SOS553: Eat Five a Day

You may already have guessed that the new challenge at Shopping Our Stash, "Eat Five a Day" involves making a card which features at least one fruit and/or vegetable; which means I can skip the lengthy introduction and show you my card, right?

This is not just a card with multiple fruits (pineapples, orange, strawberries, cherries and watermelon, to be specific) but for sheer ancient stash-usage, it's going to be hard to beat. I don't think there's a single thing on here that is less than four or five years old; and a few things (like the faux polaroids and the Love, Elsie background paper) are probably ten or more! Basically I sat down with a neutral background, added fruity washi, and then piled on as many stickers and punch-outs as I could possibly fit on one 5.5" square card.

Be sure to check out all of the other gorgeous and inspiring cards from the SOS Crew. Then link up your own fruity- or veggie-centric card at Shopping Our Stash. SOS553: Eat Five a Day runs until the evening of Monday, August 11th.

Last Week's ICAD Round-Up

Here are index cards from the last seven days of ICAD fun:

Day 37: Mandala Monday

Off-prompt in observance of Mandala Monday, for which I have delved into some very cool sticker books full of rainbows and hearts, which a Special Someone gifted to me! ♥

Day 36: Road

It's a modified take on One Staple Collage: all of the paper ephemera elements are attached with one staple, but I've set them on a background that features stamping, inking and washi tape.

Day 35: Vanishing Point

This card involved more precision and symmetry than I usually attempt; and more time and effort of rendering than I usually spend, but it was both challenging and interesting to try!

Day 34: Fireworks

It’s July 4th aka Day 34 of #dyicad2025 and the appropriately seasonal prompt was a "blast" (sorry, pun intended!) to make.

Day 33: Lace

Probably the densest collection of doodley lines I have ever fit onto one white index card, wahey!

Day 32: Distortion

 A totally tangential take on distortion, which was quite fun to doodle!

Day 31: Mint Green (and Parquetry)

I pretty much love any kind of paper-piecing or pattern-making, but I especially love cutting scraps into strips and building them into #parquetry especially when there's some #mintgreen in there too! 

♥♥♥♥♥

Wishing you a wonderful, fun, productive creative week ahead!

Fa-La-La-La-La (Week 2)

It's the second week of our music-inspired challenge at Jingle Belles, so once again we're asking to see cards that incorporate sheet music, instruments or holiday song lyrics.  

This week I raided my stash of vintage sheet music and I chose a nicely patina-ed page to coordinate with this fun (ancient!) Basic Grey flower sticker. I added a few strips of washi tape, some inked edges, a chipboard sentiment and a shimmery red mat et voila!

JB2512: Fa-La-La-La-La runs until next Wednesday evening, June 18th. Link up your music-inspired cards at Jingle Belles.

JB2512: Fa-La-La-La-La

It's time for a brand new prompt at Jingle Belles, for which we are incorporating one of our all-time favorite holiday themes: Christmas Music! Thus, we're asking you to create a card that incorporates music, a musical instrument, or a holiday song title or lyrics. Here's my card:

Having decided I wanted to use musical patterned paper (as opposed to actual sheet music, of which I have MUCH lol) for this card, I was pretty excited to find a few half-sheets of absolutely ancient Love Elsie holiday papers from American Crafts! It turns out they paired really well with my fave Doodlebug character stickers and a chipboard sentiment I found in the Big Box of Miscellaneous Items! 

JB2512: Fa-La-La-La-La runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, June 18th. Link your Musical Masterpiece card(s) at Jingle Belles!

Memorial Day Mandala Monday

A-PARROT-ly, it's Mandala Monday, so here's a fun little Prismacolor Pencil design in my small Dina Wakley Kraft Journal. The centerpiece is an ancient Pepin Sticker from The Ink Pad; I've pulled the colors of the sticker out into the design, and outlined everything with a Letter It Fineliner from Ranger, for a little extra polish. Happy Memorial Day to all who are celebrating; and a big giant THANK YOU to all those who have served or are serving our country.

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!

MM11: Happy St. Patick's Day

It's a mean, green, Pusheen Mandala Monday, as my favorite Irish-American* kitty and I wish you a very Happy St. Patrick's Day, in stickers! 

