The Magic of Brusho

Posted: November 4, 2025 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Background Stamps, Brusho, contemporary, cricut, Penny Black | Tags: Brusho, brutus monroe embossing powder, cricut, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps | 5 Comments

I’ve said it before but here is more evidence, Brusho watercolour paint powders make magic! I embossed the ‘contemporary‘ background stamp from Penny Black in a copper colour (I think it was ‘Penny‘ from Brutus Monroe) on hot pressed watercolour paper.

You can see the pattern in the background stamp is made up of curved and straight edged shapes. The embossing creates enclosed spaces on the panel and the the brusho powders get trapped in the spaces.

There are a couple of ways to trap brusho in an embossed design, you can spritz the embossed panel with water then sprinkle some brusho over the top, or you can sprinkle the brusho first then spritz. I often end up doing a bit of both. For this panel I think I spritzed some water first then sprinkled both blue and green brusho over the wet areas. My aim was to keep some sections blue, some green and others a mix of the two colours. I also wanted some areas to look speckled and other sections to look softly blended. Less water keeps things speckled; more water gives the paint more time to dissolve and blend.

I had some bronze shimmery cardstock which matched the embossing powder so I cut the ‘thank’ and ‘you’ on the cricut. I stacked two layers so the words would stand out from the busy background.

The happy cut-out

Posted: October 22, 2025 | Author: Heather | Filed under: cricut, Dies, Penny Black | Tags: cricut, Penny Black creative dies | Leave a comment

Today’s card is very similar to yesterday’s. I used the cricut to cut the letters H, A, P, P &Y from a cream panel which reveals the patterned paper layered below it. Because the patterned paper is the same size as the card front there is a border revealed by the smaller blank panel.

I’m know there are various ways to get the same effect but in some way it is easier to let the cricut cut the large letters in a straight line rather than expect myself to glue the cut-out letters in a perfect row! I used a Penny Black die to cut the little birthday word from pink cardstock. The patterned paper is one of the bonus pages you sometimes get in paper-crafting magazines. I think it’s the first time I’ve used one but I have a little stash which I will continue to put to use.

The map card

Posted: October 21, 2025 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Collage cards, cricut, Spellbinders | Tags: collage, cricut, Spellbinders | 6 Comments

I’ve recently been using the cricut to cut letters in different fonts to complete my cards. I took the process a little further by cutting words out of the card front in order to reveal some coloured paper behind. This one shows a vintage map; tomorrow’s card features some patterned paper from a magazine.

To create this birthday card for my son who just returned from visiting our family in Australia I had fun positioning the map behind the cut out to reveal some of the places he stayed. The map page is from an old atlas I am using for collage. The birthday die-cut is from the Spellbinders ‘serenade sentiments’ set which also has co-ordinating shadow dies. (currently the shadow for the word ‘birthday’ is missing somewhere in my work room!)

I wish I could tell you which font I used on the cricut but it appears I didn’t record that important information, something tall and bold! You could also do this technique with alphabet dies, the trick is to have dies open enough to show a decent amount of the paper behind. When cutting the letters out of course I am saving them in case I can use them on another card.

Snow on snow on snow

Posted: January 13, 2025 | Author: Heather | Filed under: cricut, Echidna Studios, gel press, grafix, My Favorite Things, snowflake digital stamp set | Tags: cricut, Echidna Studios, gel press, gel printing, grafix | 6 Comments

Today’s cards were gel printed using snowflake masks I cut on the cricut using the Snowflake Digital Stamp Set from Echidna Studios. I love how detailed these snowflakes are; there are six in the set and I have printed them, foiled them, cut them and now gel printed with them.

I remember when I first saw the six pointed detail of a snowflake that had landed on me. It is not always possible but occasionally the flakes are very distinct and separate instead of in clumps and I am always amazed by their beauty.

I cut my stencils from Grafix matte dura-lar as it is semi-transparent and light weight. On the panel above I made a pale print with blue and white then, after it had dried created a dark print on the plate which I pulled on the same paper but with a transparent medium (either transparent white paint or more likely matte medium). The little sentiment is from AALL & Create ‘everyday sentiments’ set.

On this second card I used a pale blue paint which didn’t give me a very bold print but pulling it with gold paint created a soft shimmery effect.

Always looking for the matchy-matchy, I found a scrap of cardstock in the same blue tone and cut a mat and sentiment using MFT little lowercase letter dies.

