Jeweled Peacock

Hello again everyone, and happy Friday!  I'm here with a card that's bright and blingy!  I just love this color combo, which was inspired by Eyelet Outlet's new flower and feather washi tape.

The stamp set I chose (from Stampendous) has a coordinating stencil, so a little distress ink made a subtle background of peacock feathers.  I used strips of the flower and feather washi tape, bordered by some glitter washi tape to form a border accent, topped by some frilly, colorful ribbon.  At the center of the bow is a clear-edged 12 mm jewel.

The peacock's tail was the perfect spot for embellishing with some beautiful turquoise sticky-back bling.  It's so nice how the jewels all coordinate together.  Makes it so quick and easy to embellish a card.

Have a great weekend!  I'll see you next week!

Four-Fold Blessings

It's so much fun to try a new fancy card fold, especially one that works well with coordinating prints of patterned paper.  I love this one because it provides so many opportunities for a variety of prints or for stamping multiple images and sentiments, and also because one of its panels is the perfect size for enclosing a gift card (the red panel in the photo below).

Graphic 45's Nature Sketchbook has become a favorite of mine, and it worked just great for this fold with a little adjustment of the card's measurements and some layering to frame the ATC sized designs.  For the stamped image on the final panel, I inked the stamp with Tuxedo Black ink, stamping off on a scrap of paper before stamping onto the card stock, so that the image would not interfere with the legibility of a handwritten message which remains hidden when the card is closed.

Here are the supplies I used:

• Stamp Simply Blessings/Beatitudes 1 stamp set 
• Graphic 45 Nature Sketchbook designer paper
• Nature Sketchbook stamp set 1
• Memento Tuxedo Black ink (stamped off)
• Tim Holtz Tea Dye ink
• Spellbinders Grommet Tags dies
• Spellbinders Long Rectangles dies
• Spellbinders Foliage dies
• Black seam binding
• Prima Serenade orange flower
• rhinestones
• Tombow mono multi liquid glue
• dimensional adhesive squares

Fun with Flamingoes

The other day I went shopping for new stamps and stencils at our local stamp store, A Small Cleverness...there was a whole section full of quirky quotes and sentiments and this one really gave me the giggles!  Then I found this cute flamingo paper, and I thought that both would work with our new flamingo brads to make a punny, fun flamingo card.

I wanted the brad to stand out and not get lost in the flock, so I gave it front and center on a circle of contrasting dark gray.   A sprinkling of pink enamel dots brought the darker pink from the designer paper across to the light pink card stock that the sentiment was stamped on, also giving the design a sort of quirky, chaotic feeling that corresponds with the "technical difficulties" sentiment.

Unfortunately, that was the last of the lighter pink paper.  The darker paper for the inside means I'll have to use a gel-pen in a lighter ink for this card, but that's ok!  

I am counting down until Scrapbook Expo Orlando when I get to meet my Eyelet Outlet friends and shop the store in person!  Can't wait to see IRL that flamingo washi tape and lots of other fun stuff that I am excited to get my hands on!  (I have seen some previews of more flamingo fun that will be coming your way from our other designers, so stay tuned to the Eyelet Outlet blog!)

I hope my card gave you a chuckle and gets your weekend off to a light-hearted start!  Wishing you lots of sunshine and laughter!

Thinking of You!

For those of us who love to make lacy, blingy girlie cards, making a masculine card can be quite a challenge!  Having some great masculine prints in a designer paper pad certainly makes it a whole lot easier!  This clock print with coordinating punch-out borders and embellishments gave me a head start for this design.

I reached for a circle die to stamp the sentiment, but because I didn't want to cover up the row of tiny clocks in the horizontal element, I ended up cutting the bottom of it off.  A few colored jewels clustered around the sentiment echo the colors of the background.

Inside, a strip of paper layered with some punch-out elements bring a bit of color above another encouraging sentiment.  

Supplies, all from Stamp Simply:

• Blessings/Beatitudes Combo
• Memento Tuxedo Black ink
• Spellbinders standard circles small
• Spellbinders classic circles large
• Kaisercraft Limelight designer paper
• Smoke Gray seam binding
• rhinestones
• Tombow mono multi liquid glue
• glue dots
• self-adhesive foam squares

Vintage Post Card

I've always loved vintage things, especially vintage postal and typewriter images, and lately I've been collecting papers, stamps, and embellishments with a vintage theme.  I love the time-worn colors, the flourished scripts, fancy fonts...well, just about everything about it!

Today's project is all about that vintage charm!  I used some beautiful designer paper with post card images stamped with a few postal themed stamps, embellished with some lovely swirly bling and a pretty bow with a pink pearl brad center.

The postal theme is carried to the inside with some lined designer paper, an air mail stamp, mail washi tape and an envelope mail brad on a paper-pierced flight to its destination.  

Glad you came for a visit!  I hope you're having a spectacular Saturday and a glorious Easter weekend!  

Lookie, y'all! No stamps!

I'm back with another VSN card, made for my friend Dawn's no-stamping challenge.  This Springtime paper by Authentique has several sheets of little Spring/Easter vignettes that worked just perfectly on a layout inspired by a sketch from several years ago, SC514.  It is a simple, straightforward sketch, and the zig-zag lines of the design leant themselves well to a row of pearls accents above or below each image.  

