New! Make-It Americana-Inspired Collection from Ranger

The newest collection from Ranger's Make-It line of stencils, stamps and accessories is quite literally celebrating the Red, White and Blue! There are two gorgeous stencils (Stars & Stripes and Fireworks); a perfectly patriotic stamp set called Americana; brand new Freedom Stickles (packed as a trio with old favorites Christmas Red and True Blue called Liberty); plus two brand new Archival Ink shades (Old Glory Blue and Old Glory Red) packed in a set of mini ink pads with Shadow Grey and Jet Black called American Made; and finally the ultimate set of coordinating Liquid Pearls: Old Glory which includes Firecracker, White Opal and Blue Velvet. 

For my first card, I've used a little bit of everything except the Liquid Pearls. A diecut heart filled in with the Stars stencil and some Old Glory Blue sits atop a small panel of the Stripes stencil in Old Glory Red. I stamped the hat twice: one in Old Glory Blue and Once in Old Glory Red, then cut the red part out and mounted it on top of the blue. The hat is worn by the handsome eagle who is stamped in Dark Roast Archival. The sentiment was placed directly on the stripes, and the whole thing is backed by a panel of Fireworks stenciled half in OG Blue and half in OG Red, then painted with Christmas Red and True Blue Stickles.

Lightly inked edges, colored pencil detailing, machine stitching and an A6 kraft cardbase complete the design.

All of these new Make-It products are available in the Ranger Store... you should probably check them out, ASAP!

Stick Around

More Stationery Zen goodness from Ranger: I fell in love with these Mind Wave Quilt Atelier sticker sheets, they come in several designs, but this one is called House Near the Lake and I couldn't wait to use it in a Mandala.

I traced and cut a large circle, then punched several sizes of hearts from Dina Wakley MEdia Typed Ledgers, so I could make a little sticker scene at the center... which travels outward at a few key points, to fit even more stickers! At the very end I added some circles around the the rest of this page of my Ledger Journal, using my current favorite paint color, Mineral.

JB2618: Stuck on You

Stephanie and I are celebrating STICKERS this fortnight at Jingle Belles, a crafty must-have that we both still absolutely adore; and we're guessing that, like us, you have a little stash of holiday stickers you could raid for this challenge.

Probably my most hoarded stickers are the Basic Grey alphabet sheets that came with all of their holiday collection packs back in the day. It's not that I didn't use them at the time, or in the meantime; but nevertheless I've amassed a bit of a collection... though admittedly not all of them still have any vowels left. So this week I decided to mix and match several colorways to make a fun texty background for my card. Then I added some nice big ornament stickers from BG's Figgy collection, a mat of red, and some machine stitching around the edges et voila!

JB2618: Stuck on You runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, September 9th. Head on over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card and start planning what you will make with STICKERS!

Yeti to Party?

 

Holiday Jumpstart: Yeti to Party is Paper Anthology's newest holiday card kit, which features a handsome yeti in a snowy wonderland. It's available exclusively in our Paper Anthology Design Etsy Shop.

Paper Anthology’s Holiday Jumpstart Card Kit is our pre-packaged kit that includes everything you need (except adhesive, optional white ink, and coloring tools) to complete FIVE copies of this new original holiday card design. This edition is called “Yeti to Party” because of the aforementioned yeti, who's ready to make your holiday even more festive!

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, optional white ink, and coloring tools) 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.

Please note that the yeti images are stamped in Archival Ink, making water-based markers or colored pencils the best choice for coloring!

This kit contains:

Five Cable Knit embossed panels, with rounded corners
Five 4 x 1.5" border strips with icicle punched edge
Five deep blue squares, embossed with Snow Flurries and decorative corners
Five white square mats with decorative corners
Ten pale green patterned paper diecut trees
Five Yetis stamped with Archival Jet Black Ink, ready to color
Five "Yeti to Party?" stamped sentiments (not pictured, but included!)
Five small punched snowflakes
Five medium punched snowflakes
Five large punched snowflakes
Five white A2 cards

CLICK HERE to go to the Yeti to Party page of the Paper Anthology Design Etsy Shop and check out our other Holiday Jumpstart Kits while you're there.

There's GNOME Place Like Home

Eyelet Outlet Gnome 2 Brads and Girl Gnome Brads were literally made for each other; which might be why they add exponential levels of cuteness to any project. These gnomes are showing off their beautiful mushroom home, surrounded by Sun and Cloud Brads, a White Daisy Brad, a green Leaf Brad and a Mini Bee.

