Just a quick note to let you know I just did an interview with Alura, you can read it here!
Alura create tools for Etsy sellers to start, run and grow their shop and they have a series where they feature successful Etsy sellers. They wanted to hear more about my story and what has worked for me. Well, as I said in the interview, considering my relatively small numbers I’m hardly the one to tell anyone how to run a magnificently successfulI Etsy shop 😅 but I still think my story might offer some encouragement for sellers just starting out.
I tried to make it a fun read and I would be thrilled if you all would take a few minutes of your day to read the interview, and perhaps share it with someone who is considering opening an Etsy shop themselves. They might find, hopefully, some inspiration.
I’ve worked many moons on this project, but I’m very proud to (finally!) present: my latest mini album!
This is a hefty girl, with 10 multi interactive page assemblies plus interactive inside covers. I needed four(!) 12×12” + one 8×8” design paper collections, OMG.
So this is a real stash eater, for all of you out there who’ve been hoarding collecting their design papers for quite some time…🤡
All of the gorgeous papers I worked with were by Stamperia. I used the following collections: Lady Vagabond, Sir Vagabond (8×8″), Time is an Illusion (2 packs), and Clockwise.
Anyway, here are the video and some pictures, feel free to leave a comment or ask any questions!
Hey guys! It’s been a while, but I’m still here 😎. In fact, I’m working on a brand new steampunk-themed mini album – sneak peek in the video below!
Meanwhile, I’m sharing this book stack project of mine, which I filled up with some pictures but mostly pieces of journalling, that I edited and then printed myself.
Hopefully this gives you some new ideas, or at least inspires you to keep trying new things! 🙂 If you’d like to create this particular project yourself, check out Tutorial #43 in my shop. It consists of a 3-part tutorial set, namely a separate tutorial for each part of the project: the boxes, the folio album and the booklets.
Enjoy your summer (it’s raining here 🙄) – and the video!
So I finally made it to the end of this new mini album design project I set out to do several weeks ago. If you want to skip straight to the video, scroll down to the end of this post.
I’ve felt significantly less creative energy since the lockdown(s) started, so I’m having trouble crunching out new album designs every month, like I used to. But, I got this one done, and it’s definitely NEW!
I designed what I’m calling a faux paperbag mini album, and because it also sports four fold-out and/or popping elements, I added ‘pop-up’ to the title as well. But there are more themes than it just being faux paperbag and having pop-ups. It is also rich in belly bands, plus it offers several micro envelopes. So if I wanted to be precise about it, my design would be called a Faux Paperbag Pop-up Belly Band and Micro Envelope Mini Album. Phew, that would be a mouthful…
If you’re wondering why the “faux”, well, I didn’t use actual paperbags. Instead, I created my own, while still employing the techniques that are typical for a paperbag mini, like the binding style, as well as the many flaps and the way they are styled.
If I managed to charm you into wanting to create one yourself, then head on over to my shop. There are lots of customers who left reviews, so I recommend rummaging through those if you want to check what other crafters think before you make a purchase.
The papers I used were from AliExpress this time, so I guess you could also consider this another AliExpress product test. I have to say I loved this Paper Designer or perhaps Enogreeting pad (I’m still not sure what the brand is actually called), with its beautiful graphic designs in vintage colors. Moreover, it measured 18×18 cm (7×7″), which I believe is quite unique in the papercraft community.
I suspect it may be a dupe for an older Kaisercraft collection, but if it is, I’m not aware of it. If you do recognize it, please leave a comment below!
I also did some mixed media techniques this time. Not only on the napkin fold element in the back of the album, but also on the spine, for which I altered a piece of pitch black book muslin and turned it into a nice muted slate gray pattern on an antique bronze base.
As for the cute little pop-up I added to one of the page layouts, I used a pop-up die for that. And I did a video tutorialon how to use it, a couple of blog posts ago.
I also did a video tutorial for the Twist & Pop element in the album, you can find that here.
And last but not least, the video tutorial for the Napkin Fold element at the end of the album, is only one click awaytoo.
So, finally, here’s the end of my blabbing along endlessly. On to the video! 🙂
No tutorial for this one yet, let me know if you’d be interested in one
A couple of years ago I designed and created a very sturdy folio mini album, with the nature-themed Time to Flourish collection by Graphic 45. My mother now owns it, and she asked me to fill it up with some of the awesome closeup pictures my father took, mostly of flowers, insects and birds in their own garden.
And since it’s always nice to see a handcrafted mini album filled up with pictures, I thought I’d share it with you one more time 🙂 .
