Category Archives: Blog Exclusive

Here’s all of my projects that I posted exclusively on this blog, so no video, photos only. Enjoy!

My first Christmas card this year

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There have been years that I’d finished all of my Christmas cards by September – having started as early as July – and heaps of them at that. (You can check them out here.)
But not this year. This year I’ve only just finished my very first Christmas card last week. What can I say, I’m not crafting as much as I used to – though one of my new year’s resolutions is More Crafting, so I remain hopeful. 😇

I have to say it was fun to create again, after many moons with hardly any papercrafting at all (except for the occasional card here & there, which I posted here, on my blog).

Here are my design steps:

1. I started by shopping my stash and I found this fresh & modern looking design paper by S.E.I., called Kris Kringle. It is no longer available, however I’m hoping it will inspire you – either to shop your own stash for some great finds, or to shop for similar design papers that evoke the same atmosphere if you like these specific papers.

2. Some baby blue cardstock became a nice base for the card, echoing the occasional light blue the design papers offered and off-setting the rest of the colors nicely.

3. I wanted a special card design so I decided on this slanted tri-fold shape and folded it ‘zigzaggingly’ (I don’t know the official term but I think you’ll catch my drift 😉 ).

4. One of my label dies came in handy to add a stamped sentiment to the front of the card.

5. Tri-fold shapes are always fun because they give you six panels to mat and play with your design papers! You’ll have to keep your embellishments flat however, otherwise your card won’t fit into its envelope. Stamping is a good option of course, as would be (heat) embossing or adding some ink sprays.

In conclusion

All in all I had fun, maybe even more than I expected. It was nice to think about a specific friend and design a card with them in mind. What shape hadn’t they seen from me yet, what colors would they like and what kind of sentiment would they appreciate. Happy thoughts to be pondering.

I’ve found again and again that tailor-making a craft project for a specific person adds an extra dimension of inspiration and fun to my craft projects. Maybe this can be the way forward for me – and who knows, perhaps for you too! – for the foreseeable future, to find some much needed inspiration again!

I might even do some video tutorials again on my Youtube channel (which I always embed on the blog too), so let me know if you’d like one for this type of card – or mini album insert of course, whichever might fit your needs best!

K.I.S.S. papercrafting: Don’t overthink the front of your card

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In one of my previous posts, my first one on the K.I.S.S. way of papercrafting (Keep It Simple, Stupid), I gave some examples on keeping your cards simple yet lovely and your crafting easy-going and timesaving. One of the examples I gave is to make use of post cards – the kind you buy somewhere – and incorporate those into your card projects.

This week I’d like to elaborate on that a little bit, with another example. The trick, for me, is to buy a postcard with some kind of special depiction or sentiment: not your general ‘Happy Birthday’ card with a bunch flowers, funny drawings or a joke, but one depicting something meaningful – to you and/or the person to whom you’ll be sending the card.

For this week’s birthday card project, I chose a postcard that I bought in an art museum, it was depicting a special piece of fashion by Viktor & Rolf. I picked it because the person I was going to send it to, appreciates fashion, art & lifestyle.

I matted it on top of two layers of design paper, in a matching color scheme. I stamped congratulations (in Dutch), but added no extra decorative elements, adhering to the K.I.S.S. principle.

I matted the inside with several papers from the same design paper collection – Reflections by Echo Park (no longer available) – and added a journalling spot on top.

I wrote the specifics of the fashion piece on the inside of the card, and the museum in which it was photographed

I also matted the back, and decorated with a sentiment sticker.

So, even though I invested a little more time and energy into this card than I did the previous example (in the aforementioned earlier blog post) I still kept it K.I.S.S.: the card design was simple yet elegant, and I had a lovely time creating it.

Have a great week, don’t overthink things! 🙂

Card making: Work with what brings you joy

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This week’s card was created with Together, a 6×6 design paper pad by Mintay. It’s an older design paper collection, but you’ll have to forgive me not buying anything new any time soon, due to my rather large stash 😅

I love the color palette of these papers, the soft corals and aquas, laced with some sage green and beiges, it all comes together perfectly with the dreamy air balloon theme. I used this collection before, when I worked on a little pre-made album, you can check out the video on that here.

