Beautiful Card Designs Made Easy

September 02, 2024

Old Idea ...old video

 Hi Everybody,

My apologies for adding this old video from seven years ago but I have not been well over the past few days and not feeling up to doing a new one to show you. So I hope this one will entertain you until I feel better.

It was done many years ago and Griff  filmed it and although I use alcohol inks in it you could use your favourite medium to create the look.

Because this is such an old video I am able to add it here on the blog and not just the link back to YouTube.


Thanks for all your lovely comments on the mini series for Parchment Ideas, it makes me really happy that you enjoyed the videos.

I will be back to normal soon with another mini series for you to enjoy and in this series I will be revisiting some of the old card shapes that have been around for a long long time.
It will also update some of my older videos too.

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

September 01, 2024

Ann Topp - Winner

 Hi Everybody,

I don't think this weather knows what it wants to do today , or any other day for that matter.
It has been a real mixed bag going form one season to the next in a few short days.
In fact it has been an awful summer and it is nearly over with. 

But I have done the draw and hopefully, this week, this one will be claimed.
I can never understand why people add there names to a free gift and then do not claim it as theirs.

So the winner today is 

Ann Topp

Would you email me with your postal address please to
christina@card-making-magic.com
and  will get it in the post to your straight away.

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

August 30, 2024

Friday Freebie - Spellbinders Set 4

 Hi Everybody,

This is the last of the Spellbinders sets that I have on offer and this is set 4.

It is a matching die and stamp set along with beautiful Rosette Wall embossing folder that is sure to make some lovely backgrounds for you designs.

Last weeks offer has not been claimed and so I will add it again later on and hope that it goes next time.

But if you would like this set then all you need to do is leave me a comment at the end of the post with your 

FULL NAME

From those comments one name will be chosen and announced in a blog post over the weekend so it is up to you to come back and check if your name is shown as I have no way of letting you know if you are the winner.

I am happy to send this to you where ever you are and it doesn't matter if you have won before.

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

August 29, 2024

Parchment & Marker Pens

 Hi Everybody,

I know that not everybody has alcohol ink refills  but most of us have alcohol pens of many different brands.

But is doesn't matter whcih brand you have this look can be achieved with any of them.

I also use Isopropyl Alcohol as it is a lot ... and I mean a LOT... cheaper than blending solution and the effect is not that much different.

Try to get the higher percentage if you can as it will work much better that the lower one. I used 99.9% and it wouldn't go any lower than 91%.

I got a one litre bottle from Amazon and it is not expensive and will last you for ages.

I have shown other videos in the past where I have used it to Colour Ribbons and Flowers 

The card to the left has been done with the pens as shown in the video but I have used lots of coloured pens to produce the dots around the sentiment.

It just gives another look to the end result and I quite like it too. You can of course leave it off if you prefer. 

The video is a little longer than usual but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Parchment & Marker Pens

Clicking the YouTube links will open  new windows in for you to view the videos listed but please come back here when you are finished.


I  have really have had a good time playing with Parchment and using it in lots of different ways.

For the card to the right I was inspired by a tortoiseshell brush that I have in my bedroom and I picked out the colours as close to it as I could.

It is the same style as the green one done in the video,  and I like both of them .

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

August 28, 2024

Parchment Scraps

 Hi Everybody,

Playing with the parchment over the last few weeks has produced quite a bit of left over pieces and so this was one way to put them to good use.

I added them to some white card to give them strength and then I cut them down into banner strips, of varying widths and lengths,  with a little fish tail at the end of them. 

For this top card I layered them on to an embossed panel with foam tape in between each banner and I mixed up the colours so that each one would be on a different colour.

I dotted small dots around the front and they are created from the hole punch and gold card, and I added the video for that a few weeks ago.

They do look very effective on my card. and these strip have been added vertically on my design  

On the card to the left I followed the same process but dressed this card in silver and added these strips horizontally to the embossed panel

The butterflies have been backed on to parchment  and the wings curved up a little to give movement

Just by playing I have created some lovely cards from bits of  parchment  that would otherwise have been wasted.

And had some fun in the process.

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx