Make It Stick!

This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're celebrating what may well have been the first "embellishment" we all encountered as kids: STICKERS. Personally, I have never outgrown my love for those tiny bits of self-adhesive joy, and thus I had a huuuuuuuuuuuuuge stash from which to choose. In the end, I  went with these elegant embossed stickers which are so old I'm not 100% certain whence they came:

sheetmusic and lace from my vintage stash; lg ornament sticker: k and co (i think); small ornament: basic grey; all others: ideaology; gold thickers: american crafts; journal card: october afternoon; cardinal and pine cone brads plus evergreen washi: eyelet outlet; florals: petaloo; leaves: prima; kraft cardstock: bazzill; adhesives: xyron, elmers gluetape, 3m foam tape, beacon's 3-in1 adhesive, sewing machine

But why stop with just one? I found an elderly Basic Grey cardstock ornament sticker which coordinated nicely, as well as a few borders and flowers from an Idea-Ology holiday sticker book I got this past December at Paper Anthology. Oh and the gold Thickers are from a set of holiday sentiments of the same source!

Hop over to Jingle Belles and check out Stephanie's card, then start making plans for linking up your own sticker-centric masterpiece!

She Sells Sea Shells by the Seashore

The Ink Pad has not moved nearly as far as the seashore, in fact it's not moved far at all, merely 6 or so blocks uptown to the new digs at 233 West 19th Street; between 7th and 8th Avenues. Technically we don't sell sea shells, either, but we do have many gorgeous Pepin Sticker Books, some of which have beautiful shells, like these... so that sort of counts, right?

If you want to make a SUPER-fast card that looks pretty awesome, you cannot (in my opinion) beat stickers, and Pepin have some of the most lovely. I matted these --from the Marine Label and Sticker Book-- not-quite-two-inch seals on kraft diecuts just a smidge larger, and added one of the tape strips on top of a couple of layers of torn vintage paper. Of course, you could use patterned paper or gel prints, or vellum, or even three layers of kraft paper! I applied gluestick (Coccoina is awesome... just sayin'...) everywhere but the edges of the torn layers, so they'd curl up slightly, and at the end, added just a tiny bit of Stickles to emphasize the curls, so they looked a bit like the lines on the beach where the tide has been. 

The Ink Pad is gearing up to re-open in the fabulous new Chelsea location on 19th Street this Saturday, February 29th. We hope to see you there!

Lauren Bergold

loves the beach

and also 19th Street!

Chick or Treat

Everyone wants to meet some cute chicks, especially at Eastertime, right? So I'm happy to introduce you to our brand new, totally adorable, Eyelet Outlet Chick Brads!

I can never resist a diabolical pun, so as soon as I paired the Chicks with the Colored Eggs I knew what the sentiment had to be! I also added a plain white Egg Brad to which I gave a substantial "crack" with permanent marker, a Mini Stitched Flower Brad and a Heart Enamel. To make a fun coordinating background I neatly lined up strips of Pink and Green ZigZag Tape on some plain white cardstock, then trimmed it to size like any other patterned paper.

Of course, not everyone celebrates Easter, but that doesn't mean they have to miss out on colorful cardmaking fun. For my second card I added more Chicks and Colored Eggs to a journal card with the perfect sentiment, and to turn it into a little scene I punched some grass and affixed Sun and Cloud Brads to the top corner. A small Pink Pearl to dot the "i" finishes the whole thing off nicely.

No matter what holidays you're looking forward to this Spring, I bet Eyelet Outlet has Brads and Tape that will help make your cards EGG-stra special! :)

Another Month Rolls By...

...and it seems like each month goes a little faster than the last one! Which is why it's nice to record life in my Traveler's Notebook from The Ink Pad. I've been using the 2020 Weekly Diary for notes on everyday events and the Free Diary Monthly Insert to keep track of the things I've made. Here's how February looks so far:

An unexpected benefit of using the Free (aka Unlabeled) Diary: I love laying out the pages myself using planner stamps from Everyday Explorers Co! I added the month and tiny calendar with the Let's Be Explorers Planner Months set; and the numerals and days of the week with the Calendar Days set.