Gnome Home Shopping List:

Gnome 2 Brads

Girl Gnome Brads

Sun and Cloud Brads

White Daisy Brads

Leaf Brads

Mini Bee Brads

Just a reminder that at the end of December 2026 Suzanne, Tony and the Eyelet Outlet Website will all be taking a well-deserved retirement; be sure to stock up on all your favorite brads, bling, eyelets and embellishments before they're gone!

SOS581: Super Sketchy

This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash it's one of my favorite types of challenge: we're getting SKETCHY, woohoo! And it's a beauty, too: 

Here's my card:

I've actually done a very faithful take on the sketch but it's VERY embellished so I hope you can see "the bones" lol. Nearly everything on here is from 49 and Market's Kaleidoscope and Spectrum Gardenia collections, which is unusual for me, but I just kept finding bits I liked, so I went with it. There are patterned papers, diecuts, laser cuts, ephemera and tags... all inked and stacked and combined into the pattern of the fab sketch... though my focal point is slightly to the right of center, to accommodate the gorgeous flowers on the patterned paper base.

SOS581: Let's Get Sketchy runs until the evening of Monday, September 7th; so be sure to check out the SOS Crew cards and start planning what you'll link up with us this time.

Bold and Splashy Mandala Monday

It is a fact, universally acknowledged, that a crafter in possession of new inks (in this case from the latest release of Stellar Inks from Simon Hurley and Ranger) must test them out, ASAP.  And thus I have done so, in mandala form, obviously:

I chose five of the newest shades: Roar!, Red Flag, Siren Song, Overzealous and Cold Shoulder. I used one of my favorite watercoloring methods to create the basic shapes; by smooshing each ink pad (sequentially) onto my craft sheet and using a waterbrush to pick up the ink and paint with it in my Dina Wakley MEdia Watercolor Journal. Then I flicked clear water over the design and blotted up some of the color, for a fun mottled effect. When the whole thing was dry, I added black and white outlines (with a Letter It Fineliner and a Posca Paint Pen, respectively) and at the very end I flicked some Dina Wakley White Gloss Spray onto the design.

I hope your week is off to a bold and colorful start! ♥

Circling Back

A lot of my collages are built around a particular color; but some are built around a shape... and as you can see, this is one of the latter. Dina Wakley has quite a few designs that feature circles, and the script transparencies from Pattern Play and some older Collage Paper icons that look a bit like extra large postmarks are two such, so I started with those; and then added circles of varying sizes cut from Typed Ledgers and dotty Chroma Transparencies from the Grunge Specimens pack. 

I don't always have a plan when I start a collage... (and I don't always follow the plan even when I have one, lol!) ...but in this case I had started out with the intention of combining the beautiful lady (from an older set of Transparencies that's, alas, out of print) and the multicolor butterflies from the Flutters Rub-On set, and that's exactly what I did.

I thought the collage was finished at that point, but when I came back to it later, the whole thing felt a bit "floaty" (super-precise collage term there) and so I anchored it with a few strips of Dina's Washi Tape (from an older pack; Set 2, probably) running vertically at the top of the page and horizontally at the bottom. Et Voila!  

Masculine Merriment (Week 2)

It's the second week of making "Guy Cards" at Jingle Belles, by which we mean holiday cards with a masculine vibe. Here's mine:

This card is 99% composed of gorgeous vintage-themed elements from Tim Holtz's Idea-ology Christmas Emporium Layers, a curated collection of elements that I snagged on the Ranger website. I've added in a few paper scraps, some twine, and woodgrain background. I distressed the edges of literally every single piece, which might arguably be considered "too much" but it was quite relaxing and soothing to do, so there's that. 

JB2617 Masculine Merriment runs until the evening of next Wednesday, August 26th. Link your newly made, holiday "guy cards" on the Masculine Merriment post at Jingle Belles.

Bags and More Bags

I've made a lot of fancy giftbags using my cardmaking supplies: patterned paper, washi, stickers, diectus, you name it, I've probably used it on a card and also on a bag or wrapped gift at some point. At the moment I'm a bit obsessed with stencils, and here are a few examples:

Stellar Inks, blended through a big big Donna Downey (I think) flower stencil; pen outlines around the whole thing and Stickles Glitter Gels for the center.

Stellar Inks blended ombre style, through an Anna Griffin stencil; Eyelet Outlet Swirl Bling plus miscellaneous florals and a butterfly from the big box store.

