Gulls Just Wanna Have Fun

Eyelet Outlet Seagull Brads, that is. And in this case, they're having their fun on two three-inch-square Inkbox Cards* I made especially to hold them. I love that the Seagull Brads have two poses, so I decided they should each be the star of one card. And since I was dying to use my new softly metallic Ocean Tape, I'd pair it with Script Washi and some Glitter Skinny Tape to make a foreground for both.

The first card features the distance flying seagull up in the "sky" of the card and down on the washi tape beach I've clustered a Shell Corner Brad, as well as both the starfish and sand dollar from the Sea Shore Brad set.

The standing up seagull is the star of the second card, and he's standing next to a cluster of all three Shell Brads. I felt like it needed one more thing for balance, and you'd be surprised how often our Sun and Cloud Brads fit the bill on that score; which is why they are consistently on my "most used brads" list; along with Hearts and Snowflakes! 

*I keep seeing these really fun, usually collagey, #inkboxcards on Instagram; they're 3" square and often have rounded corners, so I suspect they are modeled on the size and shape of a Popular Ink Brand which comes in square boxes...? ;)

I Am an ICADian

...and here are my index cards from week four of the Index Card a Day event. i hope your week has been both fun and creative, as well!

day 18: off prompt

when i started this, i *thought* it was going to be a mandala, but after i had attached the white doodle circle to the pink card, it seemed like it would be more fun to try to connect up the design outside the circle. so i did.

day 19: parallel

considering i started this card with three smallish scraps of patterned paper and NO PLAN... i'm fairly pleased with how this came out!

day 20: off prompt

this was the day i finally got to the garden center plants to go on our deck, next to the mailbox, and by the door... so obviously i needed to celebrate with big smooshy pink flowers.

day 21: mandala monday

most of the time i trade speed for accuracy when it comes to mandalas, but on this day, i used both the circle tool and a ruler to increase my symmetry; then had fun varying my line weights and embellishments!

day 22: chartreuse

flashing back to a prompt from last week, although technically i think i've used EVERY shade of green EXCEPT chartreuse, lol. 

day 23: off prompt

apparently this summer i'm going to spend several nights each week cutting random shapes out of patterned paper scraps, sticking them to an index card and sewing on them.

day 24: off prompt

it's a minimalist doodle rainbow! taking advantage of the fact that index cards have a bunch of perfectly spaced parallel lines that are almost exactly the width of a tombow's brush tip.

Keep it in Neutral

We're still celebrating holiday cards which focus on the NEUTRAL shades at Jingle Belles, and you're still invited to join us. So break out your black, white, grey, silver, brown, kraft, copper or gold; and for embellishments, don't forget about lace, wood, burlap, pearls, clear acrylic, vellum and glitter. Because the absence of color need not be boring!

I punched a bunch of hexies from scraps of white, off-white and tan patterned paper; arranged them on a nicely patinated page from an ancient and partially water-stained copy of "A Christmas Carol" then added a big chunky wood veneer sentiment, not to mention some Eyelet Outlet Heart Pearls and Snowflake Brads.

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

Stunning in Sepia

Inspiration can come from anywhere, or anyone! When Anna, owner of The Ink Pad, mentioned that she thought our friend Linda Edkins Wyatt's newest Lemurian Gardens stencils from StencilGirl would look really cool if done in tones of browns and sepia, with maybe some zen-doodling on top; I immediately agreed. So I decided to base my next card on exactly that idea. Or, as it turned out, my next few cards, which you can see this morning on The Ink Pad Blog.

DINO-mite!

There are few things more fun for a cardmaker than "making a scene" (in card form, of course!) but it's even better if you get to make THREE tiny little scenes... each providing a home to an adorably ferocious Eyelet Outlet Dinosaur Brad!

My little squares are just about 1.25" each; which turns out to be the perfect size to hold a simple rendition of sky and ground, one Dino Brad and either a Tall Palm Tree and a Mini Butterfly or the Sun. By staggering the horizon line across my A6 card, the tiny scenes relate to each other, and hopefully add up to a larger landscape that is "DINO-mite"!

Let's Flamin-GO!

