Category Archives: Spring/Summer

Prima Romance Novel altered treasure chest, pt. 1 – Preview / Work in progress

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I’m working on a commissioned altered box at the moment, and I thought it would be fun to share some of the progress.

The person I’m making this for wants to send an altered box to his dear friend in New Zealand (yea, I’m being shipped overseas, woohoo! :-)). He has sent me some short notes he wants to be written on the box and furthermore he’s asked me to do something with a dandelion, or a dandelion theme, as this flower has special meaning to him and his friend.

Here’s what I came up with so far:

  1. I’m going to use the Romance Novel design paper stack, I don’t think there’s a paper out there that’s more fitting! It has everything you could want for a commission like this: it’s gorgeous, it’s romantic AND it has a love letter theme, including vintage postage stamps and the like! How cool is that for a gift that will actually be sent overseas by mail!
  2. I decided I wanted to find a way to create an actual paper dandelion, 3D, life size. Didn’t have a clue how to do it, but I was going to find out and make it work!

So, here’s some pics of the work in progress, enjoy!

The wooden box I’m altering. It’s kind of a mini treasure chest and it’s about 3.5×2.5×2.5 inches (9x6x6 cm). Isn’t it adorable?

First I removed its lock and the hinges on the back. Then I painted it dark brown except its little legs which I painted gold, using simple acryllic paint. I mixed it with a pearl paint to create a pearly shine. Then I sprayed glimmer mist on the whole thing, using Tattered Angel’s Iridescent Gold and Vanilla Breeze. Nothing too fancy, but it does create a very nice, subtle effect. Plus, this box has Golden Feet! 🙂

Here’s the layout for the box. I sprayed each piece of paper with a bit of glimmer mist, using the same two colors I used on the box. Of course I’m going to distress everything as well, for which I’ll be using Tim Holtz’s Black Soot distress ink.


On to the creation of the dandelion. Fortunately the internet was there to teach me how to make one (check out Inna’s Creations, a very creative Israeli lady whose website I stumbled onto. She makes gorgeous paper art!). I started by creating the paper strip on this picture.

Roll up tight!

And spread the little petals. Done – A cute little life-sized paper dandelion! Thank you Inna! 🙂


I’m going to put this inside the box, so that when my friend’s friend opens it, a lovely, bright piece of summer will smile at her 🙂

So, this was part 1 – hope you enjoyed it!

I’ll be showing you the finished product in part 2. Until then, stay creative!

Paper walkthrough: Romance Novel by Prima

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Ah, this gorgeous gorgeous design stack is such a delight that I’m hesitant to even use it! Perhaps I’ll simply stare at it for a couple of minutes a day…

Click here if you don’t see the video / Klik hier als je geen filmpje ziet.

 

Edit April 10th, 2013: As it turns out, this design stack is also available in A4 size. I don’t think it’ll come as a very big surprise that I immediately bought that too as soon as I heard of its existence… 😉

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Mini wallet gift card

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Here’s a nice little mini photo wallet gift card I designed for a friend’s birthday. Along the way it turned into sort of an alternative to sending someone a bunch of flowers – sort of, with a huge wink. 😉

I used a 6×6 inch (15×15 cm) paper stack called Sweet Threads by Basic Grey, which has lovely colors.

Click here if you don’t see the video below.

Hieronder ook de Nederlandstalige video.

 

Also, check out my alternative version here!

 

 

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Candles to match your Easter / spring ornaments

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So I decoupaged some Easter eggs a couple of days ago. Saturday, the day before Easter, I decided I definitely needed some candles to go with them. So, here they are!

I used the same napkin technique, only this time with different glue of course, in order to be able to light them safely. It’s a special candle podge, which will prevent your napkins from catching fire – instead, they’ll neatly melt along with your candle. Perfect.

So, here’s the three decoupaged candles, and my springtime living room to match! 🙂

Dutch translation:

Drie geservette kaarsen in Paas-/lentethema zorgen voor extra kleur en gezelligheid! Let op: om kaarsen te servetten moet je wel speciale lijm gebruiken om ongelukken te voorkomen (zie foto hierboven).

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Season’s greetings – with decoupaged Easter ornaments

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Usually I don’t decorate my Easter eggs – assuming there are any Easter eggs in my house at all, which isn’t necessarily the case each year, I simply buy them in the color I want. This year however, when I bought myself some eggy Easter branch ornaments after all, I decided to decorate the few white ones.

I used yellow and two shades of pink, since at the moment gold, yellow and pink (of the vintage kind, like Tim Holtz’s Tattered Rose distress ink that you can see in my explosion card post) are the colors I’d already decorated my living room with.

There were four white Easter eggs in the stash that I bought, in three different sizes. I decorated them by applying the napkin technique and adding some gold stickles, and here’s the results!

