Gulls Just Wanna Have Fun*

It's officially summer, school is out, and thus my (Lauren's) thoughts have turned to all things beachy! Here's a card that features Eyelet Outlet Seagull Brads, Ocean Tape, Glitter Gold Tape, Sea Shore Brads, Pearl Bling and Glitter Enamel Dots: 

No matter what your idea of Summer Fun is, I'm absolutely certain there are Eyelet Outlet brads, bling, enamels, flowers and washi tape to go with it! 

*Note to non-East Coast dwellers: on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, what GULLS really want is to steal your french fries!!!

ICAD Round Up, Week 4

Cruising into the last week of June with seven more index cards in my ICAD2022 book, woohoo! And here they are now, in reverse order:

Day 27: Mandala Monday

Couldn't resist using the new Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks 

in Rosey Posey, Peachy Keen and Morning Glory!

Day 26: Clean-Up Collage

I had to completely clear off my worktable and fold it away, so most of the 

"bits" became collages or journal fodder. 'Cause that's the way I roll...

Day 25: Purple + Pattern (again!)

Drawing patterns on a gridded card adds another bit of interest to the pattern,

but more importantly... it helps you keep your sizes more consistent.

Day 24: Purple + Pattern

I made this during our Friday afternoon family art zoom.

For the record, I somewhat regret adding the leaves...

Day 23: Off-Prompt

I'm in a pattern-drawing phase... what can I say?

Day 22: Pineapple

Paper-pieced from scraps of patterned paper.

(The trick for hand-cutting lots of similar shapes is to pick a pattern 

with lines or a grid, so your sizes stay pretty consistent!)

Day 21: Off-Prompt

Miscellanous doodles on a gridded card. 

Kind of making me want to design my own line of patterned paper, lol! :)

Bright Butterflies

I’m still entirely smitten with Wendy Vecchi’s brand new Signature Archival inks, Rosey Posey, Morning Glory, and Peachy Keen, the newest release from Ranger Ink. Here’s a card that features custom pattern paper I made, using stamps from Wendy’s Country Flowers Stamp, Die and Stencil Set.

I stamped the solid butterfly in Peachy Keen, the butterfly outline and tiny blossom in Rosey Posey, and the berry branch and dots in Morning Glory; then diecut using a set of nested diamond dies,  and matted on a piece of soft blue cardstock. The sentiment is from Wendy’s Birthday Bash Stamp, Die and Stencil Set. Accents of Rosey Posey Liquid Pearls add a little extra shimmer and texture.

Be sure to check out the INK... STAMP and MAKE ART with Wendy Vecchi Facebook Group for lots more ideas, tips and techniques using these gorgeous inks!

Did She Say, "Tropical Grunge"?!

Not yet... but I'm about to, lol! This week we're celebrating a bunch of fun new releases from Ranger and I have to say my favorites are the three beautiful new shades of Wendy Vecchi Signature Series Archival Inks. On Wednesday, I used Morning Glory, Rosey Posey and Peachy Keen in their glorious full strength boldness; yesterday I diluted them with rubbing alcohol to get a fabulous pastel effect; and today I'm going for (...you guessed it...) Tropical Grunge by adding plenty of Jet Black Archival to my funky collaged background effect.

The glorious bird images are from a collection of German Scrap that my friend Gail gave me a couple of years ago, and I have frankly just flat-out HOARDED them until now. I'd be more embarrassed about that if I wasn't positive that I saved them for exactly the right project!

I made four slightly oversized ATC-style backgrounds by quite randomly tearing and gluing on bits of vintage (but bright white) sheet music, architectural drawings and Hindi text paper, scattered with some coordinating tapes from Wendy's two Washi Assortments. Then I used a Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool with Domed Foams to apply the Peachy Keen, Rosey Posey and Morning Glory inks directly to the paper, blending them a bit at the overlapping edges. 

