Did She Say, "Car Critters"?!

Yes. Yes, I did. Because we're still featuring "Creatures" (whether stirring or not) at Jingle Belles; basically we just want to see some sort of animal... (or critter, or creature, or fish, or yeti, or space alien or... well, you get the idea right?) ...on your cards. Such as adorable reindeer driving home for the holidays!

When I saw Lawn Fawn's Car Critters stamp set at Paper Anthology, I didn't think you could get any cuter than bears driving a fun vintage car. But then I saw THE REINDEER in the Christmas Add-on set. So yes, I had to have BOTH! There are matching dies, as well. But I found it easier to use my MISTI to stamp the car, and then add the reindeers, then add the antlers, then add the presents. After which I colored everything in (my favorite method is to base coat each item with the right shade of Tombow Dualbrush Pen, then add shading and highlights with colored pencils) and then I fussy-cut around the whole thing. Then... I built the scenery, which consists of: Mama Elephant's Landscape Trio for the snowy hills; my own little template for the road; an older cloudy patterned paper for the sky; and Fiskars Pine Tree punch for the tiny trees.

Be sure to visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and link up your own!

Bold Prints Birthdays

What could be handier to a cardmaker than a stamp that can cover your whole card?! Because that's what the stamps in Hero Arts' Bold Prints line do, and there are quite a few available at The Ink Pad! This one is called Triangle Tapestry, and you'll find all the details for using it to make these two super-easy cards on The Ink Pad Blog this morning!

Oh, What a Stylish Web We Weave

Because ordinary spiders make everyday webs, but Eyelet Outlet Spider Brads (and Mini Spider Brads!) demand something a little fancier... like a beautiful mandala web on a gorgeous pink card:

I stamped an older Mandala from MFT onto plain white bristol board, and embossed with white powder, letting the design go off the top corner of the panel, to make it slightly more spider-web-like. Then, using the white embossed image as a resist, I colored in the panel with a blend of Picked Raspberry and Spun Sugar Distress Oxides. Then I let my Spider Brad and Mini Spiders move in and make themselves comfy. I added panels of Glitter Black Tape, Pink Foil and Coloring Book Tape... (which is actually leaves and flowers, but looks rather web-like if you trim it down to mat size!) ...and affixed the whole thing to my A7 card. The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions' Halloween Pennant Parade Set.

I'm joining in one of my favorite challenges of the year: Pink Halloween at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers; and you have until 11:55 this Friday (10.30.20) to join the fun over there!

I hope you'll be inspired to get out your Eyelet Outlet goodies and see what kinds of Halloween fun you can cook up!

More Coffee, Please!

But don't let the title put you off if you're (gasp!) not a coffee drinker, because this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash, the challenge is called "Hot Beverages for Cold Nights" and we're making cards that feature ANY hot beverage, so you're still good to go with tea, cocoa, gluwein, warm milk, hot cider; I suppose one could even make a case for soup? I went with coffee, though, because it's my favorite.

I confess I was psyched when I saw this challenge, because I knew I had the awesome "Literary Caffeine-ations" Stamp Set my friend Becca Cruger designed for Stamplorations (she has her own line called Big Grins by Becca Cruger; just sayin'...) and I haven't used it in a while, which seemed like a shocking oversight... but perfect for SOS! Last week I also found a few stray sheets from Prima's Pretty Pale in the vaults at my lss, Paper Anthology, and since it's one of my alltime favorite paper collections, I obviously had to use that. I broke out my Stephanie Barnard coffee cup dies, a few miscellaneous Eyelet Outlet Flower Brads and some ancient burlap sunflowers. Et Voila! 

I thought this card was going to have more autumnal shades in it; but in the end, it wound up being just tans, browns and yellows with lots of white. So it may be disqualified from Stamplorations' October Theme and Photo Prompt Challenge, and I will completely understand. Their challenge did inspire me, though!

I hope you'll hop over to see what the SOS gang have made, I guarantee you'll find some inspiration there... I know I always do! ♥

Stencil Sunday: Let's Play Tag

Or in this case, tags, plural, nice big ones that can hold words made with Altenew Bold Alphabet Dies and a nice portion of StencilGirl Pointed Scalloped Border Stencils and Masks. Both of which are available at The Ink Pad, as it happens. All the details on The Ink Pad Blog this morning!

Not a Creature was Stirring...

