JB2613: 'Twas the Sketch Before Christmas

One of my favorite prompts each Jingle Belles year is the Sketch Challenge because the sketch is always devised by Stephanie and it's always awesome. And guess what? This one is no exception! See?

You can stretch, smoosh, flip or rotate the sketch; just make sure we can see "the bones"! Here's what I made:

I started by embossing Hero Arts' Christmas Rose in white on kraft cardstock; then colored the blooms with Prismacolor Pencils. I trimmed the panel to slightly smaller than journal card size, and matted on a scrap of shimmery hot pink cardstock. The background of the sketch is composed of three coordinating papers: the top and border are actually giftwrap I had saved and backed with thin cardstock; the pink stripey paper is ancient Kaisercraft. I did some machine stitching, punched a circular sentiment from another journal card, added some Eyelet Outlet White Matte Enamel Dots and called it a day. I've been very nearly 100% literal in my interpretation of the sketch, though I did have to move the sentiment circle as it was covering up too much of my fancy coloring!

JB2613: 'Twas the Sketch Before Christmas runs until the evening of Wednesday, July 1st. Link your cards at Jingle Belles.

CELEBRATE!

Is it possible to add too many Eyelet Outlet Brads to one 6" square birthday card? Nope. Colorful squares and alphabet diecuts or stickers make a fun base that lets you customize a greeting with brads representing all the things your friends and family members love! See the handy shopping list below for the names (and links to) every one of the brads on this card.

Handy Shopping List:

Unicorn and Rainbow Brads

Mini Bee Brads

Hippo Brads

Heart Brads

Candle Brads

Emotion Brads

Party Hat Brads

Puppy Brads

Cupcake Swirl Brads

Mini Ladybug Brads

Gnome 2 Brads

Pinata Brads

Tropical Bird Brads

Believe it or not, the Eyelet Outlet Store has many, MANY more styles than are listed and shown here. You should probably go check it out!

SOS576: Summertime...

...and the living is: rather muggy, actually; at least it is here in central New Jersey at the moment. But not all of summer will be 90f and humid (...hopefullly...) so this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash we're celebrating SUMMERTIME in card form. And therefore, we'd love for you to make something that captures something you'd see or experience in that season.

My card started out beachy... (growing up in the Philadelphia suburbs, we spent many summer vacations in Wildwood, NJ; decades before "Jersey Shore" was a tv show, lol) ...so that vibe is something I think of immediately when considering Summertime. Thus I've got squares of beachy and oceany paper, plus sand dollars from Eyelet Outlet's Sea Shore Brad set. As I worked, the vibe strayed into Hawaiian territory, with yellow hibiscus flowers and tropical foliage, thanks to Lawn Fawn's Tropical Leaves and Happy Hibiscus die sets. Once that occurred, I decided "aloha" was the correct sentiment, so I diecut it from tropical paper using Altenew's Bold Alphas. 

SOS576: Summertime runs until the evening of Monday, June 29th. Visit Shopping Our Stash to see our Crew's inspiring takes on this challenge and start planning what you'll link up with us!

Index Card Round-Up

Another week of Index Card a Day (ICAD) has flown past and here are my cards, in reverse order:

Day 15: Triple Threat Mandala Monday (Off-Prompt)

This is the slowest "fast cheat" ever, lol. Lemme essplain; no there's too much... lemme sum up*: This mandala has three layers, each made on different index cards, from previous years. They were abandoned midway through due to some aspect to them I didn't love at the time. Sometimes I throw away such experiments; but sometimes I save them, because I like the basic idea and want to revisit it. In this case I like the round center "flower" with the stripey petals, but didn't like the next round of the original mandala. On the blue card, I loved the ruffles but not the original center, and I hadn't given it any background. On the bottom layer I liked the way my stencil-printed flowers kind of peter out, I like the colors... honestly I'm not sure why this didn't get posted when I made it, but whatever. So I cut away everything I didn't like and layered the rest together et voila! A two year + ten minute mandala!!!

*(Because who can resist a completely gratuitous/ random Inigo Montoya reference?! Not me.)

Day 14: Serene (One-Staple Collage)

Here's a collage that I intentionally built around the color blue. I mention "intentionally" because, as it turns out, a lot of my collages are subconsciously inspired by a color, but I'm not necessarily aware of that while working. This time I decided that blue was a #SERENE color and proceeded accordingly. All of the elements except the lotus-y flower were already cut or torn and laying on my work table or in my collage fodder box. This was going to be a regular collage and not a one-staple collage* because I honestly didn't think I could attach everything securely with a single staple but... as it turns out... I could! So here's my second OSC for 2026-- so far!

