Paper Pumpkins - They're everywhere!

I have seen these paper pumpkins on SO many blogs in the last few days that I KNOW I'm not the first to come up with the idea of turning paper lanterns into pumpkins, but in case you haven't been cruising the blogs like I do, I thought I'd show my version using the current Stampin' Up Halloween paper. These are so easy to do, and if you don't have enough patterned paper for your strips, don't be afraid to supplement with solid cardstock strips - take advantage of the fact that Stampin' Up designer paper features the EXACT same colors as the solid cardstocks. I did this on the largest pumpkin shown above as well as the pumpkin in the back.


You can also make different sizes of pumpkins, based on the length of your paper strips, but keep in mind, as you increase the length of the strips, you'll need increase the quantity of strips to have enough volume to fill out the circle. And while I like the look of the "solid" pumpkin, I also like the one on the right NOT being solid so that you can see the pretty paper on the INSIDE as well.

It sure is snow-bling today!

For this card, I used a technique described on Nicole Heady's blog as Faux Silk. I won't go into the steps of the card too deeply, but basically, you stamp your main image, crumple a piece of tissue paper and then glue it on over your main image. This gives a really soft, textured look that's pretty cool!



I liked the textured effect, but it was still too flat for me. I got out some of my new taffeta blue ribbon and some of the new rhinestone circle brads from Stampin' Up. Now I was already feeling pretty proud of myself for using up some of the accessories that I've been hoarding, but I didn't want to overwhelm to card either. So instead of using all rhinestone brads, I also glued on some tiny diamond-like glass pieces. I love the color contrast between the blue rhinestones and the white shimmer of the "diamonds" as they're sprinkled over the card. You can click on either of the images to get a closer look at the texture on this card.

The sentiment was stamped with the help of my Stamp-a-ma-jig and is from the set, Many Merry Messages.

Another Halloween cat card

The main image on this card was a leftover of the Boo Kitty card immediately below this one. Once it didn't make it into the lineup for this weekend, I was able to put on some retired Stampin' Up black organdy and some More Mustard-ish Joann organdy. The words are from Everyday Flexible Phrases, and I changed the lower case 'h' into a capital 'H' when I saw that it looked a little lopsided as the first word with a lower case letter. While I was able to make the words line up using my Stamp-a-ma-jig (even WITH the ribbon already ON), I wasn't able to make it centered on the piece from side to side - so I doodled a bit to help trick or distract the eye into thinking it was more centered than it is. :)

Kitty boo!

I believe this is the third card in this month's stamp camp lineup...but don't hold me to it. :) I have been so indecisive on projects for this month, and I've left planning off to the end (even more than usual).

It doesn't help that I've been having issues with making a card, not liking it, showing it to others, and they like it. Or, I make it and don't like it, look at it the next morning, and suddenly it's an ok design. Luckily, I'm not someone to rip up elements just because I don't like them, so usually, they get a new life in the new perspective; whether it's mine or someone else's varies. :)

This set uses the sets Autumn Apparitions and Dots are Hot with my Coluzzle and circle cutting templates. I carried the circle/dots theme throughout the card, with my black rectangle to balance it out and also to weight the main image visually.

What do you think? Do you like the card? Would you make changes? If you'd change something, what would it be? When you get stuck creatively, how do you get un-stuck?!

Happy Friday to everyone! Thanks for stopping by.

Boat Catalog Case

I was looking for some inspiration last night for stamp camp, and I knew that I wanted to use the Boatloads of Love set because I wanted to use the Crop-a-dile to put ADORABLE (can you tell I'm really proud of this look) eyelet "tire" bumpers on the side of the boat like I'd done in an earlier card.

I don't think you can see their impact on this shot, but man, oh man, do the little puffs of steam really "make" the card. I also liked the added ribbon with the eyelets run through along the bottom. I hope my stampers like this!

Side note - I am so mad at myself. I went back to link to a photo of the previous card - AND I DON'T HAVE A PHOTO of it! It was adorable, too! (if I do say so myself). Humph! Moving right along...

For my card I used the Fall Flowers designer Stampin' Up paper, because I didn't want to use the red/green combo shown in the sample on p. 53 in the Idea Book & Catalog (and shown below). I will have other sentiments that they can put in their "word window", but I used "friend-ship" which is available in the set. I was trying to move away from watercoloring because I wanted to showcase other techniques at stamp camp - which is what I was hoping to be inspired to create samples for - but markers just don't do coloring in like watercoloring does.