Holiday Shape Up!

It's the second week of "Shaping Up for the Holidays" at Jingle Belles and you're still invited to join the fun. Here's what I made this week:

I found a cute clipart hat online, printed a couple of copies on plain white cardstock so I could cut it into a pattern; then paper-pieced the hat, brim and bobble using two sizes of Lawn Fawn's Knit Picky papers. I had been planning to adorn the brims with brads, but stumbled upon these fun Doodlebug enamel leaves and berries and just like that, my choice was made!

All the details (and the Linky tool) for joining our Jingle Belles Shape Up fun are on the original post, which is HERE. This challenge wraps up on Wednesday evening, February 12th.

Here Fishy Fishy

Now that January is o-FISH-ally FIN-ished and dusk is taking place after 5pm (yay!!!) in the northeast, let's celebrate with a couple of collage cards featuring the amazing mixed media digital art of my friend Gina, who has a variety of very cool products available in her Redbubble. Zazzle and Teepublic stores, all of which can be accessed via the bolded text above OR from the linktree in her IG profile @ginaisarty ♥ My "favorite" design is usually whatever she's just done, but I confess that her whimsical animals and her fish are always at the top of my list. Shout-outs to my Aunt Judie, who often does a stack of fussy-cutting when she visits; and to my friend Heather @hchampag who recently came over for a Collage Playdate which also encompassed an outstanding home-baked chocolate cake and a feast of takeaway Chinese. Hard to beat an occasion which combines friends, food and creativity all in the same place, am I right?! ♥♥♥

Thank You Jumpstart Kit: Vine and Dandy

Thank You Jumpstart is Paper Anthology Design's newest variation on our popular Jumpstart Card Kit series, which helps build your card stash by providing all the ingredients you need (except blendable inks and adhesive) to make FIVE copies of a single design. Vine and Dandy features Hero Arts' beautiful Victorian Greenhouse, already diecut for you from textured white cardstock, ready to be layered over blended ink panels you create using one of the five Distress Oxide ink-blend recipes (with photos) included. OR go your own way and create a blend with your own favorite colors. Then layer on the eponymous diecut vines, a canvas blossom and two-layer sentiment, before adding the whole thing to a white topfold A2 cardbase. 

This kit contains:

Five pre-diecut Victorian Greenhouse panels
Five smooth, extra-sturdy white cardstock panels for blending
Five Distress Oxide color-blend recipes (with photos)
Five dark green diecut vines
Five light green diecut vines
Five diecut canvas-paper hibiscus flowers
Five diecut patterned paper sentiments
Five diecut sentiment "shadows"
Complete step-by-step instruction sheet with large color photo
Extra page of tips and techniques for choosing and blending inks
Five white top-fold A2 cards

Visit the Paper Anthology Design Etsy Shop to get your Thank You Jumpstart: Vine and Dandy Card Kit today! While you're there, check out our other Jumpstart kits for Birthday, Holiday and Hanukkah; as well as three-card Class in a Kit options for various occasions.

Advice from Our Winter Friends

Polar Bears and Penguins have much to teach us and Eyelet Outlet Polar Bear and Penguin Brads help them do it in style! Snowflake Brads set the scene, as do Sparkle White Glitter and Glitter Dark Blue Tapes; accent strips of gorgeous Snowflake Tape from the Christmas Washi Bundle complete the design.

Shopping List:

Polar Bear Brads

Penguin Brads 

Snowflake Brads

Sparkle White Glitter Tape 

Glitter Dark Blue Tape

Snowflake Tape from the Christmas Washi Bundle

Visit the Eyelet Outlet Store to find more adorable critters and lovely tapes!

SOS540: Crafty Remnants

It's an extra-fun challenge this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash, as we'd like to see you take something that is already out on your desk or workable, and use it on your card. I am nearly always spoiled for choice on these occasions, and this time was no exception. There was actually a bit of a pile on my worktable, but these are the remnants I decided to use:

There's a purple ombre Oxide Ink blended panel leftover from a kit I am working on; my last really big scrap of glossy black cardstock; a Tim Holtz floral diecut that I cut out of its background; a Simon Hurley Funky Chevron panel festuned with Perfect Pearls; plus a tag and panel featuring only partially successful versions of watercolor stenciling. NOT on the worktable, but possibly my favorite part and crucial for making everything work together: a truckload of ancient black and white rub-on transfers that I am now entirely re-obsessed with!

Visit SOS to see what the rest of the crew have made and then have a good look at your own crafty remnants so you can join the fun. This challenge runs until the evening of Monday, February 10th.

