Tiny Collage Squares

We're celebrating a Merry *LITTLE* Xmas this fortnight at Jingle Belles, by making cards that feature Inchies or Twinchies. Traditionally, we think of inchies as artsy one inch squares or circles, but you can use other shapes or perhaps even snowflakes or small embellishments. You might contain your entire image within the inch... or perhaps break a single holiday image into smaller shapes? Just get creative and go LITTLE!

Here's my card:

I've embraced the original "Inchie" concept by making three, one-inch, decorated squares. In this case, the three are "kissing cousins" which all feature dictionary paper backgrounds, diecut foliage and Eyelet Outlet Brads. To make the inchies stand out against my vintage collage background, I framed them up with two layers of patterned paper and popped the whole thing on foam tape.

Hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card (spoiler alert: she's done TWINCHIES!) and link up your own merry little masterpiece! 

"Count Your Rainbows...

...Not Your Storms" is just one of the eleven sentiments in Dare 2B Artzy's Sunshine and Rainbows clear stamp set. There are a total of twenty-nine high quality photopolymer stamps, which work modularly to achieve almost infinite variations; including birthday, thank you, and encouragement messages. The first of what I think might turn out to be quite a few different versions I will likely make in future, is on The Ink Pad Blog today!

Blingy Birdhouse

Eyelet Outlet Bling and Flowers are obviously awesome finishing touches to cards, layouts and giftwrapping;  but they are equally nice when they come off the page and onto 3D projects. Like a super-fancy Bijou Bird Boutique!

This project started life as a plain balsa birdhouse from the big box crafting store, and the sitting tenant is a small bird from the floral department. I dabbed white paint along the edges and added panels of collaged vintage paper (accented with old-school paper doilies) to the front, back, sides and roof. Then it was time to embellish!

I made two stacks using all three sizes of white Paper Flowers with Bumpy Heart Bling centers, to accent the righthand slope of the roof.

I used an entire pack of clear Swirl Bling! But by trimming the pieces apart carefully, I was able to place a large flourish, covering most of the lefthand slope of the roof AND still have enough pieces to add bling to every surface of the house. To make them appear even more substantial, I split the smaller flourishes into halves or thirds, so that they seem to "wrap around" the corners of the house.

Swirl Bling comes in seven jewel colors (Clear, Red, Green, Pink, Purple Black and Champagne) and four pearl colors (Black, White, Gold and Silver); no matter what style of project you're dreaming up, Eyelet Outlet has Bling, Sequins or Enamels that will embellish it beautifully!

A Butterfly, Who Flutters By

Lots of color is ALWAYS a good idea, imo; but in January it's even more than usually necessary to cheer up the darker days with lots of bold and brilliant hues! Luckily, The Ink Pad is here for you with The Bright Stuff! Read all about this Picket Fence Studios Swallowtail Beauty card and super-saturated background made with Hero Arts Liquid Watercolors on The Ink Pad Blog.

Old and New, Redux

We're still mixing our brand new holiday goodies with old favorites from our stash at Jingle Belles and you're still invited to join the fun! Here's what I made this week:

 

Stephanie gave me a fabulous set of Retro Ornament dies from Impression Obsession, which I used on scraps of my well-hoarded Basic Grey 25th and Pine paper pack, with little touches of glittery and metallic papers for the accents. A few assorted Eyelet Outlet gems serve as finishing touches, as well as hangers for the baubles to dangle from. My sentiment is from another "new" acquisition, a stamp set called Deck the Halls from Gina K Designs.

Head over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and to link up your own!

Thanks Snow Much

After holiday card season comes thank you card season, and luckily The Ink Pad's got your back for both! My card features LDRS's Ice Valley Clear Stamps and coordinating Ice Valley Creative Dies and you can read all about it on The Ink Pad Blog!

The Ultimate 2020 Brad Set

If I had to choose just ONE Eyelet Outlet product to sum up last year, it would surely have to be the brand new Mask, Hand Sanitizer and Soap Brads which debuted this week. They are not just super-useful for making cards, layouts and journal pages with distinctive 2020 style, they're also kind of adorable don't you think?

I've paired them with simple, computer-generated sentiments and fun rainbow-colored styles of EO Washi... (Elephant Tape, Stripes and Confetti to be exact!) ...but there are nearly endless possibilities for these, so stay tuned to the Eyelet Outlet Blog to see more ideas from our stellar design team!