It's in the Bag!

I love giving super-fancy presents to my friends and family for holidays and birthdays, but I definitely don't like paying fancy prices for giftwrap and bags; especially when I have lots of lovely Eyelet Outlet Bling and Washi Tape to make my gifts stand out! 

For these gifts I wanted a really elegant winter and festive feeling, without embracing any particular holiday, so I went with lots of blue, silver and white. I used Glitter Winter Washi on my first bag, and surrounded it with Glitter Silver Star Tape plus Silver Foil Skinny Tape. My diecut snowflakes are topped with 1 1/2" Snowflake Bling and Bumpy Heart Bling and I've scattered some Blue Pearl Bling and Snowflake Sequins around for good measure. My second design features Glitter Tall Tree Tape surrounded by White Foil and Twig Tape. 

Whatever colors, themes and holidays you love, I bet there are Eyelet Outlet Brads, Bling, Tapes and Sequins to make your gifts as beautifully individual as you are! ♥

Thanks, Thanks, Thanks

For cardmakers, the beginning of December gets taken over by Christmas or Hanukkah cards; but the end of December is all about Thank You cards! Here's a super colorful design that is fast and easy to make a bunch of, featuring Lawn Fawn's Thanks, Thanks, Thanks stamp set from The Ink Pad. You can read more about it on TIP Blog today!

Last Minute Mayhem!

What do you do when you discover at the verrrrrrrry last minute that you need FIVE more cards NOW?! Just grab a sheet of journaling cards, your favorite Eyelet Outlet holiday brad styles, and some washi tape and you're all set! 

These cards are just slightly smaller than the classic A2, made to fit a little stack of odd-sized envelopes I came across. All of the backgrounds are made of washi tape and there's a super-skinny mat behind each which could easily be made from Glitter Tape or Foil Tape.

I used the colors and themes of the journal cards to suggest which brads I would add... the car illustration (above) already had a tree on top, but I added a Pine Tree Brad for more dimension and interest. I put Screw Brads on the hubcaps and made a background from Wide Tree Tape. The little elf (below) obviously needed an Ornament Brad and a Star for the top of his tree. The soft sage green in Poinsettia Tape was the perfect color match.

The "Ho Ho Ho" card could easily have incorporated more ornaments, or Holiday Lights, Wreath Brads, Santa and Missus Claus, Snowman or Snowman Couple Brads, even Snowflakes or Poinsettias! But I went with three Santa Hat Brads, affixed to a few of the O's. The background is Ornament Tape, which lines up perfectly in horizontal strips to make full-sized ornaments.

A mat made of Christmas Pattern argyle style tape picks up the colors of the Holiday Coffee Cup and  Candy Cane Brad this cute snowman is holding.

Finally for the sweet elves, I added another candy cane and a Heart Brad, with a background of Tree Washi Tape... another washi selection that can be made into a full sheet, just by working patiently in strips.

I hope you'll be inspired to add Eyelet Outlet holiday brads and tape to your store bought tags, cards and bows this gift-giving season! Visit the EO Blog for more brilliant last-minute ideas!

Merry Little Christmas

There are few things more "merry" than Santa's sleigh, and when it comes to "little" stamps, it's definitely hard to beat Lawn Fawn, right? Those tiny stamps are admittedly on the small side for building an entire card around, but luckily they pair perfectly with Concord & 9th's Seasonal Sayings and Picket Fence Studio's Reindeer Games background. But it was the "twist" of embossing the latter in WOW Primary Pink Robin that made all the difference; read all about it on The Ink Pad Blog!

Merry and BRIGHT!

You can't get much merrier... or brighter, lol... than fast and easy holiday cards made with MT Shocking Pink, Shocking Greenand Neon Gradation Slim Tape Setfrom The Ink Pad. This card and the details of how I made it, are on TIP Blog today!

Peaceful Winter Day

A simple, snowy card featuring baubles filled with wintery Eyelet Outlet wildlife brads: Penguins, Moose and Polar Bears, oh my!

I diecut three ornament shapes, each composed of navy paper flecked with snow for the sky; and white glitter paper for the ground. Then I added two Penguin Brads and a small Snowflake; a stately Moose Brad in front of a Pine Tree; and a mother and baby Polar Bear. I mounted the ornaments on foam tape for extra dimension and positioned them under some sparkly pine branches, then added clear Bling Strips as hangers. I think they're SNOW fun and festive!

