Fruity Sticker Mandala

The Ranger Shop recently added a bunch of fabulous journaling and planner items including LOTS of these Bande Washi Stickers. I only allowed myself to choose three varieties (so far!) but I'm pretty sure they're going to become an obsession. So I'll say "You're welcome" or "Sorry" in advance, lol. I've used two of my choices in this fruity mandala: Sliced Fruit & Vegetables and Strawberry Wreath. 

I added a central circle and punched hearts to beef up the design; and a few miscellaneous star stickers on the outside ring.

Bird is the Word

This is the very last page in my 6" Dina Wakley Kraft Journal, although I think there *might* be an unfinished mandala or two that needs completing before I can declare the volume officially finished. 

Some time ago, I made these little slide mounts filled with trading stamps and tiny critters cut from some of the border pages in my friend Gina's awesome Clip Art Book; I just re-found them and decided they'd be perfect to go in the very back of the book. I cut out a few of Gina's larger whimsical birds to accompany them and made a background of torn paper (English dictionary paper, Chinese dictionary paper, part of a map and part of the map's index) plus some glorious Greenstamps and called it a day

You can get your very own copy of the fabulous Gina is Arty Clipart Book on Amazon; a purchase I can highly recommend if you love collage, cardmaking, cute critters or mixed media art!

Vintage (wk 2)

We're still celebrating all things with a vintage or retro vibe at Jingle Belles and we'd love for you to come Walking in a Vintage Wonderland, by which we mean creating a card with a vintage or retro design. Either by incorporating actual vintage/retro elements; OR using new products that have a vintage style; OR using stamps or images that convey a vintage vibe; whatever says vintage to you. 

And to add a little extra incentive, we're sponsored by my very own Etsy Shop... Just Enough Stuff, so there's a sweet little pack of vintage Christmassy things for one lucky card maker who links-up their vintage design.

This week, I made quite a random collage of torn and layered vintage and found papers including: some sheet music; a dictionary page with a reindeer (technically a caribou but work with me!); an order form and an advertisement from a vintage Christmas Ideals magazine; some rather splendid S&H Green Stamps and... ok, I think that's it, lol. Since the background is quite busy, I only needed a fussycut Authentique bauble (which luckily had a bold sentiment!) and a few Katie Pertiet Christmas Collageable Banners that I machine stitched while I was doing the edges.

JB2608: Walkin' in a Vintage Wonderland runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, April 22nd. Hop over to the original post at Jingle Belles to see the prize and link your own vintage/retro masterpiece(s).

Stellar Blooms

Simon Hurley's Stellar Inks from Ranger are, of course, outstanding for stamping and stenciling, but I also love to use them for watercoloring! I painted these big bold blooms by (sequentially) smooshing Stellar Ink (in Rosy Cheeks, Prom Queen, Slippery When Wet, Later Gator and Fore!) onto my craft mat, picking the color up with a waterbrush, and splashing it around on Simon's smooth, bright-white Watercolor Paper. When my blooms were dry, I added a dotty background plus a few outlines and details in similar shades of marker. 

HERD It's Your Birthday

If farm cards are your jam, Eyelet Outlet has all the brads you could possibly wish for. This scene features the cows from our Cow and Goat set; plus Sun and Cloud Brads, not to mention a soaring Eagle and a Tractor Brad; all set inside a border of Farm Animal Washi Tape. The Old Barn and Tree are from an older Art Impressions stamp set that I painted with my Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors.

Down on the Farm Shopping List:

Cow and Goat Brads

Sun and Cloud Brads

Eagle Brads

Tractor Brads

Farm Animal Washi Tape

There are also Pig and Sheep Brads, Horse and Pony Brads, Chickens, Roosters, Llamas and more. Check out the entire selection of farm animals, jungle beasts, pets, reptiles, dinosaurs and pretty much every critter you can name... all in the Eyelet Outlet Store!

