Cheers!

Wishing you a very Happy New Year with hopes that 2025 will be your happiest and most creative year yet! It seems appropriate to start the year with a toast... and Eyelet Outlet definitely has a fine selection of beverage brads, including, from left to right: Lemonade, Beer Brads, Cocktails, Liquor Brads, champagne flutes from the Wedding Set and Wine Brads. With Party Hats and Balloon Brads to decorate the numeral balloons, each diecut from a different shade of Glitter Tape. All on a background of extra wide Calendar Washi. 

And don't forget the Tea, Coffee and Soda Brads for those who prefer their beverages a little softer. All of these and lots (LOTS!) more in the Eyelet Outlet Online Store! ♥

Five Faves of 2024: Mandala Monday Edition

Here's a shocking true confession: A few years ago, when I first adopted the crafters' year-end trend of picking favorites from various categories, it was mostly as a way to generate "easy" posts at the busiest time of year. But honestly, something I love even better than that, is the chance to look back at what I've made all year and start thinking about what I want to try next! 

This being the last Mandala Monday of 2024, here are five faves, in more or less chronological order. Click the bolded text under each pic to go to the original posts; there's a link at the end to visit the entire strand.

MM06

Since 2024 was the Year of the Dragon (my Chinese Zodiac sign) I was happy to have hoarded some (admittedly ancient) papers from Pearl River Mart in NYC.

MM22

When in doubt, go RAINBOW is still my motto for choosing a color scheme and watercoloring with inks or markers is always a fun choice, so I had multiple versions of both to choose from; this is the one that leapt out at me from the Mandala folder.

MM29

Another two popular categories for me are collaged mandalas and index card mandalas made during ICAD. While making this, I stumbled upon both the 1960's "executive" illustration AND a vintage business card for someone called Marvin Mandel. The result was obviously inevitable. PS: In this pic is my #1 favorite mandala tool: the Helix Angle and Circle Maker, which Stephanie and I stumbled upon in a tiny sationery shop on New York's Upper East Side. (If NYC isn't local for you, the link will take you to Amazon, tho, where you can also buy one).

MM43

I made a few diecut mandalas this year and several of my favorites involved Wendy Vecchi's Garden Party and NOT Your Ordinary Card Collections from Spellbinders. This one uses the latter's Halloween Add-On and clearly the kitty has, fair and square, stolen the show!

MM38

Something I hadn't realized I had done several times over the course of the year is build a mandala around a diamond rather than a circle. This one features Dina Wakley Gloss Sprays AND my Dina Kraft Journal. The "stacked" triangle repeats are what took it over the top for me; the Archival Inks on kraft are also very fresh. I get asked about my go-to pens which are Ranger's Letter it Fineliners, one of which is in the photo.

♥♥♥

I hope I picked some of your favorites from 2024 but if not, you can cruise through the whole collection HERE. Then stay tuned for 2025's crop of brand new Mandalas, coming soon to a Monday near you!

Five Faves of 2024: Wendy Vecchi Edition

This year we saw not one but two fantastic releases from Wendy Vecchi and Spellbinders (From the Garden and NOT Your Ordinary Card Collection) making it extra hard to choose just five projects, but... in no particular order... here goes!

This mandala card features nearly all the sets in the From the Garden collection. A favorite background (closeup below) was made with Wendy's Ranger Archival Inks and multiple repeats of the Garden Party Layered Stencil Set used WITHOUT the stamped outline. I used the Flowers and Foliage 3D Embossing Folder on the central circle, diecut the "petals" with dies from Heartfelt Thanks and Scallops; and tiny flowers from the Vintage Florals set.

The sweet kitty from the Halloween Add-On, is definitely one of the stars from NOT Your Ordinary Card Collection; the only problem is deciding what colors and accessories to use. The multicolor background was made with Wendy's Ranger Archivals and the Build-a-Plaid Layered Stencil Set, which is both useful and very, very fun! The sentiment is from the Pinking Edge Birthday Add On (plus extraneous diecut letters spelling "PURR"). 

