Loosey Goosey Mandala Monday

Sometimes when I start a mandala, I have a pretty clear, well-thought-out plan and sometimes I have NONE whatsoever. Guess which this was, lol?! On this evening, I happened to have a bunch of Dina Wakley MEdia Stencils and a bunch of Simon Hurley Stellar Inks sitting out on my worktable, so I just drew some really rough basic shapes, then started randomly filling them with stenciled colors and patterns. There was a point at which I could've stopped and had a semi-traditional mandala... but luckily I kept going and added stamps, gesso and some marker outlines to make it crazier, more colorful, and totally rambunctious! ;)

 

Flowers, Flowers, Everywhere!

Well not quite everywhere, but certainly all over this sweet little giftbag I made using the multi-layer flower dies from Wendy Vecchi's Essential Envelopes Die Set, part of her Not Your Ordinary Card Collection from Spellbinders.

I chose the colors to coordinate with a gift card and holder I made with the Essential Envelopes set last year when the collection first debuted from Spellbinders. You can read a bit more about it on the original post if you'd like.

The felt is of the self-adhesive variety, made for papercrafting, and comes in a set of 25 gorgeous rainbow shades from Peachy Keen Crafts. It's considerably thinner than ordinary felt, so it diecuts beautifully.

I added Eyelet Outlet Jewel Brads to the flower centers purely as decoration, because the self-adhesive felt sticks really well to both paper and to other pieces of the felt... making layered diecuts easy as pie! PS: That's some WV Washi under the flowers for a little extra color!

Wendy's brand new Spellbinders' release, featuring stamps, stencils, 3D embossing folders and additional coordinating accessories for the Essential Envelopes set, will be coming out on October 10th. Check out Wendy's Instagram Account or the Make Art with Wendy Vecchi Facebook Group for a sneak preview and stay tuned!

Hi-Ho SILVER!

It's the second week of "Baby it's GOLD Outside" at Jingle Belles. And, as you may recall, despite the title, we're embracing all metallics, so this week I went with silver. Here's my card:

This card has FOUR different styles of metallic cardstock: matte, sparkly, glimmery and full-on metallic silver... a personal best, lol! It's also got three different metallic tapes and some deep blue shimmer paper that isn't quiiiiiite metallic but adds to the vibe of the card, I think. I've paired Penny Black's Glorious poinsettia die (cut three times, clustered together and blinged up a bit) with Altenew's splendid Perfect Poinsettias 3D Embossing Folder... that I highlighted with a bit of metallic rub-on paste in a rich blue shade.

JB2519: Baby it's GOLD Outside runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, September 24th. Head on over to Jingle Belles to link up your own Metallic Masterpiece! 

I'll Never Ghost You

Eyelet Outlet Ghost Brads and Ghost Washi are not just awesome for Halloween, they are specter-tacular all year 'round! Here they're starring in a fun and fabulous friendship card that's perfect for any season! 

Happily Haunted Shopping List:

Ghost Brads

Heart Brads

Ghost Washi

The Eyelet Outlet Online Store has embellishments for every occasion; as does the EO Booth; check our Tradeshow Schedule to see when we'll be coming to a town near you!

Another Mondrian Mandala Monday

It's been a while since I've done a Mondrian Mandala Monday, so here's quite a straightforward version in which I've adopted both the primary color palette and the gridded structure of Piet Mondrian's Utopian abstract designs... then added mandala details into some of the blocks. 

Black Letter It Fineliners from Ranger (they're on sale!) plus a few red, yellow and blue Tombow Dual Brush Pens in my Canson Mixed Media Sketchbook. 

Fur Babies and Rub-On Transfers

It's always fun to combine old and new supplies, right? This page in my Dina Wakley Ledger Journal features Dina's Circle Furbabies Stamp Set, stamped in rich brown Weeping Willow Stellar Ink from Simon Hurley; then adorned with every fall shade of ancient rub-on in my (considerable) collection!

The best part about a slightly messy collage format is that when using really old rub-on transfers you never quite know if they'll rub on perfectly, imperfectly or sometimes not at all... and this sort of configuration is quite forgiving no matter what happens.

For the record, most of these transfers were of the modestly priced, no-name variety; and yet, unlike some newer, higher-priced, fancier brands in my stash, they went on really nicely, with no flaking and very few imperfections!

JB2519: Baby it's GOLD Outside

Time for a brand new theme at Jingle Belles: For "Baby it's GOLD Outside" we're embracing heavy metal! Ok, technically we're just looking for metallics: the title's eponymous gold, obviously, but silver, bronze, copper, platinum and brass are also welcome, in the form of metallic papers; gold or silver embossing powder; metal beads, brads or wire; glitter... you get the idea, right? Here's what I made:

I embraced gold this week for a bunch of different elements: the vintage postcard I scanned and re-sized is framed with a gold diecut and matted on part of a gold doily; the strip of music paper and the scalloped piece beneath it are both gold metallic (I have recently re-discovered my collection of ancient border punches!); it's impossible to tell from the photo, but the reindeer sticker has glittery accents, as well.

Funny story: I used some gloriously golden, stupendously sparkly Stickles Glitter Gel in Solar Flare through a stencil, intending to use it prominently as my background piece. When I finished, I randomly wiped the extraneous gel onto a piece of plain white cardstock before washing the stencil in the kitchen sink with dishsoap. Guess which piece I wound up using on the card? (Hint: NOT the fancy stenciled one, lol!!!)

