Go Fish!

Hi!  It's Kim from Katydid Cards.  Happy to be with you today!

Did you ever wonder how the card game, Go Fish, originate?  Well, it was invented by two bored fish.  Think I'm kidding?  Nope!

Here's the proof:

These Playing Card Brads are brand new in the Eyelet Outlet Store and they're sure to be very popular.  Click here to check out all the new brads.

A number of Silhouette cut files were used in the creation of this card.  For the fishbowl, I used item #28038, #9021 for the fish and the banner was one of the 50 free files with the software.  Of course, I wouldn't be me if I didn't change the files up a bit...so I did!  I raised the patterned paper on mounting tape after placing acetate on the back of it so it appears as if you're looking through the glass at the fish.  The banner with the greeting was applied with mounting tape, too.

Here's a picture of the card, opened.   The fishbowl was turned into a print and cut.  I added the sand at the bottom of the bowl with some scrap cardstock.  I attached the fish bodies, then the cards and then the fins and the speech bubbles.

And here's a closer look at the fish and their cards!  I'm thinking the fish on the right will win.  For a bit of dimension, I sponged the edges of the fish and speech bubbles and also added a bit of Wink of Stella in the dots. 

Next time you walk past a fishbowl, take a closer look you just might see a spirited game of "Go Fish".

And Happy New Year to all of you!  Resolve to visit us at Eyelet Outlet every day to see what our Design Team has created for you! ;-)

Kim of Katydid Cards

Who provided the inspiration for these cards?  Katy did!

12th Night Invite!

Hello everyone!  I hope you had a very merry Christmas!  We're making our way through the 12 days of Christmas on the way to Epiphany, and today I'm here with a totally over-the-top 12th Night card.  

The colors of the Mardi Gras season are purple, gold, and green, and I absolutely love them together!  I used gold embossing powder for the background, sponging over it with bold colors of distress ink, adding a band of sparkling green and purple jewel bling strips and glittery gold washi tape with a giant frou-frou purple bow.  

The admission ticket dangling from the bow features a gold embossed crown with purple jewels.  Beautiful green jewel bling leads the eye from one corner of the design to the other. 

Inside is a bold embossed crown with more purple and green jewels.

While this card is designed for 12th Night, the kick-off of the Mardi Gras season, it would be easily adaptable to practically any holiday or special occasion!  

We're planning to enjoy some King Cake and chicory coffee on the day of Epiphany, January 6th.  I hope you are enjoying an extended holiday celebration, too!  It's nice to make the most of the season since it seems to come and go so quickly!    

Wishing all of the best to you for 2018!

MooChas Gracias!

I hope all of our readers had a splendid holiday and that Santa brought you just what you wanted!  One of the gifts we received was a box of Omaha Steaks from someone very dear.  I thought what better way to say thanks than a note featuring one of the "utterly" adorable cow brads from Eyelet Outlet! 

My sentiment was made with a Cricut font called Fontastic Font (DJ Smitten) and "Gracias" is from the Cricut "Ole" cartridge.  The scalloped and ric-rac borders are also Cricut images.  The Eyelet Outlet Dotted Paper Flower I chose complimented my background paper and the flower layers are fastened together with an Eyelet Outlet Pearl Brad.  Eyelet Outlet has so paper flowers to choose from in many lovely colors and patterns as well as lots of jewel and pearl brad options for securing them!  

Thanks for stopping in today and be sure to sign up for our email list at EyeletOutlet.com so you'll be in the know about our sales and new products!

Cheers, My Dears!

It's hard to believe we are in the last week of December already... boy this year flew by! I (Lauren) have been thinking about the new year, and I'm pretty excited about 2018!

Ever since the first time I saw this beautiful ambery shade of Eyelet Outlet Bling and realized it was called "Champagne" I have had the idea for this card.

I downloaded a piece of copyright-free clipart to use as templates for my glasses and used two strips of Glitter Gold Tape, torn at the top edge, and trimmed neatly at the bottom for the champagne.