This super-collagey ATC set has its own special pocket that I made with the Essential Envelops Die Set. The tuck-in tag uses two of the three frames in the Pinking Edge Birthday Add On; I love that the scale of the pinking is perfectly appropriate to each size of frame.

I could easily have done FIVE faves featuring the sweet kitty from the Halloween Add-On, but I restrained myself to just two... and two quite different ones, at that. This one actually IS Halloween themed; I love pink and orange (especially the Archivals from Wendy's Designer Series) so that's how I used the the Build-a-Plaid Layrered Stencil Set this time. Again I've used two of the three frames in the Pinking Edge Birthday Add On; this time WITH the largest frame from Garden Collection's Heartfelt Thanks and Scallops. I think they look exponentially even cooler when used together.

Yep, it's another mandala! This one involves probably 15 shades of Archival Ink and 6 or 7 older Studio 490 background stamps and stencils (some of which are available at SB!) paired with the large floral from the Garden Party set. With Petals out of Heartfelt Thanks and Scallops.

♥♥♥

Many thanks to Wendy for designing some of my favorite products of 2024. By the way, if you're a WV fan and you don't watch her Tip Tuesday videos on Instagram and check out the Make Art with Wendy Vecchi group on FaceBook, you are really missing out!!!

Build-a-Plaid Bags

Wendy Vecchi's NOT Your Ordinary Card Collection from Spellbinders is entirely awesome, but if I had to pick just *one* element that I love the very most, it miiiiiight be the Build-a-Plaid Layered Stencil Set. Mostly because it is SO fun to use and you can make a different design every single time! Or in this case two similar but different designs:

I've used my favorite holiday-centric Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks from Ranger to create one bold holiday plaid in green, and one in red. I used the Christmas Add-On Stamp and Die Set to make layered poinsettias in coordinating colors and accented them with foliage from the set. Fancy ribbon tied to the bags' handles completes the design, while spreading cheer... and, alas, tiny showers of golden glitter... all over the land! :)

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing a very Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating tomorrow! This pretty wreath consists of several neutral shades of diecut cardstock, creating a grapevine-like base that can be embellished with all your favorite Eyelet Outlet autumnal brads. Yellow Paper Flowers are topped with Sunflower Brads, clustered with Colored Daisies, Butterflies and Leaf Brads.

♥♥♥

Happy Thanksgiving!

Give Thanks

It's a week before Thanksgiving, but there's still time to send out some quick, easy cards! This super-simple CAS design features Eyelet Outlet Leaf and Mini Leaf Brads layered over stenciled leaves in fall colors. The background and diecut sentiment are made from beautifully neutral Nature Washi Tape. Change up the sentiment and this design could be used for literally ANY autumnal occasion.

Speaking of stencils: Did you know that you can easily make your own custom stencils using ANY simple craft dies you love? In this case, I've taken the three sizes of leaves from the Essential Envelope Die Set in Wendy Vecchi's NOT Your Ordinary Card Collection from Spellbinders and blended my favorite fall shades of Wendy's Archival colors from Ranger through them before adding the Leaf Brads and a simple sentiment. Job done! I made my stencils from glossy cardstock which is pretty sturdy; but to make them last forever cut the shapes out of stencil plastic. Don't forget to leave a bit of distance around each shape so that you have room to blend without accidentally getting stray ink on other areas of your project.

 

Visit the Eyelet Outlet Store today for brads and tapes that'll work perfectly for EVERY season of your cardmaking year; and check out all of Wendy Vecchi's awesome designs from Spellbinders.

Collaged ATCs

My friend Linda completed The 100 Day Project this year, and then she made her beautiful collection of Artist Trading Cards into groups of three and started a swap. Of course I was excited to participate! I made three "Flower Girl" ATCs and used Wendy Vecchi's Essential Envelope die set from Spellbinders' Not Your Ordinary Card Collection to make a pocket for them, and the Pinking Edge Birthday Add-On to create a coordinating tag.

