Update after being gone for a year and Newest Trends in Cardmaking!

Since my daughter turned about 6 months old I haven't crafted. At first I was sad because it's something I really enjoy and a nice relaxing way to release my creative desires. However, motherhood is an entirely new and exciting endeavor for me and I have embraced it entirely. My days that used to involve catering to my own needs and desires are now spent fulfilling the needs of my toddler. That being said, now that she's almost 2 years old I can get away with doing a few more things for myself. I haven't been able to film a video or even get a crafting session in yet but I've been able to color with her and at least use my supplies!

 That being said I checked in on what the latest trends are and wanted to make a list of what I have noticed has changed while I wasn't looking!

 Let's start with one of my personal favorite innovative artists - Tim Holtz!

 Tim Holtz has repeatedly disrupted the crafting scene with his out of the box ideas for new products. Whatever he creates the entire crafting community usually builds off of and it sets the tone for the newest trends. A quick peek at his website shows he hasn't slowed down one bit on his innovations. One of his newest products has me chomping at the bit!
 When I first started crafting years ago I went out and bought a ton of the adirondack alcohol inks and then sat there saying "Well, dripping these on glossy cardstock is fun and all, but what do I do with these now?" This new product is the answer!
 Alcohol Lift Ink works with stamps to lift the alcohol ink off of a porous surface and transfer it to a non-porous surface. I think of this as making a custom palette on Yupo and having endless ink combinations and beautiful rainbows to stamp! It makes me excited again to own tons of alcohol inks! I think that is just what Tim was hoping when he came up with these new products. In addition to stamping beautiful images with multiple colors, you are left with the ghost image of the stamp on the Yupo paper and you can make a card using that.

 This is my favorite image from his blog post about these products:

BOTH of these images would make an amazing card base or even a card and just add a black or white stamped sentiment. Gorgeous!

He also shows that you can use the new Alchol Lift Ink with an ink blender and a stencil. I LOVE stencils and even used to make my own. I highly recommend working on a glass surface with alcohol inks, especially when stenciling, since it makes clean up MUCH easier.

You can see his blog post and a video using the products here, http://timholtz.com/new-alcohol-ink-products/ . To avoid this blog post from being overly long I will spotlight another product in my next post. I hope you're as excited as I am!

If you want to purchase any of  these products I have included some links in the text and below. I will get a little commission, that doesn't increase the price of the products, as a thanks from you!