ICAD: The Last Round-Up

How is it possible that it's ALREADY July 31st and thus the final day of ICAD2024?! I'm pretty sure that no summer has ever flown past as quickly as this one. Many thanks to everyone who has played along, followed along, left comments, etc; it's always so much more fun to share ICAD with others. Of course, as always, the biggest and heartiest THANK YOU has to go to Tammy G aka @gypsy999 for devising, hosting, inspiring and cheering us on for another 61 days of creativity and friendship; I don't have enough words to praise a most artful and heartful friend! 

ICAD24-61: Diorama

How do you make a diorama using only index cards? Ummmm... very carefully? No srsly, I wanted to make something three dimensional but using two dimensional supplies (index cards and pens) so I decided the solution was layers. In this case the layers consist of the non-lined sides of four neon index cards, each carrying one component of a jungle scene and each popped up on a layer of foam tape for more height. Starting from the very back we have... the blue sky; then pink flowers (with orange Posca detailing); then green leaves and finally smaller yellow flowers encased in a frame around the edges to literally hold it together. This took a bit of time to construct and involved using the dreaded Xacto Knife BUT... this looks exactly like the picture that was in my head, which always feels like a win, doesn't it? Especially on the 61st and FINAL day of ICAD2024!

ICAD24-60: Planetarium

One last card featuring scraps of patterned paper, handcut shapes, doodles, and machine stitching.

ICAD24-59: Circle

Super-excited that today's prompt serendipitously coincides with my Mandala Monday strand. In my (VAST!) collection of funky vintage things to use in art, I found a few of the old-school 3.5 x 5.5 black and white postcards I'm guessing are from the 1930's or 40's, which happen to be from a collection of Bucks County, Pennsylvania images, which is where I grew up. My mandala is drawn with Posca Pens atop a pc of the northern portion of the Delaware River. I've done a few previous mandalas on postcards or photographs, but usually I feel that I've either covered the original image up too much or not enough... this time I think I hit the Goldilocks Zone (aka "just right"!)

ICAD24-28: Tessellation

I had a general idea of what "tessellation" meant... basically it's a geometric or semi-geometric regular repeating pattern; I didn't realize that technically, to be specifically designated as a tessellation, the pattern needs to have NO spaces and no overlaps! This is what is great about ICAD, you learn so much! I'd love to tell you that I came up with this funky fish pattern on my own but NOOOOOOOO; I did a Google Image Search and this one was a kid's art lesson on Faber-Cassell's website. I used a graphed index card and pre-drew every single one of the fish shapes in pencil, and it still took an embarrassingly long time and a fair amount of erasing but I DID IT! If you want to see really cool, beautiful, effortless-looking  Zentangles (both tessellating and non-tessellating) you should check out my friend and fellow Jersey Girl @Lorraine303 who has MAD SKILLZ in this (and many other) areas of art!

ICAD24-57: Garden

A simple collage consisting of a garden plan illustration and some other vintage paper that is largely hidden by the giant tulip; all atop one of the many cool library checkout cards that my friend Mary aka @millwoodstudioart shared with me. She shared some awesome catalog cards too, such as the one from last week about gardening with children... Thanks, Missus!

ICAD24-56: Playing Cards

Ok go with me on this one, it's a little tangential: doodley diamonds and hearts (or spades) in a wonkily repeating pattern. 

ICAD24-55: Off-Prompt One Staple Collage

Will this be my last #OneStapleCollage of #dyicad2024? Who can say? But it's Day 55 and we're coming down to the wire, so if not the last, probably the penultimate or the antepenultimate. From the bottom working upward, this one consists of: a yellow repro library checkout card; half a Mille Bornes scoresheet; a torn section of a European map (featuring northern Spain); an exotic belly dancer; a sepia-toned cluster of flowering dogwood, and finally a phrase from a Russian-English dictionary. All held together by the eponymous single staple.

ICAD24-54: Off-Prompt

Somewhat revisiting the #RANUNCULUS prompt from weeks and weeks ago; this time as an extra-doodley version in Macro mode. Tombow Dual Brush Pens and Ranger's Letter It Fineliners on an index card divider. Not sure what the "W" stands for... Wonky? Wednesday? Without a clue? 

ICAD24-53: Off-Prompt

Handcut clouds made of layered patterned paper scraps. With lots and lots of doodles on top. 

Trick or Treat?!

 We've been celebrating the new Eyelet Outlet July 2024 Brads which arrived just in time for Christmas in July; I'm not sure "Halloween in July" is a thing (yet!) but we've also got Halloween-friendly Candy Corn and Black Cat brads, featured in this fun Trick or Treat card along with an adorable Bat Brad.

The background is framed with bold orange and black Halloween Dot Washi Tape.

In addition to Candy Corn and Black Cat brads, the brand new July Release also includes colorful Retro Holiday Trees, and gorgeous vintage-inspired Angel Brads. See them all (and lots more!) in the Eyelet Outlet Online Store. 

