To You and Yours - Paper Pumpkin Alternates

November 2018 Paper Pumpkin To You and Yours

My Paper Pumpkin Party people had fun with the November 2018 box, To You and Yours. The plaid based Christmas cards were easy to put together and fun just the way they were. The wood elements, the Garden Green pine boughs added a touch of nature. The Cherry Cobbler woven ribbon was a dream to work with. Easiest bows ever. The kit made five of each style, but you know I had to get creative.

For my Zen crafters, those who like to use what’s in the box and nothing more, I have a couple of ideas for you. First I did a big wreath on the red plaid and moved the sentiment down. My card used a Garden Green base, but you could use the base in the kit and have an equally lovely card.

The second option I also added a layer of Garden Green that is not necessary. The sentiment is stamped in Soft Suede and the pine boughs in Garden Green. It could easily be done with the Cherry Cobbler ink for the sentiment and use the die cut boughs instead of the stamped image.

Next, I have some more advanced options for my Paper Princesses. These options use a few more embellishments or alternate DSP. The first one uses a layer of Cherry Cobbler paper under the plaid and adds a piece of the Striped Burlap ribbon from the Holiday catalog. It works well with the natural element of the woodgrain circle from the kit. Who says a card can’t have two kinds of ribbon?

The next more advanced card uses a strip of Cherry Cobbler card stock over the top of the plaid DSP right down the center. I used a stamp from the Christmas Pines set so that I could turn the sentiment banner vertically. I added it to the card with Dimensionals and tucked some of the die cut boughs underneath the edges. I also stamped some boughs with Garden Green ink.

Next, I decided to use one of the Gold Foil Notecards as a base. The plaid fits perfectly within the gold frame. I used the triple banner punch to turn the wood sticker into a banner. I used a two inch scrap of DSP that I had that also had a nature style as a larger banner underneath. This DSP was in the Holiday Catalog but was very popular and sold out quickly. Use a scrap you have that looks good to you. That’s one of the best things about playing with your Paper Pumpkin kit — using up your scraps.

For the next alternate, I used a piece of the Festive Farmhouse DSP instead of the plaid as the primary background. The card base is Very Vanilla with half of one of the Crumb Cake bases layered underneath the DSP. I placed the wood block sticker a little lower than the middle of the card and over that I put a strip of the lighter plaid that I had left from one of the advanced alternates. In addition to the Cherry Cobbler sentiment, I added stars, from the kit, in Crushed Curry. To finish I grouped three pine boughs with the ribbon bow.

The next set of cards is for my Stash Queens. They use embossing folders and dies which requires a Big Shot. This is a fairly expensive tool, but WOW what you can do with it. If you haven’t finalized your Christmas list and you don’t have one, I’d put a bug in Santa’s ear.

I used the Cable Knit embossing folder for some of the cards. The key to this is to know which way your paper is in the folder. I did one upside down, so the embossed side was on the white part of the card base. I made a different card with that piece, but it was a good reminder when I’m not using standard card stock to think about which way the paper should go in the folder. It worked out fine because the sentiment banners in the kit are Whisper White as well.

The card with the Cat silhouette was done using the Sparkle Glimmer paper and the Cat Punch. I CASE’d this card from a post made by Cathy Spicer Aranda in the Paper Pumpkin Fan Club on Facebook. The color is a bit of Cherry Cobbler twine I had in my stash. You will notice a piece of the Striped Burlap ribbon peeking out below the sentiment. It comes on a huge roll, thank goodness.

In addition to the Cable Knit folder, I also did one with the Pinewood Planks folder. This card was inspired by SuNN Stampin on YouTube. You can see her video here. I liked the “jaunty” angle she used with the plaid paper. I wanted a little more texture for my background and I had no patience to tie a bow with the Striped Burlap ribbon, so I went back to my pine bough grouping. The wood sticker was die cut with the Stitched Shapes dies. I snuck a few gold Metallic Pearls ito the boughs.

Finally, for my last card, I used the Merry Christmas to All stamps and dies along with the Joyous Noel glimmer paper. The sentiment is a combination of Merry die cut and sparkling with the two-step stamping of Christmas in Cherry Cobbler framed by Garden Green. I lifted that on Dimensionals over a vellum strip from the kit. and because the sparkly Merry wasn’t quite enough, I layered on a bunch of the sequins from the kit.

So lots of fun as always with this box. I’m ready to mail my cards and have a few spares for any last minute greetings I need. Hope your holiday preparations are simple and joyful so that you can enjoy time with your loved ones.