Wednesday, February 18, 2026

NEW Ranger Liquid Pearls and Archival Ink Shades

Ranger is warming up our winter with LOTS of bold color. There are six new shades of Archival Ink and eight brand new varieties of shimmery Liquid Pearls! The new LP shades are: Firecracker, Sweet Potato, Rubber Duck, Kiwi, Emerald, Blue Velvet, Royalty and Truffle; and I've used all but Truffle on this fun and funky rainbow card.  


The new Archival Inks are: Avocado Toast, Sweet Treat, Big Plans, Dark Roast, Best Dressed and Sandcastle. I only used the first three on this particular card, but I assure you they are all beautiful, useful shades that enhance the already fabulous line up.


To make this bold rainbow shaker card I painted all of the colorful Liquid Pearl shades in a swoosh across sturdy cardstock, allowing them to overlap at the edges. I left a space in the center of the card towards the top to cut a hole that I backed with clear acrylic and filled with shimmery dots made from the same colors; then topped it with the large heart and small flower from the new Ranger Make-It Wild Hearts Stamp Set. I colored the flower with Sweet Treat Archival and the leaves with Avocado Toast; and added skinny mats of Sweet Treat and Big Plans. 


Since I always find the making of Liquid Pearl dots quite soothing and hypnotic, I generally make waaayyyyy too many... and this session was no exception. Instead of saving the extras, though, I decided to add as many as possible to the rainbow swoosh. As it turned out, there was room for LOTS of dots, which I attached with clear-drying Dina Wakley MEdia Glue.


I'm sure you already know that the Ranger website has many excellent Tutorials and resources. I used the Stickles Confetti Tutorial (it works equally well with Liquid Pearls and also Enamel Accents!) and the Stickles and Liquid Pearls Template (I laminated mine because I use it quite a bit) to make the dots and let them dry overnight.


Hop over to the Ranger Store to get your own gorgeous new rainbow of shades and check out the classics as well. While you're there, take a look at the new Make-It line of clear stamps and stencils, I think you'll love them as much as I do!

Aparrotly... it's Your Birthday

I can never resist a diabolical pun, or an excuse to break out my beautiful, colorful Eyelet Outlet Tropical Bird Brads, so here's a card that features both! Sun and Cloud Brads set the scene, along with a Party Hat Brad and letters diecut from Cloud Washi Tape.


If Tropical Birds aren't your thing, there are also Lizards, Cats, Dogs, Farm Animals, Fish, Crabs, Lobsters, Jungle Critters, Chicks, Bunnies and so much more in the Animals category of the Eyelet Outlet Store.

Monday, February 16, 2026

Bird is the Word...

...this Presidents’ Day Mandala Monday, on which I’m celebrating the fact that last night’s snow is being effortlessly vanquished by today’s 40f+ temps, wahey! BTW, the bird in question is a handsome cockatoo (I think?) from my friend Gina; you can get your own awesome copy of her beautiful clipart book by clicking THIS LINK!

Saturday, February 14, 2026

Blue Roses

Happy Valentine's Day! If you're allergy-ridden like me, your favorite flowers are probably the ones you paint yourself, lol. Additionally on the plus side, the painted ones can be any color, any shape, any size you want; and they'll never fade or die or drop petals all over!


Blue Roses painted with Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors in my Dina Wakley Watercolor Journal from Ranger.

Friday, February 13, 2026

Rudolph the RED Nosed Reindeer

It's time for another new prompt at Jingle Belles and this time we're solidly IN THE RED... but in a *good* way! To be more specific: In honor of Valentine's Day, the brief is to make a card that's predominantly... you guessed it... RED!

I love using the holly dies from Wendy Vecchi's Christmas Add-On Set for her Essential Envelopes to construct double-layer poinsettias. Then I added foliage and hearts from the same set and a couple of Eyelet Outlet Poinsettia Brads to the centers. I placed all of the above on top of a stacked-diamond background pattern made from lots of RED patterned paper scraps that I built on top of some ancient (RED!) My Mind's Eye patterned paper.

JB2604: Rudolph the RED Nosed Reindeer runs until the evening of Wednesday, February 25th. Hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's fabulous (RED!) card and link up one (or more!) of your own.

Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Hoppy Valentine's Day

Eyelet Outlet Frog Set Brads feature frogs (obviously) as well as cattails and waterlilies; everything you need to make a scene for Valentine's Day or any other "HOPPY" occasion. A pair of Mini Butterfly Brads have fluttered by to celebrate.


Hopping Shopping List:

Don't FROG-et to hop on over to the Eyelet Outlet Store for lots more fabulous brad styles!

hopes your day is un-FROG-getable!

Tuesday, February 10, 2026

SOS567: Bent Out of Shape

For the brand new challenge at Shopping Our Stash we'd like you to make a Shaped Card, by which we mean no squares or rectangles allowed. But round, oval, diamond, hexagonal or... my personal fave... CUPCAKE-SHAPED are all excellent choices!

I don't use my Stephanie Barnard Cupcake Fold-Its die set often enough, but to compensate, whenever it's out, I rarely stop at one cupcake-shaped card. This time I made a trio of treatos, in appropriately cupcakey colors of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. I used scraps for all of the layers except the cardbases, for which you actually need 4.5 x 12" piece of sturdy cardstock.

SOS567: Bent Out of Shape runs until the evening of Monday, February 23rd. Be sure to check out all the fab shaped cards the Crew have made to inspire you at Shopping Our Stash!