From My Craft Room — Why I Keep Every Retired Paper Line

Hi Friends!

Okay, I have a confession, and I'm just going to say it out loud: 

I cannot let go of paper!!

I have been that way since childhood - I still have stickers and notepad pages from when I was 7 yrs (let me say - that was a very long time ago.)

And retired paper - well that talks to me! The collections that came and went, the ones you can't find in any store anymore. My darling husband just shakes his head and raises an eyebrow when I walk in the door with a new paper stack - 'hubby - I can't used the retired stuff, I can't replace it' - That gets another head shake and an 'eye roll'.  Then I mossy off to google over my pretty papers.

Back in the early days of this blog, every new release from Echo Park, Doodlebug, My Mind's Eye and Carta Bella felt like Christmas morning. Sneak peeks! Pre-orders! Happy dances! And when a line retired? I kept a pad. Or two. Or... well, let's not count. 😉

And guess what I found this week, just in time for Halloween? One of my all-time favorites: My Mind's Eye Blackbird, all the way from 2010! Little trick-or-treaters in homemade costumes, a crooked little neighborhood of houses, crows against an orange sky... WOWZERS, I still love every single sheet.

Here's the best part about retired paper: nobody else's card will look like yours. And there are collectors out there (hi, my Doodlebug friends!) who light up when they find a line they thought was gone forever.

If Blackbird makes your heart skip like it does mine, there is a collection is in my Etsy shop. (And Doodlebug friends, the very last Lovebugs pack is waiting for Valentine's!)

Psst... coming next week: I've been cooking up something brand new at the kitchen table. Think pumpkins, leaves and a whole lot of THANKFUL. 🍂 Stay tuned!

So tell me: what's the one retired collection you wish you'd bought more of? 

Mine is Traditions from Carta Bella, well one of them, I have so many favorites.  

Let's reminisce together in the comments!
Find your sunshine today,

PumpkinSpice Hugs 🧡

Tutorial Tuesday — Last-Minute Halloween Cards with Cute Stamps

Hello Friends, and welcome back to Tutorial Tuesday!

Halloween is THIS Saturday, so today's card is quick, bright and happy. Nothing scary here, just a cheerful orange pumpkin, a whole lot of polka dots and a wiggle of ric rac.

The star of this card is the paper. It's from The Haunting Stack by DCWV, a 48-sheet pad of 12x12 cardstock from 2009. Pumpkin orange, witchy purple, slime green and midnight black, with black cats, skulls, potion bottles, spider webs, stripes and dots. I fell in love with the green polka-dot sheet with its grungy, distressed edges. It says Halloween without being spooky at all.
The supplies:

1. The Haunting Stack 12x12 paper pad by DCWV (I used the green polka-dot sheet and on the inside I used a scrap from the Echo Park line.
2. An orange card base (A2, 4.25" x 5.5")
3. A yellow panel for the center - textured and I used some ink to smudge the edges.
4. A pumpkin stamp with a "Happy Halloween" sentiment from Soloz.
5. White cardstock, black ink and and a variety of markers
6. Orange jumbo ric rac
7. Purple twine 
8. Foam squares and adhesive tape.

Let's make it:

Stamp a whole sheet, not just one. I stamped my pumpkin, plus a sugar skull girl, a little ghost and a second pumpkin from my Imaginisce Snag 'em stamps, all on one piece of white cardstock. One for today, the rest for later.

I colored all of them but chose the pumpkin. 

1. Color the pumpkin bright orange, give it a green stem and leaf, and make the little stars yellow.
2. Fussy-cut the pumpkin with a narrow white border, keeping the sentiment attached.
3. Trim the green polka-dot paper a little smaller than your card front and glue it to the orange base so a thin orange border shows all the way around.
4. smudge the yellow panel with an ink color of your choice and layer it in the center.
5. Wrap the purple twine around the front a couple of times on a slant and tie it off on the back.
6. Glue a strip of orange ric rac along the bottom edge.
7. Pop the pumpkin up on foam squares, right over the twine.
8. The inside surprise: mat a skinny strip of spider print for the My Minds Eye Blackbird on black and glue it inside the card.
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
    Every card deserves a little something when you open it!
   

Don't waste those extra stamped images! Color the sugar skull girl, the ghost and the other pumpkin, then turn them into treat bag toppers like the ones I shared last Thursday. A whole Halloween party, from one stamped sheet.
Shop the paper: The Haunting Stack is retired, and I have a few pads still sealed in their original wrap in my Etsy shop. You can grab one here. Forty-eight sheets is a LOT of Halloween cards!
Shop the stamps: I had extras of my Halloween stamp sets, still sealed, and they're in my shop as bundles, priced to go before Saturday:

Imaginisce Snag 'em Halloween stamps, 6 packs 
Studio G Soloz clear Halloween stamps, 16 packs 
Studio G red rubber Halloween stamps, 16 packs 

Polka dots or stripes for Halloween? Tell me your favorite in the comments.
Find your sunshine today,

PumpkinSpice Hugs 🧡