Ahoy, Matey!

Pirates LOVE a good party, especially when it comes to birthdays! This pirate has brought along a treasure chest full of gold (aka Eyelet Outlet Glitter Enamels) as well as his trusty Compass Brad and a Parrot pal (from our Tropical Birds set). Setting the scene, Sun and Cloud Brads, a Tall Palm Tree and the Crab from our Crab and Lobster set; while Wood Washi and Map Tape make great accents.

Pirate-Friendly Shopping List:

Compass Brad

Tropical Bird Brads

Sun and Cloud Brads

Tall Palm Tree Brads

Crab and Lobster Brads

Wood Washi

Map Tape 

Glitter Gold Enamels

Visit the Eyelet Outlet Online Store to find the perfect embellishments to enhance your favorite stamps and dies!

MM09: Oxide Ink Blending

Sometimes you just want to sit and blend your favorite analogous Distress Oxide Inks in a big concentric circles, am I right? Ok, maybe that's just me... but after I finished blending and splashing and speckling with the Oxides, I drew a mandala on top with my Letter it Fineliners and added accents to some of the detail shapes with coordinating colors of Tombow Dual Brush Pens. And thus we have a Super Sunshiney Mandala for the first Monday of March!

NEW Holiday Jumpstart: TREE-mendous!

Holiday Jumpstart: TREE-mendous is Paper Anthology's newest holiday card kit, which features a gorgeously intricate, three-layer Classic Christmas Tree, pre-diecut for you; plus all of the elements needed to make the featured card as shown.

Paper Anthology’s Holiday Jumpstart Card Kit is a pre-packaged kit that includes everything you need (except adhesive) to complete FIVE copies of this new original holiday card design. This edition is called “TREE-mendous” based on the card's lovely focal point and festive background.

Don’t we all adore the IDEA of making holiday cards throughout the year, instead being overloaded in November and December? But sometimes it’s hard to be inspired during the “off-season”. This pre-packaged kit features everything you need (except adhesive) to complete five beautiful, detailed and colorful cards, including card bases, complete written instructions (not pictured, but included!) and a nice big photo for reference.

This kit contains:

Five background panels with scalloped corners
Five red curvy backdrops
Five solid green tree layers
Five tan tree trunk pieces
Five sets of three-part foliage
Five banner sentiments
Five banner backers
Twenty-five baubles
Five white A2 cards
Complete written instructions with large color photo

Purchase Holiday Jumpstart: TREE-mendous in our Etsy Shop, Paper Anthology Design; and check out our other Jumpstart Kits as well as three-card class kits and more!

BLING on the Holidays

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're celebrating (...you guessed it...) BLING! So make a card featuring jewels, gems, beads, pearls, glitter, stickles, or anything sparkly and join the fun!

I've had these Bling Snowflakes from the big box store for aggggggggges, so I was determined to use them for this prompt. I found a funky gel print made (at some un-remembered time, lol) by using an ancient Darice snowflake embossing folder to remove paint from the plate. I added some older Tim Holtz metallic rub-on transfers to enhance the holiday theme. My sentiment and mat are white glitter cardstock and the finished card is an A6.

JB2505: BLING on the Holidays runs until the evening of Wednesday, March 12th. Visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful BLING-centric card and find all of the details (and the Linky tool) there!

Puppy Love

In case you're having a RUFF day, here are some adorable Eyelet Outlet Puppy Brads to cheer you up! The puppies have been paired with the bowl and bone from our Kennel Mix, as well as Paw Brads, Paw Washi and Wood Tape. 

Shopping List:

Puppy Brads

Kennel Mix

Paw Brads

Paw Washi

Wood Tape 

Whether you love dogs, cats, lizards, sheep, cows, tigers, monkeys or even polar bears, the Eyelet Outlet Store has all the best animal brads and tapes for your cards and projects!

It's the Dreaded ONE LAYER Card!

This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash the challenge (#542) is called, "One is the Loneliest Number"* because we're making single-layer cards that don't have anything glued on. So put your thinking cap on and get out those stamps, stencils, inks and masks!

I cannot tell a lie: one layer cards are definitely NOT part of my crafty comfort zone. Luckily, I've been watching Wendy Vecchi's Tip Tuesday Reels for the last couple of years, and I have learned A LOT from her. So when this challenge was announced, I immediately got out my favorite WV Studio 490 stamps and stencils, plus my WV Archival Inks from Ranger. I was pretty proud that I knew to stamp and mask the flower cluster from Delightful Art FIRST; (incorrect image order has tripped me up in the past!) then stencil a selected area of the Rectangle Grate pattern in Night Sky; then stamp the Botanical Register text in Watering Can; and finally add the small hearts and sentiment from Merci and More. Finally, I colored the florals using Cactus Flower and Leaf Green Archivals with the coordinating stencil, adding in a bit of shading with colored pencils at the very end.

I hope you'll visit SOS to see the gorgeous cards the rest of the Crew have made to inspire you. Then give the One Layer Card a go. SOS542: One is the Loneliest Number runs until Monday evening, March 10th.

*Thank you Three Dog Night for the perfect nostalgic song cue; though I also like the Aimee Mann version.

MM08

Diamonds are a Mandala's best friend! This is my first attempt at a Diamond Window Mandala and it's maybe a 47% match to the idea that was in my head. So you'll probably be seeing something similar before too long. (I'll let you decide if that's a promise or a warning, lol!) :)

Peek-a-Boo Diamond Window Mandala

in my large Dina Wakley Journal from Ranger.

Drawn with Distress Watercolor Pencils 

and outlined with Letter It Fineliners