Maybe I'm a-MAZE-d

It's the first Wednesday of 2018, and thus I'm up on the Eyelet Outlet Blog again, with some fun and a-MAZE-ing ideas for Valentine cards!

But first, a shocking true confession: somewhere in my home there is a small book of maze puzzles that I got at a garage sale last summer for making exactly this sort of awesomely punny card. Alas, I could not find it anywhere. So I did the next best thing, I googled "copyright free clipart maze" and was spoilt for choice. I sized my favorite maze to fit an A2 card and printed out several copies on plain white cardstock, along with a few different sentiments, so I could experiment with multiple ideas. In the end, my two finished cards use one of my all-time most loved free fonts ("Mom's Typewriter") with the "MAZE" in the first card highlighted in good old "Arial". Once the nuts and bolts were taken care of, it was time for The Fun Part: playing with my Eyelet Outlet goodies.

I decided to make my own patterned paper background using this beautifully bold and graphic Love Tape. I cut a panel of plain white cardstock to 4 x 5.25" and set about covering it with neat strips of tape, staggering the words a bit to make an attractive pattern, and folding the ends of the tape around to the back of the panel to make a nice neat edge.

When my background was completed, I used a template to trim my maze into a heart shape, backing it (and my sentiment strip) with a skinny mat of glossy black cardstock. Then I outlined a white Heart Brad with thick black permanent marker to make it stand out more, and affixed it to the center of the maze, with some Car Brads driving along towards it, and a few bright Heart Enamels scattered throughout the design.

My second card also started out as an A2 but eventually I decided I wanted this one to be more symmetrical, so the finished card is actually a 4.75" square. (I'll either mail it in a slightly oversized A7 envelope, or tuck it into a package or gift bag.) I used the same technique as above to cover a panel in Red Dot Tape, then combined my printed sentiment with just one word from the Love Tape, which I adhered to white cardstock, trimmed neatly and affixed with foam tape for a bit of dimension. I added the gorgeous red Heart Jewel Bling, added a couple of mats, et voila!

Be sure to check back on the Eyelet Outlet Blog each day, for more brand new, freshly made inspiration from my awesome fellow EO designers!!! ♥