It's a Floral Pumpkin Mandala Monday, suitable for the World Wide Web; wishing you a Happy Halloween that's full of treats, and free of tricks!
This is Stephanie's photo of the Little Monster I made for her birthday (and an awesome collage she made while we were creating together, as well!) I chose this fine gauge yarn because it's Stephanie's favorite colors and I had never made a variegated amigurumi before; though it was a "leftover" of which I had only one tennis-ball-sized amount so I was slightly nervous that I'd run out, but thankfully all was well.
This pattern, which was free from the Lovely Craft website had an especially clever way to make the Monster stand up: you crochet a turning round at the bottom edge (by working only through the back loops) and then... you add a little round of cardboard after stuffing, but before decreasing to close the circle. I found that my smallest circle Nestie die worked perfectly on scrap chipboard and was pleasantly shocked at how sturdily this Monster stands!
I don't know why I started thinking of this Monster in a Frida Kahlo type of vein, but after I did, I couldn't resist adding a chunky beaded necklace and an orange flower... I found the tiny monkey eraser while looking for something else and decided she needed a friend!
Nothing says, "Happy Holidays" quite as well as a reindeer road trip, am I right? And since this is Week Two of our "Not a Creature Was Stirring" prompt at Jingle Belles, this seemed like the perfect time to pull out my Lawn Fawn Car Critters stamp set and Christmas add-on to do some paper-piecing.
Eyelet Outlet seasonal Brads added to pre-printed journal cards make for Halloween cards so quick and easy, you won't even need a magic wand! Especially if you make coordinating tags and backgrounds using a few of the hundreds of gorgeous styles of EO Washi.
By neatly applying strips of tape to plain white cardstock, you are, in effect, designing your own patterned paper! For this trio of Halloween cards, I started with just three sweet witch tags out of Prima Marketing's Luna collection from Paper Anthology, plus a few small scraps of ribbon. I traced the tag shape onto cardstock covered with bright Orange Halloween Tape, charcoal grey texty Halloween Tape and Halloween Dot Washi, to make companion tags for each witch. I made some slightly larger background panels using the orange and grey tapes again as well as Coloring Book Washi; with mats of Glitter Black Tape beneath each. Then it was time to add brads to all the tags: pink Heart Brads, Pumpkins, Bats, Witch Hats (which fit the sweet witches perfectly!) as well as Mini Spiders and Mini Candy Corn... both of which are on sale! Et Voila: Three flat, mailable Halloween cards in less time than it took my favorite British TV Detective to solve this week's crime.
Adorable cards for any occasion are no mystery... the perfect Brads and Washi for your next project are waiting for you in the Eyelet Outlet Store!
If you've read the title of this post, you may well have guessed that the assignment this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash is to emphasize the EYES, using googly eyes, or anything that focuses on EYES. You can make one last Halloween card, or branch out into any occasion or idea that catches your fancy. I went with one last Halloween card:
This Mandala Monday is brought to you by Kinokuniya, one of my favorite stores in NYC, where I shopped for the first time in nearly two and a half years, while Stephanie was here for our New York adventure. It's a three-level store on Sixth Avenue, directly behind Bryant Park. They have books on the main floor, with gaming, manga and dvds upstairs; but whenever I arrive, I immediately head for the lower level, which is a treasure trove of pens, stickers, washi paper and tape, magazines, stationery and other kawaii goodness.
Of course I had to buy a few sheets of tiny Japanese stickers, which I made into a simple mandala design in my 7 x 10" Hello Kitty school planner...also from Kino. I was excited to find this, because when I enquired, the clerk said they no longer carried them. Luckily, Stephanie found them before I committed to a less adorable option!
This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're asking you to Feature a Creature! That includes every imaginable animal... like a sweet sheep, a plucky little duck, or perhaps a rowdy reindeer; or YES, even a monster or a Yeti if you're in a Halloween mood and want to stretch the theme! And for a bit more fun, we're throwing in a prize for one lucky participant, so you should hop over to Jingle Belles and read about that, but first, how about a look at my card:
Stephanie got me hooked on Yeti Cards, and this one features Lawn Fawn's supercute version! I've stamped on some tiny text paper and fussycut the happy little dude so he could be part of my snowy scene, made from scraps of patterned paper. I added a diecut sun and clouds as well as couple of Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads, because super-furry Yeti like their weather on the chilly side!
Head over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card* and start planning what Creature you're going to Feature when you link up with us.
*Stephanie's card might also feature a Yeti; I cannot confirm or deny that hypothesis.
