Bethlehem Skies (alcohol inks)
Posted: September 23, 2026 Filed under: Alcohol Ink, grafix, lighting the way, Penny Black, Silent Night | Tags: Alcohol Ink, grafix craft plastic, Penny Black stamps 1 Comment
I know I have posted nothing but alcohol ink skies, trees and baubles for the last month or so. Trust me, we are nearing but not quite at the end. I mentioned having rediscovered the magic of the alcohol lift ink pad for sentiments, but it is also quite special for line art too. The little Bethlehem acrylic stamp featured above and below came out so crisply when I inked the stamp with alcohol lift ink, stamped on the alcohol ink panel, blotted both stamp and panel with paper towel and repeated the process numerous times. Of course I needed a stamp positioner to repeat the process but I was so happy with the white outlines, sentiment and star.
Some of the skies have a splatter of stars. I’m not sure what the collective noun for stars is but in this case I think ‘splatter’ is very appropriate! I just spritz some isopropyl alcohol into the air and swipe my panel through the same space, just like walking into a spritz of perfume. On the panel below I got a bit greedy for more stars and ended up with some blobs. I still liked the colours in the sky and land so turned it into a card regardless.
The Bethlehem scene above and below is from the Penny Black ‘Lighting the way’ acrylic stamp set and the scene in the first few photos is from the PB ‘Holy night’ acrylic set. They are oldies but in my opinion, goodies so I have held onto them.
Alcohol Ink Skies over the Neighbourhood
Posted: September 8, 2026 Filed under: Alcohol Ink, Dies, grafix, neighbourhood border, Penny Black, simple strips, Taylored Expressions, Uncategorized | Tags: Alcohol Ink, grafix craft plastic, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, pinata alcohol ink, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Taylored Expressions 2 Comments
Today’s cards are similar to the recent tiny towns cards but feature the larger Neighbourhood Border die which only cuts along the top leaving the option of changing the amount of snowy foreground on cards.
I used a range of techniques for the skies including tilting a few different alcohol ink colours on a panel to create soft blends as shown above left. I also added repeated spritzes of isopropyl alcohol over an inked panel to create the bubbly sky shown below left. A few of the panels have metallic alcohol inks included for some silver or gold shimmer.
The card above right features elements from a Cricut cutting file I bought and cut apart to get the apartment building, church, cottage and tree. The alcohol panels were all done on yupo or Grafix white craft plastic and the card bases and die-cuts are from Neenah solar white cardstock.
I used a mix of Penny Black and Taylored Expression sentiments and once more stamped a few of them with Alcohol lift ink to lift the words right out of the sky! As I share this post the alcohol inks are back on the shelf and the gel plate is on the work desk. I am keen to show the gel prints soon but have a couple more collections of alcohol ink Christmas cards to feature. I honestly can’t believe how many I did, but it was so enjoyable I just kept creating panels outside on the pleasant summer days.
Tiny Towns under Alcohol Ink Skies
Posted: August 19, 2026 Filed under: Alcohol Ink, Dies, grafix, Penny Black, Sizzix, Spellbinders, Taylored Expressions, Tiny Tree | Tags: Alcohol Ink, grafix craft plastic, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, sizzix embossing folder, Spellbinders, Taylored Expressions 4 Comments
I do like the look of little houses and buildings against a bold or colourful sky. I’ve done the same thing numerous times with watercolour panels. The little town featured in these cards is the Penny Black ‘tiny town‘ die. Once again I have completed my cards with embossed panels and PB or Taylored Expressions sentiments.
One thing you might notice is that some of the sentiments are stamped on the alcohol ink sky not on a strip of cardstock. After several alcohol ink sessions resulting in a stack of useful panels I remembered my alcohol lift ink. Lift ink does exactly as the name suggests, it lifts alcohol ink off the surface (in this case yupo or grafix craft plastic). Once lifted the ink needs to be wiped off the stamp and a few more applications made in exactly the same spot. It is also necessary to blot the stamped area with a tissue or cloth to remove any ink which has been diluted by the stamp pad. I was very happy with the results and you will see just how happy in a bunch of future cards.
