A little while ago I shared a video tutorial on how to create Version 1 of my deconstructed envelope cards. Today it’s time for Version 2, the original of which I shared in one of my previous posts, it looked like this:
So this week you can learn how to create one yourself, by following along with my new video tutorial! Just pause the video at any time you want to read one of the measurements or instructions, or if you want to study a detail.
Have fun creating, and leave a comment if you like!
This week I’m sharing something I learned about Ranger’s Distress Micro Glaze, in combination with Distress inks, gesso and Glimmer Mist: they don’t go well together. 🙃
So this was my process: I stamped with Archival ink on a card, but some ink accidentally landed on the lady’s face. I could have started over of course but I always like to try and fix things, for you learn way more this way. So I ended up putting some gesso on her face in an attempt to cover up the spilt ink. Perhaps not my best idea ever, but: “You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit” (quoting Tim Holtz).
That didn’t look too great of course, so I then decided to cover all skin parts in gesso, to get consistent texture at least. I then proceeded to watercolor the image and background with Distress Reinkers and added some embellishments.
So far so good, except I didn’t like the background at all, I felt it needed more interest. I used Distress Micro Glaze to seal the inked image, roughly covered the blings with some kitchen towels and sprayed the card with a Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels (remember those? I must have had this in my stash for at least 5-6 years…)
The reason I sealed the image was of course to prevent it from being glimmermisted. I only roughly covered the blings because I expected the image to be sealed anyway so I thought it didn’t matter I wasn’t too precise.
However, as it turns out, the Glimmer Mist took hold everwhere I had used the gesso and the image was not covered! Since that was only parts of her skin, she now looked, well, bruised…😱🤭
So I decided to spray the entire image with Glimmer Mist, turning the lady completely purple – in what I’d now like to call an Artsy Way.😎 A less than perfect solution no doubt, but it was the only one I could come up with. Besides: “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!” (quoting Steve Jobs).
To finish up, I added a die-cut in metallic purple, and I sprayed the back of the card as well – mostly as an afterthought, but I’m glad I did it.
So now we know either one of two things (I’m not sure which at the moment): a. either Micro Glaze does NOT seal Distress Ink on gesso, or b. Distress Micro Glaze only seals surfaces from other Distress products, and not other kinds (like Glimmer mist). More experimentation will be needed to find out which… 🤓
And of course I’m curious: what would have been your solution, either to deal with the spilt Archival ink, or the partly purple, quasi-bruised lady? Let me know in the comment section!
Step cards come in many different shapes and variations, but they always have this common denominator: there’s always at least one ‘step’. The variant I’m showing you today is what some people call a Center Step Card, which is a ‘one-step’ step card. The first one I ever made I entirely cut, scored and shaped myself, which was quite some work because of the specific cuts and creases of this particular type. After that, I bought myself a die which made that part a lot easier. Mine is from Crealies but I’m sure other brands out there have them as well.
If you don’t own the die, here’s a template for you to make one by hand:
The papers I used here are from Pink Paislee, the collection is called Birthday Bash. They are fun summer colors and some sheets have a specific birthday theme. Each sheet is double-sided so with only two sheets I got myself four patterns.
I always like to cut only one piece to mat the front and backs, which takes some extra detailed measuring. Or you could use the same die, if you have one. I show you how in my free video tutorial on how to mat a step card using a die.
The final step is of course decorating. Here I used some layering, die-cutting and stamping. Ans as a finishing touch I wrote 80 (which is how old my aunt now is) in both glitter glue and liquid pearl, on both the right and left panels.
My friend told me her 13-year old daughter (hi Mia!) was on the lookout for papercraft projects to create herself, especially since the lockdown measures have been keeping all of us mostly at home the past months. So I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be fun if she had not only an idea offered to her, but also the materials to create it, together with an actual project example to learn from.
So I chose one of my card designs that would be fairly simple to imitate, and set out to make one. After which came another fun part: rummaging through my (quite elaborate) stash and finding all kinds of bits, pieces and ephemera for her to use to create her card.
There were some things she would not be able to imitate, like the stamps and die-cuts I had used, so I stamped and die-cut several elements for her and added them to her gift box.
Finally I decided that she could use some extra supplies, since she might want to create even more cards on her own.
I had a lot of fun with this ‘reverse haul’ – giving gifts always makes me happy, it’s so much fun to think about little details that capture what you know about someone, even if that isn’t very much 🙂 So I hope this video inspires you to go look for that same kind of happiness, by creating your own gift box for someone you know (or their teen).
By the way, stay tuned for my next blog post, in which I will show you my step-by-step proces of creating the large butterfly. 😉
Today it’s time for some papercrafting again – with actual design papers I mean 🙂 I fell in love with one of StudioLight’s recent collections, Jenine’s Mindful Art. I took two double-sided 12×12” sheets (plus a sheet of cardstock) and created a deconstructed envelope card.
