Round and Round

My Aunt Judie recently took home a huge stack of pretty flowers and birds to cut out for me to use in collages. And obviously, as soon as she brought back all of those glorious goodies, I HAD TO immediately make a collage in my Dina Wakley Ledger Journal. Guess how many of those beautiful, cutouts I used? Hint: NONE! How did that even happen?! Apparently, I went off on a tangent. So obviously, I need to go back and make another collage, ASAP!

In the meantime, I still have to show off all those beauties:

Stay tuned for a collage with more flowers and less circles. Coming soon. (Probably!)

JB2509: Ornamental Color Challenge

It's time for a festive color challenge at Jingle Belles and thus we present a lovely and inspiring palette. This fortnight we'd like to see cards which incorporate at least three of these five colors:

Your card can be of any style, shape or holiday theme, you just need to work with some... (or all, if you're feeling brave?!) ...of these shades! Here's what I made:

As I was puzzling over what I wanted to make, it suddenly occurred to me that one of the things I liked in the inspiration pic is the sidebar with the colors stacked together. I was pretty sure I had scraps of cardstock in all of those colors, and sure enough I did! I found the sentiment on a mini journal card and diecut a Hero Arts Snowflake Cluster from glossy white cardstock to emphasize the winter/holiday aspect.

Be sure to visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and check out the little prize that one lucky random cardmaker will score this fortnight. JB2509: Ornamental Color Challenge runs until the evening of Wednesday, May 7th.

Liquid Pearls Mother's Day Card

Ranger's Liquid Pearls come in thirty-six beautiful shimmery shades, coordinate well with the Archival Ink range, and can be used to paint with, to "resist" other media, and to create dimensional effects. Having recently discovered that dried Liquid Pearls act as a fabulous "resist" for painting with diluted Liquid Pearls, I wondered if stenciling with White Opal Liquid Pearls on white cardstock would create an interesting and shimmery effect as well as highlighting the "negative" space of the stencil. Spoiler Alert: It totally does!!! Check out the full tutorial for this soft and shimmery Mother's Day Card on the Ranger Project Tutorials Page!

A Bouquet for Mom

Mother's Day is just a few weeks away, and what could be more appropriate for our favorite lady than a huge bouquet of beautiful original Eyelet Outlet Rose Brads (in reds and pinks) plus some gorgeous new Yellow Roses. These are flanked by green Leaf Brads; arranged in a vase made from Green Pattern Washi Tape; and have attracted the attention of a trio of adorable Mini Butterfly Brads.

Bloomin' Beautiful Shopping List:

Rose Brads

Yellow Rose Brads

Leaf Brads

Mini Butterfly Brads

 Green Pattern Washi Tape

All of these embellishments (and a whole lot more!) are available in the Eyelet Outlet Online Store; why not visit today?

SOS546: Outta This World

This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash we've gone absolutely universal and thus we'd like to see cards featuring Aliens (or Monsters), Stars, Moon or Planets. Here's my card:

I've raided my happily hoarded stash of classic Basic Grey papers, including Oh Baby Boy (from which I've fussycut the fab retro rockets and small stars) and Color Me Silly (used to diecut the large stars). Most of the other items in my space-themed collage card came from an equally ancient set of October Afternoon's Rocket Age ephemera and papers. The tiny blue star brads are from... ok, I have to confess those are so old I have no idea whence they came but they were perfect for this. The sentiment is computer generated in a free font called Dear Sunshine.

Be sure to check out the rest of the SOS Crew's cards, which really are "Outta This World". This challenge (Sos546) runs at Shopping Our Stash until the evening of Monday, May 5th.

MM16: Bloomin'

Stretching the concept of Mandala Monday to include Zen Doodle flowers with mandala(ish!) motifs. Because there are 50+ Mandala Mondays in a year and we gotta keep it fresh, right?! 

BLOOM!