We're embracing "Tropical Delights" this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash and you're invited to join the fun. No need to break out the sunscreen, just make a card that features palm trees, parrots, toucans, hula girls, tiki bars, hibiscus, pineapples, blue drinks with little umbrellas or... wellllll... you get the idea, right? I went with a beachy theme:

There are eight tropical/beachy stickers on this card (YES, I have a lot of stickers; NO, I don't find this to be problematical in anyway!) as well as a bunch of items --the polaroids, clouds, pineapple and beach ball-- which I hand cut from journal cards or patterned paper. The cloud-themed washi is one of my all time favorites and I will miss it when it's finished off; likely the next time I use it. The notebook patterned paper is DCWV; the pink floral is Doodlebug; and while there was no particular need to stitch around the perimeter, I elected to do so anyway.

Be sure to check out the other fun "Tropical Delights" over at SOS and then start planning what you'll link up with us this fortnight!

Ghost in the Machine

Introducing Rinea's most unique new product: Ghost Ink! Designed to be used with their amazing metallic foiled papers (of which The Ink Pad has a fabulous selection) Ghost Ink actually removes a layer of color, rather than adding one, for quite a magical effect. More info on how I used it to make a super fun (and VERY shiny) card; on The Ink Pad Blog.

Week 3, In the Bag

I'm still having fun making an Index Card a Day. Even more, actually, because now that my sister, niece and friends are done with school for the summer, we've been dedicating our Family Art Time on Friday afternoons to ICAD, which gives me a nice jump on the week!   

day 12: off prompt

despite having PLENTY of lined, plain, tabbed and colorful index cards left in my ICAD stash, I made a special trip to staples for gridded cards at the beginning of june. i stand by that decision!

day 13: lyrics

flashing back to a prompt i skipped over in week one; mostly as an excuse to sit and handcut some wonky letters out of paper scraps. non je ne regrette rien...

day 14: mandala monday

not gonna lie, this is one of my all time favorite mandalas! the center circle is a scrap of dcwv patterned paper that i outlined; then i drew and colored the outer mandala rings to match. i think it's the most successfully i've ever blended my own additions to something storebought.

day 15: off prompt

i took a break from handcutting letters during family art time... and handcut foliage instead!!!

day 16: off prompt

a one staple collage celebrating the fact that i saw my second red winged blackbird on monday! 

(the first one was spotted like two years ago and i have actively scanned every bit of marshy or reedy ground i've seen since then without result; hence my joy now!)

day 17: color wheel

technically speaking these are stacked rainbow circles. but as i was semi-thinking about the color wheel during the day, i started dissecting it into COLORS and WHEELS and this is what happened. the prompts are meant to be a spark, that starts us off with an idea; you can let them take you ANYWHERE!

♥♥♥

Neutral Noel

This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're creating holiday cards which embrace only the neutral color palette: white, cream, ivory, ecru, black, gray, charcoal, obsidian, brown, tan, kraft, camel, oatmeal, sienna, gold, copper, silver... ok, you get the picture! Use them all together, or chose just one hue and rock the monochromatic design. As long as it's NEUTRAL it's in. Need some texture to replace the missing color? There's burlap, jute, paper bags, cork, chalkboard, sandpaper, lace, metallic papers... so many choices! Here's what I made this week: 

I chose to combine a bunch of different neutrals, mostly from the brown family, with accents of silver and white. My focal image is once again an older Ciao Bella patterned paper from Paper Anthology; I've got some copper-enhanced specialty cardstock with silver metallic mats and diecut sentiment; rounding off with a few Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads and silver Star Sequins. 

Head on over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's amazing layery tag creation and link your own Neutral Noel masterpiece.

Super-Soft Stenciling

Salvaged Patina may be my favorite Distress Oxide at the moment; it's fresh not-quite-blue, not-quite-green aesthetic seems like the perfect summer shade! I used Picket Fence Studios' Slim Lin Basket Petals Stencil as the background for a collage of Appree Lilac and Bracken Pressed Flower Stickers, clustered around a couple of Tim Holtz Wildflowers 2 Thinlits diecuts. You can read all about it on The Ink Pad Blog!

Happy (Almost) Father's Day

It's nearly Father's Day, but there's still a little time to make an extra-special card featuring some of the things Dads love: grillin'... (thanks to Eyelet Outlet BBQ Brads); chillin'...  (courtesy of our Beer Brads); and crusin' down the highway... with our Classic Car Brads!

Here's fair warning regarding my cards for the rest of the summer: I am OBSESSED with the new Extra-Wide Sky Washi Tape! At 50mm (almost 2") you can cut a nice, long, easy-peel strip and that's the whole sky on a slimline card. I punched cardstock grass to meet it about a third of the way, et voila... instant landscape! I spelled out the central word of my "Happy Father's Day" sentiment in chunky cork alphabet stickers and clustered my BBQ Brads, Beer Brads, Classic Cars, Mini Bees, Sun and Cloud Brads around them; then added a thin yellow cardstock mat and a slightly thicker one made of Wood Washi, to serve as a frame.