*Pusheen's name is an easier-to-pronounce version of the word puisín, which means kitten in Irish.

JB2502: Candy Christmas

It's a fabulous photo inspiration this fortnight at Jingle Belles, so we're asking you to create a holiday card (or cards!) inspired by this fun Candy Cane Christmas image from Turtlecreek Lane. You can use as many or as few aspects of the photo as you'd like: maybe you love the the white tree smothered in ornaments; or the red and blue stockings could be your fave; perhaps you'd just like to create a mantel with stockings and decor; or you might adore that handsome Nutcracker. Anything and everything in the pic is fair game, just make sure you let us know what part(s) of the photo inspired you.

Here's my card and then I'll tell you my inspo:

I was immediately drawn to the photo's gorgeous white tree, smothered in candy-themed, candy-colored ornaments, so luckily I remembered that I still had stickers left from Doodlebug's Candy Cane Lane collection of a few years ago. I employed one of my oldest dies (Sizzix's Christmas Tree #2) to cut a tree shape from white cardstock, then spent an enjoyable half hour adding pastel candy canes, gum drops and hearts, plus some tiny pearls, before adding lots of colorful presents under the tree. I made my background a soft blue similar to the wall in the inspo photo and added another mat of red and blue as a little salute to those bold stockings.

Visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and link up your own photo inspiration greeting. JB2502: Candy Christmas will run until 6pm (Eastern) on January 29th.

SOS539: Glitter Me Happy

All that glitters... is welcome on a card for our new challenge at Shopping Our Stash! You can use loose glitter, Stickles or Stickles Glitter Gels, glitter glue, wink of Stella pens, shimmer pens, glitter paper... the choice is yours! I've used two of the above, can you guess which ones?

I made a background using one of my all-time favorite combinations: Stickles Glitter Gel in Galaxy with Simon Hurley's Grand Greenery Stencil on deep (DEEP) Matte Black Alcohol Ink Cardstock from Ranger. You can see how very very sparkly it is, even in the photo, which has probably only captured about 60% of its glitteriness. Those thin chipboard butterfly stickers are from the big box store and super-duper stashy: the last two in the pack and I bet they are ten years old? I used a sheet of DCWV black glitter paper as a lower layer; I originally had just a black cardbase, but I realized pretty quickly that since the butterflies had a thin outline of white I had better add a bit more white; which I did in the form of the cardbase and the layer directly under the design panel. The cardstock sentiment strip is from an older pack by Paper Rose Studio, and was the perfect finishing touch to my 5x6" card. 

Check out the SOS Crew's fabulously sparkly inspiration, then start planning what you'll link up with us this time. SOS539: Glitter Me Happy runs until the evening of Monday, January 27th.

SOS537: My Precious

The new challenge at Shopping Our Stash miiiiiiight be slightly more challenging than usual. This fortnight we want you to use something on your card that you're been hoarding in your craft supplies for way too long... it might be a piece of specialty paper, some vintage lace, or a fancy embellishment. We're asking you to be strong and give it a home on a card or project.

I have had this Doodlebug Doodlepop typewriter sticker literally for YEARS... it was actually displayed in my Art Lair! But I have a friend who loves vintage typewriters as much as I do and I wanted to make her an extra-special birthday card, so I bit the bullet and actually UNWRAPPED said adorable 3D sticker and used it and I loooooove how my card came out. The only thing older than the typewriter itself is that yellow notebook paper scrap which is absolutely ancient "Love, Elsie" from American Crafts. I wasn't actually hoarding it on purpose, but not only was the color and style perfect, it was pretty much exactly the right size for my A6 card. I think the Tim Holtz "Typo" alphabet dies are out of print, but I still love my set and was happy to break them out to fashion an appropriate custom background. Those pink Eyelet Outlet Heart Brads come in a set with red and white ones in two sizes. Sadly, they're going to be going out of print, but until they sell out, they're ON SALE in the EO Store!

Check out the design team inspiration at Shopping Our Stash and then start thinking what precious item YOU can use to make a card you link up with us this time. SOS537: My Precious runs until Monday evening, December 30th.

