Paper Pumpkin

Make paper crafting easy with Stampin' Up!'s new monthly subscription service called Paper Pumpkin. It's easy to enroll and easy to cancel any time. See what it's all about:

I'm Paper Pumpkin . . . I come to your door each month (a fully decked-out creativity carriage). I'll help you to escape your life with some paper fun. I come in a sweet box, but you'll really love what you find on the inside: All the stamps, ink, paper, and accessories to create pinable projects. Create stuff like cards, journals, décor, and more! Paper Pumpkin by Stampin' Up! is a new monthly kit program that anyone can enjoy!

Get Started
It's so easy to get started. Simply sign up for the program by visiting www.mypaperpumpkin.com and click "Subscribe." Every month a new, surprise project kit arrives at your doorstep. Just think of the anticipation of creating a fun project to pin, showoff, and share with your friends and family every month!

Of course, you'll want to know more. So here's the nitty gritty:

• Each month Stampin' Up! sends you a unique, surprise kit with a project - cards, journals, décor, and more! (They've even color-coordinated, measured, and cut everything for you!)
• Each kit includes stamps, ink, paper, and accessories - everything but adhesive.
• Each kit gives you a 30-minute creativity escape.
• Stampin' Up! will ship your Paper Pumpkin kit on or around the 15th of the month. 
• You need to sign up for a kit by the 10th of the month to get that month's kit. If you sign up on the 11th of the month, your first kit will come the next month. (Let's say you sign up on May 10, we'll send your kit around May 15. If you sign up on May 11, we'll send your first kit around the June 15.)
• A Paper Pumpkin membership is $19.95 per month (and shipping is included!) 
• There's no commitment, you can cancel your monthly Paper Pumpkin at anytime. You can also skip a month if you want.

Not sure you want to commit? No problem. Just go to the Paper Pumpkin home page and click on "Trial." Be sure to enter my name - Jana Burke (of Raleigh, NC) - as your demonstrator. That way I can help you with any creative ideas (or snags), give you ideas on how to use your new Paper Pumpkin products for other projects, troubleshooting, whatever your needs may be and also to be sure you are completely happy with all of your Stampin' Up! products.

Come join the excitement of this paper crafting fun!

Happy Creating!

Homerun Birthday

I finally got to get a little crafting done over the last week+ and it felt really good. One thing I got made was a birthday card for my mom. I hope she gets it before she sees this post. I think it turned out really cute.

We have always been baseball fans and living in St. Louis we had good reason - the Cardinals are awesome! Busch stadium was always a fun place to go to watch the games and spend time with family and friends. That is definitely something I miss about not being in a baseball town. Heck, I can't even find a good game on TV! I guess I'll just get my fix through the internet...

But I digress.


This card was actually really super easy to make. The only thing I measured was the card base and that doesn't really count - I just cut my piece of card stock in half. I just played with the size and the placement of the other pieces until I was happy. That's the fun thing about crafting - you don't have to have rules; just play 'til you're happy! :)

Here's how to make it:

A word of warning: **DO NOT GLUE ANYTHING DOWN UNTIL I CLEARLY MENTION IT (step 11)**

1. Start with some Real Red Card Stock for the base; I just cut a regular 8.5" x 11" piece in half.
2. While you still have the Real Red Card Stock out, go ahead and cut out the shirt shape. For this use the Dress Up Framelits Dies with your Big Shot Die-Cut Machine.
3. Now trim the dress length a bit to make it into a shirt. Remember, with paper you can always take away but you can't add more - once it's cut, it's cut. Take a little off at a time until you like the length. One thing I did was to make sure to give a rounded bottom to the shirt - it looks more natural than a straight cut.
4. After you've adjusted your shirt length, take a Night of Navy Stampin' Write Marker and draw the seams around the collar and down the front. Again, when drawing down the front I did not make a straight line; I curved it to the left a bit to make it look more natural. You can also draw on a logo at this point if you so desire. Set the shirt aside.
5. Take a piece of Whisper White Card Stock and cut it - this is the first layer under your shirt. I think I started with a 3 1/2" x 3 3/4" piece and scaled down from there. Place (don't glue!) your shirt on the card stock to get an idea of what it will look like. If the white layer looks too tall/wide/out of proportion to your shirt, keep cutting and adjusting until you like the look.
6. Using the same method as the Whisper White in step 5, cut a piece of Marina Mist Polka Dot Parade Designer Series Paper AT LEAST 1/4" larger than your finished Whisper White layer. Remember, you can always trim off the paper so it's better to go too big than too small.
7. Cut another mat out of the Whisper White Card Stock to fit behind your polka dot layer. Again, make it at least 1/4" bigger all the way around.
8. Using some of your leftover scraps of Whisper White, use your 1" circle punch to cut out 3 balls.
9. Using the Real Red Stampin' Write Marker, draw the stitch lines on the balls.
10. Place your card base on your work surface. Place down the large white layer, polka dot layer, the white layer and shirt onto the card where you think you want them to be. Now take your three baseballs and place them at the bottom. Does everything fit? Trim your paper as needed.
11. Once you get everything to fit and you like your placement you can begin to glue.
12. I suggest starting with the polka dot layer - adhere that to the large white layer with your Snail Adhesive. I don't recommend liquid glue because the DSP is thinner than card stock and you can sometimes see the glue lines through. It doesn't make for a pretty, smooth surface.
13. You may now glue the top white layer to the polka dot layer.
14. Once you have this paper "sandwich" you may glue it to your card base. Be sure that you place it on the card so that the baseballs will fit, too. You may want to leave them on the card base to give you an idea of placement.
15. Adhere the baseballs and the shirt to the card using Stampin' Dimensionals. I like using Dimensionals because it brings the baseball gear right off the page.

Your card is now complete. :)

For the interior I wrote, "I hope your birthday is a home run!" That and I also said that I'd tell the Cardinals to win the game on her birthday. Let's hope they do!

And there you have it. A home run of a card!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Go Cards!