Magic Pencil Mandala Monday

A few years ago, my friend Paul bought me a Magic Pencil at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it instantly transported me back to grade school art class and the joy of simple, colorful, fun supplies. Since then, Miss Stephanie has found several different versions, including the astonishing set of Koh-I-Noor Tri-Tones that you see in the photo. Amongst the many things that Magic Pencils are awesome for is drawing and doodling, because it really allows the "magic" of the random color distribution to shine. 

Magic pencil mandala, outlined in Pitt Artist Pen, 

in my Canson Mixed Media Sketchbook

"Oh Christmas Stencil...

...Oh Christmas Stencil!" Admittedly, there's no such song, but nevertheless, this fortnight at Jingle Belles we are making holiday cards that celebrate stencils, whether they are used as the focal point of the design, an interesting custom-color background, or just a pretty accent. Don't have any stencils? Make your own, like I did, using just my ancient circle punches and some sturdy cardstock! The details on that process are below, but first I should probably show you my cards... because yes... my blue-ish bokeh background turned out to be big enough for two cards!

I made my Bokeh "Stencil" by using my four smallest circle punches (pretty far apart) on a scrap of glossy white cardstock. Then I blended Villainous Potion and Prize Ribbon Distress Oxides onto a piece of bristol board, and randomly added circles of various blue, purple and pink Oxides through the punched circles with a fingertip sponge dauber. Easy peasy!

When the background was finished, I blotted it very gently with a tissue and set it aside for a few minutes to dry while I assembled my snowflakes, created with Tim Holtz's Stacked Snowflakes die. I've got layers of textured cardstock, shimmer cardstock, glitter cardstock, even some pretty purple giftwrap. The sentiments are from Elizabeth Craft Designs' "Winter Wishes" word set and the mats are various offcuts of coordinating cardstock.

Head over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card, then start sifting through your stencils to decide what you will make!

Stitched Chippies? (YEP!)

Wendy Vecchi's MAKE ART Chippies are sturdy, pre-primed chipboard embellishments which can be inked, stamped and painted to uniquely enhance your papercrafting projects. They come in five varieties: Bases and Frames, Wreaths, Blossoms, Lots of Leaves and Beverages. Today I've got a fun tutorial on the Ranger Blog in which I've used embellies from the first two sets and added even more dimension and texture to them by hand-stitching on my Chippies, I hope you'll hop over and check it out!

It's a RAINBOW Brad Book

Last year I made an Alphabet Brad Book featuring as many Eyelet Outlet Brads as I could fit onto two dozen or so playing-card-sized ATCs. That project was so much fun I thought I'd do a different version: this time grouping the Brads --and a few coordinating EO Washi Tapes-- by color. So without further ado, I present my Eyelet Outlet Rainbow Brad Book!

The cover has a sticker title on top of Rainbow Washi decorated with a Rainbow Brad, a sweet blue Fairy and some white Enamel Stars. 

Eventually, I'll arrange the pages in spectrum order, but I've been working pretty randomly to choose coordinating brads, tapes and letter stickers, so at the moment, page one has all things ORANGE, including: a Pumpkin, Candy Corn, a Witch Hat, a Monster, some Foxes, a Tiger, a couple of Ducks, (...possibly a bit nervous being so close to the tiger...) Movie Brads, and the orange gecko from our Reptile Set. With a strip of Geometric Washi, to match.

Technically, a rainbow doesn't contain neutrals, but there are quite a few cool brads that are black, white, grey, and in this case, tan and BROWN, so I figured I'd add a few pages to reflect that. Here you can see: the Kennel Mix, a Paw Print, critters from the Jungle Mix and Lion, Tiger Zebra Set, a Teddy Bear, various Shell Brads, a Fan, a Sunglass Brad, Flip Flops and a refreshing Beer Brad. With a bit of Wood Washi to hold the title.

The PURPLE page boasts some yummy Grape Brads, a Butterfly, a purple Fairy, a lavender unicorn from the Unicorn and Rainbow set, Knitting Brads (they're on sale!) a Party Hat, Stitched Flowers and Mini Stitched Flowers (also on sale!) as well as Dragonflies; all atop some Checked Purple Tape.

The pages are constructed from graph paper, backed with plain white cardstock, and measure just a smidge over 3.5 x 5.5". I used my vintage typewriter to add the words on coordinating strips of paper.

There are still more colors (and more neutrals!) yet to come, so I hope you'll stop by the Eyelet Outlet Blog again next week to see more Rainbow Brad goodness!

Mandala Monday(s)

Apparently I haven't quite gotten used to putting Mandala Mondays on my blog; and thus today we have a double header featuring this week and last week too!

