Holly, Poinsettia and Pinecones

There is no possible combination of holiday foliage that I (Lauren) do not love; especially if we're talking about Eyelet Outlet Holly, Poinsettia and Pinecone Brads! See?

Here's a shocking true confession for you: I own probably 15 sets of foliage dies and at least 7 or 8 of them are holiday foliage! But I use *all* of them --separately or together-- pretty much every year. In this case I've pulled out some medium sized pine branches and some smaller holly clusters, but really this idea would work with any foliage you like... you could even stamp rather than diecut, for that matter. I've used the same basic sketch for all three cards, just changed up the specific shapes and products. This is a great way to make a bunch of cards quickly, without having to mass-produce in the traditional way. For my first card I added the foliage to a matted star diecut, anchored the fronds with a trio of Poinsettia Brads and grounded the whole thing with some argyle-inspired Christmas Pattern Washi.

My second card is landscape rather than portrait, and I've used a nice big label shape, so that I could scatter a bunch of the gorgeous new Pinecone Brads around a Bling-bedecked Paper Flower stack. A double strip of Pine Tree Washi frames the whole thing quite nicely.

My third card features an ancient 3-layer heart die and a cluster of Holly Brads with red Jewel centers against a background of sheet music adorned with Holly Tape. This illustrates one of my *favorite* things about washi tapes that have a lot of "white" in them... they are almost always translucent, so that you can apply them over different colors of cardstock or patterned paper and get different effects!

Of course, there is a nearly unlimited amount of beautiful combinations you could make with just a few EO Holiday Brads and tapes, so let your imagination go wild! ♥

Lauren Bergold

realizes that her holiday cardmaking duties would 

be easier if she made 50 of one design... :)

Christmas Washi Tags

Hi Friends! kel here again today to share another fun project with you!!

Today's project is a set of monogrammed Christmas gift tags featuring some of the super cute washi tape in the Eyelet Outlet store! And yes, I know it's February, and Christmas is waaaaay off, but it's never too early to start stocking up on either Christmas crafting supplies or Christmas tags and cards so you're ready to go once the season hits!!

For these tags, I laid out strips of the Santa Washi, Tree Washi, Ho Ho Ho Washi, Holly Washi, and ZigZag Washi in Red on a scrap piece of white cardstock that measured 2" wide. Then I cut the tags down to 3.5" tall and then punched the scalloped tag top and threaded some red twine. 

I used the initials of my oldest son's good friends (and they're common enough that I can use them for other people if we end up getting his friends something that doesn't need a tag!)

Super easy peasy and a great way to use up both scrap paper and a handful of rolls of washi tape that I know everyone is stashing in their craft supplies haha!! Thanks for stopping by today and see you again soon!!

lovies, =o) kel

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!

Peace, Love and Coffee

Hi guys, it's Lauren here again. One of my favorite papercrafting challenges is taking place this week: it's the 2017 Winter Coffee Lovers' Bloghop which is always a lot of fun. Especially since I have the considerable advantage of keeping a stock of Eyelet Outlet Coffee Brads on hand at all times! ;)

My sentiment is inspired by an awesome new stamp set from CAS-ual Fridays that my friend Amy Tsuruta used reallllllly well on this card. Since I don't happen to own it (...yet...) I decided to make my own tribute version! Obviously I needed a Peace Sign Brad, but to give it a little more holiday style, I added a hat from the Elf Brad set. A Holly bedecked Heart Brad came next; then a cup from the Coffee Brad set, with a couple of Christmas Cookie Brads. I used letter stickers for the main words, and my handy Dymo for the rest. I made a seasonal mat for the sentiment panel by neatly lining up strips of Holly Tape on plain white cardstock.

I liked the results so much, I immediately wanted to make a second version... so I did! This time I decided to orient my A2 card horizonally, and place the brads ABOVE the keywords instead of beside them. I used my vintage typewriter instead of the labelmaker, and typed the sentiment on a clear label, so that I could trim it to size and place it on my paper after setting the brads.

I hope you'll check out all the gorgeous projects in the Coffee Lovers' Bloghop, then head over to the Eyelet Outlet store to stock up on Coffee Brads and join the fun! ♥

Lauren Bergold

is deeply in favor of peace, love and coffee; 

in any order she can get them!

One Card Three Ways: Christmas Ornament Edition

Hi folks, it's Lauren here again. I'm starting to really think about Christmas and feeling pretty excited about finishing up my cards. I know most cardmakers like to mass-produce one holiday design, but I don't enjoy that so much. Something I don't mind, though, is making a couple of different versions of the same card. So today I have a set of ornaments that represent my three favorite categories of Eyelet Outlet products: Brads, Bling and Washi Tape!

For my Bling card I used some papers I had pre-painted with ColorBurst pigment powders, and used stencils with inks and embossing paste on top. I created the bauble shapes using some hand-cut ornament templates I made for myself a few years ago, but there are plenty of beautiful dies available to shortcut that procedure for you. I wanted to work in as many bling varieties as possible, so I've got Clear Edge Jewels, Square Jewels, Single Jewels, Single Pearls, Heart Pearls and I've even used a bit of the new Fancy Long Bling on the round bauble, which I arranged as a mirror-image, then placed a few extra large Pearl Bling Jewels inside the openings created by the zig zag design. I made the tops of the ornaments from Glitter Silver Tape and constructed my own patterned paper by filling an A2-sized inset panel with Music Note Washi.

For my Brads card I pieced the ornaments from a neutral palette so the Christmas Cookies, Poinsettia and Prancing Deer would stand out really well. I made the tops of the baubles from Glitter Gold Tape this time, to fit the color scheme better.

For the Tape card I chose bright shades of traditional red and green. I covered the bauble shapes with tape, then burnished well and trimmed them neatly. I used Holly Tape (with a small Paper Flower and Enamel Dot) for the heart ornament; Red Dots with an accent of Vertical Red Tree Tape for the elongated shape and highlighted strips of Merry Christmas Tape with an accent of that cute green Santa Tape sandwiched by Skinny Stripes Tape for the round shape.

Whether you like to make your holiday cards singly, all at once, or somewhere in between, I guarantee Eyelet Outlet has all kinds of embellishments that will make your job easier... and much more fun, too! ♥

Lauren Bergold 

and Stephanie Severin 

make holiday cards all year round at Jingle Belles... 

and you can, too!