Then I used the stencil from Wendy Vecchi's MAKE ART Country Flowers Stamp, Die and Stencil set to add parallel lines in Jet Black and small dots of Rosey Posey Liquid Pearls. I also stamped the hearts from WV's Merci and More set in black. Finally, I inked the edges of each card lightly with Rosey Posey and then a bit more dramatically with Jet Black before giving them all frames of soft orange cardstock and wordfetti sentiments from an older Tim Holtz Big Chat Sticker Collection. Be sure to visit the @wendyvecchi and @ranger_ink Instagram feeds for more inspiration; as well as the INK...STAMP and MAKE ART with Wendy Vecchi Group on Facebook!

Hey Santa Claus!

We're still celebrating that Jolly Old Elf himself at Jingle Belles, so here is my Santa-centric card this week:

This "tall" journal card from Authentique is a couple of years old, but still perfectly adorable AND happens to be exactly the right size for a very fast slimline card. I added a sentiment and some little cardstock circle icons from the same collection and filled in with star enamels and Eyelet Outlet Heart Pearls. A skinny red mat and a soft snowflake base complete my design.

Be sure to check out Stephanie's beautiful card at Jingle Belles as well as the inspiring readers' gallery!

Softly, Softly

Yesterday I showed off three bold, beautiful, brand new shades of Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink from Ranger: Morning Glory, Peachy Keen and Rosey Posey, to be precise. And in fact, today's project shows off exactly the same shades, but this time in pastel mode:

A few weeks ago, I did this fun post on the Ranger Blog, in which I "watercolored" with some of Wendy's Archival Inks using a waterbrush filled with isopropyl alcohol, and I really loved the effect. The only drawback to that process is that if you also stamp the images in Archival Ink, you have to be a bit careful not to smudge the stamped lines. You can use dye or hybrid ink, or you can emboss using a dark shade of Wendy Vecchi Embossing Powder. But then I started wondering about embossing in White EP. Would the Archival colors stain the embossed lines? Would there still be enough contrast to be interesting? Since the answers  to those questions turned out to be, "Just a little bit" and "YES!", respectively, I merrily began "smooshing" each color onto my craft mat in turn, and softly painting the flowers from Wendy's MAKE ART Floral Doodles stamp set. When I got to the leaves I added Prickly Pear to the Morning Glory to get a fun new shade of green; then I took the rest of the smooshed Morning Glory and used it to make a splattery background on my Simon Hurley create. Stark White Cardstock. I finished off with a strip of Wendy's Washi Tape and added dots of shimmery Rosey Posey Liquid Pearls to the flower centers.

I still have one or two ideas for these beautiful new inks, so stay tuned!

Shades of Summer!

There are three absolutely luscious new WendyVecchi Signature Series Archival Inks making their debut today from Ranger, and I was lucky enough to be given a chance to test them out a teeny bit early. Please welcome Rosey Posey (the vivid pink of my dreams), Peachy Keen (the perfect peachy orange), and Morning Glory (which really is exactly the same color as one of my alltime favorite flowers)!

The first thing I do with any new ink is make a swatch for the collection it belongs in. Ranger Ink (the hint is in the name, lol) is extremely good about making the package color accurate, so what you see really is what you get! But... until you've stamped, stenciled, spritzed, or dabbed a new color yourself, it doesn't really count, does it? The next thing I like to do is see what sort of tones I can get on various paper types. I smooshed each of the colors onto my Craft Mat separately, and spritzed them with a bit of rubbing alcohol, then layered them onto both Wendy Vecchi Perfect White Cardstock and also some Glossy Alcohol Ink Cardstock. It's fun to layer the same color of ink, undiluted, on top... after the smooshy panels dry, of course. As you can see in the photo below, the matte surface (on the left) absorbed the colors a bit more, so you get a softer effect. Whereas, on the glossy surface (on the right) the colors are bolder, but there's less contrast between the wet and dry applications. After I had made my own experimental prints using all three inks, I sliced them into strips and made quilt-inspired panels, similar to this card from a while back.     

Once I had funky quilt-inspired panels I could've done pretty much ANYTHING with them, but I decided to pair the largest sentiment from Wendy's MAKE ART Merci and More Stamp, Die and Stencil Set with the outline butterfly from her Country Flowers set, again using the Morning Glory, Rosey Posey and Peachy Keen inks. And just like that, a pair of thank you cards are added to my stash!

