Moody Blues

Cleaning up my worktable, I found a few small panels of cardstock that I had tinted with Ranger's Old Glory Blue Archival Ink; one was semi-solid and the other had lots of tones and highlights, so they seemed like the perfect ingredients for a mandala and a mat... which is how I used them.

How Many Stencils?

How many layering stencils can you comfortably fit on one journal spread? Well, I suppose it depends on the size of both the journal and the stencils; but to save time, I will reveal, that in this case, it's FOUR. How many Archival Ink colors can you use with four Simon Hurley layering Stencil Sets? Again, I think that could vary considerably; but for this spread, it was eight... and since I still had the three new sets of MINI Archivals (Kits #5, 6 & 7) sitting on my work table, I chose to use those.

This has become one of my "go-to" journal ideas, for when I have new stencils and/or no plan. Because sometimes you just want to use ALL THE THINGS, am I right? I personally enjoy mixing patterns, playing with scale, and seeing how many colors I can use on a page; so this "patchwork" type of grid is fun, easy and super-flexible; but you could fill strips, borders, shapes or just random patches with your favorite patterns.

Would you like specifics? All the stencils are Simon Hurley create Layering Sets: Diamonds (Sun Dazed, Sea Grass) and Whimsy Flowers (Aquamarine and Emerald) are pretty new; Leopard (Sand Castle and Aubergine) and Very Berry (Sweet Treat, Cayenne and Emerald) came out earlier this year.  Spread across two pages of my Dina Wakley MEdia Watercolor Journal, with doodles and outlining via Letter It Fineliners.

JB2623: Holiday Leftovers

At Jingle Belles, one of our favorite things about a big Thanksgiving dinner, is the fact that there will be leftovers! (Turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce sandwich anyone?) So this fortnight we're celebrating Holiday Leftovers! What does that mean? We're asking you to make a card using paper scraps, offcuts, an image you colored or diecut or fussy-cut but never used, a small piece of ribbon too pretty to toss away, the last sticker in the packet or... whatever "leftover" bits and bobs you have laying around. Of course you can mix in new stuff too. Oh and be sure to tell us what your leftovers are so we can marvel at your cleverness!

Here's my card:

I had some random skate pieces and pale grey embroidery floss leftover from making and photographing the instructions for the Paper Anthology Ice Ice Baby Holiday Jumpstart kit last week; and since the Tim Holtz/Sizzix Ice Skates die is one of my favorites, anyway, of course I knew I wanted to use them up. In addition, I found this already- cut- to-size piece of 49 and Market holiday paper AND a bunch of glittery dimensional flowers I must've made several years ago and which I just unearthed again. Actually, I think only the red mat and the white 5.5" cardbase are new; this is a small but satisfying triumph of leftover usage!

JB2623: Holiday Leftovers runs until the evening of Wednesday, November 18th. Link your cards featuring Holiday Leftovers at Jingle Belles today!

Hello, Fall

The air is cool and crisp, the leaves are falling, and pumpkin spice EVERYTHING can be found wherever you look. But the maybe best thing about Autumn, 2026 are all the low, low prices in the Eyelet Outlet Clearance Sale! That's right, if you haven't heard, Suzanne and Tony are retiring at the end of the year and the website will be closing right after Christmas; so NOW is the time to stock up on your Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer favorites before they are gone forever!

Fall Card Shopping List:

Scarecrow Brads

Mini Leaf Brads

Heart Brads

Need inspiration for using the brads you have now? Check out the Idea Gallery at Eyelet Outlet!

SOS586: So Very Thankful

Time for a brand new challenge at Shopping Our Stash, and this fortnight the brief is to make something related to Thanksgiving, OR being grateful, OR add a "Thank You" somewhere on your project. Guess which one I chose:

I broke out my happy little hoard of 49 and Market goodies, and added a bit of background stamping to my mostly white and pink paper. The cool stacked "Thank You" is from Unity's Say it Big die set; I placed it at the top corner, so there would be loads of room on the bottom edge for an entire garden of Impression Obsession Hollyhocks. Finally, I finished up with a pink 49 & M butterfly.

