Robin Messenheimer, Stampin' Up! Demonstrator

Aloha, all!

It’s been a while since I’ve mentioned Stampin’ Up!’s Paper Pumpkin Kits. These are a monthly subscription product in which each month you receive a box containing a Stamp Set, at least one Ink Spot (small ink pad), all the products you need to make that month’s projects, and instructions for making the projects. One reason for my lack of chit-chat about Paper Pumpkin is that in the past, I’ve not been all that thrilled with the projects. Oh, it wasn’t that the projects weren’t good and fun projects. It’s just that I’d get a kit with a banner or a 3-D gift project in the kit when I really wanted some cards to make.

But that’s all changed. For one thing, more often than not, the projects are cards. For another thing – and one that’s most important to me – is that we get good, solid hints at what’s going to be in the kit before I’m committed to getting the next month’s kit. For example, I already know that June’s kit is going to be very small cards, such as those you’d insert in a gift. Not something I’d use much. On the other hand, they’re also showing that it will have some beach themed stamps. Hmmm. That’s going to be hard to give up if I suspend for a month. What to do, what to do!

Why am I bringing this up now? The price for an individual Paper Pumpkin kit is going up from $19.95 to $22.00, an increase of $2.05 per month if you pay for your Paper Pumpkin kit every month.

BUT – the prices for Pre-Paid Subscriptions don’t go up until JUNE 1, 2019!

If you don’t now buy Paper Pumpkin, but you’ve been thinking about it, now is the time to consider a prepaid subscription, especially for 6 or 12 months. Depending on how much sales tax your state charges, you could save from a bit more than a dollar a month up to several dollars a month by buying a prepaid subscription before June 1st.

Late last month, a friend who’d moved from Hawaii to California came back for a visit and she wanted to make some card with me. For our first session, when I knew we’d want to talk a lot to catch up with our lives, I broke out the March 2019 Paper Pumpkin Kit and the two refills I’d bought to go with it.

When we opened this kit, both of us decided right away that we liked the look of the projects just as they had been designed. And so we both started right in stamping and tying Baker’s Twine and gluing elements into place. What fun we had that afternoon! And what a great selection of cards we had to use over the next few months when we’d have a bunch of Thank You and other cards to send.

Just before Donna came over for another afternoon of crafting, my April Paper Pumpkin kit was delivered. When the subscription confirmation time for the April kit came, I already knew Donna was going to be here. So for her I ordered an extra full kit so that we’d both have a full kit (including the ink and stamps) with which to work. And it’s a good thing that I did, because we both attached this kit completely differently. Donna like the cards just as they were designed. I, however, am a big fan of full-sized A2 (4-1/4′ x 5-1/2″) cards, and the April kit cards were Note-card-sized (3-1/2′ x 5″). Those cards are large enough to be sent by mail in the United States. Nonetheless I wanted a larger card. And that stamp set was just perfect for some of the ideas I had to make larger cards.

What I did to make these larger cards was to pull out some cardstock and ink pads that matched the colors in the kit papers – So Saffron, Calypso Coral, and Mint Macaron. For the Mint and Coral cards, I used VersaMark Ink to stamp a leaf background on the cardstock, to pull all the elements together. I tried the Saffron card without the watermark background, and I think I like that just as well.

So there are two different approaches to Paper Pumpkin kits. And here are some other factors to take into consideration if you decide on a multi-month prepaid subscription:

You can suspend your subscription for any month you don’t want a kit – for any reason! You don’t have to give a reason for suspending. I suspended for June because I don’t care for the size of the cards, and I’ll likely suspend for July as I’ll be traveling all month and won’t have a chance to make the kit before the August kit arrives.
You can return a kit you don’t like. Yep! Just call Stampin’ Up! and tell them why you don’t like the kit, and they’ll take it back. (I’ve never done it personally, but I’ve read about others who have. But I don’t know the process. If it happens to you, I’ll figure it out!)
If an upcoming kit looks like something you’d like to have more of, you can definitely add a kit (or as many as you want) to your order for the next month. Or you can order refills for the kit. Those become available shortly after the 20th of each month.

If you have any questions about Paper Pumpkin, please let me know and I’ll get right back to you if I don’t have the answer on the tip of my tongue. That’s what I did last month when one of my subscribers needed some help with her shipment. She complimented me on how well and quickly I answered her questions! You can be another one of my subscribers and get the same great service!

Happy Stamping!