It's Taco... Thursday?

I was scrolling through the photos on my phone and realized I never posted the incredibly awesome, GIANT Taco Pillow I made for my nephew Matthew's birthday in September; so here it is now!

This project was inspired by the adorable Happy Lil Taco @theknottyboss offers as a free pattern. As you can see, I super-sized it by crocheting with three strands of Vanna's Choice from @lionbrandyarn (Mustard, Duckie and Beige add up to the variegated shade of a crunchy corn taco shell, in case you wondered) and working until my taco shell circle was approximately 22" in diameter; a measurement scientifically based on that being when I ran out of the lightest shade. To make the curly lettuce (one strand of Sweet Pea and one of Radiant Lime) I used the stitch progression @walkerwhimsy devised for the clouds on her Rainy Day Scarf, but worked as an edging. The tomatoes are just half-circles of red, and again their size and quantity were based on when I ran out of Scarlet yarn. The cute mustachio was also a free pattern, which I unfortunately did not save; but if you Google "crocheted mustache pattern" you'll be spoilt for choice. 

I'd write more about this but it's nearly lunchtime and now I really REALLY want some tacos!

Wildlife Winterscapes

Maybe the most fun you can have with our Eyelet Outlet Wildlife Brads is to build little scenes for them to inhabit. This trio of A1 cards all have stamped trees and sponged skies, with Sun and Cloud Brads to light the way and a flurry of Snowflake Sequins to set the season. Pine Tree Brads and Snowy Pines add to the foliage, then the critters arrive: a Prancing Deer, a handsome Moose, plus mama and baby Bear Brads. Two washi tape mats, of Glitter Blue Tape and Wide Wood Washi frame the designs.

There are Eyelet Outlet Animals for every taste, including Dinosaurs, Farm Animals, Reptiles, Cats and Dogs, Fish and Crustaceans, Jungle Animals, Birds, Bugs and Critters of all kinds! 

This is BIG

It's an Elegantly Elephantine Mandala Monday thanks to this gorgeous Pink Momma and Baby Elephant Sticker from my friend Gina's Redbubble Shop where there are pages and pages of stickers, stationery, tees, accessories and sooooo much more... all adorned with Gina's colorful stylized designs, which I would call Whimsical Realism. You should probably go take a look... afterall... it's Cyber Monday, right?!

This mandala was created with Black Letter It Fineliners in my (now sadly discontinued) Dina Wakley Blue Edition Journal both from Ranger Ink. The gorgeous orchids, which serendipitously match the pachyderms perfectly, were cut from a freebie calendar.

JB2324: Banner Holiday, Week 2

We're still making cards inspired by our 2023 Jingle Belles Blog Banner, here's a reminder of what it looks like:

And here's how I was inspired this week:

Having gone as literal as possible last week, this time I wanted to see how far I could go in the other direction, but still have the influence of the banner show clearly. I rotated the rectangle shape to make a "tall card"; I used the layers of music, text and snowflakes for the background; I placed a tree toward the left of the frame; and finally I used the same Stamplorations "Jingle" die on glitter paper as my sentiment. 

Head over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's gorgeou card, then scroll down to the original Banner Inspired Holiday post to visit the Readers' Gallery and to link up your own card(s)!

Give Thanks

On the day before the American Thanksgiving holiday, what could be more fitting than a simple card which sums up the day. The "THANKS" portion of the sentiment is diecut from beautiful extra-wide autumn Leaf Washi, studded with Leaf Brads, Mini Leaf Brads and the yellow flowers from our Colored Daisy set. The background is made of super-wide Wood Tape, framed with Brick Washi.

Wishing the happiest and healthiest of holidays to all who are celebrating!

SOS510: Splish, Splash

This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash we're celebrating wet media, such as watercolor, acrylic paint, etc; but if that isn't your thing, you could swap out and use an image featuring water.

I made a vibrant watercolor background by spritzing my craft sheet with Dylusions Ink Sprays in London Blue and Cut Grass, diluting them slightly with clear water, then placing my watercolor panel face down to absorb the colors. When my background dried, I stamped, in collage style, portions of some of my favorite older Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 Backgrounds, including Herringbone (embossed with Ranger Turquoise Powder), Perfectly Plaid and Botanical Register (embossed in White). Around the edges I overstamped the stars from Wendy's Doodle Holiday Stamp Set embossed in Blue Neon. I added Night Sky Archival around the edges and machine stitched the panel to a white 5.5" square card. The focal flower is from Wendy's A Million Thank Stamp, Die and Stencil set; it's been stamped once in Leaf Green and once in Rosey Posey, with the additional shades of Prickly Pear and Pink Peony Archival added for detail.

