MTA Sticker Card

Would this be a good time for a New York City themed card featuring MTA NYC Subway Stickers paired with Michelle Ward's Hexagon Pattern Stencil from The Ink Pad? If so, hop over to The Ink Pad Blog to read all about it!

Boho-Ho-Ho!

It's a photo inspiration this fortnight at Jingle Belles and you're invited to join the fun! When we saw this Whimsical Boho Tree and it's surrounding decor on the Love the Day Blog last December we were smitten. Being cardmakers, we immediately started seeing specific details we'd like to incorporate into our holiday cards. Maybe you like that frosted tree, covered in baubles? Or the white shiplap wall? The reindeer in an embroidery hoop frame is definitely cool; stockings on a mantel are always fun; the color scheme alone --teal, aqua, bright pink, soft pink and loads of white-- could go in several different directions. Whatever elements of the photo inspire YOU, interpret them in card form, then come link up the results with us!

Here's my card:

I was inspired by the many shades and textures of white in the room; as well as the colorful, bauble-encrusted tree, which I've interpreted as Eyelet Outlet Round and Heart-Shaped Pearls, Jewel Brads, Snowflake Brads, and Clear Jewels. I've also sort of incorporated the "sketch" of the photo into my card, by placing the tree over towards the right side and the sentiment at about "mantel" height, lol!

Choose one (or more!) elements which inspire you, then link up your Boho-Holiday Inspired card with us at Jingle Belles!

One Die, Three Cards

This Wacky Box Die from Dare 2B Artzy can be probably used in a nearly infinite number of ways; but here are three cards, incorporating rainbow colors in different ways, just for starters. Read more about them on The Ink Pad Blog today!

Valentine's Breakfast

I love a good breakfast and also a good pun. So a few years ago, when the Eyelet Outlet Bacon, Egg and Toast Brads made their debut, I was pretty excited to pair them with my Lawn Fawn "Love and Breakfast" stamp set. I'm still happy, actually, for any excuse to try a different version, in this case little three-inch square mini Valentines!

I used the kawaii breakfast images and some of the words from the stamp set, but swapped out all of the foodstuffs for brads. I used small alphabet stickers to complete the sentiments and to highlight selected words. 

I scattered a few white Heart Pearls around each card for extra texture and interest; rounded the corners and added a little bit of machine stitching.

In addition to Bacon, Egg and Toast Brads, I realized that the Waffles from our Chicken and Waffle Brad set would work really well, too. I added a Bright Stitched Flower to the breakfast tray on this card.

There are lots of other great Food Brads at Eyelet Outlet; everything from crab and lobster, to ice cream cones, candies, cakes, donuts, fruits and veggies, and accessories like baking tools, grills, silverware and more. Whatever you're craving, we're serving it up in the EO Store!

Did She Say, "TWINCHIES"?!

Over at Jingle Belles, we're still celebrating a merry *LITTLE* Christmas, making cards that feature Inchies or Twinchies. If this prompt has you scratching your head, here's a great article on the PaperArtsy website, with lots of great twists on incorporating your tiny art into cards! 

Here's my card:

This week I've gone DOUBLE or nothing, lol; by taking on the two-inch square, aka "Twinchie". (Did you know there are also Rinchies, which are Round Inchies; and Betwinchies which are 1.5" squares or circles?!) Again I've made my squares coordinate, though of course that is not a requirement and a grid of lots of random small squares in different styles would be really cool. But I wanted to used my Pretty Pink Posh "Holiday Pals" stamp set, so I colored them with neutrals and added trees from the same set, as well as patterned paper sky and snow, plus Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads, to tie them all together. I love the way three Twinchies fill a slimline card... this is definitely an idea you'll be seeing again!

Hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful creation and link up your own!

Stacked Squares

It is a fact, universally acknowledged, that a cardmaker will never, ever, regret having plenty of options for making birthday cards. So a set like these simple but beautiful Happy BirthdayClear Stamps from Impression Obsession are a very good choice, since they c​an be used over and over again in just about ANY style and color palette imaginable. In this case I chose ink-blending for my style and RAINBOW for my palette. Read all about it (& see another version!) on The Ink Pad Blog today!

