Category Archives: Low budget

Here’s all my low budget projects, by which I mean you need only very few basic materials. Enjoy!

December Deluge 2: A 1-sheet Micro Wallet

Posted on by
Reply

This December month I’ll post many projects on my blog, to give you some inspiration and ideas for your Christmas projects – and also to help you spend your holiday time creatively. In my previous post I showed you a quick Christmas Mini Album. Today: Part 2 of this December Deluge of creative ideas 🙂

There’s a particular 1-sheet mini photo wallet of which I’ve created several by now. It’s created from only one sheet of double-sided 12×12″ design paper, and it  looks something like this:

If you click on the picture, it will link to my free video tutorial for that kind of mini wallet.

This week I’m showing you a new micro version of this design, created with a 6×6″ sheet of paper! So cute! They measure only 2⅜” (6 cm) and can hold little pictures, or you could write little notelets with personalized messages, as I have.

These are quick to make and would make great alternatives for your standard Christmas present tags 🙂

Next up: December Deluge pt. 3: Nutcracker Sweet Christmas Cards! 

BewarenBewaren

BewarenBewaren

BewarenBewaren

Thanksgiving idea: Six Tiny Thank You Cardlets

Posted on by
Reply

SInce it’s almost Thanksgiving (which we don’t celebrate in the Netherlands, but still 😉 ) I’m sharing a Thank You project with you all today.

If you’re in need of a way of showing your gratitude to someone, why not create a personalized little card?
For instance, recently I changed departments so I said goodbye to some colleagues. I made them each a unique and personalized Thank You notelet. I worked with four different paper collections: Mariposa (DCWV), Craftsman (Prima), A Proper Gentleman (Graphic 45) and Spring (Precious Marieke).

Needless to say my colleagues really enjoyed them 🙂 Hope you find this idea inspiring and create lots of them yourselves! 🙂

Enjoy the video and stay crafty, see you next week!

 

Two masculine-themed cardlets for the guys in my team:

 

Awesomeness: 1-sheet Interactive Card!

Posted on by
Reply

Sometimes you want to send someone an awesome card, but you don’t have the time to spend hours and hours of creating. That is why I love my quick scrap projects!

I designed this card from only 1 sheet of doublesided 12×12″ (30,5×30,5 cm) design paper, with just a couple of folds and cuts. I also added some cardstock for the tags, and a few little embellishments. This design helps you to create a luxurious, interactive card within less than 60 minutes of creating!

It also enables you to use up those single sheets of double-sided design paper you might still have left over from other projects.

Or, in my case, the design lets me indulge myself in just buying single sheets that really stand out from their collections, without having to buy the entire collections and all that goes with them 🙂

To help you all along I wrote a tutorial for you, which you can acquire for a very sharp price in my Etsy shop 🙂

Enjoy the video and pictures below, and stay crafty!

 

BewarenBewaren

BewarenBewaren

BewarenBewaren

Stylish micro tri-fold card

Posted on by
Reply

Although I’ve done my share of larger mini albums, and also created an XL card, I really love my micro projects as well. Recently I made a tri-fold cardlet, teeny-tiny and supercute. I aimed for a modern, stylish feel. The birthday lady for whom it was intended, while very feminine, was not of the girly-girly pink stuff persuasion 😉

I chose DCWV’s Immortal Love paper, and got to work with some cardstock, some glitter glue, a couple of stamps and a single brad. Of course I inked around all of the edges with distress ink: Black Soot by Tim Holtz.

A small word of warning in case you want to create one yourself: this is not a so-called quick-scrap that you can create last-minute when you’re in a hurry. Although it’s very easy to make, the use of glitter glue requires a lot of drying time that you’ll have to take into account when planning your project. Just saying 😉

Anyway, here’s the pictures!

Closed – A blinged-up belly band is keeping the little tri-fold closed. It measures about 4 x 6 cm (appr. 1.5 x 2.5 inches)

Open

Front panel – I used two different colors of Tim Holtz’s distress ink to stamp a rose on the front. I used sticky embossing powder by Ranger to turn the image into a glued surface, which I then sprinkled with Tim Holtz’s Clear Rock Candy distress glitter.