The "Splish, Splash" challenge runs at Shopping Our Stash until December 4th. Be sure to check out all of the inspiring cards the Crew have made, then start planning what you'll link up with us this time.

Winter Wishes

Join me at Paper Anthology for "Winter Wishes" a three-card class that’s SNOW much fun! Inspired by the soft dreamy palette of Echo Park’s Winter Land collection, these cards feature a little embossing, a little stenciling, some torn layers, a bit of fussy-cutting and LOTS of seasonal diecuts from Taylored Expressions, Memory Box and Sunny Studio; with sentiments from Stampendous. 

Visit the Paper Anthology Blog for all the details and sign up info!

Multi-Week Mandala Mashup

After several months of remembering to post my Mandala Monday entries every week on the blog, I suddenly hit a little patch of forgetfulness and skipped two weeks in a row, so here are THREE mandalas to start your Thanksgiving week:

MM46: Distinctly Dotty

Lindy's Magicals background, Letter It and Posca Pens... with a little bit of Tombow detail

MM45: Super Sticker-centric

A little stash of ancient, rediscovered Mrs. Grossman's animal stickers

MM44: Predominantly Purple

Lindy's Magicals, Letter It Fineliners, Poscas and Tombow detail

A Banner (Inspired) Holiday

It's hard to believe it's time for our final Jingle Belles prompt of 2023. This fortnight we're asking you to make a card inspired by our 2023 Blog Banner. There are so many possibilities for inspiration: the pink + white + tan color palette OR the trees and/or snowflakes OR the glittery letters OR... well, you get the idea! Choose any aspect(s) that appeal to you; just be sure to let us know which elements you're incorporating into your design!

My card is VERY literal, but then, I designed the header, so of course it's already in my style, lol!

Ok so, the details: I incorporated the basic sketch, colors, glitter and trees into my super-layered design. The background consists of patina-ed vintage sheet music, part of an ancient Hambly snowflake paper, bits of doily, and torn vellum with typed holiday lyrics. The forest of Taylored Expressions' Evergreens are diecut in pink with white "shadows" and the (impressively appropriate) sentiment was made with Stamplorations (sadly out of print) Jingle All the Way die.

A reminder that your card does not have to be a literal interpretation of our blog header, it just needs to be inspired by one or more elements therein! Head over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and start planning what you'll make. This challenge runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, November 29th.

Squirrels Just Wanna Have Fun

The joys of Autumn in the Northeast include colorful foliage, crisp cold days and plenty of nuts and seeds for our furry friends to gather. This card sums up Fall and celebrates our new Acorn and Squirrel Brads, a gorgeous Sunflower, a Pumpkin and a bouquet of Leaf Brads.

The Eyelet Outlet Online Store has all the critters, flowers, foliage, food and holiday icons you could possibly need to make your own celebration of Autumn in card form!

Tinsel Embossing Powder For the Win!

Ranger's Tinsel Embossing Powder does for holiday cards what tinsel rain does for Christmas trees: makes them exponentially more sparkly and festive! I'm on the Ranger Project Page today, using Ranger's gloriously glittery Holiday Tinsel Embossing Powder Bundle to "paint" on Simon Hurley's Bold Holiday Blooms Background Stamp and I'd love for you to check out the full tutorial!

Candy Canes and Cookies, Oh My!

We're heading into week two of our Jingle Belles Hard Candy Christmas, for which we'd like to see your favorite holiday sweets and treats... in card form! 

This week, I've got candy canes, Christmas cookies, hot cocoa, cupcakes, Christmas pudding and more, thanks to a partial page of older American Crafts mini journal cards I found in my xmas stash. I trimmed them down, popped them onto foam tape and added a couple of patterned paper layers... Pebbles' black text and Dare 2B Artzy's red dots, to be exact. There were too many for just one card, so I split them up and made 2 A7s; because in mid-November it's literally IMPOSSIBLE to make cards too quickly, right?!