Perfect Pearls Mandala Monday

I don't always fill an entire page in my Dina Wakley MEdia Watercolor Journal, but this time I was having so much mixing Perfect Pearls powders with clear water and painting shimmery concentric rings, that before I knew it I had gone from the bottom right all the way up to the top left corner.

After my rings were dry, I added lots of lines, dots, scallops, hearts and faux stitching with my Letter It Fineliners et voila: another Mandala Monday in the books!

Stencil Testing Pages

If you're anything like me, when you get new supplies you want to use them IMMEDIATELY upon unpacking... which is often considerably before you've actually got a plan as to HOW you want to use them. So here's my solution: the stencil testing journal page! 

This could not be easier, because it's literally just stencils in my Dina Wakley Watercolor Journal. Yes, I made an attempt to line them up somewhat neatly; and yes, I used shades of ink from the same family; so it makes the double-page spread look quite decorative. 

Technically, only three of these Simon Hurley Layering Stencil Sets are brand new, namely: Happy Arches, Star Tile and Trellis. I filled in the rest of the page with some older sets: Geo Leaves, Geo Circles, Deco Diamonds and Tiny Diamonds, to be exact. To make the page look more cohesive, I used Archival Inks in greens and blues: Avocado Toast, Olive, Emerald, Best Dressed, Beach Cruiser and Seafarer... with a little bit of Graphite to anchor them.

Next time you open that box of new goodies, have a journal or sketchbook handy and have some fun!

JB2608: Walkin' in a Vintage Wonderland

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're Walking in a Vintage Wonderland, which means creating a card with a vintage or retro design. 

That could mean incorporating actual vintage/retro elements; OR using new products that have a vintage style; OR using stamps or images that convey a vintage vibe; whatever says vintage to you. 

And to add a little extra incentive to your endeavors, this week we are sponsored by my very own Etsy Shop... Just Enough Stuff, so there's a sweet little pack of vintage Christmassy things for one lucky card member who links-up their vintage design.

My card is a mix of actual vintage and vintage-inspired papercrafting products, it breaks down like this: Background paper, mailbox, sentiment and holly are 49 and Market; the funky steampunk Santa and present are Graphic 45; I've added real vintage sheet music and S&H Green Stamps to bump it up a bit. Then I did loads of edge-distressing on everything and a bit of wonky machine-stitching to finish off. Not to brag or anything, but I love this card, lol!

JB2608: Walkin' in a Vintage Wonderland runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, April 22nd. Hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's gorgeous vintage-inspired card and check out the little vintage holiday prize pack!

Got Maps?

Before you recycle your paper maps, you should know that they are the perfect background for Eyelet Outlet Classic Car and Driving Brads! As well as cards, old maps work brilliantly as gift wrap; which, in this case, has been adorned with some EO Road Washi Tape to continue the car theme. 

Revved Up Shopping List:

Classic Car Brads

Driving Brads

Road Washi Tape

Whatever plans you have for your next card, Eyelet Outlet has the brads to drive you stylishly to the finish line!

(For map nerd only: this is a 1976 edition of Alexandria Maps' Street Maps of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; part of an astonishingly cool collection of my dad's that was recently gifted by my mom... who, when she saw this card, decided she miiiiiiiiiight want some of 'em back!!!) :)

SOS571: Sparkle, Sparkle!

The new challenge at Shopping Our Stash is called, "I don't Sweat, I Sparkle" and if you've already guessed that we want to see projects that feature gems, glitter, sequins or bling, WELL DONE! Let's get right to the card:

I actually made TWO cards for this challenge because the first one (might show it next week) didn't look very bling-y at all in the photo. Possibly because I started with my design and then added bling around it. So I decided to try again, but this time START with the bling... a nice big swirl of black crystals from Eyelet Outlet. Or, more precisely, several smaller half-swirls that I Frankenstein-ed and re-arranged so they'd nicely fill up the area around the butterfly. My background was a collage-look paper from 49 and Market to which I added real tickets, vintage postage and tiny fussycut butterflies. Speaking of butterflies, that big chipboard one in the center is actually accented with glitter that you absolutely CANNOT see, but... just thought I'd mention, lol.

