Author Archives: Karen Fontinelle

New Kits in the Kits Collection!

Kits Collection New Kits Banner Apr 2025

Last week Stampin’ Up! released THREE new Kits in the Kits Collection! In my opinion, one Kit is especially noteworthy for Spring! It’s the Paper Bouquet Kit that will take your breath away just to see the photo! The other two kits are for cards and are very pretty also, as always! These kits in the Kits Collection are available in the Online Store. They are not subscriptions and not to be confused with the Paper Pumpkin monthly subscription. You can buy these kits whenever they are available, putting them on your order as usual. Kits are perfect for anyone – new crafters, crafters who don’t have a stash of supplies, and avid crafters who are experienced but who like to just open a box and make a project! Everything you need for the project is included in the box except for maybe scissors! Try one and enjoy!

This is the Paper Bouquet Kit. Wouldn’t you just love to have those flowers in a vase sitting on your table without having to water them or watch them wilt and die? The Kit will make 23 flowers and 11 leaves in all of the new In Colors! You get the precut pieces, floral wire, and pony beads. Hot glue gun required for assembly but not included. Vase not included.

_________________________

The Essential Occasions Kit is a card kit. It makes 6 cards, one of each design. The sentiments cover many different occasions you might need a card for, like birthday, well-wishes, or thank you. In the kit you get precut pieces to make the cards, envelopes, and adhesive.

____________________________________________

This is the Loveliest Wishes Kit! The light colors make it a little difficult to see in the photos but I think you can tell how pretty the cards will be. This kit makes 9 cards, 3 each of 3 designs with precut images and gold foil sentiments for birthdays! The kit colors are Petal Pink, Soft Sea Foam, and white. The envelopes are printed and you also get embellishments with the other supplies.

I can’t tell you yet about assembling the Paper Bouquet Kit, but I would say these two card kits look very easy, great for beginners. Relaxing for experienced stampers and crafters! Order a couple of kits and make them with friends or family for an extra dose of fun! Just follow the directions adhering the pieces to the cards and you’ll have a new, beautiful collection of cards at the ready for many occasions!

SHOP THE STAMPIN’ UP! KITS COLLECTION!

Storybook Moments Diorama Easter Card

Leave a reply

Easter is less than two weeks away now! This Storybook Moments Diorama Easter Card is one you can give or send to someone, but you could also keep it for yourself for some Easter decor in your home! I have one from a previous year on display as part of my Easter decorations and I enjoy it every year! These diorama cards are relatively easy to make and still fold flat for mailing.

This card begins with two pieces of Boho Blue cardstock. The front piece has an opening cut out and the back piece has a scene adhered to it to view through the front opening. All you really have to do is score the two front and back pieces, cut out an opening in whatever shape you want, and adhere a scene to the inside of the back piece, either right on that back piece or on a separate piece of cardstock so that maybe you can pop it up on Dimensionals. It all turns out to be a pretty cute showcase!

It is easy to make a diorama card! Cut two pieces of cardstock at 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″. You can vary your measurements if you want a similar card in a larger or smaller size. Score each end of each piece of cardstock at 1/2″ and 1″. See the photo below for the side score lines and then whatever type of opening you want in the center.

Score those ends first and then you can more easily place the opening on just the top piece of cardstock so that it is centered. Crease and fold those score lines back and forth so that when you hold them together they will make the card into the diorama shape. You can see from the top view on this photo below. Don’t glue them together yet so you can more easily make the scene in the center of the back piece. Only those 1/2″ ends are going to be glued together. The next score line is what makes the card pop out in the front and the back to pop out in the back. You will see one you score and crease. Just fold it together until you see how it goes together.

Here is a photo from the top view. You can see that I popped up the scene on the back so it would be a little closer to the window on the front. I happened to use an Adhesive Sheet covering most of the back of the scene but usually I would use Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Storybook Moments Diorama Easter Card Top

Create your little scene or whatever you want to show through the opening in the front of the card. I used diecuts in the Storybook Moments Specialty Designer Series Paper. Just play around with all the pieces until you are happy with your scene. I took a photo with my phone of what I laid out so I could disassemble it and remember how to adhere everything.

If you make a separate piece for the inside of your card, measure the exact inside of that area because it will be a tiny bit smaller than you think on the sides because of the score lines. Mine is cut at 3 3/8″ x 4 1/4″. I used Balmy Blue for the inside piece. As I said, you could also make your scene just on the inside of that back piece.

