Happy Halloween!

I hope this last day of October finds you well and that it holds many more treats than tricks! I couldn't resist making just one more Halloween card featuring my favorite Eyelet Outlet Bat Brads:

I remember making this fun forest background as part of a make and take at the anniversary party of my favorite papercrafting store, Paper Anthology: proud stockist of Eyelet Outlet bling and brads... including bats! It was part of an amazingly lovely Christmas card design, but to me it also looked a bit haunted; so I asked if I could make a second one to save for Halloween. To finish it off in suitably spooky fashion, I added a super-shimmery moon made by combining Ken Oliver Crafts' Watercolor Pigment Powder (in Gamboge) with Pearl Liquid Sparkle. I attached the adorable Bat Brads and made them more mysterious by letting them peek out from behind some punched clouds. 

Happy Haunting to everyone celebrating Halloween!

♥♥♥

PS: This year's Paper Anthology anniversary party takes place this coming weekend, November 3rd and 4th. There will be FOUR free make-and-takes, food, selected savings throughout the store, a very cool "thank you" gift and of course the legendary Spinning Wheel of Prizes. If you're anywhere near Kenvil (Morris County) NJ, I hope you'll stop by and say hi! Full details on the website!

♥♥♥

the witching hour

we're feeling so SPOOKtacular this week at shopping our stash, we thought we'd take the chance to make one last halloween card! i was pretty excited to have an excuse for one more since i realized belatedly that i had somehow missed out on the sisterhood of snarky stampers' PINK HALLOWEEN earlier this month. so this one is especially for those gals:

tattered angels and heidi swapp spray ink background on strathmore watercolor paper; web drawn with faber-castell pitt artist pens and highlighted with black machine stitching; sentiment sticker: bella boulevard; spider brads: eyelet outlet; ink for edging: colorbox; pink shimmer mat: hambly; black glossy cardstock: paper accents; adhesives: 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i've done a pink halloween spiderweb the last two years, i think, and it's becoming one of those things that i enjoy seeing how many different ways i can pull it off. this time i masked off the heart and used my super-neglected spray inks to create the background. then i drew in the web and added a bunch of machine stitching before finishing off with a sticker sentiment and some super-cute eyelet outlet spider brads!

there's lots more bewitching inspiration over at SOS... you should (trick-or) treat yourself to some eye candy! ♥

HOPPY holidays

we're still celebrating christmas with critters at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and there's still plenty of time for you to join the fun. this week, i've made a card featuring somebunny special! :)

wreath builder stamps by gina k designs stamped in various shades of ranger distress ink; bunny & tree stamps: pretty pink posh; patterned paper: pebbles, echo park + best creation white glitter paper and bazzill cardstock; border punch: recollections; holly brads and holly tape: eyelet outlet; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i'm still totally loving the gina k wreath builder system. this week i discovered that if you use one of the larger round stamps in the middle, you can punch the center out and make a little window to reveal a sentiment or... in this case... a bunny! to create the wreath i used a bunch of different green distress inks, most of the foliage branches in the holiday wreath builder set, and some fab eyelet outlet holly brads. i chose the pebbles' tree paper as a background before i started stamping, so that i could coordinate the greens to match!

be sure to HOP (like an xmas bunny, lol!) over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and see stephanie's awesome card, then link up one (or more!) of your own!

(Sorry About the Earworm...)

I've had this idea for a card in my head ever since I knew we were going to have Lawn Mower Brads in the Eyelet Outlet Fall 2018 release. I've also intermittently had the Clash's version of the iconic rock anthem in my head whenever I've thought about it. Luckily, I like that song. If you don't like that song, I'm really sorry. Maybe looking at the card more would help?

Often there's a lag between my idea for a sentiment and how I'll actually construct the card so the joke is visual. But this time I knew from the get-go that I wanted Sun and Cloud Brads in a fairly small sky, hovering over layers and layers of punched grass. And that there should seem to be much too much grass for the size of the mower. Which is how it feels on a hot day in the summer, lol!

I computer generated most of my sentiment (using a free font called "Mom's Typewriter") but then used foam stickers for "lawn". Again, they are a bit oversized compared to the Lawn Mower Brad, because I wanted the lawn to loom a bit!

At the very end, I had fun deciding what other brads could be hiding in, or flying over, all that grass. I went with some Rabbit Brads and Mini Bees, but I could easily have chosen Frogs and Dragonflies, Kittens and Ladybugs, or Gnomes and Butterflies!

