stamping – Page 4 – Momster Ink

September 2020 Paper Pumpkin: Hello Pumpkin

October 4, 2020Momster InkLeave a comment

Some people just aren’t into Halloween and every September Stampin’ Up puts out a Halloween Paper Pumpkin kit that usually contains bags or boxes of some kind. This kind of kit is useful to a lot of people. It’s useful to me, but I know of plenty of stampers who don’t participate in Halloween for one reason or another and have no need of a Halloween-themed stamp set. I think that his year, Stampin’ Up released a well-balanced kit that is useful to Halloween and non-Halloween participants alike.

The Hello Pumpkin kit contains ample supplies to create and decorate twenty of the cracker boxes pictured above. The great thing about the boxes is that they’re double-sided, white and Pumpkin Pie striped for Halloween and a Cajun Craze gingham pattern for an autumnal feel. It also includes a Cajun Craze Stampin’ Spot and the stamp set pictured below:

What’s great about this stamp set is that the images can be adjusted from a general fall season look to Halloween with the simple addition of the Jack-o-Lantern faces.

The cracker boxes are super cute, but this blog post is all about showcasing alternative ideas, which is what we do at my monthly Paper Pumpkin workshop. My regular attendees weren’t keen on the Halloween theme, so I stuck with the autumnal concept. I found a plethora of ideas on the internet and many of them incorporated wreaths, so that’s what I started with. I gave the ladies these two card samples to work from.

You can’t really tell from the pictures, but the flowers are popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals, which gives the wreath two levels of depth.

Of course, my ladies took creative license and made these cards:

The final card we made was CASEd from Denise Kepple Garrison over at www.ladybugstampin.com. Her card was just too cute not to replicate in its entirety.

Coming soon…

October’s Paper Pumpkin kit is called Joy to the World. It will contain supplies to make eight greeting cards (four each of two designs). The subscription period for this kit ends October 10th and kits start getting mailed out on the 15th. Subscribe now and then register for my monthly Paper Pumpkin workshop on October 24th and get alternate ideas for using the kit’s supplies.

Project supplies:

September 2020 Paper Pumpkin kit, Hello Pumpkin

Product List

Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Thick Cardstock

$8.25

Cajun Craze 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$8.75

In Good Taste Designer Series Paper

$21.00

Metallic Pearls

$7.00

Pretty Peacock Classic Stampin’ Pad

$7.50

Bumblebee Classic Stampin' Pad

$7.50

Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad

$7.50

July 2020 Paper Pumpkin: Summer Nights

August 20, 2020August 25, 2020Momster InkLeave a comment

I grew up in a part of the country that didn’t have lightning bugs, so it wasn’t until I was an adult visiting my in-laws in North Carolina one summer that I got to see them up close and in person. The the lightning bugs were as magical to watch in person as seeing them on tv and reading about them in books. So, when the Summer Nights kit arrived I immediately remembered spending a quite evening at my husband’s Grandmother’s house in North Carolina, sitting on a wood porch swing, and having good conversation while watching my young daughter experience the magic of watching lightning bugs for the first time. And, quite frankly, watching lightning bugs is a great distraction from the sweltering heat and humidity of the South.

Summer Nights features images of lanterns, fireworks and lightning bugs (or fireflies depending on where you’re from).

July 2020 Paper Pumpkin Summer Nights stamp set

In addition to a Night of Navy mini ink pad, the kit also contains all the supplies to make the nine cards and six paper bag lanterns featured in the above image. Stampin’ Up also released an add-on kit containing more card bases and coordinating envelopes.

I have two alternate card ideas to share. These cards are made with the card bases from the add-on kit because I got so excited and used up the ones in the kit before I started creating alternatives.

On this first card, I dug out April’s Paper Pumpkin kit, My Wonderful Family, and used the negative from the tree punch out as a stencil to create the branch coming across the sky.

This second card, doesn’t use the stamp set at all. Even though it’s still summer, I have Christmas cards on the brain, so I dug out my Merry Moose stamp set and created this peaceful holiday card.

I didn’t use the stamp set from the Summer Nights kit on this card, but this goes to show that you can always use the kit supplies and combine them with other items you have in your crafting stash.

That’s it for this month. I already have the August kit sitting at my table ready to play with.

At the end of the month, I’ll be holding my first in-person workshop since we went into quarantine back in March. You can find the Meetup details here.

I wouldn’t bleach my hair, but bleaching paper is awesome

June 3, 2020Momster InkLeave a comment

First of all, I’m happy to announce that Stampin’ Up’s new Annual catalog is live! Have a look.

