Ahoy, Matey!

Pirates LOVE a good party, especially when it comes to birthdays! This pirate has brought along a treasure chest full of gold (aka Eyelet Outlet Glitter Enamels) as well as his trusty Compass Brad and a Parrot pal (from our Tropical Birds set). Setting the scene, Sun and Cloud Brads, a Tall Palm Tree and the Crab from our Crab and Lobster set; while Wood Washi and Map Tape make great accents.

Pirate-Friendly Shopping List:

Compass Brad

Tropical Bird Brads

Sun and Cloud Brads

Tall Palm Tree Brads

Crab and Lobster Brads

Wood Washi

Map Tape 

Glitter Gold Enamels

Visit the Eyelet Outlet Online Store to find the perfect embellishments to enhance your favorite stamps and dies!

MM09: Oxide Ink Blending

Sometimes you just want to sit and blend your favorite analogous Distress Oxide Inks in a big concentric circles, am I right? Ok, maybe that's just me... but after I finished blending and splashing and speckling with the Oxides, I drew a mandala on top with my Letter it Fineliners and added accents to some of the detail shapes with coordinating colors of Tombow Dual Brush Pens. And thus we have a Super Sunshiney Mandala for the first Monday of March!

NEW Holiday Jumpstart: TREE-mendous!

Holiday Jumpstart: TREE-mendous is Paper Anthology's newest holiday card kit, which features a gorgeously intricate, three-layer Classic Christmas Tree, pre-diecut for you; plus all of the elements needed to make the featured card as shown.

Paper Anthology’s Holiday Jumpstart Card Kit is a pre-packaged kit that includes everything you need (except adhesive) to complete FIVE copies of this new original holiday card design. This edition is called “TREE-mendous” based on the card's lovely focal point and festive background.

Don’t we all adore the IDEA of making holiday cards throughout the year, instead being overloaded in November and December? But sometimes it’s hard to be inspired during the “off-season”. This pre-packaged kit features everything you need (except adhesive) to complete five beautiful, detailed and colorful cards, including card bases, complete written instructions (not pictured, but included!) and a nice big photo for reference.

This kit contains:

Five background panels with scalloped corners
Five red curvy backdrops
Five solid green tree layers
Five tan tree trunk pieces
Five sets of three-part foliage
Five banner sentiments
Five banner backers
Twenty-five baubles
Five white A2 cards
Complete written instructions with large color photo

Purchase Holiday Jumpstart: TREE-mendous in our Etsy Shop, Paper Anthology Design; and check out our other Jumpstart Kits as well as three-card class kits and more!

BLING on the Holidays

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're celebrating (...you guessed it...) BLING! So make a card featuring jewels, gems, beads, pearls, glitter, stickles, or anything sparkly and join the fun!

I've had these Bling Snowflakes from the big box store for aggggggggges, so I was determined to use them for this prompt. I found a funky gel print made (at some un-remembered time, lol) by using an ancient Darice snowflake embossing folder to remove paint from the plate. I added some older Tim Holtz metallic rub-on transfers to enhance the holiday theme. My sentiment and mat are white glitter cardstock and the finished card is an A6.

JB2505: BLING on the Holidays runs until the evening of Wednesday, March 12th. Visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful BLING-centric card and find all of the details (and the Linky tool) there!

Puppy Love

In case you're having a RUFF day, here are some adorable Eyelet Outlet Puppy Brads to cheer you up! The puppies have been paired with the bowl and bone from our Kennel Mix, as well as Paw Brads, Paw Washi and Wood Tape. 

Shopping List:

Puppy Brads

Kennel Mix

Paw Brads

Paw Washi

Wood Tape 

Whether you love dogs, cats, lizards, sheep, cows, tigers, monkeys or even polar bears, the Eyelet Outlet Store has all the best animal brads and tapes for your cards and projects!

It's the Dreaded ONE LAYER Card!

This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash the challenge (#542) is called, "One is the Loneliest Number"* because we're making single-layer cards that don't have anything glued on. So put your thinking cap on and get out those stamps, stencils, inks and masks!

