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.

What I like about Gel Printing

Posted: October 31, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Branch 9 die, gel press, Moda Scrap, online class | Tags: gel press, gel printing, online class, Penny Black creative dies | 3 Comments

I think you already know I like gel printing: I’ve made that very clear! This card includes many of the reasons I enjoy it. There is a lot of layering, colour and imperfections in the print on this card and that often happens when gel printing. I didn’t strategically add grazes of red paint to the gel plate; they were left there from a previous print. They add so much that I chose to match the sentiment to those ‘leftovers’.

The leaves on the top of the panel are definitely die cut but the leaves on the print were added using my homemade stamp. I have quite a few homemade gel printing stamps; I don’t worry about cleaning the paint out of the stamp and I use scraps of cardstock and fun foam to make them very cheaply.

Gel printing is full of surprises; some of my favourite prints are not ones I carefully planned, they are ghost prints or partial prints, what some would call ‘fails’. There is often beauty in the texture, leftover paint and pale patterns of these prints. This card was made from a print demonstrated in my online class ‘Gel Print Journey‘ an introductory gel printing class. I created a 40% off discount coupon for the class if you are interested. Just use the coupon code SURPRISE at checkout anytime before the end of November. 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.

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.

Pink & Blue Squares

Posted: May 18, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Collage cards, Dies, gel press, gift card pocket, Penny Black, Tim Holtz, wild flowers #1 | Tags: collage, gel printing, Penny Black creative dies, Tim Holtz | 3 Comments

As mentioned in previous posts my stash of gel prints is considerable. I am always on the look out for ways to use them. Large prints are great for covers on handmade books; I use many smaller prints for card fronts and collage.

These two collage cards are made from four or five different gel prints. I punched the squares with a 1 3/8″ punch then fiddled around with the layout until I was happy with it. Because I love things to match all the prints had some blue in them and there is some repetition of pink as well.

The prints were part of my stash and were not made specifically for these cards so some have patterns and others were probably second or third pulls to clean off a plate. Once I had them arranged to my satisfaction I die-cut Tim Holtz wildflowers and added a tiny Penny Black tag. You’ll see more of this style in the next few weeks as I made them in several different colour combinations. Those of you who know me might have noticed the dark blue splatter on the both cards; I always think a bit of splatter ties thing s together.

Hello Leaves and Lines

Posted: April 19, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: cricut, Echidna Studios, gel press, leaves and lines | Tags: cricut, Echidna Studios, gel printing, gelli plate, Penny Black creative dies | 2 Comments

This distressed multicoloured look is one of my favourite gel printing looks. I don’t know that I could recreate it but I usually get at least a couple of these aged looking prints during a gel printing session. The pattern is achieved using a stencil laid over paint on the gel plate. This stencil is called ‘leaves and lines‘ and the digital file is available from Echidna Studios etsy store. To make today’s card I cut a 5″x 6″ stencil from Grafix matte duralar using my Cricut. I also cut it as a larger stencil which I used for a print you can see here.

You can see on this print that I used a maroon paint and a bright blue paint; the darker blue is a mix of the two colours. I pulled the print with a pale gold paint so the surface has a bit of shimmer to it.

Because the background is very busy I placed the Penny Black ‘hello’ die-cut sentiment on a strip of vellum to stop it from getting lost in the leaves and lines. 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.

Floral Collage Cards

Posted: April 8, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: A Pocket Full, Collage cards, Dies, Penny Black, Taylored Expressions, this way | Tags: collage, Darkroom Door stamps, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Taylored Expressions | 2 Comments

The collage and ephemera cards just keep coming. Today’s cards feature old book page collage overlaid with one layer of a floral napkin. I have a few collaged ‘mini masterboards’ made so I can cut elements or backgrounds out when I need them. For the card above I picked the rusty orange from the napkin to be the accent colour.

I recently bought a notch punch so I can create file dividers of any size; in the card above I made the blank orange one a little larger to show behind the floral & collage one. I added tickets stamped and die-cut, a scrap of hessian and a cut out from an old Betty Crocker ‘Good and Easy Cook Book‘!

On the second card I used an aged book page as the background and added the paper napkin layer to the mini notebook page with some mulberry paper for framing and contrast. The little green postage stamp is real and the vintage label is stamped.

For the recent collage cards I have pulled out some supplies that I’d almost forgotten, the pretty label border stamps, the mulberry paper and the ‘office’ type dies from Penny Black are in the current rotation.

The file dividers on the card below remind me of a recipe card box which is why it ended up with the little recipe book snippet on it. The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions ‘Simple Strips – Thanks’ but I chopped it up to add to the file tabs.

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.

Greenery Collage Cards

Posted: April 3, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Collage cards, Darkroom Door, Dies, Finetec paints, gift card pocket, global postmarks, Leaves, measuring tape, Mixed Media, paris postcard, Penny Black, Tim Holtz, wild flowers #1 | Tags: collage, Darkroom Door stamps, Finetec artist mica watercolour paint, Mixed Media, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tim Holtz | 6 Comments

Continuing with the collage theme I have three cards featuring greenery from a paper napkin. I know people have been creating with paper napkins for years but I am new to the game. I have a small collection of pretty paper napkins to use on cards, book covers and journal pages. The green ones featured here are large dinner napkins found at Winners, probably in that tempting ‘just before the checkout’ area!

