Book 'Em!

I recently enjoyed "The Library Book" by Susan Orlean and it inspired me to get out my Eyelet Outlet Book Brads --and Book Tape-- to make some fun cards!

I love that the packets of Book Brads contain both colorful books and more neutral ones.I used five of the colorful ones for my first card, and went vertical with them... to make a whole entire shelf of books. I attached my computer generated sentiment (the free font is called "Bohemian Typewriter") to a fun yellow reproduction library catalog card, added some red Heart Enamels and placed the whole thing on a background of texty patterned paper adorned with Heart Washi, Star Tape and some Skinny Washi strips.

The sentiment on my second card is one I saw on a t-shirt in a book lover's catalog some months ago, and wrote down in my ideas notebook. I printed it on a clear ink jet label in a free font called "Beach Condensed" and affixed it to another faux library card. This time I used our beautiful Book Tape as an accent on both the sentiment card and the background, added just one stack of neutral Book Brads and a single Heart Enamel.

It just goes to show that time spent reading OR crafting is NEVER wasted! ♥

index cards (and a BEAR!) as far as the eye can see!

because, yes, another week of ICAD is over, we are past the halfway point of the 61 day challenge! and YES, i really did see an actual adult black bear, out and about this week; more on that in a minute. 

day twenty nine: terracotta

i used some beautiful pieces of semi-see-through terracotta fabric paper to make a collage, to which i then added a grid of machine stitching... that card is below this one. because, in the end, i liked the reverse of the card, with stitched squares, more than the collage itself. so i flipped it over and added some marker stripes.

day thirty: lemon or lemonade

this is the simplest idea in the world. i painted some lemon yellow colorburst circles on a nice sturdy tabbed index card. and surrounded them with rings of gamboge. when the card was thoroughly dry i added all the white pithy bits of the lemon with machine stitching. and then i put some pen doodles in the spaces between to make the lemons stand out a little more. 

day thirty one: mandala monday

more colorburst, on a different tabbed card. and yes, it was monday, so it's a mandala!

day thirty two: mis-matched

this was an ordinary index card on which i painted my leftover rainbow shades of colorburst from the mandala above. when it was dry i added some pen doodles and then i cut it up and re-arranged the pieces somewhat randomly. as it turned out, they don't actually look very mis-matched. but i still like the card.

day thirty three: off prompt

...because yes... I SAW A BEAR!!! just before 10am, in roxbury township, new jersey, on my way to work at paper anthology. i had been aware that bears are occasionally seen in the area. or more accurately, that the evidence of bears is occasionally seen in the area. thus, for example, we are very careful with our food trash, etc. but i was still extremely shocked and quite amazingly awed to see a very large, healthy looking, adult bear, just moseying happily along towards a residential neighborhood. which, oddly enough, happened to be called "deer view"; though i'm sure the bear couldn't have known that and been hoping for venison!   ...well... pretty sure, lol.

day thirty four: off prompt

here's my card from the 4th of july which was a very busy day with a cookout, fireworks and of course some DOODLING! ♥

day thirty five: ogee

yes... i still love cutting out shapes and piecing or stacking them together as patterns. and ogee is one of my favorites! (fair warning: i had some leftovers, you will likely be seeing this idea again lol!)

hooray for the red, white and... green?!

yepper! because even though it's the day after fourth of july, it's still friday and thus time for a brand new theme at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥! we've got a fun tic-tac-toe game this fortnight, for which you can choose any row, column or diagonal and use those three items in your card.

i chose the diagonal which runs from the top right corner to the bottom left. thus i needed to incorporate STAMPING + RED or GREEN (i chose both!) + RIBBON. and here's my card:

block party xmas stamp: uniko; colored with: tombow dualbrush pens; brads and gems: eyelet outlet; tartan ribbon from my stash; patterned paper: echo park, american crafts; glossy white cardstock: the paper cut; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, scor-tape by sookwang 

being a very very lucky so-and-so, i was given this BEEEAUTIFUL uniko "block party xmas" stamp for my birthday by a certain someone, and i couldn't wait to ink it up! (a phrase i would never, ever, be uttering if i didn't have a MISTI, which was given to me last year by the same certain someone!) since the stamp is 4 x 5.25" you really don't need a lot more to make a beautiful card. i did add quite a few eyelet outlet holiday brads, because the stamp actually included things like the triangle shaped tree, various sizes of snowflakes, an ornament, holly leaves, etc, which i chose to adorn with brads to add color. i stuck to a traditional palette as inspired by the "red or green" box of the game board and only needed to add a few mats and a ribbon accent to complete my tic-tac-toe choice.

stephanie also has an awesome card to show you, so why not hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ right now and be inspired?! ♥

July and August Classes

It's time for another new "semester" of classes at Paper Anthology in Kenvil, New Jersey. There are lots of excellent ones this time, so be sure to check out the Class Page on the website. Meanwhile, here's what I'll be teaching:

Hand Lettering: Fake It Til You Make It

When it comes to beautiful brush lettering there is (alas) no substitute for practice, practice, PRACTICE. But… I know one or two excellent “cheats” that will instantly make your own lettering (or even your stamps and diecuts!) look more polished. Part of it just comes down to having the right tools for the job and knowing how to use them; factors which we will explore while making two beginner-friendly 5×7 panels that students can make into cards, journal pages or decor after class. All supplies and pens to practice with will be provided, however students who own brush pens are welcome to bring their favorite colors to class!