Left inside panel – I stamped ’46’ with black ink (the birthday girl’s age), which I then traced with red glitter glue. Simple, and gives a great effect!
Middle inside panel – I used red glitter glue to trace around the panel. Once the glitter glue had dried, I could write my birthway wish with a silver metal marker.
Back panel – No extra embellishments, this piece of paper was gorgeous enough in and of itself!

Left outside panel (turning the card over) – I stamped Handmade for you and traced the pattern of the paper with red glitter glue.

Middle outside panel – First I stamped Birthday Wishes onto a tiny tag I had created from a piece of design paper. I used red glitter glue to trace the edges of the tag. I used a silver-colored brad to attach the micro tag to another piece of design paper that I had cut to size. Only then did I mat the panel with the completed assembly.

 

So, this was my micro project, hope you liked it and got some inspiration from it! See ya again soon, with a new video post! 🙂

 

 

Mini Thank You Wallet

Posted on by
Reply

We’re pretty used to sending eachother birthday cards, but this time the theme is Thank You! 🙂

In my case, to thank my singing teacher for a year of great lessons – but you can of course come up with many things to be grateful for, and actually sharing that with someone! In that sense it would also be a great little wallet to add to your Thanksgiving present that you’ve bought (or created!) for your Thanksgiving Dinner Hosts!

I’ve done a tutorial a couple of blog posts ago, in case you want to create one yourself – it’s really very easy! 🙂

So, what are you grateful for? Leave a reply in the comment section! 🙂

Quick Scrap: Eight cute bookmarks

Posted on by
Reply

Here’s several ideas for some bookmarks, large & small.
Bookmarks are the ideal quick scrap project: it’s quick, fun and perfect for using up those lovely scraps you have left over from your other projects. Also, they make a great gift, for instance as a companion piece to a novel that you’re gifting someone (or, in my case, a hardcover comic 🙂 ).

These bookmarks have no bulk whatsoever of course, for they have to fit tightly between the pages of your novel. Except for their very top, for that will be the show piece, sticking out above your book 😉

As always, enjoy the video and let me know what you think. Also: like & subscribe 🙂

 

Hippo Birdy wallet tutorial (only one sheet of paper!)

Posted on by
Reply

Here’s a quick tutorial for creating a fun little birthday wallet.

I keep coming back to this design because it looks great, it’s easy to make and takes only one sheet of 12×12 inch double-sided scrapbookpaper. So I thought I’d share this with you and show you how to make it! 🙂

If you want some more inspiration, click the links below for my other versions.

 

Dutch language version available as well this time (without the tutorial):

 

Previous versions of this wallet: 

Micro version of this wallet:

How to decoupage a candle

Posted on by
Reply

You may have heard of decoupage or napkin technique. It’s a fun way to alter objects, usually made of wood or paper mache. But did you know you can decoupage a candle as well? It’s the same technique, except you’re using special, flame-resistant candle podge instead of regular podge.

You can check out some examples of decoupaged candles in my blogpost on Easter decorations, for some inspiration. Meanwhile, here’s a tutorial on how to decoupage your own candle – and let’s make it a Valentine’s Day version this time, why don’t we 🙂
So enjoy the video and have fun experimenting!

 

Please feel free to like & subscribe and leave your remarks and questions in the comment section below!

BewarenBewaren

How to create a scrap mat – a tutorial

Posted on by
2

Here’s a little tutorial on how I make so-called ‘scrap mats’. This is what I call the photo mats that I create from leftover scraps of design paper.

You see the thing is, I just like to use up as much of my design paper as I can – I guess it’s a combination of enjoying as much of a particular paper stack as possible on the one hand, and frugality on the other. I mean, you’d be surprised how much photo mat real-estate the right combination of scraps generates! (What can I say, I’m just weird that way 😉 )

Meanwhile, the results have been quite cool, imho. So check it out and find out how to create these mats yourself!