Flurries and Pines

'Tis the season to make A LOT of holiday and winter-themed cards pretty quickly! So it helps to have products that do a lot of the work for you. In this case, that would be Hero Arts' Tri-Fold Edge Winter Pines Die Set and Stampendous' Winter Blizzard 6x6 Cling Stamp, from The Ink Pad.

A Bright and Happy Hanukkah

Welcoming the Festival of Lights with a simple but elegant card featuring Michelle Ward's NYC Skyline Stencil and Concord and 9th's Seasonal Sayings stamp set from The Ink Pad. More details on TIP Blog today!

Happy Hanukkah!

Here's a super-easy way to make a fun Hanukkah card without any specific themed product!

I saved the blue candles from several packs of Eyelet Outlet Candle Brads, and arranged them in a line to make a simple menorah shape. I added a blue Tear Drop Bling to act as flames on eight of them, with a Heart Enamel on the Shamash candle in the center; all set atop a sticker sentiment in white, accented with some little Round Enamels.  

There's new inspiration nearly every day on the Eyelet Outlet Blog, so be sure to visit often!

It's NOT an Embarrassed Zebra!

This fortnight is our last 2020 challenge at Shopping Our Stash, and it's quite a good one! We're asking the question, "What's Black and White and Red All Over"... but in this case we already know that the answer is a cool papercrafting project. Mine's a card, see?

This is quite a stash-y card. The base is an off-cut of vintage sheet music. I've used a bunch of Eyelet Outlet Washi Tapes that have been discontinued, plus a few that are still available; plus the cool Matte Red Enamel Dots which I've had for ages but never used. The Penny Black poinsettia die is a year or two old, though Bountiful Berries is quite new; as is that excellent Non-Shed Glitter Paper from Paper Anthology. The papers are all scraps; in fact the top pattern is from Daisy D's... remember them? Definitely going back a bit with that one!

Be sure to hop over to SOS and see the amazing inspiration the DT have whipped up for you, then link up your own Black, White and Red creation!

This Holly is Jolly

Hero Arts' Bold Prints cover stamps are 6" square which means you really don't need very much else to finish a nice big card! This one is called Christmas Rose and all the details of how I used it to make this card can be found on The Ink Pad Blog!

NEW: Homespun Holidays!

My newest Class in a Kit is live on the Paper Anthology website, called Homespun Holidays and has a strong winter/seasonal theme, rather than a particular holiday. It looks a bit like this:

All of the stamping and diecutting has been done for you; and a detailed set of instructions, with individual photos of each card, is provided. You'll need only basic cardmaking tools and a few adhesives to finish these three sweet and cozy cards. The hardest part will be deciding which friends to send them to!

The Sprawl

We've just polished off our TENTH Jingle Belles season, and as always it was full of fun, friendship and inspiration plusssssssssssssss... My holiday cards are finished on December 4th which feels like a really big win. I couldn't quite fit them all onto the table, but this is a nice representation.

We'll be starting up again on January 1st and you're officially invited to join us!!! ♥

The Best Place for Snow!

Nothing captures the joy of winter weather quite as well as a snow globe, and arguably nobody makes a cuter or more useful snow globe set for cardmakers than Lawn Fawn's Snow Globe Scenes, as I may have mentioned on The Ink Pad Blog this morning!

Sequins, Clearly Seen

Eyelet Outlet Sequins come in Round, Star-Shaped and Snowflakes, in a whole rainbow of colors. Usually they are the finishing touches on a holiday project, but I wanted to make them the center of attention this time! 

I cannot take credit for this concept, because I am sure I saw ornaments similar to the little tree on Instagram; but when I went back to find them, they proved elusive. The idea is pretty simple, though: cut two shapes out of clear plastic, fill them with sequins, and stitch them shut.

About the plastic: it needs to be sturdy but flexible! I cut up a heavy duty clear plastic sleeve like the kind used for storing craft dies. Speaking of dies, I used a medium sized heart and a medium sized star from two sets of nested dies. You definitely want to stick with simple shapes, and it's easiest to cut them one at a time and roll through the machine more than once.