Perfect Pearls GAL-entine's Day Card

I love the GAL-entine's Day and GAL-oween trends; they're the perfect excuse to celebrate our closest friends! I also love Ranger's Perfect Pearls, because they are indeed the PERFECT way to add color and shimmer to light or dark cardstock. I'm on the Ranger Project Tutorials Page today with the step-by-step process for using them both wet (like watercolors) or dry (by stamping or stenciling over Perfect Medium) to make a GAL-entine's card that really shines.

Valentine's Day Down on the Farm

Love is in the air at Eyelet Outlet as our udderly adorable farm animal brads are having a field day pairing up to celebrate their favorite holiday. This pun-tastic set of mini greeting cards features the moo-velous cows from our Cow and Goat Brads, the Pig and Sheep set, Horse and Pony Brads, as well as four washi styles: Farm Tape, Red Dot Washi, Wood Tape and Brick Washi. 

Barn to be Wild Shopping List:

Cow and Goat Brads

Pig and Sheep Brads

Horse and Pony Brads

Farm Tape

Red Dot Washi

Wood Tape

Brick Washi

Check out all of farm-tastic brads and tapes at Eylelet Outlet, so you too can be outstanding in your field! :)

All That Glitters...

...doesn't necessarily show up well in a photograph. Case in point: this card, made for our Glitter Me Happy challenge at Shopping Our Stash, has three different shades of Stickles Glitter Glue on the watercolored flowers and foliage, plus a mat of salmon pink glitter paper. Can you tell that from the pic? Nope! It's still a pretty card, though, and a nice reminder that you still have a week to participate in the current challenge.

This card is a triumph of stash-usage in that nearly everything on it is not only elderly, it was mostly leftover bits that were ready to roll. I used Distress Oxide Inks to make an ink-blended sunset; placed the (leftover, white glossy) Honey Bee Palm Frond panel on top and matted on the salmon glitter cardstock. I added Stickles to the pre-diecut Lawn Fawn Happy Hibiscus and Tropical Leaf (in Sunburst, Wine Cellar and Garden State) and cut stamens from a scrap of bright yellow glitter paper which... you guessed it... doesn't show up either! The sentiment is from an older set of Paper Rose Studio Sentiment Sheets and the small scattering of bright pink sequins are from Eyelet Outlet.

SOS539: Glitter Me Happy runs until the evening of Monday, January 27, 2025, so join us today!

JB2502: Candy Christmas

It's a fabulous photo inspiration this fortnight at Jingle Belles, so we're asking you to create a holiday card (or cards!) inspired by this fun Candy Cane Christmas image from Turtlecreek Lane. You can use as many or as few aspects of the photo as you'd like: maybe you love the the white tree smothered in ornaments; or the red and blue stockings could be your fave; perhaps you'd just like to create a mantel with stockings and decor; or you might adore that handsome Nutcracker. Anything and everything in the pic is fair game, just make sure you let us know what part(s) of the photo inspired you.

Here's my card and then I'll tell you my inspo:

I was immediately drawn to the photo's gorgeous white tree, smothered in candy-themed, candy-colored ornaments, so luckily I remembered that I still had stickers left from Doodlebug's Candy Cane Lane collection of a few years ago. I employed one of my oldest dies (Sizzix's Christmas Tree #2) to cut a tree shape from white cardstock, then spent an enjoyable half hour adding pastel candy canes, gum drops and hearts, plus some tiny pearls, before adding lots of colorful presents under the tree. I made my background a soft blue similar to the wall in the inspo photo and added another mat of red and blue as a little salute to those bold stockings.

Visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and link up your own photo inspiration greeting. JB2502: Candy Christmas will run until 6pm (Eastern) on January 29th.

My Gnomie Valentine

Eyelet Outlet Gnome Brads and Girl Gnome Brads are celebrating Valentine's Day in their Sunny Studio Home Sweet Gnome. EO's extra-wide Sky Washi and Grass Tape are perfect for making a little scene that also features Heart Brad, a Mini Ladybug, Mini Leaves, a Sunflower Brad and a Mini Bee.

Love is in the air, so the Eyelet Outlet Store has all the brads, tape, bling and sequins you need for Valentine's Day and the rest of the year, as well; and adorable Sunny Studio Stamps are the perfect size and scale to use with your brads! 

SOS539: Glitter Me Happy

All that glitters... is welcome on a card for our new challenge at Shopping Our Stash! You can use loose glitter, Stickles or Stickles Glitter Gels, glitter glue, wink of Stella pens, shimmer pens, glitter paper... the choice is yours! I've used two of the above, can you guess which ones?

