6/5/26 Mid week #213 - April '26 Lakeside Retreat Paper Pumpkin kit

Simple but stunning masculine cards made with a crafting kit!

Hello & welcome to my blog. I hope you are all well.

My name is Alison & I live in beautiful Melbourne, Australia & I am an independent Stampin' Up® demonstrator.

I love to create beautiful things to share with people that I love but I also sell me creations. I have been creating things in one way or another for most of my life - knitting, sewing, cooking, card making, gardening, scrap booking & hand made gifts & in 2020 after joining Stampin' Up® I decided to share my passion in a blog (craftedbyalison@blogspot.com).

In 2025 I retired & decided to spread my creative wings a little more by combining my blog, products that I had been selling on FaceBook & launching a newsletter. Some of these things I had already been doing but this time they are all in the one place. (All previous posts can be found at my blogspot address above if you would to read any of them.)

And here we are at my new site!

Today I am on my way to Shepparton in rural Victoria to watch my husbanc & brother in law in a bowls tournament. Luckily I am able to take some crafting supplies with me!

In today's post I am sharing some gorgeous masculine cards made using a crafting kit from Stampin' Up®. Stampin' Up® currently have 34 beautiful kits available including card kits, home decor kits & kits to help you get organised with gifting & card giving. The kit I have for you today is slightly different to the kits available in the store as it's a subscription kit - one of the Paper Pumpkin kits that can be purchased as a once off or delivered every month to your home with a 3, 6 or 12 month subscription. When you sign up for the kits your first kit comes with a stamping block but subsequent kits don't have one. After all, if you're getting a kit every month there'll be a mountain of stamp blocks by the end of the year! But each kit is all inclusive with all the crafting supplies you need including pre cut & scored card bases, pre printed & cut images, stamp sets, ink spots (mini ink pads), embellishments, adhesives & easy to follow instructions. In fact, the only thing not included in the kit are scissors as there is even a small ruler printed on the instruction sheet!

Today's cards are made with the supplies & instructions from the April '26 Paper Pumpkin kit, Lakeside Retreat. It's a lovely, serene kit & the first one that's been available to the South Pacific market (and also Europe) as previously, Paper Pumpkin was only available in the North American market.

Party time in the South Pacific!!

Moving on though...

This is me receiving a free kit at our yearly event, OnStage, this year...

The instructions...

Here are the three cards...

Even though I have mentioned that these are masculine cards they would also be lovely to send to someone who needs a little tranquility in their life or who is a fan of the outdoors.

Now here are each of the cards on their own...

Card 1

and a closeup

Card 2

and a closeup

Card 3

These cards came together so quickly as there are simple picture instructions that walk you through which pieces you need & how to assemble each card.

There was very little stamping needed for these cards, mainly sentiments & a few additional images. The only changes I made to the kit version was to leave off a few of the stamped images & changing some of the sentiments.

The kit has supplies to make three of each design, so 9 in total, but I chose to make only one set of 3 so that I could have a play around with the rest of the supplies & make 'alternates'. Alternates are very popular in the stamping community with loads of different designs on Pinterest & Youtube. I follow a few other demonstrators & get emails with their designs. In my post on Sunday I will be sharing 3 designs I have made inspired by Rachel Tessman from Stampyourartout, Susan Campfield from Suestampfield and aMAZing creations on Youtube.

If you like easy crafting, are new to stamping or have a friend who you think would like to create but is unsure of how to start, then Paper Pumpkin or regular kits could be just the thing. And the bonus is that you can still earn Stampin' Rewards on subscriptions.

If you're interested then get in touch at Craftedbyalison.com or message me using the number on my blog. Or you can subscribe to Paper Pumpkin by clicking here.

That's all I have for you in this post, a really quick one, but I'll be back on Sunday with the alternative creations I mentioned which will include instructions, measurements & pictures.

My next mid week post will feature another special feature, Product of the Month. Product of the Month was started in December 2025 & are special stamps, dies, embossing folders or DSP that are only available at the month of release or while stocks last. They are $9AUD when you purchase a qualifying order of $125AUD PLUS you still earn Stampin' Rewards!

Til next time, take care & keep creating. XX Alison