A few weeks ago I discovered the beautiful Vintage Artistry Wedgewood collection by 49 and Market. Even though I loved the entire collection, I purchased only a single sheet to make it easier (for me) to immediately use it, and to save some money at the same time.
Now the challenge I gave myself was to create more than one project that all featured this paper. I came up with three cards and they all turned out lovely. Gosh that paper is so stunning.
Detailed walkthrough in the video!
When your double-sided paper is beautiful on both sides and you cannot decide which one to mat on a card, it’s time to create a card without cardstock! This way, you can showcase both sides of your gorgeous design paper sheet.
For me it was a sheet from the Time is an Illusion collection by Stamperia. That design paper collection is truly a work of art!
Cut a 12″ inch strip of your sheet, at the height you want your card to be. Fold in two places to create a trifold – make sure one panel overlaps the other.
Use a strip of paper or a tag to create a closure. Watch the video on my latest steampunk mini album, which actually features this card and in which I go over the closure technique in more detail.
Decorate the front of your card.
Add a journalling spot on the inside. You don’t have to add anything else since your paper is already lovely in and of itself!
Add a decorative element on the back. I chose a cutapart with a sentiment. Done!
Have you made any cards without cardstock? Tell me about it in the comments, I’d love to hear about it!
If you look at Papermania’s Nature’s Gallery collection you may think ‘spring’ or ‘summer’, but it definitely also gives me ‘muted fall colors’ vibes.
So when a group of colleagues asked me to create a ‘nature-themed album’ for a colleague who is retiring this month, I immediately suggested this collection.
They wanted a brag book for about 10-20 pictures and with 15 tags – one for each colleague to write a ‘waving goodbye’ message. So I created a 2-page mini album of about 7×10 inches, which looks elegant and sophisticated – yet is quite thin.
If you want to see it in different colors, check out my earlier version in bold autumn colors here.
There’s an easy to follow tutorial waiting for you in my Etsy shop, should you want to make some yourself! (They’d make great Thanksgiving or Christmas gifts 🙂 )
Enjoy the video and feel free to leave a comment in the comment section, either here or on Youtube!
In one of my previous blog posts I showed you some backgrounds with Ranger’s Texture Paste, which dries white and matte, and is porous like paper. Ranger also has a Transparent Texture Paste, which has some significantly different properties.
By the way, both of these pastes have now been rebranded as a Tim Holtz Distress Texture Paste, in case you’d like to go shop for them.
Properties of Transparent Texture Paste (Ranger/Distress)
This paste has a lower viscosity (it’s thinner and not as ‘pasty’ as the regular texture paste) and though it’s semi-opaque when you apply it, it will dry completely clear. Also, it will dry glossy, and is not porous at all. So in fact it will act as a resist, instead of taking color like the regular paste does.
This gives you the opportunity to apply texture but with different techniques, compared to the regular Texture Paste by Ranger.
Technique: Transparent Texture Paste as a color sealer
I created an Indian summer-themed background with this transparent glossy paste, using the following steps:
3. Apply Transparent Texture Paste through a stencil, and let air-dry for a couple of hours (drying time could probably be shorter but I wanted to make sure).
4. Since everything underneath the Transparent Texture Paste was now sealed, I could spray anything over it. So I sprayed it with two of the same colors of my palette, but this time with Distress Oxide Sprays: Oxides always dominate dye inks – except where the dyes have been sealed.
5. So I removed the Oxide from the textured leaf pattern with a damp cloth, revealing the leaves in bright dye colors, in the midst of a now more chalky colored background.
Because I used the same color palette in Oxide, the effect was subtle. You can imagine completely different effects if you use more contrasting colors, or even black!
All in all I like the ‘seal-in’ effect this transparent paste brings; however, if you were to apply it to uncolored paper, you’d never be able to color it afterward, since it’s a resist. Something to think about, and especially: play around with!
Last week I shared my first Decontructed Envelope Card – this week I’m showing you a different variation of that same design category. This one is actually easier to create, for it doesn’t have any slanted edges like the previous one.
