Welcome back to my little crafting sanity keeper. I am sure you all are like me and the hubby, we have to be inventive on how to keep our stay at homing and social distancing from making us run screaming into the wild world. We are fortunate enough to be working from home, but when we need a break, we have a beautiful backyard full of trees with the peaceful sound of the trickling creek that runs behind the house that we can escape to. And if we get bored with the view in the backyard, we can go out and sit in our front courtyard and watch the bees and hummingbirds go from plant to plant pollinating to the world. Don’t you love honey bees, nature at it’s finest!
Now onto the April Paper Pumpkin Kit (PPK) – My Wonderful Family. When I was unboxing my PPK, the first thing I noticed was the die-cut that has this saying on it “Life’s greatest blessings begin and end with family. It is in families that we learn to love, teach what is most important, and grow together in love and laughter. Grateful for you. Happy to be yours.” That brought tears to my eyes. What a perfect sentiment to show our family or friends how much they mean to us. I know it has been very hard on everyone not to hug your parents, grandparent, aunts & uncles, and for me, everyone since I am a hugger. Sending someone you love a card with this saying on it is like a great big paper hug. Below you can see the sample you can make with the PPK instructions.
About the April Kit
- Kit contains supplies for 8 cards and printed envelopes
- Card size: 4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″ (10.8 x 14 cm)
- Envelope size: 4-1/2″ x 5-3/4″ (11.4 x 14.6 cm)
- My Wonderful Family Photopolymer Stamp Set
- Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin’ Spot
- Printed die-cuts
- Label die-cuts
- Melon Mambo Ribbon
- Crushed Curry & Soft Sea Foam Pearls
- Dimensionals
- Adhesive dots
The coordinating colors are: Crushed Curry, Early Espresso, Melon Mambo, Mint Macaron, Pear Pizzazz, Shaded Spruce, Soft Sea Foam
As beautiful as the cards from PPK are, I made a few others using the items from this kit and a few other card making basics.
This alternative card has a Shaded Spruce cardbase with a 4″ x 5 1/4″ Whisper White layer. To that, I added the Sea Foam Green edge I cut off the cardbase in the PPK. I added the die-cut leaves and butterfly with dimensionals. The sentiment is stamped in Mellon Mambo ink, and I glued it to a 2 1/4″ strip of the Crushed Curry strip from the PPK, then adhered it with dimensionals. Lastly, I added some of the Crushed Curry Pearls to finish it off.
Hydrangeas are one of my favorite flowers, so I, of course, loved the other example they have pictured in the PPK, and thought I would make my versions. I started out with a whisper White cardbase, then added a 4″ x 5 1/4″ Purple Posy floral dsp layer from the Best Dressed DSP Pack. I stamped the tree foliage in Highland Heather twice onto Purple Posy cardstock, then fussy cut it out. I glued down the stem, leave the glue off of the top right leaf. I adhered to the hydrangea bloom to the DSP using dimensionals and added pearls that I colored using the Light Highland Heather Stampin’ Blend. To add dimension to the stem, I added a dimensional to that one leaf I didn’t glue down, making sure it is layered over the bloom. I cut a 3 1/4″ piece of Purple Posey Scalloped Linen Ribbon and attached it with glue dots, then stamped the sentiment in Highland Heather ink and attached it with dimensionals.
As you can see, this card follows the same process as the above card, but it uses Melon Mambo Ink, Petal Pink cardstock, Petal Pink 6 x 6 DSP, Melon Mambo Stampin’ Blends, and Rococo Rose Gathered Ribbon.
For this little beauty, I have a Purple Posy cardbase, then added a 4″ x 5 1/4″ Purple Posy layer that I stamped the tree foliage all around the edge using Highland Heather ink. I added a 2 1/4″ x 5 1/4″ strip of Best Dressed DSP, then added the sentiment layer provided in the PPK. To complete the card, I added two butterflies from the PPK, the one in the upper left is popped up with dimensionals, and the other one is glued on. This card turned out so beautiful!
This card is a masculine version of the previous card that I made for my dad’s 81st birthday that was on April 25th, and yes, he loved it. For this version, I used Pretty Peacock cardstock, Pretty Peacock Ink, and Tropical Oasis DSP.
I like how clean and straightforward this version turned out. I started with a Crumb Cake card base and added a Crumb Cake 4 ” x 5 1/4″ layer. I cut off the Shaded Spruce cardbase edge from the PPK and added it to the Cumb Cake layers. I cut a piece of 3 1/4″ x 4″ white leftover card stock from the PPK I cut up and stamped the tree trunk in Early Espresso ink and the tree foliage in Shaded Spruce, I glued this down to the card base layers. I stamped the sentiment using Early Espresso Ink into a strip of 7/8″ x 1 7/8″ white leftover cardstock and popped it up with dimensionals to the Crushed Curry cardstock strip from the PPK. Lastly, I added a bird from the PPK using a dimensional.
This card uses the same cardbase and layers as the last card, except when stamping the foliage, you will stamp two side by side, then add the die-cut tree trunk from the PPK and add a linen bow under the bird.
For this last example, I started out with another Crumb Cake cardbase and added a 4 3/4″ x 4″ piece of Crushed Curry DSP from the Regals 6 x 6 pack. I then added the Soft Sea Foam sentiment layer from the PPK using dimensionals. I added the tree truck with dimensionals as well. I stamped the sentiment onto a 3/8″ x 2″ piece if leftover white cardstock using Early Espresso Ink, then glued it to a 1/2″ x 2 3/4″ piece of the Shaded Spruce cardbase edge and adhered it with dimensionals on each edge so it straddles the tree truck. To finish off this card I added two birds from the PPK.
Whew, that was ALOT of writing, I do believe this was the longest blog post I have written to date. Oh well, I couldn’t stop making cards using this kit, it was easy to do!
If you are wanting to know how you can start receiving your Paper Pumpkin Kits, well, it easy. You have two ways to do it, one click on the button below and subscribe today for $22 a month, or you can purchase a prepaid subscription by clicking on one of the options below. If you are interested in receiving PPK, I have good news and bad news. The May kit was so popular that they sold out of all the extra kits they had! What does that mean for you? Well, you will have to start with the June kit, which I am sure will be equally as fantastic as all the kits have been this year.
Well, this is where I say ta-ta for now.
Happy Stamping!