On the front you can cut out a circle, oval, square, whatever you want. I used one of the square shapes in the Stylish Shapes Dies. Be sure to cut that out in the beginning, before you adhere the front and back! You might want to see what your inside is going to look like before you cut out the front, but probably you will want to be able to see as much of the inside as possible.

Here is another example of a diorama Easter card, this one using Easter eggs inside.

You don’t have to use diecuts. You can stamp something inside, you can make whatever you want and for whatever occasion! Just play and enjoy creating something different!

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP!

Don’t forget the Last Chance Products now available!

Catching Up With Paper Pumpkin Kits!

Leave a reply

I don’t know what Paper Pumpkin Kit this is, but when I had to move a stack (or two) of Paper Pumpkin boxes out of the way recently I decided maybe it was time to catch up on some old kits I hadn’t made yet! It’s quite the challenge! Lots of them I had made some of the cards, or actually one of each of the designs, but didn’t finish the rest of the cards. I made it my project on a rainy day to do one kit after the other and see how many I could get finished. The fun thing about Paper Pumpkin is you just open the box and everything is right there ready to go! You don’t have to think about what to make, unless you want to change it up. The directions are right there, the materials including stamps, ink, and adhesive are right there, and there’s always a video you can watch. You just subscribe to Paper Pumpkin and your kit shows up in your mailbox every month! I say it’s a gift you give yourself!

Everyone seems to like a “messy desk” photo so here is mine while trying to catch up on some older Paper Pumpkin Kits!

Paper Pumpkin Kits are always easy enough for anyone to make, even beginning or Non-crafters! There are usually some pieces you just punch out and adhere to the card or project. An exclusive stamp set comes in every kit, usually with extra stamps you can use or keep for another time. The ink spot (1″ x 1″ square ink pad) can be saved and reinked so you can use it any time. Often there are embellishments like gems or dots or ribbon, whatever goes with the project. Envelopes are included so you can send your cards off right away! Even the boxes are great for storage if you want to keep some. Certain boxes even have a special design which really makes you want to keep them!

Here are the cards I made from several different kits. It was really fun to just sit down to stamp and create without having to think up my own designs and projects. Pure relaxation!

If you would like to try out Paper Pumpkin, the April Kit looks like a very nice one!

APRIL: Inked Occasions
Subscribe March 11–April 10
Craft stunning cards with hand-painted, alcohol ink designs!
• Makes 9 cards: 3 each of 3 designs with 9 coordinating envelopes
• Textured gold foil on the card bases and sentiments
• Precut paper pieces and butterfly embellishments
• Coordinating colors: Berry Burst (Classic Stampin’ Spot), Flirty Flamingo,
Fresh Freesia, Gorgeous Grape, Peach Pie, Pool Party

To get this kit, you do need to subscribe by Thursday, April 10th so don’t delay! Kits will ship just a few days later so you won’t have long to wait! No risk, no obligation. You can skip a month if you need to. Next month the subscription kit price will go up $2.00 so this is a good month to try it out. You will probably find the kit is worth the money, almost the stamp set alone, plus all the supplies, not to mention the fun you will have stamping and creating!

JOIN PAPER PUMPKIN TODAY!

Storybook Moments Circles Easter Card

Leave a reply

This Storybook Moments Circles Easter Card is one I came up with all by myself and I like it! I absolutely love this Storybook Moments Specialty Designer Series Paper, especially for Easter coming up with the bunnies, but for lots of other occasions as well!

When I was looking at the sheet of the paper with lots of bunnies on it, I decided to diecut several with circle dies and make a card somehow with those circles. Of course, you have to cut up the paper to be able to diecut particular portions with the Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine. As I’m sure we all understand, It’s almost illegal to cut up your paper in that way, maybe just digging in to some center area of the whole sheet of paper! I tried to find the images I liked as close to the edges of the paper. Then I chose which circle die in the Stylish Shapes Dies I would use and placed it over the image I wanted to diecut and carefully trimmed with my Paper Snips to cut up the least amount of the paper that I needed to. It worked out!

To make the card, I chose Boho Blue cardstock for the card base. I wasn’t sure exactly how to do the circles, with no room for layers, but with the darker background paper they stand out well enough. I chose this paper with the strawberries because it is so pretty and different. Somehow I thought to place it in the center of the card base with margins on each side. It is cut at 4″ x 5 1/2″. For a little something with the circles, I used the Timeless Plaid 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper. I looked at my little scraps and decided to just add a strip of the plaid under each circle. These are cut at 2 3/4″ x 3/4″. I centered the circles on the strips and placed them so one end was up against the edge of the card on the left or right. The center one goes to the right. The plaid paper matches the Storybook Moments DSP pretty well!

