A group of creative friends from the Art with Heart team are back with our Annual Heart of Christmas blog hop. Follow through the blogs each Monday night until the end of November for Christmas card inspiration.
This week, I have created a collection of elegant Christmas cards featuring my current favourite combination of techniques and products: hot foiling, heat embossing and gold foil.
These techniques work beautifully together to add layers of shine and texture without overwhelming the design. The hot-foiled details provide a delicate metallic finish, while the gold heat embossing and Gold Foil add further depth and a touch of Christmas luxury.
My colour combination is Basic White, Basic Beige, Old Olive and Gold Foil. I seem to be reaching for these elegant neutrals a lot lately. Basic White and Basic Beige create a soft foundation, while Old Olive and Gold Foil add traditional Christmas warmth, shine and sophistication.
The Flourish & Frames Hot Foil Dies were used to create the beautiful foiled details. I paired these with the Festive Cheer Bundle and the Lovely Stripes Embossing Folder, which introduces subtle texture and helps bring the different elements of each card together.
The Delicate Dreams Specialty Designer Series Paper adds a subtle variegation to the Old Olive foliage. Gold Foil backed with an adhesive sheet was used for selected die-cut elements, while sentiments stamped in Versamark ink and heat embossed with Gold Metallics Embossing Powder complete the coordinated metallic look.
Although several techniques and finishes have been combined, limiting the designs to a restrained colour palette keeps the cards balanced and cohesive.
It’s hard to capture the gorgeous shine of all the gold touches, hopefully this portrait shot gives you a better idea of how it shines in real life.
I used some leftover pieces to decorate the inside of my card.
Take a look at some more Heart of Christmas inspiration!
Now it is time to continue our Heart of Christmas Blog Hop and see what the next talented member of the Art With Heart Team has created.
Next in our blog hop is Judy May. Click on the link below to see her beautiful Christmas project.
If the next button link is not working or you’d like to see the entire list of participants, go to Sharon Davern‘s blog.
A group of creative friends from the Art with Heart team are back with our Annual Heart of Christmas blog hop. Follow through the blogs each Monday night until the end of November for Christmas card inspiration.
This week’s card is a fancy fold I designed as my “Make and Take” project for when I caught up with some of our Art With Heart team members at an event in the Adelaide Hills a few weeks ago.
My Neutral Noel Single Step Card, features a dimensional Christmas village in a warm, earthy colour palette of Pecan Pie, Mossy Meadow, Basic White and gold.
I love a fancy-fold card that creates plenty of impact when it is displayed. This single step design provides several different levels for building a scene, so the houses and trees appear to stretch into the distance.
This is what it looks like when laid flat.
The Welcome Noel Bundle was perfect for creating my little Christmas village. I used the coordinating stamps and dies to build rows of houses and trees across the different sections of the card.
The detailed Pecan Pie house on the back panel has been layered over Gold Timeless Metallic Specialty Paper, giving the windows and door a lovely warm glow. More touches of gold appear in the die-cut stars surrounding the large Merry Christmas sentiment.
Although the card has plenty of dimension when standing, the design folds down for placing in an envelope. I also added a Basic White panel to the back of the card, providing plenty of room to write a personal Christmas message.
Free Single Step Card Tutorial
Because I created this project as a “Make and Take” I have a FREE PDF tutorial to share with you so you can make this card yourself.
Welcome to Week 1 of the Heart of Christmas 2026 blog hop! It’s lovely to be creating Christmas cards again with the Art With Heart team, and I’m looking forward to sharing a new project each week as we head towards Christmas.
This week’s card is a CASE of a beautiful design created last year by Mikaela from The Crafty Oink Pen in 2025. CASE stands for Copy And Share Everything, and it’s a wonderful way to take inspiration from another card maker while adding your own creative touches.
There were several elements of Mikaela’s original card that immediately caught my eye. I loved the way the embossing folder was positioned on an angle, rather than straight across the card. The neutral combination of dark green, cream and dark brown was also beautiful, as was the stamping directly onto Designer Series Paper.
The Perennial Postage Dies added another lovely detail, giving the layers a decorative edge without overwhelming the design. I wanted to retain these elements while creating a version in my own colour palette.
When you look at the two cards side-by-side so you can see how I’ve CASED Mikaela’s card and changed the elements of the design to make it my own.
Both cards have a Mossy Meadow card stock base with an embossed Mossy Meadow card stock or my card. Once again I’ve used the Softly Woven 3D Embossing Folder.
The beauty of a large embossing folder is the ability to angle the card stock layer in any direction you chose. I kept the angled embossing detail that I loved so much in Mikaela’s design. It adds movement and texture to the background and makes the card feel a little different from a traditional straight-layered layout.
However, I’ve used a slightly different colour scheme and moved my pinecones and foliage to the other side of the card to allow the elements on the DSP to be seen
I chose a limited colour scheme, combining Mossy Meadow, Basic Beige and Early Espresso (colours in the Yuletide Carols DSP), with touches of gold to finish.
The foliage was created using the large oval wreath die from the Noel Tidings Dies. Rather than using the wreath as a complete oval, I snipped the die-cut apart to create individual branches. The pine cones are stamped in Early Espresso onto Basic Beige card stock.
The “Sending Cheer” sentiment is from the Noel Tidings stamp set, stamped directly onto the Yuletide Carols Designer Series Paper. I love stamping onto patterned paper when the design is subtle enough to allow the sentiment to remain clear. It creates an extra layer of interest without needing another piece of cardstock.
I carried the design through to the inside with more stamped foliage and the sentiment: From our home to yours.
It’s a simple detail, but I always enjoy adding something to the inside of a handmade Christmas card. It makes the card feel finished and gives the recipient another little surprise when they open it.
Take a look at some more Heart of Christmas inspiration!
If the next button link is not working or you’d like to see the entire list of participants, go to Sharon Davern’s blog.
