Ready for the New Year

One of my favorite last-week-of-December tasks of the last few years has been finishing the current Traveler's Notebook and setting up for the New Year. For the last two years I've used a Monthly Diary to record all of my creative assignments and a Weekly Vertical (with facing Memo pages) for basic memorykeeping and a little art journaling. On the principle of, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" I've stuck with that same format again. Here's a fond farewell to 2021:

  

December 2021 is all filled in, with lettering in Karin Brushmarkers and some fun Michelle Ward x TIP New York themed stamps. The rest of the months of 2021 are available as a slideshow (because honestly, one of the pleasures of working in my TN in each month is how much fun it is to see the whole year in review!) just hop over to The Ink Pad's Instagram feed to check that out. 

Meanwhile, I've set up for 2022 with a new library card tucked into the pocket of my Notebook Refill Cover. 

Here's the set up for January 2022, with lettering via StencilGirl's Vintage Typewriter Lower Case Stencil by Carolyn Dube using half a dozen colors of Distress Oxide Ink; plus some very fun Rose and Roo Washi Tapes in coordinating colors. The daily squares are ready to to be filled in as I complete each project.

Finally a hand-typed inspirational quote and some lovely Pepin Stickers from the Art Forms in Nature and Natural History books. Oh and how cute is that Typewriter Sticker?

I hope your last week of December will be filled with the joy of finishing up a few projects, and looking forward to 2022. Happy New Year! 

Lauren's Valentine Favorites

Isn't it fun looking back at the Eyelet Outlet Design team's favorite Valentine cards and projects? I've had a great time scrolling through my cards from the last few years; and I also *love* seeing what the rest of the team have picked, as well!

With 45 brads from 29 different styles, this two-piece, maximalist Valentine from 2019 has to be my all-time favorite, right? I'm not going to re-list them all here, but if you click the link it'll take you to theWholehearted post where you can find every single brad linked to its page in the EO Store.

My second choice is a fun (though fairly specific, lol) card. Featuring one of the three colors of yarn from our Knitting Brads (they're on sale!) and a few Heart Brads on a background of Blue and White Dots Tape, this More Than Yarn card is from January of 2017

I've used the same diabolical pun three different ways for my Hoppy Hoppy Hoppy trio from February of 2020; with Rabbit and Heart Brads and some Tiny Hearts Tape; with Frog Brads with Heart Pearls on a background of Cloud Tape; and finally Beer Brads and Beer Tape with some yellow Heart Enamels.

Last year's Valentine's Breakfast is another trio... (what can I say, I like making sets) ...this time pairing a punny breakfast stamp set with our Bacon Egg and Toast Brads as well as the waffles from our Chicken and Waffles Set (also on sale!) and more Heart Pearls.

I hope you'll take a little time to scroll around the Eyelet Outlet Blog and see ALL the favorites from the wonderful Design Team!

'Twas the Week Before Christmas...

...so there's time for just one more Eyelet Outlet holiday card design! This one has a winter vibe (which seems appropriate on the second official day of that season!) featuring a double row of the beautiful Glitter Tall Trees Tape in the background, and an ornament bedecked with a Deer Brad, some Pine Trees and a couple of Snowflake Brads, dangling from a Jewel Strip hanger, with a small scattering of Snowflake Sequins.

Wishing you a warm and wonderful First Week of Winter!

It's Christmastime in the City

There's something magical about snowglobes, and luckily it's very easy to make any winter or holiday scene into a snowglobe card. In this example, I've used Michelle Ward's beautiful NYC Skyline Stamp against a background of blended Distress Oxide Inks, for a wintery nighttime scene. You can read all about it on The Ink Pad Blog.

Ugly Sweater Party

We call them "ugly" but there is something totally fun and festive about Holiday Sweaters, especially in card form; and Instant Holiday Sweater Awesomeness can be achieved just by adding Eyelet Outlet Holiday Brads!