As a specific theme for this card I chose tea time, which I incorporated by way of some cute little stamps on the front.

I don’t know why the card looks so crooked in this picture, I guess I held my phone a bit crooked (sorry)

I also stamped a floral element in coral on the front, which you can see peaking out behind the little layout I did on top of it.

I kept the inside extremely simple, matting with a floral design first and then choosing a second piece of design paper that offered some natural room to write. I did decorate, but subtly: I only added some liquid pearl around the edges of the journalling spot.

I also matted the back of course.

Although technically this wasn’t one of my so-called tea cards, which I always design around an actual bag of tea (check out all of my tea card designs here), I did add a tea bag to the envelope when I sent the card to my friend. And created a little custom tea tag to go with it 🙂

I always write what kind of tea it is on a little custom tea tag – in this case: Pina Collada tea! 🙂

All in all I loved to work on this card. The lovely colors and graphic designs of the papers, together with the simplicity of the design, made for a great afternoon of crafting.

So I guess the main tips this week are: choose to work with what brings you joy, and don’t be afraid to keep it simple! (On that note, also check out my previous post, on the K.I.S.S. method and applying it to paper crafting).

Three Very Easy Cards, The K.I.S.S. Way

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Leonardo da Vinci once said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, and often I apply that to my paper craft projects: finding beauty in simple designs, by playing with colors or showcasing design paper.

Or even more down to earth than that, keeping it as simple as I can. This is what in project management is called the KISS principle btw: “Keep it Simple, Stupid”. In other words don’t overthink and don’t make things unnecessarily complicated.

Anyway, today I’m sharing three tips with you to keep your card making as simple as possible, yet still very presentable!

K.I.S.S. Card Tip 1: Purchase a lovely card, and mat it onto a piece of double-sided design paper. Very quick & easy, and it looks great. Plus, the inside of your card automatically looks sophisticated as well, with your paper being double-sided.

K.I.S.S. Card Tip 2: Purchase a lovely card, and add a simple decoration, but nothing elaborate. For instance, you could add only 1 bow or flower, or a couple of bling pieces. Or you can do as I did: I bought a large postcard at a museum (yes, those pastries were counted as art, in the sense that they were part of a photo collection…) and added some glitter glue lettering.

K.I.S.S. Card Tip 3: Mat a piece of design paper onto a white card; print or stamp a sentiment, die-cut a label shape around it and add it to the card. These are especially great when you’re creating for someone who’s not into all of that pinky fluffy stuff 🙂

Hope you enjoyed these tips, they can make your card making life a whole lot easier, while still being able to send nice hand-crafted cards to everyone you care to send one to.

Enjoy your week!

Sentiment of the Day: Collect Beautiful Moments

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Just thought I’d share kind of a “sentiment of the day” type of card. And it may just be the right sentiment for you, if you’re looking for some reflective card decorations this Lent.

Creative notes:

  • I sprayed my own background with Distress Spray Stain and Distress Oxide Spray, both by Tim holtz.
  • I matted a coloured card base with the background
  • I used the Artsy Stems die-set for the flowers, by Tim Holtz for Sizzix
  • I die-cut the flowers from some design paper
  • I coloured a chipboard sentiment piece and added it to the card
Design paper die-cuts on a handmade ink-sprayed background
The sentiment of the day

Have a blessed Lent season.

Throwback: Neverending Memories Folio Album + A Thank You to All Who Like It

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Today I’d like to reflect with gratitude on one of my earlier designs, that became quite popular from the start – and to this day there are crafters who manage to find it while spelunking in the deep cave that are my older YT videos. Some of them have even purchased the tutorial (it’s the Number 3 in my shop), others simply enjoy the video – which I will embed below. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

It’s a Folio Album which I’ve dubbed Neverending Memories. If you’d like to see it filled with pictures, here’s a photo (also, there’s a second video embedded at the end of this post, sharing more details):

Whence this trip to Memory Lane? Well, recently a very kind lady from the USA found it in her heart to let me know she had just finished crafting this folio album, based on my tutorial. And she just wanted to let me know she enjoyed the process, the tutorial and the end result. Needless to say her sweet message brought a smile to my face and filled my heart with gratitude! 🙂

She had also sent me some pictures and was kind enough to give me permission to post them here.

