SOS492: Somewhere Over the RAINBOW

If you've already guessed* that the new challenge at Shopping Our Stash is to add rainbows to your creation OR use the rainbow color palette in your design, then well done; I'll skip right to my cards:

As I may have mentioned before, I have a lot (srsly A LOT!!!) of washi tape and I enjoy playing with it, so for this challenge I made a few panels of rainbow tape strips and made them the catalyst for the rest of the design. 

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I also have a lot of patterned paper scraps, which I save especially for diecutting, so I decided to use my ancient Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers Butterfly dies to create a flutter of butterflies (...according to Mr. Google, a group of butterflies is either a Flutter or a Kaleidoscope; the latter seems more predominant but the former is so much easier to spell...) which I've attached with small Eyelet Outlet 1/8" Round Brads in rainbow colors.

As you can see, I got a little carried away with the tape panels and butterflies, so I wound up making not one, not two, but three A-6 sized cards. I've left off sentiments for now, so that these can be used for pretty much any occasion, whenever I need them.

I bet you have "too much" of something that's a bit older, but still beloved in your cardmaking stash. Why not re-discover it, color it appropriately, and join our "Somewhere Over the RAINBOW" challenge at SOS, which runs through Monday, March 27th. In the meantime, hop over to see the gorgeous cards the DT have made to inspire you!

*If you had NOT already guessed that the new challenge at Shopping Our Stash is to add rainbows to your creation OR use the rainbow color palette in your design, then SURPRISE! Because that is, in fact, the brief this fortnight. :)

"The Future's So Bright...

...You Gotta Wear Shades"! If there's a better sentiment to put on a graduation card I do not know it, especially when the "shades" in question are Eyelet Outlet Sunglass Brads!

I used a free font called Mom's Typewriter to make my sentiment strips and Lawn Fawn's Stitched Rainbow Dies with LOTS of colorful cardstock scraps to create a background of rainbows and clouds. I adorned one of the clouds with a Graduation Hat and the aforesaid Sunglass Brads, and couldn't resist adding Sun and Cloud Brads, as well as a few Heart Brads. Since I have not one but two beautiful nieces graduating from high school this month, I made two versions of this card, then kitted out a pair of envelopes with their names, as well as more Graduation Hats and Sunglass Brads; all on a background of Rainbow Washi.

Whether your family are celebrating graduations this June, weddings or anniversaries, Father's Day, birthdays or any other milestone, I'm pretty sure the Eyelet Outlet Store has brads and tape that will make your beautiful handmade cards even more lovely and thoughtful!

Week 2: ICAD 2022

It's Day 13 of #dyicad2022 and also Mandala Monday, so here's a round-up of the past week's index card art, working backwards from today!

Day 13: Mandala Monday

It's a paper-pieced version, this week, using up some blue scraps that were sitting on my worktable; enhanced with a few outlines, faux-stitches, and Posca pen dots.

Day 12: Blueprint or Cyanotype

Super-super-loose version of the prompt! I started out intending to make something closer to the mark, but when it morphed into doodles around the patterned paper clouds, I just rolled with it...

Day 11: Rainbow

Deconstructed pastel doodle rainbows. 

Day 10: Off-Prompt

I had been using Lawn Fawn's Stitched Rainbow dies and wound up with quite a few colorful leftovers, so I glued them into circles and added dots with pens and a hole punch.

Day 9: Off-Prompt

Pointy crocodile stitch doodles in funky pastel shades.

Day 8: Pictogram

Again a situation when the prompt got me started, and I intended to use a bunch of aeornautic-related pictograms from an old falling-apart book about the history of flight. 

But then I found the cool seaplane... :)

Day 7: Root

Scribbly Tombow daisies with dotty centers. Clearly they must HAVE roots, 

but I elected to show the petals instead.

Rainbow Brad Book (Part 3 of 3)

It's the final chapter in my Eyelet Outlet Rainbow Brad Book, and while there isn't a big plot twist or anything, there are some great colors, like Yellow, Black, White and Red!

YELLOW turned out to have LOTS of great brad styles, like Emotion Brads, a Party Hat, Work Trucks, Lightbulbs (they're on sale!), a Colored Daisy, a Sun Brad, a Classic Car, a School Bus, a Mini Bee Brad, a Peppermint Candy and some very cool Tape Measure Washi.