These ATCs have LOTS of layers, including: Kanada text paper from India; a map of Manhattan; vintage flower illustrations from a children's book; tiny sewing pattern ladies and some found text from a beautifully patina-ed kiddo's chapter book.

Each ATC is backed with vintage Chinese text paper fused onto plain white cardstock (for extra strength and solidity) where I've written the name of the series as well as my signature.

I used a few older gel prints and some additional coordinated collage items to create the Essential Envelopes pocket as well as the Pinking Edge pull-out layered tag.

I love the way the coordinating pocket and tag not only keep the ATCs safe and secure, they also make them look and feel like an official SET!

These are the first ATCs I've made and traded in quite some time, but I think they've gotten me re-hooked on this fun format! ♥

MM43

It's a Very Vecchi Mandala Monday featuring the adorable kitty from Wendy's Halloween Add-On stamp and die set in Spellbinders' NOT Your Ordinary Card Collection. I haven't quite used alllllll the dies from this impressively substantial set, but I did manage to work in the cat, spider web, spiders, tri-color candy corn, smaller iced candies, stars, and it wouldn't be Halloween without bats, now would it? I cut nearly everything from scraps of cardstock and apart from the dies I only needed a supplemental scattering of Liquid Pearls dots (leftover from the fun Treat Bags last week) to complete this 5.5" square card design!

I hope your week is off to a good start and that you'll get the chance to do something creative today! ♥

You're Not the (EM-)Boss of Me!

Flashing back to Wendy Vecchi's first collection for Spellbinders (The Garden Collection) and specifically playing with the Flowers and Foliage 3D Embossing Folder with a selection of Wendy's Archival Inks from Ranger. I've used a bunch of different techniques that Wendy has shown off in various Tip Tuesday posts, such as inking and spritzing the emboss- or deboss-side before embossing; painting the flowers with diluted Archival Reinkers from the back or front; applying ink directly from the Archival Ink Pad (on the emboss- or deboss-side); and inking, stenciling, stamping (with some older Studio 490 stamps) and/or doodling on top. I love how you can get so many completely different variations with the same embossing folder, but they're all equally beautiful!

Pink Christmas!

It's that time again at Jingle Belles, our favorite prompt of the year: PINK CHRISTMAS! In which you make and link new holiday cards that are predominantly PINK and we (Stephanie and Lauren) donate $2 (apiece!) per card to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation! Yes, you can link as many cards as you'd like to and no, your cards don't need to be entirely PINK but we'd like the pink to be the main color. Options regarding size, shape, themes and additional colors added in with the PINK are up to you! 

Sound good? Then without further ado, here's my card:

You know how it is when you have NEW crafty goodies: you just cannot wait to use them, then you can't stop, right? I am currently obsessed with Wendy Vecchi's NOT Your Ordinary Card Collection from Spellbinders, so for this card I broke out the Christmas Add-On Stamp and Die Set and used the triple holly leaf die to very quickly cut lots of layers from textured pink cardstock; which I then inked and stacked, in two five-petal layers for each flower, into poinsettias, finishing off with the three berry cluster at the center, and finally a few tiny stick-on pearls plus a few cuts of the beautiful, delicate greenery die. I used the sentiment stamps from the set and a Build-a-Plaid background made with the second smallest stencil and Pink Peony Archival. A little bit of lace, some darker pink mats and a bit of machine stitching and I was good to go! There's a little more detail about the making of the poinsettias and the use of the Build-a-Plaid Stencils on my blog.!

The poinsettia-making process is made much easier by starting out with a 3/4" circle of adhesive cardstock, upon which you stack your first layer of five poinsettia petals; then you add five more petals... (staggered between each pair on the first round) ...and make them immobile with a second 3/4" circle of adhesive cardstock on the back.