Day 13: Lucky

I had an entirely different idea in mind for the #LUCKY prompt, but when I stumbled upon this Cormac McCarthy quote, a day after randomly cutting out funky dice from an old, falling-apart book, it seemed pretty serendipitous. I genuinely believe that there are times when NOT getting what you want is the best thing that could possibly happen to you.

Day 12: Orchestra

Somewhere in the world, I'm sure there are folks who don't love the art of Richard Scarry and didn't have a childhood in which they adored books with worms driving apple-shaped cars and rabbits conducting piccolo-playing mice. But since I am definitely not that person, here is my unapologetically nostalgic card for the Day 12 #dyicad29026 (optional) prompt of ORCHESTRA. 

Day 11: Coneflower

The last few years of ICAD I've been very much into handcutting and paper-piecing... and apparently that trend continues. I think I may have given my coneflowers a few too many petals, and possibly only the colors and foliage are keeping them from looking like very fancy shuttlecocks... but... this was fun to make!

Day 10: Birch or Gingko

I just unearthed this cute little mermaid scale stamp and realized that it's pretty close to the shape of a gingko leaf; so I stamped the unlined back of a white index card with lots of beautiful green shades of  Simon Hurley Stellar Ink, drew a gingko-ish shape inside each, and decided to LEAF it at that!  (K sorry, but I can literally never resist a diabolical pun.)

Day 9: Charm

Reading the word, "charm" my first thought was of those little milagros that you find in California and Mexico, often studding a Sacred Heart, as tokens of prayers for healing or gratitude. So I decided to paper-piece my own colorful little version. I used silver metal brads instead of actual charms, for ease of attachment; and also to reduce weight. Additionally, I built the whole thing on an index card divider for extra strength.

♥♥♥

What exactly IS the Index Card a Day Creative Challenge? I'm so glad you asked! It's 61 consecutive days of making art on index cards. This is the 16th annual event, devised and hosted by the divine Tammy G aka @gypsy999 and a time of great inspiration and creativity for all, from June 1 to July 31. But honestly, there's NO bad time to ICAD, so if you're just seeing this now and think it sounds fun: JUMP IN, everyone is welcome! Check out @indexcardaday on Instagram for more info. 

Flatlands (Week 2)

Just a reminder that for this fortnight's Flat Feliz Navidad prompt at Jingle Belles, we're asking that you make a one layer (some call it "no layer") card; which means that everything should be directly on the card base, with no additional layers on top of that. If you're not sure, you can't go wrong by NOT taping or gluing anything on. We're looking for completely flat cards this time! Which is quite challenging for some of us, but a great skill to practice periodically.

This week, I got out my Simon Hurley Bold Holiday Blooms background stamp. It’s one of the great Ranger "Peel Apart" stamps that you can use either as a whole 6x6 background; or remove some of the flowers out and stamp them on their own; which is what I’ve done this time. I stamped the big poinsettias in Simon’s Prom Queen Stellar Ink; and stamped the smaller ones in Rosy Cheeks. I’ve got a small branch from Penny Black’s Nature’s Garlands set; and a sentiment from Taylored Expressions’ Flip the Snowflake set. When I finished stamping, I added some big and small dots with my Zig Dot Markers, et voila! Job done.

This challenge runs until next Wednesday evening, June 17th. Link up your fabulous flat cards at Jingle Belles!

EGG-cellent Dad

Eyelet Outlet Bacon, Egg and Toast Brads are NOT just for breakfast anymore! Add them to a funny, punny Father's Day card, or any other EGG-cellent occasion!

EGG-cellent Shopping List

Bacon, Egg and Toast Brads

Heart Enamels

Visit the Eyelet Outlet Store to see the amazing selection of brads, bling, tapes and enamels; and be sure to check out the very inspiring Idea Gallery too!

First ICAD Round Up of 2026

The first full week of the Index Card a Day Creative Challenge is complete and here are my cards from the past seven days. For all the info about ICAD, visit the ICAD Base at Daisy Yellow Art or @indexcardaday on Instagram where you can find prompts, ideas, inspiration and more!