Today I’m going to feature two of the catalog’s new sets, Celebrate Sunflowers and Forever Fern.

I’ve always thought sunflowers were awesome and have wanted to grow some that are taller than me, which probably wouldn’t be that difficult. Unfortunately, I can’t even keep an aloe vera plant alive. Someday….. (sigh).

Recently I’ve been experimenting with painting bleach on paper with an aqua painter and I love the results. Painting with bleach is as easy as it sounds. I like to put the bleach in an aqua painter so I can keep it contained and it’s easier to control, but I suppose you could just use a regular paint brush and a small cup of bleach. Before you start, test the bleach on a small piece of card stock to see what the color fades to after the bleach does its work. It’s not always what you would expect. Also, you have to stamp with Staz-On ink; any other type of ink will fade along with your paper.

For this card, I stamped the leaves on a piece of Old Olive cardstock. The card base is one of the fresh new In-Colors, Bumble Bee. The tag is made from another product called the Lovely Labels Pick a Punch, which is one of my favorite new things because you can use it to make custom-sized labels in two different styles. The Celebrate Sunshine stamp set also has a companion die set called Sunshine Dies, which is what I used to cut the sunflower and leaves with.

Product List

Celebrate Sunflowers Cling Stamp Set (English)

$24.00

Sunflowers Dies

$33.00

Very Vanilla 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$9.75

Bumblebee 8-1/2X11 Cardstock

$8.75

Old Olive 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$8.75

Blackberry Bliss 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$8.75

Forever Greenery Trim Combo Pack

$9.00

Lovely Labels Pick A Punch

$23.00

Jet Black Stāzon Ink Pad

$10.00

Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad

$7.50

Stampin' Dimensionals

$4.00

The next card I made uses the Forever Fern stamp set. I have some ferns growing beneath my deck and I haven’t killed them yet, mostly because they pretty much don’t need any help from me.

I stamped the leaves on a Just Jade (another new In Color) piece of cardstock for the background paper and applied bleach to the leaves, which surprisingly turned them light turquoise blue. I used the dies from the Forever Flourishing companion die set to cut out the black leaves, which I layered on top of the background piece.

Product List

Forever Fern Cling Stamp Set (English)

$24.00

Forever Flourishing Dies

$36.00

Painted Labels Dies

$35.00

Just Jade 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$8.75

Pear Pizzazz 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$8.75

Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$8.75

Pretty Peacock 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$8.75

Metallic Pearls

$7.00

Stampin' Dimensionals

$4.00

Jet Black Stāzon Ink Pad

$10.00

Versamark Pad

$9.50

Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder

$6.00

Aqua Painters

$17.00

Hot Diggity-Dog!

May 24, 2020Momster InkLeave a comment

Most of the greeting cards I make can be given to just about anyone, but sometimes I design one for a specific person. For me, making a custom card is incredibly rewarding. With the aid of a computer, printer, and my daughter’s drawing skills, I made this one-of-a-kind greeting card last week. I’ve been waiting to share it until it arrived at the recipient’s home.

My father-in-law is adventurous when it comes to cooking and he recently decided to make pickled hotdogs. (Pickling hotdogs is out of my realm of imagination, so I didn’t even know that people do this on a regular basis.) After three weeks of marinating, he taste-tested them over a Zoom call with my husband and they laughed themselves to tears for at least fifteen minutes. My husband asked me to make a card to commemorate the occasion. (We’re a little goofy that way.)

I dusted off the retired Stampin’ Up set Jar of Love and its coordinating batch of dies to make this card. I have a large collection of stamps, but a hotdog stamp isn’t numbered among them. My daughter is a gifted artist, so I commissioned her to draw and color the hotdogs in the jar.

I found a font that resembles the typeface on a Ball jar and printed a custom label. (The font is called Ave Fendan and you can find it at dafont.com. It is free for personal use.) I circle-punched my custom text and adhered it to a Grapefruit Grove tag made from the Story Label punch. I wanted the card to have a county fair feel to it, so I placed a swatch of Daffodil Delight gingham paper behind the jar. I chose the woodgrain background paper because I wanted the card to seem rustic.

As I said before, the Jar of Love stamp set is retired. However, the new annual catalog, which will go live on June 3rd, contains a similar set called Jar of Flowers, a coordinating punch, and mason-jar shaped shaker domes.

I recommend two easy (and cheap) ways to further customize your one-of-a-kind greeting card. First, find a font that compliments your stamp set and print out sentiments tailored to the card recipient. Second, doodle or sketch extra elements if you have the artistic skills (or a daughter who can do it for you).

Product List