It's a fanciful title this fortnight at Jingle Belles, but the brief is simple: Make a holiday card with at least one critter on it, such as sheep or reindeer, penguins or cardinals, camels or moose... even a monster or a yeti if you're in a Halloween mood! I went with reindeer:

Tim Holtz's Reindeer Flight Die is still a big fave with me and I use it a lot. This time I've gone with a copper metallic specialty cardstock from Paper Anthology, and surrounded the handsome critter with various foliage diecuts on a tag I fashioned from some old sheet music. Background papers are older Authentique; gems and a Pinecone Brad from Eyelet Outlet.

Hop, frolic, fly, swim or scamper over to Jingle Belles and see Stephanie's beautiful card, then start planning what you will make!

Let's Go Nuts

What could be cuter than Lawn Fawn Squirrels frolicking in a birch tree forest? It's a bit of a trick question, because said squirrels are pretty darned cute, don't you think? There's more info about the stamps, dies and paper assortment on The Ink Pad Blog, so hop on over if you have a minute!

A Beautiful Fall Day...

...in card form, that is! Featuring lots of lovely autumnal brad styles and washi tape from Eyelet Outlet!

I made a background panel of Green and Gold Foil Dots Tape and a strip covered with Pumpkin Tape large enough to hold three fall-bedecked inchies. Then came the fun part, adding the brads! From top to bottom, I used: Apple Brads, Sunflower, Mini Ladybug, Scarecrow Brads, a rake from the Lawn Mower Set, Mini Leaves, a Truck and a Pumpkin Brad.

I hope you're having a beautiful fall day, but if not, why not make your own, using Eyelet Outlet seasonal embellies?!

Try ALL the Pens!

Lots of pens claim to show up beautifully on dark cardstock, but it's hard to beat how dramatic the fluourescent colors of Sakura's Moonlight Gelly Roll Pens look on black paper. Case in point is on The Ink Pad Blog today:

Thinking Pink

We're still celebrating PINK CHRISTMAS at Jingle Belles and you're still invited to join the fun and help us raise some money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation! Here's what I made this week:

I've paired a copy of an all-pink illustration from an old Ideals magazine with some well-hoarded stripey pink paper from Basic Grey; added some Eyelet Outlet Sequins, an oversized floral and a sticker sentiment and called it a day. Kind of a funky mix, but I like how it turned out.

Be sure to hop over and see Stephanie's card at Jingle Belles, then link up one (or more!) of your own! ♥

Stencil + Inks + Stickers

The two newest Distress Colors from Ranger (Speckled Egg and Crackling Campfire) lend themselves beautifully to so many palettes, especially in the fall! Today I've paired them with stencils and stickers from The Ink Pad. Read all about it on TIP Blog!

Bake Someone Happy

Meet the latest addition to our Eyelet Outlet team of allstar brads: Gingerbread Men and Women! These fun characters made their debut in the EO Store last week and are ready to join in holiday projects of all descriptions, especially cards, like this one:

I stamped a sweet little house for my Gingerbread Brads to live in and built a background with an assortment of red and green washi tapes, including: Ho Ho Ho, Skinny Tape, Heart Tape, Christmas Pattern and Wide Tree Tape. I scattered a few Peppermint Candies and a Candy Cane Brad, affixed a red Heart Enamel to the front door and called it a day! 

Hop on over to the EO Store to find brads, bling, tape, enamels, paper flowers, and sequins for every occasion!

Happy Fall, Y'all

The gang at Shopping Our Stash are always up for a celebration, especially when it can be translated into papercrafting form. So this fortnight we'd like to see... (as you've no doubt guessed!) ...cards and projects with an autumnal vibe of some sort: either the fall holidays of Halloween and Thanksgiving, or the occasion of your choice, featuring fall colors, leaves, etc. There's lots of ways to go, so we hope you'll be inspired to join the fun. Here's my card:

Lots of stash-centric goodness here: The leaves were all pre-diecut, with their edges inked and little highlights of gold stickles on them; clearly I made more than I needed for some distant fall project, stuck the extras in an envelope, and forgot all about them. I had intended to mix in more traditional reds and orange shades, but then I found the patterned paper panel with the deep denim blue flowers and changed course, lol. It's last year's Eclectic Charm collection from Blue Fern Studios, though I think there might be one or two sheets left at Paper Anthology; and despite the blue, it feels very autumnal to me. I did lots of distressing and a bit of sewing around the edges, then loaded up lots of miscellaneous Prima flowers; the cluster was from Pretty Pale, I believe, and the tiny flowers with the wooden bead centers were Georgia Blue. The only new item here is the dark blue mat that's peeking through the torn places. Two varieties of Bo Bunny's Double Dot collection (Vintage and Lace) arrived at Paper Anthology about a month ago, and I grabbed every color because they have one patterned side and one not-quite-solid side, which makes them great for cards and also as backgrounds for photographing cards! (That's a shade called "Chiffon" you can see behind my card in these photos.)

