Hello Friends! I hope you're having a fabulous week! I tell ya, I took a few days off last week to spend time with my family and boy am I paying for it this week! I've been working long hours every day and I absolutely CANNOT wait for the weekend!

So, today I'm sharing a beautiful card made with more of those awesome alcohol inks. I'm telling you, I really need to buy more! I also chose two beautiful stamp sets from Scrapbook.com the first one is called Spring Sprigs and the second one is Encouraging Verses.



With everything that's going on in the world, it's good to have some encouragement cards on hand when you need them. Don't you love how those alcohol inks just look like they dance in the background?! I used the alcohol lift technique for those lovely spring sprigs and then I heat embossed the sentiment with gold embossing powder. I love how large this sentiment is because it really lets the recipient know you care.

If you haven't tried alcohol inks, I highly recommend them! They are so much fun! I hope you enjoyed today's card. Thank you so much for stopping by!

Hugs,
Carol

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It's Mix it up Monday!  In this series I'll be using products from various companies to hopefully come up with a cohesive card design. Today's card features products from four different companies. So, today I have literally mixed it up because I used alcohol inks for the first time! I've been wanting to try it and finally I just dove in and did it.




I am super excited about how this card turned out! I'll be honest, I started small, I only purchased 3 inks and then of course all the tools you need to blend (or mix 😉) and I really feel like I got amazing results with only two ink colors! If you're new to alcohol inks like I am, I highly recommend sitting down with a hot cup of coffee and watching Tim Holtz do his thang! He's an excellent teacher and he will WOW you with his projects. 

All of the products I used for this card are listed below:

Color Me Happy stamp set - Concord & 9th

I hope you liked today's post and I really hope that you give alcohol inks a try if you haven't done so already! I really like it! Thank you so much for stopping by!

Hugs,
Carol

*Affiliate links used when possible at no additional cost to you






Hello Friends! I just wanted to pop in to let you know that I will not have a Mix it up Monday post today. I know, I’m sad about it too but I’m taking a little break and spending some much needed time with my family. I’ll definitely be back next week with a new project and some family pics to share!

Thank you for your understanding and support. I hope you have a great week!

Hugs,
Carol

Hello Friends! It's that time of the year, graduation season! I don't have too many graduating seniors in our circle this year, but the daughter of my very good friend is graduating from high school this year. She is one of the sweetest young ladies I know and I'm super proud of her. She'll be attending Virginia Tech in the fall, so I decided to make a card showing that next step in her educational journey.




I have to be honest, I love this card! You know how you have an idea in your head and when you actually put it to paper, it comes out just the way you want it? Well that's what happened with this card. First, I stamped the Novel Prose background stamp from Hero Arts onto some water color paper using a light gray ink. Then, I pulled out one of my favorite dies right now from Hero Arts, it's called Book Window and colored it with Virginia Tech school colors using distress ink and Tombow Dual Brush Pens. This die only cuts out the center and the books are actually embossed into your card stock which I think is so cool! 

If you've followed me for a while you know that I love using my computer for custom cards like this one. So, I did a quick Google search for the Virginia Tech logo, copied and pasted it into a Word doc then printed it from my computer. I used that same book die so I would have the exact shape to inlay back into the card and added some light shading to add some interest. I then stamped that beautiful Congrats sentiment and that adorable heart from the Graduation stamp set from Scrapbook.com. Although this stamp set is for graduations, that Congrats sentiment can be used for anything!

I can't wait to get this card in the mail! I hope you liked today's card and thank you so much for your support and stopping by today!

Hugs,
Carol

*Affiliate links used when possible at no additional cost to you.







 

Hello Friends! I'm back today to share more cards using the adorable bunny from the Birthday Wishing stamp set from the Colorado Craft Company. I just love the illustrations from Anita Jeram and I cannot wait to pick up a few of her new sets that recently came out. I did some water coloring with my Tombow Dual Brush Pens (which I LOVE) and die cut the bunny to add to an A2 card base. 






I needed to ground my bunny as well as add a sky and I don't about you, but I'm no water coloring artist! My water coloring looks very deliberate instead of artsy and random. LOL! So, for one of my cards I used my Tombows for the ground and sky which looks okay I guess. But, I watched a video with Yana Smakula where she used Copic markers to add dots to the ground and sky. Genius idea and I really love how it turned out! Which one do you like better?