Stellar Inks plus Stickles Glitter Gels through an Anna Griffin Stencil; with small flower bling throughout the design.

Stellar Inks blended outward through a Paper Smooches Succulent stencil that I turned into a stylized flower; outlined and studded with tiny pearls.

Two-toned Stellar Inks through an unknown stencil, with ancient Prima gems placed stragegically. (This isn't my favorite bag but... I love the positioning of the patterned stencil as a diamond that stretches to all the edges of the bag; so I'm going to remember that trick, at least!)

 

Summertime

The calendar might say that summer is almost over, but there are enough summery Eyelet Outlet Brads to last all year! This card features Mini Bee Brads, Beach Umbrella Brads, Flip Flops, Ice Cream, Sunglasses, and a Flamingo.

Bold and Beachy Shopping List:

Mini Bee Brads

Beach Umbrella Brads

Flip Flop Brads

Ice Cream Brads

Sunglass Brads

Flamingo Brads

You'll find brads for every occasion, season, and milestone in the Eyelet Outlet Store. There are lots of clearance items (including some of the brads on this card!) so make sure you stock up before Suzanne, Tony and the website retire at the end of 2026.

Stickers and Pens and Washi, Oh My!

If you haven't checked out the Stationery Zen tab at Ranger Ink, you have a treat coming up. Because there are soooooo many fabulous varieties of Japanese stationery; plus pens, pencils, markers and refills; kawaii stickers, stamps and washi; planners and notebooks; totes, pen cases, tools, accessories... it's like someone took the coolest stationery store ever, and put it right into your computer or smartphone. 

Did I mention the STICKERS??! Yes, you've caught me, I'm a stickerholic, have been since I was about ten; which is like half a century of sticker love, so it'd just be silly to stop now. This trip I was pretty restrained, I only got four sets and I've opened two of them (Palettone Konpeito Candy and Poko Time Seal Animals; plus a brand new Bright pack of Zebra double-tipped Mildliners) to make a sticker mandala in my Dina Wakley Watercolor Journal:

There are new things added all the time... and, alas, some things do sell out... so you should probably take a little scroll through Stationery Zen ASAP. Oh and did I mention that since it's part of the regular Ranger Ink website, you can stock up on your favorite inks, pastes, stamps and stencils from Make-It, Tim Holtz, Dina Wakley MEdia, Simon Hurley create, Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions and 49 & Market, plus treat yourself to some Stationery Zen for just one (domestic) shipping fee if you're in the USA... just sayin'... :)

Watercolor Journals

I'm embarrassed to say I haven't touched my Bind-It-All in about a year, but this week it saw quite a bit of action! I made three watercolor journals to give as gifts.

The square ones are 6x6" and the rectangle is about the same as an A6 card. I top-bound them, thinking that gives the best access for both right- and left-handed folks; though in this case the cover designs don't really need to be positioned in any particular way.

The journals are different sizes because the cover paintings (mandalas and/or abstract watercolors of my own) were different sizes. Since I knew to whom each book was intended, I could pick artwork with colors and designs I thought each recipient would like.

Each journal is filled with nice sturdy 140lb cold press Canson watercolor paper; and has 31 pages, since there have been some really cool month-long watercolor challenges and events lately; and if the recipients want to participate they can fit a whole month's worth of artwork into their journal without needing to use the backs of pages.

I used Zutter's 1.25" white wires; with six coils for each book, so that a single punch of the BIA completed each page. The backs have coordinating artwork, and for the endpaper wraps I used some lovely oversized quilting pattern design pages.

Shout-out to my husband, Jeff, who always helps me do the binding; thus saving my wrists for something else... like maybe working in my own watercolor journal, later!

JB2617: Masculine Merriment

It's time for a brand new prompt at Jingle Belles and this time we're making holiday cards in one of the most challenging (imo!) genres: Guy Cards; aka Masculine Merriment! I don't struggle with them as much as I used to, but... yeah... leaving off the flowers, the glitter and the tendency to use PINK does slow me down a bit. I think I did ok this time, though.

I've had Doodlebug's Winter Wonderland stamps for several years, and I really don't use them enough because just LOOK how cute that yeti is! I found two inky embossed backgrounds in my "leftovers" box and they seemed perfect for this card. The paper with the trees is Pebbles I think (and ancient!); and the tiny 1/16" Round Brads are from Eyelet Outlet. 