I met with a friend on Wednesday afternoon so that she could look through a few of my cards, and she decided that she would purchase this one and another one using the same designer paper for her daughter's Easter basket.  So sweet!  She and I are so happy to be able to help the Easter Bunny prepare for his big day!  

Supplies, all from Stamp Simply:

• Authentique Springtime designer paper
• Spellbinders' classic rectangles large 
• Paradise Aqua seam binding
• Melissa Frances cream pearls
• Scrapbook Adhesives self-adhesive foam squares
• Tombow Mono Multi liquid glue

Blessings to you and yours this Easter weekend!  I hope you have a very blessed Resurrection Sunday!

You are a blessing!

This KaiserCraft designer paper is so bright and fun and happy!  I thought it would make a nice, cheerful thank you card for a long-time friend who was a huge blessing to my family as we were moving my parents' belongings out of their home when it sold last month.  What a blessing!  We could not have done it in the necessary time-frame without her help!  

I enjoy using sketches from Splitcoaststampers for my cards.  This one is SC627.  I love the way the elements of the card overhang the card base while still allowing the card to fit into a standard envelope.   

If you look closely you will notice a pink rhinestone embellishing the flourish of the "g" of the sentiment.  It was the perfect camouflage for where the enameled square printed on the paper did not accept ink, leaving a blank spot.   

It's also nice that the inside of this card has lines!  Love this paper! Maybe this time I can manage to keep my writing straight!  :) 

Supplies for this design, all from Stamp Simply:

• KaiserCraft Hopscotch designer paper
• Stamp Simply Words of Encouragement clear stamp set
• Memento Tuxedo Black ink
• Spellbinders Small Standard Circles
• Spellbinders Large Standard Circles
• Grass seam binding
• Petaloo Botanica Baby Blooms
• Hot Pink rhinestones
• Tombow mono multi liquid glue
• glue dots
• self-adhesive foam squares

The Cross

Virtual Stamp Night is over now, but I still thought it would be fun to share some of the cards that I made with you, and this one is especially appropriate for now since it is Holy Week.

This elegant metallic gold and kraft card was created for the "Mr. T." challenge, to use stripes in honor of his iconic mohawk hairstyle, and gold, because of all of his gold jewelry, of course!  I love how changing the direction of the stripes in this designer paper makes the card more interesting and really draws the eye toward the center of the Cross, a symbolic reminder to keep our eyes on Christ and keep Him at the center of our lives.

It's so hard to show the reflection of the metallic paper in a photo, so I really wish you could see this card in person.  (I made a similar card about a month ago, which you can see in this post, which shows the golden glow a little more clearly!)

Here's a glimpse of the inside.

And here are the products that I used, all from Stamp Simply.

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamp Set He Has Risen
• Delicata Golden Glitz ink 
• Bazzill Basics Kraft Foil designer paper 
• Bazzill Mirror gold cardstock 
• Spellbinders Crosses 2 dies 
• Tombo Mono Multi liquid glue 
• self-adhesive foam squares

Have a glorious Holy Week!

Finding Inspiration

I had a blast last weekend playing virtual stamp night at Splitcoaststampers!  There were 15 challenges hosted over a two day period!  It really is fun to see how a challenge can drive your creativity and influence the way a card comes together!  There's still time for you to play if you'd like to join in the fun!

One of the awesome things about Eyelet Outlet products is that with them you can make an okay card and take it over the top! For example, take a look at granny on the beach.  This card was for a challenge to use the masking technique.  Stamped seagulls would have been kinda cute, but EO's seagull brads make it a really fun, much more interesting card!  They were a great finishing touch.

Sometimes the process of designing actually starts with an EO product in mind, as with this project that was made for a challenge to use shaving cream to create a background.  After looking through my stash of stamps, stencils and brads, an alphabet stencil, three different stamp sets and this book brad inspired this library/travel themed card.  I love it when a project practically comes together on its own that way!

I hope seeing these projects will inspire you to look through your stamps and stencils, dies, and Eyelet Outlet products to see how you might be inspired to create.  

Enjoy your weekend!

He Will Sustain You

I absolutely adore vintage, especially images of postcards, music, etc. and so this beautiful Kaisercraft paper is a favorite!  It's another one of those "almost too pretty to cover up" papers, and so I've kept the layout very simple.  I used a rectangle die as a mask while inking the paper, then used that as a guideline for my machine stitching, further distressing, fraying, and tearing the edges.

One of the sheets in the paper pack is a collection of tags that can be cut apart, and I was happy that this sentiment fit perfectly into one of them.  I repeated the distress ink/stitching/fraying/tearing as before, adding some silk ribbon through a grommet tag die to frame and secure the sentiment,  embellishing with a tiny rose and finishing the card with a trio of pearls.  

Here are the supplies I used:  

• Stamp Simply Fear Not clear stamp set
• Memento Tuxedo Black ink
• Tim Holtz tea dye distress ink
• Spellbinders classic rectangles dies large and small
• Spellbinders grommet tags dies
• KaiserCraft P.S. I Love You designer paper
• KaiserCraft Dusty Pink mini paper blooms
• Champagne 1/4 inch silk ribbon (Oops!  This color is currently out of stock but here is an alternative that will work!)
• Melissa Frances cream pearls
• Tombow mono multi liquid glue 
• self-adhesive foam squares
• glue dots