Oh Boy!

Hi guys, it's Lauren here again. We had some exciting news in the Bergold family just before Christmas: our eldest nephew and his wife are expecting a baby boy this summer! Being a cardmaker, OF COURSE the first thing I thought of was boy themed cards, lol; and I decided to start practicing right away. Luckily I found these adorable Eyelet Outlet Baby Animal Brads which seemed like the perfect set around which to build some super-cute cards.

I love BIG titles and sentiments; for one thing they're an awesome place to feature brads. For both of these cards, I diecut the appropriate letters from white cardstock that I had covered with Blue Houndstooth Tape that's listed under Dots, Patterns and edged the letters very lightly with a black brush marker before mounting them on tiny slivers of foam tape to make them stand out... both literally and figuratively. 

For my first card, I had chosen a patterned paper that looked like denim, when I realized that I had some actual denim in the form of a pair of ancient, lightweight jeans I was getting ready to send to the recycling center. Instead, I used my Xyron machine to apply edge-to-edge adhesive to a 4 x 5.25" panel of plain white cardstock, stuck the panel to the reverse side of the denim, burnished it really well, and cut neatly around the panel with scissors. Then I stitched around the edge with my sewing machine to add extra interest and keep that denim from ever being tempted to peel up.

Since some of the brads are on the very edges of the letters, I used a combination of their own prongs and some super-strong gluedots to attach them firmly, then added them to the card, with some plain white alphabet stickers to finish the title.

My second card was inspired by the current sketch at Sketch Saturday, and it immediately suggested inchies to me. I applied Blue and White Dot Washi in neat strips on some plain white cardstock, burnished the edges really well, and trimmed my tape paper down into neat one inch squares, which I matted with cardstock and then verrrrry carefully stitched around the edges. 

I added my Baby Animals, popped the squares up on foam tape, and added them to a cardfront inspired by the sketch, with the Houndstooth letters and alphabet stickers making up the sentiment once more.

I can think of lots of other uses for these adorable critters, and I bet you can, too! Why not treat yourself to some Baby Animal Brads and see what they inspire you to make? Be sure to tag your creations with #EyeletOutlet when you post on Facebook and Instagram, so we can see what you've made; and check out all the fab designer creations while you're there! ♥

Lauren Bergold is also on 

Facebook, Instagram and her own blog, 

"...all the *GOOD* blog names were taken..."

Lots of Love

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody! It's Lauren here again, and in my opinion it's never too late to send a pretty Valentine out to someone special; or for that matter, to send an all-occasion greeting that just happens to have some hearts on it! I've used some of my favorite Eyelet Outlet Tapes, Enamel Dots and even some Balloon Brads to make a couple of cards that are all heart!

My first card was inspired by a layered heart die that I saw recently on social media. It's quite a new product though, and I haven't seen it in a store yet, which made me wonder if I could make my own version using a heart template and my trusty scissors. And it turned out that yes, I could!

After I traced the heart outline, I used the curves of the stencil to divide the shape into five segments that were more or less even, without being straight. Then I cut out around the heart. And finally, I cut the sections apart... but... I stayed just a scant 1/8" or so away from the dividing lines, so that there would be a bit of a gap between the segments when I reassembled them, without changing the shape or size of the heart.

I traced each of my finished heart sections onto a piece of plain white cardstock to which I had neatly applied strips of Pink Dot Washi, Orange Star Tape, Skinny Green Stripes, Blue Houndstooth Pattern Tape and Purple Dot Tape. I popped each segment up on foam tape and mounted them (with tiny gaps in between) on top of some texty patterned paper I made just for these cards. The text reads, "hugs & kisses & rainbow wishes" and is formatted in a free font called "Broach". I created a page that's white with black print and one that's black with white print. Both of these will be archived on our Freebies Page, so feel free to grab that to use on your own creations!

For my second card, I was thinking of the balloon bouquets my niece Riley has often received on her birthday, which just happens to be today--Valentine's Day! So those bouquets always had a heart balloon or two mixed in with some ordinary colorful balloons. I decided to recreate that look by diecutting small hearts from some of the leftover "tape papers" I had made for the first card --in this case Pink Dot Washi, Skinny Green Stripes and Blue Houndstooth Pattern Washi. I mixed the heart shapes with some of our Bright Balloon Brads and layered them all on top of my text paper, on which I machine stitched some balloon strings. I punched two small holes on either side of the stitched strings, threaded through some very skinny purple ribbon, and tied it into a bow at the front of the card.

I hope you will be inspired to take the hearts we all love on Valentine's Day and use them to spread the love all throughout the year! ♥

Lauren Bergold 

wishes you a very 

♥Happy Valentine's Day!♥