These particular sweaters are fussy-cut from a Photoplay patterned paper, but this idea would work with any sweater-shaped stamps, dies or SVG files; or swap for t-shirts if you live in a warmer climate! I chose to make mini-slimline cards with three sweaters across, but again, you could make a grid with LOTS of sweaters, or go clean-and-simple and add just a single one to each card. 

My first card features a Candy Cane Brad, a Holiday Light and a Pine Tree; the latter makes another appearance on card #2, along with a Snowflake and an (on sale!) Ornament Brad.

The third card sports a Bell Brad (also on sale!) a handsome Snowman and one of this year's brand new styles a Gift Brad.

There are lots more fun holiday brad styles in the Eyelet Outlet store, why not hop over and take a peek!

Shining Stars

Tonic 6 x 6 Card Packs are a great value and a fabulous resource! Each of the five beautiful colorways contains twenty-four sheets of sturdy cardstock; that's six sheets each of four different, perfectly coordinated specialty cardstocks, including textured, glossy, metallic and glitter varieties. I've used the Green Valley and Silver Service Packs to make quilt-inspired cards. Read more about it on The Ink Pad Blog!

How Many Yeti Fit in One Blog Post?

The answer is: Six! Each one has brought along some favorite Eyelet Outlet Holiday Brads, a scattering of Round Sequins, and a selection of festive Washi Tape... See?

The first yeti has brought his (or possibly her... on yeti, it's frankly hard to tell!) favorite holiday treat: a Candy Cane Brad and has chosen Gingerbread Tape, Heart Washi, Red Dots and some solid color Skinny Tapes.

The second yeti likes being vertical and chose Red Tree Tape, Christmas Pattern Washi, Heart Tape and two shades of green Skinny Tape. A Holly Brad coordinates perfectly.

Yeti number three likes a bargain, so a Holiday Tree from the sale section was just the thing. Santa Tape, Merry Christmas Washi, Trees Tape, Music Notes and green Skinny Tape complete the ensemble.

The fourth yeti is wishing us Happy Holidays with a Holiday Saying Bubble. Red Dots, Gingerbread Washi, Foil Stripes, Merry Christmas Washi, and Fun Pattern Tape coordinate nicely.

Yeti number five is also embracing verticality, perfectly enhanced with Red Tree Tape, Christmas Pattern Washi, Heart Tape and two shades of green Skinny Tape, enjoying a Holiday Coffee. 

The final yeti is ready to hang up his Stocking Brad (also on sale!) against a background of Santa Tape, Trees Tape, Music Notes Washi and green Skinny Tape.

Whatever aspect of the holidays YOUR favorite yeti loves most, I'm pretty sure we've got some Eyelet Outlet Brads and Tapes that will suit him (or her!) perfectly.

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

You may already have guessed from the title that this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash we'd like to see cards featuring snowpersons. If you had somehow not guessed that, the previous sentence presumably cleared the issue up. So here's my card with (SURPRISE!) a snowman on it:

The adorable snowman is a stamp from Pretty Pink Posh, his hat and buttons are Eyelet Outlet Brads, (the Pearl Swirl is also EO), the tags are Lawn Fawn and (I think) Crate Paper, the background text paper is Pebbles. There's nothing especially fancy here, but the snowman is super cute and the black, teal and lime color palette is quite vivid, so I consider this mission accomplished!

Be sure to head on over to SOS and see what the rest of the design team have cooked up to inspire you!

Deck the Halls

It's holiday season, and nothing says "Christmastime in the City" quite like The Ink Pad's exclusive NYC-themed stamps, used to decorate festive Distress Oxide Ombre baubles. Head on over to The Ink Pad Blog to read all about it!

That's a Wrap!

Hard to believe we've wrapped up another Jingle Belles season already, it seems like 2021 has flown by! Here's my traditional sprawling card pile photo... all the holiday cards I've made since January. Looking forward to writing these, addressing them, and sending them out into the world. Then on January 1. 2022 we'll start the whole thing all over again and we'd love for you to join us! ♥

Eyelet Outlet Christmas Faves!