I hope you liked today's cards and thank you so much for stopping by!

Hugs,
Carol

*Affiliate links used when possible at no additional cost to you.

Hello Friends! It's Mix it up Monday!  In this series I'll be using products from various companies to hopefully come up with a cohesive card design. Today's card features products from four different companies!

  





I had so much fun playing with these starburst circles from Pink Fresh Studio! So much so that I had to create another one using a different color palette. I don't know about you, but I rarely use purple. I don't know why because it is a pretty color, it's just not one that I reach for very often. But I do love how this card looks with the silver embossing! The products I used for the cards are listed below:

Seamless Starburst Circles stamp set - Pink Fresh Studio
Seamless Starburst Circles stencil - Pink Fresh Studio
Clean Lines Every Day stamp/die - Simon Says Stamp/CZ Design
You're Just My Type stamp set (hearts) - Lawn Fawn
Master Layouts 4 (one of my faves!) - Gina K Designs

I hope you loved today's Mix it up Monday! I have to be honest, I look forward to these posts every week! I really enjoy it! Thank you so much for stopping by!

Hugs,
Carol

*Affiliate links used when possible at no additional cost to you.







Hello Friends! Do you remember that my sweet hubby hooked me up with the Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil System? Well, I was not very good at it! I tried and tried and I ended up with foil all over the place. Not just a little over-foiling but literally foil EVERYWHERE!! So, I tucked it away for a while. But, when I first got the machine I signed up for the Glimmer Hot Foil of the month kit from Spellbinders. The plates are awesome!!! I kept looking at them and thinking that I really needed to pull my machine back out. So, that's what I did! I watched quite a few YouTube videos to try to figure out what I was doing wrong. And trust me, it was completely user error, the machine is AWESOME! Now that I know how to use it, I absolutely love it. You will be seeing more foiling projects from me, I'm sure of it! 



Isn't it pretty!! I used rose gold foil which is a beautiful color! It's so sparkly but not super bright, it's just enough to look elegant! I can't wait to do it again!! 

I hope you enjoyed today's card! Thank you so much for stopping by!

Hugs,
Carol

*Affiliate used when possible at no additional cost to you.



Hello Friends! So, in sticking with the book theme (I know, I'm slightly addicted) I wanted to make something cute for my little reader. My daughter absolutely LOVES to read. From books, to text messages to ingredients on the back of snacks, she LOVES to read. So, when I received the puppy dog stencil from Scrapbook.com I knew I wanted to make a bookmark for her!





For this bookmark, everything with the exception of the "This Book Belongs To" sentiment are exclusive products from Scrapbook.com. I ink blended that cute little puppy dog stencil in rainbow colors then stamped the sentiment from the Literally the Best stamp set from Hero Arts. After that I used the Dotted stencil to dry emboss the background, which I love!! I die cut the letters with an alpha die set and adhered them a little wonky. Paige absolutely loves her new bookmark and I love putting a smile on that little girls face!

I hope you enjoyed today's project! Thank you so much for stopping by!

Hugs,
Carol

*Affiliate links used when possible at no additional cost to you.



Hello Friends! I you hope you had a great weekend and if you celebrated Easter, I hope your day was blessed. 

It's Mix it up Monday!  In this series I'll be using products from various companies to hopefully come up with a cohesive card design. Today's card features products from five different companies! Every since Hero Arts came out with their book themed release, I've been hooked! 




I used a Peek-a-Boo door die for this card, masked off the door and then stamped the print background for a tone on tone look. Next I stamped, water colored and die cut the staked books and that cute little bookworm. This added some color to the card and a little fun! On the inside of that hinged door, I stamped You're Literally the Best which is such an awesome sentiment! This card is simple, but I still feel like it packs a punch! The products I used are listed below:

Literally the Best stamp set - Hero Arts

Peek-A-Boo Door die - Hero Arts

Class Act stamp set - Sugar Pea Designs

Bookworm stamp set - Mama Elephant

Interactively Yours stamp set  - Heffy Doodle

You Are stamp set - Simon Says Stamp

I hope you enjoyed this post! Thank you so much for stopping by!


Hugs,

Carol

*Affiliate links used when possible at no additional cost to you.