My Sew You Paper Pumpkin!

I can't sew. Sewing machines hate me, and I don't have the patience for embroidery or even for the cross-stitching I used to enjoy. These days my fingers aren't quite so quick to do what I tell them to and my eyes try to tell me everything's getting smaller. As I tore into the My Paper Pumpkin kit that came from Stampin' Up! in March, I groaned when I saw that there would be sewing involved in the project. 

I unsubscribed from My Paper Pumpkin awhile back after being disappointed with the projects being sent. SU! has since gotten its act together, and these days the kits are looking pretty good. The projects are more attractive, have more variety, and you can make more with the supplies that are sent. They also offer refill kits to subscribers, so if there's a project that you really like, you can make even more. I learned, too, that the color of ink spots that come with the kits each month are not repeated within a year, so it's a handy way of collecting ink colors you may not have. I was most enticed to sign up for My Paper Pumpkin again by the unique stamps offered each month, though.

As I pulled out the sewing needle and yellow embroidery thread from the red-orange box, I cringed. Was I going to regret re-subscribing? As it turns out, I absolutely LOVED the kit!! Included were nine black and white notecards with Pool Party envelopes and epoxy stickers, plus nine white die-cut speech bubbles with holes spelling out the world YOU, plus a bunch of Stampin' Dimensionals (foam adhesive) to adhere the speech bubbles to the cards with. 

Here's how the cards were designed to look:

Card 1 -

Of course I had to use the other stamps in the kit to jazz up the inside of my card, too:

After sewing the first card, I realized it wasn't so bad. The needle had a big eye and was easy to thread, and the holes were large enough that I didn't have to squint to see what I was doing. I decided to sew the remaining eight cards as well. I saw that lots of people used markers to draw in the lines where the thread was designed to go, but I found the sewing rather therapeutic. 

As charming as that first card was, I chose to add in some additional supplies to complete the rest of the cards. I pulled out some Pool Party, Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, and Basic Black cardstock, some stitched dies, and some other decorative elements. Here's the result:

Card 2 -

Card 3 -

After making three notecards, I decided to cut the notecards in half and use the front and back as panels on separate A2 cards. By doing this, I will be able to create six additional cards.

Card 4 -

Card 5 -

Card 6 -

Card 7 -

Card 8 -

Card 9 -

Notice the perfectly aligned little yellow stars on the inside of Card 1?  I used my MISTI to stamp each star separately, and used grid paper to space them out. I do so love my MISTI! Today little stars, tomorrow the world!!

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I'm excited to say that I'm caught up on blogging my finished cards, which means it's time to get back to stamping and making more projects to show! WooHoo! I have high hopes of finishing up some cards yet this weekend, so hopefully you'll be seeing another post from me in a day or two.

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you enjoy what you see here!

Big Smiles,
Joyce Spear / StamperJoyce