What's Green and Orange...

...and Purple and Blue and COVERED IN MONSTERS? Today's Halloween card, on The Ink Pad Blog, o'course! Oh and there's some handlettering tips and tricks. And free candy. Ok, technically, that last bit is a lie. There isn't actually any free candy, because it's a blog post. But it's Halloween so there's bound to be lots of treats around, right? And there really are lettering tips and adorable monsters, so you'll like it, I promise! ♥

You Call Me a Witch

A couple of weeks ago I saw a Halloween card with this sentiment on it and literally laughed out loud. Of course, I'm bound to say I think a version which includes Eyelet Outlet Witch Hat and Witch Leg Brads is even better, right?

I made my focal point sentiment with my trusty Dymo Labelmaker, but swapped out the word "witch" in favor of some glamorous enamel and rhinestone letter stickers. I added a Witch Hat Brad to the sweet little patterned paper icon, and affixed my Witch Leg Brads to the background underneath where the circle would go. I couldn't resist the finishing touch of a Spider Brad in one corner and a pair of Mini Spider Brads dangling from machine stitches in the other.

Wishing you a very Happy Halloween if you're celebrating tomorrow, or just an especially nice Thursday if you're not. ♥

I'll Take Manhattan

To paraphrase Sir Mix-a-Lot, "I like big cards, and I cannot lie"! Case in point the A9 that's featured on The Ink Pad Blog for Stencil Sunday. It features not one, not two, but three of Michelle Ward's beautiful New York City themed stencils made exclusively for The Ink Pad. Prefer stamps to stencils? She's designed some of them too. You should probably check it out! ♥

have a narly holiday

this fortnight at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ we're celebrating the real heroes of christmas with a theme we like to call "rudolph and friends". because let's face it, santa's sleigh is not going anywhere without those guys, is he? but to make it even more fun, we're opening it up to include ANY animal, or even a creature. so to sum up: look through your stash for reindeer, moose, elk, caribou, camels, cardinals, robins, doves, penguins, foxes, house mice, cats, dogs, flamingos, yeti, monsters... ok, you get it right? and let's not forget the ever popular christmas narwhal!!!

narwhal, sentiment and "jolly holly" paper: lawn fawn; animal and snowflake papers: doodlebug design; white paper: bella buddies from bella blvd; snowflake brads: eyelet outlet; ink: gina k black amalgam; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape 

one of my favorite things about paper anthology is that elisabeth really really KNOWS her peeps! so if, for example, she is unpacking a box with a whole lotta brand new lawn fawn goodies and there happens to be a narwhal, a certain someone (like... oh i dunno... ME) might get a text announcing that fact! and seriously HOW CUTE is he?! if i hadn't already loved narwhals, this guy would've been enough to start me on the path, lol. to paper-piece, i stamped him on several shades of white patterned paper and once on a fun blue plaid, then let him join some adorable seal, walrus and husky friends on this fun doodlebug design paper. a few mats, a stamped sentiment from the narwhal mini-set and a couple of eyelet outlet snowflake brads and i was good to go!

fly, swim, trot or gallop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and see the fun card stephanie made to inspire you; then start thinking about what creature YOU will feature!

Sunshine and Typewriters...

...are a surprisingly good combination! That's something I discovered when I made today's card for The Ink Pad Blog. The sunshine is in the form of some lovely Eyelet Outlet Sunflower Brads, while the typewriter was used to make my very own *custom* text patterned paper. Read all about it --and see the rest of the card-- on The Ink Pad Blog! ♥

Another Year Races By

I may be slightly obsessed with the new Eyelet Outlet Classic Car Brads, so please forgive me if I overuse them! For today I just have two cards, which seems manageable, right?

A great many of my cards start with a sentiment. In this case, my first idea was inspired by the fact that the Classic Car Brads look pretty sporty, which made me think of racing, and of course the older I get the faster the years race by! I printed my sentiment in a font called Cafe Rojo on a clear inkjet label and stuck it to a little paper flag. I made a fun background from a slightly distressed green patterned paper that I adorned with randomly placed strips of Tire Track Washi Tape, and punched a few 1" circles in the panel. Then I affixed the Car Brads to scraps of vintage map that i had backed with some plain white cardstock and adhered those BEHIND the punched circles, so my cars appeared through the windows.

