Here’s a free photo tutorial I did on Instagram, on a deconstructed envelope card. I designed it for a group of people who all wanted to write personal birthday wishes in one card. Simply click on the arrows in the IG post to browse through the tutorial pictures.
If you’d like more detailed instructions + the required measurements, check out the – very affordable! – downloadable PDF tutorial in my Etsy shop.
Also, check out the video below for a closer look!
This week I microfied a mini wallet design I’ve created several times some years ago. Because, you know, microfying stuff is Awesome 🙂 And of course I did a tutorial for you, see the YT video below!
But first, let me show you the overview, via my two Instagram posts::
As you know by now – and if not, check out my previous post – I love to send my friends some tea over the mail. But I also figured out a way to send them some perfume, integrated into some new card designs. A little while ago I wrote some short blog posts on these three designs, but this week I’m not only summarizing them in a video, I’ve also filmed a short tutorial on one of the designs.
So check out three designs I came up with (thus far) to send people some fragrant love!
The past couple of months I’ve created several tea cards, i.e. cards in which I incorporate a bag of tea. I always enjoy making this type of card, because I love sending a ‘hug in a mug’ over the mail 🙂
I do try to come up with several different ways of sending said bags of tea, and I thought it might be fun for you if I shared my most recent ideas. So, I’ve summed them all up in the video below. The video also includes two short, practical tutorials on my so-called integrated pocket technique.
If you want still more tea card ideas, check out all of my previous tea card posts.
Feel free to let me know if you have any questions!
Broad ribbons can easily be turned into belly bands – or even pockets if you glue the bottom closed. In other words, they are perfect to hold a little tidbit, like a tag, a picture – or of course, if you’re like me, a bag of tea! Below the Instagram post you’ll find my step-by-step proces!
Here’s the double-sided sheet from Graphic 45’s lovely Bird Watcher colllection that I used:
And here’s my process:
Score a piece of 6×12″ cardstock to give it a 3/4″ gussetFold on the score linesMat the gusset (both sides) and the front. If you want to use decorative brads (like I have), fasten them first, before you glue down your matte.For the inside, fold a broad ribbon around your matte, then glue the matte down and decorate.Choose a nice flavour of fresh tea and create a little DIY tea label to write down the flavour. Decorate the front of your card. (And also, matte the back – but I don’t have a separate picture for that 😉 )
And here’s the final result:
What do you think, would you consider using a ribbon as a pocket / belly band?
Let’s create some easy-to-make Christmas cards together: shop your stash (I did! 😃) and make good use of the tips, tricks & tutorials I’m sharing with you in the below videos! Let me know what you think in the comments.
Have a very merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!
Let beautiful images in your paper speak for themselves, you don’t have to add anything (or maybe just a little glitter glue, if you cannot help yourself 😇)Decorating only the fronts of your cards is a great time saver!Transparent texture paste is a great way to elegantly embellish patterned papersKeep beautiful packaging and use it to create lovely cards, quick & easy!Vertical tri-folds, or deconstructed envelope cards like this one, are perfect to keep large patterns intact
You can watch my free video tutorial for my deconstructed envelope card here:
Hope you found these tips & tutorials helpful, either for your Christmas cards or for any other occasion!
In one of my previous posts, my first one on the K.I.S.S. way of papercrafting (Keep It Simple, Stupid), I gave some examples on keeping your cards simple yet lovely and your crafting easy-going and timesaving. One of the examples I gave is to make use of post cards – the kind you buy somewhere – and incorporate those into your card projects.
This week I’d like to elaborate on that a little bit, with another example. The trick, for me, is to buy a postcard with some kind of special depiction or sentiment: not your general ‘Happy Birthday’ card with a bunch flowers, funny drawings or a joke, but one depicting something meaningful – to you and/or the person to whom you’ll be sending the card.
For this week’s birthday card project, I chose a postcard that I bought in an art museum, it was depicting a special piece of fashion by Viktor & Rolf. I picked it because the person I was going to send it to, appreciates fashion, art & lifestyle.
I matted it on top of two layers of design paper, in a matching color scheme. I stamped congratulations (in Dutch), but added no extra decorative elements, adhering to the K.I.S.S. principle.
I matted the inside with several papers from the same design paper collection – Reflections by Echo Park (no longer available) – and added a journalling spot on top.
I wrote the specifics of the fashion piece on the inside of the card, and the museum in which it was photographed
I also matted the back, and decorated with a sentiment sticker.
So, even though I invested a little more time and energy into this card than I did the previous example (in the aforementioned earlier blog post) I still kept it K.I.S.S.: the card design was simple yet elegant, and I had a lovely time creating it.