Oh and speaking of Eyelet Outlet, ALL their bling is currently on sale for just $1 a pack! But... when it's gone, it's gone, so get a-shoppin'! 

And be sure to check out the fabulous array of sparkliness at Shopping Our Stash and start planning what you'll link up with us!

Pudgie Budgie Mandala Monday

This might be my most unusual Mandala ever... it's at least in the Top Ten, don't you think? I found this majestic (or possibly just annoyed, lol) bird-in-a-circle illustration in a fanciful coloring book I discovered at a garage sale. Pretty sure I must've ignored this guy before when leafing through the book, but for some reason when I saw him this time I thought, "Mandala Centerpiece"! So I trimmed the circle in half (there was a lot of white space) and glued him at the edge of a page in my Dina Wakley Watercolor Journal. I glued on some of the abstract swirls and leafy designs from the back of the page; then went to town with my Letter It Fineliners.

I was inspired by both the pointy feathers of the bird, and also by the very swirly, detailed leaves that were outside the circle. I guess I was inspired by the whole vibe of the book, which is actually really cool and quite funky. I used my watercolor journal because I had imagined adding lots of color with either inks or paints; but the longer I worked, the more I realized that I wanted to stay with just black and white.

If you ever go to book sales or garage sales, I highly recommend checking for a box or shelf that says, "FREE". If you take the time to look, there might be something weird and wonderful that will inspire a piece of art you wouldn't have thought of any other way.

Small(ish) Collage

About a decade ago I started making what I call Cleanup Collages which is basically what it sounds like: instead of cleaning up all the random leftover scraps, offcuts, stickers and embellishments I had gotten out over the course of a day or two, I glue as many as possible to a page in my journal or sketchbook, instead. This one isn't 100% a Cleanup Collage, because when I saw where it was going, I did get out a couple of things from the same color family, such as the pre-cut-out knitting illustration and some additional blue postage to go with the blue travel stickers.

It's also possible that I'll see this again in two weeks and decide to add stamping or stenciling to the kraft background, but at this particular moment, I believe it to be finished, lol. And thus my work here is through. 

More Holiday Whimsy

As we mentioned at Jingle Belles last week, "Whimsical" describes something, "Playfully quaint, fanciful, imaginative and slightly odd; often suggesting a lighthearted, unpredictable or charmingly unusual quality not based on strict logic." So this fortnight we're asking you to use that definition and make a Whimsical holiday card… it might be mice decorating the holiday tree, a space-age midcentury modern wreath, some fun little holiday gnomes, or maybe even adorable tiny reindeer driving a red plaid car* loaded with festively wrapped holiday gifts!

I probably only use my Lawn Fawn Car Critters + Holiday Add-On stamp sets a couple of times a year. I nearly always paper-piece the little guys and use the curvy road template I made when I first got the sets; so it's a pretty similar version each time, but it always makes me smile, so I see no reason to stop now. Most of the paper used here was scrap pieces I stamped on or punched. The trees background was a freebie from Flow Magazine; the red is Carta Bella. I stamped a Lawn Fawn sentiment on graph paper and colored the gifts with Tombows.

JB2607: Walking in a Whimsical Wonderland will run until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, April 8th. Hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's amazing card and link up your own.

*In case there are any auto manufacturers reading this: I would absolutely buy a red plaid car. Just sayin'...

Hip Hop Bunnies

These adorable Eyelet Outlet Rabbit Brads are helping the Easter Bunny hide Colored Eggs in preparation for the big day. White Daisy Brads are in the mix; and while Macaron Washi Tape isn't technically holiday-related, it does have sweet treats of exactly the right colors!

Hippity Hoppity Shopping List:

Rabbit Brads

Colored Egg Brads

White Daisy Brads

Macaron Washi Tape

The Eyelet Outlet Online Store has all the cutest cardmaking embellishments you could possibly need!