My second idea was inspired by the Revved Up Gift Set I made this summer. It featured a vintage car illustration cut from an old falling apart book, but it occurred to me that if I scaled everything down to a smaller size, the same basic idea would work with the Classic Car Brads. I diecut some small nested label shapes and set my Car Brads, along with a Compass Brad. Then I set about building a card to hold them!

Nearly everything I used was also featured in the Gift Set, I just made it all a bit smaller to fit an A2 card. I placed artfully torn Brick Tape and strips of Sparkle Copper Foil Tape in a horizontal band across the card. I layered on some blueprint-inspired patterned paper, then added more tape: the Tire Track Washi and some fun Map Tape. I used another computer printed sentiment, this one in my favorite typewriter font, which reads, "You're a Classic"!

I hope you'll be inspired to RACE over to the Eyelet Outlet Store and grab some Classic Car Brads for yourself! ♥

SOS407: Halloween

There's just over a week until Halloween, so if you're making cards and haven't finished them yet, it's time to get moving! Luckily you'll have a place to link them up since this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash we are ALL ABOUT Halloween!

blendy background made with distress oxides and picket fence studio life changing brushes; zen doodle drawn with several sizes of pitt artist pen by faber-castell; spider and mini spider brads from eyelet outlet; alphabet stamps: inkadinkado and american crafts; glossy black cardstock: ranger; stamping ink: gina k amalgam ink; shadows drawn with tombow N60 dualbrush (arguably the best grey ever!); adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, sewing machine

I've made at least one *PINK* Halloween card each year for the last several years, because I love to join the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers P is for Pink Halloween challenge!

My Pink Halloween cards are almost always a zen doodle spider webs, because I love drawing those and let's face it there aren't that many occasions for which they are appropriate! This year's version features some adorable Eyelet Outlet Spider and Mini Spider Brads. It's set on top of a super-blendy background made with several pink and orangey shades of Distress Oxides and the Picket Fence Studio Brushes I finally caved and purchased at Paper Anthology. Everyone who had them before me (which is pretty much EVERYONE lol) swore they were the best thing ever and honestly I cannot argue with that. I've got a stamped sentiment using one older alpha set I've had for years and a second one I just scooped up at the Paper Anthology Paper Crafters' Garage Sale in September. I wish I had planned my second line of text better because it kinda looks like "Haltoween" but other than that I'm happy with the results.

Be sure to hop over to SOS and check out all the fabulous inspiration from the design team! ♥

Roy G. Biv...

...is making an extra special appearance on The Ink Pad Blog today, in a super-colorful card that features Michelle Ward's Hex Pattern Stencil which is part of her exclusive line of stamps and stencils made especially for The Ink Pad. Oh and there's a whole bunch of butterflies, too. You know, if you like that sorta thing? ♥

in the pink

We're still celebrating PINK CHRISTMAS at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and you're still invited to play along! Remember, Stephanie and I each donate $2 for every newly made PINK CHRISTMAS card that gets linked up with us this fortnight, so if you're only going to join us once this year, this would be an awesome time to do so! Here's what I made this week:

patterned paper, journal card, edge distressing tool and chipboard stickers: prima marketing; additional patterned paper: creative imaginations; doily die: cheery lynn design; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, sookwang scor-tape, sewing machine

I raided my collection of Prima holiday papers, using lots of Santa Baby and a little bit of the Sweet Peppermint collection. But my favorite part of this card is the panel I made which is nothing but pink diecut doilies, overlapping each other. I kind of wish I had not covered it up as much I did, but I know it's there and it makes me happy. I did lots of edge-distressing and loads of machine stitching and called it a day.

Hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and see Stephanie's second PINK CHRISTMAS card and start planning one (or more!) of your own! ♥♥♥

It's Pumpkins and Spice...