Day 8: Off-Prompt: Mandala Monday

This week I got some of the new Simon Hurley Stellar Ink shades from @ranger_ink so obviously, I had to test drive those babies, and Mandala Monday is always a good opportunity for that. On this card, I "smooshed" the new colors, one at a time, onto my craft sheet and used a waterbrush full of Isopropyl Alcohol to pick them up and paint the basic shapes onto my index card. 

WHY would I use rubbing alcohol instead of water to "watercolor"? Well, for reasons I'm not sciencey enough to understand, alcohol will not warp or pill cardstock or paper in the same way that water does. (For the record, this is one of the many, MANY cool things I've learned from @wendyvecchi who is brilliant as well as inspiring!) This is a valuable technique for any ink that is alcohol- or oil-based like Ranger Archivals (because water just doesn't work at all with those inks); but as it turns out, you can use it with any type of ink, including Simon's gorgeous water-based Stellars.

Once all the colorful shapes were in place I used a Letter It Fineliner and some Posca Paint Pens to add details and echo the various ink colors, which are: Buzzkill, Fruitcake, Ultraviolet, Siren Song, Cry Baby and Iced Out. And who can resist a little splatter on top?

Day 7: Seahorse

This is one of the fastest (& funnest if you'll pardon my syntax) ICADs I've ever made: I started out with the intention of drawing a stylized seahorse with brush markers... got obsessed with the colors and curly-up tails... et voila! As an absolute CHAMPION of overthinking, this feels like a huge win. Bonus celebration: if there's a "Rapunzel" prompt later this summer I can re-use it, lol! :) :) :)

Day 6: Scarlet

Is this an actual collage or just a wanna-be infographic? I don't actually know and I'm not sure it matters; because either way it does firmly encompass today's (optional) #dyicad2026 prompt of #scarlet. And I've given myself the bonus joy of staging the photo with a bunch of other gorgeous red things that didn't fit onto my gridded indexcard!

Day 5: Off-Prompt

Every year, I spend a proportion of ICAD either trying to disguise the ordinary index cards' lines or using the backs or divider cards to avoid them entirely; but once in a while, I embrace the lines and let them work for me!

Day 4: Yearbook

Weirdly enough, this yearbook photo of my Dad turned up in a box of paperwork my mom recently asked me to sort through. I say weirdly enough, because the box held mostly ancient financial and legal documents, the majority of which I shredded; but there were a few tiny treasures, including my grandfather's passport, some newspaper clippings, and this photo. So when I saw the word, "Yearbook" on the prompt list, I knew immediately what the centerpiece of my card would be. I've added part of an old map from the area where I grew up; the illustration of a slide rule (my father was an electrical engineer); a library checkout card with the name William and a bee (he went by Bill); plus a bit of foliage which honestly has no narrative significance, I just wanted some color and the map had lots of green.

Day 3: Magnolia

The One-Staple Collage (OSC) is a beloved (well by me, anyway) ICAD tradition, stretching back... gosh... maybe ten years? I'm honestly not sure when it happened, but at some point in the mists of ICAD history, Tammy G typed the words "stapled collage" and I saw them and somehow instantly determined that this would mean a collage held together by ONE STAPLE. Which, as it turns out, is harder than it sounds, lol! But... also a very interesting (again, to me) exercise in both selecting interesting elements; and then arranging them so you can see them distinctly, but still attach them at a single point. 

 In this case, the staple is right on top of the butterfly's body, and yes, it's hard to see, for which I apologize. There are only five elements. They are, from furthest back: A library catalog card; an illustration of Saturn; a Georgian building from an old architecture book; a pair of magnolia blossoms between which I deliberately left a "bridge" of paper for sturdiness; and finally the butterfly... angled so his body (and thus the staple) is positioned to be able to secure everything underneath. 

Whether or not you're a fan of traditional collage, I invite you to give this fun and challenging technique a try at some point during ICAD!

Day 2: Type

I couldn't wait to get out this ancient set of wood-mounted typewriter font alphabet stamps, I just wasn't quite sure what I would stamp, lol. One of the first things I stumbled upon (via Mr. Google) was this apt quote from Gustav Klimt. A bit of serendipity there, as I had just finished a novel in which said Austrian Symbolist painter and Vienna Secessionist was a character. So... job done!