There are plenty of other traditional Dad-related items in the EO Store; you could rock a Camping theme... Fishing theme... a Food and Drink theme... a Motorcycle theme... or a Tool theme; and if your Dad is less traditional, I bet we still have something fun that will work!

Seeing Stars (and Half Stars, Too)

This week I've been playing with Rinea's 3D Rolled Star Die Set and a variety of their beautiful metallic foiled papers and the possibilities are nearly endless. Read all about it on The Ink Pad Blog!

This Is the Week That Was

...or to put it more succinctly: Here's a round up of all my Index Card Art from this, the second week of ICAD 2021:

day 5: verdigris

my favorite example of verdigris is also my favorite nyc landmark, lady liberty. she's printed on an inkjet transparency and the centerpiece of a one-staple collage.

day 6: twist

someone on instagram pointed out that my twisty zentangle on a greenish-teal index card would also count as a second take at "verdigris" and i'm cool with that.

day 7: mandala monday

most years, my mondays go completely off-prompt in favor of mandala making. for this week's version, i invented the one-staple mandala! 

(there's a flipagram on IG showing all the layers.)

day 8: umbrella

while making this one, i was listening to a wonderful and magical audiobook called "the watchmaker of filigree street" which has a mikado-related subplot; so my umbrellas are made of origami paper and sort of japanese-y.

day 9: ampersand

i thought this cluster of ampersand stickers was going to be part of a more complicated and layery collage, but then i really liked it like this, so i just stopped. maybe the most CAS design i've ever made?

day 10: ribbon

sometimes the combination of two ideas adds up to more than the sum of its parts, and sometimes, not so much, lol. i like both my tombow-drawn rainbow ribbon AND my scrunched and stitched actual ribbon; but... as it turns out, i don't like them TOGETHER. 

day 11: library

another card where i can't say i'm in love with the end result, but there ideas here that i like, which i will definitely revisit, so it was a useful and fun card to make. (plus: ZINNIAS!)

♥♥♥

Just a reminder that all the info you could possibly need about ICAD2021 (including completely optional weekly prompt lists) can be found on the Daisy Yellow Art Blog. My individual ICADs are posted nightly on my Instagram account.

More Layers!

We're still celebrating "All Bundled Up" cards at Jingle Belles; by which we mean cards that have three or more layers. Personally, I love layers, so this is pretty much a "gimme" in my case; but for all you minimalists out there, remember that you really just need to add a few skinny mats to achieve instant layeryness in a way that embraces a CAS aesthetic!

The tag at the center of this week's card is a combination of leftover elements (a pretty thumbnail image from a Ciao Bella paper pack, half an embossed label shape, part of a punched border, a vellum poinsettia that I drew, cut out and then didn't use, etc) that I really only had to make a card base for. I used a layer of Echo Park plaid paper into which I punched some EK Success snowflakes, then layered it onto a larger piece of Ciao Bella bokeh paper. Our "Bling" prompt might be over, but that didn't stop me from finishing off with some Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Bling and some Star Sequins. And of course I'll take any excuse to run the whole thing through my sewing machine to add just one more extra bit of texture!

Be sure to visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful and layery masterpiece, then start planning what you'll link up with us this time.

Lots (& LOTS!) of Dots

I love Zig Clean Color Dot Markers, so I'm super excited that The Ink Pad has sets of four, in bright colors and metallics; as well as a larger set of twelve bold shades. And of course there are eight individual colors, in case you're like me and you want to TRY a new style of pen before committing to a whole set! More pics featuring my experiments with dot art and dot mandalas, on The Ink Pad Blog today!

Wise Monkeys

Here's yet another example of a phrase that I (Lauren) saw on a shirt or on Instagram and thought, "that would make a fun card!" I stand by that belief in the case of this sentiment; and yes... I really did think getting old would take considerably longer!

I started out with an entirely different idea, but when I saw my Birthday Sock Monkey Brads, and remembered that I had Sprinkles Tape, I changed plans immediately! I love that the Sock Monkeys come in five colors so that if you want to use a bunch of them together, they add an entire rainbow. Oh and did I mention they're on sale?! As well as being... more fun than a barrel of (Sock) Monkeys!!!

It's Raining Cats and Dogs...