February 21st: A collaged mandala built of hearts and circles punched from text paper and magazine pages; with some fussy cut peonies at the center. 

February 14th: A relatively rare "Re-Run" dating from 2016; super-bright colorburst on watercolor paper layers that have been cut out and stacked up. With a little bit of bling, because that always makes everything better!

Bright Borders

At Jingle Belles, we're still taking inspiration from this cool holiday photo, and you've still got time to join the fun. Just choose any aspect of the picture that appeals to you... the colors, the foliage, the stockings, the mantel, the bricks... and incorporate that into your holiday card!

This week I was inspired by the colors and patterns on the stocking furthest to the right in the photo. I love that combination of pale green, creamsicle orange and bright blue (with little hits of white and pink); as well as the way the simple shapes have been stacked and arranged to create an all-over pattern. I compressed and overlapped the layers to fit my 6" square card, but found that by using some of my favorite border punches and a bunch of (non-holiday) patterned papers, I was able to achieve a similar effect. A Lawn Fawn Journal Card, some Eyelet Outlet Enamel Dots and a bit of machine stitching complete the design. 

Be sure to hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card and start thinking about which elements of the inspiration photo most appeal to YOU! ♥

Beary Happy

Birthday cards are always fun to make, especially if they are BEARY special and feature Eyelet Outlet Bear Brads... plus some sweet Mini Bee Brads, like this one, does!

There are lots of adorable animal brads in the Eyelet Outlet Store, I'm pretty sure you can find your favorite there!

Lauren Bergold

hopes you have a 

BEARY happy day!

I Love NY

It's my last official weekly post on The Ink Pad Blog... for now, that is. Because, of course, the online store will remain open and I'm sure we'll be posting samples and other fun stuff from time to time. But this seemed like a great time to celebrate how much we love NYC and we also love (and plan to keep in-stock!) the exclusive line of city-themed stamps and stencils Michelle Ward designed for The Ink Pad!

This card features the Map, Postmark and Empire State Building from the Manhattan Map set; the Taxi and "I Love NY" sentiment from the Skyline set; and some of the manhole covers from the Manhole NYC set, the Manhole Hex set and even the Mini Manhole set. 

All of this goodness is displayed against a background of gelprints made with both Manhole Stencil and Mask sets, volumes one and two.

Many thanks for all of the love and support from our friends all over the world. The brick and mortar store may be closing, but we hope The Ink Pad Online will live on for years to come! ♥

SOS464: You Deserve a HAND

There's a brand new challenge at Shopping Our Stash and this time you've got a choice! For "You Deserve a HAND" you can make a card that features a literal hand OR you can go with a metaphorical hand, and make a Congratulations card! As you can see, I chose the former.

Since one of the best possible uses for hands, imo, is holding a cup of coffee, I chose to use my Riley & Company Midge with Coffee stamp to commemorate that fact. I've colored Midge with Tombows and Prismacolor pencils, but paper-pieced the coffee mug. The big honkin' letters are Altenew's Bold Alphabet die set, cut once from Eyelet Outlet Donut Washi (adhered to plain white cardstock, neatly, in strips) and then a second time from dark brown cardstock to serve as a drop-shadow. Background paper is from the late great Basic Grey's "Out of Print" collection. (I still miss BG!!!) The newest items on this card are the small puffy alphabet stickers, which are Pinkfresh Studio and probably only a year or so old.

I hope you'll hop over to SOS to see what the crew have made, and start planning what you're going to link up with us this time! 

Thank You Very MUSH!

Winter Botanicals is the newest Paper Anthology Class in a Kit. This three-card class features soft colors, sweet doilies and plenty of woodgrain, with dies from Hero Arts, Spellbinders and Taylored Expressions plus sentiments from Wendy Vecchi’s “Merci and More” Stamp, Die and Stencil set. Don’t need that many Thank You cards? Swap the pre-stamped flags for your own sentiments and send these for practically ANY occasion. All stamping and diecutting has been done for you, just follow the written instructions and consult the full-color photos to easily assemble two A2’s and one A6 card. ♥

The Stockings Were Hung by the Chimney with Care

It's a beautiful Photo Inspiration this fortnight at Jingle Belles and we've chosen this lovely photo from French Knot to base our cards upon. You can take as many (or few) of the aspects from the picture as you like: the gorgeous greenery, the beautiful mantle, one or more of the stockings... maybe just the color palette? It's entirely up to you.

