And here’s the second Easter card I made this year. Like I said in my last, I forgot to post them when it was actually Easter.
But April 27th is also a great day to post, for here in the Netherlands it’s King’s Day today, and the whole country celebrates in orange colours. So, here I am, with a – mostly – orange card! 😇
Paper used: Summer Breeze collection by Studiolight.
I realize Easter is already over, but I forgot to post this – as well as my other Easter card, which I will post next. After all, it’s the thought that counts – and you can use these techniques of layering and adding a small booklet to the front, as inspiration for your own cards. For any occasion you can think of! 🙂
Papers used: Easter Greetings collection by Craft and You.
Double-sided design paper sheets are the perfect material to create a quick step card. The one I used is from the Summer Breeze collection by Studiolight.
You can either find a template online and print/draw, fold and cut it yourself, or you can use a step card die. With the card’s basic shape taken care of, the only thing left is to decorate!
For instance: cut an ATC card and stamp a sentiment. I also added some heat embossing to the sentiment, for some extra interest. Then apply some kind of glitter glue all along the edges and adhere as a center piece.
Use some hot glue or other heavy adhesive medium to adhere larger decorations, like these bulky roses.
Don’t forget the backside of the card! I know it’s just the back, but you can still add some nice little detail to surprise the careful examiner 😊
For instance, add some transparent texture paste through a stencil on part of the back!💡
Add some final diecuts and smaller decorative elements, and you’re done – quick & easy!
Tip: You don’t always need to create a full-blown birthday card, a nice tag will go a long way too – especially when added to a gift to carry your birthday wishes.
Here’s an easy little gift tag and the steps to create it. I designed it to go with some birthday flowers for a friend.
Easy peasy! 😃
Stamperia have come out with some gorgeous vintage and steampunk paper collections. I’ve been working with four of those collections for my latest mini album, which I’ll be showcasing here soon.😃
In the meantime I’ll be showing you some smaller projects I’ve been working on with said papers.
Take this cutie. Since I love to send a friend some tea – kind of a hug-in-a-mug – I created this lovely little Tea Booklet. For its front, back & spine I made use of a pre-imaged paper sheet Stamperia provided in their Lady Vagabond collection.
I matted the inside of the booklet with some beautiful patterns and decorated with some fussy-cut elements.
My spine was 5/8″ (1.5 cm) wide to accomodate a bag of fresh tea. You can make the spine as wide or as narrow as you need. The narrower the spine, the easier it fits into a normal envelope. However, if like me you’d like to send out some tea, you’ll need a little width.
Have you ever created a tea card? I’d love to know you ideas!
I tend to compartimentalize my mixed media crafting: one day I do my spraying, inking and/or painting, one day I use my stamps, stencils & texture pastes, and lastly I turn it into a card or tag to send out or give away. This not only keeps it fun and practical, it also saves time when you actually need a quick card or tag.
In this post I’m sharing several of these follow-up projects, starting with the finished background, followed by the final project. You can find the making of some of these backgrounds in previous blog posts btw, should you be interested.
1. Birthday tag
2. Textured birthday tag
3. Alcohol ink on gesso birthday card
4. Black background cards
5. Printed close-up photo of above art project, matted on cardstock
6. Marbled Distress Paint on black card
Here’s a layout I did for a colleague who was leaving the organization I work at, to start her new job. By way of goodbye, each team member was asked to contribute something A4-sized, after which everything would be bundled into a binder and gifted to the colleague.
Since this colleague was always dressed in beautifully bright and colorful outfits, I wanted to create something bright and colorful for her. I decided to shop my stash for some Prima Marketing, for this brand usually brings out A4-sized paper within all or most of their collections.
I decided on the Zephyr collection, chose a tangerine-colored base paper and two lovely Zephyr journalling cards, and layered them with some die-cuts, a chipboard piece, some blings and some wallet-sized pictures. Done! 🙂
There are of course hundreds (probably thousands even) of different design paper collections on the market. Still, sometimes you feel you’re in need of another sheet of a particular color scheme to really perfect your project. You could of course purchase (or shop your stash) for a sheet from another collection but: you did you realize you can also create your own? And I don’t mean by becoming a graphic designer yourself and printing some cool computer-generated design you came up with.