I used rainbow shades of Tsukineko's VersaFine Clair Inks for a pop of extra vivid color. Then I filled in my various completed assignments using little snippets of paper and tape, plus specific project items like PaperGame's Boy Stickers or Vellum Flowers. To keep stamps like Michelle Ward's Taxicab inside a single date, I masked with post-it notes and used Memento's Tuxedo Black ink for a super-crisp image.  

I've been keeping up with International Correspondence Writing Month (InCoWriMo) so it's fab to have a little grid from the Planner Months set and some cute little icons from EEC's Choose Your Own Adventure and Passport. There's also a fabulous new Passport New York set that I'm planning to bust out for cardmaking purposes ASAP.

The TN Regular Sized Binder is big enough to hold all three of my current inserts and still has "room to grow"! If I'm going to do a lot of precise stamping (like all the numerals for the entire month) I take them out of the binder, but most days I write, stamp and attach things right there.

Possibly the most important date in my February spread is the 29th because that is when The Ink Pad reopens in the fab new location, 233 West 19th Street (between 7th and 8th aves). Can't wait to see you there!

Lauren Bergold 

has already located excellent coffee and 

delicious falafel in the new neighborhood!

It's a Red Letter Day!

We're still making cards which predominantly feature the color *RED* at Jingle Belles and you still have plenty of time to join the fun, which we hope you will. This week I've combined both old and new products with a vintage vibe:

There are stash items in use here of nearly every age imaginable! So what's old and what's new? The beautiful Santa is an Authentique journal card, which I've framed up with part of an Idea-Ology Vignette Box Cover. Both of the above were post-holiday treats to myself from Paper Anthology. The tiny red star sequins are a brand new item coming soon to Eyelet Outlet which I'm technically not supposed to be using yet (so shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, ok?). The red mat and lightly patterned kraft cardstock are old enough that I'm not sure what they were leftover from. The twine and jute were on a package I unwrapped in December. The sheet music, trading stamps and xmas ornament background are all vintage, plus I've inked, torn and distressed them a bit more, just for fun.

Hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's lovely card and link up one (or more!) of your own! ♥

Same Gorgeous Ink; FAB New Pad!

Because YES! The Ink Pad is (finally!) officially moving from the Seventh Avenue store to brand new digs at 233 West 19th Street (betw 7th & 8th aves)! And since that's just six blocks further up town and half a block west, we know you'll still be able to find us when we re-open on February 29th! Obviously an event this momentous needed to be celebrated in card form, so here's one now:

Michelle Ward's Downtown NYC Map Stencil is a beautiful background for all sorts of occasions, but if you're actually moving from one downtown location to another, it's absolutely perfect, lol. I used it to make a bold but more or less solid color gel print and then added an envelope (with typed vintage label!) showing our new address, plus a labelmaker sentiment. The Taxi Cab from Michelle's Skyline Stamp Set, plus the Skyscraper and Postal Cancellation from her Manhattan Map Set add just enough local color on this fun A7 card.

We hope you'll mark your calendar for February 29th and plan to come visit us in the NEW STORE! Here is a map which shows 233 W. 19th Street just in case you need a visual! See you soon! ♥

Hippity Hoppity...

...Easter's on it's way! But there's still plenty of time to make cards, and plenty of Eyelet Outlet Brads to make them extra special! Here's my first Easter card of 2020:

My card features Rabbit Brads, Colored Egg Brads, Stitched Flower Brads with Mini Leaves, Sun and Cloud Brads, plus a couple of Mini Butterflies. But there are many more varieties, including Easter Bubble Brads, Chocolate Bunnies, Pastel Rabbits (currently on sale!), un-dyed Egg Brads, and even Bacon, Egg and Toast Brads which aren't very Eastery but go nicely with the Eggs! Something super-cute which might emerge from an egg is an adorable tiny Chick Brad... coming soon to the EO Store!

There's something for everyBUNNY at Eyelet Outlet! ♥