To the Lighthouse

Father's Day in the US is Sunday --which arguably makes it a little late to just be starting on cards, lol-- but let's face it, sometimes it's the last minute or nothing, right? And for that matter, I never turn down a masculine card idea at ANY time of year, especially one that can be made by combining some of my favorite styles of Eyelet Outlet Brads which, coincidentally, is what I've posted on the Eyelet Outlet Blog today!

For this not quite 6x6" card, I painted a tiny watercolor using some of my favorite shades of ColorBurst pigment powders, then framed it by cutting a heart-shaped hole in some sea-themed dictionary paper backed with cardstock. I attached the brads (which I'll list and link to in a minute!) to the frame, then popped the edges up around the opening using tiny slivers of foam tape. But before I started piercing a million holes in my frame, I did a "dry fit" by flattening the prongs a bit and laying the brads on to estimate how many I'd need; while also checking color, size and arrangement. Then I took a quick pic on my phone, so I'd have something to follow when I started attaching them for real. 

So which varieties did I choose? Well, I've got some very handsome Trout and Bass Brads, as well as lots of Stars in assorted colors (each pack has shiny gold, patina-ed silver and copper); Seagulls seemed like a great choice for the lighthouse theme, and of course every good sailor needs a Compass. I hadn't originally thought of using Sketched Owl Brads, but they're so lovely and the colors worked perfectly! After I assembled the main panel, I added a decorative band of Cruise Washi Tape, flanked by two strips of Brown Skinny Glitter Tape, and mounted the entire thing to a folded card in a coordinating shade of teal. 

Sending lots of good wishes to all the dads out there for a very Happy Father's Day!

happy mail!

this week's challenge at shopping our stash is called "happy mail" and can be interpreted in multiple ways: envelopes, writing letters, etc... or mail-related or letter-writing supplies/ papers/ stamps. or possibly a typewriter, an alphabet joke and some texty/lined papers??!

patterned papers: october afternoon, american crafts, basic grey, sei, teresa collins; foam thickers in 2 styles: american crafts; glossy white cardstock: the paper cut; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape

here's a shocking true confession for ya: i looooooove the look of tall cards. every time i make a tall card, i think to myself, "i love tall cards! i should make more tall cards! why don't i make tall cards more often?" and then i have to photograph them and it all comes back reallllllllllllllllly quickly. so yeah. please to consider this both my first tall card IN a while, and my last tall card FOR a while. kthx.

but seriously, i do think it came out well; and additionally i got to use up loads of older stash, which is the ENTIRE POINT of SOS, actually! speaking of which... i happen to know there's load more inspiration awaiting you from my DT darlings, so off you go to check it out! ♥

week one is done!

week one of ICAD2017, that is. which you can read all about, via FAQs, completely optional prompt lists, etc at daisy yellow art! for the last couple of years, i've found that what works best for me --logistically-- is to post the cards on instagram each night as i make them, then do a round up here, like once a week. and it does seem like that is going to be true again this year. so here's the first installment, in blog form:

day 1: sunrise

i had two ideas for this: a pretty literal colorburst watercolor sunrise painting AND a sunrise-inspired mandala... so i combined them. the latter is on a clear tabbed index card divider... 

...which swings aside to reveal the former, on a white tabbed index card. 

best of both worlds!

day 2: lost and found

my philosophy is: when in doubt, do a one-staple collage, lol! ok, yes, i'm somewhat kidding, but since i tend to ICAD late at night, i do have certain "default settings" upon which i can fall back if i haven't come up with a specific idea during the day. one-staple collage is one of them. mandala-vaguely-incorporating-the-day's-theme is another. because with a daily art project, the one thing you can totally count on is that you will not have the same amount of time, energy and inspiration every single day. so rather than derail yourself with overwhelming expectations, make a list of inspirations as and when you think of them, then make it your goal to work on one idea each night. don't worry about finishing, or if it's any "good" at the end. the PROCESS is much much much more important than the OUTCOME!

day 3: vintage

a 1964 skoda on a random torn-and-stamped-over background. check!

day 4: lavender

another of my "stand-by" ideas is repetitive shapes. circles, squares, triangles, ogees. in a pattern, randomly layered, painted over and over, or stacked-and-stitched, as you see here. it is totally fine-- and really quite fun-- to revisit the same ideas over and over. i can assure you, you'll never make the same card twice.

day 5: kawaii

narwhals, narwhals... 

swimmin' in the ocean... 

causin' a commotion... 

cuz they are so awesome!