Whether you are celebrating Easter, Passover, or just some lovely spring weather, I wish you a bloomin' beautiful weekend!

Handcut flowers, leaves, letters and clouds in my Dina Wakley Ledger Journal. 

Also featuring Dina's Collage Paper, Archival Inks and Letter It Fineliners... all of which (and lots more, too!) are available from the fab folk at Ranger Ink.

Whatever else you're doing this weekend, I hope you can sneak in a little time to be creative! ♥

Trash to Treasure... Holiday Style

It's the second week of our Earth Day Special at Jingle Belles; for which we are making new holiday cards that include at least one re-used, re-cycled or up-cycled element. Here's what I made this week:

And now for a shocking true confession that will be no surprise to most of my fellow crafties: If someone hands me a present wrapped in beautiful paper which has a smooth, un-wrinkled, un-taped area that's card-sized or larger, I will be saving that giftwrap! I like to immediately back it with lightweight cardstock (I use my Xyron or a good gluestick for all-over coverage) trim it to size and then store it with my regular patterned paper. This card has two such saves from this past Xmas: the white snowflake background piece and the torn tan snowflake piece. The snowglobe is a dimensional sticker which was part of a gift tag; I *think* it was on the package wrapped in the white snowflake paper. In addition to these recycled items, I've got a scrap of lace, a bit of washi tape, part of an embossed snowflake panel and a couple of diecut snowflakes. The "joy" sentiment was cut from a larger (and frankly kind of ugly, imo) dimensional embellishment, because it was the perfect size, color and vibe for this card.

JB2508: Peace on EARTH DAY will run at Jingle Belles until the evening of Wednesday, April 23rd. Why not find some trash YOU could treasure and join the fun!

Happy (Hoppy) Easter

Eyelet Outlet makes Easter cards EASY! We've got Colored Egg Brads, Bright Stitched Flowers, adorable Chicks and Pastel Rabbits (or brown Rabbits if you prefer) add them to a background of patterned paper strips, choose a sentiment and a focal point et voila!

Hippity Hoppity Shopping List:

Colored Egg Brads

Bright Stitched Flower Brads

Chick Brads

Pastel Rabbit Brads

Brown Rabbit Brads

The Eyelet Outlet Store has all of the embellishments you need for ALL of the holidays and occasions you celebrate!

Hippity Hop (week 2!)

At Shopping Our Stash we're still making cards that have bunnies or chicks or both. They don't have to be Easter Cards... but... they can be, if you like!

I'm not always in the mood to color (and it hardly ever happens two weeks in a row!) but when I am, I love to color tiny, cute critters doing human-style activities. And it's difficult to find a company who captures that vein as well as Lawn Fawn does, imo. (Their "Carrot 'Bout You" set has a tiny bunny driving a carrot car... I rest my case!) This card is a combination of several different Easter/Spring themed LF stamp sets, and also incorporates their Picket Fence and Henry's ABC's die sets as well. Once again, I've made a bunch of random items into a scene by adding two appropriately colored patterned papers to serve as sky and ground. The critters are colored with my Tombow Dual Brush Pens and shaded with Prismacolor Pencils. 

SOS545: Hippity Hop runs until next Monday evening, April 21st. Why not join us!

Mondrian Mandala Monday (part 2)

It's another Mondrian Mandala Monday, inspired by Becca Sadler's very clever Mondrian Monday journal pages. Those, in turn, are inspired by the Utopian abstraction and primary colors of the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian. This time I decided to embrace the straight lines and the colors of Mondrian; but to try to vaguely draw the sequential "rings" and "petals". The latter turns out to be just sliiiightly tricky without any curves but... I quite like how it turned out! 

Collages: Art for a Cause

If you've ever visited my blog before, you'll already be aware that I LOVE making collages, so when I saw this call for original collage art on Jennifer Wilkin Penick's Instagram account, of course I wanted to participate! If you'd like to take part, keep reading for details OR visit the first pinned post in the @jenniferwilkinpenick feed on Instagram!

