How to help a teen start card making

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. 😉

Bella Rouge Mini Album Book Stack

This week I’m sharing a new design, consisting of three parts. It’s a little book stack, consisting not of books but of two handmade chipboard boxes, filled with a mini folio and three mini booklets respectively. The technique I used to create the boxes is different from my usual way of making them, so there’s something new there as well for everyone who already purchased my other box tutorial.

And since I just had my birthday, I’m offering all three of these projects as one tutorial set, so a buy-3-pay-only-1 kind of thing! 🙂

The papers and flowers I worked with are from Prima Marketing’s Bella Rouge collection. I wanted to design a project specifically suited for 4×6″ journalling cards / project life cards, to offer you all a somewhat more affordable option since these cards tend to be not as expensive as actual paper pads. And I succeeded wonderfully well!

So enjoy the video and pictures below, and go for the tutorial set if you’d like to make it yourself.

If you’d like an idea of how this would look when filled with pictures and journalling, check out this post!

My Thinking Proces While Decorating a Box (relaxing video)

This week I’m sharing my thinking process while decorating an altered box. Some things are planned, but not everything. Most things work out, but not everything – and how to fix those. All in all I was pretty contented with how this little treasure chest turned out, and my friend was thrilled to receive it 🙂

If you want to know how to mat such a box in the first place, then check out one of my previous blog posts – or simply scroll down and find that video at the end of this post.

With its 25 minutes this week’s video is a bit long, and I’m mostly rambling on about what the next decorative element might be and why, plus I’m including several tips along the way. So get into your Chill Out mode, get a great cup of coffee or tea and a little snack, sit back, and most of all: relax and let the tone of my voice wash over you. Who knows, if you watch this in bed you may even fall asleep before the end – in which case: Sweet Dreams! 🙂 💤

 

How to mat a box:

 

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New Design: a Two-Page Brag Book

On the brink between Summer and Autumn, I’m proud to present my new, summery-autumny Two-Paged Bragbook 🙂

This time I used not one but three paper collections, which for me is the absolute exception, definitely not the rule. And I also threw in some digital scrapbooking again. Not only did I use my own graphically designed paper for the binding system, but I also enhanced the background of one of the pictures and did some digital collaging. And lastly, I dolled-up my own picture… well, what can I say, I just couldn’t help myself 😉

Above: Text die by Crealies

It was commissioned by a group of my co-workers as a gift to one or our retiring colleagues. So I designed it to hold as many pictures as there were co-workers who joined the gift giving, and had them all write on a unique tag.

As you’ll see in the video, this is another great group gift!

Of course I wrote a tutorial for all of you who’d like to create such a great mini album yourselves. It’s fun to make and it really makes for such a great gift. As an added bonus, you don’t need the usual ‘thousands’ of patterned paper sheets, as it only has two page assemblies!

Oh, and I also threw in a card, made with the leftover papers 🙂

So, enjoy the last weeks of summer and hopefully your autumn will be as colorful as this album 🙂 See you next week – don’t forget to like, subscribe and leave a comment!

 


Spring-colored Chocolate Bar Envelope (and some tea)

One of the great craft ideas floating around on the internet is what I would call a chocolate bar envelope. I think lots of people have made these by now, but only after I had the pleasure of receiving one myself, was my attention drawn to it.

I waited for the right occasion to create one myself and when the moment came, tadaa! 🎉 There it was, my very own version.

I sent it to my friend Christa, so it would be waiting for her when she got home from a short vacation. I mean, nothing says Welcome Home like chocolate & tea don’t you think? 🙂

Have you ever sent someone food or snacks? 🙂 Let me know in the comments!

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Gift Idea: Upcycled Jewelry Box

Sometimes that accessory you buy comes in a small jewelry box. My recent such purchase sported the name of the shop on its lid, but apart from that the box had a very nice antique bronze color, which inspired me to re-use it as a gift box.