Speaking of EASY: of course you can use the Build-a-Plaid Layering Stencils without any special equipment but... IF you happen to have the MAKE ART Stay-tion, not only do you never have to worry about securing the stencil edges with any sort of adhesive, you can also do things like an evenly spaced diagonal plaid background with NO measuring or worrying about keeping the stripes parallel. I do like to place a small tape loop behind my paper before I begin, so that it doesn't shift as I change stencil directions, but other than that the four super-strong, never-pinchy magnets that come with the Stay-tion are more than adequate to the task of holding the stencils no matter how many times you re-arrange them.

I do hope you'll head on over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's gorgeous PINK CHRISTMAS creation and then start planning what you'll link up with us this time. This challenge (#JB2421) runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, October 23rd.

Happy PURR-thday!

The Halloween Add-On Stamp and Die Set from Wendy Vecchi's latest Spellbinders release, Not Your Ordinary Card Collection is indeed outstanding for Halloween but... it's not JUST for that holiday.* Case in point:

A little bit of a warning: when you start paper-piecing the adorable kitties, you should probably allow a little bit of extra time and cardstock because once you start, you will likely not be able to stop at just ONE cat! For that matter, the Build-a-Plaid Layered Stencil Set is also quite addictive. This time I chose to go with some of the softer shades from Wendy's Ranger Archival Inks, so I used Leaf Green, Sky Blue and Pink Peony. Of course it's entirely possible to work with any stencil set without the MAKE ART Stay-tion, but it's so incredibly helpful that I'd hate to be without it at this point. I used a few of the dies from the Pinking Edge Birthday Add-On to make the main portion of the sentiment; and some of the accessories are from the Christmas Add-On set.

I had been planning to use the cool pocket and some of the dies in the Essential Envelope Set, but by the time I was up to three cats I couldn't just choose ONE so I made a larger (not quite A7) card they could all inhabit!

*I do actually have some fab Halloween ideas for the set, as well, and they'll be coming along in a future post!

It's In the Bag

I needed a fast giftbag for a birthday dude, so of course I couldn't resist using Wendy Vecchi's "Not Your Ordinary Card Collection" dies from Spellbinders. This time I chose a more masculine palette of Archival Inks to use with the Build-a-Plaid Layering Stencils (English Ivy, Tiger Lily, Peat Moss and Monarch Orange) with which I adorned an Essential Envelope pocket and also a small kraft gift bag from the big box store. 

I used the Pinking Edge Birthday Add-On to make a card to tuck into the pocket, which, as it turns out, was also just big enough to hold a medium-sized candy bar. I added a few strips of Wendy's Washi Tape Assortment 1 and a bit of ribbon and twine and called it good.

Visit Spellbinders to see the entire "Not Your Ordinary Card Collection" as well as Wendy's previous Garden Collection! And you should definitely check out the Facebook Group, Make Art with Wendy Vecchi where you can see lots of Wendy's makes and videos, as well as checking out what other crafters are doing AND you can post your own Vecchi-centric creations, too!

Not Your Ordinary Card Collection

I'm thrilled to get my hands on Wendy Vecchi's new collection from Spellbinders, which is called “Not Your Ordinary Card Collection” and I assure you, it totally lives up to its name. I couldn't wait to dive into the Essential Envelope Die Set, which has TWENTY dies, including this cool style of open envelope, which is a bit like a library pocket, so of course I was onboard as soon as I heard that, lol! I've also used all of the flowers, most of the leaves and the sentiment from the set, and for my first project I just diecut colored cardstock to which I added very minimal shading with Wendy's Archival Inks from Ranger.

The Build a Plaid Layering Stencil Set is also outstanding; it features five 6x6" stencils, each with a different size of parallel stripes, so you can (as the name implies, lol) literally build a different plaid pattern every time. I chose to make a very loose, multi-color design featuring some of my favorite Archival shades including Rosy Posey, Pink Peony, Leaf Green and Sunflower.