So here’s her end result, using the Born to Travel paperpad by Recollections. She did a wonderful job and I think her folio album looks wonderful and on trend, and perfectly fitting for the coming Spring season!

Creator’s Image Studio’s Neverending Memories Folio Album, by Lynn M. from the U.S.A.

Please send her some love in the comments below and/or on the Tutorials Projects Page – and while you’re there, please check out the awesome projects of the other crafters too!!

Thank you again to each and every one of you who have been supporting me over the years, by watching my videos, visiting this blog, purchasing my tutorials and sharing the creative love!

Have a blessed season of Lent!

Perfume Card Series: How to Fasten Your Perfume on the Inside, pt. 2

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In my last post I shared one way of adding a perfume sample to the inside of a card. In this post I’ll illustrate a second way of doing that: by way of what I would call an integrated belly band.

By ‘integrated belly band’ I mean a belly band which is not layered on top of a (design) paper surface, but which has seemingly been integrated with it instead.

Basic construction is the same: fold a card and make sure it has a wide enough gusset (or spine). But before you start matting and decorating, attach the belly band first! Simply dry-fit a strip of (design) paper around a small perfume vile or sample and glue its ends to the base card, on either side of the spine.

Only then mat & decorate. And a nice ribbon closure would be fun too 😉

In this example I created an ATC card-sized double card with a spine, of about 3 x 4″ (7.5 x 10 cm). I used design paper by Mintay Papers.

Done! Let me know in a comment: have you ever sent out perfume samples over the mail, as a little extra ‘something something’ for a dear friend or a loved one?

Video tutorial available a couple of posts above this one, check it out here!

Mat with design papers, layering them on top of both ends of the belly band, thereby hiding them
Decorate the outside however you like. E.g. I added some flowers, blings and a stamped sentiment

Perfume Card Series: How to Fasten Your Perfume on the Inside

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In my previous post I shared the idea of fastening a perfume booklet to the front of a card. This allowed for the rest of the card to be a standard folded card, since the bulky part was on its outside.

But what if you want to add your perfume to the inside of your card?

One way of doing that would be to create a belly band on the inside.

However, this only works if your perfume sample comes with its own booklet (see picture below), for then you can tuck the edges of the booklet behind the belly band. If it didn’t come with a booklet, then we’ll need a different design – so keep an eye on this series of blog posts! Simply click the tag Perfume cards and you’ll get all relevant posts on my blog at any given time.

But first things first: your card will need a gusset, otherways it would not close around the vile. Depending on the girth of your perfume sample, create a gusset that is wide enough. For most samples a gusset of 3/8 to 1/2 inch (1-1.2 cm) will probably suffice.

If you use only one sheet of double-sided design paper that already has 6 double-sided 4×6″ cards as a pattern, you’ll be able to create two VERY quick & easy cards! 🙂

1 sheet of A4 cardstock + 1 sheet of 12×12″ double-sided design paper is all you need for these two cards!
This gorgeous paper collection is Desire by Stamperia. The sheet is called ‘6 cards’ (SBB891).

I decorated a little bit but not too much, for I only wanted to enhance this stunning paper here and there and not get in its way.

Added some flowers where it would actually integrate with the design pattern
Strategically added a small bunch of roses and two pieces of chipboard; in this case, less was indeed more.

The end result was lovely. I simply tucked the perfume booklets behind the belly band, which automatically kept them closed.

Don’t underestimate the importance of details: I colour-coordinated my perfume samples with my design papers, and this definitely enhanced the card design! 🙂

Have fun crafting! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment with this post!

Click here to go to the next perfume card.

Perfume Card Series: Easy ways to send someone some fragrant love

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Over the years I have often shared design ideas for cards to send someone an original ‘hug-in-a-mug’, or in other words, how to incorporate a teabag in a creative way.

I’d like to add to that a new series of design ideas, this time centered around perfume and how to send someone an actual vile of perfume. This can be a decant from that awesome niche bottle you own yourself, a small test sprayer you bought online or the official samples that brands hand out and are often added for free to your purchase at your local perfume shop.

