My first Christmas mini album

This past year has been my first “full” year of paper crafting: it all started with the calendar I created for my mother back in November 2012, which seriously infected me with the “paper crafting virus” 🙂 . It has been a year of wonderful creativity and I’m very grateful for the many new techniques (new to me, at least…) I’ve been able to learn. Looking forward to 2014, I’m hoping to plan my craft projects more around the different seasons: not just taking into account the uniquely different feel of winter-spring-summer-autumn, but also bringing some of the holiday seasons into the mix. Not with every single project of course, I mean, sometimes you just want to use a certain design paper because it’s simply too gorgeous not to 🙂 – but generally speaking I feel it should be doable.

So, starting right now, at the end of 2013, I’m very happy to present you all with my very first Christmas mini album!

I used the Tis the Season paper collection by Kaisercraft and inked around all the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink by Tim Holtz. I’ve also incorporated some so-called scrap mats again, a technique I actually came up with (and named) myself. If you want to know how to make them, feel free to check out my tutorial!

If you’d like to know how such an album would look with pictures in it, check out the pictures underneath the video PLUS the 2017 update here! 🙂

Right, ’nuff said, on to the video!

 

Inside front cover – decorated this time, plus a picture (of little me 🙂 ) added to the photo mat:

Die-cutting the picture and finishing its edges with glitter glue adds interest to your photo mat! I also stamped the year in the lower right corner, in copper-colored ink:

Liked this mini? Then check out its little baby sister, my Christmas Micro album! 🙂

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL, AND THE HAPPIEST OF NEW YEARS!

A stack of tri-shutter Christmas cards!

A couple of blogposts ago I published my tutorial for a tri-shutter card. Since I’ve now sent out all my Christmas cards, it’s time to show you this holiday season’s version of a tri-shutter card – plus, how I made good use of the leftover scraps, as usual :-). Hopefully to inspire!

The paper I used was Holly Jolly by My Mind’s Eye. Enjoy!

Candles to match your Easter / spring ornaments

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

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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Photo editing: Happy Easter! (Vrolijk Pasen!)

Season’s greetings!

Wishing you all a glorious Easter, reflected each spring in the lovely colors the Lord paints our beautiful Earth with, celebrating the New Life conquered for us by Jesus’s death and resurrection! (in case you forgot Easter’s true meaning due to all the distractions of Easter eggs & bunnies 😉 )

I tried to capture a fraction of this colorful Glory in this picture, which I edited with Paintshop Pro XI. Of course featuring one of my very own top model guinea piggies – her name is Queen Ester, and isn’t she gorgeous! 🙂 (Meanwhile, she’s grown into a curly-haired beauty)

Enjoy a blessed Easter!

Je zou het niet zeggen, maar het is Lente! Tijd om te genieten van de mooie voorjaarskleuren waarmee God onze aarde elk jaar schildert, kleuren die het Nieuwe Leven uitdrukken dat Jezus voor ons heeft veroverd door Zijn dood en opstanding! (voor het geval je door alle paaseieren en paashazen de echte betekenis van Pasen vergeten was 😉 )

Ik heb een fractie van die kleurenpracht proberen te vangen in deze bewerkte foto, bewerkt met Paintshop Pro XI – met in de hoofdrol trouwens een echt caafje, mijn eigen Queen Ester! (Inmiddels uitgegroeid tot een prachtige langharige dame)

Ik wens iedereen een vrolijk en gezegend Pasen!

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