Author Archives: CraftKatie

Three All Occasions Folios

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As I promised you last week, I have now made the tutorials available for the three photo folios I shared with you in my previous blog posts. Two of them were part of a pre-made collection folio – you can check out last week’s video to refresh your memory. And the third and smallest one went with my Box Pocket Mini Album, which you can find in last year’s Christmas album post.

I’ve actually listed a tutorial set in my shop, for your convenience. It contains two tutorials plus a cutting guide with some different measurements & extra instructions – so three downloadable files, one for each of the folios in the picture above!

Please let me know if you like these kinds of projects, for like you, I too am always looking for some inspiration 🙂

 

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Pre-made Collection Folio Idea

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Happy New Year everyone! 🙂
And let’s start off with a new craft idea, why don’t we 🙂

So I bought what I’m calling a collection folio, a sturdy folio to keep your paper documents neatly ordered around the office and at home. I altered it a bit, that is to say I expanded on it, decorated it and then filled it up with two handmade folios of my own.

I used the beautiful Madeleine paper collection by Bo Bunny plus several of its decorative elements.

Hope you like this idea, it was pretty fun to work on it! As for the other two folios, next week’s post will focus more on them, plus I’m now offering a tutorial set for them.

Let me know what you think!

 

How to color glass with alcohol ink and wax paint

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Here’s a quick little gift idea: buy a nice little colorless tealight glass, and color it with two or more colors of alcohol ink. Add some extra decorations with wax paint and an art stencil, and you’re ready to go.

I think this took me less than 1 hour to make, including drying time 🙂

 

 

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What to do with a Christmas mini album

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Frequently I get asked what to do with this thing called mini album. I tell everyone it’s for pictures and other memorabilia, but I find that showing an actual picture-filled mini album is the best explanation I can possibly give 🙂

So here’s my 2013 Tis the Season mini album, filled to the brim with my own family Christmas pictures. If you feel inspired to create such an album yourself, check out my mini album tutorial, it has hundreds of clear pictures and elaborate explanations. And for the many scrap mats you’ll see in the video, there’s a free video tutorial here.

Enjoy your Christmas holidays, have a very merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years!

 

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Christmas cards: What to do with your stickers

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So, I’ve got a lot of stickers – through no fault of my own mind you 🙂 They’re usually added complimentary to a paper collection or some such. Or they come so incredibly cheap that I simply cannot help myself 😳

I find that although I like the idea of them, I don’t use very many of them. I mean, what do you do with those flat sticky things that in most cases turn out not to be even that adhesive in the long run.

Since I had an especially large number of stickers to go with my All is Bright paper collection (by My Mind’s Eye), I decided they should be used up – or at least 75% of them anyway.

So, here are some ideas for those of you who, like me, don’t know what to do with their darned stickers. 🙂

 

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All is Bright: A Box Pocket (Christmas) Mini Album

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As my first Christmas mini has been completely loaded with family Christmas pictures since last year’s holiday season, it was time to create a new one – yea! 🙂

I rummaged through my (by now fairly impressive) stash and came back out with the beautiful vintage-yet-fresh All is Bright papers, a 2012 collection by My Mind’s Eye. With its 18 x 25 cm (7 1/8 x 9 7/8″) it’s larger than its Tis the Season predecessor. It sports nine interactive page layouts, plus what I’m calling a box pocket on the inside front cover.

I created one of these box pockets before, in my large Girly Girl’s Precious mini (see picture below), but this time I incorporated it in a tutorial! It’s already waiting for you in my Etsy shop 🙂

Since the box pocket can hold all kinds of nice things, like a stack of photo mats, cards, a mini folio or even an entire hardcover notebook, I have not included my mini folio in the album tutorial. Instead it’s part of its own – very affordable – tutorial set, including a bonus cutting guide for a larger version!

Check out the video if you’d like to see all the fun & interactive page designs, and sing along with the Christmas tune: “Aaaaall is calm, all is bright….”

I wish you all a very merry Christmas!

 

Two Christmas Card Tips

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In my last blog post I showed you my first ten Christmas cards, created with two so-called card art stencils.

This week I have two extra tips for all of you who are preparing to get your craft on and make your own Christmas cards for this year:

  1. Combine leftover die-cuts & cutaparts from one collection, with papers from a fairly neutral collection. Like in my case, the 6×12″ Wood Texture paper block by Joy Crafts;
  2. Create a large card, e.g. A5-sized, and create elaborate layouts without it getting to ‘busy’ to look at.