Be sure to visit the Ranger Website and Blog all week to see the newest items from Tim Holtz, Dyan Reaveley and more; plus the @ranger_ink and @wendyvecchi Instagram accounts are always full of inspiration!

The End of the (EO) Rainbow

It's the last few Eyelet Outlet Rainbow Brad Cards, which just happen to be Red, White and Blue... and feature lots of wonderful EO brads and tapes, which are listed below!

RED: Oven Mitt from the Cooking Brads set, a Lobster, Fire Truck and Ambulance from the First Responders, Toolbox, Cardinal, Ladybug and Mini Ladybug, Santa and Mrs. Claus, plus a Candy Cane Brad. All atop strips of Heart Washi and Foil Red Stripe Tape.

WHITE: Ghost Brad, Coffee Cup, Toilet Paper, an Egg Brad and a Fried Egg from the Bacon, Egg and Toast set, sweet white Kittens, as well as Sneaker and Water Bottle brads. The tapes are Owl Washi and Music Tape.

BLUE: Wide Calendar Tape and Cat Face Washi set the scene for a blue Peppermint Candy, cute Cars, a Safety Pin, Fishing Lures, a Beach Umbrella, a Bluebird, Mask, Hand Sanitizer and Soap, and a blue Gecko from the Reptile set. 

Be sure to visit the EO Online Store and look out for the Eyelet Outlet booth coming to a Tradeshow near you this summer!

Welcome, Gnome!

This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash the challenge is called "There's GNOME One Like You" and if you suspect that we'd like to see a gnome or two, you're absolutely right!

I stamped and colored Lawn Fawn's Gnome Sweet Gnome, then popped him into a little sunny day scene I made using ancient cloud paper, Dare 2B Artzy Grass Die, flower stickers from approximately the year 2001 (srsly!) plus some Eyelet Outlet Sun and Cloud Brads, yellow Dot Enamels, a Mini Ladybug and a Mushroom Brad (sadly, the latter are discontinued). I may have gotten slightly carried away with mats (there are FOUR, and they were all from the scrapbox) but I really like how this came out!

I'm also linking up with Lawnfawnatics Challenge #127: Summertime Fun!

I hope you'll visit SOS to see what our awesome crew have made to inspire you, then start making a Gnome of your own! ♥

Mandala Monday + ICAD Round Up

Another week has flown past and here are seven little works of index card art to prove it! If you're interested in joining the ICAD fun, it's not too late! Visit Daisy Yellow Art for all the details and (100% optional) prompts or check out the Instagram hashtag #dyicad2022 to see loads of inspiration!

Day 20: (Wo)Mandala Monday

A nattily dressed sewing pattern lady is the star of this show; I used Letter-It Fineliners and Tombow Dual Brush Pens to create the mandala, built around a circle of vintage map, glued to a (repro) library card.

Day 19: Off-Prompt

Showing off my very fancy and specialized ICAD creation tools in this photo. I used scissors, a hole punch, paper scraps, and a Letter-It Fineliner to make funky freeform leaves and berries on a vintage paper scrap, glued to the un-lined side of a neon yellow index card. 

Day 18: Call Me Al

On Friday we had our first Family Art Zoom of the summer season, and while my mom, sister, niece and nephew all did beautiful and sensible takes on various ICAD prompts, I followed a bizarre compulsion to paper-piece a kawaii alligator. :)

Day 17: Mango

I was planning to draw a mango... but... it did not happen, lol; and I'm cool with that!

Day 16: Mix and Match

Pretty sure this prompt was from earlier in the week, but for whatever reason, I chose to do it on this particular day. I mixed and matched offcuts of a couple of watercolors, for a sort of funky quilt-inspired type of thing.

Day 15: Off-Prompt

More hand-cut shapes, with doodles on top and all around. 

This time leafy... with staples!

Day 14: Off-Prompt

It's hard to see what's going on here, and I actually LIKED this more two steps previously, but ICAD is meant to be experimental! I glued (& then sewed) purple patterned paper diamonds to an aqua index card; then added doodles to the patterns AND to all the spaces between. 

Everybody's Waitin' For...