Keep those little brand samplers around, they make for great card gifts!

These are small enough to send over the mail, but you will have to find original ways to add them to a card design. Fret not! For that is where this new series comes in.

And here’s my first idea: take a brand’s sample booklet and add it to the front of your card. Choose or create a coordinating background. Keep the booklet closed with a swing tab closure. Stamp a nice sentiment, decorate, and done!

I sprayed my own background in the below example, but you could make this card with design paper too.

I diecut the butterfly with a 2-die set from some papers I inked myself, and added some extra Stickles to highlight.

It’s fast. It’s easy. It adds a lovely little extra ‘something something’ to your card.

Have fun creating!

Nifty Multi-pocket 1-sheet Card

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Happy New Year everyone!

And let’s start 2023 with a lovely vintage 1-sheet card, its browns & grayish blues so suitable for autumn and winter, and yet its pink roses remind us that Spring is coming (well, eventually it will).

There are many ways to fold beautiful cards with only one sheet of paper. You could also use cardstock and mat it (which would technically make it a 2-sheets card) but much easier is using a double-sided sheet of design paper.

I designed this particular card type myself, it takes a bit of folding, one cut with a paper trimmer and a little bit of glue, and it will turn into this very nice multi-faceted card with two pockets and a little doorlet on the front to tuck some extra niceties behind.

If you want to know the nitty-gritty of how to make this, there’s an excellent PDF tutorial in my Etsy shop, it’s Tutorial #9. (It’s very affordable btw).

I’ve made several of these over the years, and here’s my latest, using the beautiful vintage Time is an Illusion paper collection by Stamperia.

Opening the front flap and finding a nice removable bookmark on the inside
Checking out the center pocket, which holds a lovely tag, which I decorated with some stamps and a die cut image of a cup of tea
On the back of that same tag, I attached an actual bag of tea for my friend
Back pocket
The back pocket contains a booklet
The inside of the booklet offers room to write a message on the left, and a nice stamped sentiment on the right

Making Arthur, a Colorize die-cut project

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In 2020 Tim Holtz started his so-called Colorize series of dies with Sizzix. These Colorize dies are meant for you to add layers of color to your diecut image, each layer being its own color.

It was quite the ingenious system, for each set of die parts comes with its own color code. For example, everything with code “1” should be dark brown, each “2” should be blue etc., helping you as a maker to put together the elaborately layered die-cut image designs.

I think the very first one of these was Arthur, the purple owl.

I have thus far crafted one owl-on-a-branch project, and I gave it my own twist of course: instead of using differently colored pieces of cardstock, I sprayed my own backgrounds on mixed media heavy stock and die-cut my pieces from those.

I actually made this project two years ago, in August 2020, but I just now realized I had never actually shared it on my blog! So, here we go, with a step-by-step semi-tutorial on how I made my card with Arthur, the purple marbled pink owl.

1. Made the building blocks: created enough inked/sprayed/painted backgrounds for the project, in the colors I wanted.

2. Embossed a wood pattern on the bark-colored one.

3. Die-cut the branches – which now also had some nice texture, thanks to the embossing.

4. Die-cut the owl pieces from the other papers, and sorted them according to the Sizzix color-coding. Although I made my own colors, the coding still helped me to know which pieces belonged together.

5. Chose some chipboard sentiment pieces and colored them.

6. Made a card background. It started as an abstract piece but then it became a moonlit landscape of sorts.

7. Following Sizzix’ color-coding, I glued each layer of the owl image to the background. Sizzix also has very clear video tutorial shorts on Youtube for each of their Colorize dies btw. I’ll embed the one for Arthur below these pictures.

8. Glued the piece to a black background, added the chipboard sentiment pieces and applied some liquid pearl along the edges.

Done!

I have to say it was a fun project, and the detail these dies provide by way of the ever-smaller layers is very cleverly designed. Look at those tiny claw pieces!

So yeah, I’ll have me some more of these Colorize dies by Tim Holtz for Sizzix and see what fun they’ll bring!

What about you, have you tried any of the Colorize die sets? Leave a comment and let me know!

Vintage Trifold Card

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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!