Author Archives: CraftKatie

Chipboard Micro Album – with Guinea Pigtures!

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You may have come across these press-out chipboard micro or mini albums, usually with some metal binding rings. In case you have wondered what to do with these, here’s an example!

It’s my second one actually, my first one was a bit larger and held pictures of my mom walking a fashion catwalk for elderly people – if you’re not curious about that, then by all means don’t check out that blog post 🙂

This time around I bought a really tiny one – I like tiny stuff! – and printed little tiny pictures of my three guinea pigs Todah, Rizpah and Yarden (who recently passed away alas 🙁 ). Let me know if you’d like a little video tutorial on one or two apps with which you can easily print these smaller sized pictures. If there’s more than one of you then I’ll see what I can do.

Anyway, enjoy the video and pictures below! And see you next week! ☀️

 

Relishing in my fandom of design paper collection kits

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Today I thought I’d share a How To video of the most recent of my (very) rare layouts. I’m not your typical mixed media artist (I wish I were, but alas…); instead I’m a design paper collection kit fan girl and I enjoy having everything come together just so, showcasing the colors and materials.

To show you how my creative process works, I cut together a process video for you, which of course I sped up extremely, to bring hours back to minutes. The collection I used was Butterfly by Prima Marketing, and the layout centers around two shabby chic ballet pictures that I printed from my Ballet Pinterest board. This is what Scrapbooking really is all about 👌🏽

So enjoy the video, I hope to inspire you with a different way of working on layouts – namely relishing in your fandom of your design paper collection kits! 🙂

And if you really want to go all out, then give your layout a plain wooden frame and paint & spray ink that in coordinating colors 🙂

 

 

New Design: Envelope Folio Albums!

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The envelope mini album is a fairly well-known phenomenon in the scrapbooking world, but this week I’m sharing my own unique design variety, which I’m calling the Envelope Folio Album.

I designed two different versions, mostly by accident for I aimed at only one 🙃, and while I was at it I prepared two pdf tutorials, which I’m offering as one tutorial set. Take advantage of the EASTER SALE I’m running until Monday April 2nd, for you’ll get a 15% discount on all of my tutorials!

Each of my spring-themed Envelope Folio Albums consists of eight envelopes, either square or rectangular – that’s up to you – and only a little bit of cardstock for the photo mats & wallets.

The square one is perfect for your 6×6″ paper pads – I don’t know about you but I have like a ton of those in my stash! – and for the rectangular one only 7 sheets of 12×12″ design paper are enough. So both iterations of this design keep the costs of creating them relatively low, especially when compared to a mini album!

These designs are really fun, for they offer lots of hidden nooks & crannies for pictures and memorabilia, for they sport lots of flaps and pockets. They make great original gifts and are of course easily customizable by simply choosing papers & embellishments in the theme of your choosing.

Feel free to leave your questions in the comment section! 🎓

Happy Easter, enjoy this new spring!

 

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Multi-panel Easter Cards with Cotton Tail papers

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To celebrate Easter – and simply the arrival of spring yesterday 🌺 – I created two z-shaped, multi-panel, tri-fold cards and did them up with Cotton Tail, a super fun Easter collection by We R Memory Keepers, in lovely spring colors.

The examples of regular Z-cards I found on the internet were all tri-folds, with four panels – which are very easy to make.
For my second card I decided to give it a little Creator’s Image Studio twist, and doubled its length! Now that was great fun to work on, I have to say, for each panel is its own little layout, and there’s fourteen of them on my double-length design!

It helps if you’re working with some cutapart sheets or a die-cut pack, to be able to create enough variation in your panel decorations. Also, just throw in some flowers, feathers, enamel dots and the like, and you’re ready to go.

Happy Easter, happy spring!

 

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Spring-colored Chocolate Bar Envelope (and some tea)

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One of the great craft ideas floating around on the internet is what I would call a chocolate bar envelope. I think lots of people have made these by now, but only after I had the pleasure of receiving one myself, was my attention drawn to it.

I waited for the right occasion to create one myself and when the moment came, tadaa! 🎉 There it was, my very own version.

I sent it to my friend Christa, so it would be waiting for her when she got home from a short vacation. I mean, nothing says Welcome Home like chocolate & tea don’t you think? 🙂

Have you ever sent someone food or snacks? 🙂 Let me know in the comments!

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How to Use a Cutapart Sheet: 2 Cards with G45’s Safari Adventure

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This week’s tip is about how to best utilize that cut-apart sheet you have lying around – for instance when you’ve used up most of your papers but can’t bring yourself to throw out that one last sheet. Here’s the good news: you don’t have to! (ever! I promise).

Instead, cut it apart into all its bits & pieces, combine these with some simple-patterned coordinating papers and get your Layering on 🙂

Extra bonus tip: enlarge your paper real estate by making my so-called scrap mats – just check out the free tutorial below the first video!