My favorite part of this card are the bubbles, made from Champagne Bling Strips that I snipped apart. I think they really look like bubbles, but also... (here's a designer secret for you!) ...by placing them carefully, I was able to hide the seam where my two vertical pieces of tape meet inside each glass! ;)

I made my own patterned paper for the background, by typing "Happy New Year" in a bunch of languages and formatting the text at 9-point size in a free font called "Sunshine Poppy". I saved the file, and it will be on the "Freebies" page for you to use, if you wish. I added the year in glittery stickers and matted the whole panel on a piece of cardstock bordered in Skinny Glitter Black Tape.

I hope 2018 will hold everything you wish for! ♥

Lauren Bergold

wishes you a very happy 

last week of December 2017!

COME...they told me

Hi there.  It's Kim from Katydid Cards here to share one last Christmas card.  I made this card a while ago featuring one of my favorite themes...dogs.  And then I forgot to share it!

It would have been perfect to include in my post not so long ago when I used song cues as inspiration for my cards.  Oh well, this gives me excuse to visit with you again!

So here it is with my heartfelt wishes for a Merry Christmas as well as some Antler Brads and Jewel Bling!

The dog was made with the Come All Ye Faithful stamp and die combo from Papertrey Ink.  This dog is the perfect size with the antlers.

Inside, I decided to have a little fun using my little dog, Katy, as my inspiration.  She was always so tolerant posing for pictures in Christmas attire with props.

Here's a closer look at the sentiment:

Now I'm off to finish up my Christmas preparations.  Nothing like waiting 'til the last minute!

Kim from Katydid Cards

Who provided the inspiration for these cards?  Katy did!

Bling on the Hearts

Hello, everyone!  It's Kim from Katydid Cards with a wish for the happiest of holidays to each and every one of you!

It seems odd, I know, to be posting with Valentine's Day cards before Christmas!  But, as card makers, we need to be ahead of the curve if we want to get all the supplies to make those cards and get them out in time, right?

Speaking of supplies, have you seen the new Heart Jewel Bling at Eyelet Outlet yet?  It's so pretty!  And there are so many other products in the store with hearts from which to choose.  Here's the whole list! 

Today I'm using the Heart Jewel Bling I mentioned above on two cards.  My first card features the hearts as balloons held by a little bear.  Additionally, I used Red Jewel Bling across the top.  See the little "pull" tab at the top of his head?

When you pull on it, he looks like he's soaring.  He slides up a secret invisible track, a secret which I'm going to share with you!  Look for Slider Mechanism on the Freebies page.

Here's a closer look at the balloons and you can just make out the slits cut in the patterned paper from the I {Heart} You kit by TheDigiChick.  The bear is from Paper Crafting World.  I changed it to mirror the shape of the hearts.

And here's the sentiment which plays off the high-flying bear.  I used the Heart Pearls-Sticky Back as an accent.

My next card suspends the hearts on clear thread.  The threads are secured between the mats and the card front.   The sentiment plays off the hearts suspended on the thread.

Since you can see the hearts from both sides of the aperture, I placed another heart directly over the back.  This keeps them nice and snug on the thread while looking great from both sides as they dance on the thread. 

Inside, a continuation of the thought.  I made use of the negative space after cutting the aperture my sentiment and mat.

 That's all for today.  I'm off to finish wrapping my presents.

Kim from Katydid Cards

Who provided the inspiration for these cards?  Katy did!

Vintage Floral

Eyelet Outlet products form a beautiful focal point for today's card. This pad of designer paper has so many lovely patterns, and the color combination is soft and elegant, so it inspired an elegant vintage layout for this project.

The grey-blue, sage green, kraft, and dark rose pink of the papers are echoed in the vintage washi tape, gold pearl swirl bling, enamel dot flower center, and in the paper flower leaves and petals.  A light sponging of the leaves and flower petals with silver ink helped to mute the colors and match the hazy, softer colors of the flowers in the background.  

Inside, there's another strip of washi tape.  A splattering of Finetec silver metallic watercolor inside and out brings even more sparkle.  

I like having my holidays one at a time, so I'm not completely ready to stamp Valentines just yet since Christmas is not quite here!  This card is a way to make a soft transition from one holiday to the next!

Happy holidays, everyone!  

Chinese New Year

Each year the Chinese New Year is associated with an animal and 2018 is the "Year of the Dog." Eyelet Outlet has us covered with several amazing Dog Brads!  I used this simple Black Dog Brad for my card.