BLACK is a great place to use my favorite Music Washi, not to mention Eye Glass Brads, a Graduation Hat, a Bicycle Brad, a sweet Puppy and Paw Print, a Zebra, a Cow, the fun Video Game set, Movie Brads, a Spider and a Bat.

I was surprised to discover how many awesome choices of brad are WHITE! Kitten Brads, Toilet Paper, Clouds, another Cow (I couldn't decide if the Cows were more black or more white, so I added one to each page, lol!), a Heart, Sneaker and Water Bottle Brads, a Chicken with both Egg and Fried Egg Brads, a Ghost, some Eye Brads and a Skull. I used some Gold Script Washi as my tape for this page.

Finally, the color RED belongs at the beginning of the spectrum, and has been placed at the front of the completed book, but it was the final page I worked on. Below a strip of Red Dot Tape, it boasts Cardinal and Cardinal Profile Brads, First Responders, the Apple set, a Mini Ladybug. a Vacuum, Boat and Lighthouse Brads, an Anchor, Coffee, Holiday Coffee and Iced Coffee, plus our handsome Crab and Lobster.

Once I had all the pages complete, I placed them in (more or less) spectrum order. This shot doesn't really show the brads, but I love that because the page frames are solid cardstock in coordinating shades you get a great preview of all the colors by looking at the top of the book:

I hope you'll visit the Eyelet Outlet Blog often, to see what all of our amazing designers are up to!

Rainbow Brad Book (Part 2)

I'm still working my way through the rainbow of Eyelet Outlet Brads (and Washi!) so here are a few more pages in my Rainbow Brad Book:

The PINK page features Pigs from the Pig and Sheep set, a flowery Handbag from the Shoe and Purse set, a Stitched Flower, Thread (and Scissors), a Cupcake Swirl Brad, a Flamingo, a couple of Donuts and an Ice Cream Brad; with a strip of ZigZag Pink Tape.

The BLUE page has some gorgeous Cloud Washi, as well as Stars, Parrots from the Tropical Bird set, Mask, Hand Sanitizer and Soap Brads, Tissues, a Blue Bird from the Blue Bird and Robin set, Birthday Candles and a couple of Safety Pins.

The GREY page (technically there are no neutrals in a rainbow, but there are lots in the EO Store!) consists of: Mail Brads, Garden Tools, an Elephant from the Jungle Mix, a Muffin Pan from the Baking set and a Saucepan from our Cooking Brads, a Sketched Owl, a Koala, and some Pipe Brads; plus a bit of fun skinny Road Washi.

The GREEN Page boasts Wreath and Holly Brads, a Gecko from the Reptile set, Summer Trees, a Tractor carrying Colored Egg Brads, Wine Brads, a Dinosaur and a Tall Palm Tree; all hovering above some damask-inspired Green Pattern Tape.

Stay tuned for the final installment of the Rainbow Brad Book... next Wednesday on the Eyelet Outlet Blog!

It's a RAINBOW Brad Book

Last year I made an Alphabet Brad Book featuring as many Eyelet Outlet Brads as I could fit onto two dozen or so playing-card-sized ATCs. That project was so much fun I thought I'd do a different version: this time grouping the Brads --and a few coordinating EO Washi Tapes-- by color. So without further ado, I present my Eyelet Outlet Rainbow Brad Book!

The cover has a sticker title on top of Rainbow Washi decorated with a Rainbow Brad, a sweet blue Fairy and some white Enamel Stars. 

Eventually, I'll arrange the pages in spectrum order, but I've been working pretty randomly to choose coordinating brads, tapes and letter stickers, so at the moment, page one has all things ORANGE, including: a Pumpkin, Candy Corn, a Witch Hat, a Monster, some Foxes, a Tiger, a couple of Ducks, (...possibly a bit nervous being so close to the tiger...) Movie Brads, and the orange gecko from our Reptile Set. With a strip of Geometric Washi, to match.

