"now trending"

...is the theme of this week's challenge at shopping our stash, so obviously we'd like to see your take on one of the many popular images, techniques or products that are hot in the papercrafting world just now. i realize that seeing those words in connection with *ME* is kind of hilarious, lol; and if you suspected that i had very little idea what actually was currently trending in the card-making world, you're quite right! luckily, the SOS team had some suggestions (arrows, pineapples, stars, mustaches, flamingos) and my craft bestie stephanie tossed me a few more ideas (marble, gilding flakes, distress oxides, nuvo glitter or dots, mermaids, narwals, galaxies) so i was good to go. i chose galaxy and i'm pretty pleased with the result:

galaxy background created on strathmore watercolor paper using colorburst watercolor pigment powders by ken oliver crafts in shades of: lamp black, indigo, prussian blue, violet, wisteria, cerulean and ultramarine; flicks of white acrylic paint on top for stars; moon and stars drawn with a template on scraps of watercolor paper painted with gamboge colorburst and gold liquid metal; alphabet stickers: american crafts' thickers (moon), kelly purkey flat white letters (to the) and heidi swapp white chipboard letters for the rest; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine 

i bet i've watched 50 different videos in the last six months or so, on instagram and youtube of people making galaxies and then hand lettering or stamping or painting a silhouette landscape on top. this video by ken oliver is one of my favorites, especially if you want to use colorburst as your medium. in the video, ken uses the "spritz and sprinkle" technique, which works really well; but this time i decided to try the "smoosh" technique, because i love the blending effects i can get that way. so i put drops of clear water all over my 5x7" panel of watercolor paper, added various concentrations of different colorburst pigments, then placed a piece of clear acrylic over top to SMOOSH the colors together. i did this in a few layers, until the colors* had built up to where i loved them, then let the whole panel dry thoroughly, before adding white stars** on top.

i constructed my sentiment from three styles of letter stickers, including the luscious chunky glitter thickers that spell out "MOON". for the moon and stars i used an old-school plastic template to make the shape on top of a "rejected" yellow colorburst + gold liquid metals experiment, then cut them out with scissors. i originally mounted the completed panel to a glossy black 5x7 card, but it somehow didn't quite stand out enough, so i added a super-skinny white mat and called it good! since "anything goes" this week at the simon says stamp wednesday challenge blog, i'm linking up with those lovely folks.

be sure to check out all of the amazing ideas from my trendy SOS darlings, then start planning the amazing creation that YOU will link up with us this week! ♥

*if you're wondering about specific colors, for my version of a "realistic" night sky type galaxy, i used approximately 50% lamp black, 10% prussian blue, 10% indigo and the remaining 30% divided pretty randomly between ultramarine, cerulean, wisteria, orchid and violet. believe it or not, i didn't use ANY green, but there is a bit of green pigment built into the black and it serendipitously left some little greenish/grey areas i really liked. if you want more of an aurora borealis look, swap out the purples for as many greens as you happen to have, and try to concentrate them towards the center, or in a swathe. when i'm going for a specific effect my first stop is a google image search for say, "aurora borealis" and my second is a pinterest search for "aurora borealis watercolor". i will look at a bunch of different ideas, noting the bits i especially like or dislike. then i usually go off and do my own thing, which will not end up looking anything like any of the inspo pics, lol. but it does REALLY help me to have a starting point --grounded in reality-- before i let my imagination run wild.

**this is the first time i've gotten the white "splatter" effect of stars to come out the way i wanted, so of course i'll share that secret, too: in the past, i've used white acrylic craft paint, thinned with water, which made it liquid enough to splatter well, but unfortunately it was not opaque enough to stand up to a dark background. this time i concentrated on making the mix... well... more concentrated, lol. i combined glossy white acrylic craft paint, white gesso, and thinned it out further with some white chalkboard spray ink! something i forget every single time i do a splatter effect is that a BIG BRUSH gets you not just more splatter, but BIGGER droplets, as well. so you want a medium sized brush at the very largest, and you'll just keep adding layers until you've got the right effect. i found it looked more "galaxy-like" when i selected an area in which to concentrate the splatter and sort of stayed on that axis while i was flicking the paint. if you accidentally get a big drop or a smear, carefully blot it off with a paper towel. it will dull down the colors behind it a bit, but it adds that realistic "cloudy" effect you see in space photos. in fact, if you feel like your galaxy is TOO dark, or too consistently colored, i'd recommend strategically applying and removing a bit of white (or light colored) acrylic craft paint. good luck, and may the force be with you! :)