I glued the printed layer of the napkin over book pages to make my main panels and aged the edges with green and brown inks. I created a couple of little vintage postcards with the Paris postcard stamp, a background with the Measuring Tape stamp, sentiments and postmarks all from Darkroom Door.

Once again I used some cute dies from Penny Black to cut tickets, file divider, tag and leaves adding blending around the edges for the vintage look.

The scrap of cheesecloth, the lace and the grosgrain ribbon were all found around here, maybe the ribbon is actually vintage; it looks a bit discoloured from age which meant it co-ordinated well.

The lovely Queen Anne’s lace die is from the Tim Holtz ‘wildflowers #1 set.

I did make my own little postage stamps for the postcards because I’m still in love with faux postage. These ones had to be quite small so I didn’t use a die I just punched tiny holes with a needle to perforate the edges. You can see a bit of splatter here and there with ivory paint and there are touches of gold watercolour paint on the petals of a few flowers too!

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 Collage Cards

Posted: April 1, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Collage cards, Darkroom Door, Dies, gift card pocket, handwritten ledger, Mixed Media, number medley, Penny Black, Tagged | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, Mixed Media, Penny Black creative dies, Ranger archival inks | 6 Comments

I’ve recently fallen down an vintage ephemera rabbit hole and emerged to make some of my own backgrounds and elements. There are companies that make beautiful co-ordinating ephemera, papers, chipboard pieces, etc. but I am committed to ‘using what I have’ so I’m pulling from old books, calendars, greeting cards, sewing patterns and scrapbooking paper along with a few handy tools.

I’m not going to list every die, ink or paper but I will mention some of my favourite resources. The old books that I am removing pages from include music books, dictionaries, atlases, novels, poetry and recipe books. I also have some lovely papers and vintage pages that friends have given me, so it is fun putting them to use.

The inks I reach for are the distress brown tones from Ranger, not always the dye inks, but often the archival inks as they don’t dilute or smudge when I add glue or stamp on glossy paper.

I have a bunch of background stamps and sets from Darkroom Door which give me vintage style text, patterns and elements including but not limited to the ‘handwritten ledger‘ and ‘number medley‘.

I found amongst my Penny Black dies a file folder, notebook page, several tags, tickets, pockets and decorative borders. I also treated myself to a corner rounding punch that punches in three different sizes and of course the postage stamp die set I’ve featured a few times recently.

I pulled out twine, ribbon and lace for finishing touches and some vintage butterfly cut-outs that were all joined together by little tabs. I have had them for years ever since I inherited my mother’s teaching resources. You can seem them in the close up below.

Now just in case you are worried, I am not ripping pages out of beloved old books, but I am putting to use some books I inherited and don’t have a personal attachment to. Anne, Heidi, Jo March, Jane, Ratty and Mole are all safe! Old calendars, diaries, magazines and greeting cards are fair game because honestly, I’ve held onto some of them for a very long time. 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.

Blue Birthday

Posted: March 26, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: banner blooms, banner blooms cut out dies, Dies, exquisite envelope, online class, Penny Black | Tags: online class, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 6 Comments

Blue is my favourite colour and the different hues seen on this card are examples of why it appeals to me so much. I tend to prefer the blues that are a little bit purply but I like the teal blues as well.

All the blues on the card are made from one ink, chipped sapphire distress ink. If you watercolour with your dye inks you have probably noticed that some inks separate into different hues when diluted. I thought I would share this card today because it features in one of the lessons in my Colour Clues online course. Colour Clues is a card making course which covers colour blending, contrast, separation and mixing. I created a 40% discount for all my online courses back on February 29, mentioned it in a blog post then forgot about it! That’s why I’ve been featuring it more this week. The discount code LEAPYEAR40 is active until the end of March 28 which is now two days away.

I chose the Penny Black sets Banner Blooms and Exquisite Envelope for this card because there were plenty of enclosed petals and leaves to trap colour. Banner Blooms just happens to have a co-ordinating die set which sped up the layering of blooms and leaves. 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.

Do you have a favourite colour. Does it turn up often in your crafting or perhaps in your wardrobe? I definitely wear a lot of blue!

Gel Printed Pods

Posted: March 25, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: artsy stems, framed fern, gel press, Lavinia, online class, Penny Black, Tim Holtz | Tags: gel press, gel printing, Lavinia, online class, Penny Black creative dies, Tim Holtz | 3 Comments

It’s been a while since I gel printed but that there is no lack of gel prints to show you. I currently have boxes of prints and and a stash of cards made from prints.

These two cards were made from the same stencil print, one of the examples from my Gel Print Journey online class (which is on sale along with all my online classes until March 29; just use the code LEAPYEAR40 at checkout)

If you are a fan of Lavinia stencils like I am you probably recognise the ‘Pods’ stencil used for this print. I printed on a 6″x 6″ gel plate giving me a print big enough for two cards. It’s hard to see in the photo but some of the paint was metallic so the print has some shimmer and shine on it.

I looked through my botanical dies and gold cardstock in order to fine co-ordinating elements for the cards. On the card above I used the ‘framed fern’ die from Penny Black and on the card below the die featured is from Tim Holtz artsy stems die set.

I hear my gel plate calling to me so hopefully I will soon dedicate a few days to happy printing. If you are looking for a beginner gel printing class or a refresher please check out Gel Print Journey. This post includes affiliate links from Ecstasy Crafts, Foiled Fox and Scrap’n’Stamp . If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.