Beach, Please!

Life IS better at the beach and summery cards ARE better with Eyelet Outlet Summer Vacation beachy brads! Both of these beachy keen cards feature our Shell Corner Brads and have twine accents strung through a trio of colorful old school 1/8" Round Eyelets; with mats of Shell Washi and extra wide Sky Tape.

The first card also features both shapes from our Seagull Brad Set as well as both Sun and Cloud from that set. 

The second card has a pair of Flip Flops, a Sandcastle and a white Anchor Brad... the latter is masquerading as postage.

Did you know that in addition to the regular search feature, the lefthand side of the Eyelet Outlet Homepage has lots of handy categories like Vacation/Summer; Birds, Bugs and Critters; Food, Drink and Cooking; Animals and lots more; super useful for those times when you'd like to see a lot of options at once!

Don't Worry...

...BEE Happy! And nothing makes a cardmaker happier than a bright and BEE-autiful card featuring Eyelet Outlet Bumble Bee Brads, Mini Bees, Colored Daisies, Mini Leaves and Music Note Washi Tape. There's even a supercute Beehive Quicklet Eyelet from our fabulous Clearance Section to set the scene!

BEE sure to check out our Tradeshow Schedule to see when the Eyelet Outlet Booth will BEE coming to your town this summer!

Life is Better at the Beach

Life IS better at the beach, but the next best thing is a beautiful beachy card, bedecked with Eyelet Outlet Brads. Shell Brads, Shell Corners, Sea Shore, flying and standing Seagulls and Tall Palm Brads add coastal flavor to faux polaroids matted with Sparkle Gold Glitter Tape add glamor. A Wide Wood Washi background with a twine border is set off with colorful, old-school 1/8" Round Eyelets and a scattering of Multi-sized Pearls completes the design.

This summer the Eyelet Outlet Booth is probably visiting a town near you, check out our Tradeshow Schedule to find out where and when!

It's a SHELL-ebration!

Join me at Paper Anthology for a new three-card class that’s BEACHY keen! 

We’ll color images from Honey Bee’s Seashells stamp set with Distress Watercolor Pencils (wait until you try them!); and add sentiments from Honey Bee’s Flippin’ Fabulous set. Make a splash with papers from Photoplay’s Beach Vibes collection, fall in love again with old-school round eyelets when paired with May Arts Burlap String, then finish off with colorful diecut foliage and golden sequins. The only question is, will you send these sunkissed cards to your favorite folk, or be SHELLFISH and keep them?

Visit the Paper Anthology Blog for details of dates, times, etc.; I'd love to see you there!

Having a Ruff Day?

If so, Eyelet Outlet Puppy Brads are guaranteed to cheer you right up! Here they've made a happy home on a pair of preprinted wordart journal cards, along with the supper bowls from our Kennel Mix, some Paw Brads, Heart Brads, and a background of adorable Paw Washi! Anodized Quicklet Eyelets add a little extra touch to the corners and (surprise!) Quicklets don't even need a setter... you can use a pen to attach them!

Not a dog person? We've also got Felines, Reptiles, Tropical Birds, Horses, Farm Animals, Jungle Critters, Fish; not to mention Lions, Tigers and Bears... plus lots more! It's a pretty safe bet you'll find your favorite pet at Eyelet Outlet!

Bring on the Flowers

Happy Mother's Day to everyone who is celebrating! Since this seemed like an especially good day for a beautiful female image... or flowers... (or both!) I've used Hero Arts Flower Power Layering Stamps and Die Bundle to make two fun and colorful cards. The results are on The Ink Pad Blog.

 (PS: Flower Power is also available without the die, as a stand-alone stamp set!)

Brads and Eyelets? I Might Have a Few...

Are you ready for another new challenge in our Summer Edition of Paper Anthology's Creation Staycation? Ok, here ya go:

It's no secret that I'm a huge Eyelet Outlet fan and Design Team member. And I really do LOVE using both round and decorative brads... there are so many fun styles to choose from! For this challenge, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create a project which features brads or eyelets of any size, shape and brand. They don't have to be the focal point of your design, just work a few in somewhere. 

Once again I stress that you don't have to make your brads or eyelets be the FEATURE of your design! But... it is possible to do so, and one of my favorite Brad Tricks is to scale down my focal point using inchies, little frames or, as in this case, faux polaroids! Mine is just over 2.25" and has a beachy background made with blended Oxides to hold Eyelet Outlet "Flamingo" and "Sun and Cloud" Brads; and yes I've slipped in a quartet of classic round eyelets for good measure. The soft woodgrain patterned paper from Echo Park's outstanding "Summer Fun" collection reminds me of the boardwalk in Wildwood, NJ; scene of many wonderful childhood memories! 

How can YOU play along? Visit the Paper Anthology FaceBook Page! ♥

Hippity Hoppity...