Be Mine!

Valentines are some of my favorite cards to make, especially since I have a niece whose birthday is February 14th. Like me, she loves lots of color and sparkle, so I have pulled out all the stops for this card and used eight different Eyelet Outlet brad styles with ten varieties of (pink!) washi tape!

I started by choosing a center point on my 6" square card to be the connection for my starburst of different tapes. Then I somewhat randomly layered a bunch of my favorite Valentine-friendly designs, concentrating on those which had lots of pink in them, including: Tiny Heart Tape, Glitter Heart Tape, Glitter Pink, Macaron Washi, Unicorn Tape, Foil Rose Tape, Heart Arrow Tape, Pink Dot Washi, Checked Pink Tape and Gold Foil XO Tape, which is technically not at all pink, but worked well anyway.

Then I added my diecut heart, a Hello Kitty cut-out, and glitter alphabet sentiment over the place where all of the tapes met. Finally, it was time to add the brads. Again, I went mostly by color, but luckily there were lots of things that matched which I know Miss Riley loves, such as: Heart Brads, Donut Brads, a starfish from the Sea Shore Brads, the pink glittery tiara from the Crown and Tiara set, an Ice Cream Brad and a Stitched Flower.

Whatever color your Valentine loves best, I bet there are a bunch of fun Eyelet Outlet Brads and Washi Tape Styles that will coordinate perfectly! ♥

SOS 437: I Need a Cup of Coffee

I bet you've already guessed that the brief this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash is to make a project with a coffee (or tea... or hot chocolate) theme, right? In which case, all I need to do is show you my card:

I am slightly obsessed with this Caffeinated Flamingo from The Rabbit Hole Designs. He was the first thing I chose when I spent the giftcard I won in the Coffee Loving Cardmakers' blog hop last fall. Ok, I guess, three months is not super-old as far as stash goes, so luckily I also had some so-old-I-don't-know-where-they-came-from sequins; as well as my absolutely ancient collection of Basic Grey 6x6 papers. I used the latter both for paper-piecing the "blahmingo" and also for my background mats. Speaking of paper-piecing, the next time I use this set, could you please remind me to stamp the bottom half directly on the background panel so I don't have to fussycut those skiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnny little legs ever again? Kthx. By the way, did I mention that the sentiment (plus several more) and the cool coffee molecule diagram thingie come with this #flockstar AND that this set is currently on sale? 

I hope you'll hop, swim, fly, jog, gallop, canter, sashay, crawl or otherwise navigate over to SOS to see what the rest of my design team darlings have made, then start planning what caffeinated creation you'll link up with us this fortnight!

Tiny Collage Squares

We're celebrating a Merry *LITTLE* Xmas this fortnight at Jingle Belles, by making cards that feature Inchies or Twinchies. Traditionally, we think of inchies as artsy one inch squares or circles, but you can use other shapes or perhaps even snowflakes or small embellishments. You might contain your entire image within the inch... or perhaps break a single holiday image into smaller shapes? Just get creative and go LITTLE!

Here's my card:

I've embraced the original "Inchie" concept by making three, one-inch, decorated squares. In this case, the three are "kissing cousins" which all feature dictionary paper backgrounds, diecut foliage and Eyelet Outlet Brads. To make the inchies stand out against my vintage collage background, I framed them up with two layers of patterned paper and popped the whole thing on foam tape.

Hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card (spoiler alert: she's done TWINCHIES!) and link up your own merry little masterpiece! 

"Count Your Rainbows...

...Not Your Storms" is just one of the eleven sentiments in Dare 2B Artzy's Sunshine and Rainbows clear stamp set. There are a total of twenty-nine high quality photopolymer stamps, which work modularly to achieve almost infinite variations; including birthday, thank you, and encouragement messages. The first of what I think might turn out to be quite a few different versions I will likely make in future, is on The Ink Pad Blog today!

