stars and/or stripes (forever!)

ok, technically, it won't be quite forever, just till next wednesday night! but we are still celebrating holiday cards that feature stars or stripes or both at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and you still have time to join the fun, which we hope you will!

felt stickers: basic grey; chipboard stickers: my mind's eye; sentiment: simple stories; patterned paper: echo park, mme, simple stories; white glitter paper and ribbon: doodlebug; glossy white kromekote paper: the paper cut; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i went the "cute route" this week, having discovered a couple of basic grey dimensional felt stickers that i *think* may have been brought to this country on the mayflower, lol. ok, maybe they are not quite as old as that, but they're pretty old. still flippin' adorable though, and thanks to an awesome sketch (PP350) from the paper players i knew exactly how to use them!

stephanie also has an awesome card to show you this week, but then she always does, eh?! why not hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and check it out!

Summer Lovin'

If I had to sum up everything I love about summer in just *ONE* card, the card I'm posting on the Eyelet Outlet Blog today miiiiiiight just be the one I'd choose. Because it has sunshine, beach vibes, super-cool flamingos, my favorite color (PINK!) and of course let's not forget a sweet treat, lol! To top it all off, I've managed to express almost all of these loves using Eyelet Outlet Brads! ♥

I've always enjoyed participating in the Coffee Loving Cardmakers' seasonal bloghops--btw, the summer edition is on NOW, and will wrap up Friday night. I don't just love this event because my lovely friend Amy Tsuruta is one of the founders of the Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog (though she is!). 

But I confess it's even more fun more now that I make a point of keeping Eyelet Outlet Coffee Brads and Doughnut Brads on hand, and you can see I've given them a starring role in my card. I've also got Sun and Cloud Brads, a Sandcastle Brad, a Tall Palm Tree Brad, and I've arranged them all as three loving couples against some little diecut hearts. To set off the whole group, I popped the hearts up a bit on a little foam tape, so we could better see that strip of beautiful Flamingo Washi Tape, accented with just the tiniest peep of Glitter Gold Tape. I hand-stamped "Summer Lovin'"with a favorite cursive font and called it done!

While I was feeling "in the pink" I made a second card, using one of the beautiful wide watercolor tapes we had this spring, which also happens to feature flamingos. This particular tape sold out fast (well just look at it!) but this simple idea would work equally well with the Flamingo Washi I used above, or with this other fab Flamingo Tape. You could also rock this with Watercolor Flowers,(I've fussy-cut one of them, to be my flower center!) Butterflies, Birds, or even these beautiful Sewing Machines. There are so many good tapes... you should probably browse the category while you're there! Be sure to grab some Paper Flowers and Jewel Bling Strips, too-- they go with EVERYTHING! 

Meanwhile, I hope you'll check out the Eyelet Outlet Blog, to see ALL of my lovely design team sisters in action; and don't forget to join in the Coffee Lovers' Blog Hop! ♥

aloha, summertime!

this week's challenge at shopping our stash is called, "lazy summer days" and what we'd like to see is a card, atc, journal page, canvas, or any other project of your choice that illustrates how you plan to relax this summer; or perhaps, how you WISH you could relax this summer. for me that's easy, i'm off to hawaii... in my dreams, at least!

patterned paper: anahata katkin/papaya art, american crafts/amy tangerine, imaginisce, doodlebug, sei, authentique; gelly stickers: doodlebug; word sticker: echopark; aloha stamp: stampettes (via long's drug store, waikiki, 2011); ribbon:michaels; markers: tombow dualbrush pens; sdhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i've got loads of really elderly stash on this card, including the cool pink background that's one of a very few bits i have left from a papaya art clipart book that i absolutely adored in like... 2003? lots of ancient paperscraps with interesting edges, a tiny bit of pink ribbon that really seems like it was too small to save ...and yet... i did, lol! my favorite "golden oldie" here, however, is the fabulous ALOHA stamp, which i bought at long's drugs, in the ala moana shopping center, our first night in hawaii, back in 2011. i mention this because i've used the gorgeous new sketch at retro rubber to lay out my design!

there's loads more "lazy summer days" inspiration over at SOS, be sure to check that out, ASAP, darlings! ♥

have ICADs, will travel

i'm seriously a bit freaked out by how quickly june is flying by--it seems like we only just changed that page on the calendar last week, doesn't it? but then time flies when you're having fun, and the index card a day project is nothing if not a blast!

day 18: alphabetize

when cling stamps come all lined up neatly on a backer, i usually want to ink them all and use them as ONE BIG STAMP. so i did.

day 19: gears or gadgets

truthfully, i don't love how either of my ideas turned out.