...Easter's on its way! But there's still time to make some cards and The Ink Pad has everything you need, including Tim Holtz's fabulous Spring Shadows set from Stampers Anonymous. Here's an assorted bunch of parts, most of which went into the card which is on The Ink Pad Blog this morning. Note: NO chocolate bunnies were harmed in the making of this post! :)

What Do...

...a vintage typewriter, Distress Oxide Inks, Eyelet Outlet Flower Brads, a Michelle Ward sentiment stamp and an ice cream cone have in common?? Hop over to The Ink Pad Blog to find out! ;)

Stencil Sunday: Rainbow Skyline

I love New York. That is both a statement of fact and a reference to one of The Ink Pad's exclusive Michelle Ward stamps, which I've used to make a card as colorful as the city itself. Hop over to The Ink Pad Blog to see the whole card and hear the whole story!

I'll be doing some lettering at The Ink Pad's Seventh Avenue store today from 1-4pm, why not stop by try out the brand new Karin Metallic Markers... I guarantee you will looooooooove them as much as I do! ♥

One Card, Two Ways

One of my favorite sources of crafty inspiration is the Eyelet Outlet Blog: my fellow design team members *NEVER* stop impressing me with their cleverness and creativity! The other day, the Prince of Paper, Barry Lynn Snarr, used a flourish-pattern embossing folder to emphasize some Eyelet Outlet Swirl Bling on this gorgeous card, and it looked so cool, I literally had to go and grab my embossing folders right then to see what combinations I could make! Here are my cards, and then I'll explain:

I chose an all-over flower pattern embossing folder with quite a lot of detail. For my first card, I embossed kraft cardstock, added a messy coat of white Gesso, then picked out the flower centers with Tiny Copper Eyelets. I love how they look with the Glitter Copper Washi, which I've highlighted even more by adding Pearl Bling Strips and finally set the whole thing off with all three sizes of gorgeous Dark Purple Solid Color Flowers, anchored with a 10mm Purple Pearl Brad.

I realize the tiny (1/16th inch!) eyelets create quite a subtle look in the photos, but in real life the copper catches the light and they gleam in such a lovely way; I predict you will see me using these again! (Not to mention this palette of Kraft, Copper, Purple and Pearl White!)

For my second card I went with Core'dinations Color Core cardstock and a monochromatic palette that uses those same lovely Purple Blooms, surmounted with a beautiful, big (28mm!) Flatback Resin Flower in a coordinating shade. To make the textural background a little more prominent, I added Purple Enamel Dots to the centers of each of the sanded flowers.

Did you know that we are having a call for new Eyelet Outlet Designers? And if you like brads, bling, washi tape, eyelets, florals or enamels at all, you miiiiiiight just want to go check out the in this blog post right here. Applications will remain open until next Thursday, January 12th, so check it out, ASAP! I should just mention that this past year as an EO team member has been an amazingly fun and valuable experience for me: the products are great to work with, the inspiration is abundant, and I've made some really good friends! If you've been thinking about it... even a tiny bit... I'd encourage you to apply! (You can thank me later, lol!) ♥♥♥

A Banner Day

It's my turn on the Eyelet Outlet Blog once again, where i make a shocking true confession: I have a serious obsession with washi tape... and no intention at all of doing anything about it... except enlarging my collection and making more washi-adorned craft items. Luckily, Eyelet Outlet is here to help me in this quest. Have you seen how many different varieties of tape they stock?? It's a washi-lover's dream! Here's a card that uses two of them: Pink Flower Washi and Foil Pink Dots Tape.

Did you know Eyelet Outlet has ribbon, as well? This Fruit Ribbon is one of my all-time faves. It's so summery, don't you think? But there's nothing quite as summery as a Flamingo Flatback Resin, so I had to add one of those to my card, too. It's nestled on a few Solid Color Paper Flowers, just to be cozy.

Do you love cards with banners as much as I do? There are loads of ways to make them, but imo, washi tape is hard to beat, since you can fold it right over a piece of twine and it's self adhesive! I've used the Pink Flower Washi again in just that way on this card, as well as a few happy little clouds cut from a Cloud Tape that is, alas, out of stock in the online store... but provides you with another reason to always check the Eyelet Outlet booth at your next trade show, because there are sometimes exclusive goodies! ;)

Of course with all these wonderful new products we sometimes lose track of the fact that Eyelet Outlet's first name is EYELET... and those things are still as much fun to use as the very first time I saw them being set (with a hammer!) at my LSS, years ago. I've used the good old 5mm Round Assorted Colors Pack to secure the twine between my pennants as well as to dot the "I" in "Hi".

I hope you're already having a "Banner Day" but if not, there's still time to make some cards, which will definitely cheer you up! ♥