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Playing with alcohol markers

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I like to keep my eyes and hands busy playing with beautiful  colors and shapes, even when relaxing. So it is no surprise that I enjoy coloring. I found a love of coloring when I was in hospital. And I continued with it when I got home.  I bought an inexpensive medium set of alcohol markers and now you can often find me coloring pages in front of the tv. And that satisfied me. That was the extent to which I used my alcohol markers.  I had been hearing about alcohol inks and of course, I wanted to get my hands on few bottles of spray alcohol ink. But I told myself that I had many art supplies and was not sure I would get a lot of use with these sprays as they only work on non-porous surfaces; and I love working with papers or canvases. So I only explored my alcohol ink markers coloring adult coloring books. Then I took a class with Sara Naumann  called Magic Marker Techniques (offered through Altenew's Academy ). And I learned I was sitting on those alcohol markers wi...
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Creating with a twist: using incongruous elements together

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Have you ever liked fashion or art that was made up of elements you would not think "go together"? Have you ever heard someone describe something as "beautifully ugly"? I can not tell you why or how but sometimes you can go afoul of basic design principles and come out with something appealing. Well, I set out to create a visually pleasing card with elements that normally clash. I think I succeeded in designing a fun card that illustrates this point. I used non-analogous and non-complimentary dominant colors of purple and green and mixed vintage style florals with a modern graphic of thick stripes.  The sentiment set I used was perfect as it paired a lilting cursive "You" with a modern computer-ish block type. And the end result... I like it! it's quirky and fanciful. Supplies Altenew's Scalloped Ornaments layering stamp set. This set is not  available anymore but there are several other Altenew layering stamp sets to choose from. Altenew's  Y...
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Watercolor Flowers Made Easy: Painting with Ink Pads

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I love  working color onto surfaces in interesting ways.  So playing with watercolor in unconventional ways was fun. I made a couple cards using watercolors in loose and surprising ways. These techniques require you leave your perfectionism at the door. I will go over one of those methods here. Supplies Altenew's  Nostalgic Florals  stamp and die  set Altenew's Garden Gala stamps. At the time of this writing, the Garden Gala set is only sold to subscribers of  Craft Your Life membership plan . Subscribers got early access to this March 2026 set. It will not be available to non-subscribers until next month. Altenew's  metallic watercolor set Altenew's  solar white card stock Altenew's fresh dye inks in  azurite ,  ultraviolet ,  volcano lake  and fresh lemon Altenew's  crisp ink in parrot Altenew's  permanent black pigment ink Watercolor paper, preferably  hot press Watercolor brushes - I used a number 9 round tip...
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Using color to elicit a mood

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As a card designer, one of the most powerful ways to create mood is with color. With this card, I demonstrate how atmosphere transforms a design by recreating an artist’s work table filled with inspiration, quiet focus, and creative energy. A dramatic overhead light source and minimal surrounding light helped me achieve the emotional tone I wanted.  Using the Altenew Craft Your Life Kit: Illuminated Scenes, I show how to work with multi-layered stencils and coordinating dies to build a bold composition. Techniques for stencil layering, inking, die cutting, and thoughtful color choices elevate the card's design. Supplies Altenew's Craft Your Life Illuminated Scenes kit with coordinating stamps, dies, embossing folder and layering stencils Altenew's fresh dye ink in  warm sunshine ,  caramel toffee ,  olive ,  rocky shore ,  mocha ,  lavender fields  and  azurite Altenew's crisp ink in  parrot Altenew's pigment ink in  permanent bla...
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Create a Dynamic Background using ombre inking techniques

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  When I first started making cards, it was all I could think of to find pretty paper and an interesting stamp to ink a pretty  card. Hey, we all start somewhere. Nowadays, I like more interesting designs and I love creating eye catching backgrounds. This tutorial shows you how to create a background of falling ombre colored flowers.  Supplies Altenew white cardstock Altenew Nostalgic Florals outline stamp set Altenew Shades of Purple fresh dye ink set Altenew pure white embossing powder Altenew blending brushes  (You will need four) Altenew glue tape Altenew foam tape Altenew clear sequins Die cutting machine Heating tool Washi tape Vellum (or tracing paper) Cornstarch Cute an A2 (4.25"X5.5") folding card out of white card stock. Also cut a slightly bigger  (approximately 1/8"  bigger on each side) piece of card stock (any color). Select the single blossom stamp and die from your Nostalgic Floral set and begin making your stencil. To do this, you will cut...
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Guest Post: Bimini the Black Cat Extraordinaire 🐾✨

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 🐾 A Note from Bimini: Black Cat Magic & a New Year Blessing Hello, darlings. My mom,  VanGoghChica , has graciously given me a corner of her blog so I can chime in whenever I feel inspired—and trust me, inspiration visits often when you are a black cat. With her help, I recently opened my very own eBay shop called  BiminisBoutique . I’ve spent quite some time watching my mom create art, cards, journals, and all sorts of papercraft wonders. Somewhere along the way, I realized something important: I, too, have a creative flair. My other unique contribution?  Black Cat Magic (BCM) —naturally. Like my mom, I read tarot. Being a black cat comes with certain… perceptive abilities. My mom likes to joke that I live with one foot in the other world. She’s very astute that way. To welcome the New Year, I pulled a tarot card for all of us and then created an  ACEO (Art Cards, Editions & Originals)  inspired by that . The card that revealed itself was the...
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AECP Challenge Tutorial: Card Making Challenge Part 2 (How-Tos & Techniques)

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A challenge I completed 1/3 of the way through my AECP course involved making ten cards and the boxes packaging the two sets (I present an overview of the sets in the previous post). This post will list supplies needed for these cards and packaging. I will also highlight key parts of the assembly.  And, finally, I will do a how-to on one pair of men's and women's card.  Here, I am showing both sets packaged in their own boxes. Then follows a photo of the women's set and then a photo of the men's set follows. Altenew's  white cardstock , glue tape ,  Honeycomb Haven  Craft Your Life set,  and  Summer Afternoon fresh dye mini ink set were used on all cards. Other products used in different cards: Die cutting machine Altenew green card stock Altenew satin gold sequins Altenew You Matter die set Altenew's die set from the Craft Your Life Project Kit: Illuminated Scenes Altenew fresh dye ink in olive  and grass field   Altenew pigment ink in perm...
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