, the cut card stock in white, and the photopolymer stamps also included in the kit:

Here’s a look at the inside of the card – I love the sentiment that includes the parentheses!

Finally, I thought, hey, there’s a string on these puppies, why not use them as a tag for a gift or an ornament for the holiday tree? I grabbed some snippets of retired DSP and a retired sentiment from a couple of years ago. I used the bow from the kit but turned it inside out so the white showed. I also took one of the cards and cut it in half and covered the Pacific Point pattern with another piece of the holiday paper. Instead of the twine I used the Soft Sky Thick Baker’s Twine. Here’s how it turned out:

So there you have it – you don’t have to stick with the status quo if you don’t want to, and you can do anything you put your mind (and imagination) to! Once again, here they are all together:

To sign up for My Paper Pumpkin, just click here. You can sign up month by month, sign up for three months, or get a discount if you sign up for either six or twelve months of delivery.

Here’s a quick video that Stampin’ Up! created to demonstrate this month’s My Paper Pumpkin:

Happy Spring

Posted on March 11, 2015September 25, 2020 by Craft Carnivore

I am so ready for the sun to shine and the snow to melt. It seems like it’s been a long winter (is it just me, or did January and February have extra days in them?) and I’m ready to see robins and crocuses. (Croci)? In fact, just the sight of squishy brown mud has me swooning these days! Yes, I might have a bit of cabin fever. Or cabin flu. Whatever.

All this extra time (those extra days someone threw into January and February) has provided me with an opportunity to spend some time playing with scissors and other assorted sharp objects. And some paper. So here is my celebration of Spring, complete with pastel colors and butterflies:

For this card I grabbed a cup of water, a paint brush, and three of my favorite Stampin’ Up! colors, Pistachio Pudding, Daffodil Delight, and Coastal Cabana, and just used the ink pad cover as my paint palette and did some faux water coloring on watercolor paper. I pulled the “happy” from a My Paper Pumpkin kit, and cut the “spring” with the Stampin’ Up! Little Letters thinlits and Strawberry Slush card stock.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go put my galoshes on and then make some mud pies! Thanks for joining me today. Now go do something creative! Yes, mud pies count!

My Paper Pumpkin June 2014: the Kit Deconstructed

Posted on July 5, 2014September 25, 2020 by Craft Carnivore

Let’s turn pinwheels and treat bags from the My Paper Pumpkin June 2014 kit into a scrapbook layout!

When I opened up the My Paper Pumpkin June 2014 box I was a little anxious about what I was going to do with the contents.

I don’t hold parties for the Fourth of July, I don’t attend any, and really, I don’t do much of anything at all on that day. When my kids were younger (and when they still lived at home) we used to meet at a friend’s house to sit on her lawn and watch the fireworks that were set off at the high school just across from her yard.

So what to do? I’m not very good at coming up with my own ideas of how to do things, but I figured that it would be more of a challenge for myself to create a layout instead of just making another card. So here’s what I came up with:

I literally tried to use every single thing that came in that box! I flattened the straws and cut up one of the cellophane treat bags to use as my base. I used the photopolymer stars stamp with the Night of Navy ink on the white banners, and attached one of the paper clips from the kit onto each one.

I punched three holes in the bottom right corner of the page to add three of the big, bright silver brads (p.s., I am not really sure why the blue looks so light in this picture, but just go with it. It really is the same Night of Navy as the others!).

And instead of using the pattern paper that had been pre-cut and pre-punched for large pinwheels, I used my square punch and punched out smaller scraps to make my own pinwheels.

I chose my neighbor Russ as the subject of my layout – he used to live next door, but he had to go into assisted living a few years ago cause he just couldn’t do the stairs in his house anymore. Plus he lived alone; my husband and I were the ones that found him in bad shape both times he went to the hospital in an ambulance. Not a pleasant experience, I assure you. But Russ still hangs in there – he’ll be ninety-three on July 17, the same day as my youngest. He still loves to watch Mash and Wheel of Fortune, and he still reads the paper every day. I really miss having him next door. He was the best neighbor ever!

How did you use the My Paper Pumpkin June 2014 goodie box? Wait…

What do you mean, you don’t subscribe!!

Well, you better check it out then – I mean, you don’t have to be an expert at crafts to do this – because everything that comes in each monthly box is pre-cut and ready for you to assemble. And each kit is different, and each one is exclusive. You can’t buy this stuff anywhere else! So check it out. You can try it for just a month, and cancel at any time, or you can save a little dough and buy a prepaid subscription. Or you can even give a subscription as a gift! Join Now!