If you're interested, the strange and wonderful book in question is Anima Rising by Christopher Moore. In addition to Klimt, the real-life figures of Egon Schiele, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung appear; as well as the fictional characters of Victor Frankenstein, his Monster and the Bride... (Klimt names her Judith) ...who is the protagonist of the book. If you've read anything by Moore, you'll know that he loves to combine well known historical figures and events with plots and characters from classic literature, drama and mythology. I enjoyed this title very much, though my top three Moore books are still: Serpent of Venice (mash up of Merchant of Venice and Othello; narrated by the Fool from King Lear... obvs...); Sacre Bleu (Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and pals, in Monmartre, late 19th century, just after the suicide --or possibly murder-- of Van Gogh); and A Dirty Job (average single dad in 20th century San Francisco somewhat unwillingly takes on a side-hustle as... wait for it... a Grim Reaper??!) BTW, all of Moore's stories are outstanding as audiobooks, which is the format I recommend for maximum enjoyment.

(NOTE: This author is definitely NOT to everyone's taste; apart from unusual plots with many literary and cultural allusions, there's generally quite a bit of hardcore cursing, as well as some sex and violence; if rated like films, Moore's books would get strong PG13 or mild R ratings.) 

Day 1: Mandala Monday (off-prompt)

Technically, this card was from last week, but as I wrote this post, it felt weird to start at Day 2, so... here it is again, lol! It's a mandala, since June first was a Monday; and it's done with Archival Ink shades and a Letter It Fineliner because those happened to be sitting out when I was ready to start. (Many of my art-making decisions are determined by what is to hand at any given time, especially ICADs which I tend to work on at 10pm; a time when "not getting up again" is, frankly, a priority.)

♥♥♥

To see my cards as the get posted each day, visit my Instagram feed, @llaurenb and while you're there, be sure to check out the official ICAD page, @indexcardaday and the official hashtag, #dyicad2026 for lots more ICAD inspo from artists all over.

JB2612: Flat Feliz Navidad

It is with a lot of excitement and (a little dread) that I announce the new prompt at Jingle Belles. For Flat Feliz Navidad we're asking that you make a one layer (some call it "no layer") card; which means that everything should be directly on the card base, with no additional layers on top of that. If you're not sure, you can't go wrong by avoiding taping or gluing anything on. We're looking for completely flat cards this time! 

As everyone who knows me even a tiny bit will realize, this is NOT my forte. I'm the queen of lumpy, bumpy, multi-layered (and then let's mat those layers!) cards. So yes, I did a lot of surfing, googling and scrolling to get ideas. And I confess that it took me more than one try. But, eventually, I broke out the uber-cute bears (& small sentiment) from Simon Hurley's create. Skating By Stamp Set and stamped everything in Ranger's Jet Black Archival. I colored the bears with Prismacolor Pencils and added a tiny bit of Cry Baby Stellar Ink to the curve of the pond's edge, then toned it down just a little with Shadow Grey Archival. I stamped just a couple of Simon's Peel Apart Stitched Snowflakes (sadly out of print) in the sky and then forced myself to call it a day before I was tempted to add... well... lumpy, bumpy, layery things lol.

JB2612: Flat Feliz Navidad runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, June 17th, and YOU are invited to link up with us... if you dare!!!

Ranger Bold Birthday

Make-It's Bold Birthday Stamp Set and Bold Shapes Stencil definitely live up to their name. In fact, the only conceivable downside to these sets, imo, is that there are almost too many ways to use them. (For the record, this is my favorite kind of "problem"!) I'd love for you to hop over to the Ranger Project Tutorials Page and follow along as I add Bold Archival Ink Color to the mix; for a birthday card that I'm pretty sure will brighten anyone's day.

Con-GRAD-ulations!

This month, in my family, we have two nieces graduating from college, and a nephew graduating from high school. Which called for a single flexible design that could be customized for three different personalities. As it turns out, I have *NO* graduation stamps or dies. (HOW is that possible?!) But... large numeral dies and colorful alphabet stickers on notebook paper make an excellent base, and I personalized each version with lots of Eyelet Outlet Brads. Since there are 42 brads from 18 different sets across the three designs, I'm going to just mention them below in the Shopping List section!