...BUT...

i made both of these cards at my mom's kitchen table, with my sister, niece, nephew, mom and aunt also attacking index cards with markers, stickers, scissors and gluestick. 

so in a kinda sorta way... 

these are both my FAVORITE!!!

(this is the pic + caption my niece maddie took in the middle of our art camp day to taunt her cousins, via text. a manoeuver of which i would thoroughly disapprove, except they started it by sending us a photo of the beach they were on, first. so clearly, payback had to be made, lol!!!)

day 20: off prompt

yep, it's another freestyle, handcut mandala, this time using scraps of vintage paper. i think i'm starting to get the hang of cutting the shapes to fit each successive round, without outlining first. i have no idea why that's a skill i feel compelled to master, but for some reason i do, so i'm just going with it...

day 21: simplicity

to a lot of people, "simplicity" would mean they should pare down the design, use fewer elements, less of a grunge factor, and not so many layers. to me it means, "add some sewing pattern ladies"!

day 22: vanishing point

this started with a card from some earrings i bought, that just happened to have the image of birch trees and a very strong central vanishing point. in the end, i feel like my collage somewhat obscures that very feature. but on the other hand, i like the small, tiled bits of cut up card added in randomly as a "background" and i had a blast stamping and inking and trimming a couple of cards that had rejected colorburst stencilling on them, so that's the main thing!

day 23: off prompt
probably the fastest card i've made so far, as it is composed almost entirely of leftovers from other projects, most notably a little pink and green flower booklet that is going to be one of my july/aug classes at paper anthology.
(for the record that is the SLOWEST class project i've ever made; sometimes it's hard to walk the line between how you want a thing to *look* and what is do-able by a group, sharing tools, in 3 hours!)

day 24: off prompt
what i love most about ICAD is that i can try really crazy things and not worry if they're going to work or not. in this case, it's a bit of an "or not". when you're drawing mandalas, especially in a small space like a 3x5" index card, it's often good (and more dynamic looking) to draw bits of three different mandalas, letting them go off the edges, than just a tiny, centered one. so i thought that might also be true for mandalas made of tiny kawaii stickers. as it turns out, not so much. on the other hand, the great thing about not really liking your experiment is that you're not worried about "wrecking" it if you try a few more experiments on top. in this case i thought maybe pen doodles and an smudgey inked background would fix everything. they didn't, but  they are definitely interesting, and i'm pretty sure i'll be trying this again! :)

in case you were thinking, "gosh this all looks like fun, but ICAD is nearly half over now, so it's way too late for me to start, and i'd never be able to catch up!" ok, for one thing, there's no need to catch up; just start now and move forward. but yeah, if you want to play along, in real time, with a social crowd on facebook or instagram, you're only going to have about 36 days instead of 61. but that's still 36 awesome opportunities to make something fun, creative and agenda-free, in the company of really cool folks. and who's to say, at the end of july, you won't want to keep going? but truly, the number, the date and the "official" prompts are just the trimmings of ICAD, it's the chance to play every day that matters. i'm willing to bet there are a few index cards somewhere in your house... :) :) :)

stars and/or stripes

the new challenge starts at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ today, and since this fortnight encompasses july 4th, we thought we'd give a nod to the holiday and ask to see cards which feature stars, or stripes, or... if you're me... both! :)

patterned paper: my mind's eye, fancy pants; glitter paper: american crafts pow; pearl brad, star washi and gold washi: eyelet outlet; poinsettia flowers: michaels; snowflake punch: fiskars; snowflake chipboard: my minds eye; glossy white kromekote cardstock: the paper cut; 

i thought about going all out "4th of july meets xmas"... (and i still might do that, next week!) ...but what changed my mind was the fact that i have this amazingly lovely new eyelet outlet star washi tape that i've been dying to use on a card! since the watercolor-ish stars on the tape are in gorgeous shades of blue and purple, that helped me narrow down my paper choices. in the end, i went with two that are not especially christmassy, but i love how they look together and this is the PERFECT card for my friend kate, who doesn't celebrate any particular holiday in december, except maybe the solstice. a stack of flowers and snowflakes, a beautiful oversized pearl brad, some skinny gold stripe washi and i called it a day!

stephanie has a fab card to show you, so why not hop over and see that right now at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥?

