Paper Pumpkin - November

We're playing a bit of catch up with the Paper Pumpkin boxes but I'm working on a few other ideas for upcoming Crafty Saturdays, including a giveaway for next week.

I know I mentioned last week that I like the kits that will give me cards to mail out over the projects, and that's true. Especially this time of year, I am that person who sends out thank you cards for Christmas gifts, even though I suspect it drives some people nuts. Sorry, not sorry. I won't lie and tell you that every time I mail a card, I don't feel like I'm single-handedly keeping the United States mail service alive.

The kit for cards this month though was just SO LABOR INTENSIVE. So much so that only one card looked like the finished product.

Tee-dah.

The other cards did not have the string tied on the top because I literally could not be bothered. By the time I was done stamping and adhering the three layers of cardstock and layer of vellum, I was done. You're lucky you even got sequins adhered to your card. This is one card where I thought, "you know what, let me go head and buy thank you cards", even though in my world that's blasphemous. I haven't purchased a card in over a decade, folks. I just can't bring my self to pay $2 (or more.. GASP). I just can't.

But again, I mailed out the last of these cards last week so I'm back to having almost nothing in my stash. Yikes!

Paper Pumpkin - October

Oh lordy lambs, I am so behind in showing you my Paper Pumpkin projects! I haven't been letting them sit, I've actually done October and November, I just forgot to share them. So I'll share this one, but look for a Paper Pumpkin giveaway happening soon!

Easily my favorite Paper Pumpkin boxes are the ones that will give me a set of cards to complete. I use these far more than the "projects" and these are things I can see myself replicating again sometime in the future.The other nice thing about these is that these cards are a little more involved than what I would normally make so these aren't the type of card you'll crank out in a short amount of time. Sure, there aren't a lot of steps, but they can be a bit tedious, a nice way to break yourself out of your comfort zone as a crafter.

I really liked this set because they were shaker cards! I have never made a shaker card because it seemed a bit more involved than I like, but this was actually really easy if you used the foam adhesive strips that it came with! I do remember back in my day of having cable TV with a crafting station, that you can use transparency sheets to be the clear piece that holds your sequins in, but in this box they gave you pre-cut pieces so it went faster.

Would you believe me if I told you I've already used these all up?

It's true! They are all gone! I should also note that I like to dress my envelopes up with a little bit of washi tape (I like my envelope to stand out in someone's mail) and this tape is actually left over from a previous Paper Pumpkin box but matched perfectly!

If you're interested in having a little box of fun come every month, you can get your own Paper Pumpkin for $19.95/month!

Crafty Saturday: Thanks!

I haven't had a whole ton of time to do crafty things, but I have had a lot of gifts and meals dropped off lately so I'm going through thank you notes like you wouldn't believe.

A very good problem to have, obviously.

My last Paper Pumpkin and my most recent one were kits to make favors. I'm finding that while the stamp sets are cute that come with them, I'm not super jazzed about the actual project because what am I going to use these favors for? Nothing. So I'm more excited when the project is for cards because those are something I'm actually going to use.

So I finally got around to doing another Paper Pumpkin box and this was the September box, I believe. But it's a teal/orange color combination I don't normally do, it feels very southwestern to me and that's not really my thing. And it had a lot of fussy elements (like tying string to very small buttons) but I managed to make six cards and three gift tags (which truthfully, I'm probably not going to use). All of them have been mailed out to folks, so I need to get busy and make some more!

Crafty Saturday: Fourth of July Pinwheels

For years I've toyed with the idea of making some paper pinwheels just because... and then my good friend Connie, who is also a Stampin' Up demonstrator, told me she had a Paper Pumpkin kit she's never used and it was mine if I'd like it.

I obviously am not turning down free crafty supplies because any mental illness I may have doesn't reach THAT far. Thankfully for us all.

I actually subscribed to Paper Pumpkin ($19.95/month plus shipping and handling) last month when they had a flash $5 first box sign up, so I'll show you what I got in my first box, probably next weekend. I still have to make the project and I want to show you a finish project with each box so be patient!

Inside of every box is a little booklet with your instructions. If you are truly a beginner, or are gifting this box to someone just starting out, it's a perfect subscription for you because you truly don't need to have any clue and you can make these adorable projects.

It also gives you the website in case you need even more detailed instructions than what is provided in the booklet. I haven't gone onto it yet, mostly because I haven't needed to, but there may be other ideas for your kit.

So inside of this kit you received:

• Pinwheel Party Photopolymer Stamper (not shown really well here but there were three stamps on the sheet)
• Night of Navy classic stampin spot
• 24 precut Designer pinwheel forms (8 each of 3 different patterns, all were double sided)
• 24 paper straws
• 20 Whisper White banner punch outs
• 24 cellophane bags
• Basic Gray baker's twine
• 24 silver brads
• 24 silver clips
• 96 mini glue dots

Now, I only made about 16 pinwheels and saved the rest of my pieces for another time. I also didn't use the silver clips, baker's twine, or cellophane bags so I put them in with my stash because I can easily use them on a future project. The project itself was pretty easy, albeit a little putzy for me. The finished project was super cute, though!

I currently have them in a mason jar on top of a shelf as summer decor, but I plan to have them out for our Fourth of July BBQ, of course. A couple are also going to be re-used in Back to School teacher gifts (post coming soon) because they would be a cute little basket filler. I do recommend using a two sided pattern paper for doing pinwheels to give it more dimension and color but of course, you could always use a solid color of card stock if you were trying to stay true to a party color scheme.

So there it is. If you are interested in doing crafty projects but don't want to take the time to think of one, shop for supplies, cut each piece out by hand, and then assemble- I very highly recommend the Paper Pumpkin subscription. All of the hard, tedious stuff is done for you, all you have to do is assemble using the instructions they give you and you're done. So many of these kits give you things that you can later gift to someone and be that over achiever giving out hand made gifts, so keep that in mind, too!