I cannot tell a lie: one layer cards are definitely NOT part of my crafty comfort zone. Luckily, I've been watching Wendy Vecchi's Tip Tuesday Reels for the last couple of years, and I have learned A LOT from her. So when this challenge was announced, I immediately got out my favorite WV Studio 490 stamps and stencils, plus my WV Archival Inks from Ranger. I was pretty proud that I knew to stamp and mask the flower cluster from Delightful Art FIRST; (incorrect image order has tripped me up in the past!) then stencil a selected area of the Rectangle Grate pattern in Night Sky; then stamp the Botanical Register text in Watering Can; and finally add the small hearts and sentiment from Merci and More. Finally, I colored the florals using Cactus Flower and Leaf Green Archivals with the coordinating stencil, adding in a bit of shading with colored pencils at the very end.

I hope you'll visit SOS to see the gorgeous cards the rest of the Crew have made to inspire you. Then give the One Layer Card a go. SOS542: One is the Loneliest Number runs until Monday evening, March 10th.

*Thank you Three Dog Night for the perfect nostalgic song cue; though I also like the Aimee Mann version.

MM08

Diamonds are a Mandala's best friend! This is my first attempt at a Diamond Window Mandala and it's maybe a 47% match to the idea that was in my head. So you'll probably be seeing something similar before too long. (I'll let you decide if that's a promise or a warning, lol!) :)

Peek-a-Boo Diamond Window Mandala

in my large Dina Wakley Journal from Ranger.

Drawn with Distress Watercolor Pencils 

and outlined with Letter It Fineliners

I'd Like to Be... Under the Sea

It's an Octopus' Garden collage card to celebrate a sunny 49F Sunday in central New Jersey. Hope you're having fun today!

Midnight Clear (Week 2)

It's the second week of making cards with transparent elements at Jingle Belles and this time I have a two-fer of shaker cards. See?

Technically these are ordinary cards with shaker tags on them, but you get the idea. I love Sunny Studio's Build a Tag #2 Die Set and that's what I used to make the tags and reinforcers. Then I punched square windows into each tag, backed them with scraps of clear acetate, and made a little winter scene with Eyelet Outlet Glitter Tree Tape, Sparkle White Glitter Tape hills and Snowflake Sequins. I finished off with Snowflake Brads and Penguins or Snowy Trees; then added tag-shaped mats and panels adorned with Glitter Tall Tree Tape, sticker sentiments and a few more sequins. 

Visit the reminder post at Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's second card; then scroll down to the original Midnight Clear post to link up your own CLEARLY awesome creation(s)!

It Was TENSE

Eyelet Outlet Liquor Brads are always up for a celebration, even if it is in the form of a diabolical pun! Here they're paired with Cocktail Brads as well as Beer Brads and Grape Brads on an all-occasion card that's full of good spirits!

Shopping List:

Liquor Brads

Cocktail Brads

Beer Brads

Grape Brads

Visit the Eyelet Outlet Store and our Idea Gallery to drink in all of the cardmaking inspiration!

Liquid Pearls Winter Bluebird Card

Did you know that dry Liquid Pearls will act as a resist for diluted colors? It's a similar technique to using a heat embossed design as a resist for watercolor, and is currently one of my very favorite things to do with my growing collection of shimmery colors. Head over to the Ranger Project Tutorials Page to see, step-by-step, how I created this shimmery winter bluebird card, featuring Dina Wakley's adorable Scribbly Birdie Stamps and Simon Hurley's beautiful Stained Glass Stencil.

MM07: Paint Pens on Kraft Cardstock

It's a wild and whimsical Mandala Monday featuring pink, white and pale orange Posca Pens as well as my trusty Letter it Fineliners in my 6x6 Dina Wakley MEdia Kraft Journal.*

*This particular item is out of print, but if you're looking for a journal that's cool and super sturdy, anything from the Dina Wakley MEdia range will not disappoint!!!

JB2504: It Came Upon a Midnight CLEAR

This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're asking you to make a holiday card that contains at least one see-through element. It can be a glass embellishment, an acrylic transparency, some vellum, acetate or "ghost" shapes, clear stickers, lucite buttons, shrink plastic... whatever you like. If you can see through it (AND figure out how to attach it to your card!) put it on there and link it up!