...and Everything Nice on The Ink Pad Blog today! I'm dishing up a card that features Eyelet Outlet Pumpkin Brads, a little bit of lettering goodness and my own handpainted plaid patterned paper. Check it out! ♥

If You've Got It...

...HAUNT it! That's my motto this Halloween season. Luckily I have Eyelet Outlet Ghost Brads and Bat Brads to turn the fun sentiment into a BOOOOO-tiful card like this:

I found this ancient bat patterned paper in my stash and the fun castle illustration in an old, falling apart childrens book I found at a garage sale. I added a sentiment made from alphabet stickers and my Dymo Labelmaker, a few skinny black mats and of course my Ghost and Bat Brads.

There are lots more awesome Eyelet Outlet Halloween Goodies in the online store, we promise it's all Treats and no Tricks! ♥

...Hello...

...it's Stencil Sunday on The Ink Pad Blog where I've got a very very layery card that features Michelle Ward's NYC Manhole Cover Stencils and Masks and Manhole Covers II. For the record, if you had asked me a couple of months ago, "Hey Lauren! Do you need Manhole Cover Stencils?" I might not have immediately answered YES, but as it turns out I use both of these All. The. Time. (They're available as stamps, too, btw; just sayin'...) ♥

PINK XMAS!

If you've played along at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ in other years, you probably already know 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 (Stephanie and myself) donate two dollars to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. There are no other 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. 

I made an official (PINK!) challenge graphic, so feel free to share it and our link on your blog or social media or wherever else you enjoy sharing challenge graphics! 

Meanwhile, here's my PINK CARD:

journal card, house stickers and heart paper: doodlebug design; polka dot paper: dcwv; dotted self-adhesive ribbon: heidi swapp; pink seam binding: paper anthology; plain white cardstock: staples; adhesives: elmers brand glue tape, 3m foam tape, sookwang scor-tape

I'm not sure I've ever made a pink + white + kraft card before, but I kinda think it might be new very favorite color combo! I also really love the fonts on that cute Doodlebug journal card. I added a few stickers from the same collection, then went slightly crazy with skinny white mats to tie all my patterned papers together. Speaking of "ties" i added a double layer of ribbons... one of them is a PINK RIBBON which I especially love in the context of this challenge!

I'm jumping in with The Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog's Christmas/Holiday Challenge.

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

It's Autumn in New York...

...and that's the theme of today's card, which features Eyelet Outlet Leaf Brads, a gorgeous Michelle Ward NYC Skyline Stencil and some not-so-gorgeous gel prints that I "recycled" as patterned paper! Hop over to the Ink Pad Blog to see the whole card and read all about it!

From Meme to Card

Last week I saw a very funny meme on the Coffee Loving Paper Crafters' Facebook page, and I immediately wanted to make it into a card featuring my Eyelet Outlet Coffee Brads. So I did, see?

It's quite a simple card, mostly built around the computer generated word art I made, which you can download below, or visit our Eyelet Outlet Freebies Page. I used free fonts called Bohemian Typewriter and Stamp Act. I added a nice rich brown to the word "coffee" as well as a very thin black outline and a small grey drop shadow, to make it stand out more. I lined up all of the text on the righthand side, so that I'd have room for a Coffee Cup Brad and some Coffee Beans. 

I love that the Coffee Brad sets have white cups, red cups and coffee beans, all mixed in together. They pair really nicely with the new Holiday Coffee Cup Brads, as well!

What funny memes or sayings have you seen online? Why not think about making one into a card? I bet there's an Eyelet Outlet brad style to will make it even cooler! ♥

un-be-LEAF-able!

this fortnight's challenge at shopping our stash is called "pumpkin spice season" but you don't actually need to include a pumpkin, unless you'd like to. really we're just going for an autumnal vibe. having always lived in the northeastern united states, to me that means beautiful foliage!

