Mini Card Smiles for Miles

You know how we all eat MORE candy when they come in those little fun size bars? It turns out the same is true for cards... well, not the eating part, lol, but I (Lauren) find that once I start making mini-cards it's really hard to stop! Especially since an ATC format (2.5 x 3.5") showcases Summer-Themed Eyelet Outlet Brads so wonderfully well!

In this case, my little "family" of cards was inspired by the fact that one of my Simple Stories 6 x 6" paper pads featured a bunch of scaled down journal cards, with little icons just right to be swapped for brads. Who could resist something as amazingly serendipitous as that, eh? You can see in the photo that one the cards has a smiley face EXACTLY the same size-- and expression-- as a Mini Emotion Brad and another has a sun just a tiny bit smaller than the one in the Sun and Cloud Brads. The Flip Flop Brads weren't actually pictured on their card, but the text is in the perfect colors and there was just enough room to attach them along the edges. Shifting through another collection from the same manufacturer I found a camera with an iconic center which precisely fit the Peace Sign Brads and another mini card that was a brilliant home for Mini Bee Brads... right down to the honeycomb pattern!

Once I started making the cards, I decided to combine the colors in the paper collection, add some dictionary text paper with strategically placed words, and highlight the designs with a bit of Washi Tape in coordinating shades and patterns.

Flower Tape with Cute Bugs looked adorable with the Mini Bees. Chevron Tape was a natural choice with that sweet camera and bold Peace Sign. The Blue Dots Tape always reminds me of bubbles in an aquarium (or the ocean?!) so that was perfect with the Flip Flops. And Smiley Face Tape was an obviously fab accent for the Mini Smiley. I've also used some Foil Dots tape and my very favorite, super-colorful Skinny Washi Set as accents.

When all the cards were finished, it seemed a shame not to make some tiny envelopes for them, using the leftover bits of paper and a little more coordinating tape; though these will be tucked into a gift or mailed in a larger envelope, since 3.5 x 5" is the smallest size you can mail on its own!

I hope you'll be inspired to look at your own paper collections and your stamp sets, to see which ones will pair perfectly with some super-fun Eyelet Outlet Brads! Meanwhile Miss Carri has another great project to show you, so why not scroll down and see that right now?! ♥

Lauren Bergold 

can be found here every Wednesday, 

and on her blog most of the rest of the week!

Tape LooOoOOoOoove (and a Tape Tester!)

I (Lauren) love washi tape. I may have mentioned that before. Some people have even suggested that I own too much of it. They're wrong, obviously, but not nearly as wrong as they'd be if they thought a person with as much tape as I have wouldn't be all that excited about the gorgeous NEW tapes at Eyelet Outlet. Because LOOK:

That's just a sampling of what's new and upcoming at Eyelet Outlet, in fact, not everything is even officially *IN* the shop yet, so be sure to keep checking the blog, the shop and FaceBook throughout September because the designers will be showing off loads more cool stuff! It's not just tape, either, there's also a whole bunch of awesome new brads (I've used one of the Balls of Yarn as the center of my Solid Color Paper Flower stack) and a huge collection of epoxy shapes in sooooooo many beautiful colors. But I digress. We were talking about tape.

A few tapes I especially love are the Paris Washi, the Tape Measure Washi, the Wide Travel Washi, the Stocking Washi, the Reindeer Washi, Season's Greetings, Cruise Washi, Book Washi... I could go on, but you get the idea. Oh, and I didn't even mention the Skinny Tapes, which come as sets of three 5mm tapes. The Skinny Washi Hearts Set is super cool, imo, as well as the Star-Heart-Pawn Set (those tiny clouds!!!) If you want to see all the choices, spend a little time in the Eyelet Outlet shop, you won't be disappointed! Other tapes I used in my card include: Admit One Ticket Tape, Flowers With Cute Bug, Holiday Dots, and Stripe Washi.

 
Faced with so many gorgeous choices of tape, I decided to make one of my favorite styles of quilt card, for which you fill a large cardstock square with neatly lined up strips of different tapes, then cut the fully covered square into segments, which get re-arranged into a quilt-like-pattern. Like this:

If you'd like to see the entire method, I did a step by step tutorial a few years ago, featuring a card that is made exactly the same way as this one, but using strips of patterned paper. My favorite material for this is definitely *TAPE* though, because it's just so flippin' easy; heck, you don't even need adhesive! To enhance the quilting theme, I machine stitched around each of my triangles, before adding a Solid Color Paper Flower stack embellishment with a Yarn Ball Brad center.