I'm pretty excited to look back on several years' worth of Eyelet Outlet holiday cards and choose a few to show off today on the EO Blog!

This Peaceful Winter card from last December shows off all my favorite winter animal brads as holiday ornaments: sweet Polar Bears, handsome Moose and adorable Penguins; as well as Pine Tree Brads and Jewel Bling Strip ornament hangers.

This coffee-centic card, Fa-La-La-La Latte, is from November 2019, and features our Holiday Coffee Cups, Holly Brads and Poinsettia Washi; all of which I still adore!

This fun mini gift bag was part of our multi-designer 2017 Christmas in July Wrap-Up post, and it's a favorite because of how FAST and flexible the design is: I added a Men's Hat Brad and some Pearl Bling buttons to a stamped snowman, a Candy Cane Brad to Solid Color Paper Flowers and an eclectic mix of Washi Tapes (including Wide Tree Washi, Merry Christmas Tape, Music Note Tape, Skinny Solid Tape, Skinny Hearts Washi) which I selected almost randomly. Such a fun way to add personal style to an inexpensive gift bag!

♥♥♥

Be sure to visit the Eyelet Outlet Blog and scroll back a bit, as all the designers have been posting their favorites, so it's especially full of holiday inspiration this week!

Happy Hanukkah!

Hanukkah begins this evening I'm on The Ink Pad Blog, wishing you a wonderful Festival of Lights! 

Snowy Banner Wishes

We're still making holiday cards inspired by the 2021 Jingle Belles Blog Banner (hop over or scroll down for a reminder!) and you're still invited to join the fun. Here's what I made this week:

I used an ancient, beautiful Darice embossing folder to add swirly snowflakes to a piece of dark green Bo Bunny Double Dot paper, then sanded the embossing to make it stand out even more. I cut Hero Arts' Snowflake Cluster from white glitter cardstock and added Eyelet Outlet Pearls in several sizes, scattered all over.

Be sure to visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and the readers' gallery so far; then come back to link up your own masterpiece!

Happy Turkey Day!

Whether you're celebrating or not, I hope that everyone 

who sees this will have a wonderful day! 

♥♥♥ 

'Twas the Day Before Thanksgiving

Here's a happy little card focusing on one of the most popular and iconic of our Thanksgiving Day pleasures: PIE! 

Obviously I couldn't resist this sweet little slice (or the gorgeous plaid pattern!) from Doodlebug's "Pumpkin Spice" collection when I saw it at Paper Anthology, especially since I knew it would pair well with my Eyelet Outlet Pumpkin and Rolling Pin Brads! To round out the design I also added a Leaf Brad, a Sunflower, a Heart and the Oven Glove from our Cooking Set.

Wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Triple Threat

This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash we challenge you to use three of... something... prominently on your card or project. I chose to use three of the adorable critters from Stampendous' "Peeking Pals" stamp set.

I paired the sweet flamingo, meerkat and ostrich with some super-cute, totally ancient Echo Park flower stickers; added a white polaroid-style frame from... uhhhhhh somewhere; and matted on a few different scraps of coordinating patterned paper. So this is a pretty good victory for miscellaneous stash usage, and a sweet birthday card for our eldest niece!

Visit SOS to see what the team have made to inspire you and then start planning your own Triple Threat!

Making Many Mandalas!

I love Rubber Stamp Tapestry's Peg Stamp Sets from The Ink Pad and at the moment my favorite is their Make a Mandala Set. RST designs all of their stamps so they're centered neatly on the peg without too much extraneous rubber; and the Make a Mandala set also has a line on the peg to show you exactly where the center of that design is... making it even easier to position each element of your mandala with perfect precision! Visit The Ink Pad Blog to read all about this set of tiny but vivid mandala cards!

A Banner Day

This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're making holiday cards inspired by this year's blog banner, which looks a bit like this:

You can choose any elements that appeal to you: the color palette, the pine trees, the sparkly letters, the snowflakes... just be sure to tell us in your post what inspired you, if it isn't obvious.