Here's how I was CLEAR-ly inspired this week:

I still have a fun little stash of the late great Hambly Screen Prints transparencies, which are so thick and sturdy you actually can make a card base out of them and build your entire design on top. Fair warning: however well a transparency card comes out IRL, it will be VERY hard to photograph (as you can see) but other than that, I'm pleased with this one. I used nearly an entire sheet of Hero Arts' Holiday Messages Rub-on Transfers and three out of four ancient dimensional snowman stickers from the big box store. I added a diecut panel inside the card (see below) for writing on, but realized belatedly that the front is so transparent, I might add another panel to the back of the card and add my personal greeting that way. 

Head on over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and start planning what you'll link up with us this time. JB2504: It Came Upon a Midnight CLEAR runs until 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, February 26th.

Hoppy Valentine's Day

Don't FROG-et to wish your besties a very HOPPY Valentine's Day! The Eyelet Outlet Frog Brad Set has frogs, cattails and two colors of water lilies; pair them with Cloud Tape and Grass Washi and it's easy to make a scene... in a good way, lol! 

TOAD-ally Awesome Shopping List:

Frog Brad Set

Cloud Tape

Grass Washi 

Visit the Eyelet Outlet Online Store to check out all of the birds, bees, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish today!

SOS541: Thrice as Nice

You may already have guessed that this fortnight's challenge at Shopping Our Stash involves THREE of... something. In fact we'd like to see you use three (or more) patterned papers on your card. Not to brag but I've used twelve!

In the interests of full disclosure, I just got this adorable Simon Hurley Road Trip stamp set from Ranger and I was dyyyyyying to "test drive" it, but not only did I use a dozen different ancient patterns to piece it, they were all SCRAPS, so I feel like I did come down on the correct side of stash usage for this one.

Just FYI, the first company to make an all-wheel-drive car that's plaid will get my money. Meanwhile, there are lots of other beautiful and inspirational cards for you to see at SOS, before you start planning what you'll link up with us this time. The "Thrice as Nice" challenge will run until the evening of Monday, February 24th.

MM06: Rub-on Transfers

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon the organizer containing what I thought were a few leftover packs of rub-on transfers (in fact A LOT of leftover rub-on transfers) and became utterly re-obsessed. Thus this is my first ever Rub-On Transfer Mandala Monday. (Probably not the last one lol!)

Happy Superb Owl Sunday!

I'm the least sporty person in the world, but my Suburban Philadelphia upbringing demands I add, "Go, Eagles!" to this. (I might watch the Puppy Bowl...) :) :) :)

 

Holiday Shape Up!

It's the second week of "Shaping Up for the Holidays" at Jingle Belles and you're still invited to join the fun. Here's what I made this week:

I found a cute clipart hat online, printed a couple of copies on plain white cardstock so I could cut it into a pattern; then paper-pieced the hat, brim and bobble using two sizes of Lawn Fawn's Knit Picky papers. I had been planning to adorn the brims with brads, but stumbled upon these fun Doodlebug enamel leaves and berries and just like that, my choice was made!

All the details (and the Linky tool) for joining our Jingle Belles Shape Up fun are on the original post, which is HERE. This challenge wraps up on Wednesday evening, February 12th.

Award for EGG-cellence!

An adorable Eyelet Outlet Chicken Brad is the star of this EGG-stra special (and EGG-stra silly) card. Set atop a pile of Egg Brads (they're on sale!) she is justifiably proud of her achievement. Super-cute Chicken Washi Tape makes the perfect background for this MATHEMACHICKEN to strut her stuff!

Poultry in Motion Shopping List:

 Chicken Brads 

Egg Brads

Chicken Washi Tape 

Visit the Eyelet Outlet Online Store for more animals, birds, bugs and everything else you need to bring your next card idea to life!

Painting with Perfect Pearls

It's a Perfect Pearls Mandala Monday with extra shimmer and shine in my large Dina Wakley Journal from Ranger, which has the thickest and sturdiest cotton rag watercolor paper I've ever used; it's seriously dreamy and will stand up to any amount of paint, water, ink, sprays, gesso... pretty much ANYTHING you can think of.

