Holiday Shape Up: Week 2

Cruising into the second week of our Holiday Shape Up festival at Jingle Belles for which, as you'll recall, we're making shaped cards. New Jersey is just one of the states currently under what the weather gurus are calling a heat dome, and the temps for the last 10 days have been in the mid-90's with humidity off the charts. So of course my first thought was to make MITTENS lol!

A few years ago I had downloaded a photo of a beautiful mitten-shaped card, printed it out on cardstock at 4x6" size, used it as a template and raided my stash of ancient Basic Grey holiday patterned paper to make THIS CARD. Luckily, I had saved the template and still had some nice big chunks of BG, so I'm back with the same idea... times two! Basic Grey flower layers, Recollections flair, scraps of felt  trimmings, 7 Gypsies velvet holly leaves, and a couple of buttons from my stash complete this pair of mixy-matchy mitten cards.

Stephanie's card can be seen at Jingle Belles, where, coincidentally, you can also upload your own magnificent shape-card design between now and next Wednesday evening, July 3rd.

Gnome Sweet

The adorable new Eyelet Outlet Girl Gnome Brads have settled in nicely and have teamed up with our Gnome 2 Brads on this extra festive greeting! Grass Tape literally grounds the oversized sentiment and adds a special touch to the envelope along with a strip of Gnome Mushroom Butterfly Tape; while a few Mini Bee Brads are buzzing around happily.

The Eyelet Outlet Store has brads, bling, flowers, enamels and washi tape for literally EVERY occasion you'd care to celebrate!

ICAD2024: Week 4

Another week has rushed by at lightning speed, and here are my ICADs! For more information, inspiration and loads of samples visit @llaurenb and/or @indexcardaday and/or @gypsy999 on Instagram; or check out the Daisy Yellow Art Blog!

ICAD24-24: Mandala Monday

It's a Diamond Dogs Mandala Monday thanks to a leftover diamond-shaped piece of patterned paper leftover from last week's Argyle card, lots and lots of diamondy and circley Letter It Fineliner Doodles, and a few coordinating Tombow Dual Brush Pens.

ICAD24-23: Hummingbird

Super-literal take on the prompt, featuring the eponymous winged creature, a vintage slidemount, some nectar-y flowers, a scrap of leftover map, and some trading stamps... all atop a pale blue, repro library checkout card.

ICAD24-22: Tulip

I was flicking through a vintage nature encyclopedia for some tulips when I stumbled upon this Tulip Shell and let it pivot me into a completely different collage-ical direction!

ICAD24-21: Crystal

At least once a year I try to draw some gems or crystals and I've never felt like I got the facets right, but this one is pretttttty good, lol! It turns out the secret might be to just draw them really really quickly without giving very much thought or care to the process... who knew??!

ICAD24-20: Gold

 I’ve approached "GOLD" via doodles… using three types of gold pen: Posca, Zig Dot Marker, and the good old Gellyroll Metallic. Not the fanciest thing I've ever made, but it was fun to draw and I love how the three pens each have their own version and shade of gold.

ICAD24-19: Alternating

A super-simple, doodle-centric idea, alternating stripes of violet and pale blue Tombow on a gridded index card; with alternating doodles in black Letter It Fineliner or white Posca pen.

ICAD24-18: Beach

I found this pre-watercolored heavy divider card in my ICAD box and added undulating strips of sand and froth; the latter being layers of torn vintage paper of varying patinas brushed with a little bit of Stickles Glitter Glue (the shade is Waterfall, appropriately enough) from Ranger, then machine-stitched for extra texture. 

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SHAPING-Up for the Holidays

This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're celebrating the challenging (but rewarding!) field of SHAPED cards. Anything other than a square or rectangle will do; you might try a circle, star, stocking, candy cane, snow globe, mitten... the choice is yours.

I used the second largest bauble in an older set of older Hero Arts Ornaments Infinity Dies to diecut this charming, vintage-inspired Santa from Prima's Candy Cane Lane collection, then traced and handcut a few additional layers to make a slightly larger and sturdier card. I used Wendy Vecchi's brilliant "hinge" method to add another diecut piece to the back (with a crease scored at 3/4" from the top before affixing) and thus make this into a card that actually opens!* A few Impression Obsession diecut snowflakes, a seambinding bow and a scatter of golden star sequins complete the design.

Be sure to visit Jingle Belles to see what Stephanie made (spoiler alert: it's an amazing Santa-shaped G/C holder!) and then start planning your own SHAPED masterpiece. This challenge runs until the evening of July 3rd.

