Hoppy Easter, Everybunny!

Eyelet Outlet Pastel Rabbit Brads are one of my favorite styles for Easter, and... they're on sale! I love how the five colorful bunnies add instant interest to my card, and how well they pair with the shades of EO Bright Stitched Flowers and Minis (the latter are also on sale!) Heart Brads and colorful Enamel Dots.

I used two sizes of circle punches to frame each Rabbit Brad with a few flowers, dots and hearts; but this design would work equally well with Chicks, Brown Rabbits, Colored Eggs, or pretty much ANY Eyelet Outlet brad style you love!

WEATHER or Not

Here in central New Jersey, the month of March might very well contain both daffodils and downpours, sunshine and snowfall, and possibly even a 70 degree day followed by hard frost at night. I suspect that's true in a lot of places at this time of year, so at Shopping Our Stash we've got a brand new challenge called "Under the Weather" for which you can include any type of weather (rain, snow, sunshine, clouds, etc) OR, if that doesn't float your cardmaking boat, you can make a get well card. Since I just nabbed me Lawn Fawn's uber-adorable "Beary Rainy" stamp set at Paper Anthology, I chose the former.

I know what you're thinking, though; you're thinking, "Hey Lauren, isn't the whole point of Shopping Our Stash to use up our older supplies?!" Which, of course, it is. But you'd be surprised how often one new item revives our interest in a whole bunch of older stuff! In this case, literally every other item on my card is at least two years old... like the Avery Elle Rainbows Elle-ments die set; and perhaps, thinking of the Hambly gridded transparency base, closer to two decades! The American Crafts Dear Lizzy cloud vellum is from around 2014, I think; the Fiskars raindrop punch is probably of similar vintage, and the scrap of blue glittery DCWV paper from which I punched the raindrops is absolutely ancient! I used my Tombow Dual Brush Pens to color the sweet bear, added shading with Prismacolor pencils and a few highlights with a white Gelly Roll pen.

I hope you'll hop over to SOS to see amazing, inspiring cards from the rest of the design team crew and start planning what you will make to link up with us this fortnight!

Mandala Monday Round-Up

Once again I noticed belatedly that I haven't remembered to do a blogpost for the last few Mandala Mondays, so today there's a bumper crop to savor! 

This week's mandala is inspired by and composed of papers from Prima Marketing's new "Farm Sweet Farm" collection, which has just arrived at Paper Anthology and is, imo, one of the prettiest paper collections of 2022! I started this mandala with a stacked hexie center (you'll definitely be seeing that again!) and added circle punches, upside down hearts, butterflies and tear-shaped elements. 

(PS: this style of mandala is the easiest everrrrrrr and also a great way to use paper scraps!)

A subtle lineart mandala, drawn with colorful Emott pens and surrounded by a Pinkfresh Studio Folkart Frame diecut that happened to be sitting on my worktable when I was getting ready to draw.

I bought this cool Strathmore "Grey Toned" sketchbook during a BOGO event at the big box store and haven't really worked in it much, so this seemed like a good time to break out the Posca paint pens and add pink, silver and white, with a little bit of superfine Pitt Pen black outlining.

Tombow Dual Brush Pens, used both directly on the paper and also picked up with a waterbrush for a looser and more interesting background. In the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

♥♥♥

I hope your Monday is off to a good start and that you'll 

find time to do something fun and creative before it's over!

Mad for Plaid!

This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're celebrating one of our favorite patterns: PLAID! There are lots of great holiday patterned papers in that category, not to mention stamps and stencils for creating one's own. They needn't be red and/or green, but in this case, mine are:

I started with a buffalo plaid journaling card from last year's Carta Bella "Christmas Cheer" collection, added a vintage station wagon cut from an old My Mind's Eye design, added some handsome Eyelet Outlet Cardinals, and mounted the whole thing atop an older Authentique plaid set on the diagonal. 

Stephanie has made a beautiful card to inspire you, and I hope you'll hop over to Jingle Belles to see it, forthwith!

Hippity Hoppity...

...Easter's on its way! But there's still time to make some super-easy cards by adding Eyelet Outlet Rabbit Brads, Colored Eggs, and Chicks to store-bought Easter-themed journal cards. But first, let's make them even more appealing by adding mats of plaid patterned paper adorned with EO Flower Washi Tape.

I often use Eyelet Outlet Washi Tape as a background or a border, but sometimes it's fun to use it to alter/enhance a store-bought patterned paper, like this fun Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid. I built my strips of Flower Tape right into the existing design and I love the result!

