Birds on Birches

Posted: December 9, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: beneath the birches, Dies, Penny Black, sennelier watercolours, winter trees | Tags: , , , | 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: | Filed under: Airy, Dies, Penny Black, stocking stuffers | Tags: , | 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’.

2 for 1 cards

Posted: November 24, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Penny Black, Taylored Expressions | Tags: , , | 6 Comments

Here are some of the ‘2 for 1’ cards a group from our church made on Saturday. I had a couple of friends help with prep and running the event and it was a fun creative time. Of course there were snacks, laughter and plenty of conversation.

The ‘2 for 1 technique’ in this case required the maker to cut an image or word out of patterned paper and turn the positive and the negative piece into two separate cards. To add some texture and pattern we had coloured and embossed backgrounds to choose from.

I have run this event before and there is always some creative free styling when participants see the supplies available. I get inspired watching everyone create. I wanted one photo of all the cards but my kitchen table was crowded with just half so I divided them into landscape and portrait orientation.

Thank you to the twenty three people who participated before and during the event. I hope the residents at the nursing home will enjoy the pretty cards and message.

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.

The happy cut-out

Posted: October 22, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: cricut, Dies, Penny Black | Tags: , | 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: | Filed under: Airy, Dies, Finetec paints, Leaflets, Leaves, Penny Black, Taylored Expressions | Tags: , , , | 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: | Filed under: border collection, Hand painted | Tags: , , | 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: | Filed under: Dies, modern xmas tree, Penny Black | Tags: | 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: | 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: | 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.

Vintage Stockings

Posted: November 26, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Christmas stockings digital stamp set, cricut, Echidna Studios, Gina K, holiday flora embossing folder, mittens | Tags: , , , , , , | 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.

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