*Shocking True Confession: In the past, many of my shaped cards were essentially very fancy postcards, whereby I wrote my greeting on the back; and there is NOTHING wrong with this method if you prefer it!!!

Ranger Fluttering Stickles

Summer is the perfect time for cards with bright colors and LOTS of sparkle! Head over to the Ranger Project Page and follow along as I use rainbow shades of Ranger Archival Inks and Stickles Glitter Glue to make a card that's almost literally over the rainbow!

One Door Closes

There are some very funny "sign guys" out and about on social media (El Arroyo and The Sign Guy are two of my faves!) and when I saw this one-liner I knew I had to use my Eyelet Outlet Classic Car Brads and Map Tape to make a card. I framed the sentiment with a panel of Tire Track Washi and another of Wide Brick Tape, added a quartet of Screw Brads and called it a day.

The Eyelet Outlet Store has all the brads, washi tape, flowers, bling, enamels and more to make your next card your very favorite!

"Button, Button...

...Who's Got the Button" is the name of this fortnight's challenge at Shopping Our Stash and since I'm assuming you've already guessed we'd like to see projects with one or more buttons on them, I'll get right to what I made:

Here you see a card with just TWO (2!) buttons (they are stacked) sitting atop the vast quantity of red, yellow, orange and pink buttons I got out in readiness for making said card. This pretty much tells you everything you need to know about my process, lol. On the plus side, they made an excellent photo backdrop, so I'm calling it a win. I used up lots (and lots!) of pink, yellow and orange scraps by diecutting them with my classic Spellbinders Nestabilities diamond dies, distressing, stacking, and machine-stitching on the fruits of that labor, to make a funky argyle pattern. Two (stacked) mulberry flowers... (again a much smaller amount than I'd anticipated) ...hold the buttons, which I have threaded as a salute to my friend and former SOS colleague Leslie, who considered "nekkid" buttons to be an abomination.

Visit the SOS blog to see the fabulous button cards made by our talented Crew and then start planning what you'll link up with us this time. SOS524 runs until the evening of Monday, July 1st.

ICAD Round-Up (wk3)

Another week has flown past... June is more than halfway over... and the Index Card Art just keeps coming!

 ICAD24-17: Mandala Monday

It's a Multi-Layered Mandala Monday, featuring hand-cut shapes made from neon and pastel index cards... with Posca Paint Pens singin' backup.

 ICAD24-16: Ivy

A zendoodle-y take on today's prompt of Ivy, on a lined and tabbed pistacio green index card.

 ICAD24-15: Terrazzo

A very loose take on terrazzo, as if we used chips of mandalas, rather than the more traditional marble or granite. Ok that's a really weird metaphor, but let's not overthink it.

 ICAD24-14: Off-Prompt

It's a super-simple rainbow cascade made with Tombow Dual Brush pens and outlined in Letter It Fineliners from Ranger. When in doubt, use ALL the colors!!! ♥

 ICAD24-13: Lost and Found

A gridded collage made up of scraps and snippets laying on my work table, with machine stitching on top. For the record, at any given time, I could probably compose an entire week's worth of gridded collages made up of scraps and snippets laying on my work table.

 ICAD24-12: Ellipse

Ellipse doodles on a gridded card which Tammy G. pointed out turned into a bit of an Ellipse Mandala repeating pattern. Drawn atop blended stripes of Archival Inks in Blue Sky, Sunflower and Tea Rose.

 ICAD24-11: Orange

Various orange shades of Archival Ink blocks, with doodles, on an orange index card. Orange you glad I didn't say, "Banana"?!

♥♥♥

Visit my Instagram account @llaurenb to see my daily ICAD and cardmaking posts!

It's Already Yeti Already!

It's the second week of our "We Three Kings" celebration at Jingle Belles, for which we'd like to see holiday cards that incorporate three or more different patterned papers! 

I used five patterned papers, across two cards: two shades of Lawn Fawn's Knit Picky line, plus a piece from Let it Shine; ancient MME Trees; and the Lawn Fawn Yeti are pieced in one of Bella Blvd's fabulous tone-on-tone plaids. The snowflakes are, of course, Eyelet Outlet Brads. 