If you're feeling at all Fall... do come and join us at Shopping Our Stash! If you're not feeling it, I suggest hopping over to see the super-inspiring DT cards! ♥

October, in Living Color

It's hard to believe we're already a third of the way through October, but the calendar in my 2020 Traveler's Notebook assures me that's the case. So this seems like a good time to show off this month's spread and then talk about my 2021 set-up, featuring some fabulous new finds from The Ink Pad. All the details, pics and product links on TIP Blog today!

Pink Christmas

It's time for my all-time favorite prompt of the Jingle Belles year: it's October, so once again we are celebrating PINK CHRISTMAS! And just like all the other years that we've done this, Stephanie and I are each pledging $2 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, for each PINK HOLIDAY CARD card that gets linked up with us this fortnight. So we hope you'll join the fun and make lots of cards; plus we have a nice PINK graphic you can share if you'd like to!

A fast review of the rules: your card need not be entirely pink, but we'd like to see more than just the blush on Mrs. Claus' cheeks, or the scarf on a snowwoman; you can link as many new cards as you'd like to within the two week timeframe; and yes, we'll count however many pink cards you put into one post! Meanwhile, here's what I made:

I went almost entirely Prima, because they've done some really awesome PINK holiday collections in the last few years. I do have a big poinsettia that I liberated from a bit of holiday garland, and it wouldn't be the holidays without some Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Bling! I used this week's Sketch Saturday #630 to arrange my layout; though I have rotated it ninety degrees counterclockwise.

Be sure to hop over to Jingle Belles and see Stephanie's beautiful PINK CHRISTMAS creation, then start planning what you'll link up with us this time! ♥

All Treats, No Tricks

Halloween is nearly upon us, but there's still time to make and send some BOO-tiful cards to our friends and family. Here's one that features cuuuuute Lawn Fawn critters, luscious Distress Oxide Inks, and some fab new die sets from The Ink Pad. All the details and product links are on TIP Blog!

Boo to You

You don't need much to make BOO-tiful Halloween cards, especially if you have one or two Eyelet Outlet seasonal goodies, like Bat Brads, Spider Web Tape and Spider Brads!

I used a cloud diecut as a mask to blend Dusty Concord, Wilted Violet and Chipped Sapphire Distress Oxide Ink, for a suitably dramatic sky and moon. I neatly lined up a few strips of Spider Web Tape on plain white cardstock, and diecut the letters for "BOO"; then diecut them a second time from black cardstock. I added a Spider Brad and two Mini Spiders to my sentiment, which I attached with slivers of foam tape. I let two handsome Bat Brads fly across the full moon, scattered a few Silver Star Sequins, and mounted the whole panel to a mat made from Silver Star Glitter Tape et voila!

Not into creepy crawly critters? We've got Monster Brads, Pumpkins, Witch Legs and Witch Hats, Black Cats, Candy Corn, Autumn Leaves and lots more at Eyelet Outlet!

Snow Far, Snow Good

We're still "Dashing Through the Snow" at Jingle Belles and you're still invited to join the fun! Here's what I made this week: 

Whenever I'm in a hurry, my favorite cardmaking shortcut is to grab a journaling card! The great ones already have a focal image + sentiment; all I have to do is pick papers and embellies... aka The Fun Part! In this case I chose an older MME plaid and some ancient blue with an abstract swirly pattern; plus blue snowflake ribbon from the big box store and a snowflake diecut from a ColorBurst experiment. I scattered a few Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads, sewed around the edges, and called it good to go.

Head over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card, then link up one (or more!) of your own! ♥

It's Fall

And while the leaves are only just starting to change color here in the Northeast, it feels like a pretty good time to blend some autumnal shades of Distress Oxides on a fun seasonal card, which is on The Ink Pad Blog this morning!