Author Archives: CraftKatie

How to Attach Small Metal Embellishments (Tutorial!)

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There are several ways of attaching metal decorative pieces to your projects. Depending on the size and weight of your element, you can use glue dots, Ranger’s Glossy Accents, or several kinds of adhesive pastes, used mainly in mixed media projects.

Or, you can use my way 🙂 Which is using jewelry glue!

Check it out in the short video tutorial below, and you’ll see the advantage when compared to glue dots, especially when you’re working with hollowed-out embellishments – like me in the video.

Enjoy! Let me know in the comment section below if you have any questions.

Mailable Photo Stand with Dapper

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Leftover pieces of chipboard are ideal to create all kinds of nice trinkets and keepsakes. Like, for example, a mailable photo stand. I created this one for my mom, with some nice memories of my dad. So I again used Tim Holtz’s masculine-themed Dapper collection, printed and cropped four pictures and decorated to my heart’s desire.

As for the paper, I used 10 ATC cards, so this project is also perfect for your leftover Project Life cards or journalling cards!

Enjoy the video!

Let me know if you’d like me to do a (free) tutorial for this little photo stand! (even years after this post is fine with me, just drop me line or leave a comment – I’m always in for new blog and/or video ideas 🙂 )

More detailed tutorials on a growing number of projects are available in my Etsy shop.

Cosmic Valentine’s Day Card

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So I sent my mom a Valentinescard because my dad, her great love, not only passed away five years ago, but would also have had his birthday today, Febr. 14th. He loved the beauty of the stars and the galaxy, his garden and all things technical. All of which I incorporated on the card.

With special thanks to by_marina_gridasova who gifted me the paper!

Bella Rouge Mini Album Book Stack

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This week I’m sharing a new design, consisting of three parts. It’s a little book stack, consisting not of books but of two handmade chipboard boxes, filled with a mini folio and three mini booklets respectively. The technique I used to create the boxes is different from my usual way of making them, so there’s something new there as well for everyone who already purchased my other box tutorial.

And since I just had my birthday, I’m offering all three of these projects as one tutorial set, so a buy-3-pay-only-1 kind of thing! 🙂

The papers and flowers I worked with are from Prima Marketing’s Bella Rouge collection. I wanted to design a project specifically suited for 4×6″ journalling cards / project life cards, to offer you all a somewhat more affordable option since these cards tend to be not as expensive as actual paper pads. And I succeeded wonderfully well!

So enjoy the video and pictures below, and go for the tutorial set if you’d like to make it yourself.

If you’d like an idea of how this would look when filled with pictures and journalling, check out this post!

Grungy Card with Tim Holtz’s Dapper

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Grungy card with Tim Holtz's Dapper collection (front)

Hi everyone,

This week I’m sharing my enthusiasm about Tim Holtz’s 2016 Dapper paper pad. As per usual when I really like a paper collection, I leave it in my stash for quite some time before I can bring myself to cut into it; hence the 2.5 year (!) delay between it being offered on the market and me actually creating something with it…

Anyway, I chose to use one of Dapper’s 6×6″ sheets, plus a 3×4″ sheet. They all come in one big double-sided 12×12″ pad – which I find a brilliantly creative invention – a characteristic shared by all Tim Holtz’s paper pads alike.

The double card I created is about 6×6″, and I grunged everything up by actually distressing all of the papers’ edges, using no inks whatsoever, to enhance the effect. Also, I added in some layering and of course embellishments – and there you go, a card with a distinct masculine feel!

Do you like the Dapper collection as much as I do? And which are your favorite masculine papers for creating projects for the men in your circle of family and friends?
Let me know in the comment section below.

Tutorial: How to Alter a Jewelry Box

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As you know I sometimes alter these nice, small boxes of all shapes and different sizes. This time, as a Christmas present for my mom, I decided to alter a jewelry box and to shoot a short tutorial while I was doing it.

By now I have several “How to alter a box” tutorial videos, all highlighting different aspects. So if you combine them all you get the entire process 🙂 :

  1. On how to lay the foundations of your project, and how to take measurements for all of your mats;
  2. On how to actually mat, and put your box back together (video below)
  3. On the creative side of the process: how do you create a ‘look’, to make it your personal design

So, hopefully you’ll be enjoying – and pressing the Like button! – the below video and pictures, and I’ll be seeing you again next week!

Stamp: Everything has its beauty, but not everyone always sees that

Low Budget Quickscrap Tip: Close-ups of Your Own Projects

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This week I’m sharing a project tip on this blog exclusively, so no Youtube video this time. If you’d like to peruse the other (over 40!) blog exclusives I’ve offered so far, click here!

So, the tip I’m sharing with you today belongs to what I’ve dubbed the quickscrap category, that is to say projects you can finish in 1 hour or less. Perfect if you’re in a bind and absolutely need a card or a gift pronto! And as an extra bonus it is super low budget.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve taken pictures of all of the craft projects you created thus far – and if you haven’t, start doing that right now! For the only thing you really need to create a lovely and most importantly superquick card, is a nice close-up picture of one of your own projects. And by close-up I mean: no background, no borders, just the details of your project. Crop the picture (digitally or physically) if you have to, to make it so.

Step 1

Print the close-up picture on photo paper. Crop it if that’s necessary to get a 100% close-up without backgrounds or borders.

