Thanks a Latte

Hi guys, it's my day on the Eyelet Outlet Blog again! I love making all kinds of greetings, but Thank You cards are especially fun, in my opinion. And since I can never resist a pun, a sweet treat or a caffeinated beverage, I'm a huge fan of Eyelet Outlet Coffee Brads.

I love that each packet contains white cups, red cups and coffee beans! For this card, I've used the red cups and paired them with our adorable Doughnut Brads. I chose papers in neutral brown tones, so those adorable cups and the "thanks" part of the sentiment would really stand out.

It's always fun to add an interactive element to cards, so this one has a tag hidden behind the sentiment panel. And yeah... I had to sneak in one more pun, "DONUT know what I'd do without you"! The Doughnut Brads come in a mix of three colors, but I've stuck with the chocolate/brown ones this time.

In the background you can see my second favorite trick for making my own customized patterned paper. Obviously my very favorite trick is to cover cardstock with a coordinating shade of Eyelet Outlet Washi Tape, but this one's good too: I fill a piece of paper with text that reinforces the message of the card. So in this case, I've typed "thank you" in lots of different languages on a creamy tan color of paper that ties in with the accent color of the cups AND the pastry color under the chocolate icing of the doughnut.

Nope, it's just not possible go wrong using Coffee or Doughnut Brads... preferably together! 

Thanks a latte for stopping by today! Donut forget, when you visit the EO Blog, to scroll down and see what my Wednesday partner, Miss Carri has to show you! ♥

all buttoned up

as you may well have surmised from the title, this week's challenge at shopping our stash is to use (...wait forrrrr ittttttttttttttt...) BUTTONS! which is awesome, because if you're anything like me, you've got LOADS of them, but kind of tend to forget they're there. here's my card:

buttons and ribbon from my stash; patterned paper: echo park, doodlebug, october afternoon; paper flowers: eyelet outlet; glossy white cardstock: the paper cut; embroidery floss: dmc; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, glue dots, sewing machine

ok, yes, i realize it's the most boring way in the world (possibly in the entire universe?!) to use buttons: as the centers of flowers. what can i say? it was a busy week, and i don't think i sat down at my worktable before about 8:30 on any given night, so there was not a lot of innovation going on, if you know what i mean. in my defense, the flowers in question are some amazingly lovely older eyelet outlet printed paper ones. and i've used LOTS of them, lol! :)

i was inspired by the beautiful pastel color palette from the house of cards may challenge (tho i did not use the secondary option of sequins, since i had the buttons):

i've also got a "hint of pink" which is this week's simon says stamp wednesday challenge blog theme!

as always, the SOS design team has gone above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to inspiring you... so be sure to hop over and check out their amazing creations! ♥

May/June Classes

It's always exciting when the new Class List goes up on the Paper Anthology website! I've got two fun and colorful classes this time, so if you're in or around Kenvil, NJ, come and play!!! ♥

Birds of a Feather

Using the new Fresh Florals Color Burst collection, Lauren will teach you her absolute *FAVORITE* ColorBurst trick: how to “smoosh” drops of pigmented water into colorful ink blots that resemble fluffy, adorable, slightly zany birds. We’ll add eyes and beaks (don’t worry… there’s a trick!) do a bit of squiggly outlining (the messier the better!) and then… get the flock out of here! 

Please note: You TRULY do not need any drawing talent whatsoever; you will be able to do this! The biggest danger is that your birds will be so cute, you won’t want to give the cards away! That and the diabolical bird puns Lauren will be making throughout the class, obviously. (We apologize in advance for that part.)

Rainbow Swatch Book

How many times have you bought the wrong color ink (or paint or marker) because you couldn’t remember which ones you have? OR (even worse!) used the wrong color on a project because the shade was actually quite a bit different on paper than it looked on the cap? Here’s the answer to the artsy girl’s prayer: one super-cute, colorful, handmade book with thirty 5×7″ plain pages; plenty of room to swatch every ink, paint and marker you own! What’s that? Your color collection just got bigger? This baby is bound with a single book ring… you can make it bigger, make it smaller, or completely re-arrange it any time you want to! Not to be pushy, but you *NEED* one of these! 

(Please note, during class we will be constructing and decorating the chipboard covers, cutting the pages, and assembling the book. Students will fill in and label their swatches at home, after class!)

Full details regarding dates offered, supplies and price can be found on the Class page at Paper Anthology!

...my true love gave to meeeeeeee...

Thanks to a great suggestion from our friend Lela Meinke, we're still rockin' with the classic holiday tune, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ so here's a reminder of the options:

Create a holiday card for your *TRUE LOVE* 

(or for any extra-special person in your life)

OR... 

Create a holiday card with HEARTS on it 

OR... 

Create a holiday card that references any aspect of 

"The 12 Days of Xmas" that appeals to you 

Here's a reminder of that dozen rather distinctive gifts! 