For the interior card I used the medium sized frame die from the Pinking Edge Birthday Add-On set, which has three different pinked panels and some cool birthday accessories like a multi-layer cake, as well as the perfect "Happy Birthday" sentiment that you can cut with or without a shadow. 

I'm excited to play with more of the birthday accessories later; oh and there's a very cool Halloween Add-On with stamps and dies (and the cutest cat everrrrrr!) as well as a Christmas Add-On... all of which I will be digging into SOON, so stay tuned! Meanwhile all of these items are available separately or as a bundle on the Spellbinders website as well as fine papercrafting stores everywhere!  

JB-24-16: Holiday Leftovers

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're celebrating Holiday Leftovers... by creating cards using all of those little leftover pieces of papers, alphabet letters, stickers, ribbon; you know, all of thosebits and bobs we've saved because they were just too lovely to throw away or recycle. It's time to retrieve those (well, a few of 'em, anyway!) and use them to make some fun holiday leftover cards. 

Here's my batch of leftovers:

As you can see, I had an already paper-pieced version of Spellbinders' Snowman Hugs die set; a background where I stamped and masked with several different Wendy Vecchi background stamps and her gorgeous Leaf Green Archival Ink; a few paper strips that had been border-punched; and the de-bossed side of a panel of green cardstock on which I had inked the em-bossed side... but then not liked it. And here's my finished card:

All I had to do to make the "leftovers" into the card was round the corners on the two panels, add one more layer of patterned paper and machine-stitch around the edges. Easy, peasy!

Be sure to head over to Jingle Belles to see what Stephanie has made and then start thinking up what YOU will link up! This "Holiday Leftovers" challenge runs until the evening of Wednesday, August 14th.

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.

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!

"Button, Button...

...Who's Got the Button" is the name of this fortnight's challenge at Shopping Our Stash and since I'm assuming you've already guessed we'd like to see projects with one or more buttons on them, I'll get right to what I made:

Here you see a card with just TWO (2!) buttons (they are stacked) sitting atop the vast quantity of red, yellow, orange and pink buttons I got out in readiness for making said card. This pretty much tells you everything you need to know about my process, lol. On the plus side, they made an excellent photo backdrop, so I'm calling it a win. I used up lots (and lots!) of pink, yellow and orange scraps by diecutting them with my classic Spellbinders Nestabilities diamond dies, distressing, stacking, and machine-stitching on the fruits of that labor, to make a funky argyle pattern. Two (stacked) mulberry flowers... (again a much smaller amount than I'd anticipated) ...hold the buttons, which I have threaded as a salute to my friend and former SOS colleague Leslie, who considered "nekkid" buttons to be an abomination.

Visit the SOS blog to see the fabulous button cards made by our talented Crew and then start planning what you'll link up with us this time. SOS524 runs until the evening of Monday, July 1st.

Taking (Card)Stock

It's week two of our Jingle Belles celebration of Cardstock Christmas for which absolutely NO patterned paper is allowed. I usually semi-panic at times like these, but luckily my Wendy Vecchi stamps, Chippies and 3D Embossing Folder stepped in to save the day!

I stamped half a dozen poinsettias from Wendy Vecchi's Doodle Christmas Stamp Set and a bunch of holly leaves from the Doodle Holiday set, embossing them in Ranger Lilac Pearl and White Embossing Powders, respectively. I colored them with Petunia, Peat Moss and English Ivy Archival Inks, then did a bit of fussy-cutting before adding Sunflower Liquid Pearls to the centers. I stamped the large swag of greenery from Doodle Holiday in English Ivy across the chunky chipboard "Joy" from Wendy's Statements Chippies; then mounted all of the above on a cardstock panel to which I gave quite an impressive bit of dimension with Spellbinders' Flowers & Foliage 3D Embossing Folder. One skinny Petunia mat later, my 5.5" square card was complete!