Step 2

Get some nice folded cardstock and accompanying envelope from your stash.

Step 3

Glue the picture onto the front of the card.

Step 4

Cut off the excess of the card if that’s needed to perfectly fit your picture.

And you’re done!

How easy was that! Let me know in the comment section and have fun upcycling your old projects! 🙂

There’s more where that came from! For my other quick photo card tips, check out this post and this post. And for all of my low budget tips, click here!

Don’t forget the Birthday Sale in my shop! Because my birthday is January 11th, I’m celebrating it with you all by offering you a 40% discount on all of the tutorials in my shop, from January 11-13th!


Beautiful Dreamer Photo Box + Some Thoughts on 2019

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Happy New Year everyone! May 2019 bring you closer to your hopes and dreams than you have ever been, taking the first steps to turning them into reality!

Me, I’m kicking off the new year with some plans of my own, though I haven’t worked them out in detail yet. For instance, I’d like to add some new elements to my Youtube content – about which I’m talking in more detail in the video below, and I’d love to hear you all’s opinion by the way!

As a first project share, I’m showing a new photo storage box I created for Nora, for whom I’ve made two other projects: the Remember Me box pocket album, and the Beautiful Dreamer folio album. For this box I used the gorgeous Beautiful Dreamer papers again, by Bo Bunny.

All of my boxes are very sturdy and the lids close tightly. If you’d like to make some of your own, check out my elaborately detailed tutorial! It comes with two free bonus cutting guides for different sizes. I’m confident that once you’ve made all three of those boxes, you can design a box of any size you need!

And: because my birthday is January 11th, I’m celebrating it with you all by offering you a 40% discount on all of the tutorials in my shop, from January 11-13th! So don’t hesitate any longer and grab this – only once a year – chance!

Have fun watching the video – you’ll see me on camera again, which is one of the changes I’m implementing in 2019 (not sure if that’s a recommendation… let me know in the comment section below! 😉)

 


Merry Christmas to You All + Introducing a Tag Wallet Christmas Card

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Have the Merriest of Christmases you all! 🎉 For that occasion I am giving you, if not a Christmas present, then at least a First: you get to see me in the video, not just my hands! 😃

Another extra is that you’re getting not one but two videos this week! For I’m also sharing a project with you. It’s a new design, and I’m calling it a Tag Wallet Card – for it’s a wallet, holding tags, that you can put into an envelope and send out as a card. And of course I’ve also written an easy to follow – and very affordable – tutorial for you, loaded with very clear step-by-step pictures. It’s already waiting for you in my webshop.

The thing is that I already uploaded the project share video a couple of months ago, in the beginning of October, so my Youtube subscribers have probably already seen it. But I couldn’t share it on my blog back then, since my mom is following this blog – Hi mom! 🙋🏻 – and this particular tag wallet was meant for her as the most elaborate Christmas card I have ever made 🙂

This project was also featured as a Guest Designer project for Crealies.

The beautiful papers I used are by Graphic 45, from the Winter Wonderland collection plus one sheet from the Time to Flourish collection. If you purchase my tutorial you’ll also get a supply list with the names of each individual design paper sheet.

So, enjoy at least one and perhaps even both videos, and especially your holidays! 🤶

 


Five Days of Christmas Card Styles – #5: Shutter Cards

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On this last day of my Five Days of Christmas Card Styles, I’m sharing the shutter card. This is a simpler variation of the tri-shutter card, of which I’ve made several variations in previous blog posts, here, here, here and here.

I always find any iteration of this shutter type card fun to make, because you can use your 6×6″ papers in endless variations, cutting them to size and combining them continuingly.

For this stack, I used the following materials:

  • Moda Scrap Christmas Holidays 6×6″ pad
  • My Mind’s Eye All is Bright stickersheet
  • Studiolight Shabby Chic Christmas diecut/punch-out sheet
  • several dies and stamps
  • embossing folder
  • Stickles glitter glue
  • other ephemera
  • For the last card also: My Mind’s Eye All is Bright papers and brads

 


Five Days of Christmas Card Styles – #4: Cards With Flaps (Easy to Make!)

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The fourth of my five Christmas card styles concerns Cards with Flaps. This is one of the easiest cards to make while still adding some sophistication and uniqueness in comparison to regular cards.

All flaps are based on ATC card measurements (3×4″ and 4×6″), so they are perfect if you have a lot of pocket journalling cards to use up!

I used the same materials as I did with the Luxurious style (#1), a couple of blog posts ago:

  • Bo Bunny Altitude collection: 12×12″ papers, diecuts, 3D chipboard stickers, buttons, filmstrip sticker
  • Liquid snow
  • Stickles glitter glue
  • several dies and stamps
  • embossing folder

 


Five Days of Christmas Card Styles – #3: Multiple Collections, Small Labels & Cutting Corners

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Today it’s time for my Christmas card style #3: Multiple Collections, Small Labels & Cutting Corners! 

Materials used:

  • Studio Light Vintage Line Christmas papers
  • Studio Light Vintage Line Christmas diecuts/punch-outs
  • Cartabella Christmas Day 6×6″ paperpad
  • Craft Sensations Classic Vintage 6×6 paperpad
  • Tilda Winterbird paper collection & cards
  • Stickles glitter glue
  • several dies and stamps
  • dimensional tape
  • some small flowers & ephemera from my stash