About the sequins: you need to place them pretty much where you'd like them to be in the finished ornament, because they're not going to move about as much as in a shaker window. But you can't get them too near the edge or they will try to escape while you are sewing. And trust me, less is more! 

About the sewing: I machine stitched, but hand cranked the machine. Start and end at the top of the ornaments and leave long tails, so they can act as the hangers. I used the same white heavy duty upholstery thread for my bobbin and top thread. You can use a tiny piece of washi tape to secure one edge of the ornament while you start sewing, but it's kind of fiddly to remove. I found that holding the two shapes together and just working slowly and carefully was the easiest. 

My favorite thing about these little ornaments is that I got to use ALL the styles (and quite a few colors!) of Eyelet Outlet Sequins!

Merry and Happy

November is just about over, which means it's time to kick holiday card production into high gear! I'm fairly smitten with this fun Vintage Christmas Stamp Set from Rubber Stamp Tapestry, one of many awesome RST peg stamp sets available at The Ink Pad; it's on TIP Blog this morning!

Banner Redux

We're still making cards based on our festive Jingle Belles blog header and you're still invited to join the fun. 

Here's what I made this week:

This week my card is much less literal, though I've still incorporated the red white and green palette, the sketch (in a portrait-oriented format), plus green trees and red Eyelet Outlet bling snowflakes. My ingredients are all older stash items, and my obsession with torn paper and torn washi tape continues.

It's hard to believe this is the last official prompt of the Jingle Belles season, but the calendar says it's the last week of November so it must be true! Hop over to see Stephanie's card and link up your own.

TREE-mendous!

It's amazing what a huge difference color makes, don't you think? Both of these cards use the same beautiful Impression Obsession stamp, "Mountain View"; one of The Ink Pad's many MANY wood-mounted stamps, which can be found in-store; or inquired for via phone or email. All the details on TIP Blog today!

Peace, Love and Coffee

It's all Peace, Love and Coffee on the Eyelet Outlet Blog, thanks to our Holiday Coffee Cup and Santa Hat Brads, plus some fabulous Glitter Heart Washi Tape. 

Test driving my new stamps from The Rabbit Hole Designs: Caffeinated Flamingo, Marquee Words and Tattoo Affirmations, which work surprisingly well together! I love the expression on the flamingo's face, he looks like I do before I've had my coffee. 

Visit the Eyelet Outlet Store for lots more Brads, Washi Tape, Bling, Sequins and Flowers!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

In my opinion, BY FAR the best place for snow is on cards, so that's what we'd like to see at Shopping Our Stash this fortnight. Snowmen, snowflakes, snowy landscapes... if it's frosty and white, you're good to go! Here's what I made:

I got that sweet Happy Snowman (and a few other goodies) with a Pretty Pink Posh giftcard I won in the Coffee Lovers' Hop a couple of years ago, and I suppose at some point he will stop being the first thing I think of when you say "Snow Card" but that is not yet the case, lol. He matches the snowdudes on my ancient Basic Grey patterned paper perfectly, and my newish Taylored Expressions sentiment fit perfectly under my heart shaped shaker window; go, me! :)

Ski, sled, toboggan, ice skate or snowmobile over to SOS to see the crew's cards, then link up and join the fun!

Join the FAN Club!

I'm pretty sure Nathalie Kalbach has never designed an un-interesting product, but her N*Studio Fan Stamps from Rubbermoon are especially cool and I had a lot of fun playing with them this week. The results (including two additional cards) are on The Ink Pad Blog today.

A Banner Holiday

We are finishing off the 2020 Jingle Belles season with a Banner Idea... quite literally. This fortnight we'd like to see holiday cards that are inspired by this year's Jingle Belles blog header. Just to refresh your memory, it looks a bit like this:

Now here's my card:

Ok so... yeah... I went realllllllly literal, lol; and I should stress the fact that you definitely do not have to use the sketch AND the colors AND some of the exact elements (bells, trees, glitter letters) as in the banner. In fact, any one of those selections would work perfectly well! But as I was putting this together, it just so happened that I realized I had quite a few products that would work perfectly, so I just kept adding them in. Next week I'll do something much more abstract, promise!

Meanwhile, I assure you it is well worth the trip to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's amazing card; then start planning what you will link up with us! 