(the truly GREAT songs never die, do they?!)

(sorry about the earworm, lol, i've got it now too!)

 

day 6: detour

something you really really (REALLY!) cannot see from the pic is that this is bits of FIVE different maps, trimmed and glued together so neatly that you totally cannot remotely tell it is five different maps. sigh. having said that, this is an idea that has been swimming around in my brain for a while now and by virtue of this first (admittedly rather frustrating) experiment, i now have more practical ideas of how to tackle it. for one thing i'll remember not to start something really detailed at 10:45pm with a screaming headache. i also now know this is really a full-sized (12x12?) idea, so i won't try to squish it onto an index card. in many ways, altho this is the card i least LIKE... it's the one i learned the most from, which makes it (IMO) the most embodying of the true ICAD spirit!!!

♥♥♥♥♥

layers upon layers

this fortnight at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ we are celebrating the official beginning of summer by being, "all bundled up" obviously, lol! no, you needn't grab a cardi... (tho actually here in NJ it's been cool enough that even i, queen of t-shirts-in-winter, wore a jacket the other day?! unheard of!) ...we just want to see holiday cards with three or more layers! do i even have to tell you that i went with the "or more" option? nah. didn't think so. ;)

scanned and resized vintage pc from my collection, printed on canon medium glossy photo paper, trimmed and distressed on the edges; golden doily and seambinding from my stash; patterned papers: glitz design, pion, photoplay, october afternoon; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

ok, so, a familiar look from me --torn layers of paper-- but, this time instead of vintage paper, i've used all ordinary store-bought patterned papers, in neutral tones, so that the colors of my (scanned and slightly scaled down) vintage postcard would really pop. seeing as how i did have to scan and crop it, here's a closeup of the card in question, which is addressed to mr. herbert gerwerd, from will, and postmarked philadelphia, pa, december 23, 1907! you are welcome to print and use this in your own creations, if you'd like to: 

i was inspired by the current --and alas, final-- mojo monday sketch, though in the end, despite test-driving a number of pretty ingredients for the role of the cool vertical strips, my card wound up feeling finished without them. meanwhile i send a heartfelt, "farewell and thank you" to julee tilman for 500 amazing sketches over the course of nearly ten years?! mojo monday will definitely be missed, but i'm looking forward to what is next for that talented lady! 

stephanie also has a beautiful layery creation for your delight... why not hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and check it out, darlings?!

Under the Strawberry Moon

This Friday, the ninth, will be the full moon for June of 2017, and thus it is known as the Strawberry Moon. On the Eyelet Outlet Blog today, I've mentioned that I'm planning to celebrate by eating as many delicious strawberries as possible... and of course... I've made a card! It features some beautiful Eyelet Outlet Strawberry Brads, and a few varieties of the gorgeous new Wide Washi Tape!

Have you seen the new tapes? They're at the top of the Washi section in the Eyelet Outlet store... the new ones all have an asterisk before their name, to make them easy to find. There are loads of styles, of course, but the ones that look like Watercolors are some of my favorites. I've mentioned before that I really love Wide Washi and Skinny Washi; when you mix them together with standard-width washi, it just makes any design more dynamic and interesting. But also --in the case of Butterfly Wide Washi and Flower Wide Washi --they are just so very beautiful! You probably know that my lovely design team sister Stephanie (and crafty BFF!) is known as the "Washi Queen" on the EO Blog, and the way she is always devising new ways to use her tapes inspires ALL of us in the DT to try to do the same.

In this case, I thought I'd choose to highlight just the pink sections of the Flower Tape design, so I cut those bits from the main roll of tape, measured and marked very lightly where I wanted them to go, then applied them in two neat rows, about half an inch apart, on my card's background panel. I trimmed the edges with Skinny Pastel Pink Tape for a more polished look. I added my focal point, the Paper Flower stacks with Strawberry Brad centers, then adhered a strip of Butterfly Washi to a scrap of white cardstock so that I could fussy-cut the pink butterflies and use them as stickers!

