Category Archives: Spring/Summer

A full-blown micro album

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I’m so excited to share my latest project with you all! As you may have noticed in some of my previous posts, I have a “thing” for creating mini booklets. Not just because they’re cute, but also because it’s a nice way to use leftover scraps of paper. Recently I decided to take it to the next level and I came up with a full-blown micro album! 🙂 By which I mean the perfect miniature version of a mini album I had created previously. And I’m so very pleased with the result!

So here’s my Little Miss micro album. As a bonus, I added a “scene” to the video featuring its big sister, my Little Miss mini album. 🙂

 

What do you do with the sheets and scraps of design paper you have left over?

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Flora and Fauna gatefold keepsake album deluxe

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When my mother saw the Butterflies & Stars keepsake album I had recently designed for a friend, she immediately commissioned one herself, as a present for her cousin. There are some differences between the two albums though. For instance, this Flora and Fauna album is somewhat larger than its predecessor; the designs of both its base pages and its cover pieces are different as well.

All in all it took 21 sheets of A4 cardstock for the construction of the pages and tags and about 23 sheets of double-sided design paper (12×12 inches). For the cover I took two 12×12 inch pieces of cardboard, created five unique pieces and arranged them just so.

Two pieces of linen bookcloth strengthen the folds of both spines. The magnets I used for the closure are by Basic Grey, they’re absolutely the strongest crafting magnets I could find!

My mother’s cousin is a dear 80-year-old who loves her garden and everything in it, so my mother wanted somewhat of a “garden theme with little birds and bees and butterflies”.

Fortunately K&Company’s gorgeous Flora and Fauna design paper was already eagerly awaiting me in my stash, begging me to be used – and the very pale lavender color of the cardstock turned out to be the perfect combination. I also used some of the matching embellishments and design elements that go along with this paper – which I’ll show you in de video.

Anyway, long story short, the keepsake album turned out rather beautifully and I’m more than happy with it myself. If you’d like to create an album like this yourself, check out the tutorial for my Springtime Dreams Keepsake Album, for it has the same basic page design!

Now, on to the video, and the pictures below!

 

Poetry birthday card “Mariposa”

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A birthday card of my own design, using the gor-ge-ous Mariposa design paper stack by DCWV – the paper I also used in my recent Keepsake mini album.

There are two poems in the card, one of the front, one inside a flip tag. Both are printed of course, as is the tag containing the birthday wishes.

By the way, I tend to view designing a card the same way I approach creating page layouts for my mini albums, and this card is no exception. I guess it’s my personal style 😉
Take a look, and see what I mean 🙂

What kind of particular personal style do you have when it comes to creating your cards?

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Commemorative keepsake album “Butterflies & Stars”

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My friend commissioned a mini album and she wanted something special, a true keepsake, easy to put between other books (so no dimensional embellishments and extra protection for the pages) and last but not least: incorporate a two-fold theme of butterflies and stars (for personal reasons).

Some commission! 🙂 So, I came up with a new design, taking a little bit of inspiration from both Kathy Orta and a lady calling herself Angelwings14100 on Youtube. Of course I personalized it, creating a unique design by adding my own style, interpretation and of course some original design elements.

Above: One of my original design elements; I created a charm element that incorporated both my usual little Handmade token and the the dual theme of the album, in this case Butterflies & Stars

Here’s the Show & Tell video of my Keepsake album:

And here’s the links to the inspiration videos I mentioned:

Looking forward to you letting me know what you think!

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Paper walkthrough: Flora & Fauna by K&Company

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This is truly a very lovely paper that reminds me of a walk through the park in spring with lots of grass and flowers, trees and birds – and their little eggs! I know it’s autumn now, but with gray, wet skies covering the Netherlands I like to think ahead and picture next year’s spring in my mind! 🙂

As its name suggests, its theme is all flowers, plants, birds and butterflies, although it also has one sheet of music & poetry – couldn’t tell you why for the life of me, but it’s beautiful nonetheless. Maybe there’s someone reading poetry in that park, accompanied by someone playing a soothing melody on the piano…..

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

Large pockets & tags card + bookmark – “Mediterranean”

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Ah, those beautiful last days of summer… In the Netherlands summer has been short but sweet, with the early September sun trying its best to still give us a little warmth. So before we have to say goodbye to summer definitively, we can take one more look at it and celebrate its vibrant colours with this cheery birthday card!

It’s turned out rather large (A5), has a strong blue (think Mediterranean Sea) for its base and sports several tags and pockets. And, as a special bonus feature, there’s a bookmark too! An actual one, not a digital one – just adding that for the young people reading this and wondering what a paper bookmark might be… 😉

Here’s a little photo shoot I did. The design paper I used is by some nameless Dutch brand, it has no title of its own but I’m calling it Mediterranean. Because it looks……. Mediterranean – but then again, you’d already figured that one out yourself, had you not? 🙂

Front – setting the Mediterranean tone with a sunny flip pocket:

Inside the flip pocket is – of course – a tag. I will personalize it by printing some birthday wishes onto it and who knows, I may even do some stamping!