Speaking of Yetis, I was given a second helping of this super-cute stamp set for my birthday, it's brand new and unopened, and it's looking for a good home, so I'm putting it up as a little prize for one lucky, randomly-selected cardmaker who links up with us at Jingle Belles this fortnight. JB2617: Masculine Merriment runs until the evening of Wednesday, August 26th, and you can link as many newly-made MASCULINE cards as you'd like to!

You're One in CHAMELEON!

If, like me, you can never resist a diabolical pun, the Eyelet Outlet Reptile Brads are an excellent choice. In addition to the gecko and chameleon hiding in the background foliage; the sentiment panel boasts another Chameleon, a Cactus Brad, our Sun and Cloud Brads and a Mini Butterfly.

One in Chameleon Shopping List:

Reptile Brads

Cactus Brads

Sun and Cloud Brads

Mini Butterfly Brads

Visit the Eyelet Outlet Store for lots more fun brads, bling, eyelets and more; and be sure to stock up on all your faves before the website retires at the end of the year! 

SOS580: Back to School

The new challenge at Shopping Our Stash is called Back to School and I bet you can guess what we'd like to see, right?! Well, just in case you can't guess, here's the official blurb: "Make a card that features something you would see at school: pencils, paper, alphabet, lockers, playground equipment; OR a card for a teacher or student." There are lots of choices here so let's get right to it:

I raided LOTS of seriously older stash for this one, so I'm patting myself on the back a tiny bit. I've got loads of Echo Park Stickers, a few seriously old (but beautiful) washi tapes, a bunch of Eyelet Outlet school-themed brads, and... wouldja believe... that background graph paper is Love, Elsie?!

Visit SOS to see what the rest of our very inspiring Crew have made, then start planning what you'll link up with us this time! SOS580: Back to School runs until the evening of Monday, August 24th.

Super Punchy Mandala Monday

I think I'm probably about two thirds through my Dina Wakley MEdia Ledger Journal; I've been working in it quite a bit, as it's such a nice size, shape and quality of paper. Being quite a big journal (7x12") it gives me a chance to try ideas that literally would not work in a smaller space, like this all-neutral mandala, made almost entirely from circle and heart punches! This is a fun style of mandala, literally ANYONE can do it, and it's a fab way to use up some of my (many, MANY!) patterned paper scraps!

Tic- Tac-TWO?

For the second week at Jingle Belles, we're playing Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe, which is kind of a holiday cardmaking version of  "Beach Blanket Bingo"! You still have time to join us; all you have to do is choose a row (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) and create a holiday card featuring all three elements in that row. Please note that it's fine to use more than one snowman; more than one diecut; red AND green; or a single flower, even! If this sounds like fun, then let's get going:

Here's my card this week:

I chose the right-hand vertical column, which gave me: Dry or Heat Embossing + Ribbon + Stamping. I'll admit I did that partially because I unexpectedly rediscovered my Dina Wakley Soaring embossing folder and once I saw it, I HAD TO use it immediately. My ribbon is of the gorgeous, pink, semi-sheer May Arts variety (which I think you'll agree stages really well!) And finally, my stamping is just the sentiment (from Taylored Expressions' Flip the Snowflake set) but I chalked up a second type of embossing by using Ranger's lovely Pink e/p. I diecut Hero Arts' Snowflake Corner twice (from pale pink and also silver glitter cardstock) and added a single Eyelet Outlet 1.5" Snowflake Bling to give it even more sparkle.

JB2616: Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe runs until 6pm (Eastern) next Wednesday, August 12th. Link your totally terrific Tic-Tac-Toe cards at Jingle Belles! 

Three Cheers

Make crafting time more efficient when you create a series of similar cards in a single session. Eyelet Outlet has loads of different drinks brads; this trio of "CHEERS" cards features Beer Brads, Cocktail Brads, Wine Brads and Grape Brads, as well as tiny 1/16" Round Brads and 1/8" Classic Eyelets.

Cheer-y Shopping List:

Beer Brads

Cocktail Brads

Wine Brads

Grape Brads

1/16" Round Brads

1/8" Classic Eyelets

If you're favorite drink isn't here, don't worry, there are LOTS more styles. Click the "Food, Drink and Cooking" tab so see the whole selection, which includes Wine, Sodas, Coffee, Liquor, Lemonade and more!

I'm a Christmas Kickstart Guest ELF!