There are lots more great Lawn Mower Brad ideas from the other designers on the Eyelet Outlet Blog, you should definitely scroll around a bit, you're in for a treat! ♥

shape up, cupcake! ;)

we are doing the dreaded SHAPED CARD challenge at shopping our stash this week, and knowing that some of us automatically click into "round card mode" on these occasions the powers that be (in this case barb who thought up the theme this time!) have declared that NO round or oval cards will count. it has to be a real shaped card! yikes!!! luckily i still had an oversized cupcake template from a year or two ago AND i had an artist inspiration i was longing to try, so i was all set, see?

scraps of every kind of brown, tan and pink patterned paper you could possibly imagine, so i'm not going to name them all, but luckily this would work with ANY more or less monochromatic scraps, so i don't need to; plain white cardstock from staples, run through my xryron machine so that i had a base with smooth dry adhesive, edge to edge. i used a homemade template to make the cupcake shape and drew some pencil guidelines on the icing part to guide my (attempted) "swirl" of icing; i made the cake, icing and cherry as three separate sections, so i could stick them together with 3M foam tape and get a bit of dimension; i stitched around the edges of each piece for some extra texture and frankly just to make sure that all those little tiny pieces STAY ON lol! :)

in the last few months i've kept seeing what nancy standlee calls her "collaged paintings" and every single time i am blown away. this seemed like a good time to take a crack at one of her luscious cupcakes.

the base was easy... just snip strips of brown and tan paper scraps. (because obviously my cupcake was going to be chocolate!) the top was a little more involved; and i never did get the shading quite right around the swirls of icing, but i wound up with a cupcake that actually looks like a cupcake, so i'm callin' this a WIN!

at this juncture, you may be remembering that i often don't bother to make a folded shape card, mine are basically just fancy diecut postcards, lol. but this time, i did fasten a narrow (2.5"ish) folded strip of kraft cardstock to the back of the cake so that it can stand up! (ta-daaaaaaa!)

be sure to hop over to SOS and see the amazing shaped creations my design team darlings have cooked up for you! ♥

christmas critters

having wrapped up ♥pink christmas♥ at JINGLE BELLES* it's time for another october tradition: we always celebrate creatures around halloween, which means we'd like you to break out the llamas, moose, penguins, flamingos, yeti, monsters or... well, basically any non-human creature you've always wanted to feature on a holiday card. or yeah, you could go with something silly like reindeer, lol.

foil mates background and jelly bean green foil: gina k designs; reindeer sticker: doodlebug; other stickers: american crafts; mini bingo card: jenni bowlin (digital file); gingham paper: stampin' up; antler and snowflake brads: eyelet outlet; kraft background: bazzill; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape

i never can resist doodlebug stickers, generally, and their reindeer in particular. i was a little shocked to find that, despite having bought several reindeer-inclusive sticker sheets this year, the little dude above is the LAST? definitely time to re-order! i've kitted him out with some very majestic eyelet outlet antlers, and given him a beautiful gina k foiled background in which to strut his stuff. i arranged all the bits and bobs according to the current atlantic hearts sketch (#286) which i think you'll agree is pretty inspiring:

and now it's time for you to head over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and see what stephanie has cooked up to inspire you!

*spoiler alert: we had 69 cards and raised $276 for which we thank you from the bottom of our pink-ribboned hearts! ♥♥♥

The New Super-Couple!

Don't worry, there are no Kardashians in this post. Just Kards... I mean cards! The super-couple to which I refer is the combination of Gina K Designs' Wreath Builder stamps and Eyelet Outlet brads. Because trust me, they are gooooooooooooood together. See?

It helps to have a stamp positioner. I suppose it's probably vital. And truly it's the thing that makes it not only possible to make awesome, unique cards this way-- but also really fun and slightly addictive! Seeing as how my craft bestie, Stephanie, is on the My Sweet Petunia design team, you've probably already guessed that mine is a MISTI. Another fine choice to add into the mix are some beautiful autumnal shades of ColorBurst Ink from Ken Oliver Crafts.

Then there are the brads, obviously. My first card is built around our brand new Eyelet Outlet Apple Brads which come with both apples and cores. I used Gina K's Autumn Wreath Builder set to make a perfect home for them, with an appropriate sentiment from the same set.

The second card is still quite autumnal in feeling, but I've left it without a sentiment so that it could be a birthday, a thank you, or a get well; though naturally I hope not to need the latter anytime soon. I've added Daisy Flower Brads, Butterfly Brads, Mini Butterflies and Mini Ladybugs, as well as red and champagne Jewel Bling and a bit of Script Washi in the background.