Inside – Summer landscape on the left, sea-themed pocket on the right, with a dolphin tag hanging from a gold-colored brad and a blue ribbon along the border of the pocket. The pocket holds a bookmark, with a quote from a well-known Dutch literary writer. The quote reads something like: “Good literature has the ability to make us see through another person’s eyes.”

Back – Two matching side-loading pockets with identical dolphin tags/photo mats. On the other side of the tags is room for journaling, or for writing some personal messages to the recipient.

What colors do you associate with summer? And with what craft project are you saying goodbye to this year’s summer season? 

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Cinch mini album in a box + some of my favorite tools

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My first ring-bound mini album, using my brand new Cinch binding tool! I designed a custom-made box around it too, which makes it very nice, tidy and compact, and easy to keep in your bookcase.

The paper is gorgeous by the way (what else is new 🙂 ) – it’s Prima’s Madeline design paper, and I used both the A4 stach and the 6×6 inch pad.

I’m very pleased with the result, but of course I learned a lot too while creating this ringed album: what to do and more importantly, what NOT to do… Just check out the video and see what I mean 😉

In the video I’m also showing you some of the tools I use by the way.

For this album I was partly inspired by Kathy Orta’s build-a-page design,
and also by Ginger from My Sisters Scrapper for the page insert at the back of the mini album.

What are your favorite tools for paper crafting? Let me know in the comments section below! 🙂

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Pocket Page mini album + Mini booklet – Bohemian Bazaar

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Bohemian Bazaar is one of Graphic 45’s new collections of this summer. The colours are bright and primary, the atmosphere of the collection is… well, I guess you could say Bohemian. Although I was immediately drawn to it and didn’t hesitate to buy it, I suddenly had some doubts once I held it in my hands: was this really as beautiful as I had imagined it?

A love-hate affair was brewing and during the worst of it I had even offered it up for sale on some online marketplace. Lucky for me, there weren’t any interested buyers at the time; lucky, for a couple of weeks later I suddenly liked it again (did I mention it was love-hate?). So, I decided to immediately make good of this positive moment in my hesitant relationship with this paper, and whipped-up another pocket page mini album. Its construction is basically the same as my Little Miss mini.
I keep being amazed at how much a simple change in design paper matters, for this one looks completely different from the Little Miss mini album!

And the great thing is: I absolutely love how this little mini has turned out! Who’da thunk…
In fact, I find it so gorgeous that I can’t even imagine not having liked the paper for even one day. 🙂
Oh, and I threw in a little mini booklet as well, to go along with it as a companion piece, like say, for a birthday card or something. I mean, I couldn’t just throw away all those scraps could I? – Ah, those gorgeous little pieces of paper…. Did I tell you how much I love this paper?

Anyway, click here if you can’t see the video below.

 

How about you? With which project, material or tool do you have a love-hate affair?

Paper walkthrough: Madeline (Prima)

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Here’s another lovely design paper stack by Prima Marketing: it’s called Madeline and has a floral theme in teal, green, wine red and brown. I started modestly with only the 6×6 inch paper pad, but that didn’t last very long… 😉

Anyway, here’s the two-minute video – click here if you can’t see it.

Pocket page mini album “Little Miss”

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Once I discovered Bo Bunny’s lovely design paper Little Miss, I couldn’t wait to do a project with it. Okay, what else is new, right. But guess what, this time I really didn’t wait and have actually already finished a project with it – and after several “for a guy projects” the past month, I went all out and made it a very girly little album! 🙂 For this 6×6 inch mini album I was inspired by Ginger from My Sisters Scrapper; you can check out her original design here.

I gave it my own style and design elements of course, using Vintage Photo distress ink by Tim Holtz to distress the paper.

Above: a unique design element: I came up with my own paper closure technique for this interactive little fold-out piece, which was great fun!

With its warm browns and soft, lush pinks, this paper is very easy to fall in love with. It also seemed to invite me to embellish more than I usually do…. So I went a little more baroque (only a little) and added my first “spine ornament” to the cover. Anyway, see for yourselves and let me know what you think! 🙂

Oh, and I went on to make a tutorial for the Double Circle Closure I invented, as seen on the last page of this mini. You can check that out here.

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

 

So what girly projects have you enjoyed creating yourself?

Summer tag card “Mediterranean”

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One of my very first scrapping projects was actually a tag card for my friend. I had found its design on the internet, created by a lady called Elsa, with Justafew Designs (you can check out her Youtube channel here). The tag card is quite easy to make and you can personalize it with photos or beautiful pictures.

My first tag card

I don’t know about you all, but here in the Netherlands we’ve had an unexpectedly hot summer the last couple of weeks. So to inspire your summer craft projects, here’s an alternative version of that first little tag card of mine – mediterranean style!

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

 

Klik hier als je het filmpje hieronder niet kunt zien.

Are you working on any summer-themed craft projects? By all means, let me know and share your thoughts/ideas! 🙂

Until next time, stay creative!

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Birthday mini pocket gift card

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Another one of my “August projects” :-), this is actually an alternative rendering of one of my first mini card designs. I used the Sweet Threads paper pad by Basic Grey again because it’s simply too lovely not to use regularly.

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

 

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