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Go Shopping!

Specifically *SHOE SHOPPING* ...although I (Lauren) have never seen real shoes that were quite as cute as these Eyelet Outlet Shoe and Purse Brads! Which is why I had to make two cards to feature them!

Once again, I've made my own patterned paper to act as a sort of springboard for the design. In this case, I filled a full sized 8.5x11" page with the phrase, "If the shoe fits... buy it!" in 12point Tabitha font. I printed it out first as ordinary black text on a white background. Then I decided to see if the reverse would be cool (yep!) so I set the font color to white and the background color to black, and printed a page of that, as well, so I could mix and match!

Both cards feature the same black, white and pink palette, to match the aforesaid Shoe and Purse Brads. Each packet has 4 shoes, 4 purses and 4 super-cute shopping bags, which you can see sitting next to the cards in the top photo. On the black card, to make the accent strip and focal image pop even more, I added tiny, skinny mats of Glitter Black Washi Tape. 

I hope you will be inspired to make a little shopping trip of your own, right on over to the Eyelet Outlet Store; or check the right-hand sidebar to find out when the Eyelet Outlet booth is coming to a trade show near you. Either way, you'll find allllllllll kinds of goodies that I know you'll ♥LOVE♥!

Lauren Bergold 

can be found here every week, 

right after her Wednesday partner, Miss Carri!

in the (GAH!) pink

this week's challenge at shopping our stash is hosted by miss donna, and here is what she bids us to do:

Challenge 308 - June 20 - Think Pink 

June 23rd is National Pink Day. 

I know Leslie would have LOVED this challenge, as she rolled her eyes! 

(Use the color pink predominately on your project!)

okey dokey, missus. for the record, you had me at "PINK"! ♥♥♥

patterned paper: echo park, american crafts (amy tangerine and dear lizzy), glitz design, sei, authentique; stickers: doodlebug, fancy pants, echo park, amy tangerine; flamingo brad and washi tape + palm tree brad plus paper flowers: eyelet outlet; 

my apologies to anyone who lives in the northeastern united states and wanted to participate in this challenge. because unfortunately, that may prove impossible, seeing as how i've used ALL the pink embellishments. every. single. one. sorry about that! ;)

helping me to organize all this goodness is this week's awesome crafty roadmap from sketch saturday; ably assisted by the fabulous "sorbet" theme at curtain call inspiration challenge!

be sure to check out all the awesome PINK goodness from the design team at SOS!

3x5... x6

what's that? you wish there were half a dozen funky new ICADs to look at since my last update? well, that's handy, because LOOK what i've got right here:

day 12: wings

any excuse to make a tiny colorburst painting, that's my motto! 

(i'm secretly kinda really pleased with the shading on this... just sayin'...)

day 13: echo/repeat

this makes more sense for the prompt if you realize that to me, these kind of look like the soundwave graphics on those equalizer thingies that everyone had in the 80's. but mostly, i found a link i'd saved to maud vantours' "oscillations" series and became instantly re-obsessed with them; so i probably would've made this fit whatever the prompt was, lol.

day 14: leaves

so i was doodling on green vellum envelope that was sitting on my desk...

(in retrospect, i think i added too many collage layers to this at least for it to be a 3x5 index card; however i reserve the right to revisit this idea on a bigger scale and add EVEN MORE stuff to it!)

day 15: starburst

because all you really NEED for ICAD is a pen and some index cards!!!!!

