Recycled Paper Pumpkin Stamp Sets

You probably thought I dropped off the face of the Earth, but I didn’t.  I am still here.  Just been quite busy the last week or so.  I managed to sub four days last week.  I don’t know what possessed me!  By Friday I was thinking, “Working four days is too much for a retired person!”  So this week, I am only scheduled to work one day; tomorrow.  So far, I have one day scheduled for next week, but I am thinking I might schedule one or two more.

I have also been busy getting two bedrooms ready for painting this week.  Since we moved in here in 2001, I have been wanting to have the master bedroom painted, along with my son’s old room.  When we moved in, his room had air planes stenciled onto the walls because it was occupied by two little boys before him.  He was around 14 when we moved in, and I never repainted the room.  (Shame on me.)  Now that he is 28 and moved out, I have decided it is time!  My son came over on Sunday and helped clear out the rest of his stuff that he didn’t want.  All that is in there now are a few of his masculine decorations that he didn’t want to take, a bed, bookshelf and desk.  My husband has taken over the room with his computer, etc.  So I know he will appreciate not having stenciled air planes on the walls. LOL!

I have managed to do some stamping.  Two weeks ago I spent an entire day in my stamp room creating a gift set of note cards.  My daughter will be doing an expo in Denver in July.  She will be showcasing her line of clothing and jewelry. (Click the Freebird Philosophy  tab at the top of the page to go to her Etsy store.)  She asked me to share the booth with her and sell some of my creations.  So, you know how that goes.  Whatever we can do to help out our children, especially if we can do it…

I used a lot of old Paper Pumpkin stamp sets along with many current ones to create these cards.  Some of the cards are cased; some are my own creation.  I hope you enjoy looking at them, and if you have any questions about them, or would like to purchase a set or two, please let me know.

The first photo is of the chevron bag they will be wrapped in.  The decoration on the bag is my own original creation.

Note-cards-in-a-bag-1

The bag contains five note cards that look like this…

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This card is CASED from one I saw elsewhere.  The stamp sets are current photopolymer sets and Gorgeous Grunge.

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The birthday card is done using an old Paper Pumpkin set and Gorgeous Grunge.

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The thank you card is a combination of a current set (Gorgeous Grunge) and an old Paper Pumpkin Set. The ribbon I used was from Sale-a-bration and is no longer available.   The design is my own creation.

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This card was CASED from my friend and team mate, Dawn.  It uses the current Work of Art stamp set.

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Finally, the last card features Gorgeous Grunge, and the sentiment is from the first ever Paper Pumpkin kit.

Hope you enjoyed the cards as much as I enjoyed making them.  There is a list of all the Stampin’ Up! products I used to create these at the end of this post.

For more information on Paper Pumpkin,  click the tab at the top of this page.  When you are finished reading about it, click the Paper Pumpkin button on the right hand side of the page to enroll.

Until next time…(Hopefully it won’t be so long)

Happy Stamping!

Josie2

 

 

 

 

A Happy Thing

Today I am sharing two cards that remind me of a very happy thing; my trip to Italy in 2006 with my sister.  While we were there I remember seeing lemon trees, and I even purchased a few pieces of Deruta Italian pottery that was manufactured and hand painted in Umbria, Italy.    I purchased what I would call a serving platter, pasta serving bowl, and wine pitcher that are adorned with lemons.  You can see a photo of the pattern here.  I received my inspiration for these two cards from these three pieces of pottery.  I  used the Sale-a-bration set A Happy Thing when I created these two cards.  I also used the masking technique which I will explain at the end of my post.

Gold Lemon Thanks

I have always loved the way navy and yellow look together.  I think they are classic, and the colors always remind me of summer!  The “Thanks” card is embossed in gold and colored with Daffodil Delight Blendabilities.

Lemon Friendship

The sentiment on this friendship card is embossed in gold, but the lemons are not.  They are stamped in the Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Daffodil Delight Blendabilities.

