Ten Scandinavian-styled Christmas Cards (with French Christmas wishes)

Recently I decided to experiment with Dutch Doobadoo’s card art stencils, which you use by simply tracing around their various edges to two nested shapes. So I bought two of the stencils and created ten (early) Christmas cards, using a cherry red cardstock as a base.

I decorated with the Warm Winter Wishes paper collection by Marianne Design and die-cuts from the wonderfully cosy-looking Scandinavian Winter collection by Studiolight. In the video below I show you all ten cards, all of them sporting “Joyeux Noël” (by Crealies, among others) as a die-cut sentiment – a.k.a. Merry Christmas in French.

I really enjoyed working with these stencils, their ‘fun factor’ definitely exceeded my expectations. Plus I found them a very useful alternative for a die-cutting machine, so they are perfect to take with you to places where you know you won’t have access to any die-cutting tools (like when I go to my mom’s 😉 ).

So enjoy the end result and let me know if you have any experience with these or other card art stencils! 🙋🏻

 

Love is a Four-Legged Word Card

I truly loved Graphic 45’s Raining Cats & Dogs collection, and used up every last scrap I could find to create this one last card with it.

In doing so I came up with four tips, that I’d like to share with all of you card makers out there:

  1. Don’t throw out your leftover 4×6″ ATC cards but fit them onto a 6×6″ square card;
  2. Decorate on the side of the card, and leave your ATC card uncovered, showcasing its lovely graphics;
  3. Use a scrap mat on the inside to use up your scraps – check out my free video tutorial for that;
  4. Combine with other collections that coordinate well with your almost-gone main collection.

By the way, just after I had concluded that I would now never be able to craft with these lovely papers ever again, Graphic 45 announced their new Deluxe Collector’s Edition, which was…… you guessed it, Raining Cats and Dogs! ?

Have fun using these tips, enjoy the video! 🙂

 

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Tea Gift: Swing Bag Card

Tea bags are – in my experience – a fun gift to send with a Welcome Home card. This week I’m sharing my idea to send two, by way of what I’ve since dubbed a swing bag card: a double card with a swinging bag hanging from its ‘nook’ fold 🙂

The very sturdy double-sided design paper I used was perfect to use as is, with no cardstock at all. The sheet is called Rooster Row and it’s from 49 and Market’s latest collection, Cottage Life.

I also created a little stand to prevent the card from being pulled down by the weight of the suspended tea pouch.

All in all a pretty simple card, yet with an original design element. Let me know what you think in the comment section below! And of course, like & share! ??

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Salty Kisses Summer Card

In my last post I shared an XXL album with you, created with Kaisercraft’s Salty Kisses paper collection. As is most often the case, I had some papers left over. So I created a lovely summer-themed birthday card, combining a Kaisercraft sheet with the awesome die-cuts of Studiolight’s Summer at the Beach collection and a fun sentiment stamp by Crealies.

And by the way, cards also make great mini album page inserts! So there’s a bonus idea for you 😉

 

Card – or Mini Album Page Insert!

 

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Two Types of Shabby Chic Cards

Shabby chic is quite a broad term to describe a style of (usually interior) decoration that is or appears to be pleasingly old and slightly worn. There are various color themes and accompanying atmospheres that go with the term; it is not however what we would call vintage. Below I’m embedding some digital mood boards I found on Pinterest to show you two very different kinds of shabby chic.

Based on these two mood boards I created two shabby chic cards, one to represent each type. So, what type of Shabby chic do you prefer – if any? 🙂

 

 

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How to add glitter to a sentiment

Ranger’s Sticky Embossing Powder is great for adding very precise glittering or foiling, for instance on a very detailed and delicate (stamped) picture or a (stamped) sentiment. In this week’s (free!) video tutorial I’m showing you how it works – and sharing a very important tip that will help you avoid the mistake I made…! 😉

The card in the video is the Twist & Pop card I shared some blog posts ago in a tutorial of its own, so check that out if you’d like to create one yourself.

Enjoy the tutorial and glitter away! ?

 

 

 

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Gift idea: Mini Album Card!

Special occasions require special cards, and with this interactive wallet card you can go many directions. To give you some examples, my first card of this design had an Encouragement theme, the second version commemorated the first year since my father’s passing.

This week I’m sharing a third way you can use this card: as a mini album card, to send (or give in person) someone some pictures of dearly remembered moments you shared with them! Which is perfect for someone who really already has everything they ever wanted – I mean do you really need to give them more ‘stuff’? I’m convinced that memories in the form of pictures – nicely done up – will always be much appreciated, and also add that extra personal touch to your gifts.
This design offers room for 6-8 pictures and of course a personal message.

So, hope to have inspired you, let me know what you think in the comments! 🙂

 

 

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Don’t Give Up – a Serenity Card

A lady asked me to create a card incorporating a specific sentiment and with some meditative overtones. I immediately thought of the Serenity paper collection by Bo Bunny, which would be perfect with its Asian-themed graphics and choice of many lovely colors.

For my previous Serenity teabox projects I had used the reds, teals and blacks, but this time I chose the soft greens and whites. I printed the requested sentiment in a dark green color onto a piece of design paper, then used a circle die (by Crealies) to cut a nicely rounded label.

Let me know what you think in the comment section! And please like & subscribe to not miss any of my weekly projects 🙂

 

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Low Budget Tip: Picture Card

Hi all,

Today I’m sharing with you another Low Budget Tip, in other words how to create wonderful projects and presents that won’t cause a significant dent into your household budget. 🙂

There’s more where this came from by the way, check out all posts on this blog tagged Low budget!

This week’s tip is to create a picture card. For this type of card you won’t need much design paper for on the front the focus will be a picture you took (any occasion possible!), and on the back you will simply use cardstock or even printer paper of a different color than your base card.

You can keep the embellishments to a minimum by only using some glitter glue to trace around the picture and/or the journalling spot on the back, or you can add some simple decorations as I have, which still won’t have to cost a lot – especially if you’d die-cut the flowers and leaves.

So I hope you’ll enjoy this tip, let me know if you’d like to see more!

 

Four Seasons, Four Sentiments

A lady asked me to create four double-layout cards for her, one for each season. She also provided me with four seasonal sentiments to incorporate. What a fun challenge that proved to be! 🙂

I also used four brands by the way, so I really saw all four ? corners of my craft supply room. Here’s the collections I used:

  • Spring: Graphic 45, Time to Flourish
  • Summer: Kaisercraft, Fly Free
  • Autumn: Bo Bunny, Autumn Song
  • Winter: Studiolight, Frozen Forest

Let me know what you think!

 

Tag die set by Crealies:

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Twist & Pop Card Tutorial

Time for another free video tutorial to start the Summer season! 🙂

This time we’re going to create a so-called Twist & Pop card, you’ll find all measurements and materials in the video. If you’d like to watch more of my free video tutorials, click here

More detailed tutorials on a growing number of projects are available in my Etsy shop.

So, enjoy your Summer and have fun crafting! ☀️

Created with Studiolight’s Flower Delight collection.

Free Spirit birthday cards

As always I had some beautiful papers left over from my previous (large) project, the Explosion Boxed Mini Album I shared with you last week. And as usually I could not bring myself to get rid of them, even though most of them were strips and scraps. So, here’s the two cards I managed to force them into 🙂 – one of them only one-sided for by that time I literally had no more scraps left.

 

Created with Modern Patchwork die set by Crealies:

 

 

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