Did you know you can watercolor with Perfect Pearls Pigment Powders? It's super easy, you don't even need to use Perfect Medium OR set the colors afterwards! Just add a bit of the powder to some clean water in a palette, mix it up well... et voila! You've just made your own pearlescent watercolor. Combine shades together and make custom colors, or use them as they come. For soft subtle tomes, mix just a little powder in; for bolder hues, add more pigment.

This mandala was painted using the newest additions to my Perfect Pearls collection: Iris, Turquoise, Sunflower Sparkle, Blush and Perfect Bronze. Outlines added with Letter It Fineliners.

Here Fishy Fishy

Now that January is o-FISH-ally FIN-ished and dusk is taking place after 5pm (yay!!!) in the northeast, let's celebrate with a couple of collage cards featuring the amazing mixed media digital art of my friend Gina, who has a variety of very cool products available in her Redbubble. Zazzle and Teepublic stores, all of which can be accessed via the bolded text above OR from the linktree in her IG profile @ginaisarty ♥ My "favorite" design is usually whatever she's just done, but I confess that her whimsical animals and her fish are always at the top of my list. Shout-outs to my Aunt Judie, who often does a stack of fussy-cutting when she visits; and to my friend Heather @hchampag who recently came over for a Collage Playdate which also encompassed an outstanding home-baked chocolate cake and a feast of takeaway Chinese. Hard to beat an occasion which combines friends, food and creativity all in the same place, am I right?! ♥♥♥

JB2503: Shape Up for the Holidays

Since January is the time for healthy resolutions at Jingle Belles we figured it was a good time to start Shaping Up for the Holidays, which means we're making shaped cards … anything other than a square or rectangle will do.

Here's my card:

I confess to not being the most adventurous shaped-card-maker, I tend to do the same shapes-- for which I've made handcut templates-- over and over. This bauble is a fave, as you can see, lol. But then, the combination of a classic ornament shape with well-hoarded Basic Grey holiday papers is too good to resist, imo! This time I added a Scrapaholics laser-cut wooded pine cone sprig tinted with Distress Oxides, a few ancient Imaginisce velvet flowers and a tassel. job done!

Here's my number one tip for choosing where to place and trace when using a template: cut one copy of your shape out of plain paper, leaving a nice border around all the sides. Now you have a window to see exactly what you'll get. Trace the negative space, cut it out and VOILA!

Be sure to head over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card, then start planning what you'll link up with us this time. JB2503: Shape Up for the Holidays runs until 6pm EST on Wednesday, February 12th.

Thank You Jumpstart Kit: Vine and Dandy

Thank You Jumpstart is Paper Anthology Design's newest variation on our popular Jumpstart Card Kit series, which helps build your card stash by providing all the ingredients you need (except blendable inks and adhesive) to make FIVE copies of a single design. Vine and Dandy features Hero Arts' beautiful Victorian Greenhouse, already diecut for you from textured white cardstock, ready to be layered over blended ink panels you create using one of the five Distress Oxide ink-blend recipes (with photos) included. OR go your own way and create a blend with your own favorite colors. Then layer on the eponymous diecut vines, a canvas blossom and two-layer sentiment, before adding the whole thing to a white topfold A2 cardbase. 

This kit contains:

Five pre-diecut Victorian Greenhouse panels
Five smooth, extra-sturdy white cardstock panels for blending
Five Distress Oxide color-blend recipes (with photos)
Five dark green diecut vines
Five light green diecut vines
Five diecut canvas-paper hibiscus flowers
Five diecut patterned paper sentiments
Five diecut sentiment "shadows"
Complete step-by-step instruction sheet with large color photo
Extra page of tips and techniques for choosing and blending inks
Five white top-fold A2 cards

Visit the Paper Anthology Design Etsy Shop to get your Thank You Jumpstart: Vine and Dandy Card Kit today! While you're there, check out our other Jumpstart kits for Birthday, Holiday and Hanukkah; as well as three-card Class in a Kit options for various occasions.

Advice from Our Winter Friends

Polar Bears and Penguins have much to teach us and Eyelet Outlet Polar Bear and Penguin Brads help them do it in style! Snowflake Brads set the scene, as do Sparkle White Glitter and Glitter Dark Blue Tapes; accent strips of gorgeous Snowflake Tape from the Christmas Washi Bundle complete the design.

