Carols & Stencils

Posted: November 28, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: grafix | Tags: grafix, Stencils, vintage papers | 9 Comments

Here are a few more of my ‘bookish Christmas’ card ideas. I cut up a few vintage carol books to create unique cards. Where possible I have matched the stencil to the carol!

I created the tree stencils by die-cutting Grafix blue stencil film with Creative Expressions ‘Winter Pines’ dies.

All the nativity stencils are from a set I bought on Amazon a couple of years ago when I couldn’t find many nativity stencils in the craft stores. Sadly the set is a lot more expensive now.

If you don’t want to cut up carol books you could photocopy the music; I was able to buy a couple of books second hand so I didn’t mind turning the pages into cards. I decided against greetings or sentiments because there are plenty of words on the card fronts already!

Vintage Stockings

Posted: November 26, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Christmas stockings digital stamp set, cricut, Echidna Studios, Gina K, holiday flora embossing folder, mittens | Tags: christmas, crafting, crafts, cricut, diy, Echidna Studios, Penny Black creative dies | 4 Comments

I have more vintage papers on display in today’s cards. These stockings are examples from my recent Bookish Christmas card class where we used book pages from carol books, dictionaries, recipe books and more to add a vintage charm to our cards.

I collaged the vintage papers together then cut stockings from the collaged panels using my Cricut and the Christmas Stocking digital cutting file from Echidna Studios. I love the shape of this stocking my daughter designed; I think I mentioned last year, it makes me think of Narnia with that curly toe!

The cutting file includes a cuff for the stocking so I cut them from shimmer cardstock then added all sorts of foliage cut with Penny Black dies.

I hope you’re not tired of the mittens that I bombarded you with last week but as you see I also cut some from the collaged vintage papers and added some foliage, gold buttons and bakers twine.

I’ve been using a lot of embossed backgrounds in my Christmas cards this year. There are so many pretty ones including the Gina K ‘holiday flora’ one shown below and the Stampin up ‘exposed brick’ and ‘timber’ shown behind the stockings at the beginning of this post.

Today’s post features affiliate links to The Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Cozy Knitted Mittens

Posted: November 22, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: cricut, Echidna Studios, mittens, my designs | Tags: cricut, Echidna Studios, Penny Black stamps | 1 Comment

More mittens! To see mini mittens click over to yesterday’s post. I cut the mittens for today’s cards using the ‘Mittens’ digital stamp & cut-file set I designed for Echidna Studios etsy store. It’s the same set I featured yesterday but with a digital file I can cut whatever size I like. The large mitt is 4″ long and the two green mitts are 3″ long.

I cut them all from Neenah natural white cardstock along with some buttons. I cut the cuff and Charlie Brown style zig-zag from burgandy cardstock.

To get the knitted look I stamped the mitts in antique linen distress ink using the Darkroom Door ‘knitting’ background stamp and the cuff and zig-zag in aged mahogany ink. For some depth I blended ink around the edges.

The little buttons continue to delight me so I embossed them with clear embossing powder then coloured some thread with distress markers and threaded it through the little holes.

I found Christmas patterned paper from a Graphic45 pad and cut frames using the Waffle flower A2 layer dies. For the green cuffs and snowflakes on the pair of mitts below I used some textured polka dotted cardstock along with an embossed dotted background.

Once again the ‘warmest wishes’ sentiment from ‘Merry Up‘ seemed the best choice and could work any season mitts are worn!

As you can see I am struggling to move on from making mitten cards. Thanks for dropping by.

Mini Mittens

Posted: November 21, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: cricut, Echidna Studios, mittens, my designs, ski lodge embossing folder, Spellbinders | Tags: cricut, Echidna Studios, Penny Black stamps, Spellbinders | 9 Comments

I do like an alliterative title but I restrained myself from calling this post Many Mini Mittens! I designed these mittens and accessories as cutting files for the cricut and I’m having so much fun with them. The Mittens digital stamp & cut-file set is available in the Echidna Studios etsy store. When I taught my bookish Christmas card class recently I had a cool stocking to cut from vintage papers but no mittens. To begin with I just designed the mitt and the cuff but I couldn’t stop so now the digital set has a heart, a poinsettia, diamond pattern, a zig-zag pattern, a snowflake, two cuffs and a little button. The buttons are too sweet.