JB2519: Baby it's GOLD Outside runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, September 24th. Head on over to Jingle Belles to link up your own Metallic Masterpiece!   

Stay Creepy, My Friends!

The Halloween season is creeping up on us, and nothing is creepier (in a very CUTE way!) than Eyelet Outlet Monster Brads! On this colorful card they've brought along some diecut monster friends sporting Small Eye Brads and a couple of Bat Brads have swooped in to join the party.

Monster Mash Shopping List:

Monster Brads

Small Eye Brads

Bat Brads

If you'd like to make your Halloween cards more creepy, kooky, mysterious or spooky, visit the Eyelet Outlet Online Store!

SOS556: The Cat is in the Bag

There's a new challenge at Shopping Our Stash. For "The Cat is in the Bag" we'd like you to feature any kind of bag (purse, backpack, beach bag) and/or a cat; so there are LOTS of ways to go this time! I chose the "cat" option, as you can see:

I have several different "cat" options, but my favorite is this adorable guy from the Halloween Add-On to Wendy Vecchi's Essential Envelopes set. Since I had the bin out, I also used two of the Pinking Edge Frames and sentiment from the Birthday Add-On to her Not Your Ordinary Card Collection from Spellbinders; and one of the Heartfelt Thanks and Scallops frames as well as the Flowers and Foliage 3D Embossing Folder, which are both part of From the Garden Collection. I love piecing the cat using sticky-back black felt, it's hard to tell in a photo, but IRL it has lots of texture. I split the birthday diecuts and added "PURR" in velvetty pink letters to make the whole thing a tiny bit punny. ;)

SOS556: The Cat is in the Bag will run at SOS until the evening of Monday, September 22nd. Be sure to hop over to Shopping Our Stash and see the inspiring cards the Crew have made!

MM36

It's a Wibbly-Wobbly Mandala Monday which I cannot say I'm in love with... but it was fun to make and it's a colorful beginning to my latest sketchbook; it's the 12th one, I believe.

Handcut grungy patterned paper shapes at the center; more shapes added with brush pens further out towards the edge; lots of Fineliner and Posca Pen details throughout.

'Twas the 12 Days of Cardstock

Over at Jingle Belles, Stephanie and I are still celebrating Cardstock Christmas by making holiday cards with absolutely no designer/patterned paper. (Yikes!)

Not only is this card entirely free of patterned paper, I've used mostly scraps and leftovers! When I was making the Dressed to Chill kits last week, I made a few different versions of the sign and the happy snowperson from Simon Hurley's Spellbinders North Pole Sentiments Die Set; the white-embossed watercolor panel (made with Hero Arts' Christmas Rose cover stamp) was made probably a year ago and (mysteriously?!) never used; the sparkly snowflakes were in my diecut organizer; and the background is made of thin, random-width strips of coordinating pink cardstock, stuck to an adhesive sheet and stitched around the edges.

JB2518: Cardstock Christmas runs until next Wednesday evening, September 10th, so there's still time to join the fun!

Back to School Dylusions Agenda

Let's be honest, one of the best things about "Back to School" season is treating ourselves to a few new supplies, am I right? There are Dylusions Dyalog Insert Books for every taste and usage, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be wanting a bunch more of them, but for starters, I'm on the Ranger Project Tutorials Page adding my own "punny" style to my Dylusions Agenda Insert, because to me, nothing says, "Back to SCHOOL" as well as lots of colorful, whimsical fishes; so as soon as I saw Simon Hurley's super-fun Under the Sea Photopolymer Stamp Set, I was HOOKED. You should swim on over and SEA the full tutorial, which also features Dylusions Stencils, Ranger Archivals and shimmering oceany shades of Liquid Pearls! Find the whole story HERE!

Back to School!

Here in the Northeastern US, the week after Labor Day is the traditional time for kids (and grown-ups!) to go back to school. Here's a card featuring Eyelet Outlet School Bus Brads, Book Brads, Eye Glass Brads, Sun and Cloud Brads and even a Mini Ladybug.

Back to School Shopping List:

School Bus Brads

Book Brads

Eye Glass Brads

Sun and Cloud Brads

Mini Ladybug Brads

Whatever card-making occasions you're celebrating this week, Eyelet Outlet has all the embellishments you need!

Triple Play Mandala Monday

The three-day Labor Day weekend surely deserves not one, not two, but THREE Mandalas, don't you think?

I used my Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks from Ranger to make three super-colorful Smoosh- Spray- Dip backgrounds; which are pretty much exactly like they sound: SMOOSH some ink (or scribble a marker) onto your craft mat... SPRAY the ink with Isopropyl Alcohol... and DIP your paper into the ink. Repeat as necessary until you have the colors and coverage you desire.

Since I knew I was going to make mandalas, I smooshed my first couple of inks for each piece into circle(ish) shapes to have a starting point. I recommend smooshing one shade at a time to avoid contaminating your ink pads. I also like to pick up any leftover ink with a paintbrush and flick it onto the wet paper to get the cool random splatter pattern. This is the first time I've outlined the splatters, but I like how they came out.

When the backgrounds were dry (you can use a heat tool to expedite) I went in with my Letter It Fineliners to add all the basic shapes, petals and details. When necessary, I added additional coordinating colors to some of the shapes, so they'd blend in... or stand out from... the rest of the marks. At the very end I got a bit dotty with a white Posca Pen.

Wishing all who are celebrating a very happy, safe and burger-centric Labor Day!!! ♥