A Deconstructed Envelope Card (+ 1 Quick Variation)

Here’s a free photo tutorial I did on Instagram, on a deconstructed envelope card. I designed it for a group of people who all wanted to write personal birthday wishes in one card. Simply click on the arrows in the IG post to browse through the tutorial pictures.

If you’d like more detailed instructions + the required measurements, check out the – very affordable! – downloadable PDF tutorial in my Etsy shop.

Also, check out the video below for a closer look!

And here’s the video, including a – much quicker – variation on this design:

Tutorial: This Micro Wallet is fun & easy to make!

This week I microfied a mini wallet design I’ve created several times some years ago. Because, you know, microfying stuff is Awesome 🙂 And of course I did a tutorial for you, see the YT video below!

But first, let me show you the overview, via my two Instagram posts::

And here’s the video, including a tutorial!

Of course I shopped my stash and used 3 pretty 6×6″ pads by the housebrand of a Dutch store.

And here are the two Stickles colors you see me using in the video.

Tea Card Ideas

The past couple of months I’ve created several tea cards, i.e. cards in which I incorporate a bag of tea. I always enjoy making this type of card, because I love sending a ‘hug in a mug’ over the mail 🙂

I do try to come up with several different ways of sending said bags of tea, and I thought it might be fun for you if I shared my most recent ideas. So, I’ve summed them all up in the video below.
The video also includes two short, practical tutorials on my so-called integrated pocket technique.

If you want still more tea card ideas, check out all of my previous tea card posts.

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions!

Shopping my stash & making last-minute Christmas cards

Happy Holiday season everyone!

Let’s create some easy-to-make Christmas cards together: shop your stash (I did! 😃) and make good use of the tips, tricks & tutorials I’m sharing with you in the below videos! Let me know what you think in the comments.

Have a very merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!

Let beautiful images in your paper speak for themselves, you don’t have to add anything (or maybe just a little glitter glue, if you cannot help yourself 😇)
Decorating only the fronts of your cards is a great time saver!
Transparent texture paste is a great way to elegantly embellish patterned papers
Keep beautiful packaging and use it to create lovely cards, quick & easy!
Vertical tri-folds, or deconstructed envelope cards like this one, are perfect to keep large patterns intact

You can watch my free video tutorial for my deconstructed envelope card here:

Hope you found these tips & tutorials helpful, either for your Christmas cards or for any other occasion!

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

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!

Technique Tutorial: Getting Started on Some Early Spring Cards

I guess I’m over Winter. For when I started thinking about making these two cards, my mind immediately jumped to some yellows, florals, birds, bees and easter bunnies.

So, I’m inviting you to get started with me on some (very) early Easter or Spring cards, get some inspiration from my video or follow along with me to create these exact card designs.

The papers I used were by Craft and You Designs, from their Spring Garden collection.

Have fun crafting and I’d love to know: did you make these along with me, or at least feel inspired to get creating some spring projects of your own? Let me know in the comments down below!

Testing a DIY Gift Bag Die (craft along with me)

This past year I discovered AliExpress as a great craft supply source, including craft utensils like stamps or cutting dies. This time I’m testing one of several cutting dies I purchased: a DIY gift bag die. It came all the way from China – but would it work?

Spoiler: it worked absolutely fine – I just found the design for the bottom flaps lacking, as it doesn’t enable perfect glue placement and forced me to come up with an extra step – or workaround. Watch the video to see what I mean.

Perhaps this cutting die is actually a dupe, i.e. a design they nicked or imitated (or were “inspired by”) from another company. I mean, we’re talking AliExpress here. However, since one cannot possibly be aware of all cutting die designs worldwide ever, I cannot be sure if this is actually the case with this die. It could also very well be an original design. Should you recognize it however, feel free to leave a note to this effect in the comment section below.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this 10-minute video tutorial. May it inspire you with yet another way to use up that ginormous stash of design papers you have! 🙂

Quick, easy and lovely: String-tied Layered Cards

It doesn’t always have to take many long hours of work to create a beautiful card. In this week’s tutorial I’m sharing an idea for a quick & easy card design, for which you only need some pieces of paper, a piece of string and some tools.