In the video I’ll be sharing some general tips for filling your mini albums with pictures:
Don’t be afraid to rigorously crop your pictures when your page design or paper pattern requires it;
Die-cut your pictures into shapes, like circles, rectangles, squares, labels;
Apply glitter glue or liquid pearl all around the edges of some of your pictures;
Fussy cut the main subject from your pictures if the background or the rest of the picture is boring or irrelevant;
Trim your pictures down to miniature size to fit them onto smaller tags – simply find a picture with a small main subject;
If two pictures don’t fit onto one page, use washi tape as a hinge for one of them and stack them;
And last but not least, my favorite: color-coordinate between your pictures and your design paper as much as you can!
If you want to create this yourself, check out my tutorial. I also did a second iteration with a masculine paper collection, you can find that one here.
With the current year nearing its close – and what a bizarre year that has been – I’m considering some new ideas for my blog and Youtube channel. Counting the fact that we haven’t been able to go out shopping and hunting for new craft collections on the one hand, and given the fact that many of us may have lost (part of) our incomes, I figured next year might be a No Buy Year for me, as far as craft supplies are concerned. Or, to be more realistic, at least a Buy Less Year.
Shopping my stash would be a great way to go about that, being that by now my stash probably rivals the inventories of many a small “Craft Shoppe” (sorry, not sorry).
So to give that a try before dedicating an entire year to it, I shopped my stash for my latest mini album. What I found was an almost forgotten treasure: TheSweetest Thing – Lavender collection by My Mind’s Eye. I only had ten design paper sheets, a couple of brads and a journalling card, but I decided to make do and use them all. I also borrowed a chipboard piece from a different collection and threw in an bunch of flowers and some feathers for good measure.
And here’s what I created: a sweet little two-page album in landscape mode! Tutorial available for all of you stash-shoppers with probably many a ten-sheet paper collection 🙂
And should you find mostly 12-sheet collections in your own stashes, that’s no problem at all: either add an extra album page, or simply add more photo mats/tags/booklets.
Enjoy! And please leave a comment: will you be shopping your stash more the coming weeks/months?
If you look at Papermania’s Nature’s Gallery collection you may think ‘spring’ or ‘summer’, but it definitely also gives me ‘muted fall colors’ vibes.
So when a group of colleagues asked me to create a ‘nature-themed album’ for a colleague who is retiring this month, I immediately suggested this collection.
They wanted a brag book for about 10-20 pictures and with 15 tags – one for each colleague to write a ‘waving goodbye’ message. So I created a 2-page mini album of about 7×10 inches, which looks elegant and sophisticated – yet is quite thin.
If you want to see it in different colors, check out my earlier version in bold autumn colors here.
There’s an easy to follow tutorial waiting for you in my Etsy shop, should you want to make some yourself! (They’d make great Thanksgiving or Christmas gifts 🙂 )
Enjoy the video and feel free to leave a comment in the comment section, either here or on Youtube!
Recently my mother asked me to fill the Treasured Memories Mini Album DeLuxe I designed for her when my father passed away, with their wedding pictures from 1968. The black & white pictures truly look amazing in this album!
This album design is very luxurious and offers room for many pictures, large and small. You can play with any possible album theme of course, especially if you have many pictures you want to keep in it. Just choose papers suitable to your taste and the occasion you have in mind.
To give you an example of how this album would look with different papers, check out my Joyful Reminiscing version. There’s also a tutorial available so you can create your own beautiful tome! 🙂
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).
Mintay Papers, Berrylicious, MT-BER-01
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! 🎉
My latest gatefold mini album isn’t as large as all of my previous ones; in fact it’s a very decent carry-on size of 14.5 x 15.3 cm (5¾ x 6”). I chose Bo Bunny’s summer-colored Serendipity collection, which is full of birds, feathers & nests, but with kind of a twist.
Also, this time I didn’t just mat the pages; I worked with lots of photo mats, which I blended with design papers while creating my own page mosaics. Use repositional tape for the photo templates, so you can easily remove them and replace them with pictures of exactly the same shape and size.
This one is a fun one again: it only takes three page assemblies to make it, but with lots and lots of page flaps, pockets and tuck spots! Of course there’s a tutorial for all of you who’d like to create and customize your own. Bonus: you get a free cutting guide with all of the photo templates and mats I used, so if you want you can completely imitate my photo mosaics – though of course you can design your own too! (or create more than one and utilize both techniques 🙂 ).
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 😉 .
If you’re in the mood for a larger project, I’ve got just the thing for you! 🙂 For here’s my latest design, a gatefold mini album with a small box pocket and a bonus project, a mini folio!
If you’re going to work many hours you should choose the loveliest papers you can find, for you’ll be looking at them for quite some time 😉 My choice this time was the Dear Diary collection by Mintay Papers. Very lovely indeed.
So, enjoy the show & tell video, and of course some pictures below. Tutorial available!
