Hello stampers and happy Thursday, Gerard is at a dinner meeting from all the flower growers, so I am having a working supper complete with salad, a savoury pastry and yes, my second glass of wine. If there are spelling errors, you will know why! Today I am sharing with you some March 2023 Paper Pumpkin alternatives. Once again, I am using the lovely stamp set, Places in the Heart. Yes, oma is missing her grandchildren just a bit!!
Places in the Heart with the March 2023 Paper Pumpkin
One of the great benefits to Paper Pumpkin is that there is this great Paper Pumpkin community of stampers who share their Paper Pumpkin alternatives. This time I thought I would contribute to this treasure trove. I am totally in love with the Places in the Heart stamp set. Thankfully it is carrying over to the new annual catalog. Would you like to see my cards?
I may be a rare bird, but I really like simple cards without a sentiment on the front. You can write heartfelt words in the inside, don’t you agree?
Here is my second card with the very same layout. You simply stamp your image from Places in the Heart, colour it with your in color Blends and then “fussy” cut it. Fussy cutting simply means cutting with scissors as opposed to using dies and a die cutting machine or some sort of electronic cutting device such as the Scan’n’Cut.
Happy Vibes
I don’t know about you, but these cards just give me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. Perhaps this will shock you, but I truly enjoyed being a mom to five amazing kids. Never was there a regret for having “that many” children. Now I get to enjoy “oma snuggles” and that is precious as well. Don’t get me wrong, but I enjoy snuggles of any kind. Hugs are wonderful!!
Changing the World One Card at a Time
This is my motto, and this is why I do what I do. I really believe that we can change the world one card at a time. Happy mail is powerful! My challenge to you is to send the cards that you are making. Don’t hoard them!
If you are intrigued by Paper Pumpkin, you can check it out with this link. Instant gratification is how I would describe it. You get a stamp set, an ink spot (mini ink pad) and all the materials to usually make nine cards. Perhaps you will do what I do. Make the first three cards as shown and then get creative with the leftover supplies!
Video Tutorial
Here is a video tutorial since seeing is believing! If you love my video be sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel!
Thanks!
Thanks for joining me here today, it makes me happy to see the “silent footsteps” you leave behind. You see, I can see how many people have visited my blog, but unless you leave a comment for me, I cannot see that it was YOU! Have a super day and happy stamping. If you wish to purchase the supplies that I used, click here if you live in Europe, or simply click the links below if you are a Canadian. Thanks in advance!
Hello stampers and happy Wednesday to you. Today’s Happy Mail in Holland features Peaceful Christmas Wishes which was the Paper Pumpkin for October. Paper Pumpkin is a wonderful crafting kit subscription which will bring you instant gratification every month. Have you ever subscribed to Paper Pumpkin?
Paper Pumpkin Instant Gratification
Paper Pumpkin really is about instant gratification! This crafting box comes every month and all you have to do is unwrap your gift, find the instruction sheet and start stamping! I usually make only one of each of the projects in the box and then I go to the Paper Pumpkin Fan Club page on Facebook to see what everyone else has done with it. You can also simply Google it. For example for this kit you would Google “Paper Pumpkin Peaceful Christmas” and then all the projects will pop up; just click on “images”. Here is a link to see what happens when you do that.
If you would like to give yourself a belated Christmas present, just click here. If you really want to spoil yourself, then get a twelve month prepaid subscription after January 4 and before February 28 and then you will get five free saleabration items and about $40 worth of host products as well. How much fun would that be?
Paper Pumpkin Happy Mail
Today I received this beautiful card from Ingrid Vos, from Hamilton, Ontario. Ingrid is a fellow SU demonstrator and we have met at SU events and she has also participated in some of my online classes. I appreciate you Ingrid and thanks for the happy mail AND the gorgeous handmade ornament from your niece.
Do you see what a difference the beautiful red linen twine bow makes? A full spool of it was included in the October Paper Pumpkin. I love all the extras that you get in your Paper Pumpkin kits.
Supporting Local Business
I love when I hear a story about a woman starting her own business so that she can stay home with her young children. Ingrid included a beautifully detailed wooden ornament with my card that her niece made. She started a business called Fox and Leaf Co. so she could work from home and raise their three little ones.
Looking for a Great Deal?
If you are an avid stamper and collector, you might already have this set. If not, it is a steal of a deal right now for only $38 instead of $95. The second best part is that I already have a great tutorial written for it as well, so you don’t even have to come up with your own ideas!! Check it out here.