As usual I only modestly decorated, for imho less is still more, most of the times. 🙂
Let me know if you have any questions!
This week I’m sharing a free video tutorial again, on how to create a quick & easy card using only 1 cut-apart sheet and some cardstock. The paper I used was from the When We First Met collection by Piatek Trzynastego, a Polish brand.
Near the end of the video I’m sharing a bonus idea on what to do with the one leftover piece of your cut-apart sheet: easy, make another card! 🙂
Enjoy the video, hope you’ll find it inspiring!
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! 😉)
This week I’m sharing a reprisal of my Folio Album III design, originally called Mimosa. It was commissioned by Nora, the German lady for whom I also created the Remember Me box pocket album. Nora loves many things, among which cats, hot air balloons, old books and the color purple. For this new, elaborately decorated version of my Folio Album III therefore, I used Bo Bunny’s gorgeous 2016 collection Beautiful Dreamer, with themes of hot air balloons, bicycles, birds, books and old clocks, in nostalgic warm purples, greens and golden browns.
This folio album has a very flexible spine, sports many photo flaps and mini wallets and will hold about 65-70 pictures. Its main feature however is that you can entirely separate the book from its cover! 🙂
Check out my (written)Â tutorial if you want to create one yourself. It has very clear instructions and is illustrated by 255 pictures of the step-by-step process for all of you visual learners. It also comes with an bonus materials list for this Beautiful Dreamer version!
Enjoy the video of my project share and feel free to leave a comment or question below!
While Autumn has arrived and stretching its legs with some really cold temperatures here in the Netherlands, I thought I’d design and share a little Four Season’s mini album. I used Graphic 45’s calendar collection Time to Flourish, which of course automatically offers seasonal colors and themes.
The cover design makes it a cute little suit case with a magnetized closure and a ribbon grip, that will stand on its own. Each of the ten pages are pockets, holding a tag that has been decorated on both sides but still leaves room for wallet-sized pictures.
All in all a very cute little gift – think Thanksgiving, Christmas, simply Summer or basically any seasonal holiday 🙂
Like to make one yourself? Go ahead and purchase my tutorial, offering lots and lots of clear pictures, guiding you through the creative process step by step. And for people who have worked with several of my album tutorials: this time I’ve used a different binding system, so not the hidden hinge binding, but the stack the deck binding. If you don’t know how that would work, check out my tutorial.
Enjoy the video and let me know in the comments what you think!
This week I’m sharing a free video tutorial with you all. Sometimes when working with a card shape die, like a die for a step card, it’s not always easy figuring out how to mat it. Which is why I’m sharing that specific technique in this week’s video.
Both the step card die and the little sentiment stamp Proficiat (Congratulations) are by Crealies. The paper collection is the stunning An Eerie Tale by Graphic 45, which has dreamy images and wondrously lovely autumn colors.
Enjoy the video & pics below and leave a comment to let me know what you think!
On the brink between Summer and Autumn, I’m proud to present my new, summery-autumny Two-Paged Bragbook 🙂
This time I used not one but three paper collections, which for me is the absolute exception, definitely not the rule. And I also threw in some digital scrapbooking again. Not only did I use my own graphically designed paper for the binding system, but I also enhanced the background of one of the pictures and did some digital collaging. And lastly, I dolled-up my own picture… well, what can I say, I just couldn’t help myself 😉
Above: Text die by Crealies
It was commissioned by a group of my co-workers as a gift to one or our retiring colleagues. So I designed it to hold as many pictures as there were co-workers who joined the gift giving, and had them all write on a unique tag.
As you’ll see in the video, this is another great group gift!
Of course I wrote a tutorial for all of you who’d like to create such a great mini album yourselves. It’s fun to make and it really makes for such a great gift. As an added bonus, you don’t need the usual ‘thousands’ of patterned paper sheets, as it only has two page assemblies!
Oh, and I also threw in a card, made with the leftover papers 🙂
So, enjoy the last weeks of summer and hopefully your autumn will be as colorful as this album 🙂 See you next week – don’t forget to like, subscribe and leave a comment!
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 🙂 ).