No, I mean by applying some very easy mixed media techniques. Here’s how.
2. If you want, you can even print an image – or in my case a graffiti-style initial – on your colored paper. Wait until everything is dry though, before you run it through your printer.
3. Add some stamping. You can choose actual images, or just some random patterns. Use an oil-based ink like Archival ink, to make sure your stamping ink does not react to the other mediums you’ve used so far.
4. Add some texture with texture paste. I used Tim Holtz’s Distress Grit paste because that is translucent (so the inking underneath will show through) plus it’s heat-stable so you can emboss it. Which is exactly what I did after I added the paste: I sprinkled it with different colors of Embossing Glaze (which is a translucent embossing powder), let the texture paste dry, and then embossed it.
5. I (of course) forgot that I needed more than one mat, so I had to repeat steps 1-4 to create a second mat. It would have been easier had I just taken a larger piece of paper, did the mixed media techniques, and only then cut it to size. Oh well.
6. Mat your mini album page! As you can see in the pictures below I made sure to choose colors that would coordinate with the rest of the design paper I used.
Want to see the entire album? Check the video in this blog post!
Wooden alphabet letters are always great embellishments for gifts. Add the letters of the first and/or last names of your friend, co-worker or loved one to any card or mini album page, and the result will be instant success 🙂
For the front cover of my most recent paper bag mini album I altered such a wooden initial.
I first added two colors of Distress Oxide ink to color its base. I also chose several Distress Crayons to decorate later, after the second step.
Once the letter had a base color, I added a texture paste and let it dry. I chose Distress Grit Paste by Tim Holtz, but you can use any paste as long as you choose one that can be colored (some pastes act as a resist, avoid those for this type of project).
I added the paste in random spots, to give the letter a dimensional texture. Distress Grit Paste is semi-translucent, which is why I colored the letter first.
Then I used the Crayons to color the paste. (Crayons work best to color Distress Grit Paste,)
Lastly, when everything had dried, I added it to the album cover as an embellishment.
So you see how you can add a very personal touch to any of your gift projects without it taking a million steps! 🙂
Sometimes, when I order some of my card designs printed, the printing company adds one or two blanks. These are sturdy, completely white cards; they are also coated, for it is a form of photo paper. So it won’t react to mixed media like your usual assortment of craft papers.
I have created a card with such a blank before, using it as an easy base for design paper. You can check out my step-by-step video on that here.
This time however I decided to try out some mixed media techniques to create a card from one of these coated blank photo paper cards. Here’s what I did, and how it worked out.
1. Stamp and color an image
I chose StazOn ink for this, because that is suited especially for smooth, non-porous surfaces – like photo paper. I also colored the stamped image, using Tim Holtz Distress Markers.
In hindsight, that turned out not to be the best combination, for the StazOn ink reacted a little bit to the Distress Markers. So, my tip here is: IF you want to use water-based markers to color your image, then do NOT use an alcohol-based ink to stamp, but an oil-based ink like Archival Ink.
2. Seal your image
If you’re going to spray a background, you’ll need to seal your colored image first, otherwise it will either run and wick, or it will be covered up by your sprays (depending on the mediums you choose).
I wanted to use Distress Spray Stains, which are water-based, and since I already used Distress Markers to color the image, I knew exactly how to seal it: with Distress Micro Glaze.
Simply dab your finger lightly in the jar, and rub it all over the colored image.
Side note: of course there are several other products on the market to seal your image. For instance, transparent gesso, or mod podge, to name a few. I’m simply mentioning the one I used. #nonspon
3. Spray your inks
Spray your entire card to your heart’s desire. Then remove all of the sprayed inks from your stamped image with a paper towel. Thanks to the Micro Glaze, none of the sprays will stick and will come off easily, without messing up the colors of your image.