These journal cards are from Echo Park's "My Favorite Easter" collection, which I got at Paper Anthology. I'm always on the lookout for products which pair well with brads, and these adorable cards match the colors and size of EO Colored Egg Brads, Chicks, Sun and Cloud Brads, Mini Butterflies and of course the handsome Rabbit Brads very well.

Stay tuned for more Easter ideas from the design team on the Eyelet Outlet Blog!

Sing a Song of Christmas

We're still celebrating holiday music at Jingle Belles and you've still got time to join the fun! Just make a card which features something musical... instruments, carolers, sheet music... or maybe even a cool retro vinyl record, like this one?

That cardstock "45" is an older diecut from October Afternoon which I came across the other day and knew I wanted to build my card around. When I also found this ancient "circley" patterned paper (so old I have no idea who made it!) I decided to add other circle elements and ended up with the collage of stickers, chipboard and punched patterned paper you see before you. 

I hope you'll head over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card and then consider what you'll link up with us this fortnight!

Wendy Vecchi Lucky Clover Card

Erin Go Bragh! Saint Patrick's Day comes once a year, but we can (and should!) celebrate our exceptional good luck in having wonderful friends and family all year long! Today, I'm very happy to be back on the Ranger Blog, creating a green (and clovery!) all-occasion card featuring Wendy Vecchi's MAKE ART Chippies, Stamps, Stencils and Washi Tape; I'd love for you to join me there!

New Class: Awesome Blossoms!

If you're near central New Jersey, I'd love for you to join me for my newest in-person class at Paper Anthology, where we'll make three cards that  are Bloomin’ Awesome. Welcome Spring with fresh flowers, bright colors and bold patterns, using two sets of coordinated layering stencils, stamps and dies, from Hero Arts and Pinkfresh Studio. Details on the Paper Anthology Blog!

Going Green!

It's the day before Saint Patrick's Day, so this seems like a good time to "Go Green" with two styles of Eyelet Outlet Washi Tape (Green Pattern Tape and Green Dot Washi) and a scattering of Round Sequins; not to mention a green Paper Flower that's been cut apart into two-petal sections and pieced back together into the shape of a four leaf clover! 

Wishing you a very Happy Saint Patrick's Day, and good luck all year long!

Lauren Bergold's

maiden name was

Gallagher!

SOS466: Spring is in the *AIR*!

At Shopping Our Stash we're definitely looking forward to Spring, and celebrating that fact (slightly tangentially) this fortnight by making cards which feature something that flies; hence the title, "Spring is in the Air"! I went with butterflies... see?

The butterflies in question are ancient Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers dies (that I still LOVE and use a lot!) cut once from the gorgeous purple paisley Blue Fern Studio patterned paper and once from deep purple cardstock. My sentiment is a combo of two things found in the "leftovers" pile... a diecut Hero Arts "happy" and a stamped Taylored Expressions Simple Strip. The background is my all-time favorite scrap-using technique, which I explained in more detail on this post from 2018. I come back to this quilt-inspired idea again and again because it's simple, yet satisfying; and the results are always a little bit surprising... in a good way!

I do hope you'll visit SOS to see what our creative and crafty crew have made to inspire you and then start planning what sort of critter or machine will be FLYING through your next card!

Holiday Melody

It's beginning to SOUND a little like Christmas, because this fortnight at Jingle Belles we're making holiday cards that incorporate something musical, such as carolers, instruments, sheet music and the like. I've used the latter option, as you can see:

I made a collage of vintagey bits, including some lovely patina-ed sheet music, cancelled xmas postage, and layered on a pretty poinsettia illustration from a discarded gardening book. That gorgeous White Lace Tape came from The Ink Pad, and I've got a Tim Holtz Idea-Ology sticker sentiment that worked perfectly for this!

Be sure to check out Stephanie's beautiful card at Jingle Belles and start planning what key your musical masterpiece will be in!

Rainbow Brad Book (Part 3 of 3)

It's the final chapter in my Eyelet Outlet Rainbow Brad Book, and while there isn't a big plot twist or anything, there are some great colors, like Yellow, Black, White and Red!

YELLOW turned out to have LOTS of great brad styles, like Emotion Brads, a Party Hat, Work Trucks, Lightbulbs (they're on sale!), a Colored Daisy, a Sun Brad, a Classic Car, a School Bus, a Mini Bee Brad, a Peppermint Candy and some very cool Tape Measure Washi.

BLACK is a great place to use my favorite Music Washi, not to mention Eye Glass Brads, a Graduation Hat, a Bicycle Brad, a sweet Puppy and Paw Print, a Zebra, a Cow, the fun Video Game set, Movie Brads, a Spider and a Bat.