So I thought I’d share this idea with you today, for this is the perfect little quick scrap gift idea, which you can finish in about 15 minutes (tops). Simply alter the lid, covering the shop’s name or logo, by decorating it with some design paper, a brad, and some embellishments.
It’s very easy to do, it’ll cost you hardly any time at all, and you’ll have a uniquely customized gift box for your present. 🙂

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Pre-made Collection Folio Idea

Happy New Year everyone! 🙂
And let’s start off with a new craft idea, why don’t we 🙂

So I bought what I’m calling a collection folio, a sturdy folio to keep your paper documents neatly ordered around the office and at home. I altered it a bit, that is to say I expanded on it, decorated it and then filled it up with two handmade folios of my own.

I used the beautiful Madeleine paper collection by Bo Bunny plus several of its decorative elements.

Hope you like this idea, it was pretty fun to work on it! As for the other two folios, next week’s post will focus more on them, plus I’m now offering a tutorial set for them.

Let me know what you think!

 


Thin is the New Bulky – an Alice in Wonderland 10-pic Mini Album

A friend asked me to create an Alice in Wonderland-themed mini album for her, to hold a maximum of only ten pictures. So no wallet, no folio, but an actual mini album. Oh, and no flowers please.

Well, that turned out to be a fun design challenge! Using a Marion Smith Designs paper collection called Mad Tea Party, I designed two interactive pages to hold the ten pictures. Of course I also incorporated a scrap mat, for which there’s a free video tutorial available on my blog. The second tutorial which may come in handy is my free gradient technique video for Distress Stickles.

So, this is a very thin mini album with no bulky embellishments, but:

Thin is the New Bulky! 🙂

Let’s start a new trend here shall we 😎.

 

 

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Monochrome White Micro Chest

If you’d like to order a customized micro chest, please check out my Showroom of Luxurious Boxes & Gifts.

In this week’s Blog Exclusive post I’m sharing an altered micro chest. You’ve seen me do these before, as nursery decor pieces and as gift boxes both feminine and masculine.

This time I was asked to add a micro treasure chest to one of my customized 100% photo explosion boxeswith the added challenge to work in only one color, creating a so-called monochrome project: white. So I painted the chest white, then matted it with some white wood texture paper that I embossed with a wood pattern first. Finally I created some faux leather strips from white cardstock. I’m quite pleased with the effect, and with the surprisingly different shades of white that are – apparently – possible.

 

Have you ever created any monochrome projects? Do you like them at all? Please share your thoughts in the comment section underneath this post!

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Gift idea: Mini Album Card!

Special occasions require special cards, and with this interactive wallet card you can go many directions. To give you some examples, my first card of this design had an Encouragement theme, the second version commemorated the first year since my father’s passing.

This week I’m sharing a third way you can use this card: as a mini album card, to send (or give in person) someone some pictures of dearly remembered moments you shared with them! Which is perfect for someone who really already has everything they ever wanted – I mean do you really need to give them more ‘stuff’? I’m convinced that memories in the form of pictures – nicely done up – will always be much appreciated, and also add that extra personal touch to your gifts.
This design offers room for 6-8 pictures and of course a personal message.

So, hope to have inspired you, let me know what you think in the comments! 🙂

 

 

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Photo Gift Booklet

From a very sunny Portugal ☀️ I’m sharing this new Photo Gift Booklet, which I created with some cardstock and a couple of sheets from DCWV’s Colorful Life paper collection. It is custom-fit to hold four 9×13 cm (3½ x 5⅛”) pictures. You only need four pieces of design paper of that same size for the covers, and your’re done!

Being a hybrid between a card and a small photo album this little booklet is the perfect gift to send over the mail to your far away friends & relatives! ?

If you’d like to create one yourself, go to my Autumn Time Ultra Mini Album for a quick explanation on the page technique.

Have fun, see you next week!

 

 

Photo Explosion Box: Golden Wedding Anniversary

An explosion box is a really great gift to surprise someone with. You can make it interactive with tags & pockets, using design paper to decorate. There are several examples of these on this blog, and there’s a tutorial in my Etsy shop.

Another way to decorate is to use pictures only. This way it will become a treasure trove of someone’s dearest memories, always easy to keep nearby and peruse them. This kind I’ve dubbed a 100% Photo Explosion Box. And this week I’m sharing one of these, which I created for some people’s golden wedding anniversary.

So enjoy the video & pictures! Please like this post – and of course subscribe if you’d like to receive weekly updates of my work. 🙂