BewarenBewaren

Condolences/Sympathy wallet card

Posted on by
Reply

Recently I found myself in the unfortunate position of having to ponder the question whether or not it’s okay to craft a sympathy card. Would it be considered an annoyance, an act of inconsiderateness, or would it be received as the small, unique expression of well-meant sympathy it was intended to be? I decided to take the risk and go for the latter, and did my utmost to make it tasteful, warm and heartfelt. And I’m glad I did, for it was well-received!

The design is a familiar one that I have used a couple of times before, as you can see here and here. But I chose it anyway because it’s just the perfect little wallet for photos or small notes that a person who has just lost a loved one might want to keep inside the card, to carry with them easily.

I always use double-sided design paper for this type of mini wallet, so that both the inside and outside of the pockets aren’t simply white but show matching colors and patterns. This particular 12×12 inch sheet is called “Sunset”, by Creamotion.

Front: I deliberately wrote “With sympathy” by hand instead of typing or printing it, because I wanted to ensure a very personal feel.

The card is held closed by a belly band, kept clean and simple. The “With sympathy” part is actually a flip tag, tucked into the front corner pocket. On the inside of the tag I wrote my personal message.

The mini wallet holds six black cards, to hold photos, notes or to write down some cherished dates and memories. I created tabs for two of them, using the black pearlescent sheet of the Gemstones paper pad.

Flip open the paper wallet and two more pockets appear, holding one notecard each.

And finally, the backside of this little wallet, mirroring its front. 

 

Have you ever created a sympathy card? What design and color theme did you choose?

 

Two quick photo wallets with K&Company’s “Charlotte” paper

Posted on by
Reply

The photo wallet I showed you in one of my previous blogposts takes only about 1-2 hours to create and you only need one sheet of 12×12 inch design paper and one sheet of cardstock. All in all, it’s pretty easy to make, which makes it an ideal project whenever you’re in a hurry.

Since both my mother and myself were in need of a “quick card”, I therefore turned to this particular model of photo wallet, for which I found the basic design on Youtube, by a lady calling herself stampingholly, who posted it in 2008 (!).

I used design paper by K&Company called Classic K – Charlotte, which is a beautiful, vintage romance design stack in greens, pinks and blues.

The little photo wallet holds 6 tags which can either be used as photo mats or as journaling spots. Which means you can actually carry 6-12 pictures in it! Who’d a thunk 😉
Anyway, here’s both mini wallets!

Mini wallet #1

Next to the six cards that come with this mini wallet, I added a seventh tag in the small extra front pocket.  I had printed my birthday wishes onto the tag, then I embellished it with a nice green “blingy” flower and covered it in a thin layer of pink glitter glue – which I did after I had printed it of course ;-).

When you remove the card from the main front pocket, the pattern paper underneath becomes visible; as you can see I chose the “closure ribbon” in the same shade of light blue as this pattern.

The mini wallet shows two cute little hot pink tabs, which I fussy cut myself and then embellished with some pink stickle glue.

Each tab is attached to a card, which is meant for journaling or as a photo mat. Each card has its own pocket btw (so there are six pockets for six cards).

When you open the mini wallet, you gain access to yet another two cards.

And last but not least, the back of the mini wallet is the mirror image of its front.

Mini wallet #2

The second mini wallet was constructed in exactly the same way, except with a different sheet of pattern paper from the Charlotte stack – and different colors of both photo mats and tabs to match.

I punched a little half circle out of each inner page, so as to create a way to grab hold of the cards inside the pockets.

Like I said, this mini wallet is pretty easy to make. If you’d like to give it a try yourself, just go to Youtube and search for stampingholly’s photo wallet video from 2008.

Until next time, stay creative! 🙂

BewarenBewaren

How to create a coin envelope (to match your tag booklet)

Posted on by
Reply

In one of my previous posts I showed you a cute tag booklet that I designed. In the end I decided I needed an envelope to match, so I created one – and figured I might as well show you how!

There’s no measurements because I eyeballed the whole thing, which sometimes is simply the easiest and quickest way to go 😉

Anyway, let me know what you think or if you have any questions. Enjoy the video! (as always available in both English and Dutch)

Click here if you can’t see the video.

 

Klik hier als je het filmpje niet kunt zien.

BewarenBewaren