If you want to see a great card that I blogged about two years ago, you can check it out here.
Stamping Through My Stash
Every Wednesday I do a live video where I “stamp through my stash”. I pick a stamp set from my stash that has not yet seen ink and I made something fun with it. Join me on my adventure every Wednesday at 10am EST (Detroit or New York time zone if that makes it easier) You can check out this video playlist on YouTube here.
Did you know that if you subscribe to my channel, comment on your favourite video and share it to Facebook that you could win the Poinsettia Petals bundle? There will be a draw as soon as I get to 4100 subscribers.
Thanks!
Thanks for joining me today, it always feels good to connect with you and to share what is happening in my stamping world. The rain is falling here, the skies are grey, but my heart is happy because I am with the one I love. Hugs from Holland!! Have a super day.
Hello stampers and happy Wednesday to you. Today my post is about the Peaceful Christmas Paper Pumpkin. Like the name suggests it coordinates with our Peaceful Cabin suite in the holiday catalog. I am going to show you a way to get a LOT more bang for your buck with this kit and also why Paper Pumpkin is such a wonderful product to have on hand. Let me tell you a story.
Overheated Paper Pumpkin
I just spent a few days at my parents place and I am so very blessed to still have them with me and in their own home. However….staying with them requires that I have a summer wardrobe available ALL the time. They live in their kitchen and as they are elderly, they like the temperature to be very warm. Even in a lightweight summer dress with bare legs the sweat trickles down my neck. Menopause is not an easy taskmaster. Even my Paper Pumpkin was breaking out in a sweat!!
Seriously though, when I go visit my parents and I know that it will be more than 24 hours, I take a Paper Pumpkin with me. At the very least it gives me a creative escape to help take my focus away from the hot kitchen. At the best, I get creative time with my mom. This visit Pap was very sick and in a lot of pain and we spent a lot of time helping him. When this happens we play a lot of dice games that mom is super familiar with so that we can chat and catch up at the same time. I did bring out the Paper Pumpkin but she just watched me make the two sample cards and she asked some questions about what I would stamp in the inside. It was still a nice diversion for her and took her mind off the serious state of her husband’s health.
The Best Way
The best way to get your Paper Pumpkin is to start your subscription, unless you have a bunch of friends that also want to try it. If that is the case and you can get 7 coworkers or friends together THEN you should each get a one month subscription and some adhesive then you will also get some host benefits so you can get a free stamp set. Alternatively with only 3 people getting a 3 month pre-paid subscription you will also get host benefits. Check out your options here. I always get extra kits which you can purchase from me if you are local, but when you subscribe yourself you get a free clear block in your first kit and that is quite wonderful.
Paper Pumpkin is portable so you can take it with you whenever you know you are either going to have a long wait OR you can have some “me” time anywhere you go. It’s also a great way to share your hobby with your friends. So often I hear people moaning about wanting to lose weight and I am sometimes one of them. My theory? Keep your hands busy and your mind occupied and you will eat less!! Paper Pumpkin can be a dietary aid, who would have thought?
Lots of Inspiration!
Another great thing about Paper Pumpkin is that there is a huge group of people who share their ideas on Facebook in a group called Paper Pumpkin Fan Club. Here are a few ideas that I found there to help me have more fun with my kit. Sometimes I contribute my ideas there too, but this has been a month where I take rather than give creatively and that is ok.
I love these alternatives and you can read all about them here.
Here is a wonderful tag kit and holder.
Cindy made a beautiful little holder to go with it and you can read all about it here and watch her video so you can make your own.
Finally here is a great card that is made using the gorgeous envelopes in this Paper Pumpkin kit. You can find Sharon on Instagram here.
The Actual Cards in the Kit
Finally here are the cards in the kit that I made in my mother’s hot kitchen. Want to double your beautiful cards? Simply cut the cards in half, they have those gorgeous trees printed on both sides! Then you can simply mount them on a thick basic white card base.
As always, the cards are even nicer in person. On the green card you can’t even see that the trees are stamped behind the vellum trees for a lovely landscape effect. It’s also hard to see that the circle behind the tag is also a gorgeous plaid. Seeing is believing!
