Sketchmas Continues

At Jingle Belles, we're still making holiday cards based on Stephanie's awesome card sketch (scroll down to see!) and as always, you're invited to join us!

This week I rotated the sketch, and placed my focal point slightly off center. I also went a bit mad for plaid, with two different bold green varieties that match surprisingly well considering that they are older scraps from different companies. I trimmed down an American Crafts journal card and overlapped it on one of my oldest dies (Sizzix's Tree, Christmas #2); added some Eyelet Outlet Red Snowflake Bling, Red Star Sequins and a Poinsettia Brad, and called it a (holi)day! 

Visit us at Jingle Belles for more inspiration and then join us in getting a jump on holiday cardmaking!

Oh Deer!

The new Eyelet Outlet Brads just get better and better, don't you think? Today's card features the Deer from our new vintage-inspired Santa and Deer set, as well as the Snowy Tree Brads. 

Of course, the new items pair really well with the older ones, too! Such as Holly Brads, Heart Pearls, two styles of Tree Tape, Wood Washi, Sparkle White Glitter Tape and Glitter White Enamel Dots!

There's lots more cardmaking inspiration on the Eyelet Outlet Blog and in the gallery at the Online Store, as well as our Facebook Fan Group and Instagram pages!

Un-be-LEAF-able!

This fortnight's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is called, "Leaf Me Alone" and (as you've no doubt already guessed) involves adding some foliage to your card. In September, that often means colorful autumn leaves; a category that I truly LOVE; but... as it happens... I've recently made a couple of autumn leaf projects. So this time I went totally tropical!!!

Knowing that I love diecutting, foliage and Hawaiiana, Stephanie gave me Lawn Fawn's Tropical Leaves and Happy Hibiscus die sets last year, so it was a bit of a no-brainer that I'd employ them for this challenge. When using standalone dies, I often choose papers from my watercolor or gelprint boxes... the places I stash panels or pages I've made using up leftover wet media. In this case, in the watercolor box, not only did I find pre-painted green, fuchsia and yellow watercolor paper; I also discovered the leafy stitched background panel, as well! I have no idea when I made that, or WHY it wasn't right for whatever that occasion was, but I was sure happy to see it now! I added a little extra Archival Ink shading to my diecut flowers and leaves, a mat of glitter paper, ET VOILA... a 6" square card finished in no time!

Whatever else you make this week, I hope you'll love us and LEAF us at Shopping Our Stash!

Wendy Vecchi Autumn Greetings Frame by Lauren Bergold

How do you take this collection of fabulous Wendy Vecchi Products from Ranger, including the beautiful Autumn Greetings Stamp, Die and Stencil Set as well as Lots of Leaves Chippies...

...and make it into a lovely fall frame? The answer --in step-by-step form-- is on the Ranger Blog today. I'd love for you to jump over there and see!

Mandala Monday #38

It's a uniquely colorful Mandala Monday, as I allowed my palette to be based on the random bundle of Distress Markers I scored at the Paper Anthology Papercrafters' Garage Sale on Saturday!

Merry Sketch-mas

We've got a fabulous sketch challenge this fortnight at Jingle Belles, thanks to the very talented Stephanie; so we'll be making cards based on this helpful roadmap:

And here's how I used the sketch this week:

Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Arctic has been around for ages, and every time I see it, I'm a bit sad that I didn't purchase it when it was available. Much to my surprise, when I mentioned that to my friend Elisabeth at Paper Anthology a month or so ago, she said, "Oh I think I can still order that!" and sure enough... it arrived this week! I decided to paper piece the critters and add them to the diamond shape in the sketch, on which I fashioned (very abstract) layers of sky, snow and water. In my washi stash, I found the perfect grey tape to act as a sentiment. I matted out the design with some silvery Lawn Fawn snowflakes and a bit of stylized graph paper. To give the critters enough room, my diamond got a bit bigger than I planned, so I slightly truncated the sketch, in order to make it fit a 6" square card.

I hope you'll visit Jingle Belles to see what Stephanie has made and then start planning your own festive Sketch Card!

