December Paper Pumpkin Kit

It's a winter wonderland outside.  Finally!  At long last we are getting our first real snow of the season and I love it!

I have been wanting to make my December Paper Pumpkin kit for many weeks, but I have been too busy stamping other stuff! :)  I also didn't jump right on it because I knew I wanted to change the designs on some of the calendar pages so they would have more of a holiday theme and it takes me a LONG time to come up with anything on my own! :)  Well, I finally got to it today, and yes it did take a long time, but I'm happy with the results.  These are my alternative calendar pages.

For the January page I used an old retired stamp set called Snowflakes.  I stamped the images in white ink on crumb cake cardstock and tore some white paper to make it look like snow on the bottom.  I used my glue pen along the ripped part of the snow and added dazzling diamonds glitter.  My white ink on the snowflakes wasn't dry yet, so they ended up getting covered in glitter too!  The rectangle under the calendar is Pool Party.  The baker's twine came in the kit.  The wooden snowflake was in the 2015 Holiday catalog.

Not my design, created by Seongsook Duncan.

The February page uses the Love Blossoms DSP from the 2016 Occasions Catalog.  The larger heart was punched out from that paper stack using the sweetheart punch.  For the small hearts, I used the itty bitty heart punch and the new Blushing Bride glimmer paper.

The July page might be my favorite alternative!  The blue and white striped paper was one of the free Sale-A-Bration items last year.  I used the Stars Framelits Dies to cut out stars from Real Red and Night of Navy cardstock.  I used the Itty Bitty Star Punch to punch out stars from Silver glimmer Paper. The red sequins and star sequins were left-overs from the Shaker card kit in the 2015 Holiday catalog.

Lots of retired stuff on the October page--sorry!  The spiderweb doilies and Happy Haunting designer paper were from the 2015 Holiday Catalog.  The jack-o-lantern stamp is from a retired set called Carved & Candlelit.  The Rich Razzleberry cotton ribbon is available! :)

For the November page, I used crumb cake cardstock and embossed it with the Woodlands Textured Embossing folder (not available now, but returning in the 2016 annual catalog).  The Autumn Wishes stamp and background leaves came from the Among the Branches set which was in the 2015 Holiday catalog along with the gold twine.  The two leaves at the top are from the September paper pumpkin kit.  I used Cajun Craze and Crushed Curry ink.

The December page also features items from the 2015 Holiday catalog--Home for Christmas designer paper, Home for Christmas buttons, and gold twine.  The greetings come from the Holly Jolly Greetings Bundle. 

I followed the designs given in the kit for the other calendar pages. Ha, ha, thank goodness!  Although it was fun to make alternative, it was much easier and faster to go with the kit recommendations!

This was a really fun and satisfying project. It was the first time I haven't just followed the instructions on the kits exactly! :)  I'm going to put this calendar on my piano and look at the lovely stamping while I teach and dream about more stamping.  

If you haven't signed up for Paper Pumpkin yet, you should go do it now! :)

Sale-a-Bration Extravaganza

We had a great time at our Sale-A-Bration Open House last weekend.  It's always fun to stamp with friends!  These are the projects we made, along with additional samples I made with all of my wonderful sale-a-bration sets!  Thank you, Pinterest, and talented artists who share on Pinterest, for the wonderful ideas!

Project 1: Wildflower Card

Featuring: Flowering Fields Stamp Set

Additonal Supplies: Crumb Cake cardstock, Whisper White cardstock, Basic Black Ink pad, Watercolor Wishes kit (for the greeting), Real Red and Old Olive Ink pads (for water coloring), Aqua Painters, Baker's Twine, Washi tape (retired), Stampin' Dimensionals

More Samples with Flowering Fields:

Project 2: Balloon Card

Featuring: Honeycomb Happiness Set

Additional Supplies: Smoky Slate and Whisper White cardstock, Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper, Basic Black and Pool Party ink pads, Stampin' Sponges, Tree Builder Punch (use to punch clouds out of post-it notes, lay them on cardstock and sponge around, peel off to reveal white clouds), Itty Bitty Heart  Punch, Confetti Heart Punch, Honeycomb Embellishments, Regal Rose marker (retired), Glue Dots, Paper Scraps from these DSP stacks: Cherry on Top, Love Blossoms, and retired Valentine dsp from last year

More samples with Honeycomb Happiness

Project 3: Airplane Card

Featuring Sky is the Limit Stamp Set

(available only until February 15)

Additional Supplies: Whisper White, Real Red and/or Pacific Point cardstock, Red or Silver Glimmer Paper, Basic Black ink pad, World Map Embossing Folder, Confetti Heart or Confetti Star Punch, Itty Bitty Star Punch (on card with blue), Baker's Twine, Stampin' Dimensional, Multi-purpose glue, glue dots.

Additional Samples with Sky is the Limit

Project 4: Hello Birthday

Featuring Hello Stamp Set

(Available only until February 15)

Additional Supplies: Whisper White Cardstock, Bermuda Bay or Melon Mambo cardstock, Basic Black ink pad, Stampin' dimensionals, Confetti stars (left-overs from the shaker card kit in the Holiday catalog)

Additional Samples with Hello

That's a wrap on the SAB (sale-a-bration) stamp sets we used at the class.  I also had some samples to show with the Botanicals For You set, the Botanical Garden Vellum, and Wildflower DSP.

After the party was over, I let my little boys make some cards too.  I don't always have the patience for this, but I was feeling generous and they loved it! :)

Happy Stampers!

Sale-A-Bration 2016!

Cel-e-brate good times, come on!  That Lionel Richie song has been running through my head over and over for the past few weeks as I've been gearing up for Stampin' Up's most exciting time of the year--Sale-A-Bration!  Everyone can earn exclusive free products with every $50 they spend between January 5 and March 31.  If you haven't seen the free products yet, check out the catalog HERE.  Demonstrators had the opportunity to earn sale-a-bration items a month early, so I've been spending, earning, and playing with my new stuff!

The first set I played with was the Sky is the Limit set.

I would like to take credit for designing some awesome cards with this set, but I really just copied the creative cards made by my team leaders, Michelle Suit and Robin Merriman.  I am always in need of more masculine cards, so this set is a perfect fit!  I love how these cards turned out.

Thank you, Robin, for the design.

Thank you, Michelle, for the design.

Robin also designed this one, what a cool fold!

I'm having a Sale-A-Bration open house on January 16th from 3-6 where I will have many more samples to show using multiple items from the SAB catalog.  Stop by to look at the products and make some cards.  You can make as few or as many as you want.  Your first card is free, additional cards are $2 each. There will be at least four designs to choose from.  I hope you can come celebrate with me! :)

One last thing, these are the projects we made at our Monthly Make & Take Class in January:

Card and envelope holder

It was so fun to see friends that I haven't seen in a long time.  I love that stamping brings me together with friends, both old and new, and we get to make cool stuff rather than just go to a movie.  It's fabulous!