Stuck on Stickers

I haven't made a sticker mandala in ages, but I had so much fun with this, I predict you'll be seeing additional ones fairly soon! I used my Helix Circle Tool to draw some concentric circles and a Letter It Fineliner from Ranger for the smaller shapes that hold the puffy animal stickers. Reinforcement circles (cut in halves) and tiny triangles give the design more structure and tiny flowers have a bit of sparkle irl. In the center the sweet kitty from Dina Wakley's Pocket Circles Stamp Set is the perfect mascot!

 

SOS526: Summertime!

This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash we're celebrating SUMMER which means that we'd like to see cards and projects with a summer theme. That could be traveling, gardening, camping, BBQ, beach... whatever says summer to you! 

During most of my childhood, one of my favorite summer activities was going to the beach, or, as we said in the Philadelphia suburbs where I grew up, "down the shore". In my family's case, we often went to Wildwood, NJ and later to Cape May, both of which I still love today. To my knowledge, there are NO flamingoes at the Jersey Shore, nor are there tropical flowers and foliage; but there are lots of seashells. In the case of my card, the shells are from HoneyBee's Seashells Stamp Set c. 2022; the flamingo paper is from 49 and Market's Sunburst collection; the sentiment and foliage stickers are from an older Dear Lizzy line via American Crafts; and the ancient hibiscus stickers are from EK Success. I added brushed gold and pale pink mats, plus a bit of decorative machine stitching and my A7 card was complete.

Visit SOS to see what the rest of the Crew have made, then dust off one (or more!) of your older-bust-still-beloved craft items and make a card to link up with us! The SUMMER Challenge runs through Monday evening, July 29th.

SOS523: Sketchy!

It's time for a fabulous sketch challenge at Shopping Our Stash! Of course you can flip it, rotate it, stretch it or shrink it; just make sure we can see "the bones" of the sketch in your card.

Here's how I interpreted this awesome crafty road map:

I recently acquired an older sticker sheet from Echo Park's 2017 Summer Fun collection and the little scooter was soooo cute, I had to use it IMMEDIATELY!. Luckily, I had loads of scraps from various ancient Carta Bella, Echo Park, Authentique and Dare 2B Artzy patterned papers (this might be a record for how many plaids can be combined in one design, lol!) as well as some elderly October Afternoon washi tape and a border sticker of unknown origin. I've cut cloud clusters from a dwindling sheet of Simple Stories patterned paper and used a circle sentiment from the EP sticker sheet. A bit of machine stitching completes the design, not because it especially needed any, I just felt like sewing!

Head on over to Shopping Our Stash to see the Crew's awesome sketch cards and start planning how YOU will interpret this design. SOS523 runs until Monday evening, June 17th.

SOS520: Mamma Mia

Mother's Day (USA version) is just around the corner, so this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash we've got a challenge called, "Mamma Mia" for which we'd like you to create a Mother's Day greeting or a card for any other special woman in your life. Here's what I made

My mom is a keen gardener, a backyard birdwatcher. a proficient seamstress, she loves travel (especially Paris) and absolutely no form of bling has ever been made that she would not enjoy! I've gathered some ancient Pink Paislee and Photoplay stickers; leftover bits of Eyelet Outlet and Prima bling; and layered it all on top of the last few scraps of Blue Fern Studio's Bird Waltz paper; then finished off with a few pretty poppies cut from a paper that is so old I cannot even remember acquiring it!

SOS520: Mamma Mia runs through Monday evening, May 6th. I hope you'll hop over and see what the amazing Crew have made... then start planning a special card for a special lady in your life!

SOS517: Round and Round

If you've already guessed that this fortnight's challenge at Shopping Our Stash involves making a card or other project with a strong theme of circles or dots... well done! That means I can get right to my (super stashy!) card:

I started with the beautiful aqua-blue Hambly patterned paper with the rows of circles; stumbled upon a large circle frame I had diecut from some fab dark woodgrain paper but then (apparently) never used; filled the frame with a fun cloudy sky (MME I think, from 4 or 5 years ago?) then loaded on lots of fabulously dimensional tropical-themed stickers from Paper House Creations that somebody gifted me a while back... long enough for me to have forgotten who and when, but if you're reading this and recognize them, THANK YOU! In the last month or so, I have become completely re-smitten with my various corner rounders and punches and apologize if you're getting tired of seeing them, lol.

