Category Archives: Autumn

Explosion Box for a Man – Still in Love

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Recently a lovely lady ordered a customized explosion box as a gift for her beloved, to celebrate their love. Today I’m sharing the end results with you, for not only is this the first love-themed explosion box I created, it’s also the first that is intended for a man!

It’s a two-layer explosion box, created out of cardstock and decorated with the Natural paper collection by DCWV. It has several quotes and sentiments about love and family; some I came up with myself, based on what she shared with me about her beloved and their relationship. Others were copied from the Heirloom sticker sheet by Kaisercraft, which is a great source of inspiration for projects about family.

In the center of the explosion box is a tiny wooden treasure chest, super cute, that I altered with papers from the same Natural stack, on top of a copper-colored paint base.

If you feel inspired to create one yourself but don’t know where to start, check out my explosion box tutorial in my Etsy shop, based on my Explosion of Joy version. As a bonus, this tutorial covers a three-layer explosion box, so that’s a whole extra layer compared to this one!

Enjoy the video!

 

Curly die by Crealies:

These tags were made with some tag die sets by Crealies:

Time to Flourish – Three Graphic 45 Cards

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For these final months of the year (boy, how time flies!) I created some cards using the Time to Flourish collection by Graphic 45. This collection is the perfect seasonal collection, with a special focus on all things floral.

I already created some cards earlier in the year, there was May, including Mother’s Day, and fairly recently I showed you two versions of August birthday cards.
This time it’s the fall, and even one Christmas card.

So enjoy the video and pictures, and please like & subscribe!

 

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Two ATC Cards – for Guys

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Sometimes you don’t have grand words or elaborate messages to share, you just want to say something important to someone. Like Thank You, or some other word of encouragment.

Then an ATC type card might be a great tip for you crafters: they are easy to make, don’t take up lots of time and materials, and they still look awesome!

When you make these for the men in your life you’ll probably feel somewhat limited as to choice of colors and embellishments. Fortunately I found some papers that are not the standard ‘manly’ black, white & grey or navy blue. They are Pyrus and Oxford, both by Basic Grey, if you just throw in some screw brads you’re good to go! 🙂

Anyway, I’m gladly sharing the inspiration with you all today. First is a word of encouragement for a colleague of mine. Created with the Pyrus paper collection:

The second is a Thank You note for my uncle, with the Oxford collection, also by Basic Grey:

Enjoy the video & pics! And stay tuned for next week, when there’ll be an all new design mini album to share again! 🙂

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Ageless Beauty, a Chipboard Mini Album

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Hi guys, hope you’re enjoying your summer holidays, or at least some great weather if you’re still working!

Today I’m sharing with you a so-called chipboard mini album. This kind of album comes pre-made as far as its pages are concerned. It’s up to you to bind them and to decorate them however you please. I had never created such an album before so I was delighted to try my hand at it. It turned out to be great fun – the biggest challenge was actually to find the right sized album rings, which for some mysterious reason was more difficult than I could have imagined.

Anyway, enjoy the video and pictures below, hope you’ll find some inspiration to do your own chipboard minis! I dubbed mine Ageless Beauty, for it is about my ever glorious mom. 🙂

 

 

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Trail Mix Tag Card – for Her, or for Him

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Some paper collections are gender neutral – or rather, as I’d like to call it, gender encompassing 🙂 : fitting for both men and women, boys and girls. Certain themes will fit almost any occasion and any person, and nature would be one of those categories.

Bo Bunny’s Trail Mix is a fun design paper collection centered around the great outdoors. It has lots of wood, birds, flowers, trees and the coordinating Notepack die-cuts even offer wild animals! Trail Mix fits both male and female recipients of almost all ages and I have used it as such. The first project for which I used this paper was a little mini album for a ten-year-old boy. This tag card was created for a middle-aged (but young at heart 🙂 ) woman.

