LMFMO?!

Surely one of the best sentiment stamps of the past year comes from Picket Fence Studios' Bless Your Heart set: "LMFMO: Laughing My Freaking Mask Off" definitely sums up quite a few situations which arose in 2020 and 2021!  I've paired it with Eyelet Outlet Emotion, Mini Emotion and Mask Brads. By a happy coincidence, all of these items are available at The Ink Pad; and the card featuring them is on The Ink Pad Blog today!

Peace on EARTH DAY!

It's that time in the Jingle Belles calendar when we celebrate Earth Day (a tiny bit early, this year) by making holiday cards which feature a re-purposed, re-cycled or up-cycled element. This could be anything from re-using pretty ribbons, old greeting cards or giftwrap; making diecuts or embellies from cereal boxes or soda cans; using plastic packaging as the window of a shaker card or... well, you get the idea, right? 

I rescued the cover of this catalog in December, and since I usually save the fronts of the store-bought holiday cards I receive, I was able to find one with cardinals who look right at home in this beautiful birch tree glade. My sentiment was trimmed off another card and I matted everything on scraps of specialty cardstock and affixed them to my kraft slimline card. I had intended to add snowflake brads or sequins, but nothing seemed quite right, so I decided to stop and let the cardinals be the stars of the show.

Be sure to visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and start planning what you will link up with us this fortnight!

Did You Know?

April is National Card and Letter Writing Month! At The Ink Pad, we always want to do the WRITE thing; especially when it involves our favorite type of correspondence... snail mail! We'll be celebrating throughout the month of April, by showing off some of our favorite postal-centric products, starting with this super-fun Hero Arts US Mailbox die set! Hop over to The Ink Pad Blog for all the details!

More Alphabetical Brads!

I've completed the third section in my Brad Alphabet book, covering the letters M through P; which comprises four new pages, featuring twenty-seven Eyelet Outlet brads in twenty different styles! 

For the letter M, we've got: a trio of mischievous Monkeys from the Jungle Mix; a Mask from the Co-Vid themed Mask, Hand Sanitizer and Soap set; the Mailbox from our Mail Brads; a Mower from the Lawnmower set; and a handsome Moose Brad.

Representing the letter N: a Nutcracker, some (Music) Notes; an Anchor Brad (which I've re-named "Navy"; yes, I've allowed a bit of artistic license with descriptions, so that I'd have enough brads to cover the entire alphabet!); a stack of Novels (technically they are Book Brads); and a Compass Brad is covering Navigation. 

The letter O includes: an Oven Glove from our Cooking Brad set; some Ornaments; a (Sketched) Owl Brad; (we've got really cute colorful owls, as well); an Oak (at least I think it looks like an oak) which is part of the Summer Tree Brads; and a Onesie which technically falls under Baby Shirt, and alas the blue ones are out of stock.

For the sixteenth letter of the alphabet... aka P: a pair of pretty cool Penguins; a festive Party Hat; a slightly unseasonal Pumpkin; Popcorn from the Popcorn and Ticket set; and a Pig from our Pig and Sheep Brads.

My bookring is filling up really nicely with ATC's and I still have TEN letters to go; though when we get to Q, X and Z one suspects there will be a bit of doubling up!

I hope you'll be inspired to check out the wide variety of Eyelet Outlet Brads, I'm pretty sure we've got one or two styles that will be perfect for your next project!

Wishing You a Beautiful Day

As well as a very Happy Easter if you're celebrating today or a belated Happy Passover if you've just finished celebrating! Here's a pretty card featuring one of Anna's favorite flowers, the exotic and hearty Protea, courtesy of Hero Arts' Protea Flowers Clear Stamp Set. All of the product details and a bit about the process are on The Ink Pad Blog today.

 

Prepare to DIE(cut)!

We're still celebrating dies and punches at Jingle Belles and you have until Wednesday evening to join the fun! 

Since diecutting can result in both positive and negative images to work with (the diecut itself, as well as the hole it made) and since I always have trouble making up my mind, I've got a two-fer this week! The card to the left was made using ancient nested diamond dies to create two layered mats, which I filled with Impression Obsession's Deer Trio and Birch Trees. Then, I took the diamonds I discarded while making those frames, stacked them, and added more deer plus some Fiskars punched trees. I layered the whole thing onto an alternate background I made last week with the Hero Arts Holly Confetti die et voila, a second card!

Hop over to Jingle Belles and see what Stephanie has made, then link up your own punched or diecut masterpiece!

"To Craft of Not to Craft...

...is NEVER the question!" a fact we know very well at The Ink Pad, and so do the fine folks at Picket Fence Studios. Happily, they decided to include exactly that sentiment (plus eleven more!) in their Crafty Lifestyle Stamp Set, which I've paired with their Oh So Many Cards set and luscious Sorbet Scoops Memento Dew Drops Inks; the result is on The Ink Pad Blog today!