Forever in Your Heart

The loss of a beloved family pet truly is like no other; our four-legged friends leave their paw prints on our hearts. Here is a pet sympathy card featuring Eyelet Outlet Kennel Mix and Heart Brads, as well as Paw Print Brads and Washi Tape.

Shopping List:

Kennel Mix Brads

Heart Brads

Paw Print Brads

Paw Print Washi Tape

Visit the Eyelet Outlet Store to see our full selection of brads, tape, bling, enamels, sequins and more!

Perfect Pearls Winter Cheer Card

Ranger's Perfect Pearls add magical shimmer and shine to any project, whether used wet or dry. Hop over to the Ranger Tutorials Page and follow along as I mix them with water to create pearlescent watercolor effects on this sweet and snowy winter cheer card.

First Mandala Monday of 2026

I'm making a POINT(settia) this Mandala Monday, with an extra-vivid, poinsettia mandala in my sketchbook. Made with Tombow Dualbrush pens and Letter It Fineliners. I hope your first full week of 2026 is off to a good start!

Let's TACO 'bout Ornaments

The last few years I've made some sort of holiday ornament for my nieces and nephew; usually crocheted... often an amigurumi food. In a good year, I make a bunch and other folks get them too; but this year was a bit of a limited edition:

This "Happy Lil Taco" pattern came from The Knotty Boss, but it's an older pattern and I can not seem to find a link to it. 

Here are some happy Taco Lovers (& their Abuela; aka my mom) showing off their Happy Lil Tacos.

I used Lion Brand's Vanna's Choice yarn in Mustard and Chocolate (a combination that works beautifully as colors but probably NOT as foods, lol) with several different shades of red and green for the lettuce and tomatoes, because I had leftover balls of yarn to use up.

Just in case you're thinking that Taco Ornaments are utterly bizarre and unprecedented, here's proof from my last trip to Wegman's that they are, in fact, perfectly on trend! :) :) :)

What I Did with the Perfect Pearls Trees

Before Christmas I made a bunch of TREE-mendous colorful diecuts, inspired by THIS POST on my favorite watercolor guru, Andrea Nelson's, Instagram.* Instead of using regular watercolors, I decided to get out my Ranger Perfect Pearls, figuring that the only thing better than watercolor trees would be SHIMMERY watercolor trees. I didn't show my finished items at that point, because they were intended as surprises for Christmas. But now, they've all been bestowed, so I can show them!

Project 1: Fancy Gift Bags

It's no secret that I love giftwrapping and I like to be extra fancy at Christmas. Sometimes folks say, "The wrapping is a gift in itself!" which is quite handy because, I'm not great at choosing actual presents; so 99% of the gifts I give contain some combination of:

1. Money or a giftcard

2. Something that I knitted or crocheted (often amigurumi food, lol!)

3. A silly novelty gift from Five Below or the Target Dollar Spot

4. A book I loved, with a bookmark I made

(Ta-daaaa!)

I used to feel a bit guilty about this, but I've stopped. I'm not good at everything, so I play to my strengths. It's efficient.

♥♥♥

Project 2: Framed Holiday Decor

These are inexpensive balsa wood frames from the big box craft store, painted white, adorned with diecut and blingy snowflakes, topped with the aforesaid trees. Not to brag, but I love how these turned out and if I ever do any kind of craft fair or holiday market, this will be one of the ideas I use.

♥♥♥

*If you like to watercolor at all... or even if you've previously been frustrated by watercolor and would like some easy/inspiring beginner project ideas, Andrea Nelson's Instagram is a fun, funny, fabulous destination, imo; my whole family loves her videos!  

Five Faves: Very Vecchi Edition

Wendy Vecchi's newest collection for Spellbinders came out this October and not only is it brilliant on its own, it mixes beautifully with literally every previous thing she's designed! I had a lot of fun and made quiiiiite a few samples, so it was a challenge just to choose five, but here they are in no particular order. Click the linked text under each photo to go to the original blog or Instagram post for more info and direct links to all the products.

New Wendy Vecchi? (Yes, Please!)

I think I used every piece from the Everyday Add-Ons set along with the Tabbed In and Out Sentiment Stamps and Dies; as well as the original Essential Envelopes pocket, of course. 

So! Much! Texture!

I used the embossing folder from the Thank You Bouquet Bundle on my pumpkin layers (it's just five ovals of exactly the same size!) and the blooms are from there as well. I cut the background into squares which I embossed with the Polka Dot and Posy Duo Embossing Folder.

More Pink

I did some light stenciling with Thank You Bouquet Bundle before using the  Polka Dot and Posy Duo Embossing Folder on the background. The blooms are from the Thank You Bouquet set too, and I've added just a little bit of ink to emphasize their fabulous texture.

Freestyle Stencil Thank You

Apparently I only posted this on social and there wasn't a blog post? But the essential facts are: I tried Wendy's brilliant Tip Tuesday idea of using her Perfect Stamp Positioner and STAY-tion with the layered stencils from the Thank You Bouquet Bundle, which meant I could easily reposition the orientation of the blooms to make a fun all-over pattern. I did the stenciling on sticky-back canvas paper with Wendy's Archival Inks; the canvas makes the design a little less crisp, but has a fun vintage fabric flare to it!

Merci Bouquet

Features the Essential Envelopes pocket doing double duty as a vase; and the pocket cover adorned with the Build a Plaid Layered Stencils. Blossoms from the Everyday Add-Ons set and the Polka Dot and Posy Duo Embossing Folder singin' backup in two shades of purple.

(Note to self: the radiating pieces of cardstock are pretty cool as staging!)

For more inspo check out Wendy's Instagram @wendyvecchi (Tip Tuesdays are my fave!); the Make Art with Wendy Vecchi FB Group (everyone's welcome!); or click THIS LINK to see all my previous Wendycentric projects.

No Time Like the Presents

Woohoo... the Jingle Belles (Stephanie and myself) are back for our sixteenth (16th!) year of holiday mayhem, and we'd be absolutely thrilled if you were along for the ride. We love that we get to use our large selection of holiday papercrafting products all year long.

Here's how it works: every other Friday at 12am EST (except for today, since we always love starting on January 1st) we'll post a new prompt to inspire your next holiday card; you can join us for one OR you can join us for all. Then the following Friday, we'll post a second card inspired by the same prompt, in case you need a little more inspiration. 

And VOILA! At the end of November, we'll each have 48 holiday cards ready to give to our friends, family and co-workers.

The first prompt of the year is "No Time Like the Presents" so before you put away your gift wrapping supplies, pull out some of your favorites (or that paper from a gift you unwrapped that was just too pretty to recycle) and make a card featuring wrapping paper or holiday gift tags.

Here's what I made this week:

My friend Gina wrapped her gifts in paper with these adorable holiday character mugs all over it, so OF COURSE I had to unwrap verrrrrrrrrry carefully to save as many as possible. I like to back giftwrap and other thin materials with cardstock, which is what I did here, and then I could fussycut and pop them on foam tape for a little dimension. The sentiment came from a page of Lawn Fawn gift tags; I had intended to use the whole thing, but it was just too big; thus I trimmed it to fit on my 5.5" square card.

Hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful giftwrap-centric card and check out the fun little prize that one lucky (random) cardmaker will score; then start planning what you'll link up with us this fortnight. JB2601: No Time Like the Presents will run until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, January14th.