Blingy Birdhouse

Eyelet Outlet Bling and Flowers are obviously awesome finishing touches to cards, layouts and giftwrapping;  but they are equally nice when they come off the page and onto 3D projects. Like a super-fancy Bijou Bird Boutique!

This project started life as a plain balsa birdhouse from the big box crafting store, and the sitting tenant is a small bird from the floral department. I dabbed white paint along the edges and added panels of collaged vintage paper (accented with old-school paper doilies) to the front, back, sides and roof. Then it was time to embellish!

I made two stacks using all three sizes of white Paper Flowers with Bumpy Heart Bling centers, to accent the righthand slope of the roof.

I used an entire pack of clear Swirl Bling! But by trimming the pieces apart carefully, I was able to place a large flourish, covering most of the lefthand slope of the roof AND still have enough pieces to add bling to every surface of the house. To make them appear even more substantial, I split the smaller flourishes into halves or thirds, so that they seem to "wrap around" the corners of the house.

Swirl Bling comes in seven jewel colors (Clear, Red, Green, Pink, Purple Black and Champagne) and four pearl colors (Black, White, Gold and Silver); no matter what style of project you're dreaming up, Eyelet Outlet has Bling, Sequins or Enamels that will embellish it beautifully!

A Butterfly, Who Flutters By

Lots of color is ALWAYS a good idea, imo; but in January it's even more than usually necessary to cheer up the darker days with lots of bold and brilliant hues! Luckily, The Ink Pad is here for you with The Bright Stuff! Read all about this Picket Fence Studios Swallowtail Beauty card and super-saturated background made with Hero Arts Liquid Watercolors on The Ink Pad Blog.

Old and New, Redux

We're still mixing our brand new holiday goodies with old favorites from our stash at Jingle Belles and you're still invited to join the fun! Here's what I made this week:

 

Stephanie gave me a fabulous set of Retro Ornament dies from Impression Obsession, which I used on scraps of my well-hoarded Basic Grey 25th and Pine paper pack, with little touches of glittery and metallic papers for the accents. A few assorted Eyelet Outlet gems serve as finishing touches, as well as hangers for the baubles to dangle from. My sentiment is from another "new" acquisition, a stamp set called Deck the Halls from Gina K Designs.

Head over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and to link up your own!

Thanks Snow Much

After holiday card season comes thank you card season, and luckily The Ink Pad's got your back for both! My card features LDRS's Ice Valley Clear Stamps and coordinating Ice Valley Creative Dies and you can read all about it on The Ink Pad Blog!

The Ultimate 2020 Brad Set

If I had to choose just ONE Eyelet Outlet product to sum up last year, it would surely have to be the brand new Mask, Hand Sanitizer and Soap Brads which debuted this week. They are not just super-useful for making cards, layouts and journal pages with distinctive 2020 style, they're also kind of adorable don't you think?

I've paired them with simple, computer-generated sentiments and fun rainbow-colored styles of EO Washi... (Elephant Tape, Stripes and Confetti to be exact!) ...but there are nearly endless possibilities for these, so stay tuned to the Eyelet Outlet Blog to see more ideas from our stellar design team!

Have a Stashy New Year!

A bit of a change-up for our first challenge of 2021 at Shopping Our Stash. This time we'd like to see projects which use something NEW you got over the holidays! Of course you can pair your new stuff with older goodies, if you'd like. Here's what I made:

I have two little girl birthdays coming up, so my project is a "double header" lol. Stephanie gave me the awesome Hero Arts T-Shirt Infinity Dies for Xmas and I happened to have an Avery Elle stamp set I got at Paper Anthology over the summer and somehow valiantly managed not to use at all? So I based my cards around the combination of those two items. 

I added in an older die that I love, Lawn Fawn's Happy Birthday Border, as a background; I would blanch at adding this many super skinny diecuts if I didn't have Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive, which has an excellent fine-tipped applicator and dries completely clear. I couldn't decide between yellow and blue backgrounds, so I made one of each. The yellow matches really nicely with the pink... but the white text pops more against the blue...