It's a Big BIG Mandala Monday

I have to confess this started out as an ordinary-sized Mandala; it grew to cover about half of my two-page Dina Ledger Journal spread; and finally I thought, "Just fill both pages!" So I did. All of which happened on three or four evenings over the course of maybe two weeks.  For the record, most of my mandalas are not completed in a single sitting; I typically have 20-30 minutes at the end of the evening for "freestyle" art and usually I start a mandala or a collage... or a collaged mandala if I can't decide which, lol.

I used a Mini Ink Blending Tool and Domed Foams to apply rainbow shades of Archival Inks in concentric circles; then added black Letter It Fineliner details; then some messy stenciling with Dina's Coaster Stencils. At the end, I got out some Posca Pens and used a detail blender or marker to tidy up some of the rounds if the colors split in a weird way.

The biggest impulse to keep going came NOT from something I did well; au contraire. Actually, it was a Big Mistake! When I was about halfway across both pages... (around where the ring of purple tabs with white hearts are... though they didn't have much detail yet) ...I added those 1-inch blue and green circles with Letter It's Polka Dotting Stencil. And I haaaaaaaaaaaaated them. I added more colors, tried to blend them out, tried to disguise with white, etc... nothing really worked. I closed the book and mentally added this one to the "unfinished" pile. 

But the next time I saw the unfinished spread, I remembered that when you can't manage to cover up something you hate, the answer might be (rather counter-intuitively!) to ADD MORE OF IT. Yep, I know it sounds nuts but... sometimes the "ugly" thing just needs more context. And in this case, I do believe it worked! Which is not to say that I love those dots but... I like them more and was able to finish the page. And thus another Mandala Monday is complete. 

Hope your week is off to a good start!

Sunny Days Ahead

I had a bunch of printed images leftover from the hybrid layouts and cards I made this week using the fabulous digital/printable papercrafting kit my friend, Carol Porter, designed. In case you missed it, this kit is called Tiny Tales Collection: Rainy Night; it’s going to be a multi-part adventure (hooray!) but Chapter One is called “The Walk Home” and is now available in Carol's NaysWorld Etsy Shop; btw, you can get there via the link in her @naysworld8 profile. I recommend hopping over to her account, because both she and her granddaughter have made some FAB creations with this kit that you don't want to miss!

This time I haven't done any digital wizardry, except to print several of the images (the lotuses and the newspapers) at several different sizes. Which, to me, is one of the beauty parts about using a digital kit to do traditional/ physical papercrafting: you can literally make every item as big or as small as your printer (and your 61 year old eyeballs, lol!) will allow. I used a mix of ordinary cardstock and glossy photo paper, which (serendipitously) makes it look like the main character is walking out of the rainy night-time scene and into a bright sunny day.

I, too, will be walking out into a bright sunny day; though in my case it will mostly be to clean our deck and do some yardwork. But hey, I'm not complaining, after a snow-bedecked winter, it's lovely to be outdoors doing ANYTHING that doesn't involve a snow shovel! 

Hope your Sunday is off to a good start! ♥

JB2607: Whimsical Winter Wonderland

"Whimsical" describes something, "Playfully quaint, fanciful, imaginative and slightly odd; often suggesting a lighthearted, unpredictable or charmingly unusual quality not based on strict logic." This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're asking you to use that definition and make a Whimsical holiday card… it might be mice decorating the holiday tree, a space-age midcentury modern wreath, some fun little holiday gnomes, or whatever says whimsical to you. Here's my card:

My friend Gina wrapped my holiday gifts in suuuuper-cute Hello Kitty holiday giftwrap; which of course I saved carefully and backed with cardstock. Then I cut out alllllll of those presents, trees and Kitties. (Yes, I am indeed nuts; thank you for asking.) I wanted my whole background to be that pale green snowflake paper, but alas there wasn't enough. As it turns out, I think that was a good thing, because it completely changed how I used the tiny cut out houses and trees ...for the better! The pine tree background is ancient Pebbles; the scrap of plaid is, I believe, Echo Park; and also quite elderly.

