yes, i promise to make a product-heavy card VERY SOON!

in the meantime, sorry if you're tired of my drawings and/or watercolor... clearly i'm "in a phase" lol! this particular card is for our brand new theme at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥, "frosty the snowman" for which we'd like to see (betcha can guess?) snow, in the form of snowmen (or women); or a snowy landscape; or even future snowpersons or landscapes... aka snowflakes. i went with the latter:

snowflakes drawn on strathmore watercolor paper with faber castell pitt pens in S and XS; watercolor background made with fuchsia, orchid and ultramarine color burst pigment powders; grey gems: eyelet outlet stickyback bling in three sizes; sakura metallic pens in silver, blue and pink; white and silver glitter + white organza ribbon: michaels; silver metallic paper from my stash; patterned paper: pink paislee; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i honestly thought the center panel would be kind of equivalent to patterned paper and then i'd add chipboard snowflakes or silk flowers --or both-- on top... as it turned out i just super-embellished the flakes with gorgeous eyelet outlet bling, glitter and metallic pen doodles and then added a little ribbon and a silverpaper frame.

stephanie has also made a super-cool (ok, sorry, but it had to be said, lol!) snow-centric card to inspire you, why not hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and admire that right now?!

earth, wind and fire... plus special guest star: water! ♥♥♥

NO, i'm not having a 1970's r+b reunion over here, this week's challenge at shopping our stash is called "the four elements" for which we'd like you to choose one or more of the following: earth, water, fire and wind... then make a card or project which represents at least one of those in some way. need some hints? ok, howsabout a goldfish in a bowl or a mermaid by the sea for water; birthday candles or rocket ships with afterburn for fire; a beautiful landscape or desert scene for earth; and a cloudy sky or hot air balloon for wind? i went a little bit tangential*, because i didn't quiiiiiiite "get" the brief at first, so i used WATERCOLORS to paint some flowers. fortunately, the flowers are growing in the EARTH... which isn't pictured, but it's there, ok? trust me on this! :)

flowers painted on strathmore watercolor paper with color burst pigment powders mixed with water (essentially you're making your own liquid watercolor paints in tiny batches and then mixing the colors on a palette or just in layers on the paper; outlining pen: faber-castell pitt in XS nib; pink gingham patterned paper: bella blvd; glossy white kromekote: the paper kut; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, sewing machine

ok, yeah, i know what you're thinking, you're thinking, "hey lauren, are you still totally in a watercolor phase then?!" and pretty obviously the answer is, "yep!" what can i say? i like painting, generally, and painting flowers, particularly, and i'll pretty much take any excuse to sit down in the evening and do just that. there are worse things to be addicted to, right?

be sure to check out the SOS gang where you can see lots more gorgeous inspiration, including projects by our lovely new design team members, stacey, maria, mimi and cyndi! be sure to say hi to those guys and welcome them to our neck of the woods, ok?

*you can probably get away with being a bit tangential, too, because afterall, it's meant to be a creative challenge... if you can figure out a way to EXPLAIN how your project fits one of the categories, i think i can assure you we'll be happy with what you've done. furthermore, anyone who submits a project which features the 1970's rock/pop group earth, wind and fire will almost certainly be featured in the shout-outs next saturday, even if i have to strongarm the other SOS team members into agreeing with me on this point, lol! so there's that to look forward to! :) :) :)

best fishes to the dads and grads!

it's my day on the eyelet outlet blog again, where i'm posing a question to my fellow cardmakers: is it just me, or are "guy cards" harder to make than girl cards? i think they're harder... or at least... i don't seem to get as many lightbulb moments, so I'm always extra excited to find products that do half the work for me, like these completely awesome eyelet outlet fish brads!

seriously, cardmaking doesn't get much simpler than this, does it? i watercolored a bit of ocean, stocked it with fish brads, and stamped a sentiment. job done!

o'course, not everyone loves to paint (and if you aren't into it, don't worry... i'm probably obsessed enough for both of us!) in which case, another great way to construct a water scene is to just tear and layer a few paper scraps. then all you need are some more fish. in this case, some supercute trout and bass brads.

once again, I didn't need much else, so i stamped a sentiment and did a little bit of machine stitching before calling it a day. i made a tall card this time, which i always absolutely LOVE until i have to photograph and edit it, lol!

need more ideas for grads, dads and other lads? check out the "boy" and "sports" sections at eyelet outlet! you can thank me later, darlings! :)

the blues are still blue*...

...but what the blues are definitely NOT doing this fortnight is appearing on holiday cards at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ because we've "banish(ed) the holiday blues"! here's what i made this week, you can see it has no blue. it does have a lot of neutral tones, much like last week's card, but that is just sort of a coincidence, they weren't made at the same time or anything:

journal card and tan geometric paper: pion design; gold transparency scrap: hambly; cardstock border strips: my mind's eye; patterned paper: craft and you design; florals: petaloo; leaf: prima; german scrap: from my stash; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine

i used a pre-made journal card for a centerpiece, and it just so happened that it went really nicely with cream and gold and white, so that's what i composed my background from. this week's sketch saturday sketch (#413) was very helpful in terms of placement:

stephanie has made a lovely card and the totally blues-free readers' gallery is looking pretty stellar as well, but don't take my word for it, why not verify these facts at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥?!

