Treeskirt Tic-Tac-Toe

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're playing Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe, which is kind of like "Beach Blanket Bingo"...but Christmassy... and with a lot more embellishments! We'd love for you to join us; all you have to do is pick a row (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) and create a lovely new holiday card featuring all three elements in that row. 

and here's my card:

I chose the left-hand column, which gave me: Animal + Diecut + Red, so I went with the sweet bunny (plus a couple of trees) from Pretty Pink Posh's Holiday Pals stamp set; Diecuts in the form of Penny Black's Trees and Hills in the background and MFT's Happy Holidays frame; and three different patterned papers (plus a mat) in Red. 

I'm joining the Christmas in July fun at Addicted to Stamps and More, which runs until July 29th if you'd like to, as well!

JB2515: Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe runs until the evening of Wednesday, July 30th. Join us today at Jingle Belles!

Life is Better at the Beach

Here's a summery card idea that's SHORE to please: Diecut chunky letters from Eyelet Outlet Wide Water Washi adorned with a strip of torn Glitter Gold Tape to serve as sand. Scatter Shell Brads and Sea Shore Brads along the bottom, as if they've been washed up by the tide. Augment with Water Splats and a handsome Flamingo Brad. Place the stamped portion of the sentiment above, and surround it with a flying Seagull plus Sun and Cloud Brads.

Beachy Keen Shopping List:

Shell Brads

Sea Shore Brads

Water Splat Brads

Flamingo Brads

Seagull Brads

Sun and Cloud Brads

Wide Water Washi 

Glitter Gold Tape

Whatever your favorite summer activities are, the Eyelet Outlet Store has exactly the right brads, tapes, bling, enamels and flowers to bring them to life!

SOS552: Wood is Good

It's time for the new challenge at Shopping Our Stash and this time we'd like to see cards and projects which feature woodgrain patterned paper, wood-look stamps, or wooden embellies. Because, this fortnight, Wood is Good!

I don't think I've ever been in the same room as woodgrain patterned paper and not bought some. I have every color, every style, every variation you can think of. This card uses two of them: a chippy-peely blue-painted background (from Crafter's Companion) and a more subtle tannish brown that I diecut into a frame (from Simple Stories). I also probably own ten different woodgrain washi tapes, and I was tempted to use ALL of them, but settled for just one dark brown, somewhat translucent strip, running vertically behind my focal grouping, under a few wraps of natural twine. The grouping consists of a 1964 Porsche illustration, set atop a vintage map of London, framed by the aforementioned tan woodgrain Nestabilities label shape, over a Tim Holtz Picture Wheel, layered onto another vintage map of London. 

There are more Good (and inspiring) Wood-centric projects from the SOS Crew over at Shopping Our Stash, so be sure to check those out! SOS552: Wood is Good runs until the evening of Monday, July 28th.

More ICADs (Weekly Round-Up)

Another seven days of art-making on index cards has flown past and here are the ICADs that emerged:

Day 44: Hawaiian Eye Mandala Monday

It's a collage + doodles mandala with a vintage Hawaiiana theme and ingredients, plus color-coordinated doodle shapes made with Tombow Dual Brush Pens; on a vintage library catalog card.

Day 43: Giraffe

Giraffe(ish) spots with Zen Doodles!

Day 42: Bronze

 I painted and stamped a background with Ranger's Perfect Pearls (in Perfect Bronze of course) then added stamped seashells which were watercolored with diluted shades of Blush, Perfect Gold and Blue Patina. Alas you cannot really see all of the fabulous shimmer in a photo, but IRL it's very cool!

Day 41: Checkerboard

It's a fanciful, doodle-centric #checkerboard in shades of pink and orange. Because... ok, just because!

Day 49: Autumn

I’ve recently become slightly obsessed with layouts that are situated on a diagonal axis; its harder than it looks to get them right but I’m enjoying the experimentation phase.

Day 39: Off-Prompt

Just got my hands on the new Simon Hurley create Foam Ink Pads and believe me, "STELLAR" is absolutely the correct word! Super-juicy, super-intense, they ink a stamp or an applicator with just a couple of taps and you have gorgeous saturated color that blends beautifully. Yep, I'm gonna need them all. For the test-drive I went off-prompt and blended five rainbow shades through Simon's Deco Diamonds Stencil, then added lots of fun doodles with my Letter It Fineliners. 

Day 38: Bicycle (sort of)

You know the old saying, "When life gives you (paper-pieced) lemons, make incredibly funky riding-really-fast bicycle wheels!" Ok yeah, so: I started out with the idea of spokey, spinning wheels and... somehow... it all went a bit citrussy. But that's the beauty of ICAD, imo. 

Additional Poinsettia Perfection

It's week two of "Poinsettia Perfection" at Jingle Belles. As you may recall, we are making holiday cards that feature poinsettias OR other holiday blooms, plants or greens, such as mistletoe, holly and pine. Here's what I made this week:

Way back in February, for the "Midnight Clear" prompt, I had made a card built on a well-hoarded, super-sturdy Hambly Screen Prints transparency base, which reminded me how much I love those AND generated an interesting idea involving washi tape which I've finally gotten around to right here! As you can see, I just added strips of red and green washi dangling down from the topfold of the card. I've wrapped them around to the back as well, but trimmed those edges slightly shorter than the ones on the front so that they don't show. I was on the point of attaching some poinsettia diecuts when this hand-painted, machine-stitched poinsettia (which I made a while ago but for some reason didn't use) literally fell out of an envelope full of crafty "leftovers" which seemed like a pretty clear SIGN, so of course I used it, lol.

JB2514: Poinsettia Perfection runs until Wednesday evening, July 16th. Hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card and to link up your own bloomin' beauties.

BEE Happy

Eyelet Outlet Bumble Bee Brads can BEE used to make a HONEY of a card. Here they're paired with Mini Bees and Colored Daisy Brads for an all occasion greeting that's especially intere-STING! 

Buzzworthy Shopping List:

Bumble Bee Brads

Mini Bees

Colored Daisy Brads

Check out all the birds, bees, critters and more in the Eyelet Outlet Store! 

Perfect Pearls Beachscape Card

Perfect Pearls are, in my opinion, one of Ranger's most flexible products, since there are so many cool ways to use them! I highly recommend the Perfect Pearls Kits, which contain everything you need to get started: several coordinating shades, a small pad of Perfect Medium and two brushes... one for application and one for dusting. Head over to the Ranger Project Tutorials Page to see the step-by-step process for how I used Perfect Pearls (& some very cool Simon Hurley create stamps and stencils!) to create pearlescent stamped images with Perfect Medium; then mix the powders with water for a dazzling emboss/resist effect.