PAPER PUMPKIN KOALA

I have a couple of things to confess to you.

A few weeks ago, my fellow co-workers and I were informed that the store at which we work will be closing. Aargh! 

That news struck me right through the heart. I have not been handling it very well at all. You see, I've been working there for six years, and the store, the associates and the customers have become so much a part of me. I feel like a piece of my heart is being ripped out. 

Each day at work is heart-wrenching, just witnessing what is happening all around us. The demise of something so classic and wonderful. 

So, you can imagine how my eyes lit up when I came home from work a few days ago to see my bright red Paper Pumpkin box sitting with the rest of the mail! Yay! Some HAPPINESS on the way -- for a change.

Just for the record, I refuse to check out all the Paper Pumpkin spoilers that are out there on the Internet until my very own kit arrives -- so I can be surprised!!

Thus, it was a grave disappointment (sorry Stampin' Up! -- I feel so disloyal) when I tore into my package to discover what was inside. Meh. 

I'm not sure what I was expecting -- or hoping for -- but this did absolutely NOTHING for my mood.

I crabbily stuffed everything back into the box. And continued on in my funk.

Over the next few days, the kit came to mind several times. I have to admit that I was drawn to the diecut fronts that were included in the kit. At first, I was tempted to simply use them as stencils in my mixed media projects. But there were four of each design! I needed to come up with more uses!

Finally, I took out one of each of the designs and cut them apart, trimming them as I needed for my intended purpose.

Once I did that, the Creative Therapy kicked in, and I was on my way to a much better outlook on life!

Using the lattice-type diecut, this is the card I came up with:

The photo below pictures the front of the instruction sheet that came with the kit. This is what the cards would look like if I had followed the directions. Sure, the corrugated orange piece was sorta cool. But . . . 

I don't know -- I just found them kinda blah.

After cutting the diecut apart, I proceeded to create this card in three sections.

Because the darling koala will be retiring in a few days -- I will so miss him! -- I wanted to use him one more time.

On a previous car trip, I had cut out a plethora of koalas that I had stamped on scraps of Designer Series Papers. Going through all my choices, I decided on this little polka dot guy. I had also cut out many of the flowers that he is holding on the stamp. But, I decided to make this into a birthday card, so I felt that a balloon was essential.

I looked through all the balloon stamps I had, trying to find one that had a similar look to the koala and was the proper size. The balloon that I ended up using was the one in From the Herd. I even stamped the balloon one more time on white, and cut out the reflection, gluing it in place on my balloon. 

The koala had a line running through his ear that was the continuation of the stem of the flower. I simply turned this line into the string from the balloon. Worked great! I popped up both the balloon and the koala with Stampin' Dimensionals. 

The center portion of the card, which measures only about 1" wide, was simply done.

My card base is Real Read, so I cut a strip of Whisper White that measured 3/4" wide, and centered a piece of red and white Washi Tape onto it. My original intention was to overlay the red and white Washi Tape with a thinner strip of Pool Party Washi Tape. Nope. That didn't work. The Washi Tape is just a bit too transparent and the design and color of the tape underneath showed through. Yuk. So I cut a 1/4" strip of Pool Party cardstock and used that in its place. I added Candy Dots to the top and the bottom to finish it off.

The final third of the card is the largest, and in this photo almost looks like a card in and of itself. I simply proceeded with the same color palette in the stamping of the retro-looking Happy Birthday. I cut my sentiment into a banner shape, then added some drawn-on stitching with Stampin' Write Markers.

The sentiment piece is also popped up with Dimensionals.

I am so happy with this little creation. This bit of Creative Therapy worked admirably and lifted me out of my funk -- at least, temporarily.

Another card, created from the other diecut design, will be forthcoming in a future post. It is already done, and I'm happy with those results also. So, stay tuned!

I really don't think I will make any of the cards as the instructions direct. I'm having too much fun marching off to my own drummer!

Funk-y

Smiles.