This week’s card was created with Together, a 6×6 design paper pad by Mintay. It’s an older design paper collection, but you’ll have to forgive me not buying anything new any time soon, due to my rather large stash 😅
I love the color palette of these papers, the soft corals and aquas, laced with some sage green and beiges, it all comes together perfectly with the dreamy air balloon theme. I used this collection before, when I worked on a little pre-made album, you can check out the video on that here.
As a specific theme for this card I chose tea time, which I incorporated by way of some cute little stamps on the front.
I don’t know why the card looks so crooked in this picture, I guess I held my phone a bit crooked (sorry)
I also stamped a floral element in coral on the front, which you can see peaking out behind the little layout I did on top of it.
I kept the inside extremely simple, matting with a floral design first and then choosing a second piece of design paper that offered some natural room to write. I did decorate, but subtly: I only added some liquid pearl around the edges of the journalling spot.
I also matted the back of course.
Although technically this wasn’t one of my so-called tea cards, which I always design around an actual bag of tea (check out all of my tea card designs here), I did add a tea bag to the envelope when I sent the card to my friend. And created a little custom tea tag to go with it 🙂
I always write what kind of tea it is on a little custom tea tag – in this case: Pina Collada tea! 🙂
All in all I loved to work on this card. The lovely colors and graphic designs of the papers, together with the simplicity of the design, made for a great afternoon of crafting.
So I guess the main tips this week are: choose to work with what brings you joy, and don’t be afraid to keep it simple! (On that note, also check out my previous post, on the K.I.S.S. method and applying it to paper crafting).
I guess I’m over Winter. For when I started thinking about making these two cards, my mind immediately jumped to some yellows, florals, birds, bees and easter bunnies.
So, I’m inviting you to get started with me on some (very) early Easter or Spring cards, get some inspiration from my video or follow along with me to create these exact card designs.
The papers I used were by Craft and You Designs, from their Spring Garden collection.
Have fun crafting and I’d love to know: did you make these along with me, or at least feel inspired to get creating some spring projects of your own? Let me know in the comments down below!
Brands often put their best and most beautiful pattern designs on rice paper, instead of their regular design paper, it seems. Rice papers are usually used to alter hard surfaces, like boxes, furniture and the like.
So, can we papercrafters work with the ultra thin rice papers instead of regular-weighted design papers? In the Craft With Me video below I create two mini album inserts – but you can also use them as cards.
I use the most gorgeous sheet of rice papers, from the Clockwise collection by Stamperia.
i don’t know about you but my online shopping has multiplied ever since the (several) lockdowns were instated the past 18 months. Which means the number of shipping boxes and other packaging that entered my house also multiplied by a significant factor.
Of course I threw away most of it – but not all. For nice storage boxes can be quite expensive. Plus, while creating your own boxes from scratch is certainly doable (I even have a tutorial available for you in my shop), it takes several hours – and sometimes I just want something quick and easy.
That’s where these packaging boxes come in: they can easily be re-used, especially if you’re in the market for a particular size or shape of storage.
For instance, this small and low-edged box below already looked very smooth and sleek, so it was ideal to alter:
The box below was not perfect (it had some jagged edges) but the size was great for my lipsticks so I decided to use it anyway. Since I planned to fill it to the brim I didn’t bother painting the inside. It turned out quite lovely and I’m still using it to this day:
And as a bonus, here’s a pen holder I created from scratch, using only empty toilet paper rolls. I had this specific project in mind for storing my eyeliners and lipliners, because I didn’t want to spend any money on it.
So, enjoy the video, in which I’m sharing some tutorials for these. Have fun crafting and let me know in the comments what you do with your empty packagings!
Recently I tried a pop-up die, which effectively cuts a piece of paper that you can then turn into an actual pop-up mechanism.
The video turned into a complete tutorial on how to do all the folds and where to glue, perfect for anyone who has purchased (or owns a similar-looking one to) this die and doesn’t know how it works.
In fact, I’m showing you how to turn this strange-looking diecut into a pop-up mechanism no less than three times. Practice makes perfect! 🙂
I’m sure several brands may offer such a die, though I don’t know of any yet, but AliExpress is of course very very affordable: even when including worldwide shipping it’s still many times more affordable than the same item in Europe. So if you like it, it’s worth a try – you’ll find the link to the shop in the description box of my Youtube video. (And I’m saying this without being sponsored in any way).
So check out the tutorial and let me know if you have ever encountered such a strange-looking die before! 🙂