Also, because my paper was coated, it didn’t really absorb the inks too well; there were several spots where the ink didn’t take, causing a great bonus effect!
4. Add special effects
I added some transparent medium to create a bit of a glass effect for the glasses: I used Nuvo Crystal Drops for this, but you could use several alternatives, like Glossy Accents, Paper Glaze or any other dimensional transparent medium.
5. Add a sentiment
Last but not least, I stamped a sentiment – this time with Archival Ink (having learned my lesson from step 1).
Alternatively, you could also go dimensional and use wooden or chipboard sentiment pieces.
And done!
Have you ever crafted with coated paper like this? Feel free to ask any questions, or to let me know what you think, below in the comment section!
A relatively quick and easy way to create Christmas cards is using mixed media techniques. For this week’s card I first created an inked background, then I die-cut from other pieces of inked paper. This week I’m sharing step by step how to do it.
Keep in mind that although there are quite a few steps, it all takes very little time. For instance, to create the background, you simply spray some ink and let it dry. If you use a drying tool like Ranger’s heat tool, this will take you about 10 minutes. And so on, and so forth. So enjoy!
Step by step
The technique I use for this is: I spray one piece of cardstock, then press it onto a second piece of cardstock of the same size. You now get a nice blend, get the most out of your inks (it’s used for double the surface area) and a fun bonus is that they are eachother’s mirror images.
Intermezzo: You can now either go on with the step by step below, or you can layer the smaller cards on top of the larger ones and decorate:
2. Die-cut an image or a large sentiment from one of your inked backgrounds. I used the Layered Pine Trees by Tim Holtz. Play around with the placement of the dies, to get a nice colorplay.
3. Fussy-cut around the edges of one of the holes your die left, to get a bonus decoration.
4. Glue the first die-cut to one of your larger backgrounds to get the placement you like. Then die-cut a sentiment from the same piece of inked background, place it below the decoration (or wherever you like basically 😉 ).
The way I placed the elements, on the right, offers the possibility to now fold my card in half and have a beautifully inked double card.
5. In the end however I decided to simply cut it in half, doubling the number of inked backgrounds I had (I did the same with the other large background).
6. If applicable: layer your elements. Then add glitter to your liking.
7. Glue all elements to your background. You have now created a nice piece to mat onto any cardstock you like.
Done!
If you want to see how I used the other Christmas-colored backgrounds I showed above, check out my next post! 🙂
It’s that time of the year again, time flies even if you’re not having as much fun as you hoped for… It has been a bizarre year indeed, so we have perhaps even more reason to spread some color and joy by sending out beautiful handmade Christmas cards 🎄
To help you kick off you holiday crafting, let’s start with a lovely yet easy card design. You only need 2 pieces of cardstock (each a different color) and 1 sheet of 12×12 inch design paper.
One of the cardstock pieces will be your card base: cut to 6×12″ and fold in half. I chose a bright yellow. Use the other cardstock piece to be the first layer to mat on the front, back and inside; for this I chose green.
Now cut three mats from the design paper, and mat on top of the cardstock mats – so we’re double-matting. I worked with a sheet from the red, yellow & green Christmas Treats collection by Piatek.
Decorate the front any way you please and go as dimensional as you like; me, I was contented with simply showcasing this beautiful paper. I only added to things: a die-cut Christmas wish (for which I used the B-side of my double-sided design paper); and I went around the edges with glitter glue. I always use Ranger’s Stickles for that, these are simply the best I’ve encountered on the market.
You can decorate on the inside as well of course, but keep two things in mind: don’t go bulky, for otherwise your card won’t close anymore; and leave at least some room to write your Christmas wishes 🙂
I never decorate the back of my cards, but I always mat them, and often with lovely papers that could easily have gone on the front too!
So, I hope you feel inspired to start making your Christmas cards as well! Next time I’ll show you how to easily use up an entire 6×6″ paper pad to create a bunch of them (with a video!). 🧑🏼🎄