JB2607: Walking in a Whimsical Wonderland will run until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, April 8th. Hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's amazing card and link up your own.

More Tiny Tales

I mentioned the other day that my friend, Carol Porter, aka @naysworld8 has designed a wonderful digital/printable papercrafting kit called Tiny Tales Collection: Rainy Night; it's going to be a multi-part adventure, with new sets to come; but Chapter One is called The Walk Home and it is now available in her NaysWorld Etsy Shop. Whether you're a digital, physical or hybrid papercrafter, I think you're going to love this kit as much as I do... which is A LOT!

The kit has a dozen gorgeous .png elements which means they have completely translucent backgrounds for effortless digital layering; plus they resize beautifully and look great whether you use them in big or small digital art. But... it's not JUST a digital kit... you can print and cut these images out to use in layouts, journals or cards. BTW, no matter what size I printed them, they looked absolutely perfect on both plain cardstock and glossy photo paper. Case in point:

I made two physical versions of this Let it Rain design: an A2 card and a larger art journal page.

I layered some of the elements digitally before printing; and added others that I printed and fussycut. For the latter, I chose to leave a very skinny white border to get maximum definition. Lotuses are one of my favorite flowers, so I printed and cut LOTS of them. I only used a few in this design, but trust me, you'll see them again!

No matter what size I used or what paper I printed on, the images were flawless, scaling perfectly and printing beautifully. I also made a pretty large all-digital collage... just because I could, lol:

I added a digital background paper that wasn't in the kit; and I also very slightly widened the city street image to fit better in the square format. As you can see, there was NO distortion or loss of clarity. 

More projects to come. In the meantime, you'll definitely want to check out Carol's work (and her sweet granddaughter's who is already quite a formidable designer!!!) via Instagram @naysworld8 as well as her Nay's World Website and NaysWorld Etsy Shop!

Best Reading Quote Ever?

Building a card around Eyelet Outlet Brads and a favorite quote is a great way to make fresh, personal cards for friends and family. Stamps and journal cards abound; or format your fave in a text document, print it out and add it to your card. This card has a base of Book Washi matted with Wood Tape; and helping set the scene for a cozy day of reading, this sweet bear is surrounded by Book Brads; a cute potted Cactus; the tissues from our TP and Tissue Set; a Heart Brad; the Sun and Cloud Set; even a Mini Ladybug has joined the fun.

Cozy Reading Shopping List:

Book Brads

Cactu Brads

Toilet Paper and Tissues Set

Heart Brads

Sun and Cloud Set

Mini Ladybug Brads

Eyelet Outlet has all the embellishments to make your next card even more delightful!

SOS570: White OUT

It's time for a new challenge at Shopping Our Stash and this fortnight we'd like to see cards/ projects which contain NO white. 

I recently realized that it's been quite some time since I made a card with one of my favorite die sets: Hero Arts' Frame Cuts Tulips. If this set had coordinating stamps, not only do I not own them, I've never seen them. And while they look perfectly nice just cut from cardstock or patterned paper and pieced; it's actually not terribly difficult to add a sort of ruffley edge just below the top of each flower to make them look a bit dimensional. You can use inks, paints or watercolors, but this time I went with my trusty Tombows in three very nicely blendy shades of pink and two of green. When I had the colors to my liking I took very sharp Prismacolor Pencils in a coordinating shades of dark pink and medium green to emphasize the layers and add a bit more shading. I used gel prints for my label shape and card background; the one looks like it actually has a bit of white on it but NO, I assure you, it's very pale pink. I used a rich rusty orange-ish red for my mat and for the A6 cardbase. I even changed the top thread on my sewing machine from white to light pink before adding some machine stitching as a finishing touch.

SOS570: White OUT runs until the evening of Monday, April 6th. Visit Shopping Our Stash to see our Crew's inspiring takes on this challenge and start planning what you'll link up with us this time.