SOS586: So Very Thankful runs until the evening of Monday, November 15th. Head on over to SOS to see the gorgeous Crew Cards and start planning what you'll link up with us this time.

Perfect Pearls Mandala Monday

One of my favorite ways to use Ranger's Perfect Pearls is to add them to an eye dropper full of water in a small palette and then PAINT with them... especially... on a deep dark background of Tim Holtz's Distress Black Heavystock. So that's what I did this week, using the new colors which released on Friday: Fire & Ice, Cherry Bomb, Snow Globe, Dragonfly, Evening Gown and Fairy Frost. If you think they look fun and super-shimmery in the photo, I assure you they are WAY more intense, irl... you need to try this at home! ♥  

More Collactober

Rounding up the rest of my #Collactober2026 entries, as I've been participating (sporadically and not in order lol) in this fun and inspiring October collage event, which is hosted each year by @lofficinedenative and @prism_voyager on Instagram.

Day 19: Helping Hands

This collage started off pretty literally, with a pair of hands from an illustrated knitting book, helpfully showing us how to "cast on" our stitches. I made a background from Chinese dictionary paper, vintage trading stamps, the edge of a ledger, and part of a map. There was quite a lot of leftover space, so I added three black and white flowers from a coloring book. And... yes... a tropical fish. No, I don't know why. Except he (or she?!) is yellow and triangular and kind just FITS there. Let's not think too hard about this, k?

Day 20: Inner Vision

Vintage map of Manhattan, black and white florals, Big Dollar Trading Stamps (thank you @smilynstef for my hoard!) dictionary paper and... a Sewing Pattern Lady who is clearly experiencing a psychic vision of some description. Or possibly just a headache? 

Day 12: Together

Once again using my friend Gina's (aka @ginaisarty here on IG) gorgeous clipart book, in this case for the beautiful fishes AND those cool numerals. I've put them #TOGETHER with... some crocheted squares form a crafting book, ledger paper, part of a map of Bucks County, PA (where I grew up; my mom just gave me some of my dad's old maps and I'm slightly obsessed) and of course some vintage trading stamps that @smilynstef scored for me! ♥

Day 22: Collective Roots

Wouldja believe that the flowers AND the butterflies in this collage are stickers? From The Botanist's Sticker Anthology, a very cool, curated, DK sticker book that @smilynstef gave me last year for my birthday and despite using it A LOT I've barely made a dent in it's 200+ pages. I confess that I trimmed the images a bit because in my 3x5" format, the white border was a little too prominent and I hated to cover up my background. What's in the background? Some German text paper, part of a knitting pattern a vintage envelope, a corner of sheet music and the words, "How To" which I saw in the trash and had to "rescue" lol. 

Day 16: Universal Language

Did you know that many wild birds can make dozens of distinct songs and calls that other birds will recognize? Some birds have a "vocabulary" of a hundred different sounds, to signify danger or predators, warn others away from their territory, coordinate migration, or initiate mating. The original "twitter" users are alive and well and visiting my feeder and bird bath, I assure you!   

I made a background from some non-verbal things I thought signified a srt of language: sheet music, a map, a few pieces of foreign text paper (those are kinda verbal, lol) and finally some HEARTS! 

Day 23: Breakthrough

Here's a shocking true confession: the only way I can even marginally claim that this represents "breakthrough" is that the shape of the tiger's neck (as drawn and digitally collaged by my friend Gina @ginaisarty in her clip art book) kind of looks like he stuck his handsome tiger's head right through my background collage. Basically, I just wanted to make a freestyle collage with a tiger. What can I say?!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to @prism_voyager and @lofficinedenative for hosting #collactober2026 which I enjoyed very much! I only finished and posted about 12 collages but I loved making every single one!