A very short post this week, but the video content will make up for that!
This free tutorial shows you how I create magnetized closures with ribbon pulls, for mini albums and cards. I hope it’ll be of assistance and that it gives you some inspiration to create your own magnet-closed projects. 🙂
Have fun crafting!
This week I’m actually posting from beautiful Gran Canaria (one of Spain’s Canary Islands just off the southern coast of Morocco), so I’m at least really feeling summer’s Promise of Bloom 🙂
Because of my holiday there will be no video this week, but I will share two very Summer-spirited cards with you.
My tip for you this week is one of Affordability & Frugality: the design paper you’re using does not have to be expensive, nor of ‘Brands of Renown’ so to speak, for you to be able to create some lovely cards!
For instance, the paper I used here was somewhere in the obscure dollar bin of a very affordable (and therefore not the hippest) line of shops in the Netherlands. So the paper may be brandless, but applied well it is able to remind us of a festive summer garden party nonetheless!
So, don’t skip everything that has no brand worth mentioning, but go treasure hunting and see what you can come up with! For some inspiration, check out the other projects that I created with paper lines belonging to those Cheap & Brandless Ones… 😉
Enjoy, and see you next week!
Card 1: Two bi-fold doorlets, held together with a bow
Doorlets opening up to the journalling spot inside – on which I wrote a personal wish to my aunt
Card 2: Tri-fold card with magnetized closure
Opening up to a journalling spot inside. Just like card 1, this card can stand on its own when opened.
It’s always super fun to design new mini albums! This time, I created an album with two sets of pages, one above the other. Hence, a double-stacked mini album 😉 . Almost all pages offer new page designs that I haven’t used in my previous albums.
There are six page assemblies, three above, three below, which together offer twelve interactive page layouts plus some large photo mats. The large front and back covers make up their own interactive pages, twice as large as the regular ones. The album has a magnetized closure and is crisp and clean on the outside, so it will easily fit into your book case.
I found that this design is perfect to create a large album with 6×6 inch papers and only a handful of 12×12 inch sheets. This makes it a lot more cost effective than an album with lots of large pages. The relatively wide spine offers ample room for you to embellish on the inside.
On its last two pages I used some special-folded paper ornaments. Both are covered in the downloadable written tutorial in my shop. For one of them I also made a free video tutorial, which will be available next week in a new blog post.
For this particular album I used the Optimist collection by Prima Marketing, including their sticky tabs, ATC cards, flowers, leaflets and brads.
I hope you’ll all enjoy this design just as much as I do!
If you wish to create this double-stacked album yourself, check out the written tutorial in my Etsy shop, which has 148 pages and 429 (!) pictures.
Please like, share & subcribe to this blog, my Youtube channel and my Pinterest! You can also follow me on Twitter.
Want to know what other people created with the tutorial? Check out the fanpage and see for yourself! 🙂
As you may have noticed by now if you’ve been following this blog, I really like to design and create what I call micro projects, small but fully functional paper craft products, perfect for your handbag or as a small but very personal gift. And great to use up those gorgeous scraps in your stash you can’t get yourself to throw away… 🙂
This week I’d like to share a new micro design: a Micro Pocket Book! I really like how this has turned out, and by now I’ve already created two! They are 3½ x 2¾” (9 x 7 cm), sport a magnet closure with a ribbon pull, three little pages + some extra room for photos/journalling, and a nice little pocket to tuck away tiny treasures. It was great fun to create them, especially because a simple change in design paper resulted in a second pocket book with an entirely different look and feel from the first.
Papers used were Bo Bunny’s Country Garden for the one and some sheets by Fabscraps for the other.
So here’s the show & tell video, plus some pictures below that. If you’d like to create this cute little micro pocket book yourself, there’s a PDF tutorial (28 pages, 65 pictures!) waiting for you.
Please like, share & subscribe if you like this project, that’s including Pinterest by the way, since a couple of weeks 🙂
Have fun, and stay crafty!
One cannot have too many Happy Birthday cards in stock, can one? 🙂 For the two magnetized cards I’m sharing with you today, I worked with Basic Grey’s Oxford paper collection again, the first taste of which I got when I created my recent group card fold-out.
The first card is a gatefold, with clean lines and a warm color palette. I used a Hip Hip Hooray seal stamp on a piece of designpaper, then fussy-cut around it and backed it up with some cardstock for sturdiness.
To pop it up, I used dimensional tape on the Hooray seal.
I matted the back of the card as well, for a consistend look & feel. 
When you open the card, there’s a pocket in the middle that holds a tag. The tag shows the personalized birthday wishes, which I printed on the design paper before I matted. 
I punched the border of the pocket with an awesome punch by Martha Stewart, the punch-around-the-page Party edge punch. It shows different little presents and a cute little birthday hat. Though I bought this punch as an afterthought when it was on clearance, I have absolutely fallen in love with it since! 
The second card is a double card with a magnetized closure. It’s still masculine but some of the colors I chose are more vibrant than the first, although both are from the Oxford paper collection.
You can find a free tutorial for this type of card in my blog post on the City Lights card. You’ll only have to adjust the measurements of the card to your liking. My card below is 5⅛ x 5⅛ (13 x 13 cm). I stamped Happy Birthday onto the magnetized closure; this is a great stamp by Stampendous, I’ve used it before – on my City Lights card – and will use it again because I love it!
The inside of the card shows the personalized birthday message, which I printed on a piece of design paper.
To add a little bit of interest I popped up the birthday message with some dimensional tape.
The closure piece is attached to the card with two screw brads, which is one of my favorite embellishments to use on a card for a guy, for they really look like screws! 🙂 
Hope you enjoyed this post and got some inspiration from it – for not every card has to be filled with complex layering and a lot of embellishments to still be awesome, right. So go ahead and take advantage of your spring or summer holidays to make a stash of gorgeous, magnetized cards for your peeps! 🙂
I’m off to enjoy Pentecost, which in the Netherlands always has a second day, so tomorrow (Monday) I won’t have to go to work for a change, woohoo! 🙂
Here’s an idea for a birthday card for a man. It has style, is on trend, is magnetized, and there’s no girly fuss 😉 . As a bonus, it is fairly easy and quick to make!
Supply list
Tutorial
Feel free to let me know if you’d like me to do a (free) tutorial for this type of card! (even years after this post is fine with me, just drop me line or leave a comment – I’m always in for new blog and/or video ideas 🙂 )
More detailed tutorials on a growing number of projects are available in my Etsy shop.
Hi gals & guys, I have another tutorial for you! This, my latest How to video, shows you how to make a great gatefold card for a guy. As you’re no doubt aware we can hardly send the men in our lives a card with ribbons, roses and other girly knick-knacks now can we? 🙂 Therefore this card does not have any dimensional embellishments – but instead a much more “manly” magnet closure. Another tip for masculine embellishments: screw brads. They’re absolutely cool – there’s an example at the end of the video, in the second gatefold card I’m showing.
Also in this How to video, a ribbon pull, plus what I’ve dubbed a pattern pocket – by which I mean a hidden pocket, created by making use of the pattern in the paper.
You can of course choose your own measurements, it’s the basic principle that counts.
Design paper: A Proper Gentleman by Graphic 45, inked around the edges with Black Soot distress ink by Tim Holtz.
Hope this helps you all! Let me know what you think and if you’ll make your own gatefold card based on this tutorial – please let me know if you have any questions!