By the way, I found some mirror-imaged stickers with a cute spring theme – and I decided couldn’t not use them: how often do we find mirror-imaged stickers right? So, I stuck them onto a piece of card board with a small piece of thread to create a loop. Then I added a little gold stickle on a few spots. And lo and behold: Yet Another Easter Ornament to hang from my “tree” (which is actually a lamp, as I’m sure you’ve already noticed from the picture above).

Dutch translation:

Tot nu toe versierde ik nooit paaseieren – als ik überhaupt al paaseieren in huis had. Dit jaar vond ik echter een paar mooie, makkelijk op te hangen paaseieren, van het een kwam het ander en ineens hing mijn multifunctionele staande lamp vol. Deze lamp staat er normaalgesproken bij als een soort populier, met de takken helemaal omhoog, en doet verder alleen dienst als kerstboom (takken helemaal uitgevouwen). Vanaf dit voorjaar heeft ie een nieuwe functie: de Paasboom, met de takken ergens halverwege populier en kerstboom!

Er zaten een paar witte eitjes tussen de gekleurde en ik besloot om die dan toch maar te gaan versieren. Ze waren van kunststof en verven werd me te ingewikkeld (moet je eerst weer gaan primen en zo). Daarom koos ik voor de servettechniek. Omdat de rest van mijn woonkameraccessoires ook geel, goud en oud-roze zijn heb ik servetten in geel en twee tinten roze gebruikt. En vervolgens afgewerkt met gouden glitterlijm.

Hierboven het resultaat!

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Explosion box alternative: Explosion Card (with baby socks)

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Here’s an alternative for an explosion box that I came up with – which will come in handy if you want to send it over the mail!

The paper I used was Sweet Threads 6×6 inch design stack by BasicGrey. I distressed the paper with “tattered rose” distress ink by Ranger (Tim Holtz)  – which looks something like vintage pink. Or – a tattered rose, if you will 😉

Tattered Rose

Just make sure you put something inside the card that will create enough tension to make the card “explode”. Like the cute little baby socks I sent to a very happy pregnant couple!

Click here if you can’t see the video below.

 

Klik hier als je de video hieronder niet kunt zien.

Dutch translation

Deze uitklapkaart heb ik bedacht als handig alternatief voor de zgn. Explosion Box (een bijzonder type kadokaart), vooral als je het iemand over de post wilt toesturen!

Je hoeft alleen maar te zorgen dat het kadootje dat je erin doet genoeg papierspanning veroorzaakt om de kaart open te laten springen. Zoals de schattige babysokjes die ik hier heb gebruikt! Zorg er hoe dan ook voor dat het kadootje dat je in de kaart stopt voldoende papierspanning veroorzaakt, anders springt hij niet open en is het een gewone uitvouwkaart. Een goed voorbeeld van wat werkt zijn de superschattige babysokjes die ik heb gebruikt!

Het papier is Sweet Threads 15×15 cm, van BasicGrey. Het papier heb ik gedistressed met distress ink van Ranger (Tim Holtz), in de kleur “tattered rose”  – wat zoiets betekent als gehavende roos en in feite gewoon een vorm van oud-roze is 😉

 

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Paper walkthrough: Basic Grey Sweet Threads

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Now and then I will showcase some of the paper stacks that I use, or plan to use in the future, for all of you who consider buying some beautiful paper but can’t make out enough details of these tiny thumbnails they show you everywhere. I don’t know about you, but I always like to know what I’m buying, and I’m happy to share what I’ve already found out.

So here’s the first of what I’ll call my Paper Walkthroughs!

Click here if you don’t see the video below.

Dutch: Af en toe zal ik door een van mijn eigen papierblokjes heenlopen, zodat je beter kunt bepalen of je het eventueel ook wilt gaan gebruiken. Daar heb je waarschijnlijk meer aan dan aan die piepkleine fotootjes op internet.

Klik hier als je de video hieronder niet kunt zien.

SEI Couture cards & envelopes mini album

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— Nederlandstalige video onderaan!

To this day I’m not quite sure what, in “scrapbooking speak”, exactly counts as a mini album; based on what I’ve seen so far, I tentatively conclude that it means something like “any photo album smaller than 12×12 inch (or 30×30 cm)” – which is the standard size for the design paper stacks we all love so much. This of course would automatically mean that virtually every photo album we make is called a “mini album” even if it’s 11×11 inch, the logic of which escapes me somewhat – but since I haven’t yet found any proof to the contrary, I’m sticking to this definition. 😉

Anyway! On to the album! Excuse me, mini album. 🙂

I was inspired by one of Kathy Orta’s mini albums, added some of my own ideas and together with the gorgeous Couture paper stack by SEI it led to a pretty nice result. But don’t take my word for it, see for yourself. And by all means, let me know what you think!

Click here if you don’t see the video below.

 

Hieronder de Nederlandstalige video. Klik hier als je niks kunt zien.