Tag Card – show & tell with pictures

The front of the card shows a pocket with a punched border. It’s been matted, with a label from Bo Bunny’s Trail Mix Notepack die-cuts on top of that. The top corners of the card have been rounded with the Deco/Stub Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers.

The pocket holds a tag – which itself is a die-cut from the Trail Mix Notepack. The card itself has been matted with two pieces of decorative paper, for some added interest and color.

I printed the name of the recipient onto the tag. I added some details, by applying droplets of diamond glitter glue to the flowers on the tag. On the back of the tag I wrote my personal message to her.

The label on the pocket is lifted with some dimensional tape. I stamped the label “Speciaal voor jou” – which is Dutch for “Especially for you.”

Because my personal note was written on the back of the tag in the front pocket, I could mat the back of the card with some nice design paper from the collection.

I emphasized a ldetail in the pattern by tracing it with some Glossy Accents: a little bird, sitting on a tree branch.

 

What gender encompassing paper collections can you recommend?

 

 

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Cuteness in a Box – a Gatefold Micro Album

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Time for some super cuteness! 🙂

This tiny gatefold micro album measures 3½ x 2⅜ x 1½ inches! (9x6x4 cm) It comes with its own little box, with sides that fold open for easy access. The box measures  2⅜ x 4⅛ inches (6.5 x 10.5 cm).

I haven’t got a tutorial yet, but as of this year I’m writing tutorials for several of my upcoming projects, which will be made available through my new webshop (which I’m also working on). So stay tuned! – EDIT 2020: The tutorial is now available!

Design paper used: Ancestry by K&Company. I’ve used this paper before, on a large mini album, so check it out.

And here’s the video, enjoy – and please let me know what you think in the comment section, and by liking & subscribing!

Layout in Altered Frame: Your Guiding Hand (about my dad)

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Here’s my very first framed layout, which I created in memory of my father. In this season of Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for who he was all through my life.

I bought an Artemio 12×12 scrapbook frame, glued one of Bo Bunny’s gorgeous Autumn Song design paper sheets to its back, and got to work. I used several extras of the collection, like brads, pearl & bling stickers, trinkets, die-cuts, chipboard stickers etc. I also used some flowers from my stash, and a lot of cute autumn decorative pieces that I found in one of our home & garden shops.

I took care to include things my father loved: a sparrow, a bird’s nest, several butterflies, a cute little cartoonesk squirrel, flowers and lots of bright and warm colors.

The picture is very special to me, for it’s kind of a family moment even though it’s just my father. For my father and I were sitting outside, having some quality time while drinking a cup of coffee at one of the lunch rooms in the city I live in, and when I took this picture he was on the phone with my mom. So in a sense, we were all together, the three of us 🙂

Enjoy the video!

 

 

WonderFall – a 42-Layout Cinch Mini!

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Remember the little autumn-themed ultra mini album I showed you a couple of blog posts ago? I had created it with the leftover scraps of a larger, regular-sized mini album that I was working on. Well, I’ve finished that one and I’m very happy to share the results! 🙂

This 6×6 mini album is Cinch-bound, it has TEN page assemblies with 42 (!) photo layouts, a lot of diecuts by me, plus a lot of extra embellishments. The page construction was very very simple, so I’ve incorporated a short page tutorial as well.

The paper collection I used is Autumn Song by Bo Bunny – of which I totally forgot to film a walkthrough before I started the project, but there’s a link to Amazon below should you be interested in this collection, which is absolutely gorgeous and perfect for this time of year!

This mini album is all about Shalem, my French lop who passed away two years ago. So I decorated the front cover of the album with a picture of him, but before I had the photo printed, I did some digital editing first! I cut Shalem from his original background (the grass in my garden) and then pasted him into a fantasy fall landscape that I found on the internet somewhere. In the lower right corner I digitally wrote his name and dates of birth/death. So before we go to the video, here’s a close-up of the album’s front cover:

So enjoy the video and please leave a comment to let me know what you think! Also, click the Like button…. 😉

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Autumn Time Ultra Mini Album (with pictures!) + page tutorial

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Hi guys & gals!