My fellow Jingle Belle, Stephanie Severin and I are excited to be Guest Elves for the latest Christmas Kickstart Challenge with our friend and fellow enthusiastic holiday cardmaker, Jo. The theme this time is... Friendship, which seems especially appropriate!

I had a lot of different ideas for the theme, but when I saw this super-cute Doodlebug journal card, I knew it was The One:

I matted the journal card on glossy white, added some fun patterned paper flags, and mounted the whole thing on this fun gingerbread themed patterned paper, which is also (older) Doodlebug Design. I thought it needed one more thing, so I did a bit of machine stitching which always makes things feel "finished" to me!

We'd love for you to join in this month's Christmas Kickstart Challenge #113 A Friend is for Life and Not Just Christmas, so please hop over and see Jo's card and consider linking up one of your own! 

It's a Big, BIG, Mixed Media Mandala Monday

After two months of index cards, working in my fabulous BIG (7x12") Dina Wakley MEdia Ledger Journal is quite a leap. Luckily I had some of Dina's new colorful Chroma Transparencies (this set is called Painted Elements) and Flutters Rub-On Transfers, which I couldn't wait to break open... so I did!

I used some older Dina goodies too, including an older set of her Washi Tape, my new favorite color of Acrylic Paint (Mineral), and Gloss Sprays in Fuchsia and Marine.

I had so much fun making this! I'd write more about it, but I think I'd prefer to go back and play with more of these amazing, colorful, exuberant elements! Meanwhile, I hope your week is off to a beautiful start!

ICAD2026 Wrap-Up

Hard to believe the entire 61 days of the 2026 edition of the @IndexCardaDay Creative Challenge have already elapsed, but the calendar says August 2md, so I guess we have to believe it's true. I am so grateful to Tammy @gypsy999 for starting this inspiring shindig sixteen years ago; and I am proud to have completed the last fifteen years. But honestly, the numbers are really the least of it; the point is to co spend some time prioritizing process over outcome, experimenting, and just generally making art on a regular basis for oneself. So if you participated, whether you made 61 cards or 16 or 6... I salute you!

Many thanks to all who followed along, left comments, dropped hearts and generally acted as cheerleaders to your fellow ICADians and ICADettes. I didn't do as well at that part as I had hoped to, but I truly loved seeing all the cards that came up in my feed and interacting (however limitedly) with this fab community!

Here's my #icadeverything photo. Each year I like to make a small ring-bound mini-book, which I fill up with finished cards as the challenge progresses. I like this format because it allows me to keep my cards together and in order as I work; also, on days when my time or energy is limited, the thought of adding another card to the ring kind of keeps me going. Plus I confess I really love taking this "fan" photo of the finished book each year!

PS: I'm already looking forward to #dyicad2027 ♥♥♥

Here are the last few cards from the past not-quite-full week of ICAD2026!

Day 62: Bonus Card

I always like to finish the ICAD festivities with a big bold THANK YOU (on an index card, obvs) to Tammy @gypsy999 and all my fellow ICADians and ICADettes for making this June and July the best @indexcardaday event so far! ♥

Day 61: Off-Prompt

Could not resist making one more freestyle collage that combines ink, a little stamping, some ancient rub-on transfers and a few vintage goodies.

Day 60: Beatles' Song

Octopus' Garden is one of my favorite Beatles' songs, not just because it's one of a very few written by Ringo, although the older I get, the more I appreciate his sense of humor and whimsy. I made a "smooshed" background with Isopropyl Alcohol and some analogous shades of Stellar Ink, then added bubbles and ripples and coral and flowers. (The last is not technically correct, but if an Octopus had a garden, I think there'd be flowers in it. So there.)

Day 59: Cobblestones

There is something really soothing about filling an entire index card with a semi-realistic pattern, then adding depth and color and shadows, etc and these cobblestones were especially fun to draw!

Day 58: Off-Prompt

This card combines three different half-finished, temporarily abandoned pieces that serendipitously added up to more than the sum of their parts. The sewing pattern lady collage layer was part of a bigger piece that I didn't like much... so I tore away the "excess" and started over. The layer beneath that is a  flower(ish) illustration from a book of fabric designs that I had outlined but then got a bit stuck, and set aside. Oddly enough, the colors match the SPL's flower perfectly. The tabbed card has some Perfect Pearls doodles that (once again... almostly spookily!) match really really well. You can't see much of it, but both structurally and design-wise it makes a perfect base for the rest.