SOS527: Up, Up and Away

This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash we're celebrating BALLOONS! They could be of the hot air variety or the kind you buy for birthdays, new babies and graduations, just feature one or more balloons on your project.

I've had Lawn Fawn's adorable Party Balloons set for probably two years and I think this might be the second time I've used them; which is NUTS, obviously. I've had the LF Giant Happy Birthday die even longer and have neglected it even more shockingly. The dinosaur is from Spellbinders' Monster Birthday collection and I've only had it for a few months and have used it more often. This particular paper piecing was part of the rough draft for one of the cards in my Here Be Monsters Class in a Kit and I thought he was adorable, but then I realized for that card, the stripey Lily Bee patterned paper would work better as grass on which the dino was standing, so he became a "leftover". Since I was diecutting fairly small items, I was able to use up quite a few scraps; since I needed a card for a young boy, the scraps I chose were all in blues and greens.

Check out all of the awesome cards the Crew have made to inspire you, then start planning what you'll link up with us. SOS527:Up, Up and Away runs until the evening of Monday, August 11th.

Liquid Pearls + Archival Inks + Stencils = Colorful Joy

Ranger's Liquid Pearls are super-versatile and add extra shimmer and dimension to any project and (as my title implies) they work really well in conjunction with stencils... a bunch of which I've used to make a trio of colorful encouragement cards. Follow along, via my step-by-step tutorial, on the Ranger Project Page.

Here Be Monsters

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: A monster, a panda and a dinosaur walk into a card kit… resulting in one of the cuuuuuuutest Paper Anthology Class-in-a-Kit selections ever: Here Be Monsters!

The monster, panda, dinosaur and sentiments are all from Spellbinders' Monster Birthday collection, but since it's a kit, all of the diecutting, stamping and pattern-combining has already been done; you can jump right to the assembling and sending. Each critter is adorably paper pieced and framed in his or her own little scene, with just the right embellishments, including various sizes of Googley eyes.  

This kit includes everything you need to make all three cards as pictured, just add adhesive! Easy to follow, step-by-step instructions are included, as well as a nice big color photograph to guide placement.

♥♥♥

Also new in our Etsy Shop, Cardmakers' Vintage and Found Paper Assortments; mini collections of curated backgrounds, perfectly sized for A2 cards.

The Here Be Monsters Class in a Kit and Cardmakers' Vintage and Found Paper Assortments are both available now in the Paper Anthology Etsy Shop, Paper Anthology Design; where you'll also find other Class in a Kit selections, Holiday Jumpstart kits and Birthday Jumpstarts, too!

Dashing Through the Snow (Week 2)

It's week two of our snow-centric Jingle Belles challenge for which we've teamed up with our friends at The Double Trouble Challenge. Thus giving you a chance to participate in TWO challenges with ONE card! As the title implies, for "Dashing Through the Snow" the brief at Jingle Belles is merely to make a card that features SNOW, whether it be snowflakes, snowmen or a snowy landscape.

As you may know, the "Double" in "Double Trouble" refers to the fact that there are several parts to their challenges, though the only requirement is to play along with Thing 1, which in this case is to make a window or aperture card. But the Double Trouble Gang encourage you to add some fun... try their options by participating in Twisted Sister's Thing 3 and/or Double Dare's Thing 2 to earn additional chances in their random drawing. This time, those twists are as follows:

Here's what I made this week:

I had made a few extra white-embossed panels during our Jingle Belles' "EMBOSSING" challenge, and since they happened to be snowy, when I found them again, I decided they were perfect for making an aperture card. I used an ancient set of Nestabilities' Labels 20 to cut the largest size from a panel I had inked with Wendy Vecchi's Night Sky Archival; then the next size down to cut a smaller version of the same shape from a  Sky Blue Archival Panel; then I layered both of those over a third panel inked with Violet Archival. I embossed the "Noel" from Wendy's Statements Chippies, inked it with Night Sky, added it on top, embellished with a few diecut snowflakes, et voila. Since all of my supplies were still sitting there, including the beautiful label shapes cut from the apertures of card one, I decided to build a second card with the leftovers and another Chippie from the same set.

Head on over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card and a picture of the prize and all the links to Double Trouble's half of this special Crossover Challenge!

Calling All Angels

 The lovely and cherubic new Eyelet Outlet Angel Brads have arrived just in time for Christmas in July festivities! This card features both shapes from the set, hovering near the sentiment, which is backed by two strips of gorgeously glimmering Glittery Tape in Copper. Below are a few golden diecut baubles, decorated with a Pearl Brad and a Snowflake Brad.

Shopping List:

Eyelet Outlet Angel Brads

Copper Glitter Tape

6mm White Pearl Brad 

Snowflake Brad

In addition to these beautiful Angel Brads, the brand new July Release also includes colorful Retro Trees, yummy Candy Corn and mischievous Black Cats. Check them all out in the EO Store.