Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Hoppy Easter, Everybunny!

Eyelet Outlet Pastel Rabbit Brads are one of my favorite styles for Easter, and... they're on sale! I love how the five colorful bunnies add instant interest to my card, and how well they pair with the shades of EO Bright Stitched Flowers and Minis (the latter are also on sale!) Heart Brads and colorful Enamel Dots.

I used two sizes of circle punches to frame each Rabbit Brad with a few flowers, dots and hearts; but this design would work equally well with Chicks, Brown Rabbits, Colored Eggs, or pretty much ANY Eyelet Outlet brad style you love!

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

WEATHER or Not

Here in central New Jersey, the month of March might very well contain both daffodils and downpours, sunshine and snowfall, and possibly even a 70 degree day followed by hard frost at night. I suspect that's true in a lot of places at this time of year, so at Shopping Our Stash we've got a brand new challenge called "Under the Weather" for which you can include any type of weather (rain, snow, sunshine, clouds, etc) OR, if that doesn't float your cardmaking boat, you can make a get well card. Since I just nabbed me Lawn Fawn's uber-adorable "Beary Rainy" stamp set at Paper Anthology, I chose the former.

I know what you're thinking, though; you're thinking, "Hey Lauren, isn't the whole point of Shopping Our Stash to use up our older supplies?!" Which, of course, it is. But you'd be surprised how often one new item revives our interest in a whole bunch of older stuff! In this case, literally every other item on my card is at least two years old... like the Avery Elle Rainbows Elle-ments die set; and perhaps, thinking of the Hambly gridded transparency base, closer to two decades! The American Crafts Dear Lizzy cloud vellum is from around 2014, I think; the Fiskars raindrop punch is probably of similar vintage, and the scrap of blue glittery DCWV paper from which I punched the raindrops is absolutely ancient! I used my Tombow Dual Brush Pens to color the sweet bear, added shading with Prismacolor pencils and a few highlights with a white Gelly Roll pen.

I hope you'll hop over to SOS to see amazing, inspiring cards from the rest of the design team crew and start planning what you will make to link up with us this fortnight!

Monday, March 28, 2022

Mandala Monday Round-Up

Once again I noticed belatedly that I haven't remembered to do a blogpost for the last few Mandala Mondays, so today there's a bumper crop to savor! 


This week's mandala is inspired by and composed of papers from Prima Marketing's new "Farm Sweet Farm" collection, which has just arrived at Paper Anthology and is, imo, one of the prettiest paper collections of 2022! I started this mandala with a stacked hexie center (you'll definitely be seeing that again!) and added circle punches, upside down hearts, butterflies and tear-shaped elements. 
(PS: this style of mandala is the easiest everrrrrrr and also a great way to use paper scraps!)


A subtle lineart mandala, drawn with colorful Emott pens and surrounded by a Pinkfresh Studio Folkart Frame diecut that happened to be sitting on my worktable when I was getting ready to draw.


I bought this cool Strathmore "Grey Toned" sketchbook during a BOGO event at the big box store and haven't really worked in it much, so this seemed like a good time to break out the Posca paint pens and add pink, silver and white, with a little bit of superfine Pitt Pen black outlining.


Tombow Dual Brush Pens, used both directly on the paper and also picked up with a waterbrush for a looser and more interesting background. In the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

♥♥♥

I hope your Monday is off to a good start and that you'll 
find time to do something fun and creative before it's over!

Friday, March 25, 2022

Mad for Plaid!

This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're celebrating one of our favorite patterns: PLAID! There are lots of great holiday patterned papers in that category, not to mention stamps and stencils for creating one's own. They needn't be red and/or green, but in this case, mine are:


I started with a buffalo plaid journaling card from last year's Carta Bella "Christmas Cheer" collection, added a vintage station wagon cut from an old My Mind's Eye design, added some handsome Eyelet Outlet Cardinals, and mounted the whole thing atop an older Authentique plaid set on the diagonal. 

Stephanie has made a beautiful card to inspire you, and I hope you'll hop over to Jingle Belles to see it, forthwith!

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Hippity Hoppity...

...Easter's on its way! But there's still time to make some super-easy cards by adding Eyelet Outlet Rabbit Brads, Colored Eggs, and Chicks to store-bought Easter-themed journal cards. But first, let's make them even more appealing by adding mats of plaid patterned paper adorned with EO Flower Washi Tape.

I often use Eyelet Outlet Washi Tape as a background or a border, but sometimes it's fun to use it to alter/enhance a store-bought patterned paper, like this fun Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid. I built my strips of Flower Tape right into the existing design and I love the result!

These journal cards are from Echo Park's "My Favorite Easter" collection, which I got at Paper Anthology. I'm always on the lookout for products which pair well with brads, and these adorable cards match the colors and size of EO Colored Egg Brads, Chicks, Sun and Cloud Brads, Mini Butterflies and of course the handsome Rabbit Brads very well.


Stay tuned for more Easter ideas from the design team on the Eyelet Outlet Blog!

Friday, March 18, 2022

Sing a Song of Christmas

We're still celebrating holiday music at Jingle Belles and you've still got time to join the fun! Just make a card which features something musical... instruments, carolers, sheet music... or maybe even a cool retro vinyl record, like this one?

That cardstock "45" is an older diecut from October Afternoon which I came across the other day and knew I wanted to build my card around. When I also found this ancient "circley" patterned paper (so old I have no idea who made it!) I decided to add other circle elements and ended up with the collage of stickers, chipboard and punched patterned paper you see before you. 

I hope you'll head over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card and then consider what you'll link up with us this fortnight!

Thursday, March 17, 2022

Wendy Vecchi Lucky Clover Card

Erin Go Bragh! Saint Patrick's Day comes once a year, but we can (and should!) celebrate our exceptional good luck in having wonderful friends and family all year long! Today, I'm very happy to be back on the Ranger Blog, creating a green (and clovery!) all-occasion card featuring Wendy Vecchi's MAKE ART Chippies, Stamps, Stencils and Washi Tape; I'd love for you to join me there!