yes it's ANOTHER round up :)

because i haven't posted my collages or colorburst essperiments in a week or so, lol, so here ya go:

i found the coolest ever japanese kids' card game a couple of years ago in san diego, and i immediately set aside this adorable bunny as a sort of mascot. then, the other night, i was making a "clean up" collage and suddenly he was the perfect centerpiece. 

(ps: the torn, tattered, and seriously yellowed glassine envelope that i've used to frame mr. bunny makes me want to go through every box of random papers at every rummage sale from now on, just in hopes of finding more torn, tattered, and seriously yellowed glassine envelopes. hubba, hubba! ♥♥♥)

i am still obsessed with trying to replicate the collages of sophie klerk. i expect i will be for a while. the strip ones that run a series of images across in a line are some of my favorites. this one has a "pink" theme, as you'll have noted.

this little guy was a smoosh bird i had done as a demo when my friend lorraine was here one day. i had also been showing a couple of ways to blend colorburst (or keep colors close but separate) with a brush. a few days later--august 21st, actually-- these serendipitous shapes suddenly looked very eclipse-like to me, lol!

a "cleanup collage" that i made rather than put away a bunch of assorted bits of paper and tape that were on my table. also, fezzes are cool!

stephanie, whose link love posts every thursday are amongst my favorite things in the whole entire blogiverse, also emails me links to things she thinks i'll like-- with pretty much a 100% success rate as to that! i'm now thoroughly obsessed with koosje koene's sketchbook skool videos, but the tangential thing i was fascinated with in this one is that she said one of her beloved tools in her basic kit was the sort of rainbow colored magic pencil found in the kid art department. which set me off on what i suspect will be a continuing series of line drawings which come out in whatever color sequence the magic pencil decides to dispense!!!

another of my recent instagram art crushes is marissa seguin. i love ALL her art, but i'm especially fascinated by a series of whimsical collaged buildings she did over the summer. at some point, i'm guessing i'll attempt collages like those, but on this particular night, i just wanted to get out my colorbursts and paint... so that's what i did!

♥♥♥

a caroling we will go

it's time for a brand new theme at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and this time we're celebrating one of our favorite things about the holidays: the music! so what does that mean in terms of card-making? well, we'd like to see cards that feature sheet music, or sheet music patterned paper, OR you could base your card design on your favorite holiday song or carol; just be sure to tell us which one it is, ok? i went with sheet music inspired patterned paper, this beautiful greyish/taupe and white example is from a crate paper collection several years ago:

patterned paper: crate, anna griffin, kaiser; ornament, brads and journal card: mme; snowflake border sticker: basic grey; pearl strips: eyelet outlet; white kromekote cardstock: the paper cut; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i've added in a diecut ornament, a couple of brads and a matching journal card from my mind's eye, and used mats made from patterned paper scraps in coordinating colors. oh and i couldn't resist glamming up the hangers from which the baubles descend with some eyelet outlet pearl strips.

i was inspired by the current sketch saturday layout (#478), though i've rotated the design 90 degrees clockwise, and my "stripes" are the horizontal bars of the sheet music.

stephanie also has an awesome card that's well worth singing about. why not hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and see for yourself?

Bring on the Bling

I'm still mildly obsessed with all the beautiful glittery *BLING* options available in the Eyelet Outlet store! This time, I've combined some of my favorite shapes with stencils and blendy ink!

For my first card, I used a favorite stencil with a mixture of different sized Maltese crosses. I blended several shades of blue and purple ink, over some designer paper with a subtle "resist" pattern built into it. I added Purple Flower Jewels ringed with Clear Bling to the largest; Single Gems to the smallest, and a mix of Blue Pearls and a few Teardrop Jewels (coming soon the the shop!!!) to the rest.