Our SOS517: Round and Round challenge runs until Monday evening, March 25th. Why not unearth some older goodies from your own stash and join the fun!

JB2404: Text Me

This fortnight's Jingle Belles theme is called, "TEXT ME" for which we'd like you to create a holiday card that celebrates text. That might mean using letter stickers, dictionary pages, texty patterned paper, or just creating a card where the sentiment is the star... just using a small sentiment doesn't count - text of some kind should be the star of the show. Use your words, get creative and make sure you get TEXTY!

Coincidentally, a couple of weeks ago I used a Memory Box's two-layer Brilliant Joy die set to make a set of holiday card kits for Paper Anthology, and wound up with... I suppose you could say... an excess of joy! I glued them into little stacks of three, so they'd have a little more depth, then used them to create a text-y background on a piece of Photoplay plaid paper, which I augmented with (ancient!) vellum poinsettia stickers, as well as Eyelet Outlet Poinsettia, Cardinal, Cardinal Profile and Female Cardinal Brads. I trimmed a sentiment from a red texty patterned paper (Elle's Studio, I think?) and matted the whole thing on another alphabet-patterned paper from Recollections. It's definitely different from anything I've made recently, but I love how it turned out!

Jingle Belles' Text Me challenge runs until Wednesday evening, February 28th and if you're reading this, you're officially invited to join us!

SOS511: Whatever the Weather

This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash, we're celebrating weather elements, such as snow, sun, ice and rain. Which means you can pretty much make anything you want, from holiday cards to birthday bags... just so it has something weather-centric! Here's my card:

This is one of the fastest (& stashiest!) cards I've made all year, thanks to the fact that I found both the rainbow washi tape panel AND the pre-cut-out sun and cloud element in the box where my 12x12 sticker sheets live; the latter being where I found the bird, the bee, the "wonderful" and the chipboard heart. All I had to do was find a couple of coordinating patterned papers and a 6" square Kromekote card and I was all set! 

Head on over to SOS to see what the Crew have made to inspire you, then start Shopping YOUR Stash to see what you can link up with us this time! Challenge runs until Monday evening, December 18th.

This is BIG

It's an Elegantly Elephantine Mandala Monday thanks to this gorgeous Pink Momma and Baby Elephant Sticker from my friend Gina's Redbubble Shop where there are pages and pages of stickers, stationery, tees, accessories and sooooo much more... all adorned with Gina's colorful stylized designs, which I would call Whimsical Realism. You should probably go take a look... afterall... it's Cyber Monday, right?!

This mandala was created with Black Letter It Fineliners in my (now sadly discontinued) Dina Wakley Blue Edition Journal both from Ranger Ink. The gorgeous orchids, which serendipitously match the pachyderms perfectly, were cut from a freebie calendar.

Multi-Week Mandala Mashup

After several months of remembering to post my Mandala Monday entries every week on the blog, I suddenly hit a little patch of forgetfulness and skipped two weeks in a row, so here are THREE mandalas to start your Thanksgiving week:

MM46: Distinctly Dotty

Lindy's Magicals background, Letter It and Posca Pens... with a little bit of Tombow detail

MM45: Super Sticker-centric

A little stash of ancient, rediscovered Mrs. Grossman's animal stickers

MM44: Predominantly Purple

Lindy's Magicals, Letter It Fineliners, Poscas and Tombow detail

Pink Christmas, Week 2

It's the second week of PINK CHRISTMAS festivities at Jingle Belles, so Stephanie and I are still making predominantly pink holiday cards and donating $2 a piece to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for each pink card that you link up with us!

Here's my card:

This week I raided my stash of supercute Doodlebug Candy Cane Lane stickers and used them to make a fun little snowglobe scene. I re-used that pretty pink snowflake wrapping paper for a sky and cut into some well-hoarded Lawn Fawn Knit Picky paper to make the background. I think the sentiment sticker might be ancient Prima, but it was in the "orphaned" sticker envelope, so I'm not entirely sure.

Come on over to Jingle Belles to see what Stephanie has made this week, check out the glorious PINK CHRISTMAS Readers' Gallery and then start planning what YOU will make!