Another great benefit of Paper Pumpkin is that after you have completed your kit you still have the amazing stamp set, ink spot and extra accessories. You can start your subscription today by clicking here and remember, you can skip a month at any time with no penalty OR you can increase the number of kits that you get each month in case you need some for gifts or for an event such as a kids birthday party. What a great craft and activity idea!
Thanks for joining me today! Happy stamping and have a super day.
Hello stampers and happy Wednesday to you. Today’s post will not be about cards. I came across a photo I took of my parents and I called it This Is Love. When I look at this photo love is what I see. At first I was going to make a Facebook post about it, but then I thought, no, this deserves a blog post!!
This Is Love
My parents, Kees and Rina are now 94 and 89. When they married with their Dutch names, Cornelis and Arendje they did not expect that they would be given 63 years together. They have quite the story and they have weathered so much together. Through it all there has been this incredible love between them.
This Picture Says so Much
What do I see when I look at this picture? I see two grey heads bent together in intimacy. I see the one caring for the other when it was often the other way around. In the bottom left corner I see the old “beschuit” tin that has been with them their entire marriage I think. I see bacon and eggs on Pap’s plate. He has always loved this for breakfast so we have now taken to making it every morning to help him keep his weight on.
Mom used to get up at 5:30 every morning to make bacon and eggs for us before we went out to milk the cows. After the table was set and breakfast made, Pap would wake us all up and Mom would go back to bed. It was the one thing that made getting up early easier.
Against All Odds
My Opa was giving up on the idea that his daughter would ever marry! Apparently she was quite fussy. The bar was high! So high that Opa said to her, you better go the local carpenter and get a husband made to your specifications. Pap was also a very eligible bachelor traveling the seas to work in Canada.
Through two disasters, the flooding of their island province by the Germans in World War 2 and then the flood of 1953, my parents’ families met as the Boot family had to take refuge in my Mom’s environs. The families met at the local church on Sunday. When Pap went to Canada he wrote letters to Mom’s family. One time Mom was home sick so she volunteered to write that family letter back to Pap. That is how their letter writing began!
When they married a year or more later she was 26 and he was 31. Their honeymoon was a cruise ship from Rotterdam to Halifax. After that it was a long, uncomfortable train ride to Manitoba. Pap was quiet. He was feeling the pressure of providing for his new wife and they didn’t even have a house waiting for them!! Mom was also getting a little quiet. Canada was so vast!! She was getting further and further away from her family whom she thought she would never see again.
I Could Write a Book
I could write a book about their life. Suffice it to say they have inspired me. It is through them that I have a deep and abiding faith, the greatest gift of all. Their work ethic and the joy they found in the everyday has also been the foundation of my love for my work. I made this simple card last night using the March Paper Pumpkin. Our team had a challenge to use stencils. This card is for my parents who have now had the blessing to travel from coast to coast in their adopted country.
Paper Pumpkin
Paper Pumpkin is a craft kit subscription that is very flexible. It works out to about $30 a month and you get a stamp set, a mini ink pad and all the supplies to make quite a few cards. Usually 8 but sometimes 12. You can skip a month any time you wish or you can cancel your subscription. There is so much inspiration for these kits online so the creative options are many! If you are interested you can subscribe through me here.
Thanks!
Thanks for joining me today. I hope that you can celebrate love today as well. Have a super day!!
Hello stampers and happy Wednesday to you. Today I am going to show you the very happy and cheerful So Cool Paper Pumpkin kit. I really love this kit, even though it was geared especially for kids.The So Cool Paper Pumpkin kit has twelve cards in the shape of popsicles, rainbows and watermelon slices. There are two fun sticker sheets included for decorating your envelopes that are lined inside with pretty rainbow stripes.
So Cool Paper Pumpkin
This So Cool Paper Pumpkin is especially “cool” because it also coordinates with our Sweet Ice Cream suite. Just like outfits, there are so many more possibilities when there is increased coordination. I had a quick play with this kit yesterday and here is what I came up with. Let’s take a look.
Alternative Cards
I thought it might be fun to take the envelope apart and use that striped paper for an “awning” that you might see on an ice cream shoppe. Do you see a new product being used on this card? The awning was cut using a new die from the Basic Borders dies that will be in the new annual catalog. I cut the watermelon sticker up to make two wedges. Do you see the golden bee embellishment? They are also in the new catalog. There was a smudge that needed covering up so this was the solution. Cute eh?
For the next card I used the Basic Borders dies from the new annual catalog to create the fancy edge along the card as well as the “bitten” popsicle look.