Christmas in July and August: Let it Snow!

What’s more refreshing than the thought of cold crisp snow in the middle of a hot New Jersey summer? We’ll make three bold holiday cards featuring a variety of tiny dies with BIG style, including Tim Holtz’s “Mini Snowglobes” and Sizzix Sidekick “Winter” sets. Please note that some of the components really are small, so students will definitely want to bring their tweezers, fine-tipped adhesive and reading glasses!

If you're within driving distance of Morris County, NJ (take route 80 to State Highway 46 *or* consult this map!) we'd love to see you. All the details are on the Class Page of the Paper Anthology website! ♥

Did She Say, "Steampunk Goggles"?!

Yes. Yes, I did say STEAMPUNK GOGGLES! Because that's what's on the card I made for today, a pair of fanciful goggles surrounded by lots of Eyelet Outlet Gear Brads and Pearl Swirls and... well, lots of other good stuff I'll tell you about in a minute.

The goggles themselves were actually really easy to make. They're just layers of diecut circles, stacked together. The largest (dark brown) is about 2 5/8", the silver layer is 2 3/8", the copper colored layer is 2" and the die that cut the hole through all of them so we could see Victorian London (via magazine photo, lol) is just over an inch. I think the thing that really "sells" the feeling of steampunk and fantasy is that after I assembled all the layers, I set twelve (12!) tiny 1/16" Mini Round Gold Brads around each lens, to act as the rivets holding the goggles together. I also used a Pipe Brad for the nosepiece and a couple of tiny scraps of copper colored paper at either end to suggest straps.

The steampunk goggles I have seen photos of (because apparently YES, this is really A Thing!) all have gears and attachments and things, which I decided to add to the background, instead of the goggles themselves. I stenciled a few gears over some text paper. Then I got to work adding Gear Brads, Screw Brads, Valves from the Pipe Brad set, a Compass Brad, and even a couple of film canisters from the Movie Brads set, because they looked like a different type of cog or wheel to me! Then I added bits of a Pearl Swirl to suggest movement, and filled in with some 8mm Stippled Jewel Brads and loose Pearls.

For the sentiment, I used letter stickers in brown cardstock (dream) and silver metallic chipboard. I swapped out the "I" in "big" for a Pipe Brad and a Gear Brad embellished with a Tiny Round Brad from the Brown Mix.

I hope you'll be inspired to dream up your own fanciful creations, because there really is an Eyelet Outlet Brad for EVERYTHING! ♥

the dreaded...

...ONE LAYER CARD is the assignment this fortnight at shopping our stash. definitely definitely not my strongest suit, but i did my best.

i stamped the ink road bella flora flowers first with archival ink. they seemed like a good "stashy" choice as stephanie gave me this set last xmas and despite drooling over them on a regular basis, i still hadn't actually used them, lol. then i used a homemade circle stencil (just a large nestie die cut out of the center of a piece of glossy cardstock) to mask off around the flowers, and i stenciled the smalled segment of michelle ward's hash pattern stencil (exclusive to the ink pad) with soft grey ink. i filled in around the "paving stones" --i was thinking garden courtyard here-- and traced around the inside of the circle with a fine point pen. finally i colored in the flowers with some tombow dualbrush pens and a waterbrush for a softer look. et voila! 

there's lots more versions of one-layer goodness from the rest of the SOS team. why not hop over and enjoy those right now, darlings? ♥

cavalcade of ICADs

because there's nothing more refreshing on a hot summer's day than art on an index card, am i right? ok, cool drinks are also nice... but this post just has index cards:

day twenty two: bicycle

it's a very very (VERY!) abstract version of a bicycle wheels. with spokes, etc. wellllllllllllll... sorta.

day 23: off-prompt

at julie balzer's gel print class!

i knew this day, with julie's amazing 6 hour class at the ink pad, would be as long and tiring as it was fun, and i was right! so luckily the night before i had used some ancient vinyl alphabet stickers to mask a couple of index cards and i printed on them during class. this was my fave.

day twenty four: off-prompt

mandala monday

handcut mandala layers made from paint-testing gel prints. nothing fancy. because it was assembled at 10pm in my hotel room! ;)

day twenty five: rose

this is one of my favorite cards from the whole of ICAD so far. firmly within my comfort zone of vintage paper collage, but none the worse for that, imo.

day twenty six: off-prompt 

rainbow ribbon doodles

this card was made at the end of the night on which i finished my samples for a hand-lettering class i will be teaching next month at paper anthology. when you see the cards from the class, you will see EXACTLY how i got here, lol!

day twenty seven: inspired by maud vantours

i haven't made anything inspired by MV in a bit, but as soon as i made this card with folded, layered triangles i was immediately re-smitten. this arrangement also reminds me of the crocodile stitch in crochet!

day twenty eight: inspired by clover robin 

one of my favorite things about ICAD is the opportunity to "try on" different artists' styles and see what they feel like. i have just recently discovered clover robin on instagram. she is an illustrator who draws and paints with handcut collaged papers. it's kind of hard to explain, so just GO SEE! btw, it's harder than you think to just freehand cut out even quite familiar shapes without drawing guidelines. just sayin'... :)

♥♥♥

it's not too late to join the index card a day project! don't worry about catching up, just start on july 1st and do the month! or start today and do one week. honestly, the numbers are the least important part of it!!! think of something you've always wanted to try; then figure out how to put it on an index card.

ready... set... GO!

♥