I was surprised to discover how many awesome choices of brad are WHITE! Kitten Brads, Toilet Paper, Clouds, another Cow (I couldn't decide if the Cows were more black or more white, so I added one to each page, lol!), a Heart, Sneaker and Water Bottle Brads, a Chicken with both Egg and Fried Egg Brads, a Ghost, some Eye Brads and a Skull. I used some Gold Script Washi as my tape for this page.

Finally, the color RED belongs at the beginning of the spectrum, and has been placed at the front of the completed book, but it was the final page I worked on. Below a strip of Red Dot Tape, it boasts Cardinal and Cardinal Profile Brads, First Responders, the Apple set, a Mini Ladybug. a Vacuum, Boat and Lighthouse Brads, an Anchor, Coffee, Holiday Coffee and Iced Coffee, plus our handsome Crab and Lobster.

Once I had all the pages complete, I placed them in (more or less) spectrum order. This shot doesn't really show the brads, but I love that because the page frames are solid cardstock in coordinating shades you get a great preview of all the colors by looking at the top of the book:

I hope you'll visit the Eyelet Outlet Blog often, to see what all of our amazing designers are up to!

Stenciled Christmas Forest

We're still making cards featuring holiday stencils at Jingle Belles and you're still invited to join us! This week I've unearthed my sadly neglected Hero Arts "Forest Scene" stencil and some Broken China Distress Ink and made a simple but graphic background for my A7 card:

I had envisioned a more collage-style card, but after I added the oversized blue poinsettia and a sweet piece of Lawn Fawn Flair, I really liked how the whole thing looked, so I just added a couple of mats, a little machine stitching and a few Eyelet Outlet Pearls. Easy, peasy!

Be sure to check out Stephanie's card at Jingle Belles and then start thinking which of your holiday stencils needs a little love!

Rainbow Brad Book (Part 2)

I'm still working my way through the rainbow of Eyelet Outlet Brads (and Washi!) so here are a few more pages in my Rainbow Brad Book:

The PINK page features Pigs from the Pig and Sheep set, a flowery Handbag from the Shoe and Purse set, a Stitched Flower, Thread (and Scissors), a Cupcake Swirl Brad, a Flamingo, a couple of Donuts and an Ice Cream Brad; with a strip of ZigZag Pink Tape.

The BLUE page has some gorgeous Cloud Washi, as well as Stars, Parrots from the Tropical Bird set, Mask, Hand Sanitizer and Soap Brads, Tissues, a Blue Bird from the Blue Bird and Robin set, Birthday Candles and a couple of Safety Pins.

The GREY page (technically there are no neutrals in a rainbow, but there are lots in the EO Store!) consists of: Mail Brads, Garden Tools, an Elephant from the Jungle Mix, a Muffin Pan from the Baking set and a Saucepan from our Cooking Brads, a Sketched Owl, a Koala, and some Pipe Brads; plus a bit of fun skinny Road Washi.

The GREEN Page boasts Wreath and Holly Brads, a Gecko from the Reptile set, Summer Trees, a Tractor carrying Colored Egg Brads, Wine Brads, a Dinosaur and a Tall Palm Tree; all hovering above some damask-inspired Green Pattern Tape.

Stay tuned for the final installment of the Rainbow Brad Book... next Wednesday on the Eyelet Outlet Blog!

SOS 465: Full METAL Jacket

It's time for a brand new challenge at Shopping Our Stash, and you may already have guessed from the title that what we'd like to see are projects which incorporate metal or metallic embellies, papers, beads, embossing, etc. It just so happens that last week, when I was looking for something else*, I found this awesome set of ancient but unopened copper letters from We R Memorykeepers and thought, "AHA!"

It took a while longer to consider pairing said patina-ed beauties with my Waffle Flower Books and Coffee stamp set, but once I thought of it, the whole thing came together pretty quickly. Or rather, as quickly as anything which involves me COLORING multiple stamped creatures (...I'm kinda slow...) with Tombow Dualbrush Pens and accents of Prismacolor Pencil. I added a mat layer of Eyelet Outlet Copper Foil Washi Tape for good measure and confess I'm fairly proud of my not-quite A7 card!

I hope you'll visit SOS to see the fabulous inspiration from the rest of our amazing crew, then start planning what Metallic Masterpiece you'll link up with us!

*At my house, the most common time for finding previously undiscovered objects, is while looking for something else entirely; the specified thing very possibly not coming to light during the search, which might reveal 1-3 completely random objects which had been previously searched for, but not found. Is this just me, or is there a special corollary of Murphy's Law which covers missing items??