My third card miiiiiiight be my favorite. Because one of our Gnomes is making use of a rake from the Lawn Mower Set in front of a Pumpkin with a background of softly falling Mini Leaf Brads! Boy would I love to have a gnome to do my leaf-raking in real life, but until that happens, I guess I'll just enjoy that in card form!

orange is the new pink... or possibly vice versa...?

this week's challenge at shopping our stash has a catchy title that somehow bizarrely stumped me for a good twenty four hours, so let me just tell you straight out: we just want to see projects which have BOTH orange and pink on them. it's really pretty easy. unless you're *me* lol! eventually, though, i got the hang of it, here's what i made:

background paper: basic grey; strips and scraps from: creative imaginations, fancy pants, sei, glitz design, prima, jenni bowlin, doodlebug and... well, they are all ancient and you won't find them again anyway, but luckily this idea works with ANY set of scraps you like! ancient sticky chipboard letters that weren't so sticky anymore (hence the stitching lol): american crafts; tiny flower: prima; tiny brad: sei; ink for edging: colorbox; adhesives: elmers tape runner, sewing machine

during ICAD this summer i became slightly obsessed with making quilt-like designs out of paper strips. to the point where i actually made up a card class at paper anthology mostly in order that i could keep doing so. it occurs to me that this type of card is the ULTIMATE expression of shopping one's stash, because even the tiniest, skinniest scraps can be used. which doesn't mean you have to save everything, all the time... but if you did happen to have some offcuts that were the last of a favorite paper which is no longer made, this is quite a nice way to use them up. ♥

there are lots more ideas for combining orange and pink over on the SOS blog. you should really head over there and see them!

in the pink!

Stephanie and I are still making PINK CHRISTMAS cards at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and donating $2 each to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for each card that's linked up with us this fortnight, so we'd love for you to not only make some cards, but also spread the word! Thanks very much for your help!

Here's what I made this week:

I've used a few more bits and bobs from the Sugar Plum collection by My Mind's Eye, including the stripey pink paper and that beautiful badge. I've mixed in some other items-- and some darker pink-- in the form of patterned paper strips, some oversized pink fabric poinsettias, and a small (ancient!) sentiment sticker that was serendipitously exactly right!

Hope over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to see Stephanie's card and link up your own!

Washi + Flowers + Bling!

Everyone knows how much I love to wrap presents, especially for my nieces and nephews. So when my niece Lindsay Marie turned fifteen (15!!!) last week, I wanted to go big, which meant I needed ALL my favorite Eyelet Outlet embellishment categories: washi, flowers and bling!

I've mentioned before that I'm kind of... well... cheap, lol. So if I can buy plain giftbags inexpensively --or better yet-- if I can re-use a shopping bag, I'm a happy camper. In this case I started with a very pretty oversized bag from the New York Botanical Garden. It was exactly the right size and had that neat fern detail on the front and back. Unfortunately, it had the logo, too; in really large print. I tried putting ordinary washi over top, but the black typeface still showed through. Luckily, I had some glitter tape, which is very sparkly but not at all see-through. It also lets me avoid the wrath of Lindsay's father (my brother, Bill) who has declared glitter giftwrap and ribbon OFF LIMITS in his home, since he's only just now finally gotten all the carpets clean after last xmas' giftwrapping excesses.

I love to personalize presents. It is my belief that *everyone* secretly hopes the fanciest gift is for them, and that most of us totally get a kick from our name being on it! I recently found these beautiful, oversized, silver chipboard letters, and they looked good on top of the glitter tape, but my motto is: NEVER give up a chance to embellish!!! So I added a strip of Zigzag Purple tape and a fun Skinny Foil tape to each letter before adding them to the bag.

Lindsay's favorite color is purple (in case you hadn't guessed, lol!) so I finished off with some Purple Paper Flowers with purple Flower Jewels at their centers. I cut some older green flowers apart to serve as leaves, and finally added most of a package of clear Swirl Bling... cut apart and slightly re-arranged, in order to fit the space better. 

Just in case you were wondering what was *IN* the bag, it just so happens I crocheted a funky scarf that Lindsay really loved! (See, I told you her favorite color was purple!)