Of course the one teeny drawback about tape is that it comes on rolls, and depending on how translucent the tape is-- and how long the repeat of the design is-- it can be difficult to see exactly what you're getting, or how well it will match the rest of your card... until it's actually stuck to your card, by which time... it's already stuck to your card! a few months ago I hit upon the idea of making a "tape tester" by sticking a bit of each design onto plain white cardstock, so I could see at a glance what I had, and how well it coordinated with my other supplies. When my friend and fellow Eyelet Outlet Designer Stephanie saw this, she thought it was a great idea, but suggested it would be even better if I used a clear plastic base, so that the "tape tester" sheet could be laid right over one's project as a sort of preview mode. She was right, of course (she usually is!) so that's what I've done:

I cut up a sturdy but inexpensive acrylic file folder from the office supply store to use as my base, but you could use any clear plastic... even a bit of packaging, or one of those clear containers in which you get takeaway from the salad bar! You can see that I've arranged the tapes by color, and also a bit by theme, for example, all of my holiday tapes are grouped together. Some tapes appear more than once, because they fit equally well into different groups, and it's nice to see them side by side, in context, I think. Of course you can arrange YOUR tapes in any way that makes sense to you, but one thing I think I can promise is that you'll use your tapes more when you can really see them!

Lauren Bergold is emphatically NOT planning to join a 12-step program for washi addicts, 

so she promises to make lots more tape-based cards in future! 

In the meantime, you can find her on her blog, 

"...All the Good Blog Names Were Taken..."

Paris, Je T'aime

Show of hands, Eyelet Outlet fans: How many of you have been to Paris? Sadly, I (Lauren) haven't... yet. In the meantime, I settle for making cards with a Parisian theme. Luckily I have plenty of Eiffel Tower Brads to help me.

I love that the packets contain both shiny silver Eiffel Towers and matte copper brown ones. The latter are great when you want to evoke more of an earthy or vintage feeling; I chose one for this card, since the premade "Bon Jour" tag was in shades of brown.

Any time my cards have a skyline or an outdoor setting I love to add Sun and Cloud Brads, they make a grouping of elements feel more like a little landscape or scene. Mini Butterfly Brads come in assorted packs with four different colors, I chose dark orange because they emphasized the red of the sentiment. To incorporate the tag into my overall card design I added some clouds punched from a vintage Paris guidebook on top of French sheet music to which I added a strip of Flowers with Cute Bug Washi for extra color.

Et voila, my card... and my post... are complete! Au revoir, mes amis! 

Je m'appelle Lauren.

Mon blog est ici.

An EGG-cellent Adventure!

Hello, it's Lauren, hoping you had a lovely holiday yesterday, if you were clebrating, or just an especially nice Sunday! I'm pretty sure that there will be lots of blogs today with tips and tricks for using up leftover Easter eggs; but as far as I know, nobody is answering the equally important question of what to do with leftover Colored Egg Brads... so luckily, I'm here for you! :) I'm definitely ready for Spring this year, so my first thought was: FLOWERS!

I had fun doodling these particular blooms with my watercolors, then adding a bit of marker and pen on top; but you could stamp or stencil your flowers, or even start with a flowery patterned paper. Either way, your Eyelet Outlet Colored Egg Brads and Multi-sized Enamel Dots make awesome centers. One of my favorite things here, though, was the last minute funky photo corners I made using strips of Stitched Washi Tape... *HOW* had I never thought of that before?? 

Another great shortcut to instant funky flowers is to use diecuts or punches; because we all have plenty of those, am I right? I stacked up blossoms from several different dies, added Colored Egg Brads and Enamel Dots and finished off with some Flowers with Cute Bug Washi Tape plus a few Pearl Bling Strips. I can't wait till my garden has as much color as this!

But for right now I'll settle for wishing you a very happy day and a very happy Springtime! ♥

Hello, I'm Lauren and my little corner of the internet is called 

All the Good Blog Names Were Taken... I'd love to see you there!