Birds on Birches

Posted: December 9, 2025 | Author: Heather | Filed under: beneath the birches, Dies, Penny Black, sennelier watercolours, winter trees | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, sennelier watercolours | 3 Comments

In case you were wondering I have done some watercolouring for Christmas cards this year; it’s not all napkin art. I created a batch of cards for a friend which included either watercolour skies or watercolour trees.

I painted a blended sky with a couple of different blues then added hand-cut snowbanks and die-cut trees and birds from the Penny Black sets, ‘beneath the birches‘ and ‘winter trees‘.

This would be a simple card to make in multiples by painting a large sheet of watercolour paper to divide into sky panels then add the white and red elements. The greeting is from the PB ‘Christmas sentiments‘ set. How is your Christmas card sending going? I sat in a waiting room yesterday and wrote about eight cards instead of reading a book or scrolling so that advanced me through my list a little.

Eucalyptus & gold

Posted: December 3, 2025 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Airy, Dies, Penny Black, stocking stuffers | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps | 5 Comments

I thought this would be my last napkin/serviette related post for now but I forgot about a pack of dinner napkins I bought in the summer. So maybe one more!?

But onto today’s cards; you can see in the photo above that the eucalyptus themed napkins are printed on a white base but my cards are all cream tones. When I adhered the single layer of the napkin to cream cardstock, the background transformed into cream not white.

The napkins are not Christmas themed themselves but I chose to add gold foliage die-cuts, gold embossed greetings and even some gold splatter on the one below to turn them into Christmassy cards. I used the Penny Black dies, ‘stocking stuffers‘ and ‘airy’.

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.

Shimmery Foliage

Posted: October 14, 2025 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Airy, Dies, Finetec paints, Leaflets, Leaves, Penny Black, Taylored Expressions | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Finetec artist mica watercolour paint, Penny Black creative dies, Taylored Expressions | 2 Comments

Recently a friend and I got together and worked on wreath style wedding cards. Mine is featured further down in this post. After my friend left I used some of the die-cut foliage leftovers to make her a birthday card. You can see a few matte green leafy branches plus more cut from gold, bronze and reddish shimmer cardstock. I arranged it all either side of a stamped and embossed banner. This sort of a card takes a while to arrange in a balanced way so once I had it looking good I took a photo so I would be able to glue it all down again in the same way.

All the die-cutting was done with Penny Black foliage dies from a variety of sets. The curly twirly birthday sentiment is from the Taylored Expressions set, ‘In & Out Birthday’ embossed in gold powder

To make the wreath card I began by stamping a rough circle using gold watercolour paint on a jar lid. It was the lid of the lentil jar so yes, I had to wash it carefully before it was returned to the jar.

I arranged die-cut foliage around the gold circle not with perfect symmetry but I aimed for balance.

I cut the A, & and L on the cricut using the Linux Libertine Display G font. Both cards were made on cold pressed watercolour paper which has a nice creamy colour and soft texture.

Strips & Stripes

Posted: March 5, 2025 | Author: Heather | Filed under: border collection, Hand painted | Tags: Hand painted, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps | 1 Comment

Amongst my recent watercolour panels there are quite a few with stripes. I was colour mixing and playing with wet into wet technique as I painted stripe over stripe to fill the panels.

I could have die cut a scalloped strip to add on top of the card front but I liked the layered look which reminds be a bit of carnival tents so I added first the painted strip, then over the top a scalloped piece of white. The scallop die is from the Penny Black set, ‘border collection’ and the sentiment from the ever faithful PB ‘snippets’ set.

The heart themed card below is the same layout with a couple of variations. As you can see I still used a striped panel but die cut some hearts from it and lined them up to span the card front.

Although the hearts looked cute in a row, the white card front looked too plain so I added an embossed panel as the background to add texture and interest without adding more colour.

The little happy birthday is from Darkroom Door, once again I used a small sentiment; I do have a soft spot for tiny text.

These two are examples made for my upcoming in-person card design class which still has a few available spots in it.

Book Trees

Posted: December 20, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Dies, modern xmas tree, Penny Black | Tags: Penny Black creative dies | 6 Comments

I gave this Christmas card to a friend who is a journalist. As she studied it she exclaimed, ‘What? You cut up books!’ I explained that yes, I did, but they were not my precious books, most were picked up at second hand book sales or thrift stores.

I painted a selection of pages with distress inks and when the pages dried I glued them to cardstock before using triangle dies to cut them out. After I arranged them on an embossed background I cut a strip of black cardstock into small pieces to tuck under the trees as trunks. Just another simple idea with vintage papers.

Layered Poinsettias

Posted: December 3, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Dies, Gina K, holiday flora embossing folder, joy of giving, juniper, layered poinsettia, layered Xmas wreath die set, Penny Black, stocking stuffers | Tags: Penny Black creative dies | 1 Comment

I have a box of berries, leaves, pine boughs and other festive foliage along with some watercoloured panels waiting to be put to use. I cut poinsettias from the watercoloured panels and had fun arranging them on an embossed panel with other foliage die cuts. (PB ‘joy of giving‘, ‘juniper‘, ‘layered Xmas wreath‘ and stocking stuffers)

The pretty background panel is Neenah solar white embossed with the Gina K ‘holiday flora’.

I like the variety of patterns and colours in the petals and leaves when they are cut from a watercolour panel. I held a couple of Christmas card making nights for my church and we made watercolour panels using my smoosh, spritz and swipe method. We ‘smooshed’ distress inks on a teflon mat, ‘spritzed’ the ink with water to dilute and move it, then ‘swiped’ the watercolour paper through the ink as many times as needed to make a well coloured panel.

This post includes affiliate links from Foiled Fox and Scrap n Stamp. 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.

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.

Birds & Feathers

Posted: June 5, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Collage cards, Darkroom Door, Feathers, gel press, on a wire, Penny Black | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, gel printing, Penny Black creative dies | 2 Comments

Same concept, different colour palette. I’ve been sharing my collaged gel print cards over recent weeks featuring a lot of blue prints. You know I love blue but it isn’t the only colour I print with. Although I have gel-printed with feathers, the ones featured here were all stamped. You can add interest to your prints with stamping or stenciling or other techniques; you don’t have to leave them just the way they pulled off the plate.

For this bird themed card I chose yellow, orange and greenish prints then stamped feathers on them before cutting them into squares. To make the squares I sometimes use a square punch, but often tear the panels with a metal edge ruler so I get some white of the paper on the edge. The feather stamps are from Darkroom Door ‘Feathers’ set. The birds die is called ‘on a wire’ and it’s from Penny Black.