Shopping List:

Polar Bear Brads

Penguin Brads 

Snowflake Brads

Sparkle White Glitter Tape 

Glitter Dark Blue Tape

Snowflake Tape from the Christmas Washi Bundle

Visit the Eyelet Outlet Store to find more adorable critters and lovely tapes!

SOS540: Crafty Remnants

It's an extra-fun challenge this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash, as we'd like to see you take something that is already out on your desk or workable, and use it on your card. I am nearly always spoiled for choice on these occasions, and this time was no exception. There was actually a bit of a pile on my worktable, but these are the remnants I decided to use:

There's a purple ombre Oxide Ink blended panel leftover from a kit I am working on; my last really big scrap of glossy black cardstock; a Tim Holtz floral diecut that I cut out of its background; a Simon Hurley Funky Chevron panel festuned with Perfect Pearls; plus a tag and panel featuring only partially successful versions of watercolor stenciling. NOT on the worktable, but possibly my favorite part and crucial for making everything work together: a truckload of ancient black and white rub-on transfers that I am now entirely re-obsessed with!

Visit SOS to see what the rest of the crew have made and then have a good look at your own crafty remnants so you can join the fun. This challenge runs until the evening of Monday, February 10th.

MM04: Pandala Punday

It's a PAN-tastic Panda Mandala Monday,

with warmest wishes for a Happy Lunar New Year!

Candy, Candy, Candy!

At Jingle Belles, Stephanie and I are still taking our inspiration for our holiday cards this week from the fun Candy Christmas inspiration from Turtlecreek Lane:

Here's what I made this week:

I remain fixated on the tree and the candy, lol. This week I approached it in a more abstract way, with a subtle peppermint(ish) background and LOTS of bauble(ish) shapes. I used the soft blue wall coloring to make my chunky sentiment stand out, giving them a white drop-shadow for more emphasis.

Remember, you have until 6pm EST on Wednesday, January 29th to link-up your photo-inspiration card.

Perfect Pearls GAL-entine's Day Card

I love the GAL-entine's Day and GAL-oween trends; they're the perfect excuse to celebrate our closest friends! I also love Ranger's Perfect Pearls, because they are indeed the PERFECT way to add color and shimmer to light or dark cardstock. I'm on the Ranger Project Tutorials Page today with the step-by-step process for using them both wet (like watercolors) or dry (by stamping or stenciling over Perfect Medium) to make a GAL-entine's card that really shines.

Valentine's Day Down on the Farm

Love is in the air at Eyelet Outlet as our udderly adorable farm animal brads are having a field day pairing up to celebrate their favorite holiday. This pun-tastic set of mini greeting cards features the moo-velous cows from our Cow and Goat Brads, the Pig and Sheep set, Horse and Pony Brads, as well as four washi styles: Farm Tape, Red Dot Washi, Wood Tape and Brick Washi. 

Barn to be Wild Shopping List:

Cow and Goat Brads

Pig and Sheep Brads

Horse and Pony Brads

Farm Tape

Red Dot Washi

Wood Tape

Brick Washi

Check out all of farm-tastic brads and tapes at Eylelet Outlet, so you too can be outstanding in your field! :)

All That Glitters...

...doesn't necessarily show up well in a photograph. Case in point: this card, made for our Glitter Me Happy challenge at Shopping Our Stash, has three different shades of Stickles Glitter Glue on the watercolored flowers and foliage, plus a mat of salmon pink glitter paper. Can you tell that from the pic? Nope! It's still a pretty card, though, and a nice reminder that you still have a week to participate in the current challenge.

This card is a triumph of stash-usage in that nearly everything on it is not only elderly, it was mostly leftover bits that were ready to roll. I used Distress Oxide Inks to make an ink-blended sunset; placed the (leftover, white glossy) Honey Bee Palm Frond panel on top and matted on the salmon glitter cardstock. I added Stickles to the pre-diecut Lawn Fawn Happy Hibiscus and Tropical Leaf (in Sunburst, Wine Cellar and Garden State) and cut stamens from a scrap of bright yellow glitter paper which... you guessed it... doesn't show up either! The sentiment is from an older set of Paper Rose Studio Sentiment Sheets and the small scattering of bright pink sequins are from Eyelet Outlet.