You can use colored cardstock, design paper or a mixed media background to be the showstopper piece. I created my backgrounds with Distress inks by Tim Holtz.

A nice detail of this design is the piece of string, which you wrap around your card and tie into a bow on the inside of your card.

All in all I think you may actually create this card in under ten minutes – provided you already made your mixed media backgrounds at some time in the past, and have them at the ready (if you’re not opting for design paper or colored cardstock).

If you don’t have a die-cutting machine, you could also stamp a sentiment, or adhere a chipboard piece like in the picture below. In case you don’t own an embossing machine, you can easily skip the embossed layer entirely, also like the card below (shown in more detail in the video).

Enjoy the video tutorial! – which is, like this card design, short & sweet 🙂

Bored of your clothes? Paint them!

Recently I decided to put some paints onto some shirts, because why not. Plus, let’s face it, plain shirts look boring in their original state.

I can highly recommend the Tim Holtz Distress Paints to customize any fashion items you have, since they were designed with fabrics in mind. If you know of other brands that are suitable for both papercrafting/mixed media and fabric painting, then please let me know in the comments!

I also played around with my green screen, and it all went a little overboard, so apologies for the ridiculousness of it all – but I had great fun trying 😁

How to make your own storage trays

i don’t know about you but my online shopping has multiplied ever since the (several) lockdowns were instated the past 18 months. Which means the number of shipping boxes and other packaging that entered my house also multiplied by a significant factor.

Of course I threw away most of it – but not all. For nice storage boxes can be quite expensive. Plus, while creating your own boxes from scratch is certainly doable (I even have a tutorial available for you in my shop), it takes several hours – and sometimes I just want something quick and easy.

That’s where these packaging boxes come in: they can easily be re-used, especially if you’re in the market for a particular size or shape of storage.

For instance, this small and low-edged box below already looked very smooth and sleek, so it was ideal to alter:

The box below was not perfect (it had some jagged edges) but the size was great for my lipsticks so I decided to use it anyway. Since I planned to fill it to the brim I didn’t bother painting the inside. It turned out quite lovely and I’m still using it to this day:

And as a bonus, here’s a pen holder I created from scratch, using only empty toilet paper rolls. I had this specific project in mind for storing my eyeliners and lipliners, because I didn’t want to spend any money on it.

So, enjoy the video, in which I’m sharing some tutorials for these. Have fun crafting and let me know in the comments what you do with your empty packagings!

Turning Great Packaging into a Great Card

Recently I bought two of the Sydney Grace x Temptalia eyeshadow palettes, and found the packaging so lovely that I couldn’t bring myself to simply get rid of those wondrous sleeves, never to be seen again.

So, I turned them into a tea gift booklet, that I sent out to my friend. And let me tell you, that re-purposing was far more satisfying than simply throwing them out. 🙂

I didn’t use any design paper this time, just the two sleeves. For the inside and the two tiny booklets, I made my own mixed media background, using Tim Holtz’s spray and oxide inks.

In the below video I’m sharing this tea gift project, and the steps to create it. Enjoy!

The eyeshadow palettes of which I used the packaging: Sydney Grace x Temptalia

New Home Card: a 3D (mailable!) House

Here’s a fun idea for a New Home (or Welcome Home) card: send them a cute little home decor piece, by way of a 3D house which also functions as a tea light holder! 🙂

I’m sharing a video tutorial below, but first a photo tutorial with the steps to create this project. I used a die from AliExpress, but you could of course also imitate this by drawing a row of four houses yourself and fussy-cutting them.

Make a mixed media background (or take a piece of design paper, or cardstock)
Add some texture (like a brick pattern) with transparant texture paste and a stencil
Die-cut four houses in a row (or draw four little houses yourself and fussy-cut)
Fold, and glue together. Done!

And here’s the video tutorial, enjoy!