And because it’s summer and we’re still suffering from various lockdown measures, I’m offering you a free video tutorial to take your mind off things.
Hope you like it, leave a comment to let me know!
You can know a design theoretically, but there’s nothing like actually seeing it in your hands, with design paper and decorations! Especially if you make different versions, with different colors, themes, occasions and recipients.
So this week I’m sharing the pretty well-known shutter-card design, done in two different ways: one is masculine, the other feminine.
Enjoy! And if you want a third variation, check out my Christmas version!
One of my new favorite brands is Mintay Papers, and even though I only bought one sheet of their beautiful red-white-blue Berrylicious collection, I think I managed to squeeze the absolute most out of it! 🙂
I created a multi-pocketed interactive 1-sheet card – Tutorial #9 in my shop – and this time I used cardstock as a base and matted with the double-sided Berrylicious sheet (instead of design paper only/no cardstock).
The color theme of this paper collection makes it ideal to celebrate national holidays – (if those are your national colors) – without having to work with actual flag-themed papers. Like this week, if you’re an American and celebrate the 4th of July. Or when you’re in the Netherlands like me, and celebrate Liberation Day (5th of May).
Or you can totally ignore any national theme and simply enjoy the bright, fun colors and homely images and patterns, and send it to your mom for Mother’s Day – which is what I did 😊
Enjoy the video – and if applicable: Happy 4th of July! 🎉
A wallet card is a great category of cards if you want to send out something more elaborate and interactive than the regular single card or folded card. I’ve designed several versions of wallet cards, among which this type, which has two deep pockets, a flap and a belly band. You can add tags with sentiments, pictures and one time I even sent out a small bag of flower seeds in one of the pockets.
They are of course suitable for any occasion and you can choose your papers accordingly. This week I’m sharing a birthday version in bright and happy summer colors. For decoration I added several die-cuts, stamping, fussy-cutting, Stickles (glitter glue), enamel dots, washi tape and even some heat embossing. The inside flap has a punched border with cute birthday presents – thanks to a great Martha Stewart punch. The back flap sports a tiny orange umbrella brad that in itself has nothing to do with birthdays but that I simply fell in love with. In the pockets I tucked two large tags on which I printed some fun birthday sentiments.
All in all quite an elaborate card full of nice little nooks and crannies – and still relatively flat, so easy to send out in an envelope.
Hope to have inspired you to create some wallet cards of your own! And if you want to make this particular one, simply go check out my tutorial!
Have a great week, enjoy the weather and celebrate the eased lockdowns everywhere.
Papers used: 2 sheets from the double-sided Birthday Bash collection by Pink Paislee:
I always like 3D cards that will fit into regular envelopes. I don’t know, it’s the mystery of it I guess – I mean, how is such a thing even possible? 🧐🤪
This week’s corner pop-up card was great fun to make, and my aunt was really happy with it! I used Scrapberry’s Happily Ever After papers, in lovely lavenders, pinks and lime greens.
Oh, and this was another ‘first time’ for me, for I got my green screen and immediately played around with it – not actually knowing enough yet of course, which is why the green parts of my card turned out transparent and I had to skip the cool backgrounds in the actual demo part! Oh well, I’ll live.
When time constraints are plaguing you and you still want to send out a lovely handcrafted card, try only decorating the front. And layer to your heart’s desire!
Keep the bulk down though, if you want it to fit in its envelope.
This week’s card was created with papers & punch-outs by Studiolight and some leaf dies by Crealies. I also used two of the latest Stickles glitter glue colors.
Layering is mostly about two things:
In this week’s video I’m letting you into my ‘craft kitchen’ so you can craft with me. Enjoy!
This year’s Mother’s Day is kinda strange – with the corona lockdown situation and all – so even if you never send out any Mother’s Day cards, this year you will have to make an exception! Never have our mothers deserved some encouragement with a beautiful card more than now – so come on, get your craft on and make her this fun card.
What I’m sharing with you this week is a variant of the box card. It’s slightly different from the regular box cards, the same basic technique but still some new crafty tricks are required – which will offer a nice new challenge. And because it’s Mother’s Day during these lockdown times, I’m offering this special variant guide for free, as a bonus with my Box Card tutorial #26!
You can find my box card tutorial – including the free bonus cutting guide & instructions for this variant! – in my shop, it’s already waiting for you. Think about all those lovely papers in your stack; you know, the ones your mother told you she loved. And you only need 1 sheet of cardstock to make this anyway. So what’s the big deal, just go ahead and check it out. You know you want to 😉 .
Back in February I shared one of my Mailable Mini Album designs, and invited you to let me know if you’d like me to do a tutorial. Well, you guys let me know 🙂
So, here it is, enjoy!
