Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel

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’.

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.

Leaf Print Sympathy cards

Posted: August 6, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: gel press, Penny Black | Tags: gel press, gel printing, Penny Black stamps | 10 Comments

I’ve been collecting leaves, flowers and grasses over recent weeks for botanical gelprinting and thought I would try some damaged leaves eaten by beetles. The holes in the leaves leave a lacy pattern on the print which is delicate alongside the leaf veins.

I applied black and green paint to a 5″x7″ gel plate and lay the leaves vein-side down in the paint. I used printer paper for this print and pressed it down on top of the leaves.

After pressing the paper firmly over the whole surface I lifted one corner to remove a leaf then pressed it down again and repeated on other corners to remove all three leaves. By lifting just a corner at the time the paper stayed in the same place to pick up the texture print left by the leaf on the plate. You can see the process in the short video below.

I decided to make a couple of sympathy cards using a small Penny Black sentiment. To add a bit of interest around the gel prints I scored criss-crossing lines on the background panel using my scor-pal. So don’t bypass those imperfect leaves when looking for gel printing elements; the intricate patterns are quite beautiful. 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.

Totally Dotty

Posted: July 15, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: AALL & Create, Foiled Fox store, nesting squares, Penny Black, The Foiled Fox, totally dotty stencil, Waffle Flower | Tags: AALL & Create, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Waffle Flower dies | Leave a comment

Yes, the stencil used for this card is called ‘Totally Dotty’! I mean what else would you call it? It is a large stencil from AALL & Create sent to me by the Foiled Fox so I could do totally dotty things with it. I blended inks through it for this card but I have also blended paint through it on gel prints and will no doubt use it with alcohol inks and art journals as well.

I blended wild honey, picked raspberry, salty ocean and evergreen bough distress inks through the stencil with blending brushes then, when I lifted it, blended more ink to soften the stark white background. This is a technique I’ve seen the blending wizards use.

Such a colourful background called for a contrasting sentiment so I stamped in black on white then matted in black using Waffle Flower square nesting dies. Nesting dies definitely cut down on the mistakes I make in creating very slim mats for panels. Did you see I added enamel dots; not a common embellishment for me but the water splatter just didn’t make enough impact so shiny black dots to the rescue. Make sure you pop over to the Foiled Fox blog and online store to be inspired and delighted. (Yes, there are affiliate links used in this post, no extra cost for you but a bonus to me!)

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.

Zig Zag Print cards

Posted: May 28, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: gel press, Heather lowercase die set, Penny Black, Pink Fresh studio, Stencils, Tim Holtz, wild flowers #1, Zigs & zags | 3 Comments

Recently I posted several ’tiled’ collage cards on the blog and mentioned there would be more to come. Today’s cards once again feature gel printed panels arranged and decorated in two ways.

I used three different gel prints to ’tile’ the card above, a plain blue print, a print created with a zig-zag stencil and a print made with the an impression from an embossing folder. To tie together the dark blue, light blue and yellow + blue prints I added a navy wildflower (Tim Holtz) and navy ink splatter.

To create the square birthday card below I used ’tiles’ from the same print but rearranged them on the card front so they didn’t fit together like a jigsaw.

The brassy-gold paint used on the gel print prompted me to die-cut letters, stars and the word birthday from a similar colour cardstock to create a sentiment. 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.

Florals on Black

Posted: May 21, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Concord & 9th, fine line florals, meadow blossoms, online class, Penny Black, radiant | Tags: Concord & 9th, Finetec artist mica watercolour paint, online class, Penny Black stamps | 6 Comments

I haven’t used this eye catching technique in a while but I really should try it more often. These two cards were made as part of my Floral Faves online class, a lesson about using metallic watercolours on black watercolour paper. Maybe black watercolour paper has been around for a long time but when I first found it several years ago I was very keen to try it.

As you can imagine the paints need to be somewhat opaque to show up on black. I use Coliro and Finetec metallic watercolours (two names but all made by Finetec). I have also been given some Beam metallic watercolours which I will try out soon. I used Stonehenge Black watercolour paper for these cards and it worked well. It is very soft so I am careful if using tape on the edges as it lifts the surface off. I just work on a piece slightly larger than I need so I can trim it down to size after painting. I recently bought some of the Van Gogh brand so I will report back once I have tried it.

All these designs were made with embossed outlines making it easier to stay inside the lines. One feature of these cards that I quite like and need to remember to incorporate is the little painted strip where I embossed a sentiment over the top. It’s a trick that doesn’t have to be used only on a black background; I could paint a strip on any colour then emboss on top of it. For the cards featured today I used Penny Black ‘radiant’ set and Concord & 9th ‘fine line florals’ and ‘meadow blossoms’