For my first batch of 2020 Christmas cards I planned on scrapping up an entire 6×6 inch paper pad and make 7 cards in the style I showed in my previous blog post.
To that end I have a tip for you: to avoid being overwhelmed by an entire pad, just rip out all of the sheets and make little 3-sheet stacks – for you’ll need 3 sheets for each card (plus some cardstock of course).
In the end I made only one card in the style I planned; then I went with the creative Flow and made five more cards, all in their own unique styles. Oh well, plans are made to be thrown out right.
The point being, don’t let those pesky little paper pads get the advantage – you’re the boss, so rip them apart and use every single last one of those lovely sheets. You go!
This week I’m sharing a tip to make the most out of your precious (and often quite expensive!) design papers: use up as much of your leftover scraps as you can and turn them into a new project, in this case a card.
Here are the scraps and leftovers I worked with…
…doesn’t look like much does it? And yet, with some simple techniques and a little bit of creativity you can still make something lovely from them.
So here’s to never having to throw away your leftovers ever again! (unless you want to 😉 )
Although I’m a bit of a design paper collector and like to have a lot of choice when deciding which project to create next, I’m also a frugal crafter. I simply don’t like to throw away design paper that could still be used.
But if you only have like one piece of paper left of any substance, the question may rise what to make with it. This week’s post is all about that: I had one piece of design paper of about 4×12″ (10 x 30 cm) left over from my Harmonica Micro Album, plus some small snippets.
Here’s what I created with it – and you can create it with me.
A little while ago I shared a video tutorial on how to create Version 1 of my deconstructed envelope cards. Today it’s time for Version 2, the original of which I shared in one of my previous posts, it looked like this:
So this week you can learn how to create one yourself, by following along with my new video tutorial! Just pause the video at any time you want to read one of the measurements or instructions, or if you want to study a detail.
Have fun creating, and leave a comment if you like!
This week I’m sharing something I learned about Ranger’s Distress Micro Glaze, in combination with Distress inks, gesso and Glimmer Mist: they don’t go well together. 🙃
So this was my process: I stamped with Archival ink on a card, but some ink accidentally landed on the lady’s face. I could have started over of course but I always like to try and fix things, for you learn way more this way. So I ended up putting some gesso on her face in an attempt to cover up the spilt ink. Perhaps not my best idea ever, but: “You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit” (quoting Tim Holtz).
That didn’t look too great of course, so I then decided to cover all skin parts in gesso, to get consistent texture at least. I then proceeded to watercolor the image and background with Distress Reinkers and added some embellishments.
So far so good, except I didn’t like the background at all, I felt it needed more interest. I used Distress Micro Glaze to seal the inked image, roughly covered the blings with some kitchen towels and sprayed the card with a Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels (remember those? I must have had this in my stash for at least 5-6 years…)
The reason I sealed the image was of course to prevent it from being glimmermisted. I only roughly covered the blings because I expected the image to be sealed anyway so I thought it didn’t matter I wasn’t too precise.
However, as it turns out, the Glimmer Mist took hold everwhere I had used the gesso and the image was not covered! Since that was only parts of her skin, she now looked, well, bruised…😱ðŸ¤
So I decided to spray the entire image with Glimmer Mist, turning the lady completely purple – in what I’d now like to call an Artsy Way.😎 A less than perfect solution no doubt, but it was the only one I could come up with. Besides: “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!” (quoting Steve Jobs).
To finish up, I added a die-cut in metallic purple, and I sprayed the back of the card as well – mostly as an afterthought, but I’m glad I did it.
So now we know either one of two things (I’m not sure which at the moment): a. either Micro Glaze does NOT seal Distress Ink on gesso, or b. Distress Micro Glaze only seals surfaces from other Distress products, and not other kinds (like Glimmer mist). More experimentation will be needed to find out which… 🤓
And of course I’m curious: what would have been your solution, either to deal with the spilt Archival ink, or the partly purple, quasi-bruised lady? Let me know in the comment section!
My friend told me her 13-year old daughter (hi Mia!) was on the lookout for papercraft projects to create herself, especially since the lockdown measures have been keeping all of us mostly at home the past months. So I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be fun if she had not only an idea offered to her, but also the materials to create it, together with an actual project example to learn from.