(ps: this is made from all the weird little offcuts leftover from making the 3D tetrahedron!)

 day 16: rainbow

this is my first attempt at a freestyle, handcut mandala... by which i mean that i didn't draw the outlines first, just tacked on each successive layer to the back, then went at it with the scissors. not a lot of variation, but not bad, considering... pretty sure you'll see more like this! ;)

day 17: sprout

kind of a cheat, but it was getting late and i had lots of pink and green flowery bits leftover from another project i'm working on...

wishing you a happy father's day if you're celebrating, or just a really pleasant sunday with hopefully a bit of creative fun in store! ♥

cookies FROM santa?!

we're still rockin' the layers at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ so any holiday theme, products or colors will do, provided you have at least three layers! i've got a few extras, tho! see?

cookie, baking and cooking brads: eyelet outlet; santa sticker and twine: doodlebug; patterned papers: we r memory keepers, pebbles, october afternoon, making memories, anna griffin, glitz design; journal card: echo park; bingo card (digital version): jenni bowlin; glossy white cardstock: the paper cut; tiny doily: recollections; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape

ok, so, i've been wanting to make a card featuring those awesome eyelet outlet cookie brads, and when i saw the current atlantic hearts sketch (#216), that little circle element just screamed, "plate of cookies!!!" to me.

i had intended the cookies to be those we traditionally leave out for santa on christmas eve, but then i remembered the EO baking brads (which also come with muffin tins) and cooking brads (which are paired with the cutest little saucepans) and the next thing i knew, santa was making cookies for us! well, i guess he has to do something in the "off season" right?! :)

stephanie also has a gorgeous layery creation to show you, why not hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and see that right now, darlings! help yourself to cookies first, though! ♥

ICAD, u-cad, let's all CAD! :)

because index cards are ♥AWESOME♥ dontcha think? ok, sorry, that's a silly question, isn't it? here's another little clump of cards i added to my book this week:

 day 7: off prompt

this one's an "i was stumped" two-fer: couldn't think what to draw, so i went with "mandala"; couldn't decide on a color scheme, so i opted for "rainbow". if the default settings ain't broke, why would i fix them?! :)

day 8: paint chips

punched into hexie shapes. with teeny tiny dictionary illustrations on top.

day 9: ombre

i had this awesome idea about compiling a gradient composed of the different patinas of various bits of vintage paper. i may have very slightly underestimated A) how much range there is and B) how much vintage paper i own. so it wound up being made on three cards that i taped together, a fact which is hard to tell in this tiny montage. there's a bigger pic on instagram.

(on the other hand, i still love this idea and have plans to expand it at a more collage friendly size, that doesn't need eyelet outlet washi tape hinges in order to make it fold up into 3x5 card size!!!)

day 10: sunshine yellow

this collage was ENTIRELY yellow until the very very end when i added the b&w flower illustration, which you'd think would dilute the yellow-ness, but actually it intensifies it. ...interesting...

day 11: tetrahedron

don't bother googling, i'll tell you right now that a tetrahedron is also known as a triangular pyramid; it's officially described as a dimensional form whose four identical and equilateral triangular planes can be composed of four identical and equilateral triangles. i know that for a fact, because i had to look it up on wikipedia, too! and then, of course, i had to use my tiny sliver of new-found knowledge and prodigious non-engineering skills to build a 3D tetrahedron out of neon index cards. obviously. (fyi: in this very silly story you will seriously find EVERY SINGLE THING you need to know about me, lol! 

(PS: if you want to see this "in action" there's a flipagram on my IG page! bc if you spend time building a dimensional tetrahedron out of neon index cards, you probably wouldn't want to post JUST ONE photo of it!!!)

there's loads more info about the index card a day project at daisy yellow art, including links to the facebook and instagram populations. and no... it's NOT TOO LATE TO START if you want to! 

♥♥♥♥♥

To the Lighthouse

Father's Day in the US is Sunday --which arguably makes it a little late to just be starting on cards, lol-- but let's face it, sometimes it's the last minute or nothing, right? And for that matter, I never turn down a masculine card idea at ANY time of year, especially one that can be made by combining some of my favorite styles of Eyelet Outlet Brads which, coincidentally, is what I've posted on the Eyelet Outlet Blog today!

For this not quite 6x6" card, I painted a tiny watercolor using some of my favorite shades of ColorBurst pigment powders, then framed it by cutting a heart-shaped hole in some sea-themed dictionary paper backed with cardstock. I attached the brads (which I'll list and link to in a minute!) to the frame, then popped the edges up around the opening using tiny slivers of foam tape. But before I started piercing a million holes in my frame, I did a "dry fit" by flattening the prongs a bit and laying the brads on to estimate how many I'd need; while also checking color, size and arrangement. Then I took a quick pic on my phone, so I'd have something to follow when I started attaching them for real. 

