Author Archives: CraftKatie

Handmade Memory Box (w. New Cutting Guide!)

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When I created my own handmade keepsake box for the memorabilia of my father’s funeral, my mother asked me to create one for her too. Hers needed to be larger though, so I adjusted the measurements while referencing my box-making tutorial.

This time the theme was butterflies & little birds, two of my father’s favorite animals, so I used DCWV’s beautiful Mariposa collection. I added some Limelight cutaparts by Kaisercraft and a beautiful decorative brad by Bo Bunny – just watch the video, in which I tell you exactly what I used.

Since these are entirely new measurements, I added a new bonus cutting guide to the existing tutorial, so now there’s two bonus cutting guides! Which means that all who already owned my box tutorial (which is #17 in my shop) can now download both cutting guides, including this, my latest for free! Simply go to Etsy, click on You, then choose Purchases & reviews. Easy peasy and no extra costs! 🙂
New customers will of course also get both cutting guides in one purchase.

What can I say, I aim to please 🙂 🙂

 

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Trifold Surprise Card with Romantique

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At first glance this may look like your average layered card, matted on the inside and outsides. It holds a surprise however, for if you untie its little bow on the front, a little tri-fold is revealed, with five cute panels you can use to stamp or add some sentiments or images, or even to hide a little picture.

I used Romantique papers for this card, a 2010 Prima Marketing collection. Its romantic vintage patterns were so lovely I didn’t really want to cut into them, so I made my card 6 1/8 x 6 1/8″ (15.5 x 15.5 cm) – which turned out to be a beautiful, luxurious size, but note that you will need a larger envelope as well.

So enjoy the video – which this time is with music only 😉 – and please click the Like button below! 🙂

 

 

New Design: Pouch-Paged Mini Album

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Happy New Year everyone! 🙂

I’m not a New Year’s Resolutions Person, but I do have one for 2017: I’m committed to keeping up my schedule of weekly blog posts, which means I’ll again have to do at least 52 papercraft projects this year… How’s that for a SMART resolution 🙂

I’m also striving to keep up my almost-monthly mini album schedule, or more specific, to create at least 10 mini albums in 2017. Yes, a bit less SMART, but intentionally so since I cannot guarantee my own periods of inspiration & creativity. It’s a lot of hard work and keeping to a tight schedule, all while doing (and trying to excel at) an actual fulltime job. But to be clear, I am NOT complaining! I love my job, and I love papercrafting!

So, let’s kick off this new year as best I can – with a new blog wallpaper & background (again a detail from one of my projects, just like last year’s), but more importantly, with a new mini album design!

I’m very proud to present my Pouch-Paged Mini Album! It’s a very versatile design which will hold at least 75 large pictures (13×18 cm / 5×7″); with every pouch you add, the number of pictures will increase with an extra 25 pictures or so, while staying relatively thin and practical.

And that’s not even counting what happens when you decide to add digital photo collaging to the mix. In my case that ensured my three-pouch album to hold 165 pictures! Check out the video below to hear and see more about that.

So, I hope you are all as pleased as I am with this very practical design. Let me know what you think, or create one yourself with my tutorial – the first of 2017, and many more follow 🙂 .

 

 

Tip: Combining different paper collections

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So, for the final post of this year 🙂 I’ll leave you all with one last Christmas card tip – which you can of course use the whole year round: combining several paper collections for a paper craft project. This offers fun new challenges, for you’ll have to really think about colors and patterns: which ones coordinate well together, which combinations provide some elegant tensions and what color of cardstock will benefit the whole.

For these four Christmas cards, I mixed three paper collections and added embellishments from another four companies! I’ll list them all below. I also did some die-cutting of my own, which is always a great way to add to your projects.

Materials used:

  • Season’s Greetings 6×6 paper pad by Panduro
  • Cutapart sheet from Glistening collection by Authentique
  • Wood Texture 6×12 paper pad by Joy Crafts
  • Die-cuts from Winter Memories collection by Studio Light
  • Large clock brads by Scrapberry’s
  • Several flowers from collections by Prima Marketing
  • Wooden Christmas pieces by Craft Sensations

I also used a Crealies Create-A-Card die for the step card.

Have a creative 2017, create what you wish existed 🙂

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Elaborate Christmas Card

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Merry Christmas everyone, and the happiest of New Years!

For a swap with a lovely lady in Canada (hi Diane! 🙂 ) I created this elaborate fold-out Christmas card. It counts six surface areas, offering great space for sentiments, stamps, pictures and other decorations.

I used the Season’s Greetings paper pad by Panduro, showcasing a lovely Christmas bear cutapart from the Sweet Winter Season collection by Studio Light.

It’s quite easy to make, and it’s basically part of a more elaborate wallet card I created for one of the Kaisercraft Exchange swap projects. If you’d like to learn step-by-step how to create this card, you can check out my tutorial.