Big Bad Grad Brad Shopping List:

Graduation Hat Brads

Sunglass Brads

School Bus Brads

Computer and Headphone Brads

Heart Brads

Book Brads

Unicorn and Rainbow Brads

Ice Cream Brads

Tall Palm Tree Brads

Dinosaur Brads

Flamingo Brads

Beach Umbrella Brads

Compass Brads

Reptile Brads

Popcorn and Ticket Brads

Mini Bee Brads

Fairy Brads

Cactus Brads

All the embellishments you need to customize YOUR next card are available at Eyelet Outlet!

SOS575: KRAFT-astic

The new challenge at Shopping Our Stash is a celebration of KRAFT cardstock, woohoo! Since this is pretty self-explanatory, I'll get right to my card: 

As you can plainly see, my card base is kraft. Perhaps less obviously, the panel under the butterfly is also kraft, but since I adorned it very enthusiastically with white Vicki Boutin 49 and Market rub-on transfers and Apree floral stickers, it's slightly less prominent than I thought it would be, lol. But that was actually the start of my card and it inspired the stack of ancient diecut butterflies, as well as the addition of white doily pieces and a bit of machine stitching. The pink panel, btw, is part of the packaging from the rub-ons, I love the way it softly echoes some of the images I used on the kraft.

SOS575: KRAFT-astic runs until the evening of Monday, June 15th. Head on over to Shopping Our Stash to see the Crew cards and link up your own KRAFT-astic masterpiece.

Happy ICAD Day

It's June first, which means it's the first day of the 2026 Index Card a Day project: 61 consecutive days of making art on index cards. Like this:

It's Monday, so of course I'm kicking off with a mandala. This one features a bunch of my favorite shades of Ranger's Archival Ink; details and lines via black Letter It Fineliners and white Posca pens.

Ombre (Again)

It's the second week of celebrating OMBRE at Jingle Bells and thus we're looking for holiday cards that feature blends or gradients of one or more colors.

This week I've taken the ultimate ombre short cut: I've diecut my tiny trees from paint chip color cards! My Perfect Pearls background has a bit of gradient to it... radiating outwards from the center; whether it's actually ombre is up for debate, but I thought it made a nice "sky" for my funky scene. I cut some snowy hills from sheet music and diecut my sentiment from another Perfect Pearls experiment that has a beautiful shade of blue so soft you admittedly can't actually see it in the photo. Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads and Sticky Back Pearl Bling adorn the sky; a skinny blue mat and some machine stitching complete the design.

JB2611: Ombre Wonderland runs until the evening of Wednesday, June 3rd. Link up your Ombre card(s) today!

ICAD: Title Card

The Index Card a Day project starts on Monday, June 1st; the start of 61 days of making art on... you guessed it... index cards! Our hostess, Tammy G, usually posts some entirely optional "warm Up" prompts, one of which is to make a title page for this year's cards. You obviously don't need to make a book to hold your cards, but that's how I like to store mine and I find it motivational to watch the book fill up as I add a card each day.

This sweet little bus has been sitting in my collage fodder box for agggggggggggges, just waiting to be used for something cool; and that "something" has finally arrived! Its origin is a falling apart children's dictionary that I got at a garage sale some years ago. 

I built my tiny collage on an index card divider with my initial on it; I think I'd like to finish the book with the "B" tabbed card!

Happy Birdy

Eyelet Outlet Bluebird and Robin Brads are the centerpiece of this bold and punny birthday card. They're perched on diecut branches adorned with Mini Leaf Brads and joined by some Mini Bee Brads, who can never resist a celebration!

Beautiful Birdie Shopping List:

Bluebird and Robin Brads

Mini Leaf Brads

Mini Bee Brads

Eyelet Outlet has all the embellishments you need, including ALL Bling selections for $1 each and all Enamel Dots, Spots and Shapes for just $1.50. Stock up today, while supplies last!

Color + Pattern

It's a bold and bright Memorial Day Mandala Monday featuring lots of gorgeous Archival Inks, a few of my favorite Make-It Stencils, and plenty of Posca Pen and Letter It Fineliner details... all in my Dina Wakley Watercolor Journal.

If you're having a cookout today... save me a burger, k? ♥

Big Big Collage

With two months of small-format, index card art on the horizon after ICAD starts on June first , there's time for one more BIG collage in my Dina Wakley MEdia Ledger Journal from Ranger. With pages just under 7.5 x 12" there's room for LOTS of vintage goodies like sheet music, part of an old map, S&H Green Stamps, glossy calendar page flowers, and phonebook paper; as well as some of my favorite Dina Wakley Collage Papers.