This challenge runs until next Wednesday evening, November 15th. Be sure to head over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card and link up your own!

Thanks For Always Having My Back

Eyelet Outlet's awesome new Sugar Skull Brads are not just for Dia de los Muertos, they are pretty fabulous in a fanciful tattoo cluster, as well! Here they're paired with Rose Brads, a white Heart and the handsome blue lizard from our Reptile Set.

Visit the Eyelet Outlet Online Store to see ALL the options for Brads, Bling, Washi Tape and more; your next brilliant card idea is just a click away!

Emboss Like a Boss!

If you've already guessed that the new challenge at Shopping Our Stash is to emboss (whether it be with powder and heat OR by using an embossing folder) then well done you; we can get right to my card:

I grabbed one of my all-time favorite Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 stamp sets (Delightful Art) and embossed the primrose-ish flower a few different ways, so that I would have options. I stamped it singly in a few different powders (of which my favorite was Wendy's Watering Can) then I also did a couple of backgrounds where I stamped the same image multiple times to make a repeating pattern. Again, one of my faves was Watering Can, but I also liked the White one. I used the coordinating stencil (all of Wendy's Studio 490 stamp sets came with coordinating stencils, I think she might've been the first to do that, several years before it became A Thing!) to add Tea Rose Archival (with Orange Blossom shading) and Prickly Pear (with Fern) on the focal image and white background; on the other panel, I just added some Watering Can ink very lightly around the edges. I matted both panels on Fern Green, added some machine stitching, a scattering of Eyelet Outlet Pearl Bling and one of the sentiments from the same stamp set et voila! 

PS: Just to brag a tiny bit, there's also a little strip under the sentiment which has pressure embossed leaves on it; via an ancient C-bug embossing folder. Admittedly it's hard to hard to see on the finished card, but still... :)

Be sure to head over to SOS to scoop up some of the Design Team's abundant inspiration, then start planning what you'll make to link up with us. The "Emboss Like a Boss" challenge runs until the evening of Monday, November 20th.

Swatchin'

It occurred to me the other day that I hadn't made swatches for my growing collection of Simon Hurley create Dye Inks, so clearly that had to be done! Of course, there is an entire section of the Ranger website dedicated to Organizing your Ranger Products, and it includes color charts and labels, so I didn't actually NEED to make my own little tag book. But I happened to have some new inks and some new stencils... Oh ok, yeah, true confession: I was looking for an excuse to play with my new stuff, lol.  

I don't have any rules for making swatch books, but I nearly always use a single ring to bind them, to make it easy to add or subtract colors as needed. I'd also highly suggest NOT using the same stamp or stencil on every single page; in future you might like the freedom to swap out and play with new products. I also try to make the pages a little bit footloose and funky because if you really USE your swatches (which I do!) the pages may get wrinkled or smudged or whatever... and built-in imperfection helps accommodate that. Plus... it's just so much more FUN!!! 

Stencils used in this project include: The Loo!, Pretty Petals Layering set, Deco Diamonds, Candles Layering set, Grand Greenery and Sweater Weather. See all the Simon Hurley Ink Colors and Stencil Sets on the Ranger website!

Hard Candy Christmas

This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're celebrating the sweet treats of the season, including our favorite holiday candies and cookies. 

There are lots of awesome ways to approach this prompt, but seeing as how Doodlebug's Gingerbread Kisses line has just arrived at Paper Anthology, it seemed silly not to let those fabulous papers, journal cards and stickers do most of the work for me. I was having so much fun I made not one but two 5.5" square cards to celebrate. For extra sweetness, I added Eyelet Outlet Gingerbread, Peppermint and Candy Cane Brads.

Be sure to stop over at Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card and then start planning what you'll link up with us. The Hard Candy Christmas challenge runs through Wednesday evening, November 15th.

Viva la Vida!

It's la Dia de lost Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, on which we remember and pay homage to those who have departed before us. One of the best ways is to, "Viva la Vida!" or celebrate life. The gorgeous new Eyelet Outlet Sugar Skull Brads arrived just in time to participate in this beautiful tradition and here they are paired with other colorful symbols of love and life, including Heart Pearls, Rose Brads, and lovely Flower and Pink Foil tape styles.

Eyelet Outlet has brads, tapes, flowers, bling and embellies to help you celebrate every season, holiday and occasion!