Over at Jingle Belles, Stephanie and I are still creating cards inspired by HOME. You can include a house on your card, use home-like products (bricks, woodgrain, etc) or incorporate the word HOME. Here's my card:
Remember you still have until next Wednesday evening (9/8/25) to join the fun for JB2520: Home for the Holidays.
What's more fun than a Halloween card covered in googly eyes? A card covered in googly eyes you've made yourself, in every size and shape you could desire, using Enamel Accents! Hop over to the Ranger Project Tutorials Page and follow along as I show YOU how to do it... then stay to see how I add the eyes to this fun and funky (pink!) Halloween card.
Spoiler Alert: Dina Wakley's Scribbly Ravens and Block Alpha Stamp Sets also play a crucial part in this project, as does Simon Hurley's Moroccan Tile Background Stamp, some fab Archival Inks, and a few shades of Ranger Embossing Powder, including Glow Up, which is very cool in two ways: #1 it glows in the dark(!); and #2 in ordinary light, it makes the perfect neutral, especially when used on Black Heavystock (just sayin').
Would this be a good time for a bold and funky watercolor Mandala Monday?
After all of the basic shapes were in place, I dried the paper (front and back!) with my heat gun and added all the lines and details you see here. I'd write more but I kind of want to go back and play with them... so that's all for now!
This pizza is high in fibers (acrylic ones, lol!) and has zero calories and fat!
Notes for crocheters: I used the Pizza Slice Pillow pattern from @HMKHandmade Etsy Shop with two strands of Vanna's Choice Yarn (in Beige, Mustard and Scarlet) on an L hook; then a single strand and an F hook for the toppings (White, Scarlet, Cranberry and Olive). I chose to make my onions as rings and I added tomato slices... just because I liked how they looked.
There's just something about being Home for the Holidays, isn't there? Thus, that's the theme (and feeling) we're celebrating at Jingle Belles this fortnight. That means we're asking you to make a holiday card that includes a House, Housing-like materials (wood-grain paper, a brick embossing folder), or the word "Home". Or, you know, if you're feeling really overachievery, you could do all three! Here's my card; spoiler alert: I did not do all three, lol!
As a cardmaker who sometimes feels silly saving all my off-cuts of patterned paper and cardstock, this design is a little bit of a triumph because, apart from the 5.5" square cardbase, it's made entirely of scraps! I used both dies from Penny Black's Trees and Hills set; Both curvy dies from MFT's Stitched Basic Edges 2; and the house, fence, trees and snowflakes from Spellbinders' Winter Label Motifs set. The diecut flag sentiment is also Spellbinders and was in my leftover diecuts box, glued up and ready to roll.
Be sure to head over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and link up your own HOME-made masterpiece. JB2520: Home for the Holidays runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, October 8th.
Autumn is here and there are lots of fabulous Eyelet Outlet Brads to help us celebrate that fact. Here we have Leaf Brads, Acorn and Squirrel Brads, Sunflower Brads, and a Pumpkin Brad in a Pick-up Truck. The matted letter squares are mounted on a background of beautiful vertically-oriented Autumn Washi Tape.
The perfect embellishments for any season can be found in the Eyelet Outlet Store!
The new challenge at Shopping Our Stash (#557) tackles one of the hardest types of card to make (imo); those expressing Sympathy or You're in My Thoughts/Prayers. So it's not a bad idea to have one or two on hand when you need them, right?
I started with a blank 5x7" piece of Simon Hurley Stark White Cardstock (my go-to) and added a torn piece of graph paper* that spans two opposing corners. Then I broke out quite an eclectic mix of stamps to make a collaged background: Wendy Vecchi's Studio 490 Botanical Register (stamped in Cobalt Archival); Stampendous Leaf Prints (in Sea Grass and Olive); and Stampendous Postage Creations (in Pebble Beach). Altenew's Paint-a-Flower Sweet Peas have center stage; they were embossed with Ranger's Bubbly e/p and watercolored with Tombows that I scribbled onto a mat and picked up with a waterbrush full of isopropyl alcohol**. When the flowers were dry, I added a bit of additional shading with my Prismacolor pencils.
If you hop over to SOS you'll see the inspiring cards our Crew have made and you can link up your own. SOS557: With Sympathy runs until the evening of Monday, September 22nd.
*If I'm making a collage and suspect I might want to line some of the elements up neatly, it's super-helpful to add in an element that has fairly consistent horizontal lines: text paper, graph paper, sheet music, even patterned paper with subtle lines or checks is perfect for this; you can then stamp words, add alphabet stickers or line up strips of washi perfectly with NO measuring! ;)
**One of my favorite tips from Wendy Vecchi is to use rubbing alcohol instead of water for watercoloring and smooshing, even when the inks are water-based. For some reason, the alcohol DOES NOT warp or pill cardstock the way water does. I assume this involves something sciencey, like the fact that alcohol dries and evaporates much more quickly...? (Honestly I have no idea WHY; I just know it works, lol!)
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.
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!
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!
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!
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!
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.
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!
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!
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.
If you'd like to make your Halloween cards more creepy, kooky, mysterious or spooky, visit the Eyelet Outlet Online Store!
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!
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.
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!
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.
The three-day Labor Day weekend surely deserves not one, not two, but THREE Mandalas, don't you think?
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!!! ♥
This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're celebrating Cardstock Christmas, which means we're asking you to step away from the patterned paper... (scary, I KNOW!!!) ...put it away, there's NONE allowed! We're creating cards using only cardstock. You can tear it, ink it, stamp it, spray it, emboss it … but stick to only cardstock for your holiday card design!
SOS555: On or In the Water runs until the evening of Monday, September 8th. Be sure to check out the inspiring cards from the SOS Crew and then start planning your own watery wondrousness.
It's a reggae rainbow Mandala Monday with ALL the colors blending together for maximum joy and happiness. Hope your week is off to a good start!
Be sure to check out Stephanie's card at Jingle Belles and take a look at the vintage holiday ephemera pack that one lucky random cardmaker will score this fortnight... just for linking up with us! JB2517: The Spirit of Christmas Past runs until the evening of Wednesday, August 27th.
Eyelet Outlet's Adorable new Camper Brads pair beautifully with our Camping Brads. This outdoorsy card is also accessorized with Pine Tree Brads, white Stars, a Sketched Owl and a Compass Brad; as well as an accent of Wood Washi.
It’s a Micro Mini Mandala Monday featuring 1… 2… 3… 4 (!) tiny one-inch square mandalas, built around the circles made with my Zig Dot markers, purchased many moons ago at @theinkpadnyc which I still really REALLLLLY miss! ♥♥♥
Hope your week is off to a good start, but if not, there are only 4.5 more days until the weekend! ;)