Well, you’re here, at the final part of September Mini Album Month on my blog! (which simply means I uploaded a mini album video every Sunday this September, instead of the usual once a month). In case you missed the other three, just start here and work your way back up to here 😉

This ultra mini album is a bit smaller than the other ultra minis I’ve created so far. It’s completely of my own design – a design that is actually so simple that I included a short but sufficient tutorial in the video below.

What was new for me was the layout technique: I filled the mini album with pictures, then added all kinds of cuteness like diecuts, brads, dimensional stickers etc. So hardly any interaction, no pockets, no tags – instead, lots of embellishments and decorations, on a foundation of Bo Bunny’s gorgeous Autumn Song collection.

Since this is the final part of Mini Album Month, I also included an overview of all four mini album projects of this month. I really enjoyed showing you a mini album every week, and I really hope you did too! 🙂

 

Desert Flower Micro Album

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Welcome to part 3 of September Mini Album Month on my blog! (i.e. I’m uploading a mini album video every Sunday, instead of the usual once a month). We started off with a sweet baby girl mini, followed in the second week by a boy’s ultra mini album which I dubbed Natural History Adventure. Both are fun minis so please check them out if you’re in need of some inspiration!

This week it’s a new micro album I designed and created. I’m defining a micro album as a fully functional miniature mini album. These are soooo cute and, moreover, such an ideal way to use up your leftover pieces of paper, that I don’t think I’ll ever stop creating them 🙂 This one’s even tinier than my Little Miss micro album!

The paper is DCWV’s Serenity, a gorgeous paper line that I’ve used in several of my projects – I’ve in fact started to call it my ‘never-ending paper collection’, because of the endless number of projects I seem to be able to create with it. Curious? Just click here to see for yourself 🙂

Anyway, I love how it has turned out, and of course I’d like to share it with you all!

DCWV - Serenity

Cute little treasure chest

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Here’s another idea to use up all of your design paper scraps: create scrap mats and then alter a little chest with them!
For this one I used my “neverending” design paper stack Serenity, by DCWV – neverending, for I STILL have paper left, even after lots of projects! 🙂

As for what to put into these cute little gift boxes: think gift card, lipstick & eye shadow singles, jewelry, a tiny teddy bear, or, like I’ve done with this one: a matching micro booklet to put all your happy wishes & cute little friendship photos into, plus maybe even a gift coupon of your own making.

Hope you feel inspired by the video – and if so, please like & subscribe 😉

See you next time!

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Fairytale Treasures keepsake album deluxe

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Every 1-2 months or so I work on a “big” project like a minialbum or some other project that takes a lot of effort, like an explosion box or some complex altering project. I wish I could do more of them, but they take a lot of time to create! For instance, a deluxe album like the project I’m showing you below, takes me at least 3-4 weeks to create – I do work a fulltime job and have a household to run as well, you know 😉

Therefore I’m very pleased to present to you my latest keepsake album deluxe: Fairytale Treasures!

It takes after my Butterflies & Stars keepsake album, as well as my Flora & Fauna version. This time I used DCWV’s gorgeous Once Upon a Time II design paper, and inked around all the edges with Tea Dye distress ink by Tim Holtz.

It’s customized to order, for it was commissioned by my friend Nicole, who wanted her beloved terriers “incorporated” in the album 🙂 So, among other things, I did some photo editing to create a custom Once Upon a Time background – which is great to do for any picture you want to “blend in” with your mini album or your scrapbook page layout.

Above: One of Nicole’s terriers, a cute Westie. I hid it in the booklet on the first real mini album page in the album, the one tied closed with the gold-colored strings, also shown on the video thumbnail. 

If you’d like to create an album like this yourself, check out the tutorial for my Springtime Dreams Keepsake Album, for it has the same basic page design.

But enough with the chit-chat: on to the video! Enjoy!

Please don’t forget to like & subscribe, see you next week!

 

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