I made a background using one of my all-time favorite combinations: Stickles Glitter Gel in Galaxy with Simon Hurley's Grand Greenery Stencil on deep (DEEP) Matte Black Alcohol Ink Cardstock from Ranger. You can see how very very sparkly it is, even in the photo, which has probably only captured about 60% of its glitteriness. Those thin chipboard butterfly stickers are from the big box store and super-duper stashy: the last two in the pack and I bet they are ten years old? I used a sheet of DCWV black glitter paper as a lower layer; I originally had just a black cardbase, but I realized pretty quickly that since the butterflies had a thin outline of white I had better add a bit more white; which I did in the form of the cardbase and the layer directly under the design panel. The cardstock sentiment strip is from an older pack by Paper Rose Studio, and was the perfect finishing touch to my 5x6" card. 

Check out the SOS Crew's fabulously sparkly inspiration, then start planning what you'll link up with us this time. SOS539: Glitter Me Happy runs until the evening of Monday, January 27th.

Something Old, Something New (Week 2)

It's the second week of our first Jingle Belles challenge of 2025, so we are still making cards that feature Something OLD from our craft stash as well as Something NEW from Santa or the post-xmas sales, etc. Here's what I made and then I'll tell you which is which:

At the end of November, I was lucky enough to win a $30 gift card from Sunny Studio Stamps in the Coffee Loving Papercrafters' Fall/Winter Blog Hop, and the very first thing I chose was their adorable Holiday Hugs set, because I just LOVE that bear! I was already planning my card when I saw that January's Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge was "Snowflake" so I went sifting through my many (many!) snowy patterned papers and found this scrap of ancient green and white that I think was from My Mind's Eye's Bohemian collection (that's going back a bit, eh?!) and which just happened to have the perfect spot to place a coffee- or cocoa drinking bear.

I paper-pieced his knitted scarf and adorned the cup with an Eyelet Outlet Polar Bear Brad; then built in a few extra layers of soft green, tan and brown... all from older collections... before adding a sentiment from the stamp set and a few extra glittery snowflakes using a tiny die that was included as an "extra" with my Sunny Studio prize!

Our Jingle Belles Something Old, Something New challenge (JB2501) runs until next Wednesday evening, January 15th. Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge's Snowflake theme (CCCC37) wraps up the day before. Check out Stephanie's fab card and the Readers' Gallery at Jingle Belles; then start planning what you'll link up with us this time!

Good Advice!

Kicking off the New Year with a fun and colorful card featuring Eyelet Outlet Unicorn and Rainbow Brads with a background of diagonal stripes of Chevron Washi and a mat of super-shiny Pink Foil Tape. BTW, all off these items are currently ON SALE!

Magical Unicorn Shopping List:

Unicorn and Rainbow Brads

Chevron Washi 

Pink Foil Tape

The Eyelet Outlet Store has all the vibrant and beautiful tapes, brads, and bling to brighten up your January!

Holiday Sampler

Nothing says, "Warm Holiday Wishes" quite as well as Simon Hurley's Nordic Knit stamped in red, green and neutral Archival Inks from Ranger, then studded with LOTS of beautiful holiday-themed Eyelet Outlet Brads! This card has thirty-seven (37!) brads from eight different brad styles... can you spot them all? Scroll down for a hint!

Working from top to bottom: 1/16" Round Brads (Brown Mix); Poinsettia Brads; more 1/16" Round Brads (Brown Mix) as reindeer eyes; Heart Brads; Pine Cone Brads; 1/16" Round Brads (Red Mix); Cardinal, Cardinal Profile and Female Cardinal Brads; Snowy Trees and finally 1/16" Round Brads (White). And in case you're wondering, "Did you really pierce a hole, place the brad, and secure the prongs for every single one?" Check out the photo below, which shows the back of the design panel.

Check out the Eyelet Outlet Store for all the holiday embellishments you could possibly need!

SOS537: My Precious

The new challenge at Shopping Our Stash miiiiiiight be slightly more challenging than usual. This fortnight we want you to use something on your card that you're been hoarding in your craft supplies for way too long... it might be a piece of specialty paper, some vintage lace, or a fancy embellishment. We're asking you to be strong and give it a home on a card or project.