I think it's possible that whoever said, "Good things come in small packages" may very well have been thinking about Eyelet Outlet Tropical Bird Brads! These colorful feathered friends are exactly the right size for Penny Black's Vintage Birdcage Dies, which I diecut from our Pink Foil Tape backed with a scrap of plain white cardstock. A punny diecut sentiment, a few fronds of foliage with Colored Daisy and Green Leaf Brad accents, as well as a Flower Washi mat complete the design.
Apparently I forgot to post last week's take on Mandala Monday here on the blog, so today we get an extra helping! First up is today's very special Sticker Mandala; last week's funky zendoodle is below.
It's Prima Marketing's new holiday line, Candy Cane Lane by Frank Garcia, which is coming soon to Paper Anthology. Luckily, I was allowed to sneak a few of the gorgeous papers a teeny bit early, so I could use them for week two of PINK CHRISTMAS at Jingle Belles!
Halloween is always FANG-tastic at Eyelet Outlet, thanks to our Bat Brads, Pumpkins and Kittens; not to mention the Brick Tape which is perfect for diecutting spooky mansions and the cream and charcoal Halloween Washi which just might be the ultimate card background!
If bats aren't your thing there are also Ghosts, Spiders, Skulls, Witchy Hats and Legs, and lots more awesome Halloween-themed items (including addtional awesome Washi varieties) in the Eyelet Outlet Store!
This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash we're embracing all things creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky. Which is to say, we're creating cards that feature ghosts, monsters, skeletons or other cute but creepy characters; or any other take on Happy Halloween!
Here's a shocking true confession: these adorable bats are from Lawn Fawn's brand new Fangtastic Friends set, which I acquired only last week at Paper Anthology. But... since every other item on this card is at least three or four years old, I decided I could use them anyway, despite their clear non-stashy status. (Ok, ok, kinda cheating, but I was lonnnnnging to color those bats, so it had to be done!) The black chevron paper and white letters are both Doodlebug from... ok I don't know when, but they're not remotely recent, lol. The skinny purple mat is Bo Bunny and even older. The orange Lawn Fawn plaid moon is from the scrap bag; and my Eyelet Outlet Pumpkin, Mini Spider and Witch Hat are from around 2018.
Creep, crawl, shuffle, shamble or mysteriously materialize over at SOS to see the fabulously, frightfully delightful creations from the rest of the design team!
It's time for one of our all-time favorite annual Jingle Belles events, PINK CHRISTMAS!!! We've done this every year since we started Jingle Belles, so if you've spent October with us in the past you already know the drill. If not, it's pretty simple: at the beginning of October we make holiday cards whose color is predominantly PINK, and for each card that gets linked up at Jingle Belles, Stephanie and I each donate $2 to the Breast Cancer Research Fund. If that sounds good to you, I hope you'll hop over there and link pink with us!
It's no secret that I love pink at any time of year, and if anything, I love it even more for Christmas cards, so this wasn't difficult for me. I used a bunch of readymade items: an ancient pink My Mind's Eye chipboard tree, diecut poinsettia layers from leftover patterned papers, am Eyelet Outlet Pink Pearl Brad and Enamel Dots, a KI Memories (that's going back a bit, eh?!) border sticker and a kraft paper with pink polka dots that is so old I don't know whence it came! Definitely a hodge podge style of card, but that was the sort of mood I was in, lol; and it's no use fighting that sort of thing!
I hope you'll visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and start thinking up what you'll make to take part in our PINK CHRISTMAS event!
Sometimes when I start making tags, I find it hard to stop! Especially when I've got my entire stash of Eyelet Outlet holiday brads and tapes to choose from. For this set, I planned to make tags featuring all the new EO Brads: Santa and Deer, Gnomes 2, Trees- Snowy and Carolers... but then... I just kept going! Luckily I managed to fit them all on a two inch book ring from the office supply store.
I used Sunny Studio's Build a Tag #2 die set to create tags, toppers and reinforcements cut from cardstock covered with my favorite EO holiday tapes, such as Poinsettia Tape, Santa Tape, Twig Tape, Santa- Green Washi, Garland Tape, Tree Tape, Cardinal Washi, Skinny Vertical Tree Tape, Gingerbread Washi, Red Santa and Winter Characters Tape; with accents of Wood Tape, Brick Tape, Music Note Tape, Green Damask Washi, and of course I couldn't resist breaking out a bunch of Glitter Tapes (we have over two dozen styles... and counting!)
It's the first Mandala Monday of October, aka Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and thus the choice of colors was a bit of a no-brainer!