JB2611: Ombre Wonderland

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're asking you to walk in an Ombré Wonderland with us, by creating a card that features an Ombré blend. Ombré is literally French for "shaded"; a gradient effect where colors smoothly blend into each other, usually transitioning from light to dark or between different hues. 

When I found a white-embossed snowflake panel in my UFOs box, I immediately knew it'd make the perfect start to an ombre emboss/resist background. I blended four shades of Simon Hurley pink inks (Piggyback, Rosy Cheeks, Stupid Cupid and Prom Queen) over the embossing; added some Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads and then loaded on lots of adorable Doodlebug Design stickers. Job done!

JB2611: Ombre Wonderland runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, June 3rd. Hop over to Jingle Belles to link your Ombre Offerings!

Index Card a Day: 2026

We're coming up on June 1, which, in the Index Card a Day community, is known as ICAD Day! The first of 61 consecutive days on which we'll make art of some description on an index card. This fun and inspiring annual event was devised by Tammy Garcia in 2011; and I've been participating since 2012. You can read more about it on this year's Intro Page at Daisy Yellow Art.

Do you need a fancy little book with collaged front and back covers? NOOOOOOOO! Do you want one? Maybe. This is my 15th year participating, and I've found that it definitely helps me keep going and stay committed, knowing I have a fancy little book that I made specially. Also it's a place to keep all my cards as I finish them. Oh yeah, and it's exciting to watch the book get fatter as the challenge rolls on. Other folks use a folder, a file box, a photo album, or just a stack on the corner of their worktable. 

What do you actually *NEED* to participate in ICAD? Some index cards and a writing implement. Period. And YES, they should be actual, flimsy, junky, cheap index cards from the office supply store; because a really big part of the point is that you don't need fancy supplies, or full-fledged finished project level ideas; you just need to show up and do SOMETHING. Every day. For two months.

What kind of art can you make on an index card? You can draw, stamp, weave, doodle, stitch, color, collage, write haikus or six word stories, practice your lettering, swatch all your paints... the list might not technically be endless, but there's a lot of scope! Tammy devises daily prompts and weekly themes, which she posts on the website and the @indexcardaday feed on Instagram. The prompts and themes are 100% optional; you can do them all, or ignore them entirely. I pick and choose, focusing on the prompts that especially interest or inspire me; tending to lean more heavily into them on days when I don't have an idea in mind. The official IG hashtag is #dyicard2026 if you decide to post your art.

I generally post my cards daily on my Instagram account @llaurenb and a weekly round-up on the blog. If you'd like to see some of my ICADs from previous years, check out the ICAD strand by clicking the italic text. Hope to see you on June 1st! ♥

Unicorns Just Know These Things

Eyelet Outlet Unicorn and Rainbow Brads are perfect for pretty much ANY occasion... or for no occasion at all. And let's face it, we'd all love to get a happy, silly, colorful card in the mail just because someone was thinking of us, right?

Unique Unicorn Shopping List:

Unicorn and Rainbow Brads

1/16" Mini Round Brads- Pink Mix

All the embellishments you need for your next card... (and the one after that!) ...can be found in the Eyelet Outlet Store!

SOS574: Congratulations

Graduation and wedding season is upon us, so the new challenge at Shopping Our Stash is especially timely. We'd like to see CONGRATULTIONS cards: for any occasion, in any style, using any items from your stash. Then you can congratulate yourself on being ready for the next big occasion!

I raided my stash of older Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi stamps, including Delightful Art; as well as some of my favorite shades from Wendy's signature Archival Ink collection. I found that cool green leafy overstamped panel AND the pale blue embossed piece in my box of leftover bits; the silver dragonfly brads are from The Ink Pad (♥♥♥!) years and years ago; the two yellow mats are from my stash. 

"SOS574: Congratulations" runs until the evening of Monday, June 1st. Hop over to SOS to see the inspiring Crew cards and start planning what you'll link up with us this time.

Carousel Mandala

This page in my Dina Wakley MEdia Watercolor Journal started out as a way to test my newest set of Posca Pens and also to try out some of the newer shades of Ranger's Liquid Pearls. Serendipitously, I discovered that if the mandala you started with literally NO plan in mind happens to have a lot of bright colors AND stacked sets of straight-ish, flaring petals, midway through, it is going to start looking like the top of an old-fashioned fair ground carousel. Who knew?!