...because we're celebrating "Fur Babies" this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash. In the process of making my card, I discovered that I own about five different narwhal stamps and die sets, but ZERO cats or dogs! How is that possible, lol?! Well anyway, I found an old pack of Simple Stories' Sn@p Stickers which had a cat, a dog, sunshine, balloons and hearts; so I was good to go.

I used a very old set of nice big chunky Recollections letter stickers and they turned out to be sooooo big and chunky I had to overlap them to make them fit on my slimline card. I think it's still readable, though, and looks quite whimsical, so let's pretend I meant to do that! The bright yellow patterned paper is a scrap of Echo Park; and I'm pretty sure the butterfly and "happy days" stickers are as well.

Be sure to check out the amazing SOS design team cards and then start planning what you will make that features "Fur Babies"!

Hi! (x2)

I love alphabet stamps and stencils, and I especially love when they line up with the "H" and the "I" next to each other; so you can feature them together, or "HI-light" them, so to speak. Such is the case with Tim Holtz's Mini Layering Stencil Set #29, which I've paired with Papergame Boy Stickers in a couple of fun cards which are on The Ink Pad Blog today.

First ICAD Wrap-Up of 2021

since the month only started on tuesday, it's quite a short week of Index Card a Day items, but nevertheless, here's a review of what i made and posted each day on instagram:

day 1: off prompt

the idea for this card literally came to me in a dream and thankfully i not only remembered it when i woke up, i sketched out the details while it was fresh in my mind. you can see the sketch in the 3rd frame of my "process" collage, below:

day 2: snapdragon

i don't always use the awesome prompts from tammy at daisy yellow, but i love that they are available whenever i want one. this week's "bonus" was one staple collage, a legendary ICAD tradition we re-visit each year, and i was excited to already sneak one in, on day two!

day 3: off-prompt

during last week's family art time, my sister had the brilliant idea to pay tribute to eric carle, so i made a Very Hungy Caterpillar using 22 hand-cut ovals of various green patterned paper. and of course he needed a home... 

day 4: off-prompt

speaking of hand-cutting, lol. i have a feeling that cut and pieced illustrations, doodles and fonts are going to be A Big Thing with me this summer during icad, so i figured i'd just warn you right now! :)

♥♥♥

if you'd like more information on the Index Card a Day challenge, check out the Daisy Yellow Blog. to see my individual cards each day, follow @llaurenb (that's me!) on instagram.

Lots (and LOTS?!) of Layers

This fortnight at Jingle Belles our prompt is called, "All Bundled Up" but we're not looking for winter clothing items, we'd like to see lots of LAYERS... three or more, in fact... on your holiday card. For me, that's pretty much business as usual, lol. But I did make extra sure to add mats for even more drama. See?

Since it was Fifth Saturday at Sketch Saturday, I took the opportunity to browse through the archive of sketches and choose one that leant itself towards layers. I went with #524 from 2018, which I think you'll agree was pretty much ideal. The paper with the tiny houses and that fun brad are from MME's "Cozy Christmas" collection of several years back; the green damasky pattern is a luscious bit of Blue Fern Studio (non-holiday) paper; the red cardstock is Gina K; the dies are all ancient, but you could basically put ANYTHING in the center of such a wonderful sketch and be good to go!

Be sure to hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and start planning some layer-laden loveliness of your own!

Colorful ATCs

I love making Artist Trading Cards with my Eyelet Outlet Brads, so this seemed like a good time to make some featuring the newest Spring 2021 Releases: Felines, Kennel Mix, Colored Daisies, Tropical Birds and Reptiles.

"Feline Groovy" features the Feline Brads, obviously, as well as some colorful wide Geometric Tape.

"Bloomin' Awesome" has only one of the three shades of Colored Daisy, but it's colorful enough to keep our attention. I've added some Flower Tape, as well as two older styles of Skinny Tape.

"Doggone It" pairs the doghouse from Kennel Mix with a Long Dog (who's on sale!) and an accent of two plaid washi tape styles as well as some Skinny Heart Tape.

"Squawkward" stars a one of three very handsome parrots from the Tropical Birds Set, as well as boldly spotted Dot Washi Tape and Skinny Tape.

"Birds of a Feather" features a pair of adorable toucans from the Tropical Birds, because TWO toucans are even better than one! I love how they look against thet bold black and white Floral Tape (which is out of stock, alas but This One is quite similar).

And finally, "One in Chameleon" has the eponymous half of our Reptile Brads against some Foil Tape.

There's inspiration all week long on the Eyelet Outlet Blog, stop back often and see!