plain brown gift bag from the big box store; colorful leaves made by: sprinkling miscellaneous book and music paper with autumnal shades of colorburst (burnt orange, cadmium red, yellow ochre, olive green and sepia are some good choices) spritzing with water and allowing them to dry completely... then diecutting with tim holtz/sizzix "tattered foliage"; scraps of autumnal cardstock used for the solid leaves are mostly core'dinations with a bit of bazzill; ancient white paper flowers which could be prima but i think are wannabees; pearl brads and pearl swirl bling: eyelet outlet; ink for edging: frayed burlap and tea dye distress ink; adhesives: elmers brand tape runner and nuvo deluxe adhesive 

i had a couple of potentially cool card ideas, but once again the thing i realized i needed RIGHT NOW was a fancy giftbag. this is somewhat of a "recycled" idea, as i made giftbags with similarly colorburst-ed vintage paper leaves and little white flowers a couple of years ago for a class at paper anthology. but honestly i do not believe that there is any combination of these ingredients i would not enjoy, and who's to say we have to reinvent the wheel every time out? i've attached each of my colorful, diecut paper leaves to a solid cardstock version, to act as a sort of "drop shadow". i've inked the edges of absolutely everything (except the flowers) and added bits of eyelet outlet pearl swirl bling in a beautiful shade of golden yellow that i'm pretty sure we no longer sell. the most finicky part of this entire project was that i attached the little flowers to the bag with my eyelet outlet pearl brads, instead of just setting the brads in the flowers and attaching the whole thing with beacon's 3-in-1 adhesive. ah well, they look nice and you can sort of twirl them around a bit, i'm sure that will come in handy, lol...

there's more gorgeous autumn goodness for you to FALL for (hahaha... ok, sorry...) over at SOS, i hope you'll stop by and enjoy that, darlings. ♥

It's That Time Again...

Stencil Sunday on the Ink Pad Blog, that is. Where I'm showing off another stencil from the line Michelle Ward designed exclusively for The Ink Pad.This one's called Large Hex Pattern, which sounds a bit ominous, but is actually quite lovely. Hop over to see the whole card!

world's fastest menorah card

we're still celebrating all the other winter holidays at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ so in other words, you can make a general winter card, you can do new year, kwanzaa, solstice, hogmanay or hanukkah, but for this fortnight only, we're not celebrating xmas! i had planned to do a sort of general winter scene with some snowy aspen trees and deers and things, but then i had a brainwave: 

last week i used my eyelet outlet tear drop bling as flames on a stamped menorah, but this week i went one step further, when i realized that the eight letters of "hanukkah" could actually serve as the candles. it works best (imo) if your letters are all capitals, and close to the same width. i also prefer the proportions of the larger card, because the scale of the flames and letters matches so well. on that card i used a craft punch which i have always thought of as being raindrops, but apparently fiskars calls petal by petal. but i think ANY jewel, stamp or punch that is a similar shape would work. my papers, ciao bella's "broccato estense" collection (which i got at my lss, paper anthology) are actually a bit spring-ish, when you see them in full but the beautiful blues seemed perfect for the job. so basically there is not one single item that is hanukkah or holiday related... i think i'm a bit proud of that, lol!

stephanie has a beautiful card to show you, also, plus there's a little hanukkah-related prize this time, so you might want to hop over to right now, darlings!

Peace, Love, Joy... and Caffeine!

Ok yes, I suppose that the first Wednesday of October is an odd time to post holiday cards, but for one thing: the 60 days between now and December first will go much faster than any other two month period of the year; and, for another thing: we've got some really cool new Holiday Coffee Cup Brads in the Eyelet Outlet Store and I couldn't wait to use them!

These are some of the fastest and easiest cards I've made all year, and if I mass-produced holiday cards, this might well be the design I'd choose! I stamped the sentiment on patterned paper with a GRAPH design, so I didn't even have to measure, lol! I colored the letters with red and green brush markers, affixed all three styles of Holiday Coffee Cup, plus a couple of Holly Brads, then matted the whole thing on a piece of argyle patterned paper I made myself, by neatly lining up strips of Christmas Pattern Washi Tape on some plain white cardstock. I loved the landscape version so much I decided to try portrait mode, as well. I grabbed two more coffee cups, a holly brad and this time made the mat from Poinsettia Tape. Easy, peasy! 

Is it just me, or would this be an excellent time for a delicious hot drink? Pass the Holiday Coffee Cups, please! :)