A Trio of Couples

Nothing's cuter than a happy couple, especially if we're talking about a COUPLE of Eyelet Outlet Brads, dressed up for the holidays; like Santa and Mrs. Claus, Mr. and Mrs. G. Bread, or our sweet Snow Couple!

The other day I came across a set of Lawn Fawn tiny shaped tag dies I bought in January and realized I had not yet used them?? Then I saw this week's Sketch Saturday (#636) and I had the perfect plan!

My first thought was that ATC's would be the perfect size to showcase the tags, and that I should start with the Snow Couple. A background of blue paper with polka dots seemed like a tiny snowscape and I love this woodgrain cardstock for extra texture. I added a strip of Pink Checked Tape and solid pink Skinny Tape to represent the strong vertical line of the sketch.

Santa and Mrs. Claus are probably the most famous Christmas couple, and the heart of the North Pole. I rotated the sketch and added Heart Washi and Red Stripe Foil Tape this time.

The Gingerbread Brads are the newest in the EO line-up, but they're very sweet... in every sense! This time I flipped the sketch and paired them with Poinsettia Tape and Skinny Striped Washi.

ATC's are always fun to make and swap; OR you can build them into the focal point of a bigger tag or card. And there's definitely an Eyelet Outlet Brad to suit every taste!

Anniversary Card Round-Up

In addition to hostessing, I also made cards for a few of Elisabeth, Shari and Linda's challenges in the Paper Anthology 9th Anniversary festivities. And here they are now:

To CASE Elisabeth's beautiful holiday card I chose a similar medium woodgrain background paper, dark green mat and a kraft cardbase. I used lots of foliage dies, plus some pretty Penny Black Pinecones. My sentiment is a slightly different shape, but I've tried to echo the corner element by placing it a bit higher.

I chose the bottom row of Linda's fun Tic-Tac-Toe board and combined about five different diecuts, some Lawn Fawn variegated twine and a plaid I hand-painted using Olive, Terre Vert, Chartreuse and Sepia ColorBurst. 

Clean and Simple cards are definitely not my metier, but I was determined to have a go at Shari's CAS with a Spin challenge. The "spin" is that you cannot use white or cream, which turns out to be harder than I thought! Luckily I had Spellbinders' Kaleidoscope Tiles die set to be my focal point and some Lawn Fawn Woodgrain cardstock to give all that (non-white) white space a bit of texture.

Many thanks to everyone who played along this weekend, there is still a bit of time to finish up challenges, answer trivia and poll questions... all of which earns you tickets for the big raffle drawing! Everything you need to know is on the Paper Anthology FaceBook Page.

Challenge #10: Hip to be Square

Welcome back to the big Paper Anthology 9th Anniversary festivities, I hope you've been hanging out on the Paper Anthology FaceBook page and following all of these cool challenges, there is some serious inspiration over there and there are raffle tickets awarded for however many you complete, with ten awesome prize packs to giveaway at the end! 

This is my last challenge for the weekend, and it's to embrace one of my favorite formats. I love square cards, they have such beautiful balance and they just always look good to me. Here's my square card, this one happens to be 6" square, which is probably my favorite size because there seems to be the best selection of envelopes:

For this card I was excited to be test-driving a brand new product at Paper Anthology: Picket Fence Studios Paper Glaze, which comes in sixteen beautiful colors AND can be mixed together to make even more. In this case I just used it straight out of the jar. I love how it retains it's bold color no matter what type of paper you use it on. I used a palette knife to spread Succulent Green through Taylored Expressions A New Leaf Stencil on glossy black cardstock, and also on white watercolor paper. In the second case, I also took a little bit of the Black Pansy, and spread it right on top of the green, so that it has a sort of feathery effect. However if you mix two colors together thoroughly (on say, a paper plate) you will get a consistent third color, which is handy!

After the glaze was completely dry, I trimmed around the white version of the design and adhered the cut out portion on top of the black one. I added Memory Box's Rose Sketch Flower Spray Die (cut from copper and purple shimmer paper) and finished off with some vintage lace trimming, stick-on pearls and Hero Arts Sequins.

Stencil Sunday ♥

I've always loved vintage and shabby chic style cards, but I've just discovered how to make them even more appealing, by adding Tim Holtz Baseboard Dolls. I've named this one Beatrice, and she is the star of today's post on The Ink Pad Blog!