I loved the rich brick of the fireplace, paired with the abundant greens, so those are the elements I chose to use in my card:

I used Tim Holtz's Holiday Greens and Mini Holiday Greens Thinlits die sets from Sizzix on several different green cardstocks including a shimmer one, a glitter one and several textured tones to try to achieve the texture and depth of the foliage in the photo. I added all of my diecuts to two mini slimline cards featuring Eyelet Outlet's Wide Brick Washi and added Pine Cone Brads to one and Poinsettias to the other. Ancient sticker sentiments of "Peace" and "Joy" complete the design.

Be sure to visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and start planning what you will link up with us this time!

Just My Type

Eyelet Outlet has the KEYS to your heart in the form of Typewriter Brads and not one but two beautiful styles of wide Typewriter Tape! Perfect for cards, envelopes, journals, and in this case, some super-cute mini Valentines, thanks to the addition of a few sweet pink Heart Brads.

 There's lots to love in the Eyelet Outlet Store, and lots of inspiration on the EO Blog!

Drifting Downwards

Somewhat stretching the boundaries of a mandala, in this case lots of mandala-style circles are cascading from the top and sides of the sketchbook page. 

PS: The Helix Circle Tool is my favorite (& most used!) tool for drawing mandalas, because it lets me draw perfect circles in a range of sizes AND it has the 360 degrees on the outer ring, which is handy for evenly spacing the "petals" on a more traditional mandala. 

Pitt Artist Pens from Faber-Castell in my Canson Mixed Media Sketchbook.

 

Stencils and Sealing Wax

Two of my all-time favorite discoveries during my time at The Ink Pad are journal keeping in a Traveler's Notebook, and the nostalgic joy of Sealing Wax. And happily, this post has BOTH of those; and right now you can discover either of them at 30% off, while the brick-and-mortar store closing sale continues.

There are still a few 2022 dated Traveler's Notebook Refills available in both Regular and Passport sizes, including the Weekly Vertical with Memo edition that I'm working in here. There are also lots of different undated refills, covers and accessories, and this is a great time to take a look at those! 

I've decorated this page and a sweet little White Glossy #2 Tag with our friend Linda Edkins Wyatt's Lemurian Garden Stencils from StencilGirl, some rich shades of Distress Oxide Inks and Blank Classic Fleur-de-Lis Wax Seals. Of course there are loads of Wax Seals with Initials and Icons, but the cool thing about the blanks (which come in round and square shapes) is that you can use them to impress tiny Pressed Dried Flowers into the wax for a really beautiful and striking effect. 

Please note that while The Ink Pad's Chelsea location will be closing mid February, The Ink Pad Online will continue for your shopping convenience!

Five Gooooooo-ollllllld Riiiiiiiiiiiings!!!

This week at Jingle Belles, we're still celebrating the fun categories from that old holiday favorite, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" OR you can choose to make an extra-special holiday card for your True Love OR you can make a holiday card that features hearts. Lots of choices, we hope you'll find something to inspire you! I went with the ever popular Five Gold Rings... see?

Admittedly, it's a bit of a tangential version of "Five Gold Rings" in that I used my classic Nestie Circle Dies to cut five round frames from gold Idea-Ology cardstock  then I cut circles of red patterned papers to frame up, and arranged them in a design that also incorporates some Prima poinsettias as well as an Echo Park sentiment, and still fits nicely inside my 6" square card.

Visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card and start planning which of the current options will inspire your next holiday card!

A Toast for Valentine's Day

Breakfast is not only the most important meal of the day, it's also the very best for puns! When these EGG-citing cards pop up in your Valentine's mailbox, it is sure to be BACON their day! 

Eyelet Outlet's Bacon, Egg and Toast Brad Set pairs perfectly with colorful Striped Washi and some white Enamel Hearts for a pair of cards that's FRIED and true! 

My Heart BEETS For You!

It's time for a brand new challenge at Shopping Our Stash and this time, as the funny/punny title implies, we'd like to see cards that feature hearts OR vegetables OR both! I went with hearts:

My Favorite Things' "Rainbows & Unicorns" stamp set is out of print, but in the course of clearing out some older stuff at The Ink Pad, my friend Anna found a copy and I was its lucky recipient! In a triumph of stash serendipity, I happened to have some sparkly clouds and rainbow pieces in my leftover diecut storage area, which coordinated perfectly with two half-pieces of older Lawn Fawn paper (rainbows and hearts from "Sending Sunshine" and clouds from "Into the Woods") to make a perfect background. I added extra punched hearts and some enamel ones from Eyelet Outlet and called it a fairytale ending.

I hope you'll check out the amazing cards from the rest of the design team at Shopping Our Stash and then start planning what you will make when you join our fun!