I hope you'll be inspired to find new ways of using your Eyelet Outlet Tapes! If you need more inspiration, be sure to check out Stephanie's amazing creations (don't miss the light switch covers!!!) Then scroll down and see what my Wednesday partner Carri has been up to! ♥

man, oh man!

this week's challenge at shopping our stash is called, "DUDE!" and we want to see... (you've guessed already, haven't you?) ...that's right, we want to see masculine cards. you don't need to make a father's day, card (though you can, and i did!); because of course any masculine design for any occasion will do! 

loads of vintage book paper from several sources, also a map that I SWEAR was torn like this when i found it, though of course i had to trim up the other edges to make it fit, lol. stash-wise, the fussy-cut car and the tiny heart were discards from a different project and had been put into one of my many little zippy bags with "parts for future" use... they're always my first port of call when making a collage or collage card!; tapes: heidi swapp, eyelet outlet, 7gypsies, little b, recollections; compass brad: eyelet outlet; glossy black cardstock: ranger; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m/scotch foam tape and gluestick (for the record, the latter is now the ONLY mass-market, inexpensive gluestick i will use for collage!)

this might be a record-settingly layery card even for me, lol! i actually had the layers of text, map, and illustration all ready to glue up before i realized that even with inked edges they were just not standing out very distinctly. so i added a super-skinny black glossy cardstock mat to EVERY. SINGLE. LAYER, and suddenly the whole thing looked soooooo much better. speaking of mats, having used a torn bit of map, i hesitated over what to do: leave it un-matted? trim off the torn and slanty edge, then mat? mat and cut neatly around the shape of the torn edge?? finally, it occurred to me to mat it on an oversized piece of black and see if i could TEAR along the same outline. i frankly wasn't sure i'd be able to do it, and even if i could, that it would look nice... but it worked and is now my favorite part of the card! 

well, that and the eyelet outlet compass brad, set into a tiny music paper heart! ♥

something else i really love is this week's sketch saturday sketch. as always, i've added my own little twists, but "the bones" of it are all sketch saturday! btw, i thank those ladies and also ABM illustrations for the very cool prize from being last week's random winner!

everyone who checks out my DT darlings' work at shopping our stash is always a winner, and today will not be the exception to that, so off you go to get your allotment of eye candy!

hole-y (holly) moly

we're still making cards with windows or other apertures cut into them at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and this week i've done something i rarely ever do... used the same ingredients, two cards in a row. but i really HAD TO, this time, because about 15 seconds after i attached the diecut holly leaves adorning the window on last week's card, i realized that i should have used the holly dies to cut the actual window in the card! so i did:

holly and greens dies--regular and mini, used as both positive and negative space: tim holtz/sizzix thinlits; felt poinsettia: k and co; pinecones: martha stewart; golden flowers: petaloo; various shades of green cardstock: bazill; patterned paper: bo bunny, october afternoon + vintage sheet music; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine

in the meantime, having treated myself to the sizzix/tim holtz "holiday greens" dies last week at paper anthology; this week i treated myself to the MINI size of the same dies! so when i cut through the music paper, i was able to arrange ALL the holly leaves from both sets, into a larger spray, which i think looks really cool! of course, i could have gotten a similar effect by making more than one pass using the larger holly branch too. or i could have arranged one of the other greens dies with the holly on my magnetic platform for that matter. btw, i'm not allllll that much of a gadget girl, but i must say that's an accessory which has completely changed the way i think about making window cards and/or doing complicated or multi-die cuts. if you have wafer thin dies and you don't have the sizzix magnetic platform, you are missing out! you can get one at paper anthology, btw. just sayin'... :)

here's a pic that shows the aperture a little better. i put some little dots of foam tape around the holly leaves underneath, so that there'd be a little space between the top and bottom layers. i also used the darkest green paper i had, for maximum contrast!

meanwhile, stephanie also has a beautiful and HOLE-y card to show off. why not hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and check it out right now?!