This easel card will be the feature for my video tutorial in my private Prime Time With The Pampered Stamper group on Thursday. For the third time I used the Basic Border Dies. I think they are going to be a staple in my repertoire.
Great News!!
Did you know that if you have never subscribed to Paper Pumpkin before that you have an incredible opportunity on May 7? Starting on May 7 you can subscribe to Paper Pumpkin for only $7 for your first kit instead of $30. Shipping is included but tax will be added. I have a feeling that it will sell out very quickly so be ready to put your order in right away. Here is the link to subscribe. You will need to add this code HOMERUN0521 to get the deep discount. Remember it will not work right now, you have to wait until May 7.
If you were a subscriber a long time ago and you want to subscribe again and get this deal, you can. You just need to use a different email address and you will be fine.
Thanks!
Thanks for joining me again today. Today is supposed to be 20C here in the Netherlands. I think we will have an especially long beach walk today with Bailey. Maybe I will take a blanket and my book and really relax. Life is good. Pap is doing so well. He even went for another drive on Sunday and I was able to do a video call with him yesterday. God is so good and I am so very grateful. I hope you have a super day too.
Hello stampers and happy Wednesday to you. Today my theme is Sending Love Your Way. Valentine’s Day has come and gone, and Family Day was two days ago here in Canada. On my desk are the cutest “Sending Love Your Way” boxes that my mom made for the grandkids. Oops! That’s right, I was supposed to hand them out on Monday but I had hurt my back on Friday night and was not thinking straight. It’s a good thing that we can send love any day of the year!
Making It Easy
My dear mom is 88 and quite truthfully although she is a very talented and crafty person, she has not done much papercrafting over the years. She is an expert seamstress, knitter, crocheter and gardener. She can also draw much better than I can but she only ever sketches on old envelopes or note pads with advertising on them. That is why I love bringing a Paper Pumpkin with me when I visit her. The last time I was there she had made these little boxes.
The reason I am sharing them with you today is two fold. One, I am still in a fair bit of pain so I really need to take it easy and not go crazy hauling out stamp sets and making a new card. I did start that process because I am itching to ink up the Friends are Like Seashells bundle. Two, I am super excited about the Paper Pumpkin possibilities. Paper Pumpkin is instant gratification in your mailbox and a great way for you to share what you love.
The truth is that a lot of people are looking for a meaningful hobby. Especially during Covid, it has been so good to have a healthy distraction from the vicissitudes of life. Stamping brings double joy, to the stamper and to the recipient of the stamped projects. The March Paper Pumpkin also has a bonus in it because it is the anniversary edition which always has a bonus gift. This time it is four stencils and a full size sponge which I always cut into wedges. Did you know that you can get at least eight sponge wedges out of one sponge?
Here is the link if you live in Canada and want to subscribe. You can also get a three month prepaid subscription and then you qualify for a free saleabration item. That is what I would recommend of course. I am all about getting you the most bang for your buck!
Sending Love Your Way Boxes
Here are the cute boxes that my mom made with last month’s Paper Pumpkin add on kit, Sending Love Your Way. I still have a few left over if you want one!! Those snails are so cute.
If you want to see some other adorable things I have made with the February Paper Pumpkin kit and this cute add-on, check out this blog post.
Saleabration Coming to a Close
Just a reminder that saleabration is only two months this year, so you have until February 28 to get a free item with your $60 purchase. If you haven’t seen the saleabration brochure, you can check out the offerings here.
Parcels in the Post
I still have three Parcels in the Post up for grabs. This is a wonderful assortment of products for only $32 shipped anywhere in Canada. Let me know if you want one!!
Virtual Coffee and a Card packets
It is now the third month of my virtual coffee and a card class. This month the theme is Flowering Cactus and the kit includes extra patterned paper as well as a ton of felt flowers. This kit is only $25 mailed anywhere in Canada. At some point I hope to have a subscription option available and things will look a little more streamlined. In the meantime, we soldier on. The videos are all on my YouTube channel which you can find here. I hope you subscribe and join me for my weekly videos there, every Tuesday at 10am EST.
Thanks for joining me today, I hope you have a super day. I am having an oma day today! So nice to have the lockdown lifted a bit to make this possible. Thankfully Rachel is home today so she can do the lifting for me and I can enjoy the snuggles. I am hoping very much to be able to get back to some serious stamping tomorrow and catch up a bit. I appreciate you very much!!