SOS539: Glitter Me Happy runs until the evening of Monday, January 27, 2025, so join us today!

MM03: Deconstructed

It's a Wavy Gravy Macro Mandala Monday in which we focus on the detail of the patterns rather than an overall design.

Tombow Dual Brush Pens, White Posca and Letter It Fineliners in my Dina Wakley 6x6 Kraft Journal from Ranger. 

JB2502: Candy Christmas

It's a fabulous photo inspiration this fortnight at Jingle Belles, so we're asking you to create a holiday card (or cards!) inspired by this fun Candy Cane Christmas image from Turtlecreek Lane. You can use as many or as few aspects of the photo as you'd like: maybe you love the the white tree smothered in ornaments; or the red and blue stockings could be your fave; perhaps you'd just like to create a mantel with stockings and decor; or you might adore that handsome Nutcracker. Anything and everything in the pic is fair game, just make sure you let us know what part(s) of the photo inspired you.

Here's my card and then I'll tell you my inspo:

I was immediately drawn to the photo's gorgeous white tree, smothered in candy-themed, candy-colored ornaments, so luckily I remembered that I still had stickers left from Doodlebug's Candy Cane Lane collection of a few years ago. I employed one of my oldest dies (Sizzix's Christmas Tree #2) to cut a tree shape from white cardstock, then spent an enjoyable half hour adding pastel candy canes, gum drops and hearts, plus some tiny pearls, before adding lots of colorful presents under the tree. I made my background a soft blue similar to the wall in the inspo photo and added another mat of red and blue as a little salute to those bold stockings.

Visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and link up your own photo inspiration greeting. JB2502: Candy Christmas will run until 6pm (Eastern) on January 29th.

My Gnomie Valentine

Eyelet Outlet Gnome Brads and Girl Gnome Brads are celebrating Valentine's Day in their Sunny Studio Home Sweet Gnome. EO's extra-wide Sky Washi and Grass Tape are perfect for making a little scene that also features Heart Brad, a Mini Ladybug, Mini Leaves, a Sunflower Brad and a Mini Bee.

Love is in the air, so the Eyelet Outlet Store has all the brads, tape, bling and sequins you need for Valentine's Day and the rest of the year, as well; and adorable Sunny Studio Stamps are the perfect size and scale to use with your brads! 

SOS539: Glitter Me Happy

All that glitters... is welcome on a card for our new challenge at Shopping Our Stash! You can use loose glitter, Stickles or Stickles Glitter Gels, glitter glue, wink of Stella pens, shimmer pens, glitter paper... the choice is yours! I've used two of the above, can you guess which ones?

I made a background using one of my all-time favorite combinations: Stickles Glitter Gel in Galaxy with Simon Hurley's Grand Greenery Stencil on deep (DEEP) Matte Black Alcohol Ink Cardstock from Ranger. You can see how very very sparkly it is, even in the photo, which has probably only captured about 60% of its glitteriness. Those thin chipboard butterfly stickers are from the big box store and super-duper stashy: the last two in the pack and I bet they are ten years old? I used a sheet of DCWV black glitter paper as a lower layer; I originally had just a black cardbase, but I realized pretty quickly that since the butterflies had a thin outline of white I had better add a bit more white; which I did in the form of the cardbase and the layer directly under the design panel. The cardstock sentiment strip is from an older pack by Paper Rose Studio, and was the perfect finishing touch to my 5x6" card. 

Check out the SOS Crew's fabulously sparkly inspiration, then start planning what you'll link up with us this time. SOS539: Glitter Me Happy runs until the evening of Monday, January 27th.

MM02: Snow Far, Snow Good

It's the second Mandala Monday of 2025 so here's not one, but TWO, snowy watercolor mandalas to start off a week that I hope will be equally bright and colorful but not feature any actual snow...

...Unless you're longing for actual snow, and then, I hope you will see some this week; unless you live in Central New Jersey where I will be voting for its absence.