Don'f forget to drop by the Eyelet Outlet Blog for designer inspiration, every day! ♥

giving thanks

in honor of thanksgiving having been celebrated yesterday in canada, and only just over a month away here in the states, we are feeling especially thankful this week at shopping our stash. so we'd like to see cards that are either thanksgiving-themed OR, if you prefer, an ordinary thank you card will work. i went with the latter:

patterned paper: mme, basic grey, plus scraps of plain white; kraft cardstock: the paper cut; ephemera: the girls' paperie; diecut heart: k and co; chipboard letters: prima; florals: petaloo; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, gluedots

this card is chock full of absolutely ancient stash items! the floral chipboard letters for my youngest niece's 4th or 5th birthday (which... impossibly... is like 9 years ago!); the reproduction paris ephemera is from a packet i bought at an expo before we lived in this house (so... 5+ years on that?!); the 6x6 paper was a birthday gift last year or the year before; the velvet florals were leftover from an xmas card class in 2017 or 2016. i think the newest thing on this card is the kraft base, which was the last of a packet from this past winter. i love using up old stuff... especially when it's pretty things that i still really like! ♥

lots more inspiration is awaiting you at SOS, where i'm sure you will be as thankful for the inspiration as i am! 

♥PINK♥ xmas!

If you've played along with us in other years, you may already know that at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ we devote the first theme of each October to making pink holiday cards as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and that for each card that gets linked up, we each donate two dollars to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. There are really no rules for this challenge other than the fact that each card has to be newly made, it has to have a winter holiday theme and it has to feature PINK prominently. Does your whole card have to be pink? Certainly not. Can you combine other colors with the pink? Of course! Should you have more pink than say two or three baubles on your green tree set against a snowy white background? Well, yeah... that'd be good. :) But other than that, we'll leave it to you to decide how much pink, what shade, and how to employ it!

We're not generally huge on self-promotion at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ but this cause is near and dear to our hearts and we'd love to get GREAT participation, so be sure to tell all your cardmaking friends, and feel free to share the graphic and our link on your blog or social media. But now let's get right to the cardmaking! Here's what we've made this week:

Somewhat unusually for me, I not only used products which are nearly all from the same collection, I actually chose and purchased the collection specifically with Pink Xmas in mind. So you can see that my card has a lot of elements from "Sugar Plum" by My Mind's Eye, including patterned paper, a sentiment sticker and some cardstock diecuts. All of these are living happily together in a sort of landscape, completely with white glitter paper snow, obviously!

Be sure to hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to see Stephanie's luscious pink card and get started planning your own!

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

The days are getting shorter and Halloween is getting closer, but there's still time to make and send cards... a job which is much easier with some creepy cute seasonal brads from Eyelet Outlet on hand! The brand new Ghosts are of course the stars of this year's Halloween season, but that doesn't mean that I should neglect my old favorites:

I was excited to find these cute potion bottle diecuts in a pack of Halloween goodies, they really inspired my whole card. The bottle with the eyeballs clearly needed some Small Eye Brads, but the others just had bubbling liquids, so I was able to get a bit creative. I will confess right now that the bottle of frogs, starring the adorable Frog Brads are my favorite thing on this card. Maybe even my favorite thing on ANY Halloween card I've ever made? I added Mini Spiders to one of the small jars and a full sized Spider Brad has clearly escaped from... somewhere... (*shiver*) I made my sentiment using a free font called "Sweet Hipster". A little cluster of purple clouds, positioned slightly behind the sentiment, with a pair of Bats completes the design.

I hope you will have as frightfully fun a time making your own Halloween cards as I did making mine! There's lots more inspiration each day on the Eyelet Outlet Blog. ♥

a pearl of a girl

this week's challenge at shopping our stash is a real pearl. no seriously! we'd like you to make a project inspired by this quote:

 

and now, here's my card:

background image is an older gel print on top of a collage of vintage paper with a donna downey poppies stencil as centerpiece; sewing pattern lady from an older sewing book, backed with a scrap of plain white cardstock and fussycut, adorned with tiny snips of an  eyelet outlet pearl flourish (the rest of which is an accent on the card); vintage lace from myu stash; scrap of hot pink cardstock as a mat; ancient sewing pattern paper from crate; plain white cardstock: staples; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sookwang scor-tape, sewing machine

i was inspired almost equally by the quote and the lady who said it. thinking about jackie kennedy, i decided an elegantly dressed vintage lady would be a nice starting point for my card. when i found this one, in a book with very creamy pages, i thought i'd probably make something fairly monochrome, in lots of shades of white. i tried out A LOT of different background ideas, from book pages, to patterned papers in every conceivable style. finally, while i was looking for something else entirely, i found this gel print, made last winter, on top of several taped-together vintage papers. it's definitely an offbeat choice, but as soon as i added it into the mix, the rest of the card came together almost immediately. i took the "pearls" part pretty literally, because i knew i had some lovely eyelet outlet pearl flourishes, in a few different colors. for a while, i was torn between bright white and dove grey, but eventually i settled on the cream.

be sure to check out all the other "pearls" of wisdom from the SOS design team! ♥