You still have until next Wednesday evening (5/22/24) to join our Jingle Belles' Cardstock Christmas fun, which we hope you will!

Bold & Bright

It's a coolish, greyish day in central New Jersey, which seems like the perfect time for a big, bold Mandala to brighten up your Monday! This one features Wendy Vecchi's Garden Party stamps from Spellbinders; radiant, radiating, rainbow shades of Wendy's Archival Inks from Ranger; and a whole lot of MAKE ART and Studio 490 stamps and stencils applied over and under the hand-drawn mandala shapes I rendered with my Letter It Fineliners. 

I work on mandalas in many different ways to keep things interesting, but for those interested in process, this piece went... roughly... like this:

• Lightly pencil-sketch a few concentric circles, centered on an 11x11" piece of bristol board. An old school compass is good for this, you can even trace rolls of tape or your nested circle dies, but I do also love the Helix Circle Tool!
• Apply Archival Inks with a Mini Ink Blending Tool and Domed Foams, working in rings from the center outwards and allowing them to blend wherever they overlap. Colors are: Prickly Pear, Bluebird, Night Sky, Cactus Flower, Rosey Posey, Peachy Keen, and Sunflower... then around again to Prickly Pear, etc.
• Stamp the large floral cluster from the Garden Party set in the center in Watering Can Archival.
• Add background patterns by stamping a variety of small elements and portions of large background stamps more or less randomly, in coordinating colors.
• Draw the basic structural lines with a .01 or .04 Letter It Fineliner, again working from the center outwards; starting with the two large concentric circles, adding large petal shapes and large circles between the petals.
• Add detail lines and shapes such as the rings of smaller circles and petals, plus the secondary "shadow" lines inside or outside the larger shapes.
• Using sticky notes to mask if necessary, neaten up the loose rings of color with Ranger Detail Blending Tools; for example I applied more Bluebird ink to the area around the Garden Party florals so the circle border is a darker green; I pulled more Peachy Keen out into the large hand-drawn petals; darkened the ring of smaller circles around the center, etc.
• Add more definition with a white paint pen in the form of lines, dots and small hearts, then outline with a .01 Fineliner.
• One final neatening up of shapes and shadow lines with coordinating brush pens wherever necessary.

Bloomin' Beauties

I'm constantly inspired by Wendy Vecchi and Cassie Lynch, especially when it comes to the building of "flat layers" by which I mean adding lots of inking, stamping and stenciling in a "collagey" style... thereby achieving the appearance of dimension and texture WITHOUT the bulk or weight of physical layers. I'm still practicing at this skill, but I think today's background is pretty good!

I "smooshed" several shades of Wendy's Archival Inks from Ranger (Bluebird and Prickly Pear to be precise) onto the Craft Mat attached to the back of my MAKE ART Stay-tion, spritzed with rubbing alcohol, then picked up the result with a panel of cardstock. When it was dry (which is nearly immediate using alcohol and Archivals) I added a cascade of stamped leaves in Leaf Green; some text in Night Sky and a few stenciled dots in Bluebird. When my flat background was complete, I added a few torn strips of Wendy's Washi Tape, and added flowers from the Spellbinders' Vintage Florals Die Set, which I stamped Perfectly Plaid in Tea Rose and added some Sunflower Ink on top. I started out with leaves and centers that were Fern Green and Bluebird, respectively, but at the last minute I swapped them for plain which which somehow simultaneously made them blend in AND stand out better?!

If you are not following @wendyvecchi and @mk_knits on Instagram you are missing some VERY good stuff, I tell ya! Additionally, Facebook users will enjoy the Make Art with Wendy Vecchi Group, where you can get lots of ideas and inspiration from fellow Vecchians, as well as post your own Wendy-centric creations. Either way, be sure to catch Tip Tuesdays which are absolutely always full of beauty and practical tips!