This lacy, floral stencil was a bit of a challenge, because it wasn't quite large enough to cover the entire panel on the front of my A2 card. So I filled as much of the bottom of the card as I could cover; then moved the stencil up to the top... and covered the seam with Pink Foil Tape, Glitter Gold Washi and Long Bling Strips. I scattered a few more Flower Jewels over the design and added bits of a Champagne Bling Swirl that I had snipped apart to make it fit better!

A regular, geometric pattern is often less appealing to me, but as a base for bling, it turned out to be really fun. this time I created my own pattern around the inked diamonds, using Green Flower Jewels, Clear Oval Gems and snippets of a Green Pearl Strip.

I hope you'll be inspired to combine Eyelet Outlet Bling with some of your favorite stencils, I'd love to see what sorts of designs you can come up with!  

Be sure to tag @EyeletOutlet if you post on social media, and come find us on FaceBook! ♥

'tis the (FAVORITE) season

this week at shopping our stash we're making cards (or other projects) inspired by our favorite season. traditionally, that would give us winter, spring, summer and fall; but then there are less conventional choices, like football season, or the holiday season, right? so there's a fair amount of scope on this one, and if you can make a convincing argument, your project will almost certainly count! i chose spring, and here is my card:

watercolor flowers painted in various shades of colorburst on strathmore watercolor paper and diecut with tim holtz's "wildflowers 2"; patterned paper: amy tangerine/american crafts, simple stories; butterfly stickers: studio calico; glossy white kromekote cardstock: the paper cut; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine 

spring really is my favorite season, though i confess that part of the reason is that it comes at the end of winter, which is my least favorite. my card is a kind of funky landscape that represents the things i especially love about spring: the way the sun gets stronger and warmer each day, the fun of watching the trees and grass come back to life, and my very favorite part... the return of the flowers, in every size, shape and color imaginable!

my card is pretty straightforward, though i do have a little stash trick of which i am a tiny bit proud, so i'll share it with you. i often wind up with strange, narrow offcuts of watercolor paper that are too small to save, but too big to throw away, if that makes sense? having recently acquired a gorgeous set of long skinny flower dies (tim holtz's "wildflowers 2") i've found that they are absolutely the perfect solution! so any time i have my colorbursts out, i'll paint a few of the strips with whatever flowery shades i'm using at the top, and whatever greens i'm using at the bottom. then, when i need wildflowers, i have plenty of choices all set to go, in beautiful watercolor shades! in this case i adhered all of the stems directly to my "landscape" panel, but popped the larger flower tops up on small slivers of foam tape for extra dimension. at the end, when i sewed around the panel for decorative purposes, i made sure to catch the bottom of each stem, just for extra reinforcement.

the SOS gang have lots more inspiration to share with you, from every season of the year! why not hop over right now, darlings?!

i haven't done...

...a round up of funky/weird/fancy giftwrapping in a while. so hey... let's do that now! :)

one of my favorite things to use in place of traditional giftwrap is an old map. it doesn't have to be vintage, necessarily, though this one is. in place of ribbon, i love to wrap long strips of tissue paper or wall paper (this has both, actually) around a package. in lieu of a traditional greeting card, i've topped off with a random stamp/stencil/ink extravaganza that i made for an art journaling prompt at some point; with a personal message written on the back. a bit of thin cord with beads on it literally ties the whole thing together.

for a smaller present, a vintage book page can serve perfectly as gift wrap. in this case it's a page of applique patterns for a quilting friend. i added a couple of strips of butterfly washi tape to give it a bit of color and topped off with twill that's printed like a tape measure, and some slightly frayed and faded silk flowers i got at a garage sale. the most interesting thing about this, though, you cannot quiiiiiiiite tell from the pic: the top and bottom ends of the giftwrap are not actually sealed. so essentially, this is a sleeve of paper that i've wrapped around and attached at the back, which it is possible to leave intact, but still slide out the gift. which sounds like a crazy thing to do, unless you've had people refuse to UN-wrap their gift because it's too fancy to "ruin" lol. 

and then it makes perfect sense, trust me!

here's a set of photos that better illustrates what i mean:

behold a fun vintage map collage, featuring a volvo that is the same model (but a different year) as my chiropractor's most prized possession. it looks like any other wrapped present, but really it's just a sleeve that isn't attached in any way to the gift itself.

