Christmas Greenery

Posted: November 21, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Christmas inchies, Darkroom Door, Elizabeth Craft Designs, Gina K, global postmarks, Penny Black, postage stamps | Tags: , , , | 7 Comments

Yes, finally a Christmas card post. I have been playing around with paper napkins for some of my Christmas cards. All the designs in today’s post use panels from a greenery + berries design. I peel off the printed layer from the three layer napkins or serviettes (depending where you’re from) and glue it to cardstock. I’ve used both double sided adhesive (pricey) and glue sticks (slightly curls the cardstock). Either option works I just need to take some time to flatten the glued panels.

Sometimes when attaching the fragile napkin layer to the cardstock you get some creases; I think they add interest and texture so I don’t let them worry me. I used my cricut and the Echidna Studio stocking design and mitten designs to cut out large features to add to an embossied background.

I also used the lovely postage dies from Elizabeth Craft and the Darkroom Door Global Postage and Christmas Inchies stamps to add postmarks along with small sentiment stamps from Penny Black to add words. For the card below I simply cut the word joy using a PB die and added it to a large panel. You could definitely make all these cards with patterned papers or your own painted or printed papers. I just get tempted by the beautiful paper serviettes out there and end up buying them for craft and dinner!

I am packed up ready to do Christmas card making with some friends from church tomorrow. We are making 2-for-1 cards to give to the residents in a local nursing home. I’ll try and share a few of the designs next week. Have a lovely weekend.

Faux Postage Christmas cards

Posted: November 1, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Christmas inchies, Darkroom Door, Elizabeth Craft Designs, global postmarks, postage stamps | Tags: , | 6 Comments

Around this time last year I bought a faux postage die set from Elizabeth Craft Designs. I’ve used it a couple of times with watercolour panels but a friend recently inspired me to try with Christmas papers. I cut a white perforated panel and used the co-ordinating rectangle dies to cut the poinsettia paper.

The Elizabeth Craft die is a large one so I was able to get the four stamp section above and the five stamp section below out of one die-cut panel. I used a paper from the Simple Stories ‘Simple Vintage Yuletide’ paper pad.

Of course I had to add some postmarks to my faux postage and Darkroom Door stamps are perfect for that. I used red ink and stamps from both Global Postmarks and Christmas Inchies sets.

I only added one bit of text to the ‘postage stamp’ and using white embossing powder to make it show up. The ‘sending joy’ is from Penny Black’s very useful ‘holiday snippets’ set – it’s an oldie but a goodie!

I know it’s been a bit quiet on the blog over the last few months and when I have posted it has usually involved leaves! I’m sure there will be more leaves but during November I will be posting Christmas card designs and will hopefully be popping up here a few times a week. Thanks for visiting.

Faux Postage Stamps – Video

Posted: March 7, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Darkroom Door, Elizabeth Craft Designs, fine flowers vol 2, global postmarks, Nature Walk, postage stamps, Tutorial | Tags: , , , | 7 Comments

Recently I created some faux postage stamps from a stamped and watercoloured panel. I pulled out another floral panel from my ‘pile of possibilities’ and filmed myself making some more faux postage stamps to feature on cards. The watercoloured panel features a repeated flower from the Darkroom Door set, ‘fine flowers vol 2’ and there is a video of my watercolouring process for that too.

The large postage die set I used is from Elizabeth Craft Designs and includes a die to cut perforated stamps of different sizes which remain joined until you cut or tear them apart. There are also dies which cut rectangles to fit in each of the ‘postage stamp’ spaces. There are also bonus number and symbol dies, so the set offers quite a lot.

I chose this set because I liked the way the postage stamps were all joined and I have the option of creating combinations or individual stamps. There are dies available from other companies which just cut the perforated lines and I demonstrate how to do the same thing with that kind of die towards the end of the video. Adding stamped postmarks and even small words makes the faux postage look real and I’m really enjoying using stamped panels, patterned papers and gel prints to make my own postage. I think any hand delivered card I make from now on should have a handmade postage stamp on it!

Postage Stamp Tulips

Posted: February 7, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Darkroom Door, Elizabeth Craft Designs, global postmarks, online class, Penny Black, postage stamps, splendiferous | Tags: , , , , | 11 Comments

I’ve been inspired so many times by my talented friend Stamping Matilda, aka Godelieve Tijskens including her delightful faux postage stamps. I’ve wanted to make some for a while so I treated myself to a fancy die from Elizabeth Craft Designs. There are many ways to make faux postage stamps including with a clever tracing wheel usually use for sewing.

Once I had my die on hand I had to decide what to make my stamps from. I decided not to stamp something especially for the faux stamps. Instead I started using patterned papers and stamped panels that were sitting around looking pretty but not serving any other purpose. The two tulip panels featured on today’s cards were made for my online class Floral Faves. There is a lesson in the class where I show a range of methods for no-line watercolour. In designing and filming the class I created quite a few no-line watercolour panels that were never turned into cards…until now. I stamped the tulips using the Penny Black stamp, ‘Splendiferous‘.

The ‘postage stamps‘ die cuts a large panel of perforated stamps all joined together. There are also small dies in the set that cut rectangles to attach inside the perforated sections. Once I had my tulip sections attached I used Darkroom Door set, ‘global postmarks‘ to add postmarks. I popped up my faux postage stamps on one A4 card and one slightly smaller card. Of course I proceeded to search my pile of possibility for more panels to turn into faux stamps! Today’s post features an affiliate link to Scrap’n’Stamp. If you buy through this link I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.