I'm awarding myself bonus points for using both the positive and negative parts of the Dare 2B Artzy Stitched Framelits dies, instead of putting the unused pieces in the ever-increasing leftover diecuts pile. Go, me! :)

"We Three Kings" runs until next Wednesday evening, June 19th. Head over to Jingle Belles to check out Stephanie's card as well as the awesome Readers' Gallery.

Cheers to You!

Brand new Eyelet Outlet Liquor Brads are perfect for ANY celebration and pair beautifully with our Beer Brads and Wine Brads; with a champagne glass from the Wedding set, Grape Brads, an orange slice from the Lemonade and Fruit Brads, and additional citrus notes thanks to the Fruit Tape from which the sentiment was diecut. 

Check out the amazing selection of Food and Drink Brads in the Eyelet Outlet Online Store!

Week Two: ICAD 2024

Wrapping up the first full week of Index Card a Day with a colorful round-up! To see the cards daily, visit my Instagram account @llaurenb where I post them as I make them! 

ICAD24-10: Mandala Monday

It's an Ink-Over-Collage Mandala Monday thanks to some of my favorite Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink shades from Ranger: Rosy Posy, Sunflower, Leaf Green, Sky Blue and Cactus Flower. I used sponge daubers to apply the inks in arcs of rainbow order atop some torn book paper glued to an index card divider; then drew the shapes in with a few sizes of Letter It Fineliners. I used Detail Blending tools to neaten up the colors, and finally added finishing touches with a white paint pen.

ICAD24-09: Potpourri

According to Merriam Webster, the secondary* definition of #POTPOURRI is, "a miscellaneous collection; a medley" and it would be hard to find anything miscellaneouser than this card, which features part of a fractal my friend EJ designed, surrounded by fractalesque doodled shapes, then randomly sewed upon. Behind the card you can see Kenneth Kenmore, my grandmother's sewing machine, which works perfectly, despite considerable fading of the avocado green facade that was de rigueur for all 1970's appliances.

*The primary definition of POTPOURRI is, of course, "A bowl of smelly stuff, used to drive away guests with allergies"

ICAD24-08: Wave

For several years I've hoarded/saved this beautiful handwritten library checkout card for Proust's Remembrance of Things Past (thank you Mary aka @millwoodstudioart ) and I am pleased as punch to have done so, because imo this is the PERFECT use for such a card. BTW, if the fact that the fish came from a book entitled, "Wondrous World of Fishes" does not delight you at least a tiny bit, I'm not sure we can be friends. Just sayin'...

ICAD24-07: Lavender

Expanding from leafy #lavender limits to a purposeful pan-purple-ous panoply of modish poddishness.

ICAD24-06: Owl

Gorgeous owl from a North American Nature book; hand-cut OWL letters from a cool photo of trees; strips of torn text paper and Big Dollar Trading Stamps for which I thank @smilynstef who is a thrifter of fantastic talent and generosity! ♥

ICAD24-05: Gradient

The other day's prompt was #gradient but it was Mandala Monday, so I pushed it back a bit. Just a reminder that the #dyicad prompts are not only optional, they are multifariously adaptable! You can pick and choose, do as many or as few as you like, do them on whatever days they appeal. Make 61 #gradient cards or skip #gradient in favor of something else, or leave out all the prompts all together. The definition of the noun "prompt" (according to Merriam-Webster) is, "an inciting cause; or a reminder". So it's 100% cool to start out drawing lines with blue brush pens that get darker and then lighter again (as I have)... but as you work... you might add patterns and details in other colors (as I have) so that it's not really a pure gradient anymore. You might even decided to glue something on top (as I have not) which completely obscures the gradient but IT STILL COUNTS! The prompts are there to get you started; where you go after that is up to you. And if you're already started on something interesting, maybe you don't need a prompt that day. Make this 61-day shindig YOURS, in any and every way that feels fun or inspiring to YOU!

PS: I am currently in love with the word "multifariously" and apologize in advance for what I fear will be a brief but intense period of substantial over-usage! ♥

ICAD24-04: Tree

I spent quite a long time typing the names of the trees onto the trees in this illustration... and it's hardly noticeable, but I don't care. How did I wind up with a fish flying through the clouds with a seriously large moon in the background? Who can say??! Collage logic is tangential at best: Here are some trees... the sky would be visible behind them... the sky is (generally) blue... I have blue index cards... you fly in the sky... there are flying fish (tho this isn't one of them lol)... whilst flying it's cool to see the clouds from a different angle... if you fly long enough you'll get to the moon... The End. :)

♥♥♥

JB2412: We THREE Kings

A couple of weeks ago at Jingle Belles we celebrated "Cardstock Christmas" for which absolutely NO commercial patterned paper was allowed; this fortnight is the flip-side of that diabolical assignment. For "We THREE Kings" we'd like to see cards which have at least three different patterned papers. They can be from the same coordinated collection, or you can mix them up! For my card, I've chosen the first option, so all four of my papers come from 49 and Market's Christmas Spectacular 2023 collection.

