here comes santa claus!

we're celebrating the man in the red suit this fortnight at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ so won't you join us and make a card that features either "santa baby" or one of the other denizens of the north pole, such as mrs. claus, the elves, the reindeer or... well, you get the idea, right?!

santa illustration from a vintage copy of "the night before christmas" which i've scaled down and printed on kodak premium glossy photo paper; patterned papers: october afternoon, echo park, dcwv, doodlebug; tag: echo park; ribbon: from my stash; glossy white cardstock: paper accents; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

sometimes it's kind of good to make a card in a bit of hurry, because it forces you to choose your ingredients quickly, without over-thinking. or in my case, with *less* over-thinking... cause i'm still ME, lol! it also helps to have a fabulous sketch. in this case, i've used retro sketches #207 to guide my layout:

stephanie has also made a lovely card featuring, "santa baby" and it's posted at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥... check it out, won't you?

hippity hoppity...

it's my day on the eyelet outlet blog and i just couldn't resist making one more easter card... mostly because eyelet outlet's chocolate bunny and pastel rabbit brads are sooooooo flippin' cute, and coordinate so perfectly with the rabbit washi tape and easter bubble brads!

more pics and details over at the eyelet outlet blog... *HOP* on over! (ok, yeah, that's one of my most diabolical puns ever... so of course i'm inordinately proud, lol!) :) :) :)

it's about time

this week's challenge at shopping our stash, that is, "cuckoo for you" by which we mean we'd like to see projects with clocks on them! here's mine:

patterned paper: bella blvd, k and co, crate paper; pocket and chipboard clock: teresa collins; trimmed down pocket cards: my mind's eye, crate paper, american crafts; bunting: pink paislee; ribbon: michaels; stickers: echo park, american crafts, hambly, basic grey, crate paper, sandylion; rabbit brad: eyelet outlet; glossy white cardstock: paper accents; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, gluedots, staples, sewing machine

i'm pretty excited to have an excuse to use the teresa collins clock pocket and chipboard, i don't even know how old those are! actually everything on this card (and there's A LOT of it, lol!) is pretty elderly, so it was really fun to just keep piling on the goodies! another thing that took me back a bit was the pocket; when my nieces were little, i used to make them interactive cards with lots of little bits and bobs and love notes tucked into a pocket for them to find... i haven't done one of those in ages, so it was really fun to revisit the idea. here are the bits and bobs inside this one:

there's loads more *TIMELY* goodness over at SOS, why not hop over there and see them right now?

a very vintage christmas

we're still celebrating the "spirit of xmas past" at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ so you've still got plenty of time to make a vintage-style holiday card with new ingredients ...OR... any style holiday card with vintage ingredients ...OR... just make something that captures an "old fashioned" holiday feeling to you! i went vintage... with a twist:

vintage image and text re-sized and printed on staples brand and core'dinations cardstock, respectively; vintage lace from my stash; layery glittery floral: prima; clear edge jewel bling and multi-sized bling: eyelet outlet; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine

because i love and use and even sell vintage holiday goodies (via my etsy shop, just enough stuff, which is sponsoring this fortnight's prompt with a bit of a prize! ♥) i often get questions from folks who, like me, love to collect and save cool "bits and bobs" but then aren't quite sure how to actually use them on cards. 

one stumbling block can be size... the beautiful english village scene i wanted to use on this card took up an entire 8x11" page! (even i don't make cards that big, lol!) then i thought it'd be wonderful to use a bit of dickens' "a christmas carol" as background, but the one i chose was printed on bright white semi-gloss paper... NOT very vintage-looking and totally wrong for the illustration! luckily, my handy all-in-one printer came to the rescue on both counts: i resized the picture to 60% and printed it out on plain matte cardstock; i did the text at full-sized but used a slightly textural cafe au lait cardstock as its base. et voila!

i've used this week's gorgeous sketch saturday layout (#403) very faithfully, though i did rotate it ninety degrees counterclockwise.

miss stephanie has a gorgeous card to show you, plus the "spirit of xmas past" readers' gallery is rather glorious... won't you stop by ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and enjoy those treats?!

happy st. paddy's day!

hey i know-- let's celebrate with an easter card!!! :) ok, yeah, it's kind of a weird combination, but today just happens to be my turn to show off... (AHEM!) or rather... to present a new project (that's better!) on the eyelet outlet blog, and there are so many fabulous easter themed items at eyelet outlet that i was dying to use at least some of them to make an easter card!

as soon as i saw the colorful easter egg brads and the adorable rabbit brads, i thought, "EGG HUNT!" i was going to do a bit of hand-lettering, but then i found these ancient ki memories pastel chips and thought they'd be perfect... i stand by that decision, lol. so basically all i had to do was use colorburst pigments to paint a little meadow for them all to inhabit. and that was about it. oh i added a strip of stitched washi tape because, let's face it, it's the perfect shade of purple for easter, isn't it? 

of course there are TONS more easter items in the eyelet outlet shop, including (uber-cute!!!) chocolate bunny brads, happy easter washi and egg-shaped bling... there's tons more inspiration on the eyelet outlet blog as well, where my amazing design team-mates are rockin' it every single day! off you go, darlings! ♥

oh me lucky charms!!!

comin' up on saint paddy's day pretty quickly here, so we've got a "multiple choice" challenge for ya this week at shopping our stash. you can make a last minute card for the BIG DAY; ...OR... you can make a project that's predominantly green; ...OR... you can incorporate charms ...OR... i suppose you could combine all of those together, but it doesn't really get you extra points or anything; though i'm sure we'd all be super-impressed, lol! here's what i made:

vintage papers from a few different old atlases; glitter and foam thickers: american crafts; twine: doodlebug; charms: tim holtz; book ring and plain white cardstock pages: staples; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, xyron, sewing machine

i was in the mood to make a travel book, for one thing, there haven't been any in my etsy shop, just enough stuff, in ages.

for another, i've got loads of travel-themed vintage ephemera that i loooooooooove to play with --AHEM-- utilize in artistic projects (that's better!).

plus, i just happened to score a very cool pack of tim holtz travel-themed charms in the clearance section of michael's last week, which seemed like A SIGN, lol.

so i'm officially listing this baby in my shop, as well as this "aloha" book that i made ages ago but somehow never posted. honestly, the plus side on days like this is that i feel utterly unworried by the imminent zombie apocalypse, seeing as how my brains are totally lacking in nutritional goodness, woohoo! :) :) :)

speaking of goodness, and brains, and glamorous good looks, did i mention my amazing design team sisters have also made fabulous projects just to inspire you? it's true! hop on over to SOS where awesomeness awaits! ♥♥♥

birds of a feather...

...flock together. especially if i make a collage for the #SistersWithHeartInArt instagram group's current prompt "BIRDS"...

...and then think to myself, "that would make a pretty good mother's day card, actually". at which time, i'd probably go back and make a second version, seeing as how the stuff i used was still sitting around in my work area...

...and (especially) because einstein's other theory of relativity states that if a couple is lucky enough to each have a lovely mum on the scene, there had better be *TWO* equally cool cards being mailed out in may, if one expects all the relatives involved to still be speakin' to both of you the day after mother's day.

so that's what i did. because einstein was a very smart man!

meanwhile, i hope that you are doing something fun --and maybe creative?!-- on this lovely sunday. ciao, darlings! ♥♥♥