So I chose one of my card designs that would be fairly simple to imitate, and set out to make one. After which came another fun part: rummaging through my (quite elaborate) stash and finding all kinds of bits, pieces and ephemera for her to use to create her card.
There were some things she would not be able to imitate, like the stamps and die-cuts I had used, so I stamped and die-cut several elements for her and added them to her gift box.
Finally I decided that she could use some extra supplies, since she might want to create even more cards on her own.
I had a lot of fun with this ‘reverse haul’ – giving gifts always makes me happy, it’s so much fun to think about little details that capture what you know about someone, even if that isn’t very much 🙂 So I hope this video inspires you to go look for that same kind of happiness, by creating your own gift box for someone you know (or their teen).
By the way, stay tuned for my next blog post, in which I will show you my step-by-step proces of creating the large butterfly. 😉
Watercoloring is a great way if, like me, you’re not a particularly good colorist, mainly because it’s a relatively forgiving technique. Water will help you blend out colors and sharp lines, at least a bit. Of course there is much to learn here, but even as a beginner I felt confident enough about my first water colored cards to actually send them out to people.
In the second half of the video I’m showing you some technique, when I’m coloring one of the envelopes. I used several colors of Distress Ink (minis) and Distress Markers. It was simply what I had, hence the combination of inks and markers. Since these Distress products are all water-based and really work well together, it’s great to combine them and create the color palette that you’re looking for.
Watercoloring is a great technique if you’re out on the road: contrary to scrapbooking, it takes very little to take with you what you need, and to have some relaxing moments while you’re not at home. Just do the stamping at home, and color them on the road. So while this will probably not become my main hobby, it will definitely stay in my papercraft repertoire!
You can know a design theoretically, but there’s nothing like actually seeing it in your hands, with design paper and decorations! Especially if you make different versions, with different colors, themes, occasions and recipients.
So this week I’m sharing the pretty well-known shutter-card design, done in two different ways: one is masculine, the other feminine.
Enjoy! And if you want a third variation, check out my Christmas version!
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! 🎉
A wallet card is a great category of cards if you want to send out something more elaborate and interactive than the regular single card or folded card. I’ve designed several versions of wallet cards, among which this type, which has two deep pockets, a flap and a belly band. You can add tags with sentiments, pictures and one time I even sent out a small bag of flower seeds in one of the pockets.
They are of course suitable for any occasion and you can choose your papers accordingly. This week I’m sharing a birthday version in bright and happy summer colors. For decoration I added several die-cuts, stamping, fussy-cutting, Stickles (glitter glue), enamel dots, washi tape and even some heat embossing. The inside flap has a punched border with cute birthday presents – thanks to a great Martha Stewart punch. The back flap sports a tiny orange umbrella brad that in itself has nothing to do with birthdays but that I simply fell in love with. In the pockets I tucked two large tags on which I printed some fun birthday sentiments.
All in all quite an elaborate card full of nice little nooks and crannies – and still relatively flat, so easy to send out in an envelope.
Hope to have inspired you to create some wallet cards of your own! And if you want to make this particular one, simply go check out my tutorial!
Have a great week, enjoy the weather and celebrate the eased lockdowns everywhere.
Papers used: 2 sheets from the double-sided Birthday Bash collection by Pink Paislee:
When time constraints are plaguing you and you still want to send out a lovely handcrafted card, try only decorating the front. And layer to your heart’s desire! Keep the bulk down though, if you want it to fit in its envelope.
This week’s card was created with papers & punch-outs by Studiolight and some leaf dies by Crealies. I also used two of the latest Stickles glitter glue colors.
Layering is mostly about two things:
Placement of elements
The order in which to glue everything down.
In this week’s video I’m letting you into my ‘craft kitchen’ so you can craft with me. Enjoy!
Nothing says “I like you” more than a Valentine’s card. You can send them to your beloved, your friend or even that secret crush you’ve got your eyes on 🙂
So this week I’m sharing two Mon Amour Valentine’s cards, one regular sized and one XXL for that extra special dearest one.
