The Joyful Stamper| easy and stepped-up uses of Stampin' Up! products| free papercrafting tutorials: 4 Tips For Using Your Paper Pumpkin Kit

It's exciting to see that Paper Pumpkin kit in your mailbox and it's even more exciting to tear it open and dive in! Today I'm sharing with you some tips for creating with your Paper Pumpkin kits.

The first tip I have is to punch out and sort any printed pieces that come with the kit. My photos all use product from March's Under The Weather kit. For the smallest pieces, I have a little glass dish I keep them in. Muffin tins would be a great way to organize all of the pieces, though!

The second tip I have is to stamp all your sentiments. I like to use every greeting that is in the stamp set with the provided ink spot so that I have a variety to choose from.

My next tip is to cut the twine (or ribbon) included in the kit. There is a ruler at the bottom of the instruction sheet you can use to measure out to the correct length. The instructions will tell you how long the pieces should be.

Now you're organized and ready to create! Here I made the cards exactly as the kit intended.

You can go one step further and come up with your own designs. If you choose that path, pull cardstock in all the kit colors (listed in the instruction sheet and on my blog's Paper Pumpkin page). This allows you to create seamlessly without having to jump up and down to retrieve colors. It also lets you easily view which combinations you love.

For my alternative project, I used a masking tape technique to create a rainbow. Tear off a piece of making tape longer than your paper (enough extra that you can hold it on both ends). Tap the tape in an ink pad, then lay the tape ink side down on your paper. When you lift it, the ink will have transferred to the paper in an uneven, edgy pattern. It's such a cool look!