This colourful card started as an experiment to see how small the cricut would cut the mitts without tearing them. These little mitts are 1¼” in length; everything else is obviously smaller and cut just fine.

I had fun arranging the elements on the mittens so there wasn’t too much of one colour or repetition of the same coloured patterns. I did create them in pairs because who wants a whole bunch of unmatched mitts? I’ve experienced that in our own mitt basket – why so many right mitts and no left mitts?!

And because I couldn’t stop I cut some matching pairs the same size but using linen textured pink and burgandy cardstocks. I used a clear wink of stella brush pen to make all the burgandy bits sparkle but as I write this I see it didn’t show in the photo. Trust me it adds to the cuteness. ( I had forgotten about my wink of stella pens)

For both cards I used Spellbinders ‘ski lodge’ embossing folder to make a background because ❄! I found suitable Penny Black sentiments from the ‘Merry Up‘ set. Come back tomorrow and I will share the larger, knitted mitten cards I also made with this digital set.

2 for 1 with Delicate Pines

Posted: November 20, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: delicate pines, Finetec paints, Penny Black | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Finetec artist mica watercolour paint, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 4 Comments

Although I don’t tend to make exactly the same card in large numbers I do like a quick and simple way to make a few similar cards at the same time. To create these pine needle cards I started with a watercolour panel larger than an A4 card. It was about 5¾” x 6″ and I placed it in the stamp positioner with the long side tucked right against the long side of the positioner.

Using the two of the three Penny Black ‘delicate pines‘ stamps positioned to stamp along the top edge of the panel I inked them with a few green and blue distress inks. Before stamping I spritzed the stamp lightly so the different greens would blend on the stamp and then on the paper. I then moved the stamps around so I could use the third stamp and get some overlapping branches. Without moving the stamps I turned the watercolour panel 180° and repeated the stamping steps. The panel ended up with a border of pine branches on each side. I cut the panel in half and trimmed the sides so I had two 5½” x 3″ panels to add to card bases.

I finished off both panels with a sentiment from the PB ‘jolly snippets‘ set and some green and gold splatter. Simple yet pretty. Today’s post features affiliate links to The Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel

Posted: November 15, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Penny Black, star noel, wreath noel | Tags: Penny Black creative dies | 4 Comments

Last week I posted some of my JOY cards where I replaced the ‘O’ with a vintage paper bauble. Not just any vintage paper but Christmas Carol music pages. Well of course I did the same with the ‘O’ in NOEL, how could I not?

Once again I used pretty printed papers for the backgrounds and both the Penny Black ‘wreath noel die‘ and the PB ‘star noel die‘ for the letters.

I didn’t start out glueing the baubles on their sides but as I organized all the pieces ready for assembly I saw one bauble sitting there askew and it definitely looked cuter that way.

The letters in one NOEL die are bigger than in the other so I used two different bauble dies but it would work with basic circle dies.

There isn’t much more to these cards other than a few bows and die-cut foliage. Since making both the JOY and NOEL cards I have been trying to think of other words I could make where a substitute shape could be added. Feel free to leave me ideas in the comments.

Today’s post features an affiliate link to The Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Sketching over Scarlet Majesty

Posted: November 13, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Penny Black, Scarlet Majesty | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 4 Comments

When I posted cards made with the scarlet majesty stamp last week I mentioned a technique I had used to define the petals a little more. Today’s cards feature the sketched outlines I added after stamping. As with my previous cards I inked the stamp with distress inks or other water-based dye ink. I spritzed the stamp before stamping which creates a loose watercolour look on the image. I like the loose image but admit that some of the definition of the petals is lost. With the image on the stamp (and packaging) as my guide and some artistic license I drew around petals, berries and leaves with a gold gel pen. I didn’t try to stay exactly on the edge of the stamping but close. For the red poinsettia I also drew a rough frame around the image.

I added a small sentiment below the panel in a matching ink. On the red panel above I didn’t try to keep leaves green and petals red; everything is red. On the pink poinsettia below I used a few more distress inks in my initial loose watery impression.

Once again I stamped on hot press watercolour paper inking the stamp with small distress ink cubes and markers. Once the image was dry I used the gold gel pen to sketch the outline. If you look too closely you will see blobs and ink outside the lines but I quite like the overall gold edged effect.