It's no surprise that I LOVE this set of papers, and I especially love it with lots of distressed layers and machine stitching, as my card reflects. In addition to four different patterns from the collection, I've got four strips of washi tape (admittedly hard to see... they're wrapped around the decorative band that's mostly hidden by the flower) as well as a sentiment sticker, and an ancient Petaloo velvet flower.

Stephanie's beautiful card is on display at Jingle Belles, which coincidentally is where you'll link up your own pattern-centric masterpiece. JB2412: We THREE Kings runs until Wednesday evening, June 19th.

FIN-Tastic!

The new Eyelet Outlet Shark Brads are FIN-tastic for Birthday Cards, as you can plainly SEA! This card's mini-ocean is made with two strips of Ocean Washi Tape atop Wide Water Washi, the tape from which the letters spelling "FINTASTIC" were also diecut. A Cloud Brad from the Sun and Cloud set, as well as one more Shark highlight the sentiment.

Check out the full range of Fish, Fowl, Mammals, Birds, Dinosaurs and other adorable critters in the Eyelet Outlet Online Store!

Shopping List for this card:

Shark Brads

Ocean Washi Tape

Wide Water Washi

Sun and Cloud Brads

SOS523: Sketchy!

It's time for a fabulous sketch challenge at Shopping Our Stash! Of course you can flip it, rotate it, stretch it or shrink it; just make sure we can see "the bones" of the sketch in your card.

Here's how I interpreted this awesome crafty road map:

I recently acquired an older sticker sheet from Echo Park's 2017 Summer Fun collection and the little scooter was soooo cute, I had to use it IMMEDIATELY!. Luckily, I had loads of scraps from various ancient Carta Bella, Echo Park, Authentique and Dare 2B Artzy patterned papers (this might be a record for how many plaids can be combined in one design, lol!) as well as some elderly October Afternoon washi tape and a border sticker of unknown origin. I've cut cloud clusters from a dwindling sheet of Simple Stories patterned paper and used a circle sentiment from the EP sticker sheet. A bit of machine stitching completes the design, not because it especially needed any, I just felt like sewing!

Head on over to Shopping Our Stash to see the Crew's awesome sketch cards and start planning how YOU will interpret this design. SOS523 runs until Monday evening, June 17th.

ICAD2024: Week 1

Only a partial Index Card a Day round-up, because this year June first fell on a Saturday; so there are just three index cards to show so far, but I'm already having fun and today is Mandala Monday, so let's get this 3x5" show on the road!

ICAD24-03: Mandala Monday

In my ICAD box, I found an index card that I'd apparently used, at some point, to blot up miscellaneous watercolor, and even though some of the colors were a bit muddy, I decided it would make a nice mandala. I added semi-symmetrical lines with black Letter It Fineliners from Ranger; white paint pen highlights; and, since it was very funky and wrinkly at the edges, I trimmed it down and sewed it to an index card divider with an appropriate tab.

ICAD24-02: Zinnia

Zinnias are a flower I enjoy doodling, so that's what I've done using my Tombows and some Letter It Fineliners on a gridded index card. I sliiiiightly ran out of room for my lettering, so let's pretend the bold blooms grew so quickly and exuberantly that they covered up my perfectly thought-out title! 😉

ICAD24-01: Door or Portal

Coming straight in with a One Staple Collage for the optional Day 1 prompt of Portal or Door. What’s a One Staple Collage? It’s an Index Card a Day tradition, and, as the name implies, the brief is to create a collage which is held together with… wait for it… one staple! In this case, the layers consist of (from the bottom up) a yellow index card; a topographical map of the moon; a scrap of Kannada text; a cluster of daisies; a Georgian facade (with door/portico) and a word cut from a children’s dictionary, having left juuuuust enough space for the staple!

♥♥♥

I'm posting my index cards daily on my Instagram account @llaurenb@llaurenb and planning to do blog  round-ups weekly. More info about Index Card a Day on the Daisy Yellow Art Website and/or the @indexcardaday Instagram page!