 

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Zoo Adventure – a Folders & Pockets Album

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I was pondering a new design of mini album, one that would not only be able to hold a lot of pictures, but would also make it easy to add still more pictures that you forgot in your first round of filling the album. Eventually I came up with this week’s project: the Folders & Pockets Album! 

With this fun new design you’ll be able to shuffle the pictures in your album at any moment, and add to their number endlessly. Also, of course, these same folders and pockets offer plenty of easy room for your tickets, receipts and other memorabilia! No more tedious glueing your pictures to the pages, just stick them into the folders and pockets and be done with it 🙂

Check out the video below to see it! If you’d like some more inspiration, check out the second version I created, with a completely different theme and papers. And if you feel inspired to create your own, as a gift or for yourself, please check out the written tutorial – with almost 250 clear pictures and easy-to-follow instructions.

Have fun, see you next week!

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Pocket Easel Card – Plus Two Bonus Ones

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I’ve been fascinated by this thing called ‘easel card’ for a while, but I hadn’t actually made one myself yet. The front of an easel card has a movable part, which enables it to stand up  – like a painting on an easel I guess.

Of course I gave it my own Creator’s Image Studio twist, and designed what I’m now calling a Pocket Easel Card. Check it – and two regular ones – out in the video.

Let me know if you’d like me to share this little invention with you all by way of a (free) tutorial (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 🙂 ).

Five Easy Steps to Alter an Object

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Altering an object is a great way to create original gifts or gift boxes, but how does the altering process take place? What steps are needed? Today I’m sharing five easy steps to help you on your way to alter your own cute gift objects!

For this particular wooden box I used some black acryllic paint, some gilding wax and two sheets of the Vintage Hollywood paper collection by Graphic 45. 

  1. Remove any closures and hinges
  2. Paint the object, inside and outside
  3. Optional: apply gilding wax – the video shows you the very simple technique I always use
  4. Mat – check out the video for some elaborate instructions on how to take measurements for that, including on the insides of the box
  5. Decorate

Oh and don’t forget the final step: Have fun! 🙂

 

Don’t forget to check out my earlier altered gift box with Graphic 45’s Worlds Fair:

Gift Idea: Upcycled Jewelry Box

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Sometimes that accessory you buy comes in a small jewelry box. My recent such purchase sported the name of the shop on its lid, but apart from that the box had a very nice antique bronze color, which inspired me to re-use it as a gift box.

So I thought I’d share this idea with you today, for this is the perfect little quick scrap gift idea, which you can finish in about 15 minutes (tops). Simply alter the lid, covering the shop’s name or logo, by decorating it with some design paper, a brad, and some embellishments.
It’s very easy to do, it’ll cost you hardly any time at all, and you’ll have a uniquely customized gift box for your present. 🙂

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Travel Light Folio Sequel: Say Cheese!

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My first Say Cheese projects utilized a mix of the first and second versions of the collection, but this week it’s all about Say Cheese III. The Say Cheese collection by Simple Stories has been so successful that they came out not only with a second iteration (Say Cheese II) but also the abovementioned third. All three are very modern and fun collections with a black, red, white, yellow and skyblue color palet. They’re centered around – though subtly – a Disney theme, specifically, Disneyland.

I chose to recreate my Travel Light photo folio with the Say Cheese (III) papers. I designed it last year and it was aimed at an easy way to store and enjoy vacation memories. The papers that I incorporated then had a very vintage feel, thanks to the older K&Company collection called simply Travel. As always it was a wonderful surprise to see what that same design looked like with a completely different paper collection.

This project was sponsored by Scrapworld (also known in Dutch as Scrapwereld), whose owner is also the brand ambassador for Simple Stories in Europe. She was very kind to supply me with the materials for this folio.

This time I created the folio with 12×12 inch cardstock, instead of A4, which is why I added a companion tutorial to the original one in my shop. This comes free with my Tutorial #21: Travel Light, so all of you who already purchased that, check out your Purchases tab on Etsy and download the companion with no extra cost!

 

 

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Free tutorial: Wrapping, Matting & Wire Binding (+ printable pages!)

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Hi all,

New year, time for new things – as I think I mentioned in my first blog post of 2018 🙂

So I designed my first printable, namely the pages for a so-called networking booklet. This booklet is perfect to keep with you on your (new) job, as an easy little notebook to jot down all of your networking connections: their names, position titles, departments/companies, and their connections to your own work and position. It offers page layouts in SIX color schemes (the video shows four, but I designed two more: black/gray and blue/red), plus matching title pages. It’s available in my Etsy shop as of right now, and comes both in English and in Dutch (in 1 purchase).

As I’m still a hardcore paper crafter, I also did a video tutorial on how to create the covers & binding, and threw in some matting technique as a bonus. Freely available for you all, as a thank you for your ongoing support. 🌷

Feel free to let me know what you think, and what kind of future printables you might be interested in!