The greeting is in the Greetings For All Ephemera Pack in the Spring Mini. To make it smaller, I cut the two words apart and cut close to the letters. This is a good technique to use! I couldn’t resist using some embellishments if I had something that worked. I decided on the retired Adhesive Backed Hearts & Flowers because I had some left. I just used the smallest flowers for a little something, but you barely see them on the circles.

We never know for sure what we will create when we start making a card! Even if we have a design in mind, it could change at any moment, so just play! See what turns up!

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE HERE!

Be sure to check out the Last Chance List of retiring products!

New Last Chance (Retiring) Products!

Leave a reply

Today begins the “retirement” of products in the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog 2024-25 and the January-April 2025 (Spring) Mini Catalog. We used to get a list and go through our catalogs to see what would be absolutely gone when the new catalog took effect, but NOW we have a Last Chance Products category in the Online Store!

What does this mean? It means Stampin’ Up! moves these “retiring” products into this part of the Online Store, some with discounts but not all, and they will remain there until they sell out! “While supplies last” could be hours, days, or months! So some of your favorite products you weren’t able to purchase yet, MAY still be available even after the catalog they were in (or Online Exclusives) ends and the new catalog begins. Once products are sold out and a restock is not coming, these products will be “Discontinued” and be gone for good.

The easiest way to see what is available, what is on sale, what is retiring is to go to the Stampin’ Up! Onine Store > Last Chance Products. Click on the big banner that shows up or click on Specials in the bar at the top.

The website could be busy today so if you get an Error message, just try again in a few seconds or a couple of minutes!

There are also new Kits in the Kits Collection today, too!!

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE!

Storybook Moments Garden Card

Leave a reply

This Storybook Moments Garden Card was a fun card to make! Since the Spring Mini Catalog came out in January, I have loved the sample card on page 23, the slimline card with the flowerpots, sprinkling can, and bunnies! I used that sample card for the inspiration for this card.

One of the special things about the Storybook Moments Specialty Designer Series Paper is that it has two sheets of diecut images that coordinate with the paper. Everything about this paper is delightful! The images are so cute and sweet, and it can be used for spring, Easter, babies, or any kind of special card. Sometimes you might use just one diecut for an embellishment on a card with other stamping or you might just have fun creating a card with several or lots of these diecuts as I did on this card.

The card base is Lost Lagoon cardstock with a layer of a blue plaid in the Timeless Plaid 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper, also in the Spring Mini Catalog. As I worked with the diecut pieces to design my card, I decided to add some green plaid paper at the bottom. I just took a strip of green plaid and cut the top with scissors in a little curvy design like hilly ground would be, although it is mostly hidden on this card. Even though the background “sky” is plaid and the “grass” is plaid, it all looks good together. I love this Timeless Plaid DSP! It’s very versatile.

I had already punched out all the diecut images and put them in a plastic pouch to keep them together so I dumped those all out on the table so I could see what all my choices were to use for this card. How fun does this look?!

I simply played around with the pieces until I was happy with the placement on my card. Here is a tip when you are laying out things and then have to remove them to adhere each piece, sometimes overlapping, to the card. Take a picture with your phone after you have everything arranged how you want it! Then you can take the pieces off and using the photo on your phone, put everything back how you planned it. I popped up the wheelbarrow and dirt and plant piece on Stampin’ Dimensionals and adhered the rest with Multipurpose Liquid Glue.

For the wheelbarrow, I thought it would look good to have the radishes and carrots appear to be “in” the wheelbarrow so I cut a slit along the inside edge of the wheelbarrow and slipped the vegetables into that slit just a little bit. Since I was popping up the wheelbarrow anyway, the Dimensionals on the back held in the vegetables at the same time they were popping up the whole piece.

The greeting is from the Playing in the Rain Stamp Set. As I looked through my ephemera packs and stamp sets, this greeting in this stamp set is the one I decided on. Don’t forget to look through your stamp sets sometimes to maybe use something you wouldn’t think of or to refresh your memory on what you have to use. The greeting is stamped in Lost Lagoon ink and cut out with a rectangular die in the Nested Essentials Dies.