One tip if you try this technique but find yourself trying to be too precise. Hold the gel pen further down the barrel than you normally would and move faster than usual drawing your lines. That way you should achieve a loose sketchy style that pulls the very watery stamped image into better focus.

Hope you’re having a great day. I now need to write some international Christmas cards; it is time to put them in the mail!

Berry Full & Split

Posted: November 12, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Berry kissed, Penny Black | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 5 Comments

I posted a card made with this Penny Black ‘berry kissed‘ stamp last year under the title old favourites. Here it is again, still a favourite! In the hope of swelling my Christmas card stash in a timely manner I’ve made some cards out of half a stamped image. It doesn’t work with all stamps but I thought I could make it work with this one.

Once I had stamped the berry kissed stamp using a stamp positioner, hot pressed watercolour paper and a mix of blue, green, pink and brown dye inks I placed a ruler down the middle so I could see what would fill each side if the panel was divided. The right hand side of the image contained plenty of soft pink berries and three leaves. The left hand side looked a bit sparse with three leaves but only one full berry and a couple of partially covered ones.

To make the left hand side a bit fuller and more interesting I inked and added two more berries. Both sides got the splatter treatment, a teal mat and a simple sentiment from the PB set, ‘jolly snippets’

I also completed a panel which I didn’t slice in half. Because I used cold pressed watercolour some of the edges of the images are not as smooth. It all depends on how much water I spritz on the stamp after inking, a bit too much can result in the wiggly edged berries you see below.

Today’s post features affiliate links to The Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Joy, joy, joy!

Posted: November 7, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Darkroom Door, Dies, Heather lowercase die set, immense joy, jumbo bauble, jumbo joy, Penny Black, Pink Fresh studio, World Map | 8 Comments

I’m using old book pages in some of my Christmas cards this year, partly because ‘Bookish Christmas’ was the theme of my recent Christmas card workshop but also because I am still enjoying creating with vintage papers.

All of the cards featured today are variations on a theme; I left the ‘O’ out of Joy and replaced it with a bauble. All the baubles except one I cut from Christmas carol music. One is cut from a map because joy to the ‘world’… get it? I used different Penny Black ‘JOY’ dies for the large letters. I used circle dies or bauble dies for the baubles.

I used embossing folders and patterned papers for the background and some die-cut foliage and bows to decorate the baubles.

For these last two cards I cut the j and the y with Pinkfresh Studio alphabet dies and added very cute little baubles to replace the o.

This post includes affiliate links from Scrap N Stamp. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Pink Majesty

Posted: November 4, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Finetec paints, Penny Black, Scarlet Majesty, Stampin Up, subtle | Tags: distress markers, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Finetec artist mica watercolour paint, Papertrey ink, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 10 Comments

Today’s cards feature the beautiful Penny Black stamp, ‘scarlet majesty‘ but as the title suggests, I have chosen pinks over scarlet for the ink colours. I worked on Fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper in my stamp positioner.

I inked most of the petals with a pink ink then added darker ink with more of a burgandy such as aged mahogany. I use a mix of small cube ink pads and markers to ink the stamp. The leaves were inked with peeled paint and the berries a purply blue such as chipped sapphire. Before stamping I spritz the stamp so the inks can move a little. I stamp the first impression then decide whether more ink is needed, more water or often some blending with a paintbrush and water.

I don’t remember fiddling much with this panel as I liked the watery blends and the paler veins showing through here and there. I painted the centre of the poinsettia with gold finetec paint and of course added some splatter.

The sentiment is from PB ‘jolly snippets‘ and the texture from the retired SU ‘subtle’ embossing folder.

I used the same technique on this second card but used darker inks for leaves, petals and berries. My guess is aged mahogany, forest moss and a dark brown which was possibly made by mixing the first two. (I don’t always take note of my ink colours)

I think ‘scarlet majesty’ is a stunning stamp; I like the curl at the ends of the petals. Here are a few more cards made with it. I will admit that it is tricky to ink because you can’t always see where to try and define edges. I have another post coming up where I handle this issue by adding lines after stamping. I’ll share that soon. The sentiment this time came from the PB set, ‘promise of hope’.