I took a little bit of all the main elements from the banner: a green, slightly grungy background flecked with snow; dark shadowy trees combined with snowy white ones; and pale glitter letters for my sentiment. It's a pretty literal translation, but I like how it turned out!

Head on over to Jingle Belles to see what Stephanie has made to inspire you, than start planning your own blog-banner-inspired masterpiece!

A Good Day

According to my favorite Stamplorations' coffee-related stamp set (designed by my lovely friend Becca Cruger for her Big Grins line) "A good day has both coffee and you"! Of course a truly GREAT day might have coffee, you, and the awesome Coffee Loving Cardmakers' Fall/Winter Blog Hop!   

The seasonal theme requirement of the Coffee Lovers' recent hops has been suspended, but we're in the midst of some beautiful fall weather here in central New Jersey, plus I had some Colorbursted collage leaves leftover from another project, so I went autumnal.

I used Becca's Literary Caffeine-ations for my sentiment, and that adorable to-go cup (which I paper pieced from appropriately colored scraps) is from a set appropriately called A Cuppa Love. By the way, Stamplorations is having a "Season of Thanksgiving" sale until November 30th with LOTS of things 25% off, so you should probably check that out!

While you're at it, hop over to the Stamplorations Blog and take a look at their current challenges, including the November Theme and Photo Prompt which inspired my choice of colors! 

Then be sure to go over and check out the cards linked up for the  Coffee Loving Cardmakers' Hop... there were already over 800 amazing cards when I added mine to the list!

Merci Bouquet Triple Play

It's probably impossible to have too many Birthday or Thank You greetings on hand, so whenever I think of a fun idea, I like to make multiple versions, if possible. Since there are plenty of different Eyelet Outlet Flower Brad styles, when I thought of "Merci Bouquet" I was spoiled for choice!

I used the same Wood Washi and Mini Ladybug Brads in all three versions, but changed up the patterned paper backgrounds to match the flower styles. For my first card I made a bouquet of Colored Daisy Brads.

My second card features our classic Bright Daisy Flower Brads, which are on sale!

My third card combines Fall Stitched Flower Brads (they come in Minis and Brights, too!) with petals cut from a green Solid Color Paper Flower to act as foliage.

Check out all of the Flower Brad styles, not to mention the Flower Tapes, in the Eyelet Outlet Online Store!

New Product: Kitta Washi Strips

I'm test driving a completely new product to The Ink Pad: King Jim Kitta Washi Tape Strips. They are actual thin, sheer, 2 x 3/8” strips of washi tape, which have a backer like stickers have. You easily peel the backer off and apply the neat strips to you project. They come in dozens of styles and are great for adding photos & ephemera to journals, Using as page flags and borders, making patterns, spelling out words and... well, I'm excited to find other creative uses, but if you'll hop over to The Ink Pad Blog, I'll show you what I've done so far:  

Baublicious!

We're still celebrating holiday ornaments at Jingle Belles and you've still got time to join the fun! This week my baubles are chipboard, from an older My Mind's Eye collection, they're dangling from Eyelet Outlet Pearl Strips, on a Graphic 45 background, and I've scattered a few EO Enamel Stars around to add extra texture.

Whether you're ornaments are made of chipboard or paper; whether they're diecut, stamped or stenciled; if they're in a box, on a tree or just dangling on your card, I hope you'll hop over to Jingle Belles and link up your Ornamental Masterpiece with us!  

Thanksgiving Vibes

Preparations for Turkey Day are well underway at our house, with the merits of various types of dressing being hotly debated, and crucial decisions regarding veggie casseroles (green bean or broccoli??) still pending. So this seemed like a good time to get out some of my favorite autumnal EO Brads and make a card.

There's nothing particularly Thanksgiving-related about this fabulous super-wide Brick Washi, but it was my starting point for colors. I added clusters of Sunflower Brads, green Mini Stitched Flowers and red Heart Pearls around my sticker sentiment and finished things off nicely with a Pumpkin Brad.

And now back to the Big Question: pumpkin pie... or apple??!