Here is another card using the Storybook Moments diecuts to make an easy card!

If you like this Storybook Moments paper, it is Low Inventory as I write this, so order it right away if you are interested. You still have time to get it and make Easter cards if you want to use it partly for that!

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! HERE!

Beautiful Bokeh Butterfly Birthday Card

Leave a reply

As I was going through my designer series papers and other things in my stamping supplies, I found these butterflies and checked to see if they were still current and available. They are! I had forgotten about them! After finding them, I decided I needed to make a card with them and this Beautiful Bokeh Butterfly Birthday Card is what I came up with. It’s really a pretty simple card and I could have made it even more simple by not coloring the butterflies.

The card base I chose is Fresh Freesia cardstock with a layer of a Fresh Freesia shade of the Beautiful Bokeh 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper. This paper is available in the Stampin’ Up! Spring Mini Catalog until May 5th.

I chose two butterflies in the Paper Butterfly Accents to use on the card. There are different images of butterflies to choose from in the package. As I said, I could have left them white and they still would look pretty on the card. What I decided to do was color them with the Blending Brushes and ink pads. I chose Bubble Bath ink and Berry Burst ink, two colors that I thought would coordinate with the Fresh Freesia and still look “sort of” monochromatic on this card. I tried to apply the Bubble Bath ink to the center of each butterfly and Berry Burst ink around the edges of the butterflies. Make sure you know which way you want your butterflies to face before you color them. And there are many ways you can color these Paper Butterfly Accents.

The greeting is in the Poised Peony Stamp Set and is stamped in Fresh Freesia ink on Basic White. It was diecut with one of the circle dies in the Stylish Shapes Dies. These are simply some of the most useful dies, in my opinion. I often look at other dies and I often come back to these for something basic and the right size. Thankfully, they are carrying over into the new catalog.

Even with the colored butterflies and the greeting, the card still needed something (before I added the bling!). I added a piece of white ribbon looped behind the greeting. This ribbon is part of the Petal Pink and White 1/4″ Diagonal Trim Combo Pack. I have used this combo pack a lot. The ribbons are a good size for lots of projects. The greeting is popped up with Stampin’ Dimensionals. It would be nice to pop up the butterflies but it would be difficult to not see the Dimensional behind the butterfly unless you can hide it behind a greeting or something. You could also not put glue on the butterfly wings and then lift up the wings a little bit to give them some movement.

For some sparkle, I added several Purple Adhesive-Backed Sequins that were available as a free product during Sale-A-Bration in January and February. Even though the name of the sequins is “Purple”, these sequins are three different shades plus white. And as it turns out, the colors of the sequins are the same colors that I used on my card…Fresh Freesia, Bubble Bath, and Berry Burst! If I’d seen that at the beginning of making my card I wouldn’t have had to think about colors!

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE HERE!

To The Point Punch Spring Card

Leave a reply

I had this idea for this To The Point Punch Spring Card and I’m happy with the way it turned out! I’ve made other cards like this one with punches which fill the card front like a background, so I thought I would try it out with the To The Point Punch in the Stampin’ Up! Spring Mini Catalog.

To make this card design, I used a Basic White piece of cardstock underneath the punched pieces. It is cut at 4″ x 5 1/4″ so I could have a colored card base and not white. The card base is Berry Burst cardstock.

I punched out several pieces out of the Beautiful Bokeh 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper. The colors are Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight, Berry Burst, and Balmy Blue. I liked the soft colors of that paper with the subtle bokeh look. I just punched out a bunch and then played around with arranging them on the white cardstock. Just lay them out how you like them, allowing the edges of DSP to extend out over the edge of the white cardstock. After you have them glued down to the Basic White cardstock (or whatever color you are using), you can trim off the excess edges with scissors or your Paper Trimmer. If you think ahead a little bit, on the pieces that hang off you can try to avoid putting glue where you don’t need it so it doesn’t get your scissors messy with glue! Don’t ask me how I know! The picture below is not how my pieces ended up being arranged but it’s the way I did it.

When you have all the punched pieces adhered, you can glue this piece to the card base. For the greeting, I used the banner in the Mixed Labels Stamp Set. I couldn’t find the right words I wanted to stamp on the banner, but I found ones I liked in the Choose Happy Stamp Set. The banner is stamped in black Memento Ink but the words are stamped in Berry Burst ink. I popped it up with Stampin’ Dimensionals across the middle of the card.