No Lines Coloring is NOT (Quite) as Hard as I Thought!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to spend time with my friend and fellow Jersey Girl Lorraine Mastalski of Paper Vernissage, who was kind enough to demonstrate the rudiments of No Lines Coloring. I'm pretty sure I'll never be on her level at this (or any other coloring skill, lol!) BUT... I now feel, with practice, this could be another technique I'll use periodically. It turns out one of the "tricks" of the trade is to use Ink on Three's Fadeout Ink which is completely brilliant, imo! It also turns out that choosing a stamp with enough detail and shading is also a very good idea, and luckily, the large flower spray in Wendy Vecchi's A Million Thanks Stamp, Die and Stencil Set from Ranger is an excellent choice!

Lorraine showed me some tricks and tips which really helped. She uses watercolor pencils in a very cool way, pulling the color right off the pencil with a waterbrush! I'd like to try that next time, for sure. This time I embraced my coloring comfort zone, and did a base coat of the lightest shades with my Tombow Dual Brush Pens; then came in and slowly (SLOWLY!!!) added layers of detail with my Prismacolor Pencils. Since my first attempt came out considerably better than I had imagined, I decided to diecut the flowers, stamp more foliage and a sentiment in from the Million Thanks set, and make it into a card. I even (rarely for me!) added some detail to the envelope! 

THANK YOU Lorraine for teaching me this technique... and also... for the amazing Lemon Blueberry Loaf! ♥

Here We Come A-Caroling

The new Eyelet Outlet Caroler Brads are the about cutest thing ever! Here they are singing a happy holiday song in their very own snowglobe. I used my Wendy Vecchi Doodle Town stamp set to make a backdrop for them, added a strip of Sparkle White Glitter Tape for the ground, Snowflake Brads to the sky, and diecut the snowglobe base from Wood Washi with an accent of Brick Tape.

Check out all the newest brads in the Eyelet Outlet Store: Carolers, Santa & Deer Brads, Gnomes 2 and Snowy Trees will make your winter cardmaking season more fun and festive!

Paper Punched Mandala Monday

It's the 37^th Mandala Monday of 2022 and a good example of the EASIEST type of mandala to start with: Punch or diecut some circles and hearts, stack them, overlap them, layer them and glue them... et voila! Instant Mandala with absolutely NO drawing skills required!

 

Mission: Embossable!

We're still making cards that celebrate EMBOSSING at Jingle Belles, and you're still invited to join the fun!

Since I used an embossing folder last week, this time I broke out my Wendy Vecchi Doodle Christmas set, stamped the poinsettia over an entire background, embossed with Ranger's Vintage Pearl Embossing Powder, and then painted the flowers with Buttercup, Sunflower and Viridian Archival Inks, using a waterbrush filled with rubbing alcohol. I added Sunflower Liquid Pearls to the centers of all the flowers, added a couple of sparkly mats, some White Lace Tape and a suitable diecut sentiment and called it a day.

Be sure to check out Stephanie's beautiful card at Jingle Belles and then start planning what you will link up with us this time!

Gnome Alone

I come from a family that loves puns, and luckily that skill is appreciated in my role as an Eyelet Outlet Design Team Member. When I saw the adorable (g)new Gnome 2 Brads and Mushroom Washi Tape I couldn't wait to use them together with a suitably punny sentiment!

I couldn't decided whether to use the tape as a background or as part of my sentiment, so I decided to do both! I made two mini slimline cards, which each measure about 3.25 x 6.25". For the first, I applied the Mushroom Tape to some plain white cardstock, diecut the letters of "GNOME" (using Altenew's Bold Alphabet Die Set) added a pair of Gnomes to the M and E, and set the whole thing against a strip of Grass Washi. For the second card, I framed a single strip of the same Mushroom Tape with strips of Glitter Red Washi and Brick Tape, then stamped the sentiment and the little mushroom house from Lawn Fawn's Gnome Sweet Gnome stamp set. I added a Gnome 2 Brad in front of the house, and a Sun and Cloud Brad to the scene. Since I had used the Red, Green and Brown Gnomes from the set, it seemed wrong not to make an extra little tag for the Blue Gnome to inhabit; it features the same Mushroom and Grass Tapes, plus letters cut from Wood Washi (using My Favorite Things' "Connected" Alphabet) and a couple of Bee Brads up at the top.

If you can't get enough Gnomes, there are still a few original EO Gnome Brads in stock and they're on sale... while they last!

Fastest (h)Ombre in the East!

The new challenge at Shopping Our Stash is called "Hey (h)Ombre" and the brief is to include something ombre (a gradient effect of multiple tints and shades of the same color) in your design. There are LOTS of ways to go about it, but I'm pretty sure mine is the fastest and easiest: I grabbed a few oversized paint chip cards at Home Depot, et voila!