 ...the Man with the Bag; also known as Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, Father Christmas or Pere Noel, so this fortnight at Jingle Belles we're making cards that feature dear old Santa Claus!

My Santa is in Doodlebug sticker form and he's driving his pickup truck full of presents across a quilt-inspired background of patterned paper strips (one of my favorite ways to use up scraps!) which I found lurking in an envelope full of leftover bits. 

Visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card and start planning what you'll make this week!

"The Future's So Bright...

...You Gotta Wear Shades"! If there's a better sentiment to put on a graduation card I do not know it, especially when the "shades" in question are Eyelet Outlet Sunglass Brads!

I used a free font called Mom's Typewriter to make my sentiment strips and Lawn Fawn's Stitched Rainbow Dies with LOTS of colorful cardstock scraps to create a background of rainbows and clouds. I adorned one of the clouds with a Graduation Hat and the aforesaid Sunglass Brads, and couldn't resist adding Sun and Cloud Brads, as well as a few Heart Brads. Since I have not one but two beautiful nieces graduating from high school this month, I made two versions of this card, then kitted out a pair of envelopes with their names, as well as more Graduation Hats and Sunglass Brads; all on a background of Rainbow Washi.

Whether your family are celebrating graduations this June, weddings or anniversaries, Father's Day, birthdays or any other milestone, I'm pretty sure the Eyelet Outlet Store has brads and tape that will make your beautiful handmade cards even more lovely and thoughtful!

Week 2: ICAD 2022

It's Day 13 of #dyicad2022 and also Mandala Monday, so here's a round-up of the past week's index card art, working backwards from today!

Day 13: Mandala Monday

It's a paper-pieced version, this week, using up some blue scraps that were sitting on my worktable; enhanced with a few outlines, faux-stitches, and Posca pen dots.

Day 12: Blueprint or Cyanotype

Super-super-loose version of the prompt! I started out intending to make something closer to the mark, but when it morphed into doodles around the patterned paper clouds, I just rolled with it...

Day 11: Rainbow

Deconstructed pastel doodle rainbows. 

Day 10: Off-Prompt

I had been using Lawn Fawn's Stitched Rainbow dies and wound up with quite a few colorful leftovers, so I glued them into circles and added dots with pens and a hole punch.

Day 9: Off-Prompt

Pointy crocodile stitch doodles in funky pastel shades.

Day 8: Pictogram

Again a situation when the prompt got me started, and I intended to use a bunch of aeornautic-related pictograms from an old falling-apart book about the history of flight. 

But then I found the cool seaplane... :)

Day 7: Root

Scribbly Tombow daisies with dotty centers. Clearly they must HAVE roots, 

but I elected to show the petals instead.

New Class!

Lawnfawnatics (and all others!) are invited to join me at Paper Anthology, in Kenvil, NJ for my newest class, "Fawn Fun in the Summertime" a cute and colorful class featuring the tiny Lawn Fawn critters from Beary Rainy Day, Gnome Sweet Gnome and Berry Special paired with chunky Pinkfresh Studio diecut alphabets and some truly diabolical (...in a good way, lol...) puns!

We’ll make a square shaker card, a slimline and an A2 greeting. Dates available are currently Monday, June 27th from 11am to 2pm and Saturday, July 16th from 12-3pm; but stay tuned for a third date to be announced! Visit the Paper Anthology Blog or the Class Page for all the details!

It's Ombre, Hombre!

We're cruising into our second week of ombre-centric cards at Jingle Belles and this time I've created my own version by blending six different shades of Distress Oxide Inks from Ranger through an older Hero Arts Stencil.

There are many lovely shades of green in the Distress line, and it's totally possible to make an absolutely seamless series of tone-into-tone. But instead, I decided to work the overlapping blend to include some of my favorite shades in order of intensity rather than strictly by hue. I used Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio, Mowed Lawn, Evergreen Bough, Pine Needles and Rustic Wilderness. Hero Arts' Forest Scene stencil is no longer in print, but honestly, this technique would work with ANY stencil; or alternately as an emboss/resist technique using any larger background type stamp.

Be sure to check out Stephanie's beautiful card at Jingle Belles and start planning what you will make!

