Whew! What a busy month this past one's been! My printer gave out without warning and had to be replaced, and so did the car's transmission.  STAMPER's resulting extended stay in the car hospital delayed my departure to Whidbey, but I did get there in time to present 3 different stamping events in a week (big thank-you's to my fabulous hostesses Kevin and Leslie, btw), tie up the loose ends of several bits of personal business, witness the first snowfall of the season there, and assist my folks with several things.  And I got out of town and headed home just before Whidbey's big landslide hit the national news!

I've been dying to get a chance to stamp just for fun, and finally last night was the night.  So I dug out both of the boxes I'd received from Paper Pumpkin and got to work.  

I'd snapped this photo probably about a week earlier….. back at the time I'd received the very first shipment of my Paper Pumpkin subscription (late, because it had arrived while I was out of town), and I remember being SO excited to dig into it at that time.  But alas, so many other higher-priority "have to be a grown-up and focus on real-life" things buzzed all around me…… and believe it or not, this kit stayed in exactly this same status until just last night.  And THEN it was really tough to bring myself to tear open that tissue paper!  (You see, I grew up in a household where we never "tore" wrapping paper, but this package had the Paper Pumpkin logo sticker holding it closed, so I couldn't help it; the tissue paper tore!  Yikes!)

Ok, so I carefully removed, opened and inspected each little treasure inside, and read everything included (not that I really needed to, but I'm my father's daughter, lol)….. and then I started putting the project together.  It occurred to me at about that moment that this package had been billed as about a 30-minute creativity break, so I glanced at the clock and made a note of my start time.

And just about 30 minutes later I had completed this card & envelope……  
even after considering a few minor alterations myself – and spending time digging for a piece of thread.  (If you know me very well you know I can't STAND "naked buttons", so I HAD to put some "clothes" on that puppy! Would have preferred to have used SU's baker's twine, but alas I think it's still in a box in a storeroom somewhere, so I had to resort to some generic stuff I had lying around.)

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised with the results.  (True confessions: I have to admit I had not been all that thrilled with the pictures I'd seen of this initial "Welcome Kit" project – 4 full-size cards and envelopes.  Probably because green, yellow, gray & turquoise would not rank at the top of my favorite color-combos list.) 

But I've learned that the "real thing" is usually much nicer than the pictures, and I'm open to trying new things (I think they call it "stretching"), and as it turned out, I really WAS pleasantly surprised with this result after some minor tweaks. 

The gray base cardstock is AWESOME! Very smooth, heavier than our ordinary cardstock, and white on the inside to make it easy to stamp on or write a note on. Wish we sold it separately, actually. The weight of the envelope is substantial, too, and the button is quite darling with its wonderful texture (which I realize hardly shows in the picture). 

I needed to add my own SNAIL adhesive to adhere the yellow dotted layer to the gray base, and I chose the Tombow multi-purpose glue to attach the button.  And beyond adding that scrap of white thread, everything else I needed was included in the box:  all the various paper layers (most were peel & stick), the stamps, (and even the special "Welcome Kit" gift of the Size D clear block), the gray ink, and the button and envelope.  Oh, and simple instructions (as if they were actually needed, lol).

So hey! All in all I'm pretty impressed….. and anxious to see what April's kit will have in store! (From here on out all the subscription projects will be a surprise.)

If you haven't yet subscribed to Paper Pumpkin (for either yourself or as a gift), you can initiate the signup process here:  www.tinyurl.com/PaperPumpkinSignUp.  But be sure to do it before Monday, April 8th so we can beat the sign-up deadline to catch THIS month's shipments when they go out mid-month. (Remember your first month will always be the "Welcome Kit", which is the kit highlighted here….. and then subsequent months will catch that specific month's kit.)