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.