Winter Wedding cards

Posted: January 6, 2025 | Author: Heather | Filed under: cricut, Gilding Flakes, Penny Black, Skyward | Tags: cricut, Gilding, Penny Black stamps | 6 Comments

We attended a New Year’s Eve wedding last week and a couple of days before I realised I had no wedding cards on hand. I went to the ‘pile of possibility’ which is a shoebox full of panels yet to be made into cards. There are watercolour, alcohol ink, collage and stamped panels in the box.

The galaxy style alcohol ink panel above caught my eye along with what I think is a stamped and gilded panel which you’ll see below. Both seemed fancy enough for wedding cards…but how to use them?

The gilded panel below was very pretty alone so I didn’t want to add much to it. The alcohol ink panel was also pretty but worked well with die-cut silver snowflakes.

The panel on the card above features the Penny Black stamp ‘skyward‘ stamped on vellum with sticky glue ink and gilded either with foil or gilding flakes( sorry I can’t remember which.) It looked quite magical so I might just have to try and gild a stamped image again to see what happens. I hunted for a font that was similar to the one featured on the wedding stationery then cut initials using the cricut. The font I chose (which is not an exact match) is Linotype Rowena Pro Medium. I had a gold envelope which matched and a pearly silver one for the other card.

The wedding was lovely, ceremony at the church in the morning, party to ring in the new year at night!

Although it would have been good to have wedding cards on hand already I enjoyed customising these two for the bride and groom. And speaking of weddings, it is my wedding anniversary today. My husband and I were married on a summer’s day 35 years ago in Canberra. We looked a bit older and colder at last week’s wedding!

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

Gingerbread Set

Posted: December 10, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: cricut, Echidna Studios, gingerbread set | Tags: cricut, Echidna Studios, Ranger Distress inks | 3 Comments

So far I have baked two batches of gingerbread for eating and cut one cardstock batch for card-making! The gingerbread set is a digital stamp and cut-file set from Echidna Studios and I have had a delightful time baking/making these samples.

I used the cricut to cut all the gingerbread shapes from a light brown cardstock which wasn’t gingerbread coloured. It was just for a test run. As it turned out when I blended rusty hinge distress ink over most of the cookies and vintage photo over just the edges the colour was very much like my real gingerbread!

I cut all the ‘icing bits’ on the cricut from white cardstock. I added double sided adhesive to the back before cutting so I wouldn’t have to use liquid glue for all that icing!

I don’t need nine gingerbread themed cards right now so I arranged eight of the cookies on cute check patterned paper for a photo and made the gingerbread man into a card.

I glued two more gingerbread men to the back of the decorated one for more dimension and added him to my card. The festive striped paper is from Simple Stories ‘Simple Vintage Yuletide’ paper pad. To tone down the vibrancy a bit I layered a piece of vellum on top cut with scallop scissors which I still have from long ago. The sentiment is from the PB ‘holiday snippets’ set.

I might make a few more cards or perhaps use some of the ‘cookies’ as gift tags. For now I just think they look very cute on that check paper.

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.

Grafix Window Journal – Video

Posted: July 29, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, cricut, grafix, mixed media journal | Tags: Alcohol Ink, Art Journal, grafix, grafix craft plastic, Mixed Media, Ranger Alcohol Ink | 1 Comment

I’ve featured the Grafix Mixed Media Journal in videos a few times. I’ve made a swatch book for alcohol inks and markers and a sample book for alcohol ink techniques. Both books are good for reference. Today’s post and video feature the mixed media journal as a ‘window journal. I have added pages in pairs of black and white using the handy disc system. I have cut windows in the black pages and created alcohol ink patterns on the white pages.

You can configure the Grafix mixed media journals however you like as the pages and covers are available in separate packs or as a complete journal with different types of pages. Check out the video below to see how I put my window journal together.

You could create a window journal in many ways. I have added colour and pattern to only one side of the white pages but it would be fun to add a design on both sides so you could see the pattern through the window before the pattern and the window after.

You can see in the video that I reworked the ‘ocean’ page shown below several times. That is the beauty of white craft plastic; it is possible to take the page back to white or just dilute the ink with isopropyl alcohol and move it into a new pattern.

The final page in the book features a stencil design with alcohol inks, so simple but so effective. I cut all the windows on my Cricut using free shapes available in Cricut design space but you could cut them with dies or with a craft knife.