Technically, a rainbow doesn't contain neutrals, but there are quite a few cool brads that are black, white, grey, and in this case, tan and BROWN, so I figured I'd add a few pages to reflect that. Here you can see: the Kennel Mix, a Paw Print, critters from the Jungle Mix and Lion, Tiger Zebra Set, a Teddy Bear, various Shell Brads, a Fan, a Sunglass Brad, Flip Flops and a refreshing Beer Brad. With a bit of Wood Washi to hold the title.

The PURPLE page boasts some yummy Grape Brads, a Butterfly, a purple Fairy, a lavender unicorn from the Unicorn and Rainbow set, Knitting Brads (they're on sale!) a Party Hat, Stitched Flowers and Mini Stitched Flowers (also on sale!) as well as Dragonflies; all atop some Checked Purple Tape.

The pages are constructed from graph paper, backed with plain white cardstock, and measure just a smidge over 3.5 x 5.5". I used my vintage typewriter to add the words on coordinating strips of paper.

There are still more colors (and more neutrals!) yet to come, so I hope you'll stop by the Eyelet Outlet Blog again next week to see more Rainbow Brad goodness!

Rainbow Layers

Dare 2B Artzy's Wavy Slimline dies and Nature Backgrounds clear stamps are each lovely and useful in their own right; but when I saw them, I wondered if they might be even better together? And I think I was right about that! Read more about these two colorful cards on The Ink Pad Blog today.

"Smooshing" a Rainbow

Probably your first question is, "What in the world is SMOOSHING?" and I'll get to that in a minute, but first let me mention that today's cards were inspired by and made using Dare 2B Artzy'x Slimline Curve Borders Die Set and the Mega Box of Karin Markers, both of which can be found at The Ink Pad and will be of considerable advantage to your crafting arsenal! There's a little photo tutorial and a second card made using these same ingredients, both can be found on The Ink Pad Blog, so I hope you'll hop over to see them.

Welcome, Roy G. Biv

This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash the challenge is called, "The Rainbow Connection" so I'm pretty sure you've already guessed that we'd like to see either rainbow colors OR actual rainbows OR both. I went with rainbow colors (in spectrum order, o'course) in the form of (ancient and mostly out of print) washi tape strips and then added my super sweet Gina K. Unicorn (from the Sunshine Wishes set) whom I've given a rainbow mane. Cloud punches and a few Simple Stories Sn@p diecuts against an older Doodlebug "Sunshine" patterned paper round off my card. 

Check out how the rest of the design team have made The Rainbow Connection at Shopping Our Stash and start planning your own colorful creation!

If it Rains...

"...look for the rainbows" is my favorite sentiment in Picket Fence Studios' "After the Storm" Clear Stamp Set from The Ink Pad. But if you don't love that one, no worries... there are also four additional sentiments, in a variety of attractive fonts; as well as three lovely images. I've used two of the latter on this card; the details of which are on The Ink Pad Blog today:

It's the 14th of February!

I hope you'll receive your fair share love and treats today, whether they be from a Valentine, a GAL-entine, or something special from you to you! Here's a "HEART-y" shaker card featuring Avery Elle's Oval Burst Elle-ments Die which I talk more about on The Ink Pad Blog today.

Look for Rainbows

I love rainbows! (I may have mentioned that, lol!) So I'm pretty pleased that Eyelet Outlet has Rainbow Tape (several styles, in fact) and Rainbow Brads (they come with unicorns!) and I'll take any excuse to use one or both, especially if I can also work in rainbow shades of Boot Brads or a rainbow of alphabet stickers... or all of the above!

I made two tape backgrounds from my current favorite Rainbow Washi; and used a fun handwriting font to print sentiments onto plain white cardstock. Cloud-edge dies continue the theme. My first card has a line of Boot Brads in rainbow order (there are five different colors, but don't worry, you get six MATCHING pairs of boots in each set!) The second card has only one pair of boots, but to set the scene, I've also incorporated Sun and Clouds, plus a rainbow from the Unicorn and Rainbow Brad set. Both cards have blue Tear Drop Bling rain splashes.

I hope these rainbows have brightened up your day, and if so, remember there are lots more at Eyelet Outlet!

The Power of *Negative* Thinking

When it comes to diecutting, "negative" thinking can be quite an advantage. When you think about it, each cut actually results in TWO pieces: the shape itself, plus the remaining cardstock with an aperture in it, which is known as negative space. More about that on The Ink Pad Blog today, where there's also a second card I made using the negative space from the diecuts on this one!