I have had this Doodlebug Doodlepop typewriter sticker literally for YEARS... it was actually displayed in my Art Lair! But I have a friend who loves vintage typewriters as much as I do and I wanted to make her an extra-special birthday card, so I bit the bullet and actually UNWRAPPED said adorable 3D sticker and used it and I loooooove how my card came out. The only thing older than the typewriter itself is that yellow notebook paper scrap which is absolutely ancient "Love, Elsie" from American Crafts. I wasn't actually hoarding it on purpose, but not only was the color and style perfect, it was pretty much exactly the right size for my A6 card. I think the Tim Holtz "Typo" alphabet dies are out of print, but I still love my set and was happy to break them out to fashion an appropriate custom background. Those pink Eyelet Outlet Heart Brads come in a set with red and white ones in two sizes. Sadly, they're going to be going out of print, but until they sell out, they're ON SALE in the EO Store!

Check out the design team inspiration at Shopping Our Stash and then start thinking what precious item YOU can use to make a card you link up with us this time. SOS537: My Precious runs until Monday evening, December 30th.

Happy Hanukkah

Hanukkah begins at sundown on December 25th and here's a card that celebrates the Festival of Lights featuring Eyelet Outlet Blue Tear Drop Bling as candle flames; a Heart Brad on the Menorah; blue and white Star Brads in the background; and 1... 2... 3... 4 EO Tapes: Sparkle Gold Glitter Tape; the beautiful blue and gold snowflake tape from the Holiday Washi Set; Sparkle White Glitter Tape and Glitter Tall Trees Tape! 

Super Sparkly Shopping List:

Blue Tear Drop Bling

Heart Brads

Red, White and Blue Star Brads

Holiday Washi Tape Set

Sparkle Gold Glitter Tape

Sparkle White Glitter Tape

Glitter Tall Trees Tape

The Eyelet Outlet Store is full of beautiful embellishments to make all of your holiday cards extra special! ♥

Mandala Monday #50 of 2024

Getting straight to the POINT(settia) this Mandala Monday with a funky, splashy, zendoodle-y holiday bloom that I made into a 5.5" square card on a base of adoringly hoarded Hambly transparency from the Olden Days of papercrafting.

Watercolor effect with Tombow Dual Brush Pens; Outlined in Letter It Fineliners; gold details via ancient metallic paint pen. 

Another Year of Holiday Cards...

...in the bag! Ok technically, they're on the floor at the moment, so I could get the traditional group photo of ALL my Jingle Belles cards from 2024 as the season comes to a close. Next up: pairing them with envelopes, adding sentiments and deciding about which card I'll send to whom!

Many thanks to everyone who played along throughout the year; whether you made a couple of cards or finished your entire list, we hope that starting early helped you beat a little bit of December stress. Stephanie and I will be back at Jingle Belles on January 1, 2025 to start a brand new season of inspiration and fun! ♥

Peace On Earth

Can you hear the Eyelet Outlet Angel Brads singing a joyful holiday tune? 

These angels have a sweet, slightly retro vibe that's perfect for adorning a diecut Christmas tree backed with Sparkle Gold Glitter Tape, studded with Pearl Bling and topped with a Star Brad. A mat and sentiment made from Music Note Washi completes the design. 

Shopping List:

Angel Brads

Star Brads

Sparkle Gold Glitter Tape

Music Note Washi 

Pearl Bling

The Eyelet Outlet Store has all the embellishments you need to make your holiday cards SHINE!

SOS536: Winter Wishes

Here's a December challenge with a TWIST from Shopping Our Stash: Make a card with a winter theme but... NOT Holiday!!! Here's what I made:

I went with a snowy theme so I could use my older-but-still-beloved Taylored Expressions Winter Wishes stamp set for the sentiment. The rest of the card is just diecuts from scraps of specialty cardstock: Impression Obsession's awesome Birch Trees and Deer Trio have to be 15 years old, but I still use them a lot; The woodgrain frame is from a set of Hero Arts Infinity Dies from maybe three or four years ago. The Simon Hurley Stitched Snowflakes Background Stamp (the very bottom layer of the collage) is probably only a year or so old, but already feels like a permanent "go-to" item. I embossed it with Ranger's Cottontail Embossing Powder which puffs up a bit more than ordinary white e/p and a matte/spongy texture that I love. The snowy ombre blue sky was made by blending Prize Ribbon, Uncharted Mariner and Tumbled Glass Distress Oxides really well; then splashing clear water on top, waiting thirty seconds and blotting it off with a tissue. I'm thinking about making a few more versions of this in different colorways, so that when it's time to write those post-holiday thank you notes, I'll be READY! 

SOS536: Winter (But NOT Holiday) Challenge runs until Monday evening, December 16th and we'd love for you to join us. Why not check out what the rest of The Crew have made, then start planning your own Wintery masterpiece?