The fourth of my five Christmas card styles concerns Cards with Flaps. This is one of the easiest cards to make while still adding some sophistication and uniqueness in comparison to regular cards.
All flaps are based on ATC card measurements (3×4″ and 4×6″), so they are perfect if you have a lot of pocket journalling cards to use up!
I used the same materials as I did with the Luxurious style (#1), a couple of blog posts ago:
Bo Bunny Altitude collection: 12×12″ papers, diecuts, 3D chipboard stickers, buttons, filmstrip sticker
Now that Christmas is only three weeks away (can you even believe how time flies?!) I thought I’d share a nice Christmas card tutorial with you all. This time it’s a card of which one of its border follows the shape of your paper pattern.
I’ll teach you how to set it up, how to back it up with cardstock, and also how to mat it on the inside. And I’ll show it all to you in under 9 minutes! – though it will probably take you a couple of hours to actually create it 🙂
And the great thing is, you don’t even have to use Christmas papers, look at how gorgeous this wintery Unicorn paper by Stamperia is! 🙂
Enjoy this free video tutorial, and feel free to send me the links to yours!
So, it’s that time of the year again 🙂 You can never be too early creating your Christmas Cards. The coming weeks, like every year, I’ll sharing lots of Christmas card tips with you, helping you along to get yourself unstuck and go create your own! It really doesn’t have to be difficult, nor expensive! To prove this, I’m kicking of this C-card season with several easy-to-create lowbudget Christmas cards that I decorated with only 1 sheet of design paper! And of course a few extra embellishments, but you can even do without those if you want to – or perhaps have to because of budget reasons.
So go ahead and check out the video, and then go ahead and Create!
To celebrate Easter – and simply the arrival of spring yesterday 🌺 – I created two z-shaped, multi-panel, tri-fold cards and did them up with Cotton Tail, a super fun Easter collection by We R Memory Keepers, in lovely spring colors.
The examples of regular Z-cards I found on the internet were all tri-folds, with four panels – which are very easy to make.
For my second card I decided to give it a little Creator’s Image Studio twist, and doubled its length! Now that was great fun to work on, I have to say, for each panel is its own little layout, and there’s fourteen of them on my double-length design!
It helps if you’re working with some cutapart sheets or a die-cut pack, to be able to create enough variation in your panel decorations. Also, just throw in some flowers, feathers, enamel dots and the like, and you’re ready to go.
As my first Christmas mini has been completely loaded with family Christmas pictures since last year’s holiday season, it was time to create a new one – yea! 🙂
I rummaged through my (by now fairly impressive) stash and came back out with the beautiful vintage-yet-fresh All is Bright papers, a 2012 collection by My Mind’s Eye. With its 18 x 25 cm (7 1/8 x 9 7/8″) it’s larger than its Tis the Season predecessor. It sports nine interactive page layouts, plus what I’m calling a box pocket on the inside front cover.
I created one of these box pockets before, in my large Girly Girl’s Precious mini (see picture below), but this time I incorporated it in a tutorial! It’s already waiting for you in my Etsy shop 🙂
Since the box pocket can hold all kinds of nice things, like a stack of photo mats, cards, a mini folio or even an entire hardcover notebook, I have not included my mini folio in the album tutorial. Instead it’s part of its own – very affordable – tutorial set, including a bonus cutting guide for a larger version!
Check out the video if you’d like to see all the fun & interactive page designs, and sing along with the Christmas tune: “Aaaaall is calm, all is bright….”
In my last blog post I showed you my first ten Christmas cards, created with two so-called card art stencils.
This week I have two extra tips for all of you who are preparing to get your craft on and make your own Christmas cards for this year:
Combine leftover die-cuts & cutaparts from one collection, with papers from a fairly neutral collection. Like in my case, the 6×12″ Wood Texture paper block by Joy Crafts;
Create a large card, e.g. A5-sized, and create elaborate layouts without it getting to ‘busy’ to look at.
There’s actually a third tip hidden inside the video, namely to use what I have dubbed scrap mats, in other words: meticulously paper-pieced background mats. Check out myfree video tutorial on how to make them – you’ll get a lot more paper real estate from your leftover papers!
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! 🙋🏻
Several people have told me they wish they could make their own cards (Christmas or otherwise), but that unfortunately “they have no experience”, “they wouldn’t know where to start”, or even the infamous “they are not creative” – which I do not believe is true for anyone.
So in this blog post I’m sharing two beginner’s level cards, to hopefully inspire you and to encourage you to “just do it”. This is an extra blog post, apart from the regular weekly ones, so no video but a blog exclusive 🙂
How to make these cards – in three easy steps
1. Buy a set of colored cards & envelopes. This way you won’t have to do any cutting and scoring of cardstock, and your card will automatically fit into its perfectly matching envelope.
2. Cut three pieces of decorative paper to fit the card; one of them will be the inside of your card so choose one solid pattern to enable you to write or print and/or stamp a message on it. If you’re not sure how to figure out the right measurements for matting, check out my free, easy to follow video tutorial on matting:
3. Glue these decorative mats onto the front, back and inside of your card, and you’re DONE! 🙂
Backsides
Three more optional steps, after step 3
4. Cut a journalling spot from a piece of colored cardstock and glue it onto the mat inside your card. This way you can use a patterned paper after all (instead of a solid). You could also add a ribbon or some strips of paper behind the journalling spot for some extra highlights.
Die-cut labels make perfect journalling spots; you can also cut a rectangle or square with a paper trimmer or craft knife
5. Add a small decoration to the front of your card. In my case I only added a gold-glittered bow to the top edge.
Done!
Papers used: Kris Kringle collection by S.E.I.
So I basically only matted three sides of my card, and my main concern only was which decorative papers to choose! 🙂
I hope this post was helpful to some of you to get started and go create your own Christmas cards!
Please click the like button before you leave 🙂 – and see you next blog post!
Christmas time is nearing and for all of you who’d like to create their own Christmas cards but are wondering how not to make them all mostly the same, I’ve compiled a stack of cards – and 33 variation tips to go with them!
Have fun watching the video, then please find all of the 33 tips listed below for your convenience!
Several people have told me they wish they could make their own cards (Christmas or otherwise), but that unfortunately “they have no experience”, “they wouldn’t know where to start”, or even the infamous “they are not creative” – which I do not believe is true for anyone.
