A Very Washi Xmas

I (Lauren) love tape. I love wide tape and skinny tape, glitter tape and foil tape; but my favorite thing about tape is that all you need to do to make a fast, fabulous and completely custom holiday card (or two lol!) is combine a few of your favorite styles and maybe add an Eyelet Outlet Brad or some bling and you are DONE! ♥

This week I am crushing on the new wide Santa Washi Tape which comes in two colorways. My first card features what I'd call the default style, with a sort of winter sunset background. I flanked it with Skinny Star Tape and Blue Marble Tape, then added a bunch of fancy new Snowflake Bling. The sentiment is a single repeat from our Merry Christmas Tape, trimmed into a little flag and matted on a scrap of red cardstock.

We also have Santa Washi in Green, the green being a reference to the pistachio background behind The Big Guy. In this version, I built a sort of chimney from wide Brick Washi, and let Santa emerge from the top of it. I added a row of Poinsettia Brads for extra texture and once again my sentiment is a one specific section of Christmas Tape. You'll notice that both cards are built atop a simple graph design, which is partly because I like that sort of paper but also... if you're going to apply a bunch of washi tape and don't love measuring, a patterned paper with a strong straight horizontal line is *very* helpful! 

If you need to make a bunch of cards, but don't love "mass producing" why not gather up all your tapes and see how many uniquely beautiful backgrounds you can make?

Lauren Bergold

loves washi tape.

(She may have already mentioned that!)

Happy Fourth of July!

This seems like a really good day for me (Lauren) to show off a few patriotic cards using some of my favorite Eyelet Outlet brads and tapes:

It's no secret that I love a big, chunky sentiment and that I often build an entire card --or in this case, two entire cards, lol-- around one. I love alphabet stickers and dies of course, but I also like to make my own custom letters using the ultimate resource for that: the font library on my computer! I just format the text I want to use to the correct size for my card, print it out, staple it to the patterned paper I want to use, and cut around the outline. For even more flexibility, I can make my own paper by adhering my favorite Eyelet Outlet washi tape to some plain white cardstock. In this case, a I've stacked a combination of red, white and blue tapes, to make the letters even more dynamic.

I love these Flag and Hat Brads, I especially love that you get 6 hats and 6 flags in the same pack. I made a little border using two flags, a hat and a couple of Enamel Stars, and flanked the "happy birthday" text with dots from the same set of enamels. My "USA" letters are a free font called "Intrepid" from dafont.com and the tapes I stacked are: Skinny Red Dots (from a great set of five skinny tapes), Red, White and Blue Stripe, Skinny Blue Hearts (from a set of three heart tapes).

My second sentiment is in another free font called "Roland" and features Skinny Blue Dots Tape, Skinny Silver Stars (from another great three tape set), and my beloved Heart Washi. I've made a little bunting using light blue Banner Brads, White Hearts, plus red and blue stars from the Red, White and Blue Stars brad set. It might take you a minute to notice that there's actually no official patriotic themed product on this one, I've just combined the right colors and added in some stars and things. In fact, most of my blue elements are baby blue rather than navy, which I think looks kind of fun.

I hope everyone who is celebrating today will have a wonderful time with family and friends! ♥

Lauren Bergold

would really like it if someone 

could invent quieter fireworks, please?!

Are You Ready For Your Close-Up?

I (Lauren) never stop being amazed by the things that can inspire me. Eyelet Outlet Brads and Washi Tape are an endless source, obviously, but this week I found some cool new ways to use them, thanks to a $2 camera stamp from the bargain bin at a big box crafting store!

My first idea was to pair the camera with the Selfie Brad set. I love that the packets contain six smart phones and six "Selfie" badges, and that the phones come in a few different colors. Although obviously, my favorites are the pink ones, lol! That being the case, I paper pieced the camera stamp in some neutral grey papers with an accent of Skinny Stars Washi. I used a Pink Heart Enamel for the lens and a Pink Enamel Dot for the button, with a small clear gem as the flash.  

My next idea happened because when I made the "Beach" card a couple of weeks ago, I had a pineapple-- with adorable Sunglass Brad--  and a palm tree all ready to go, but wound up not needing them. Somehow they became the stars of their very own faux polaroid, with a sky made from Blue Dots Washi and torn Glitter Gold Tape as the sandy beach. Of course I needed a Sunshine Brad and I paper pieced another camera, this time using Skinny Green Stripe Washi with Yellow Enamel Heart and Dot accents. 

Faux polaroids are quite a favorite of mine, so my third card uses another one. The sentiment "Oh Snap" works really well for anything from a belated birthday to a get well card, so I kept the rest of the embellishments pretty simple so that it could be used for many different occasions. I used the leftover pieces from the first grey camera, but this time I used Red Enamels and Skinny Clouds Tape to accent the body. I "matted" the strip of camera-patterned paper with Glitter Silver tape, just to make it stand out a tiny bit more. I actually had the whole card put together when I spotted another pair of Sunglass Brads sitting on my work table, and I just couldn't resist adding them as well. 

The next time you have trouble choosing between more than one card idea, why not get out your Eyelet Outlet embellishments and make them all?!

Lauren Bergold

likes making selfie-inspired cards 

quite a bit more than she likes taking selfies!

Ahoy, Summer!

Can you believe it's the middle of May already? I (Lauren) find it hard to imagine we're only a couple of weeks away from Memorial Day! I was feeling Nautical-but-Nice (lol!) and decided to make a card which celebrates that fact. There are some awesome patriotic products in the Eyelet Outlet store and here are a few of my favorites:

It's no secret that I'm a bit of a Washi Tape enthusiast (I don't think it counts as "hoarding" if you USE them, right?!) and one of my favorite tricks for making a bold sentiment is to combine a few coordinating tapes, the diecut or hand cut my title from the resulting decorative border. In this case I'm rockin' the Red, White and Blue Stripe with Nautical Tape and Skinny Stars tape, though I confess I had difficulty choosing when I also had Blue Stars, Cruise Tape and Hearts; I've traced some oversized chipboard letters to form the word "Ahoy" and then mounted them on foam tape on my card so they'd stand out even more.

A bold red panel on a field of white makes everything pop, don't you think? And how adorable are those Red White and Blue Anchor Brads?! I'm definitely ready to sail off into summer now, and I hope you are, too!

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you'll scroll down to the post below and see what my lovely and amazing Wednesday partner, Miss Carri, has to inspire you even more!

Lauren Bergold

loooooooooooooves summer time almost as much as she loves Washi Tape!

(Which is a really, really, lot!!!)

♥♥♥