*for the record-- or perhaps the mp3 download-- "the blues are still blue" is the title of my favorite belle and sebastian song. just thought i'd share that with you. :)

SOS253: anything but a card

it's a change of pace at shopping our stash this week, we'd like to see --as you'll have guessed from the post title-- ANYTHING but a card! i made a minibook:

scraps of text paper glued randomly to a 3.5x5.5" chipboard cover wrapped in a piece of ledger paper; various ranger distress and archival inks applied with sponge applicators; butterflies are composed of liquitex white modeling paste applied thru an ancient heidi swapp stencil. pink plastic thickers: american crafts; pink tiny alphas: glitz design; book ring: staples; adhesives: scotch gluestick, sewing machine

yes, it's my ICAD* book for this year. if you've ever visited my blog during june or july, you probably already know what i'm talking about: i've participated in the index card a day project since 2012 and it's always a highlight of my artistic year. you most definitely don't NEED a special book to take part, but i'm always excited about ICAD a few weeks before it starts, so i enjoy making one.

this one's got a torn paper background (surprise, lol!) with some ink on top... because it's such a good reflection of what i've been loving lately.

i've stocked it with a few different styles of cards: lined, unlined, gridded and even some tabbed divider ones. again... you don't need to have a variety, or anything fancy, but whereas you'll never see me strolling through the mall trying on clothes recreationally, i DO love shopping for supplies and each year i've treated myself to at least one new kind of index card.

the leftover cards live --year round-- in this little box, so they're always easy to find. i had the awesome experience of nieces and nephew participating last year, and now we periodically get together for "art camp". matthew, when he has a lot of different ideas, will often ask for some index cards; even if he has his sketchbook or other supplies available. to him, you THINK about art via index cards, lol. so mine are always available!!! ♥

there are lots more awesome projects to inspire you at SOS... hop on over and enjoy those now!

*the index card a day project is the brainchild of tammy garcia, from daisy yellow art. it officially takes place between june 1st and july 31st, but you can do it any time. the point is to make a quick and tiny piece of art on an index card for 61 days in a row. you can use it to start or renew a daily art habit, to polish skills, to try new supplies, or just wing it. there are facebook, instagram and flickr groups and hashtags (# icad2016 or #dyicad2016) but you needn't share your art if you don't want to (it is a reallllly nice, supportive community, tho). the point is to emphasize the PROCESS of art-making, as opposed to outcome... hence the use of humble index cards rather than more traditional art supplies. read more about it HERE!

doodle, paint, collage, repeat!

last week, when i wasn't making cards or otherwise engaged, i was playing around in my sketchbook. here are a few things i worked on:

heart mandala doodle

i had intended to "finish" this --as in fill up the page & possibly add more color; but when i went back to it the next day, it kind of felt DONE to me, so i left it like this.

watercolor circles: before and after

my sister has just acquired her first sketchbook, so we've spent a fair amount of time recently texting and talking about --amongst other things-- how to think up what to do within its pages. one of my strategies is to start with a simple shape, like say, circles, and just randomly fill a page with them. usually it's a warm up, sometimes it morphs into or inspires a "real" idea, and occasionally the starter idea actually turns into a finished page. the point is to just get a pen or pencil or brush MOVING and see what happens next. in this particular case, i went back to the painted page and added a whole lot of really loose machine stitching, which was A) fun and B) looks kinda cool, imo.

sisters with heart in art prompt: "once upon a time"

a sort of fairy tale collage using elements from a bunch of different falling-apart old children's books that live in my collage area. (believe it or not, the light blue backdrop, the castle, and the blue trees at the edges were not only from three different illustrations, they were actually from different sources/artists!!!)

mandala with tiny pink hearts

another sketchbook strategy which answers the question: "hey lauren! WHY do you draw and paint soooooooo flippin' many mandalas, for pete's sake?!!" well, it's another "get that pen MOVING" scenario. most of my sketchbooking takes place after 10:30pm, by which time i have thoroughly depleted my stock of brain matter for the day. if i had to think up an original idea at that point, i'd NEVER get anything done. so i love art challenges and blogs that publish art journaling prompts; i make lists and pinboards of ideas i want to try out; and yes, when all else fails, i do one of my "comfort zone" activities. mandalas give you a built-in structure that can be taken in an almost infinite variety of directions, artistically. plus, i do just really like them.

sisters with heart in art prompt: "architecture"

another old-school paper and scissors collage, with an almost record-setting level of fussy-cut images. i confess that i hadn't actually expected to USE all of them on one piece, but that's what happened and i kind of like it, lol! :)

i hope you're having an excellent sunday, and that you'll be able to do something creative before it is over! ♥♥♥

banish the holiday blues

it's time for a brand new prompt at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and this one is not only kind of fun, but also a bit loosey goosey. for "banish the holiday blues" you can make any style of holiday card you'd like, using any technique, theme, images and ingredients, BUT... you can't use any blue! easy peasy, right? here's what i made:

patterned paper: studio calico; merry tag: "counting christmas #3" set of tags by katie pertiet, designer digitals (printed on kodak premium glossy photo paper); red and plaid tapes: martha stewart; glitter gold tape: eyelet outlet; florals and velvet holly leaves: petaloo; ink: colorbox; sand colored cardstock: bazzill; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, gluedots

this is one of the fastest cards i've made all year, and that is 100% thanks to this week's awesome retro sketch (#215) which instantly helped me decide not only how to place my ingredients, but actually which ones i wanted to use, which was awesome!

stephanie has also made a lovely card to inspire you, won't you hop on over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and enjoy that right now?