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me: 

Twelve Drummers Drumming 

Eleven Pipers Piping 

Ten Lords a Leaping

Nine Ladies Dancing

Eight Maids a Milking 

Seven Swans a Swimming 

Six Geese a Laying 

Five Golden Riiiiiiiiiiiiiings 

Four Calling Birds 

Three French Hens 

Two Turtle Doves 

and a Partridge in a Pear Tree 

♥♥♥ 

patterned paper: doodlebug design, echo park, basic grey; enamel dots: eyelet outlet;
adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

This week I really DID go with the "easy" option of hearts, lol, thanks to having serendipitously stumbled upon this super-cute Doodlebug holiday paper! (...though for that matter, I don't think we can rule out the possibility that marching, parade-style, behind Santa's cute Vespa are, in fact, 12 Drummers Drumming followed by all the rest of the gang...) Meanwhile there's another fab sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge, and I've made use of it:

Stephanie is quite literally ROCKIN' the 12th Day of Xmas over at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and you really need to see her awesome card RIGHT NOW!!! :)

What's Black and White and Glam All Over?

This trio of elegant cards that are perfect for Mother's Day, on the Eyelet Outlet Blog today, for one thing! Not to mention every single one of the beautiful Eyelet Outlet embellishments I've used to make them. Including what might possibly be my all time favorite tape: Black and White Flower Wide Washi.

Stealing a trick from my super-inspiring design team sister Stephanie Severin, I thought it might be fun to try the same tape on a couple of different backing papers, just to see how it changed the design. I knew it'd look great on white (it does!); I thought it'd be cool on grey (it is!); but it really didn't occur to me that you'd even be able to see it on black. Somewhat to my amazement, that's actually my favorite! The other thing I love about this beautiful wide washi is that it has a very long repeat... I managed to wrap it around all three of my five-inch central panels before I came back to the same section!

Having got such varied results with just one tape, I thought it would be fun to limit the rest of the ingredients on all three cards, to see how different I could make them. So I've got the same White Paper Flowers, the same shape of Swirl Bling (in Pearl Black, Clear and Pearl Silver) and I've even used very similar positioning. On the white card, I framed the Black and White Flower Tape with Music Note Washi, stamped one of my flower layers for contrast, and added Bumpy Heart Bling to the center.

On the black card, I let the tape stand alone, centered the flowers with a Heart Enamel, trimmed the panel with Black Pearl Bling Strips and made a skinny mat out of Glitter Black Washi Tape.

For the grey card, I sandwiched the Black and White Flower Tape between two strips of Skinny Pawn Washi and chose a Round Black Enamel Dot to match the Pearl Black Swirl.

I hope I've inspired you to try using the same ingredients as differently as possible! Meanwhile, Carri has something great to show you today, too... her post is directly below mine on the EO blog, so be sure to scroll down and check it out! ♥

let's get ready toooooooooo...

FUSSYCUT!!!!!! that's right, we're back to basics in a big way this week at shopping our stash. no dies or punches are allowed, we'd like to see you hand cut something to use on your card, whether it be a simple label shape, a stamped image, or a bit of vintage illustration, like i've got here:

butterfly cut from a falling-apart old nature book; patterned paper: recollections + vintage sheet music; funky lace from my stash; a bunch of ancient prima "got flowers" which are very nearly old enough to be called "vintage"... at the very least they are "classic" at this point!!!; ink: ranger distress; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i confess that i had a completely different idea in mind before i saw the new inspiration board at fusion card challenge. but it's MUSICAL BUTTERFLY, people!!!!!!!!! challenges just do not get much more laureny than that, now do they??! :) clearly i've played with the proportions and gone more vintage-vibed than art journally. but still!

there's loads more fussycutting inspiration from my design team darlings over at SOS. stop by and get you some o'that! ♥

sketchbook catch-up: day two

i mentioned yesterday that i had somehow amassed my sketchbook goodness than i could comfortably fit into one post, so i split it into two. today is less collage-related, but the ones with titles were also made as part of rae missgman's "artmarks thirty day challenge" which has taken place on instagram during the month of april.

"encircled"

you'll have noticed that i often revisit certain ideas at intervals. this is one of those: layers of circles... punched or painted or handcut... layered neatly or wonkily... overlapping or lined up to make a pattern... i come back to circles over and over. i'd apologize, if i felt even a little bit sorry about that, lol.

"vertical"

when i'm stumped i will just tackle the prompt in a completely literal way. in this case that meant making strong vertical lines. i thought by the time i filled the page, i might have a really clever idea. i didn't, so i just filled the colorblocks with doodles.

"spiral"

this time the prompt dictated both the materials and the idea. i wanted to make textural spirals, out of paper. patterned paper was too bulky. plain tissue was a bit dull. then i found some cool patterend tissue... (in retrospect, i wish i hadn't added the stitching since it flattened the tissue a bit too much.)

"dotted"

i love colorburst and i love pens. some nights it's impossible to choose between them. seeing as i worked on this while re-watching the movie, "minions" i'm a bit surprised that there isn't more yellow... or bananas!

"connected"

a colorburst blotting page that got turned into something a bit abstract, with pen doodles that somewhat tried find shapes inside the overlapping watercolor. 

(what can i say, they can't all be masterpieces, lol!)

"transparent"

for some reason, i rarely mix collage, paint and doodles. NO IDEA why not, and i sort of think that might change in future!!! 

(untitled)

i hope your monday will be as bright and cheerful as this colorburst mandala! 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