What is the masking technique?  If you are familiar with the stamp set I used, you know there is only one lemon image in the set.  Masking is when you stamp the image on scrap paper and cut it out.  You then stamp the image again onto the card stock you will be using.  After stamping, you cover it with the cut out image, re-ink your stamp and stamp another image right next to the first one you stamped.  When you do this, it will look like one is behind the other.  That’s why it is called masking.

Hope you enjoyed your visit here today. Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

Josie2

both lemons

Place an order with me in my online store and receive a free gift from me. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best Breakfast

Some of the best memories I have of my children are from when I was a single mom and struggling financially.  That’s because when you don’t have much money, you have to get creative in order to make $1.00 buy what normally would take $2.00 to get.  One way I used to save money was to use the ends of loaves of bread to make breadcrumbs.  The kids refused to eat the ends on a sandwich, and I wasn’t very crazy about them myself, so I used to set them on a cookie sheet in the oven and let them dry out.  Once dry, I’d crumble them, add seasoning, and I never had to buy breadcrumbs.   And, I didn’t waste those two perfectly good pieces of bread.  Now if it were homemade bread from my mom’s table, we would have fought over who got to eat those ends, but this was plain white sliced bread from the grocery store.  So, what does this have to do with the best breakfast I’ve ever eaten?  Let me tell you…

One of the best gifts I ever received from both my children was on Mother’s Day morning in 1993; my first Mother’s Day as a single mother.  It was breakfast in bed.  My daughter was 9 years old and my son was six.  In retrospect, my mind remembers my children as being much younger than nine and six, but still…they were pretty young. On their own, my two young children prepared and served me breakfast in bed.

I didn’t hear them that morning  as I slept soundly.  I awoke to their soft whispers of “Mom…wake up.  Happy Mother’s Day!”

As I opened my eyes, there stood my two beautiful bare-footed and sandy-haired babies in their pajamas holding a tray containing the breakfast they made for me.  On the cookie sheet that doubled as a serving tray, there was a cup of hot black (lukewarm and light brown) coffee, toast (bread that had been sitting on a cookie sheet drying out so I could make breadcrumbs) with butter and jelly, a bowl of instant oatmeal (made with a little too much water), and juice.  Everything “looked” delicious!  I made sure I ate every bite!  In addition, with each bite I told my children how much I love them. I also made sure I mentioned that this breakfast was the most delicious breakfast I had ever had.

That breakfast was 21 years ago.  Today my babies aren’t babies any more.  My daughter is 30 years old and my son will soon be 28.  We’ve celebrated many other Mother’s Day breakfasts together at some very fancy places, and I cherish those times.  I cherish any time I get to spend with my children. But, no coffee has ever tasted richer, no bread ever sweeter than that Mother’s Day breakfast in bed!

Today’s card is one I made using the leftovers from my Perpetual Birthday Calendar kit.

Perpetual Birthday Calendar Note CardAgain, this is a 3-1/2″ x 5″ notecard, but it can be easily turned into a regular size card.  Hope you enjoyed your visit today.  Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

Josie2

Place an order using hostess code FDHBZ7W9 in my online store and receive my Painted Petals & Blooms tutorial FREE.

Painted Petals & Blooms

I just love this stamp set and coordinating paper!  Don’t you?  Sometimes when I get paper this pretty I don’t want to use it because I am afraid of ruining it.  But this time I decided to take a chance.  This is what I came up with.

Decorated Card Box Drawer with Cards Figure 24

Six cards made out of that  sheet of 12 x 12 card stock you could set into a frame that comes in the Painted Blooms Designer Series Paper pack.  You get two sheets, so you can actually make 12 of these awesome cards!

All 6 Cards Figure 5

Decorated Card Box Drawer with Cards Figure 23

 

Decorated Card Box Drawer with Cards Figure 22

Don’t you just love these weekly deals Stampin’ Up! offers?

Feb 10 - 16

Order $50.00 in product from me and receive the tutorial for the Painted Blossoms gift set FREE.  You will also receive one item from the Sale-a-bration catalog FREE for every $50.00 you spend.  Enter hostess code FDHBZ7W9 when you order.  Or simply place an order with me and receive the tutorial Painted Blossoms tutorial as your Thank You gift from me.

Happy Stamping!

Josie2