Alcohol Ink Baubles

Posted: August 24, 2026 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, baubles, Christmas filigree, Concord & 9th, Echidna Studios, Kristina Werner Joyful and Merry dies, Kristina Werner Joyful and Merry stamp set, Penny Black, simple strips, Spellbinders, Taylored Expressions | Tags: Alcohol Ink, grafix craft plastic, Penny Black creative dies, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Spellbinders, Taylored Expressions, Yupo Paper | 2 Comments

The alcohol ink cards continue but there is a new element featured in the shimmery baubles above. I created alcohol ink patterns on Ranger alcohol ink silver sparkle cardstock. Whatever colours you blend over the cardstock automatically shimmer and shine. On the cricut I cut the finials using the “Christmas Filigree Digital Stamp and Cutfiles” from Echidna Studios. Both decorations are on panels embossed with the Spellbinders “forevergreen” folder and feature Kristina Werner’s Joyful and Merry sentiment dies and stamps.

I also made simple round baubles using Penny Black dies and patterned panels. Basically any pretty alcohol ink panel is fair game for creating some baubles. As is my pattern they are also stuck on embossed panels, tied with silver cord and sentimented with Taylored Expressions “Simple Strips Christmas sentiments”.

I don’t actually own any of this sparkly cardstock; a friend let me use some of hers, but I can highly recommend it if you want a very simple way to make your alcohol patterns look fabulous.

Black Christmas Tags

Posted: December 12, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Baubles, Christmas filigree, Christmas stockings digital stamp set, Echidna Studios, grafix, mittens | Tags: Echidna Studios, grafix, grafix craft plastic | 2 Comments

Last year I decorated some black glass balls for Christmas using a selection of paint pens and metallic brush pens. The opaque colours really pop on black so I decided to do something similar on black craft plastic from Grafix. You can see my process in the video below.

I cut the four different shapes on the cricut using digital cutting files from Echidna Studios (bell, mitten, stocking and bauble) The paint pens were all Posca and the metallic brush pens a brand I found on Amazon.

The dura-bright black (black craft plastic) from Grafix is a good surface for paint pens. It is very smooth and I found writing and drawing on it is very relaxing.

You might not think of black as a Christmas colour but the shine of the metallics and the chalkboard pop of the white is quite fun.

Christmas Filigree

Posted: November 23, 2023 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Christmas filigree, Dies, Echidna Studios, joy of giving, Penny Black, Taylored Expressions | Tags: digital stamps, Echidna Studios, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Taylored Expressions | 2 Comments

I am pretty excited about these new images. I think filigree patterns are very pretty and once I got the gist of it had a lovely time designing a bell, a star and a finial ornament. I thought it made sense to have a solid background to show off the filigree and, tada, the Christmas filigree digital stamp and cut file set came to be! This set is now in the Echidna Studios store along with three more new sets and some updated Christmas sets from last year. It’s beginning to look more like Christmas every day.

I think the bell is my favourite of the three images and will come in handy making wedding cards as well as Christmas. I wanted to show off the designs on dark backgrounds but when in comes to photographing shimmery gold, embossing on dark green or navy and the high contrast of cream cardstock as well, I can’t always nail it.

So let me tell you the bells are sitting on dark green panels embossed with Spellbinders ‘forever green’ folder. The green panel on the left below is also embossed with that folder but the one on the right is embossed with the Anna Griffin ‘regal braid’ folder. The star cards at the end of this very long post are on navy blue backgrounds and it is again a little tricky to see one base is embossed with the ‘speckles/snowfall‘ folder and the other with the Taylored Expressions ‘sheet music‘ folder.

I decorated the finials and bells with a mix of die cut foliage from Penny Black including the ‘joy of giving‘ set.

As the finial is such a long thin shape I made the card a little larger than usual, around 6″x4.5″.

I created the star cards without foliage but found suitable sentiment from PB and Taylored Expressions.

I think all three designs would make lovely tree ornaments either stacked to give them extra stability or cut from thick acrylic or thin board on a laser cutter. I don’t have a laser cutter but it is possible to book time on one at the library; if get some cut I will definitely show them here on the blog.