If you haven't already guessed that this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash we're looking for things that grow in a garden, then frankly, I'm a bit surprised, but just go ahead and re-read this rather long sentence and you'll know for sure. Of course you can make a card that features vegetables, or even, I suppose weeds... but... if you're ME, of course you're going to go with flowers!
Tuesday, May 21, 2024
SOS522: How Does Your Garden Grow?
Monday, May 20, 2024
Glossy Accents Shower Cards
MM21
It's a Multi-Tag Mandala Monday drawn with Letter It Fineliners in my Dina Wakley 6x6 Kraft Journal from Ranger... the size and shape of which is making it a current fave. I staggered/overlapped the tags* then added all the shapes, and finally colored and shaded with a mix of Tombows and Prismacolor Pencils.
*Apologies in advance for the fact that this technique is likely going to be a Serious New Obsession!
Sunday, May 19, 2024
Flower Collage Cards
Would this be a good time for a couple of random flower collage cards? That's a rhetorical question because, imo, there's really no bad time for those... which is probably why I make so many, lol. These amazing roses are cut from gorgeous paper I got a while ago at Pearl River Mart (a must-see if you’re visiting NYC’s Chinatown; or the smaller store in Chelsea Market, under the High Line) I had a nice big sheet of it (maybe 18x24"?) and I'm pretty sure I've ONLY used it for cutting out the flowers for collages made with torn and layered vintage paper! Non, je ne regrette rien...
Friday, May 17, 2024
Taking (Card)Stock
It's week two of our Jingle Belles celebration of Cardstock Christmas for which absolutely NO patterned paper is allowed. I usually semi-panic at times like these, but luckily my Wendy Vecchi stamps, Chippies and 3D Embossing Folder stepped in to save the day!
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Unicorn Sanity
Where do card ideas come from? EVERYWHERE! In this case, a fun meme from social media became a card featuring adorable Eyelet Outlet Unicorn and Rainbow Brads, set against a frame of Pink Foil Tape and a background made by neatly lining up strips of Multi Color Dot Washi on the diagonal.
The sentiment is rendered in a free font called Jolly Dream from dafont.com, printed on plain old white cardstock... (with sufficient space left for unicorns, of course) ...then augmented with the brads. If you can dream up a card idea, the Eyelet Outlet Store almost certainly has the brads and tapes to make it work!
Monday, May 13, 2024
Rainbow Stripes
It's a Rowdy Rainbow Mandala Monday featuring about fifteen different tone-on-tone shades of Tombow Dual Brush Pen with white Posca highlights and outlines courtesy of my skinniest Letter It Fineliner; in my Dina Wakley 6x6 Kraft Journal from Ranger. Hope your week is off to a colorful, creative start!
Sunday, May 12, 2024
Holiday Jumpstart: Sparkle
Holiday Jumpstart: Sparkle is Paper Anthology's May holiday card kit, which features (and INCLUDES) Hero Arts’ Ornament Fancy Dies, a seven-die set that’s so useful and versatile, we predict you’ll be using it for years to come!
While there, check out Paper Anthology's amazing selection of paper, stamps, dies, inks, tools and basically all the papercrafting supplies you could wish for!
Friday, May 10, 2024
Cardstock Christmas
This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're asking you to step away from the designer paper … yes, put it away … none allowed … not even a scrap … because this time the assignment is to create a holiday card using only cardstock. You can tear it, ink it, stamp it, spray it, emboss it, diecut it … but stick to only cardstock for your holiday card design.
Here's how we "took stock" this week:
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Favorite Mug
Everyone probably has a favorite mug for drinking their morning coffee or tea, but if you stamp your own with Wendy Vecchi's Studio 490 Mug Art Stamp Set and use Eyelet Outlet Brads and Tapes to decorate them, EVERY mug can be your favorite!
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
SOS521: Water, Water, Everywhere!