This call, from the Arts and Humanities Program at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, invites artists to make a maximum of four collages, each measuring 4" square, created on sturdy backing paper and with all of the elements firmly attached. I chose to make my collages be "a set" of four, though of course you can make all of them different, or for that matter, you only need to make one!

My collages feature crocuses (appropriately for Spring!), vintage cars, green stamps, bits of road map, solitaire diagrams, deeply patina-ed text paper, and some absolutely ancient white text rub-on transfers.

This is the second call from the Arts and Humanities Program at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital (AHP). Works submitted to by the deadline of April 20, 2025 will be included in an online “gallery” that will open on World Collage Day (May 10th) and will later be featured in a book that will be made available for purchase. Each original collage will be attached to a blank greeting card and made available to patients, caregivers, their families, and hospital staff. Works will not be sold nor returned to the artists. Please consult the appropriate post on Jennifer's account for details as to how to label your artwork and the address in Washington, DC to which it should be mailed. 

Peace on EARTH DAY

It's time for one of the Jingle Belles' favorite holidays (apart from Christmas, obviously!) which is: Earth Day!

Each year, our EARTH DAY prompt each year is all about RECYCLING, so we'd like you to create a holiday card that features re-cycled, re-used or up-cycled elements. We know you've got that stash of things that you saved because they were just too pretty to throw away: pretty packaging, old holiday cards and tags, etc etc; it's time to break them out and create with them! In the past we've used everything from Kleenex Boxes & Soda Cans to Gift Wrap and we *always* have a lot of fun making our own cards and admiring yours!

Here's how I recycled this time:

In December, we received an advertising mailer from a local bank that was about 5x9", made of sturdy cardstock, and bright teal with beautifully dimensional-looking snowflakes on it; so OF COURSE I saved it. Later that month, a second and third mailer arrived and I put those aside too. And here they are, trimmed down and paired with a plaid from Dare 2B Artzy's Snow Much Fun collection. I added strips of foil washi tape, the last two sentiment stickers in a pack bought circa 1998 (ok they may not be that old; but they're OLD!) plus some red metallic poinsettias and TA-DA! A pair of mini slimline greetings that I don't think anyone will know are partially composed of recycled advertising postcards.

JB2508: Peace on EARTH DAY will run until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, April 23rd. Link your newly made holiday card(s) featuring at least one re-cycled, re-used or up-cycled element at Jingle Belles!

Happy Spring

The grass is getting greener, the flowers are starting to bloom... it must be Spring! Celebrate with a bright and beautiful card featuring Eyelet Outlet Chick Brads, brand new Tulip Brads, Bright Stitched Flowers, Heart Brads and a big, bold sentiment cut from Pink Dot Washi Tape!

Spring-Centric Shopping List:

Chick Brads

Tulip Brads

Bright Stitched Flowers

Heart Brads

Pink Dot Washi Tape

The Eyelet Outlet Online Store has fabulous embellishments for EVERY season!

SOS545: Hippity Hop

As you may have already guessed from the title, this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash we'd like to see cards that feature bunnies; but... we'd be happy to see chicks, as well. Oh and it can be an Easter card if you want; but... it doesn't have to be. Here's what I made:

I will pretty much take any excuse to break out my Avery Elle Feels Like Home stamps and add-on sets. They are several years old (and sadly out of print, sorry) but I still adore stamping and coloring (or paper-piecing) them and making a little scene of adorable reading critters. I love how just adding a soft patterned paper print at the top two-thirds of a circle, and a brown geometric at the bottom third, makes the whole thing instantly look like a room instead of just a background; almost as much as I love stamping the armchair with Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink on top of a piece of cardstock covered in Eyelet Outlet Strawberry Washi Tape. (I would seriously love to have such a chair in my home!) Please note that I have included a bunny, a chick and even A CARROT... but it's definitely not an Easter card. :)

SOS545: Hippity Hop runs until the evening of Monday, April 21st. Check out the fabulous cards the Crew have made to inspire you at Shopping Our Stash.