So which varieties did I choose? Well, I've got some very handsome Trout and Bass Brads, as well as lots of Stars in assorted colors (each pack has shiny gold, patina-ed silver and copper); Seagulls seemed like a great choice for the lighthouse theme, and of course every good sailor needs a Compass. I hadn't originally thought of using Sketched Owl Brads, but they're so lovely and the colors worked perfectly! After I assembled the main panel, I added a decorative band of Cruise Washi Tape, flanked by two strips of Brown Skinny Glitter Tape, and mounted the entire thing to a folded card in a coordinating shade of teal. 

Sending lots of good wishes to all the dads out there for a very Happy Father's Day!

happy mail!

this week's challenge at shopping our stash is called "happy mail" and can be interpreted in multiple ways: envelopes, writing letters, etc... or mail-related or letter-writing supplies/ papers/ stamps. or possibly a typewriter, an alphabet joke and some texty/lined papers??!

patterned papers: october afternoon, american crafts, basic grey, sei, teresa collins; foam thickers in 2 styles: american crafts; glossy white cardstock: the paper cut; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape

here's a shocking true confession for ya: i looooooove the look of tall cards. every time i make a tall card, i think to myself, "i love tall cards! i should make more tall cards! why don't i make tall cards more often?" and then i have to photograph them and it all comes back reallllllllllllllllly quickly. so yeah. please to consider this both my first tall card IN a while, and my last tall card FOR a while. kthx.

but seriously, i do think it came out well; and additionally i got to use up loads of older stash, which is the ENTIRE POINT of SOS, actually! speaking of which... i happen to know there's load more inspiration awaiting you from my DT darlings, so off you go to check it out! ♥

week one is done!

week one of ICAD2017, that is. which you can read all about, via FAQs, completely optional prompt lists, etc at daisy yellow art! for the last couple of years, i've found that what works best for me --logistically-- is to post the cards on instagram each night as i make them, then do a round up here, like once a week. and it does seem like that is going to be true again this year. so here's the first installment, in blog form:

day 1: sunrise

i had two ideas for this: a pretty literal colorburst watercolor sunrise painting AND a sunrise-inspired mandala... so i combined them. the latter is on a clear tabbed index card divider... 

...which swings aside to reveal the former, on a white tabbed index card. 

best of both worlds!

day 2: lost and found

my philosophy is: when in doubt, do a one-staple collage, lol! ok, yes, i'm somewhat kidding, but since i tend to ICAD late at night, i do have certain "default settings" upon which i can fall back if i haven't come up with a specific idea during the day. one-staple collage is one of them. mandala-vaguely-incorporating-the-day's-theme is another. because with a daily art project, the one thing you can totally count on is that you will not have the same amount of time, energy and inspiration every single day. so rather than derail yourself with overwhelming expectations, make a list of inspirations as and when you think of them, then make it your goal to work on one idea each night. don't worry about finishing, or if it's any "good" at the end. the PROCESS is much much much more important than the OUTCOME!

day 3: vintage

a 1964 skoda on a random torn-and-stamped-over background. check!

day 4: lavender

another of my "stand-by" ideas is repetitive shapes. circles, squares, triangles, ogees. in a pattern, randomly layered, painted over and over, or stacked-and-stitched, as you see here. it is totally fine-- and really quite fun-- to revisit the same ideas over and over. i can assure you, you'll never make the same card twice.

day 5: kawaii

narwhals, narwhals... 

swimmin' in the ocean... 

causin' a commotion... 

cuz they are so awesome!

(the truly GREAT songs never die, do they?!)

(sorry about the earworm, lol, i've got it now too!)

 

day 6: detour

something you really really (REALLY!) cannot see from the pic is that this is bits of FIVE different maps, trimmed and glued together so neatly that you totally cannot remotely tell it is five different maps. sigh. having said that, this is an idea that has been swimming around in my brain for a while now and by virtue of this first (admittedly rather frustrating) experiment, i now have more practical ideas of how to tackle it. for one thing i'll remember not to start something really detailed at 10:45pm with a screaming headache. i also now know this is really a full-sized (12x12?) idea, so i won't try to squish it onto an index card. in many ways, altho this is the card i least LIKE... it's the one i learned the most from, which makes it (IMO) the most embodying of the true ICAD spirit!!!

♥♥♥♥♥