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Beautiful Smudge Free Pan Pastel Christmas Cards
Looking for smudge free results with your Pan Pastel Christmas cards? These easy Christmas cards take advantage of the beautiful blends you get with Pan Pastels without the smudging that sometimes occurs with this medium. Hop-A-Long Studio is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you. Learn more. Blending with Pan Pastels I love the beautiful blends that we can get with Pan Pastels. This is what makes Pan Pastels so forgiving and fun to use. If you are new to Pan Pastels, check out my How to Use Pan Pastels video where I walk you through the basics…
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Amazing Alcohol Ink Cards Using Hardware Store Foil
Are you looking for alternative surfaces to use alcohol inks on? Yupo isn’t the only surface that you can use for alcohol inks. There are so many ways to create beautiful alcohol ink cards using hardware store foil and other household items. Hop-A-Long Studio is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you. Learn more. Using Foil Tape and Aluminum Foil for Cards If you haven’t seen last week’s post, I shared how you can make beautiful card bases using aluminum foil and metal ducting tape. To see how to make these foil backgrounds, visit this article. Once you…
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3 Christmas Card Ideas Using One Die Cut Design
If you’re new to making Christmas cards or are looking for a simple and easy holiday cards, today I’m sharing 3 Christmas card ideas using only one die cut. I love choosing beautiful and intricate dies for my cards. If you choose the right die, it can be used for so many different designs! Hop-A-Long Studio is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you. Learn more. Creating Colorful Backgrounds One of the keys to a beautiful and unique Christmas card designs is creating a beautiful, colorful background. There are many patterned papers and colorful cardstocks that will give…
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How to Use Watercolor Backgrounds in an Art Journal
In last week’s tutorial we created beautiful watercolor backgrounds using stencils. But how can we effectively use these watercolor pages in an art journal? It’s always fun to try a new technique, but the real question is how do we apply it to our projects? Hop-A-Long Studio is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you. Learn more. What to do with Watercolor Stenciled Papers So what can we do with these beautiful watercolor stenciled papers? They can be used as backgrounds in cards or on art journal pages. They can also be cut into images or used in…
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Fun and Easy Alcohol Ink Christmas Ornaments
One of my favorite things to do during the holiday season is to stretch my creativity. This year my new creative challenge is to create alcohol ink Christmas ornaments using clear plastic and glass bulbs. Over the last week I’ve been playing around with this technique with a variety of results. Hop-A-Long Studio is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you. Learn more. Learning New Techniques I love learning new techniques or different ways to use products that I already own, like alcohol inks. I enjoy the challenge of figuring out how to make it work and I…
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Deco Foil Christmas Card “Merry and Bright”
One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is making beautiful Christmas cards. The technique that I am sharing today is how to make a Deco Foil Christmas card that uses patterned paper, Deco Foil transfer sheets and the Deco Foil adhesive pen. Mastering Deco Foil I love Deco Foil. This is a fun medium that you can get beautiful results with. But I find so many of the videos and projects I see only show the perfect results. Deco Foil is fairly easy to use, but there are times when I don’t always get a perfect foil transfer. Mastering Deco Foil takes practice and a bit of patience.…
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How to Create a Mixed Media Shaker Card
With Christmas just around the corner I wanted to show you how to create an easy mixed media shaker card. I love making cards around Christmastime. It is one of my favorite Christmas traditions! The process of coming up with unique designs, writing messages to my friends and family and sending them through the mail brings me great joy. I remember as a child my parents getting dozens and dozens of Christmas cards with family updates and kind messages inside. The practice of giving and receiving cards is not as popular as it used to be. But I believe it makes giving or receiving a handmade card so much more…
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How to Use Black Paper Backgrounds with Inks and Pens
Have you ever used black paper backgrounds in your journal or creative projects? Adding color to black paper by drawing and stamping is easy, but there are a few things to consider when applying color. Not all mediums are suitable for using on black paper, so today I will share some of my favorite mediums and techniques with you. Hop-A-Long Studio is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you. Learn more. Inks for Black Paper When using inks on black paper backgrounds, you need to consider the properties of your ink. The main consideration is whether your ink…
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Doodling with Stencils: Using Stencils to Improve your Drawing Skills
Have you ever mixed doodling with stencils into your art journal or creative projects? Stencils can be very helpful when practicing improving drawing skills. Starting with a defined shape can be helpful and inspire creativity. Why Use Stencils? Why use stencils to improve your drawing skills? Stencils have defined shapes that can be traced onto a project. From there you can add your own drawing and doodling to add texture and dimension to an image. It’s an easy place to discover your own style and creativity. When we start learning to draw, many of us end up staring at a blank piece of paper. That’s a hard place to be.…
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Mixed Media Fall Greeting Card
As fall is upon us, I am having so much fun playing with mixed media fall greeting cards. The fall colors are incredible! Beautiful leaves, textures and colors as the trees turn and the weather gets colder. It was the perfect inspiration for this mixed media fall greeting card! Card Inspiration The inspiration for this greeting card is not only the beautiful trees and gorgeous fall weather. This weekend is Thanksgiving in Canada and I love making fall greeting cards during this season. Thanksgiving is a great time to remember the things I am grateful for. I try to have a habit of gratitude throughout the year, but Thanksgiving is…
The Art of Self-Care