Hop over to SOS to see what the design team darlings have created to inspire you, then break out your NEW STUFF and join the fun! ♥

Another New Year, Another New Journal

One of the most exciting things about the New Year for planners and journal-keepers is choosing and setting up our new book, supplies and system. Last year was my first time using a Traveler's Notebookfrom The Ink Pad (details from last January are HERE) and since my experience was 100% positive, I'll be going down that same path, using dated 2021 Traveler's Company Products.

Last year I purchased and decorated a Refill Binder, as opposed to a Leather Cover, since I knew most of my journal-keeping would take place at home. I added collage papers and stickers to the front and back covers. Since I had the intention of re-using the same cover in subsequent years, I confined my references to the year 2020 to a catalog card which slid into a library pocket. So this year, all I had to do was remove the 2020 card and my completed (and now rather fat, lol) weekly and monthly refills, archive them, and decorate a new card for 2021. I used some Pepin Vintage Fashion Stickers, MT Fab Letters Tapeand the stickers that came with my new TN. 

This year I'll be working with a 2021Weekly Vertical + Memo(which splits the year into two halves)and a 2021 Dated Monthly Diary. I treated myself to the 2021 Customizing Sticker Set(this year's theme is classic books) and a Brass Bookmark Template.

To kick off the year, I decorated the front cover of the January-June Weekly book, again with some of the stickers that came with my TN, more Pepin Vintage Fashion, beautiful White Lace Gem Tape, some letters cut from MT Fab Letters Tape, and various stickers and tapes from Pepin's Natural History, Art Forms in Natureand Classical European Tilesbooks. (There are quite a few other books in this Pepin seriesand with thirty-two 8x10" pages these are a good value as well as being both useful and beautiful!)

Since January first fell mid-week, my first layout spans the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021. I did a little hand-lettering with my Karin Decobrush pensand made a little collage featuring some vintage bookpaper, sheet music, a fabulous quote (written out on my trusty Royal typewriter)and various Pepin Stickers, some of which I fussycut.

I use my Monthly Diary not to plan forward, but record my projects and assignments once they are completed. So my month of January isn't filled in yet, but I added a little more lettering, as well as more Pepin tapes and stickers.

There are so many different ways to use a Traveler's Notebook, many of which do not involve a calendar or dated pages at all! Did you know there are Gridded Refills, Kraft, Sketchbookpages, Watercolor Refillsand more. And most of these varieties also come in the handy Passport Size (which is, as the name implies, literally the size of your passport)as well as the larger Regular Size (4x 8"ish) that I have chosen! Visit the website or better yet, the Chelsea store to see the whole selection and be sure to check out the TN Master Blog Post for an overview of the basics!

Let's Get This Party Started!

Christmas has been over for an entire week now, so this seems like the best possible time to start on 2021 holiday cards at Jingle Belles, right? ...Right...?! Ok, yes, this is the most insane sentence I type each year; because it definitely feels crazy to start making Xmas cards on New Year's Day. But not nearly as crazy as making 50+ cards in December! Which is why we are starting our eleventh season at Jingle Belles, and you're invited. The prompt for our first cards of 2021 is "Something Old and Something New" which gives you the chance to test drive some of the goodies Santa brought... (alternatively, you can break out something you've had for a bit, but haven't used yet) ...and mix them with some of your older supplies. Here's my card:

Ok so my new stuff consists of a set of American Crafts "Cozy and Bright" washi tape from my friend Gina, as well as a sentiment from a terrific Gina K stamp set Stephanie sent me called, "Deck the Halls". My older stuff includes an Authentique journal card, some Echo Park and My Mind's Eye patterned paper, vintage sheet music, and ancient but beautifully diecut K and Co Lace Paper. 

Be sure to hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card and start making plans to link up your first holiday masterpiece of the New Year!♥