Hang In There

Do you ever need a card to lift a friend's spirits? Life isn't going well. He/she wants to give up. One way to encourage such a friend is by making an uplifting card.

Hang in there, you can make it

The gorgeous grapes on this card are Eyelet Outlet Brads.

Just look at the closeup detail:

Eyelet Outlet Products:

Grape Brads

Skinny Washi Tape

White Enamel Dots

Thanks for stopping by the blog today!

Be sure to check the Tradeshow List 

to see when Eyelet Outlet will be close to you. 

And head over to the online store, too.

Jeanette

Love You a Latte

It's the middle of September, which means it's time for the Fall Coffee Lovers Bloghop, and since I (Lauren) have the *PERFECT* ingredients-- Eyelet Outlet Coffee Brads-- I'm excited to jump on board.

 

The older I get, the more I appreciate Autumn: cooler temperatures, beautiful colors as the foliage here in the Northeast changes, and yes, a delicious warm caffeinated beverage are all things I enjoy, so I've tried to capture them in my card. I started by adorning the oversized copper "LOVE" diecut with a few paper flowers and the adorable Coffee Brads. I wanted to emphasize the sentiment a little bit more, so I added a couple of Pearl Hearts to the cups. Did you know that you can create your own custom bling and pearls, just by coloring them with alcohol ink markers? Thus I was able to make mine the perfect shade of golden yellow to coordinate with the diecut vintage paper leaves I had watercolored with all my favorite fall shades of ColorBurst. 

When it came time to build the card, I lined up some neat strips of Wide Brick Washi, Glitter Copper and Skinny Orange Tape so that I would have the perfect home for my compound sentiment. And whereas I may be the only coffee-loving American who doesn't love Pumpkin Spice flavoring in my coffee, that doesn't mean I don't love to mix a few Pumpkin Brads with my Coffee Brads, lol! 

I always start with a slightly bigger background than I think I'm going to need, so I don't run out of room. In this case, I wound up with a 3x6" offcut of woodgrain paper with the beautiful layers of tape, which seemed like the perfect size to make an extra little tag!

A few more leaves, a heart diecut, some smaller alphas and another Coffee + Pumpkin Brad pairing and I was good to go! 

Lauren Bergold

is looking forward to cool weather 

and warm drinks this autumn!

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. I (Lauren) am 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 is known as the "Washi Queen" in these parts, 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!

Lauren Bergold

prefers the title "Washi Enthusiast" 

rather than "Crazy Tape Lady"

(...but technically both are true...)

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!

Outside of a Dog...

My favorite Groucho Marx quote is, "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read" and when I (Lauren) saw the brand new, soon-to-be-released, Eyelet Outlet Book Brads, I knew immediately I wanted to make a card which said that. So I did:

My favorite thing about the Book Brads is that they coordinate realllllly well with the Book Washi Tape, so I wanted to use both products together. Of course, my lovely design team sister, Stephanie, recently made her own patterned paper using that same tape, so I had to think of an interesting variation. I decided to do a herringbone pattern. Which sounds a little fussy, but thanks to the strong vertical lines of the books, it was easy to trim the tape perfectly straight with a snip of the scissors. So I had the whole background covered in a jiffy.

Another thing I love about the Book Brads is that each package contains the same pile of books in two different colorways: a sort of neutral tan, as well as bright primary colors. It turns out they both look really nice with the tape, though. So I decided to make a bookmark, too.

All I had to do was adjust the shape of my computer generated text (the font is Comic Sans) and reprint. Since the size and shape was much more compact, I left off the Skinny Washi Tape, 4mm Summer Brads and Groucho-style Eye Glass Brads that I used on the card.

What's *YOUR* favorite quote? Because I'll bet you anything that there are brads in the Eyelet Outlet store that could help you illustrate it! ♥

Lauren Bergold

loves brads, books, and blog visitors!

Turtle-y Awesome Tags!

It's my turn on the Eyelet Outlet Blog again, where I'm still crushing bigtime on the brand new, soon-to-be-released, animal brads! There are so many great designs this time, I could not resist giving you another little preview of some that will be in the Eyelet Outlet Store very soon! I also couldn't use just one... or even two... so here's a three-fer of handmade tags. But first, fair warning: if you happen to be a person who hates puns, look away now!

I'm in love with all the new brads, but the Llamas miiiiight be my favorite. I mean, seriously, just look at that cute face!

Since I wanted the characters (and ok, yes, the puns, lol!) to be the stars of this tag set, I haven't used much else in the way of embellishments, just little stacks of vintage paper, some fun hand-stamping, and a few strips of solid color tape, from my favorite Skinny Washi Set.

The Fox Brads come in mixed packs, with some of the foxes standing up, and others taking a little nap. I'm pretty sure it was planned that way because the designers knew it would be impossible for us to choose only one type of fox!

Finally, the Turtle Brads have found their way --slowly but surely-- into my heart. Because, YES, they really are turtle-y awesome!!!

As you know, there's something new for you here on the Eyelet Outlet Blog every single day, so I hope you'll come back tomorrow and see what my friend Barbara has to show you!

Lauren Bergold loves puns, paper, 

Eyelet Outlet brads, and hanging out with her fellow papercrafters, 

which she does here and on her own blog!