Tiny Tales Collection: Rainy Night

I'm so proud to announce that my friend, Carol Porter, aka @naysworld8 has designed this ah-mayyyyy-zing digital collection, which is now available in her NaysWorld Etsy Shop. Whether you're a digital, physical or hybrid papercrafter, I think you're going to love this kit and find lots of ways to use Tiny Tales Collections Presents - Rainy Night: Chapter 1 — The Walk Home (Notice it says, "Chapter 1... because it's a growing series… more stories are on the way!)

The kit features 12 gorgeous .png elements which resize beautifully and look great whether you use them in big or small digital art; AND no matter what size I printed them, they looked absolutely perfect on both plain cardstock and glossy photo paper. Case in point:

I made two physical versions of this City Walk layout design; one as an A2 card and one as a larger art journal page, about 6 x 9" including the gel print background.

I layered some of the elements before printing and added others that I printed and fussycut. For the latter, I chose to leave a very skinny white border to get maximum definition.

No matter what size I chose or what paper I used, the images were flawless, scaling perfectly and printing beautifully. I also made a pretty large all-digital collage... just because I could, lol:

As you can see, I added a background paper that wasn't in the kit and I widened the city street image just a tad to accommodate the square format, with no distortion or loss of clarity. I put a bit of a drop shadow on the lady and on the sentiment strips, but otherwise the images are exactly as they came in the kit.

I'll have more projects later this week, so stay tuned. In the meantime, make sure to check out Carol's work via Instagram @naysworld8 as well as her Nay's World Website and find the first Tiny Tales Collection in her NaysWorld Etsy Shop!

Don't Be Koi

Feeling a bit fishy this Mandala Monday, thanks to this fun vintage (octagonal!) needlework pattern I've used as a centerpiece. The petals are made from beautifully patina-ed vintage Chinese dictionary pages (thank you Liz!) and Big Dollar Trading stamps (thank you Stephanie!) while the circles are graph paper and parts of a crochet-stitch illustration. I feel like this needs one... more... thing... BUT I've been considering and trying out "one more things" for several days with no outcome. So it's possible you'll see this one again at a later date, if I ever figure out what to add, lol.

Hope your first week of Spring is off to a good(ish?) start! 

Even MORE Roses!

Spring is officially here but it'll be a little while yet until we see daffodils in our gardens, much less roses; so here are some that I painted using three of my favorite new Archival Ink shades from Ranger: Sweet Treat, Avocado Toast and Sand Castle.

I used a waterbrush full of Isopropyl Alcohol to pick up Sweet Treat ink I had smooshed onto my craft sheet, swirled it around into loose, semi-circular shapes, let it dry and then "found" the layers and petals of the roses and used Wendy Vecchi's brilliant Wonky Double Outline Trick with a Black Letter It Fineliner. For leaves, a vaguely triangular shape with the hypotenuse tucked under the flower works pretty well and a little bit of tannish Sand Castle ink mixed with the Avocado Toast adds interest and the illusion of texture. 

As with most of my watercolors (whether done with water-based or alcohol-based media) I like to use up any extra pigment by splashing it as speckles randomly on top of my design. So I did.

We Three... Ugly Sweaters (x2)

We're still celebrating THREE's at Jingle Belles; so this fortnight you can basically choose any color palette, any layout, any theme and any products; but... we want to see a strong group of THREE...something. 

I have about half a sheet left of PhotoPlay's (appropriately named) Ugly Sweater Party patterned paper, and I must confess that although I've had several of these sheets, I've never used it as a background or in any other way than as I've used it here. I really only want to cut out the cute little sweaters and put them on cards. So much so, that I had cut out four or five sweaters to make my THREE-centric card before remembering I either had to put some aside or make two cards with three sweaters. Obviously, I chose the latter course. I used my Elizabethcraft Planner Filmstrip die to hold the sweater trios and I had planned to stamp, "Don we now our ugly sweaters" as the sentiment. Because I could have sworn I had a stamp that said that. As it turns out, either I was mistaken, OR it's been hidden away by the gremlins who also steal single socks and tupperware lids. So after a bit of searching and quite a lot of grumbling, I just formatted the text on my computer and printed it out. Which doesn't mean I won't, for the next few weeks, spend a few random minutes here and there still vaguely looking for that stamp... Obviously... 