Wish the dog lover in your life Happy New Year with this fun card!  I used images from Cricut's Pagoda cartridge.  The symbol above my text means "Celebrate."  I used red and gold as my color scheme for this card as is the Chinese New Year tradition.  The Eyelet Outlet Skinny Red Washi Tape and Skinny Gold Glitter Washi Tape complimented my design.  I also embellished my branch of blossoms with Red Eyelet Outlet Gems.  

Happy 2018 to all of our Eyelet Outlet customers!  Come by Eyelet Outlet for the best selection of embellishments anywhere!

Very Merry Monograms

If you're anything like me (Lauren) the week before Christmas is all about getting those holiday presents wrapped and delivered, either in person or via the mail. Here's a fast and easy idea for personalized gift bags, and best of all, it uses something I know you already have in your crafty stash: gorgeous Eyelet Outlet Holiday Washi Tape!

Customized monograms are simple to make, thanks to the fact that our computers come loaded with beautiful fonts. Having measured the front of my plain white, medium-sized, big-box-store gift bags, I knew my oversized initials needed to be just under 8" tall, and no more than 6" wide. Since these bags are for two of my favorite kids, Carlos and Isabel, I tried a few different styles before settling on a free font called Vexler Slip. I gave the letters a medium thick outline in black, but no fill color, so that when I printed them on plain white cardstock, I could apply the washi tape directly on top of the outlines, and still see exactly where to cut out when I was done! Then came the fun part: playing with all my pretty red and green tapes!

I decided to start in the middle of each letter and work towards the top and the bottom in a sort of mirror image arrangement, but honestly there is no bad way to do this and neither precision nor a plan is needed! In fact, this would be a great project for the kiddo's to do: let them go wild adding as many (or few) different styles of tape, in whatever order or pattern they like, until the entire monogram is completely covered with washi. 

There's really only one absolutely necessary step, that comes when all of your tapes are on, but before you cut the letter out: be sure to burnish the tapes really well, to make sure every single one is firmly stuck down. You can use a bonefolder for this, or I use the hard plastic handle of my scissors. Then it's time to cut neatly around the outlines, which, as you can see, are still perfectly visible through the tape. Et voila! Fancy holiday monograms that can decorate a card, a package, or even be strung together to spell out a holiday greeting!

I've used mine, as we know, on a pair of gift bags for my young friends. You can seriously use ANY combination of tapes for a project like this, but in this case my letter C features: super-cute Green Santa Tape, Holly Tape, Skinny Merry Christmas, Solid Skinny Bright and Pastel Green; while the design behind the letter on Carlos' bag also has: Skinny Gold Dots, Red Dots, and Vertical Red Trees. 

Remember to look at all your tapes in the planning stages; I've got quite a few non-holiday reds, greens, pinks and even gold mixed in with my more specifically Christmassy patterns. Basic designs like dots, stripes and solids really do go with everything. On Isabel's initial and bag, I used: Santa Washi Tape, Red Dots, Merry Christmas, Skinny Pink Tape, Wide Tree Tape, and Season's Greetings.

Of course good design is important, but really... EVERY gift that's given with love looks beautiful under the Christmas tree, doesn't it?

Wishing the happiest and most joyful of holidays to you and your family! ♥♥♥

Lauren Bergold

spends more time on her blog 

outside the holiday season, honestly!

The Best is Yet To Come

I love using journaling stickers to create cards.

These stickers paired perfectly with my Camera Brad & Sunglass Brad.

I framed the stickers in black and hung them on a brick washi tape wall.  I finished with a sticker sentiment.

Eyelet Outlet Products Used:

• Travel Brads (Camera)
• Sunglass Brads (Dark)
• Brick Washi Tape

Did you know we have a Flickr Gallery to showcase Eyelet Outlet Design Team Creations?

You can visit me in blogland at Ingenious Inkling,

and you can find Lauren & I making holiday cards

all year long at Jingle Belles

Dots!

I'm sure you know that Eyelet Outlet is well known for decorative brads, bling and washi tape.

Remember, we have amazing enamel dots! Not only are they dots...we have shaped enamel as well!

Whether you like shiny, glittery, or matte texture,

we have all three!

Be sure to get a rainbow of colors!

A little spot of color goes a long way on your scrapbook pages by keeping the focus on your photographs.  This layout can be found at EZ Laser Designs.

Dawn Mercedes, of Sunnyside Up