 

 

Limited Budget Christmas Card Tip

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Low-budget scrapbook papers are usually also fairly low quality; they’re thin, crack easily and they sometimes even lose their top layer – hence, their colors! Nevertheless, if you’re on a limited budget you can still create some lovely cards with the more affordable, brandless paper pads.
Just don’t fold them and glue them down really well…

Check out the video for two examples, in which I’m sharing some more low-budget tips – and have fun Christmas Card crafting! 🙂

 

 

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How to make Christmas Cards (Beginner’s Level)

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Several people have told me they wish they could make their own cards (Christmas or otherwise), but that unfortunately “they have no experience”, “they wouldn’t know where to start”, or even the infamous “they are not creative” – which I do not believe is true for anyone.

So in this blog post I’m sharing two beginner’s level cards, to hopefully inspire you and to encourage you to “just do it”. This is an extra blog post, apart from the regular weekly ones, so no video but a blog exclusive 🙂

How to make these cards – in three easy steps

1. Buy a set of colored cards & envelopes. This way you won’t have to do any cutting and scoring of cardstock, and your card will automatically fit into its perfectly matching envelope.

2. Cut three pieces of decorative paper to fit the card; one of them will be the inside of your card so choose one solid pattern to enable you to write or print and/or stamp a message on it. If you’re not sure how to figure out the right measurements for matting, check out my free, easy to follow video tutorial on matting:

3. Glue these decorative mats onto the front, back and inside of your card, and you’re DONE! 🙂

Backsides

Three more optional steps, after step 3

4. Cut a journalling spot from a piece of colored cardstock and glue it onto the mat inside your card. This way you can use a patterned paper after all (instead of a solid). You could also add a ribbon or some strips of paper behind the journalling spot for some extra highlights.

Die-cut labels make perfect journalling spots; you can also cut a rectangle or square with a paper trimmer or craft knife

5. Add a small decoration to the front of your card. In my case I only added a gold-glittered bow to the top edge.

Done!

Papers used: Kris Kringle collection by S.E.I.

So I basically only matted three sides of my card, and my main concern only was which decorative papers to choose! 🙂

I hope this post was helpful to some of you to get started and go create your own Christmas cards!

Please click the like button before you leave 🙂 – and see you next blog post!

 

33 Tips for your Christmas Cards

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Christmas time is nearing and for all of you who’d like to create their own Christmas cards but are wondering how not to make them all mostly the same, I’ve compiled a stack of cards – and 33 variation tips to go with them!

Have fun watching the video, then please find all of the 33 tips listed below for your convenience!

The list with 33 (Christmas) card tips:

Continue reading →

Photo Explosion Box: Golden Wedding Anniversary

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An explosion box is a really great gift to surprise someone with. You can make it interactive with tags & pockets, using design paper to decorate. There are several examples of these on this blog, and there’s a tutorial in my Etsy shop.

Another way to decorate is to use pictures only. This way it will become a treasure trove of someone’s dearest memories, always easy to keep nearby and peruse them. This kind I’ve dubbed a 100% Photo Explosion Box. And this week I’m sharing one of these, which I created for some people’s golden wedding anniversary.

So enjoy the video & pictures! Please like this post – and of course subscribe if you’d like to receive weekly updates of my work. 🙂

 

 

Simple & Elegant: Enchanted Forest Desk Organizer

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An altered object can be a great present for Christmas or someone’s birthday. It can be tempting to embellish your project with all kinds of decorations, like flowers, charms, trinkets and the like. However, keeping it simple and elegant is sometimes a more sophisticated choice. Let your beautiful papers speak for themselves, and use your creativity to choose the right combination of paper patterns & colors.

For instance, the gorgeous Enchanted Forest collection by Graphic 45 has such beautiful patterns, I thought it really wouldn’t do to cover them up by anything else 🙂 So I used them to decorate this cute little wooden desk organizer I found in one of our home decor shops. This one was a bit smaller than my previous one, and its black color was the perfect base for the Enchanted Forest collection (and almost any other Graphic 45 paper line for that matter).

Personally I’m very pleased with the result – in fact I think I’ll keep this one for myself after all! 🙂

 

Using the collection’s signature sheet to decorate the left & right side of the organizer:

 

Christmas Card Tip

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This week I’m sharing a tip for your Christmas cards. I know it’s early, but at least this tip will be on time for you! 🙂

Usually when creating a card you would create a cardstock base first, which you would then mat with design paper (and decorate). What I’m showing you in the video and pictures below is a fun and light-weight alternative: use double-sided design paper only and leave out the cardstock entirely! Your cards will be lighter and less bulky, making them easier (and more affordable) to send by mail, and you can decorate them just as you would any cardstock-based card.
As a bonus, the insides of these cards will be gorgeous without you having to put in any effort!

So have fun creating your Christmas cards, enjoying their new lightness 🙂 !

 

 

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Two Modern Patchwork Cards

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I tried out a new die set, called Modern Patchwork, which lets you create your own, well, patchwork of papers. 🙂

I really like the results, these cards were fun to create, give you a totally different look and as a bonus they are perfect to use up those beautiful scraps of paper you’ve got lying around everywhere because you can’t bring yourself to throw them away 🙂

So here’s the video! (and please don’t forget to click the like button 😉 )
The die-set’s product number is CLMP02 by the Dutch company Crealies. I used Coral Couture papers by DCWV.

 

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