I thought that would be it except for maybe some embellishments, but I got the idea to stamp one of the cute images in the Choose Happy Stamp Set on the punched labels. It was a risk of ruining the whole card at this point, but I took a chance and it worked! I stamped the images in the same color as the bokeh paper. The center punched piece was a challenge, but I found the little flowers in the Bright Borders Stamp Set that worked perfectly. Then to finish off the card, I added two purple sequins in the Purple Adhesive-Backed Sequins on the banner. These sequins were available during Sale-A-Bration so you may have them or just use something you have.

All in all, this card was easy to make and was a fun idea to try with the To The Point Punch.

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE HERE!

Make Easy Little Easter Baskets

Leave a reply

It’s time to make some cute things for Easter and here are two quick and easy Easter Baskets! All you need is a 6″ x 6″ piece of paper to make the basket. You can make the baskets with either cardstock or designer paper or both. After that, just decorate the basket a little bit and add some “grass” and treats!

Start with a 6″ x 6″ square piece of paper and score like a tic tac toe. Score at 2″ and 4″, then turn and score at 2″ and 4″. Cut on the two vertical score lines up to the horizontal score line. Do the same on the opposite side. See the photo of the basket with designer paper below to see how the basket paper is scored and cut. Cut a handle of about 8 1/2″ x 3/4″ or whatever size you like.

Crease and fold all score lines. Round all four corners if you like or leave them as is. Form the paper into a basket and use brads, staples, or glue to hold the sides and handle together. Make sure you are putting adhesive so that it doesn’t show from the front. If you think of it ahead of time the handle goes in between the two side flaps and the center flap. That hides it a little bit on the inside. ! Or it can just be glued to the inside of the basket.

If you use cardstock for the basket, you can decorate with squares of designer paper as you see on this layout. Since each square is 2″ x 2″, I cut the Storybook Moments Designer Paper at 1 7/8″ x 1 7/8″.

If you want to decorate the basket handle you can add a narrow strip of designer paper to the cardstock. You can even tie a ribbon on to the handle if you like.

Here is what the front and back of the basket looks like with the flaps folded in and adhered together.

The basket with the Storybook Moments DSP has a base of Old Olive cardstock. I love the strawberry design on this paper. The other basket (the one show above) is made with the Timeless Plaid Designer Series Paper. Each basket has a diecut character from the Storybook Moments Paper. The little mouse is layered on a diecut out of Old Olive. I just found it in my package of cardstock, it probably is a retired die but I liked it. You can use anything that fits the size of whatever decoration you are putting on the front and goes with the size of the basket. The plaid basket has a Calypso Coral die cut circle for a layer made from the Stylish Shapes Dies.

Just do whatever you like to make your basket and decorate it. These baskets only take about five minutes to make! So cute and so fun! Especially with chocolate candy inside!

Wildflower Birthday Cupcake Birthday Card

Leave a reply

Make this Wildflower Birthday Cupcake Birthday Card easily with the Wildflower Birthday Specialty Designer Series Paper in the Stampin’ Up! Spring Mini Catalog. It’s not “just” for birthdays (as you can see with the floral paper in the background) but you will have some fun options for making birthday cards or birthday scrapbook pages.

This card is made with a card base of Blueberry Bushel Cardstock. It coordinates with some of the flowers in the background paper. The pretty floral paper in the background has gold foil accents which makes almost anything look fancier!

The extra special feature of the Wildflower Birthday Designer Paper is that it comes with two sheets of diecut images. These are great to use on cards and scrapbook pages and make designing the project quick and easy, not to mention fun! For this card, I used three cupcake diecuts on these sheets on the front of the card. They are popped up on three layers of paper underneath to help them stand out. The green paper with white dots underneath the cupcakes is cut at 4″ x 1 1/2″ and is in the Wildflower Birthday DSP. The layer underneath that paper is Blueberry Bushel cardstock cut at 4 1/4″ x 1 3/4″. The layer underneath that is Gold Foil to match the gold foil accents and is cut at 4 1/2″ x 2″.

The greeting is stamped on a scrap strip of Basic White cardstock and layered on Gold Foil with the ends flagged like banners. I just cut these by hand. Just for a little extra embellishment on this card, I added some Shiny Sequins (retired) from the Flowering Zinnias Suite on the top of the cupcakes using the different colors. You can use anything sparkly that you have!