Ok, yes, I added my paint chip strip to a collage of torn vintage paper; stamped, colored and fussy-cut some of Dina Wakley's adorable Scribbly Fishies; and composed the whole thing into a not-quite A7 card. But the ombre part was an awesome "cheat" that I will definitely remember in future; and the only time in my life I've ever made Fish and Chips at home, lol!

Head over to SOS to see what the Crew have made to inspire you, then start planning your own Ombre, Hombre!

Monday, Monday

It’s a mellow and muted Mandala Monday. Hope you have a wonderful week!

Pitt Artist Pens and Tombow Dualbrush Pens in my Canson Mixed Media Sketchbook

My Sweet Embossable You

This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're celebrating the joys of embossing! Heat embossing, pressure-embossing, or, if you're especially ambitious, you could do both! I was not especially ambitious, so I just used my oldest embossing folder and broke out my newest die set, Spellbinders' Winter Welcome Sled from Paper Anthology.

The dies from this set are small and fairly intricate, but it was quite an easy job to cut each piece from scraps and assemble them. Since I really wanted the embossing to show, I added only a Tim Holtz sticker sentiment and a couple of appropriately colored mats. All in all it took much less time to make this card than it did to find and replace the ice skate blade die, which had got itself stuck to a piece of cardstock and put away in the cardstock bin without me realizing. I'll spare you details of the search, especially the part about the moldy peach in the garbage can, which was truly vile.

I'd love for you to hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and start planning your own Mission: Embossable!!!

Framing Fall

When I saw this awesome Frame Washi in the Eyelet Outlet Online Store I couldn't wait to use it to show off a little collection of my favorite brads. Since we're heading into September and  looking forward to all things autumnal, a collection of Fall Brads, like Scarecrows, Sunflowers, Apples, Leaf Brads and Mini Leaves seemed appropriate. Of course, with so many leaves, I needed the Rake from the Lawnmower Set (which is on sale!); and then I couldn't resist adding Sun and Cloud Brads. Butterflies and Mini Ladybugs aren't specifically autumnal, but the colors work nicely together, don't you think? A few strips of Script Tape set off the Frame cluster really well; and as a finishing touch, it's hard to beat a scattering of golden orange Sequins.

What's your favorite thing about autumn? Because I bet we have EO Brads and Tapes that will work perfectly!

Happy Labor Day

It's a very vivid two-fer of watercolors this Mandala Monday, featuring five of my favorite shades of Simon Hurley create. Dye Ink Pads from Ranger. For this method, I "smoosh" the ink pads (individually) onto a palette and use a waterbrush to pick up the color and paint with it. Since watercolor lends itself to adding color in increments, and since it's highly preferable to add outlines and doodles on top of DRY watercolor, it's not a bad idea to start two pieces at the same time, so you have something to do while one or the other is in the drying phase!*

Simon Hurley create. Dye Ink Pads in Prom Queen, Guppy, Shooting Star, Overzealous 

and Remember Me on 5.25" watercolor panels. Outlined with Letter It Fineliners; 

White Paint Pen details.

♥♥♥

*You can, obviously, use a heat tool to speed up this process, but if you're watching an exciting British mystery on Acorn TV, the noise will not be appreciated by your fellow viewers. If you DO use a heat tool, be sure to dry the back of your work as well as the front; watercolor paper has long fibers specially intended to hold and wick moisture.   

Old Fashioned Christmas

Over at Jingle Belles, we're still celebrating cards made with vintage or vintage-style products, or even just themes that have a strong retro vibe. 

This week I've dipped into my stash of actual old stuff: I made a collage of torn sheet music, vintage book pages and Green Stamps; added some pretty Simple Stories washi on top, and framed part of an Authentique journal card with an ancient Tim Holtz Idea-ology Christmas Vignette Boxtop and sticker. I inked and machine-stitched around the edges, then mounted the whole thing on some Authentique brick-patterned paper and an A7 kraft card.

There's a little prize this fortnight, which comes from my own Etsy Shop, Just Enough Stuff, so if you've been wishing you had some older goodies to play with, you should definitely link up with us at Jingle Belles!

Since it's a week that happened to contain a fifth Monday, you can automatically link up your Jingle Belles card with the Double Trouble Challenge's SomeThing, AnyThing, EveryThing event, since we're on their list of Past Partners!