Ranger New Year Card

A New Year's toast to all the makers: May 2025 be our most creative year yet! Follow along as I kick off January with a super-sparkly card tutorial thanks to Stickles Glitter Glue, Stickles Glitter Gel and Tinsel Embossing Powder. It's on the Ranger Project Page, where there is literally always something new and wonderful to inspire YOU! ♥

MM01: Butterfly

It's a Magnificent Monarch Mandala Monday thanks to this beautiful glossy butterfly photo snipped from the back cover of a magazine last year and saved, "to do something with"; in this case, the "something" turned out to be a mostly symmetrical mandala in coordinating colors in my large Dina Wakley Media Journal from Ranger.

I hope your first full week of 2025 is off to a warm(ish) and wonderful start! ♥

Gift Wrap Wrap-Up

I've said it before and no doubt I'll say it again, but here it is now: Papercrafting supplies are AWESOME for wrapping gifts! Washi tape, journal cards, scraps of patterned paper or wrapping paper, ribbon, florals, chipboard shapes... they are all outstanding items to make your gifts truly unique!

(There's a tutorial for these Dylusions Dyamond Board ornaments on the Ranger Project Page!)

Cheers!

Wishing you a very Happy New Year with hopes that 2025 will be your happiest and most creative year yet! It seems appropriate to start the year with a toast... and Eyelet Outlet definitely has a fine selection of beverage brads, including, from left to right: Lemonade, Beer Brads, Cocktails, Liquor Brads, champagne flutes from the Wedding Set and Wine Brads. With Party Hats and Balloon Brads to decorate the numeral balloons, each diecut from a different shade of Glitter Tape. All on a background of extra wide Calendar Washi. 

And don't forget the Tea, Coffee and Soda Brads for those who prefer their beverages a little softer. All of these and lots (LOTS!) more in the Eyelet Outlet Online Store! ♥

JB2501: Something Old... Something New

Hello and welcome to the first Jingle Belles post of 2025 in which @smilynstef and I are asking you to create a holiday card that features Something OLD and Something NEW. For example, combine an item (or two) that you've had in your stash for some time with some of the new goodies that Santa brought you for Christmas; or maybe... like me...  you were your own Santa and you shopped those Black Friday sales and bought it yourself. Be sure to tell us what your OLD and NEW items are in your blog or social media post!

I treated myself to Simon Hurley's Sketched Snowmen Stamp Set just after the 2024 JB season wrapped up, so of course it was the NEW thing I was dying to use. For my OLD selections I've pulled out my White Ranger Embossing Powder and all my favorite blue Distress Inks to make an "old favorite" technique of emboss/resist; used my ancient Nestabilities frame dies and some tiny Eyelet Outlet 1/16" Round Brads from years ago to hold the sentiment. There's some glittery Frosted Lace Stickles on the torn paper snow, as well, which didn't show up in the photo but is nicely sparkly IRL

Head on over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and start planning what you'll link up with us this time. JB2501: Something Old... Something New will run until the evening of January 15th. 

SOS538: Shining Star

It's the last challenge of the year at Shopping Our Stash, so let's celebrate like the SUPERSTARS we are! By which I mean... make something with stars on it! 

Label shapes and stars were the first sets of nested dies I ever purchased and I still use them quite a bit. The stars in the photo are a newer set of Hero Infinity Dies; but the originals have been passed along to a fellow crafter, so they're still in use! For this card I made radiating panels of Xyroned cardstock and colorful rainbow paper scraps, then I diecut them and matted each one on the next size of star in the set. I scattered a few Eyelet Outlet Star Brads around and unearthed a truly ancient set of Heidi Swapp enamel sentiment stickers. All of which is set atop a cool 49 and Market patterned paper... the only item here which is newish... from sometime last year, I think.

Get a jump on 2025's birthday cards or make some starry thank you notes for all those awesome holiday gifts. Then link it at Shopping Our Stash. SOS538: Superstars runs until Monday evening, January 13th. 

Five Faves of 2024: Mandala Monday Edition

Here's a shocking true confession: A few years ago, when I first adopted the crafters' year-end trend of picking favorites from various categories, it was mostly as a way to generate "easy" posts at the busiest time of year. But honestly, something I love even better than that, is the chance to look back at what I've made all year and start thinking about what I want to try next! 

This being the last Mandala Monday of 2024, here are five faves, in more or less chronological order. Click the bolded text under each pic to go to the original posts; there's a link at the end to visit the entire strand.

MM06

Since 2024 was the Year of the Dragon (my Chinese Zodiac sign) I was happy to have hoarded some (admittedly ancient) papers from Pearl River Mart in NYC.

MM22

When in doubt, go RAINBOW is still my motto for choosing a color scheme and watercoloring with inks or markers is always a fun choice, so I had multiple versions of both to choose from; this is the one that leapt out at me from the Mandala folder.

MM29

Another two popular categories for me are collaged mandalas and index card mandalas made during ICAD. While making this, I stumbled upon both the 1960's "executive" illustration AND a vintage business card for someone called Marvin Mandel. The result was obviously inevitable. PS: In this pic is my #1 favorite mandala tool: the Helix Angle and Circle Maker, which Stephanie and I stumbled upon in a tiny sationery shop on New York's Upper East Side. (If NYC isn't local for you, the link will take you to Amazon, tho, where you can also buy one).

MM43

I made a few diecut mandalas this year and several of my favorites involved Wendy Vecchi's Garden Party and NOT Your Ordinary Card Collections from Spellbinders. This one uses the latter's Halloween Add-On and clearly the kitty has, fair and square, stolen the show!

MM38

Something I hadn't realized I had done several times over the course of the year is build a mandala around a diamond rather than a circle. This one features Dina Wakley Gloss Sprays AND my Dina Kraft Journal. The "stacked" triangle repeats are what took it over the top for me; the Archival Inks on kraft are also very fresh. I get asked about my go-to pens which are Ranger's Letter it Fineliners, one of which is in the photo.

♥♥♥

I hope I picked some of your favorites from 2024 but if not, you can cruise through the whole collection HERE. Then stay tuned for 2025's crop of brand new Mandalas, coming soon to a Monday near you!