\

Flowery Bags Are My Bag, Baby!

I have always loved elaborate giftwrapping, stencils and inks... so here's a post that combines all of the above:

I used an ancient hollyhocks stencil on an 8 x10"(ish) white gift bag from the big box store. I applied Simon Hurley's pale pink Rosy Cheeks dye ink from Ranger to the entire flower and blended some darker pink Prom Queen into the centers. 

To make the flowers stand out more prominently, I put a soft shadow to the righthand side of each stalk with a medium grey brushmarker, then added messy outlines with a Letter It Fineliner. Sunflower Stickles centers and a scattering of Eyelet Outlet Clear Jewel Bling; because let's face it, a little bling is almost ALWAYS a good idea!

Pink ribbon, white tulle, a sparkly butterfly and a card with a coordinating envelope complete this Mother's Day gift bag design.

Snow Far, Snow Good

We're still creating cards that feature snow this week at Jingle Belles and we'd love for you to join us. In the meantime, here's what I made this week:

One of my favorite "specialty" mandalas is a Snowflake Mandala. Because to me, snowflakes are (in a kinda sorta way) basically natural mandalas; at least, they're an arrangement of crystals in a more or less concentric circular pattern; which lends itself to being doodled and played with as a format. I feel similarly about Spiderweb Mandalas, and make at least one per year, generally in pink; but that's another story. A few weeks ago, when I was at Ranger HQ drawing mandalas with Patti Behan, someone watching the Live Video asked if I had any ideas for mandalas that would work for Christmas/ Winter Holiday greetings and I mentioned both Snowflake Mandalas and also Poinsettia Mandalas, of which I've done fewer, but I also enjoy them because you can easily make them recognizable... without having to make them realistic. I stand by this belief, lol. 

So of course, when I realized we were featuring SNOW this fortnight, I knew this would be the perfect time for the first Snowflake Mandala of 2026. I made a nice inky background with some of my favorite blue Archival Ink shades, dried it thoroughly, and then drew lots of snowflakes with a Letter It Fineliner. I added details with a few blue markers and finally put additional white in there with a Posca Pen. Since the design is quite busy already, when I turned my mandala panels into cards, I only added bright blue mats, a chunky (sparkly!) sentiment and some small Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Bling.

Hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card, check out the Readers' Gallery, and get a peek at the tiny Snow-centric prize that one lucky cardmaker will score, just for linking up with us this fortnight. JB2610: Dashing Through the Snow runs until the evening of Wednesday, May 20th.

GNOME for the Holidays (New Kit!)

Holiday Jumpstart: GNOME for the Holidays is Paper Anthology's newest holiday card kit, which features an adorable gnome, a quirky diecut sentiment, and lots of circles. It's available now in the Paper Anthology Design Etsy Shop.

Paper Anthology’s Holiday Jumpstart Card Kit is our 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 “GNOME for the Holidays” because of the supercute guy (or gal… it's hard to tell with gnomes!) on the lefthand side.

We all love 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”. That issue is solved by this pre-packaged kit, which features everything you need (except adhesive) to complete five copies of this original design. Also included are complete written instructions (not pictured, but included!) and a nice big photo for reference.

This kit contains:

Five sets of gnome diecuts (base, hat, beard, tunic, nose)
Five 3" green knitty circles
Five 2" festive tree circles
Five 1.25" red dotted circles
Five small green knit printed hearts
Five sets of G-N-O-M-E diecut letters
Five printed "for the holidays" sentiments
Five panels of white textured cardstock
Five white A2 cards

Get your copy of Holiday Jumpstart: GNOME for the Holidays today, available only in the Paper Anthology Design Etsy Shop. 

SHELL-ebration!

Neutral tones with pops of teal and yellow add up to a bright and beachy card featuring Eyelet Outlet Shell Brads, Sea Shore Brads, a Beach Umbrella and Sunglass Brads. A few Sticky Back Heart Pearls, 1/8" Round Eyelets in the corners, and mats of Glitter Copper Tape complete the design.

In the background are the shells and sentiment from Ranger's Make-It Beach Vibes Stamp Set, embossed in Marigold Metallic and painted with diluted Archival Inks.

Remember that ALL Eyelet Outlet Bling varieties are on CLEARANCE at just $1 each; including Sticky Back Heart Pearls! Stock up now, because when they're gone... they're GONE!