Once again I have created different alcohol ink patterns by tilting the panel to move the ink, blowing the ink with a hand pump or spritzing the ink with isopropyl alcohol to create the spotty or starry look.
I used several different embossing folders to add snow, more little houses or the spellbinders “ski lodge” folder to the background. The little houses embossing folder is from Vaessen Creative and was found at the new craft supply store in Ottawa.
Thank you for the encouraging comments left on the recent alcohol ink blog posts. I am glad to be providing some inspiration to get your own inks out. If you haven’t seen the previous alcohol ink posts look here and here.
And stay tuned there are more little houses, trees, baubles and Bethlehem skies to come. Have a great day!
Botanical Thank You cards
Posted: July 24, 2026 Filed under: gel press, Penny Black | Tags: gel printing, Penny Black stamps 7 Comments
Recently a friend asked me to make her ten thank you cards. I decided to make them using a few botanical gel prints. Some prints were quite large, featuring several flowers or leaves on one large sheet of copy paper or rice paper. The cards above were from a print taken with dark green and cream paints so I added green mats and sentiments on cream card bases. I love printing plants; the detail possible always amazes me. So, as I use up these prints from another summer, I feel the need to pull out the gel plates and print some of the many flowers and leaves within reach this summer.
The cards below were prints of Queen Anne’s lace printed with black and picked up with gold paint. Again I used cream card bases and black or gold sentiments.
The last batch of co-ordinated cards were leaves and lavender in blue and black paint, lifted with white paint so I added blue sentiments and attached everything to white card bases.
You can find techniques for gel printing plants and many other things in my Gel Print Journey online class and use the coupon SUMMERSALE for a 25% discount. You can also find a playlist of gel printing videos I’ve made on my youtube channel.
Watercolour trees & skies
Posted: December 23, 2025 Filed under: Penny Black, ski lodge embossing folder, Spellbinders | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Spellbinders 1 Comment
Here are a few more watercolour Christmas cards I made this year. I painted a large panel of watercolour paper in blues and greens blended together to create a striped mix of tones. From the large panel I cut background rectangles a bit smaller than my card bases and trees of different heights to arrange against embossed white skies. I don’t know the name of the tree die set as I borrowed it from a friend. I really like the non-symmetrical trees featured on the cards above.
To create the snow banks I cut curved hill shapes, sometimes one, sometimes two per card. The cards were all finished with Penny Black sentiments. I have sent most of my cards but there are a few that will be new year greetings. Last week the snow was gradually disappearing around here as we had warmer temperatures and rain. This week it’s a different story; it’s been snowing for days.
Birds on Birches
Posted: December 9, 2025 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 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’.
Let heaven and nature sing
Posted: November 27, 2025 Filed under: Penny Black, Spellbinders | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Spellbinders 8 Comments
This is the second collection of napkin/serviette Christmas cards I’ve made, this time with sweet birds and foliage featured. As I mentioned in an earlier post I have had success with a glue stick or double sided adhesive to adhere the single layer of napkin to cardstock, but there are other methods which several of you were kind enough to share with me.
Thank you to everyone who got in touch to let me know about the following options: spray adhesive, modpodge, freezer wrap adhered with a hot dry iron and a full sheet of Avery sticker paper. Some involve wet adhesive, some dry and the freezer wrap uses the melted wax in the paper so I imagine each method produces a slightly different thickness and flexibility. I will report back again if I try some of these approaches.
As is often the case it is hard to see the texture in the background panels and card bases. I have used the Spellbinders ‘in the pines’ embossing folder on both the white and the dark green panels and it does look nice and co-ordinates with the pine sprigs on the napkins.
The sentiments are a mix of Penny Black sentiments, the favourites I pull out every year.
2 for 1 cards
Posted: November 24, 2025 Filed under: Penny Black, Taylored Expressions | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Taylored Expressions 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 Filed under: Christmas inchies, Darkroom Door, Elizabeth Craft Designs, Gina K, global postmarks, Penny Black, postage stamps | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, Elizabeth Craft Designs, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps 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.