There’s actually a third tip hidden inside the video, namely to use what I have dubbed scrap mats, in other words: meticulously paper-pieced background mats. Check out my free video tutorial on how to make them – you’ll get a lot more paper real estate from your leftover papers!

 

Stitches: stamp by Crealies

Ten Scandinavian-styled Christmas Cards (with French Christmas wishes)

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Recently I decided to experiment with Dutch Doobadoo’s card art stencils, which you use by simply tracing around their various edges to two nested shapes. So I bought two of the stencils and created ten (early) Christmas cards, using a cherry red cardstock as a base.

I decorated with the Warm Winter Wishes paper collection by Marianne Design and die-cuts from the wonderfully cosy-looking Scandinavian Winter collection by Studiolight. In the video below I show you all ten cards, all of them sporting “Joyeux Noël” (by Crealies, among others) as a die-cut sentiment – a.k.a. Merry Christmas in French.

I really enjoyed working with these stencils, their ‘fun factor’ definitely exceeded my expectations. Plus I found them a very useful alternative for a die-cutting machine, so they are perfect to take with you to places where you know you won’t have access to any die-cutting tools (like when I go to my mom’s 😉 ).

So enjoy the end result and let me know if you have any experience with these or other card art stencils! 🙋🏻

 

Thin is the New Bulky – an Alice in Wonderland 10-pic Mini Album

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A friend asked me to create an Alice in Wonderland-themed mini album for her, to hold a maximum of only ten pictures. So no wallet, no folio, but an actual mini album. Oh, and no flowers please.

Well, that turned out to be a fun design challenge! Using a Marion Smith Designs paper collection called Mad Tea Party, I designed two interactive pages to hold the ten pictures. Of course I also incorporated a scrap mat, for which there’s a free video tutorial available on my blog. The second tutorial which may come in handy is my free gradient technique video for Distress Stickles.

So, this is a very thin mini album with no bulky embellishments, but:

Thin is the New Bulky! 🙂

Let’s start a new trend here shall we 😎.

 

 

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Love is a Four-Legged Word Card

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I truly loved Graphic 45’s Raining Cats & Dogs collection, and used up every last scrap I could find to create this one last card with it.

In doing so I came up with four tips, that I’d like to share with all of you card makers out there:

  1. Don’t throw out your leftover 4×6″ ATC cards but fit them onto a 6×6″ square card;
  2. Decorate on the side of the card, and leave your ATC card uncovered, showcasing its lovely graphics;
  3. Use a scrap mat on the inside to use up your scraps – check out my free video tutorial for that;
  4. Combine with other collections that coordinate well with your almost-gone main collection.

By the way, just after I had concluded that I would now never be able to craft with these lovely papers ever again, Graphic 45 announced their new Deluxe Collector’s Edition, which was…… you guessed it, Raining Cats and Dogs! ?

Have fun using these tips, enjoy the video! 🙂

 

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Tutorial: Distress Stickles gradient technique

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Here’s a fun new gradient technique I discovered while using Distress Stickles and Distress Markers on the same surface area. I found that this technique works on any surface on which you would use your distress products (card stock, chipboard, wood etc.). I used this technique on the cute little wooden sunglasses I showed you in my last blog post, when I shared my Thinking Inside the Box project, and I promised you all a free video tutorial. So here we are – you’ll find the video below 🙂

The trick is to cover a darker color Distress Marker with a lighter color Distress Stickles while the marker is still wet.

The second trick is to specifically use Tim Holtz’s Distress product line, for these react with water – and with eachother. I haven’t tried out any alternatives extensively but in the few instances I used different products it did not cause a gradient effect.

So, on to the video – hopefully you’ll find this technique inspriring and fun!

 

Please let me know if you have any questions!

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Storage-in-storage: Think Inside the Box

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Fall is almost here, which means that by now you’ve probably made all the vacation pictures you could. You may even have printed them, but now what! Well, time for a new and fun storage-in-storage keepsake, which I’m calling Think Inside the Box 🙂

It’s a decorated box with a magnetic closure, filled with a twin-sleeved pouch that also closes magnetically. It will hold many things, like, among others, pictures!

Digital photo collaging (Google it, you’ll find many free online opportunities) is an efficient way to gather even more pictures into your album, or box.

I’ve written a tutorial for you all, as usual with many (97!) clear pictures. There’s also a 2-tutorial set if you’d like the instructions for the special photomats as well, the ones you see in the video by way of example. The set gives you a 15% discount, but you need to put the SET in your shopping cart, not the two individual tutorials.

Anyway, have fun watching the video and check out the pictures below too. Please feel welcome to leave a comment in the comment section below!

 

Don’t forget the 15% off if you purchase the SET!

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