Since the card base is a dark color, add a Basic White layer inside the card on which to stamp or write a personal message. Make it extra nice with either a strip of the designer paper along the bottom and/or a diecut or two!

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE

Christmas Kits For A Spring Day

Leave a reply

What did I do on a beautiful second day of spring yesterday?! Of course, I worked on a Christmas Paper Pumpkin Kit from 2024! It’s the Filled With Joy November 2024 Paper Pumpkin Kit that I did not get around to making before the holidays! I just had some free time and I thought of two kits that I had wanted to work on and they were just taking up space in my head. I simply said I’m stopping the world and doing these kits! So now instead of being behind for Christmas 2024, I’m AHEAD for Christmas 2025!

This Filled With Joy Kit was pretty quick and easy to make. I just had to stamp the tags, turn down the collar of the stocking, and pin on the tag! The kit came with the cute little pins! A stamp set is included with every Paper Pumpkin Kit so I used that to stamp the tags and the ornaments. Then I just had to adhere the gold ornament top on the ornament and add Stampin’ Dimensionals to the back to adhere to the tags. I’ll save them for next year and either use them for little gifts or make them decorations for a Christmas meal.

I also had this Christmas Ornament wreath kit from the Kits Collection sitting on my desk since Christmas! I DID make these cute little wreaths on the gold rings and even put some as tags on gift bags. But then I saw another Demonstrator, Linda Heller, jazz them up a bit with some gold paint on the leaves and white paint for snow on the pinecones. I wanted to do that on the rest of them so I finally got that done yesterday and put the box in the closet with the Christmas gift wrap and things.

I had to do a little digging to see if I had some acrylic gold paint and I did in all my craft stuff. At least my paints are somewhat organized by color. I just put some gold paint on a brush and lightly streaked it on the leaves on the wreath. It really did add a little to the leaves to make them look a little less like paper. Then I switched to white paint and just dabbed on some “snow” on the little plastic pinecones. I found some glitter in my craft stuff and shook a little bit of that over the white paint. These were just little, easy embellishments I did to these wreaths and I thought they added a lot! I also added some of the Drusy Embellishments for a little sparkle on all of the wreaths. It was something relaxing to do on a spring afternoon! (Although my rockhounding family members would tell you it should be spelled Druzy!) I added those after I took the photo though!

Whenever you get around to making your Paper Pumpkin Kits or the kits you purchased in the Stampin’ Up! Kits Collection, it doesn’t matter! No matter when you make them it will be a relaxing, enjoyable experience! I think they are especially good to make on a weekend or on a rainy day!

JOIN PAPER PUMPKIN!

SHOP THE KITS COLLECTION!

Sour Cream Container Easter Treat

Leave a reply

In this post I’ll show you how to make Sour Cream Container Easter Treats very easily. I loved the treats shown in the Stampin’ Up! Spring Mini on page 26 so I just used those for my examples. Mine turned out slightly different because of choice of paper and ribbon. We have all been making these sour cream containers for years and years for treats for every occasion so they are very versatile! You can make them larger too if you want. I don’t even know why they are called “sour cream containers” but I think maybe sour cream used to be packaged in small portions like these, maybe in restaurants? I don’t know!

Mine are slightly different sizes but you can barely tell. You really can vary the sizes. One starts with a piece of designer paper 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ and one is 4″ x 5 1/4″. You can make them with 6″ x 6″. It just depends on how big you want them and what they will hold. Mine hold 4 little chocolate eggs. You could also use cardstock but designer paper is more flexible to roll up into this odd shape.

I used the Storybook Moments Specialty Designer Series Paper which has cute diecuts included along with the adorable designer paper. On both I used the generic side of the paper so that the little tag and ribbon would stand out. Be sure to use a strong adhesive such as Tear & Tape Adhesive to hold them shut and kind of loosen up the paper fibers before you put them together but gently rolling into a tube shape or run the paper over some curved object, like the edge of the table if it is rounded.

Lay the paper out, long sides top and bottom. Put the adhesive along the edges of the long sides, top & bottom, and on one short end. There is no adhesive on the other short end.

Sour Cream Container Easter Treat Assembly

To make it easier to not have adhesive all over the place while you are trying to assemble the container, pull down a short section of the tape cover and press to crease so you can grab that later. Take off the paper on the short section and adhere it to the opposite side forming a tube. Then reach inside and peel off one of the papers and adhere one end together. Use a bone folder to something to press on these seams to make sure the adhesive is holding firmly. Be sure to add the treat inside the container at this point before you adhere the final side! Remove the third adhesive paper from inside and adhere the other end making sure it is perpendicular to the top. It’s surprising how easily it goes together this way even though it’s a little odd.