see?!

you can slide the gift-- in this case dvds-- out with no injury to the collage.

i'm definitely not the first person to notice and appreciate how convenient giftbags are. i tend to bulk buy the plain ones, then dress them up. sometimes i attach decoration directly to the bag, but often i decorate a panel... which i then attach to the bag with minimal adhesive (like 4 small squares of foam tape) so that it can be removed and saved, if the recipient desires. this is something i started doing when my nieces and nephews were young, in their case, i usually made a "happy birthday" sign with their name on it. but it's also kind of good for using up random watercolor or collage panels, made to try out an idea or in answer to a prompt or challenge. this one was for a "rainbow" theme, and i had painted the hearts in loads of shades of colorburst, then let the colors drip and mingle. the "happy" was an experiment using variegated yarn that didn't quite work for what i needed at the time, but i liked it too much to chuck out. to round off the theme, i smudgily colored some white plastic letter stickers with alcohol ink markers. 

and finally, a way to wrap a gift using patterned papers which are much too small for the gift in question: sew a bunch of them together, end to end!!! this example is from several months ago. it consists of five coordinating patterned papers, with twill in place of ribbon and a mixed media butterfly instead of a bow. scroll down for another example that has step-by-step directions! 

this is especially fun when you have a bunch of partial sheets of patterned paper you'd like to use up. or if you have some fragile sheet music or book pages you'd like to incorporate, which really would not be strong enough on their own. 

here are the steps:

1. gather your papers

2. tack the pieces together 

...on the back, using your favorite dry adhesive quite sparingly; tear the edges, if you'd like, to give the final product a bit of texture.

3. sew along each of the joins

...with one or two lines of machine stitching; feel free to ramble a bit, and make more than one pass if you'd like; choose a coordinating thread color if you want it to blend in, or a contrasting one to STAND OUT! :)

4. wrap your gift

...in the ordinary way, or construct a sleeve, like i've done here.

5. check placement

...before you secure the ends; in this case, i shifted the whole design over about three inches, so the most interesting seams would show on the top of the package!

6. decorate the package

...with ribbon, cord, yarn, or-- in this case-- a double bow of sparkly tulle and a big silk peony!

♥♥♥

i hope you'll be inspired to try some "funky" giftwrap styles, the next time you have a present to wrap. meanwhile, i hope you're having a wonderful sunday afternoon!

♥

a very vintage xmas

we are still celebrating "the spirits of christmas past" at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ by making holiday cards that use vintage-style ingredients-- whether they are actually old, or beautiful reproductions-- or otherwise evoke the feeling of an old fashioned christmas. and yes, there is even a little prize this time, in fact its a christmas ephemera pack from my very own etsy shop, just enough stuff. so you know i had to use one or two things like you might find in one of my packs!

vintage goodies: snowy cabin illustration and snow trees illustration, both from old copies of "christmas ideals" magazine; glitter paper: american crafts pow; glossy white cardstock: the paper cut; florals and leaves: petaloo, prima; sticky back pearls: eyelet outlet; ink: colorbox; adhesives elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine

one of the things i keep an eagle eye out for at book sales and rummage sales are copies of the old christmas ideals magazines, because they have the best photos and illustrations! they seem to be getting harder to find these days, but one way in which i have an advantage is that i don't need to find pristine, perfect copies. in fact i quite like the ones that are a bit wrinkly, or missing their front cover, or in which one of the original owner's grandchildren decided to do a bit of (presumably unauthorized, lol) coloring with crayons! people often ask if i scan the pages and use copies in my cards and occasionally, i do; especially when i want to re-size the item because it's too big or too small. but really, i love the originals... they have a patina and a vibe to them that is one-of-a-kind, which i find precious and beautiful.

something else that is both of those things is this week's atlantic hearts sketch, which was EXACTLY the right way for me to showcase a portion of one sweet blue ideals landscape illustration framed up in a second beautiful snowscape! i've added loads of textural and glittery flowers as a finishing touch.

stephanie has also made a second vintage-inspired card to help inspire you, why not hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and check that out, ASAP?!