MM14: Fly High Mandala

I've now had three or four different Dina Wakley MEdia Journals from Ranger, and they're always my favorites because Dina actually IS an art journaler and thus knows what sizes, shapes and paper styles are going to be the best, the sturdiest and the most inspiring. The new Ledger Journal* is a reproduction of an authentic 1920s hardware store ledger (but with sturdier pages!) and is a lot of fun to work in. 

My first page in any new journal is nearly always a mandala and this is no exception. I used Dina's Fly High Stamps, Feather Chipboard Shapes and one of her fabulous Coaster Stencils to create this page. I also broke out my sadly neglected Gloss Sprays and remembered how much I enjoyed using those; though I often use them more like paints* than sprays (by dispensing a small amount into a palette and using a brush to apply) and that is mostly what I did this time, too. 

Oh yes, and before I started I randomly glued down some scraps of Gridded Collage Paper, drywall tape (from the big box home improvement store!) and a bit of the final remaining roll from my ancient, well-hoarded, original Dina Wakley Washi Set.

*The new Dina Ledger Journal seems to be out of stock at this precise moment, but there is a button on the product page you can click to be notified when it returns! In the meantime, you can add Dina's Typed Ledger Sheets to your existing journal OR try a Dylusions Ledger Journal or Square Ledger Journal with blank ledger pages as well as dots and grids 

*Apparently other folks do this, as well; there's a second line of Dina Wakely Gloss that comes with droppers instead of sprays!

Fun Folds... Mach Two

We're still making cards with Fun- or Fancy Folds at Shopping Our Stash and you're still invited to join the fun! So today I'm back with a card that's similar to, but different from, the one I posted last Tuesday.*

This card also features mostly 49 and Market papers, rub-ons and diecuts that are a couple of years old, from various collections, including Kaleidoscope, Vintage Artistry Sunburst, and Spectrum Gardenia and Spectrum Sherbet.

For the complete details and measurements of my Modified Z-Fold card design, visit my original Fun Folds post. SOS544: Fun Folds runs until the evening of Monday, April 7th; head over to Shopping Our Stash for all the challenge info!

*Because two family members who have occasions coming up both saw/loved the first card, and I am just not equipped for that level of Sophie's Choice decision-making! 

JB2507: Flat Feliz Navidad (week 2)

It's the second week of "Flat Feliz Navidad" at Jingle Belles so we are still making one-layer Christmas Cards; a feat which is more challenging for some (like ME!) than it is for others (like Stephanie, who is great at it). Here's what I made this week:

I'm currently a little obsessed with had Simon Hurley's create Sketched Snowmen stamp set and Simon's Dye Inks from Ranger. Luckily these were perfect for watercoloring the images and background. I embossed the snowmen and sentiment in black; then embossed the snowflakes in white; colored everything in... et voila! I confess that while I love how it came out, my natural instinct is still to make this a panel on a layered card with machine-stitching and maybe some brads; but I'm resisting. (For now!)

Head on over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card and link your own Single Layer Masterpiece. JB2507: Flat Feliz Navidad runs until next Wednesday evening, April 9th.

Spring Stickles Card

Stickles Glitter Glue is the perfect way to add the twinkle and dimension of glitter to your projects; and glitter-phobes need not worry about shedding or mess! I'm up on the Ranger Project Tutorials Page with the step-by-step process in which I use multiple shades of Stickles (there are over 50 different colors!) in several ways (painting with them; using them dimensionally and making dew drops). 

See how I went from this...

...to this...

and find direct links to all of the papers, inks and stamps I used, 

on the Ranger Project Tutorials Page!

Hop, Hop, Hop!