Sour Cream Container Easter Treat Adhesive

For the little tags on each container, I just cut a piece of Basic White at 2″ x 1 1/2″ and added diecuts that are in the Storybook Moments DSP. Use whatever ribbon you have to adhere a loop on the back of that tag and pop it up with Stampin’ Dimensionals. Sometimes I put Stampin’ Seal Adhesive on the back first to hold the ribbon and then put Dimensionals to help hold the ribbon in place and to pop up on the card or project. One ribbon is a retired Pool Party ribbon and the other is a retired Bubble Bath ribbon that came in a Combo Pack.

Once you try these sour cream containers you will find they are easy to make. Be sure to loosen up the paper a little as I said to make it easier to roll up. Click here to see some that I made for Halloween. This post also has photos that might help you see how to fold them together. These would be so cute to make with any of the sides of the Storybook Moments paper to put in Easter baskets or make for little favors for Easter gatherings! This paper is in stock now so be sure to grab some quickly if you want it!

Wildflower Birthday First Day of Spring Card

Leave a reply

Happy First Day of Spring! In honor of the occasion, I made this Wildflower Birthday First Day of Spring Card. With our azaleas and Texas Bluebonnets in full bloom, we are definitely in springtime here in Houston, although I know there is snow in some parts of the country! When we think of spring we think of flowers so a card with a bouquet of flowers seemed appropriate!

I used the Wildflower Birthday Specialty Designer Series Paper for this card. I love all the different patterns in this collection of papers. Don’t be fooled by the word “Birthday” in the name because not everything is birthday-themed. There are cakes and balloons, but also flowers and generic patterns of paper to use for any kind of occasions. This paper should be back in stock the week of March 24th.

This card is so easy! I chose Pretty in Pink cardstock for the card base. I love this layer of designer paper with rows of scalloped gold foil accents. The gold accents in this designer paper really make it fancy!

The floral bouquet is a diecut from the included two sheets of diecut images that go with the paper. There are lots of diecuts to choose from, plus another page of tag designs that you simply cut apart, so there are lots more things in this Specialty Designer Paper than just paper. This diecut is the largest one in the package. I popped it up with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The diecut paper isn’t super thick so I used a LOT of Stampin’ Dimensionals on the back of the bouquet. Is that too many Dimensionals??! I don’t usually use that many, but I wanted to make the bouquet strong.

Sometimes when you are taking those little papers off the back of the Dimensionals, they can make your finger sore underneath your nail. To prevent that, and make getting those things off in the easiest way, I recommend using the Take Your Pick Tool! Just use the sharp point to stab each Dimensional to remove it, and the paper will come off. In fact, you can probably stab several of them in a row to make it quicker!

The greeting is one from the Saying Something Ephemera Pack. I added a Dimensional on each end of the greeting and a little Stampin’ Seal in the middle where it goes over the stems of the bouquet. There are lots of greetings you could use on a card like this one. The whole card is so easy to assemble that it will only take you a few minutes to make!

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE HERE!

You May Have This New In Color!

Leave a reply

The new In Colors 2025-27 coming in May in the new Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog were revealed at the Stampin’ Up! Convention last weekend and you MAY already have one of them! It’s Strawberry Slush! When the new On The Go Designer Series Paper was released on March 4th in the Online Exclusives, eagle-eyed people noticed that one of the coordinating colors was Strawberry Slush! That was a big clue! Strawberry Slush was one of the In Colors years ago!

The In Colors that Stampin’ Up! puts out every year which last for two years are the “trendy” colors that keep us all up to date and add some additional color options every year. It’s always interesting to see what the new In Colors will be. When the current catalog comes to an end this year, so will the 2023-25 In Colors which are Boho Blue, Copper Clay, Moody Mauve, Pebbled Path, and Wild Wheat. Sometimes you like the In Colors and sometimes you don’t. I have to say, except for Boho Blue, this group has not been my favorite and they can leave! If you want to stock up on anything with these colors, from ribbon to ink pads, you should do it soon just to be sure you can get them.

The good news is the 2024-26 In Colors of Pretty in Pink, Peach Pie, Shy Shamrock, Summer Splash, and Petunia Pop will be sticking around for another year! I like these colors just fine!