Am I the Only One...

...who loves to make art featuring art supplies? Somehow I doubt it. Case in point, the super-bright, rainbowlicious card featuring Neat and Tangled's Paint Night Stamp Set I'm showing off on The Ink Pad Blog today! Here's a sneak peek:

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

When my niece Madeline was little, any time she was asked what her favorite color was, she immediately said, "RAINBOW!" Maddie is thirteen now, but I'm pretty sure that rainbow is still her favorite color, and it's mine, as well. So today I have a trio of rainbow cards which feature some of my favorite old and new Eyelet Outlet products.

Have you seen the brand new Pipe Brad Sets? I think they're one of the coolest items in the new Fall Release, because there are just so many ways to use them! Each packet contains faucets, valves, straight pipe and elbow joints, so the combinations are nearly endless. My fellow designer, Susan made this clever card using the pipes and valves and this one that features one of the faucets quite brilliantly. Mine is not as practical, but it has a lot more color, lol! I pieced together a bunch of the pipe segments and had them lead to a faucet that dispenses rainbow swirls which I water colored using all my favorite shades of ColorBurst pigment powders. I added a computer generated sentiment mounted on a mat of Glitter Black Washi for a bit of sparkle.

My second rainbow idea involves a bunch of my favorite Eyelet Outlet Washi Tapes, including: Purple Zig Zag, Blue Dots, Skinny Green Stripe, Tape Measure Washi, Orange Fans, Red Dots and just a few of the colors from the Skinny Washi set. I used the same sentiment as the first card, but this time I trimmed it into a little banner shape and added a Heart Brad.

For my third card, I got my ColorBursts out again, and this time painted swirling lines in colors that match the six shades which come in each pack of Crayon Brads. These are no longer in stock online, but I did manage to snag some this summer in the EO booth at Scrapbook Expo, so it's definitely worth a trip if that fun show comes to your town! (I got those fab Gingham washi tapes there, too!)

My top tip for neatening up watercolor accents is to use a very fine-lined black pen to outline each element, then fill in any voids with a coordinating brush pen. I added a multi-color sentiment this time, and called it a day.

The EO design team have been super-inspired by all of the new brads in the Fall Release, so be sure and check the blog each day and see what we are getting up to next! ♥

*ALL* the colors!

if you've ever asked my niece maddie what her favorite color is, she will have said, without the least bit of hesitation, "RAINBOW!" at the age of twelve she's old enough to know that technically, rainbow isn't a color, as such. but she doesn't care. it's still her favorite. something i've noticed lately in my sketchbook is that if i'm doodling or doing anything abstract without being given a specific palette, i will probably use my favorite color: RAINBOW! :)

this color burst watercolor was made for #sisters with heart in art on instagram, the prompt was "drips and drops". well, that just SCREAMS rainbow hearts, doesn't it?!

this was a marker testing page that i later filled up with black pen doodles. well a girl's gotta do something at 10:30pm, right?!

someone asked me recently if my half- and two-thirds mandalas actually go off the page, or if i just crop them that way for instagram. IG does kind of force you into a square, so sometimes i am posting a slightly smaller version than real life, but if they look like they go off the page, it's most likely because they do. i just find it more dynamic when the art fills up the space really well. also... symmetry is HARD you guys! 

i had fun in september jumping intermittently on an instagram challenge hosted by @aisforanika called #backtopattern. this particular prompt was "shapes". i'm still not sure what possessed me to do that much precise measuring and coloring, but i like the result; sort of "vitruvian man" meets 1970's tv test pattern, eh?

another #sisterswithheartinart prompt, this one was "circles" and i had just gotten a tiny (round!) paint set on a trip to the metropolitan museum of art.  

another day of #backtopattern, this time "paisley". i actually set out to make a funky version of a color wheel using all the shades of color burst, similar to some very cool ones i saw on ken oliver's facebook page. well, i DID use all the shades of color burst, lol, so there's that... :) 

whatever ♥YOUR♥ favorite color is, i hope before this lovely sunday ends you will have used a bit of it in a project that makes you especially happy!!! ♥