It's a Hippity, Hoppity, Happy Easter card featuring our adorable Rabbit Brads, White Daisies and the new Mini Butterfly Brads. Not to mention Wood Washi and the best Easter-themed item EVER (in Lauren's opinion) Carrot Tape!

Hippity Hoppity Shopping List:

Rabbit Brads

White Daisies

Mini Butterfly Brads

Wood Washi

Carrot Tape

The Eyelet Outlet Online Store has all of the Spring and Easter embellishments you could possibly wish for; and Trade Show season has begun, so check the schedule to find out when the EO Booth will be coming to your town!

MM13: Sew Far, Sew Good

It's a quilt-inspired Mandala Monday, featuring a doodley, but somewhat symmetrical mandala watercolored with my Simon Hurley Dye Inks and then outlined with Ranger's Letter It Fineliners.

I started out with just cutting it into four squares, but... then I went a bit further by making triangular cuts...

Then I took the outer triangles and split them one more time!

And finally, I used a tape runner to tack the centers of each segment onto a backing panel, so I could machine-stitch around all of the main perimeters.

Of course I can never resist a photo with the resplendent 1970's avocado green Sears Kenmore sewing machine which formerly belonged to my Mom Mom; my mother loving lugged this baby all the way home from Florida for me 20+ years ago and I have loved using it ever since! ♥♥♥

JB2507: Flat Feliz Navidad

This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're embarking upon that most challenging of challenges (at least for ME, lol!) that is generally called the One Layer Card; though some folks refer to it as the No Layer Card. What does that mean? It means your entire design is flat... your elements get stamped, drawn, embossed, etc directly onto the cardbase; so basically you're not taping or gluing ANY additional papers/diecuts/layers to that base. This is NOT my natural metier, but I'm always up for a challenge so here's what I made this time:

I started with a white 5.5" square card, taped off all four edges with some low-tack washi, then broke out the awesome Wendy Vecchi Build-a-Plaid Layered Stencil Set from Spellbinders and my MAKE ART Stay-tion to create a diagonal Christmassy plaid in Archival Inks of the red, green and gold variety. Then I added some of Hero Arts' Winter Foliage Rub-On Transfers, which are as wonderfully glitch-free as they are beautiful to look at. (I mention this because I know that some folks are nervous about rub-ons.) The sentiment is from another set of HA Rubs called Holiday Messages. I like the way you can very very faintly see the plaid inking underneath the transfers AND the fact that this baby is even flatter than the average credit card bill, which will be a great advantage when I hit the post office in December!

Head over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's fabulous card and to link your own One/Zero Layer card. Flat Feliz Navidad runs until the evening of Wednesday, April 9th. 

Fluttering By to Say HI!

The new Eyelet Outlet Mini Butterfly Brads are beautiful on their own OR mix them with original Butterfly Brads and some gorgeous Butterfly Washi. Yellow Rose Brads and a framed oval panel of Wide Sky Tape complete the design of this "Just Because" card.

Shopping List:

Mini Butterfly Brads

Yellow Rose Brads

 Butterfly Brads

Butterfly Washi

Wide Sky Tape

All of the brads, tapes and embellies you need for Spring card-making... and beyond... are in the Eyelet Outlet Online Store!

SOS544: Fun Folds

This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash, we'd like to see cards that feature "Fun Folds" by which we mean something other than a regular hinge-on-one-side card. Gatefolds, Easels, Pop-Ups, Stair-Steps, Matchbooks... are all fair game. We found a FAB blog with lots of examples and tutorials, so if you need a little more inspiration or assistance, try the Fun Fold Archive at Simply Simple Stamping. Meanwhile, here's my card:

I am emphatically NOT an engineer, so this sort of challenge is... ummmm... challenging for me, lol. Before starting, I looked at A LOT of examples, read some tutorials, and then sorta/kinda went my own way afterall. This is on my own special variation of a Z-Fold Card that I'm calling a Stand-Up Diorama. It's more or less A2 sized; I cut my 8.5x11" sheet of plain white cardstock down to 4.25x11", then scored at the 5.5" mark, the 7" mark and the 7.75" mark. (In retrospect, I think I'd make that last fold a bit wider; aiming maybe for the 8" or 8.25" mark instead; but this layout definitely gives you plenty of depth!) I folded on all the creases and got on to The Fun Part of decorating all those little planes and surfaces. 