Although I don’t have photos of the incoming In Colors, when I heard Strawberry Slush was returning I was sure I still had it in my retired stash from years ago. I didn’t realize how many years ago! Someone said it was part of the 2013-15 In Color Collection. After going through not too many boxes and places, I found my old Strawberry Slush ink pad, reinker, Stampin’ Write marker, and two sizes of cardstock! It’s a pretty color and will be nice to use again! In case you have your colors or retired things in any kind of order, here are the other colors from that collection: Baked Brown Sugar, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, and Coastal Cabana. Of course, Coastal Cabana already got promoted into our Core Colors, maybe with the last color refresh when Stampin’ Up! shakes things up by adding and taking away and rearranging color families every few years or so.

So start looking if you have been shopping with Stampin’ Up! for a long time and see if you already have Strawberry Slush! Then you’ll already have one of the new In Colors!

Hearts of Elegance St. Patrick’s Day Card

Leave a reply

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

To celebrate, even though I’m not Irish, here is an unlikely card you could make and give someone! It’s the Hearts of Elegance St. Patrick’s Day Card. I got the idea to use a glimmery green and gold foil to make a St. Patrick’s Day card, and I think since I can make shamrocks out of hearts, the heart dies came to mind for a card. This would be an easy card to copy since I already designed it!

The card base is Soft Sea Foam cardstock. At first I was going to completely cover the card base with the designer paper layer. That meant the cardstock wouldn’t show, but since it would show on the inside of the card, I chose Soft Sea Foam, a nice light color on which I could stamp a message or write something on the inside. I ended up cutting the designer paper down to the usual size so you can do it either way. The designer paper is the Timeless Plaid 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper in the Spring Mini Catalog on page 25. I didn’t purchase this paper at first but on my second Spring Mini order I did, and I really like it. These plaids will be useful for LOTS of kinds of cards. They are great for masculine cards, like Father’s Day coming up in June, but certainly is not limited to masculine!

As I often say, hearts can be for any time, even St. Patrick’s Day! And if you left the little shamrock off the bottom corner of the card, couldn’t you send this to a friend or someone for no reason? It’s not really “just” for St. Patrick’s Day! Or you could even change the colors. I used the Hearts of Elegance Dies from the Online Exclusives. These dies are part of the Marbled Elegance Suite Collection. We used them a lot for Valentine’s Day but as you can see, you can use them for anything! I used the very large solid heart for the background, diecut out of Gold Foil. The next size down is the light green glimmer paper in the Festive Glimmer Paper. It is the Granny Apple Green shade but there is also Garden Green if you want something darker. And if you don’t have this glimmer paper, there are others with greens in them.

For the greeting, I chose the sentiment in the Tags of Thanks Stamp Set. I wanted to stamp it on the banner in the Mixed Labels Stamp Set but it was too tall. I stamped it in Old Olive ink and wasn’t sure how I was going to use it since it wouldn’t fit on the banner. My first thought was to cut the words apart so I cut off the first word in the greeting “so”. I actually kind of like how “lucky” is the first word you see since it is a St. Patrick’s Day card. I just trimmer around it and then looked in my dies to see what would work. Lo and behold, I found this flowery label in the Sentimental Park Dies and I liked the look of it! I diecut that in Gold Foil also and popped it up with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I still thought maybe I needed something officially for St. Patrick’s Day besides the green color, so I punched out three little hearts and cut a stem and made a little shamrock for that bottom corner. You may have all sorts of heart punches or dies so you can use anything but I used the Bee Builder Punch that has a little heart in it!

If you want to check out some of my Oldies But Goodies St. Patrick’s Day cards, just click HERE.

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE HERE!

Stamping With Karen

Having Fun With Paper, Ink, and Stamps

Author Archives: Karen Fontinelle

New Kits in the Kits Collection!

Storybook Moments Diorama Easter Card

Catching Up With Paper Pumpkin Kits!

Storybook Moments Circles Easter Card

New Last Chance (Retiring) Products!

Storybook Moments Garden Card

Beautiful Bokeh Butterfly Birthday Card

To The Point Punch Spring Card

Make Easy Little Easter Baskets

Wildflower Birthday Cupcake Birthday Card

Christmas Kits For A Spring Day

Sour Cream Container Easter Treat

Wildflower Birthday First Day of Spring Card

You May Have This New In Color!

Hearts of Elegance St. Patrick’s Day Card