JB2606: We THREE Kings runs until next Wednesday evening, March 18th. Head over to Jingle Belles to see the Readers' Gallery and link your own tremendous trio(s)!

Chicks and Eggs and Flowers

Spring officially begins this weekend, and Easter is just around the corner; what better time for a bold and colorful card featuring Eyelet Outlet Chick Brads, Sun and Cloud Brads, Bright Fresh Flowers and Colored Daisy Brads?

The bold background is Simon Hurley's Egg Hunt Background Stamp which I embossed with Ranger White Embossing Powder, to act as a resist for a rainbow-inspired blend of Simon Hurley Stellar Inks that match the brads reallllllly well!

Egg-cellent Easter EO Shopping List:

Chick Brads

Sun and Cloud Brads

Bright Fresh Flower Brads

Colored Daisy Brads

Eyelet Outlet makes Easter cards (and all other cards, too, actually!) easy and fun!

Chic Birthday Card Set

The exclusive new line of Make-It Clear Stamps and Stencils can ONLY be found in the Ranger Store. Today's post features a set of four minicards made with the Chic Birthday Stamp Set, Sprinkle Hearts Stencil and four of the brand new Archival Ink colors. If you'd like to see the full step-by-step photo tutorial, head on over to the Ranger Project Tutorials Page!

Bokeh Batik

One of my favorite things about working with Ranger Archival Inks is that you can do a lot of the fun little tricks I love about watercolor, but instead of working with water, you use 91% Isopropyl Alcohol. BUT... for sciencey reasons I don't entirely understand, the fact that you're using alcohol instead of water means you can be working on fairly thin paper or cardstock and it won't warp or rip or pill or otherwise hurt your substrate.

In this case, I used an ink blending tool to add all of my Archival colors, letting them overlap a bit to create new shades in between; then I flicked on LOTS of droplets of clear alcohol, over and over, blotting them each time to pick up a little color. Until I finally had this very cool effect that almost looks textured. And, as you can see, my page is not lumpy. bumpy, ripped or wrinkly. Some of the color DOES seep through to the back of the page, however, something you might like to keep in mind if you try this fun "trick".

BTW, all of the above is just one tiny little portion of information I've learned from the very awesome Wendy Vecchi, and if you aren't watching her Tip Tuesday videos on Instagram or Facebook, you are realllllly missing out!

Another Button Collage

It turns out that hand-sewing buttons onto vintage paper collages is somewhat addictive. But luckily I have A LOT more buttons (...and a lot more vintage paper for that matter...) so I can't really see a downside.

I hope your weekend is off to a good start and that before it's over, you'll find a little time to indulge in whatever crafty activity you feel compulsively drawn to right now! ♥

We Three... Kittens?!

Ok, technically, the new Jingle Belles prompt is called, "We Three Kings" and we're asking you to create a card with THREE of one element: three circles... three reindeer... three packages under the Christmas Tree... you get the picture, right? But in my case, it was three kittens, as you can see:

In addition to three adorable vintage felines, my card has a few more threes: three torn patterned paper pieces and three pieces of doily. I kept trying to add "one more thing" but nothing really seemed right, so I attached the sentiment, did a bit of machine stitching and called it good.

JB2606: We Three Kings runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, March 25th. Hop over to Jingle Belles to link your card(s)!

Bunny Hugs

Eyelet Outlet Rabbit Brads, Colored Eggs and Mini Butterflies turn sweet stamps into an adorable Easter card that's sure to make some-BUNNY's day when it arrives in their mailbox!

The stamps in question are from Simon Hurley's Easter Bunnies set and have been painted with Sand Castle and Sweet Treat Archival Inks from Ranger.

Eyelet Outlet has all the embellishments you need for all the holidays you celebrate; and the EO Blog has all the inspiration you need to use them beautifully!