I used almost entirely 49 and Market papers and diecuts that are a couple of years old, from various collections, including Kaleidoscope, Vintage Artistry Sunburst, and Spectrum Gardenia and Spectrum Sherbet; there's a little bit of EVERYTHING here... and lots of it is PINK which is always a bonus, imo!

Visit Shopping Our Stash to see the fabulous and fancy fun folds the rest of the Crew have used, then start planning what you'll link up with us this time. SOS544: Fun Folds runs until the evening of Monday, April 7th.

MM12: Mondrian Mandala Monday

Inspired by my blogging and cardmaking friend Becca Sadler, who has just started a series of abstract journal pages she's calling Mondrian Monday (using the fun, linear, utopian style of the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian) I decided to try my hand at a Mondrian Mandala Monday in which I doodled Mandala(ish) motifs inside the series of (admittedly wonky) squares I drew in my 6x6 Dina Wakley Kraft Journal. I did not go with Mondrian's palette of primary colors, but I tried to stay inside a limited range of shades: in my case, pink, green and white.

I drew my "squares" and details with Ranger's Letter It Fineliners; filled in with Tombow Dual Brush Pens and finally adding accents with a few coordinating Poscas.

Oh Say, Can You Sepia?

Would this be a good time for a random collage card that's mostly tan, brown ecru and ivory? (Be a sport and say, "YES!" otherwise this post falls a bit flat, doesn't it?) Hope your weekend is off to a good start. Do something creative today if you possibly can! ♥

 

 

JB2506: Going Green

It's the second week of "Get Your Grinch On" at Jingle Belles and thus we're still making holiday cards that are predominantly green! Here's mine:

This week I went a bit collagey, and if you say the words, "collage" and "green" to me in the same sentence, I immediately think about my stash of vintage S&H Greenstamps, obviously. (Thank you, Stephanie!) These have been layered over a 4x6" piece of 49 and Market's Spectrum Sherbet Lace Washi, to which I added a strip of drywall tape, some Eyelet Outlet Silver Pearl Swirl Bling and the diecut tree (Sizzix Christmas Tree #2) made of torn and layered scraps of green cardstock that I stumbled upon in the diecuts box last week. Some edge distressing, a sage green mat and a bit of machine stitching complete the design.

JB2506: Get Your Grinch On continues until next Wednesday evening (3/26/25) at Jingle Belles and you are invited to join the (mostly green) fun!

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

The new Eyelet Outlet Tulip Brads are as bright and beautiful as Spring itself. Here they are growing tall on diecut stems against a landscape made of Wide Sky Washi and Grass Tape. A Butterfly Brad, a Mini Ladybug and some (new!) Mini Butterflies are all enthralled by these lovely blooms.

Shopping List:

Tulip Brads

Butterfly Brad

Mini Ladybug Brad

Mini Butterfly Brads

 Wide Sky Washi

Grass Tape

Visit the Eyelet Outlet Online Store to see all of the new March 2025 Brads (Tulips, Yellow Roses and Mini Butterflies) and be sure to check out the Tradeshow Schedule to see when the Eyelet Outlet Booth is coming to a town near you! 

Don't Have a Cow, Man!

Have TWO! Crocheted Highland Cows that is, outstanding in their field. Made by special request, for two special little ladies who've just had birthdays. 

The pattern for these shaggy beauties is called Highland Cow Crochet Pattern and is available in the Knot Nook Etsy Shop. I used Lion Brand's Vanna's Choice Yarn in Honey and Chocolate, respectively; with Black hooves and Beige horns and snoots.