This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash, we'd like for you to create a card with a large body of water; like an ocean, lake or river, if you SEA what we mean, lol! Here's what I made:
As soon as we start talking about water and those that dwell within, I'm usually already getting out my collection of Lawn Fawn sea creatures, of which I have quite a few, stretching back at least ten years. Quite often I paper-piece the little dudes for maximum cuteness; plus it's a brilliant way to use up patterned paper scraps, so that's what I've done here. I used stamps from Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Sea set as well as two mini sets, Seahorsin' Around and I Like You (A Lotl). I stamped two of the sentiments from those sets but spelled out "Birthday" using letters from Henry's ABC's die set. My "ocean" is part of a map-centric patterned paper from 49 and Market's Sunburst collection and the filmstrip is an older die from Elizabeth Craft Designs.
The "Water, Water, Everywhere" Challenge (SOS 521) runs until the evening of Monday, May 20th. Why not check out what the fabulous Crew have made to inspire you, then start planning what you'll link up with us this time.
Monday, May 6, 2024
Bold & Bright
It's a coolish, greyish day in central New Jersey, which seems like the perfect time for a big, bold Mandala to brighten up your Monday! This one features Wendy Vecchi's Garden Party stamps from Spellbinders; radiant, radiating, rainbow shades of Wendy's Archival Inks from Ranger; and a whole lot of MAKE ART and Studio 490 stamps and stencils applied over and under the hand-drawn mandala shapes I rendered with my Letter It Fineliners.
I work on mandalas in many different ways to keep things interesting, but for those interested in process, this piece went... roughly... like this:
- Lightly pencil-sketch a few concentric circles, centered on an 11x11" piece of bristol board. An old school compass is good for this, you can even trace rolls of tape or your nested circle dies, but I do also love the Helix Circle Tool!
- Apply Archival Inks with a Mini Ink Blending Tool and Domed Foams, working in rings from the center outwards and allowing them to blend wherever they overlap. Colors are: Prickly Pear, Bluebird, Night Sky, Cactus Flower, Rosey Posey, Peachy Keen, and Sunflower... then around again to Prickly Pear, etc.
- Stamp the large floral cluster from the Garden Party set in the center in Watering Can Archival.
- Add background patterns by stamping a variety of small elements and portions of large background stamps more or less randomly, in coordinating colors.
- Draw the basic structural lines with a .01 or .04 Letter It Fineliner, again working from the center outwards; starting with the two large concentric circles, adding large petal shapes and large circles between the petals.
- Add detail lines and shapes such as the rings of smaller circles and petals, plus the secondary "shadow" lines inside or outside the larger shapes.
- Using sticky notes to mask if necessary, neaten up the loose rings of color with Ranger Detail Blending Tools; for example I applied more Bluebird ink to the area around the Garden Party florals so the circle border is a darker green; I pulled more Peachy Keen out into the large hand-drawn petals; darkened the ring of smaller circles around the center, etc.
- Add more definition with a white paint pen in the form of lines, dots and small hearts, then outline with a .01 Fineliner.
- One final neatening up of shapes and shadow lines with coordinating brush pens wherever necessary.
Friday, May 3, 2024
Santa Claus...
...is Comin' to Town! Metaphorically speaking, that is, this fortnight at Jingle Belles; as we continue our celebration of "The Man With the Bag"! Here's what I made this week:
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Bloomin' Beauties
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
Happy Birdie
Eyelet Outlet Bird Brads of a feather flock together to make the sunniest and happiest of birthday cards! Our Bluebird and Robin Brads share the stage with a handsome Profile Cardinal on stacked backgrounds of Wide Sky Washi and Music Note Tape. Yellow Colored Daisy Brads provide a nice snack for a Mini Ladybug, while a Mini Bee Brad heads home to his hive.
The Birds and the Bees.. not to mention Ladybugs, Dragonflies and LOTS of other critters can be found in the Eyelet Outlet Store!