"Watercoloring" with Archival Inks

I'm very happy to be back on the Ranger Blog with a tutorial for a fun way to "watercolor" with Archival Inks, featuring one of Wendy Vecchi's newest MAKE ART Stamp Sets, Doodle Celebration. I hope you'll head on over and check it out!

More Rainbow Ramblings

It's the second week of my (Lauren's) Eyelet Outlet Rainbow Brad project, and this time we're embracing all things Brown, Yellow, Purple and Black!

The brads for each color are as follows:

BROWN: A Compass, a Lion from the Lion, Tiger, Zebra set hanging out with a Monkey and Giraffe from the Jungle Mix, the Doghouse from our Kennel Mix, plus a few sweet Puppy Brads, a Sandcastle and Shell Corner, a vintage Fan from the Telephone and Fan set and a pair of Champagne flutes from the Wedding set. Two strips of Wood Washi and a Skinny Glitter Tape in dark copper.

YELLOW: A background strip of Tape Measure Washi and Chicken Tape holds Work Trucks, Tissues from the TP & Tissues set, a School Bus, the Sun from our Sun and Cloud Brads, a happy little Chick, a Birthday Candle, a Party Hat and finally a Sunflower.

PURPLE: Unicorns from the Unicorn and Rainbow set, some Butterflies and a Mini Butterfly, Grape Brads and a glass of Red from the Wine set, a Fairy Brad and some Water Lillies from the Frog set. The washi selection is Purple Check Tape, plus purple glitter from the Skinny Glitter Tape set and purple flowers from the Skinny Foil Tape set.

BLACK: Our adorable Sushi Washi is flanked by Black and White Check Tape, over which we have a Zebra from the second Jungle Mix, an old-school Telephone, Eye Glass and Sunglass Brads, Music Notes, a Graduation Hat, Video Games and a handsome Spider.

And here's a snap of how our extended rainbow is shaping up so far:

Next week I'll be back to finish up with the good old Red, White and Blue! Until then, brads and tapes of every conceivable color, shape and style can be found in the Eyelet Outlet Store.

SOS 472: Dad Jokes

At Shopping Our Stash we're mad about dads, and with Father's Day just around the corner, this seems like a good time to make a humorous card that celebrates just such an occasion. I'm pretty sure I got my love of Diabolical Puns from my own dad, so this was pretty easy for me.

I used a free font from DaFont.com called Paper Flowers to format my jokes and printed them out on plain white cardstock. Then I added Eyelet Outlet Saw and Tool Box and Tool Brads to the construction card and a Grill plus some Beer Brads to the hoppy card. I matted with ancient Basic Grey Skate Shoppe papers, affixed my punny panels to a pair of white A2 cards and called it good to go!

Head on over to SOS to see what the gang have made to inspire you, then start planning what you'll make for this fun challenge!

Mandala Monday + ICAD Round-Up

I'm easing back into the Index Card a Day project and here's my first week of cards, in reverse order, starting with today's mandala:

Day 6: Mandala Monday

I chose a sturdy divider tabbed card so that I could add watercolor to this; 

but in the end, I kinda fell in love with the lines.

Day 5: Pink or Flamingo

The first one-staple collage of the 2022 ICAD season, woohoo!

Day 4: off-prompt

Last year I made quite a few index cards that featured hand-cut patterned paper shapes layered, arranged in patterns, sewn upon, or... as in this case... all of the above.

Day 3: Maze or Labyrinth

Doodles and scallops on a green index card. 

I can't say I'm in love with this, but it was fun to draw.

Day 2: Peony

I'm not particularly good at drawing realistically, but I think I somewhat captured the basic shapes with my most delicate Letter It Fineliner; and then scribbling with Tombows onto a plastic palette and picking up the color with a waterbrush.

Day 1: Asterisk 

There were a few scraps leftover from my colorful mandala-painted cover, so I cut them into letters for the title page of my ICAD book. Oh yeah, and I used one of my vintage typewriters to put an asterisk in every single box of that gridded index card. Like ya do... :)

♥♥♥

You can find more information about ICAD on the Daisy Yellow Art website, or via Tammy Garcia's account, Gypsy999 on Instagram.