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!

 

Sunny Times – an XXL Flexible Spine Photo Album!

Hi all! I’m excited to be able to share this, my latest album! It is HUGE: it measures 9 x 12″ (23 x 30.5 cm), which makes it perfect to house the loads of pictures from any event or period of which you want to cherish many memories.

Since this particular album is beach-themed, it was created with our summer vacation in mind – so I named it Sunny Times!

It houses ten base pages – so 20 page surfaces – with lots of extra add-ons for your many pictures. You can add pictures of all sizes, ranging from wallet-sized all the way up to 8×10″ (20×27 cm), and in addition it offers lots of pockets and tuck spots for your memorabilia.

So check it out, enjoy the video, and consider your purchase options if you’d like to create one yourself: there’s the tutorial only option – a 178-page written tutorial (with over 500 clear pictures!) by way of immediate download – and then there’s the kit + tutorial you will very soon be able to get from Photographs and Memories, which is a kit full of goodies to create the album plus my aforementioned tutorial (no extra costs).

 

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Four Seasons, Four Sentiments

A lady asked me to create four double-layout cards for her, one for each season. She also provided me with four seasonal sentiments to incorporate. What a fun challenge that proved to be! 🙂

I also used four brands by the way, so I really saw all four ? corners of my craft supply room. Here’s the collections I used:

  • Spring: Graphic 45, Time to Flourish
  • Summer: Kaisercraft, Fly Free
  • Autumn: Bo Bunny, Autumn Song
  • Winter: Studiolight, Frozen Forest

Let me know what you think!

 

Tag die set by Crealies:

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Four Summer Cards with Studio Light

I’m a big fan of the Dutch brand Studio Light, which offers, among many things, several lovely 6×6 inch pads which simply consist of different patterns within a certain (combined) color theme. These pads don’t have posh collection names, but are simply numbered 01, 02 and so on. These themeless and therefore relatively neutral pads offer the special opportunity of creating projects with which you could combine almost any embellishment from any collection.

The following four, happily colorful cards I created with Studio Light pad nr. 05, combined with several different embellishments and some cutapart tags and labels from Panduro and Scrapberry’s.

 

Card 1 – Summer Day


I stamped the inside with 6 different stamps:

Card 2 – Enjoy Your Special Day Continue reading

Summer is coming! Two cards to celebrate!

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.

 

Large pockets & tags card + bookmark – “Mediterranean”

Ah, those beautiful last days of summer… In the Netherlands summer has been short but sweet, with the early September sun trying its best to still give us a little warmth. So before we have to say goodbye to summer definitively, we can take one more look at it and celebrate its vibrant colours with this cheery birthday card!

It’s turned out rather large (A5), has a strong blue (think Mediterranean Sea) for its base and sports several tags and pockets. And, as a special bonus feature, there’s a bookmark too! An actual one, not a digital one – just adding that for the young people reading this and wondering what a paper bookmark might be… 😉

Here’s a little photo shoot I did. The design paper I used is by some nameless Dutch brand, it has no title of its own but I’m calling it Mediterranean. Because it looks……. Mediterranean – but then again, you’d already figured that one out yourself, had you not? 🙂

Front – setting the Mediterranean tone with a sunny flip pocket:

Inside the flip pocket is – of course – a tag. I will personalize it by printing some birthday wishes onto it and who knows, I may even do some stamping!

Inside – Summer landscape on the left, sea-themed pocket on the right, with a dolphin tag hanging from a gold-colored brad and a blue ribbon along the border of the pocket. The pocket holds a bookmark, with a quote from a well-known Dutch literary writer. The quote reads something like: “Good literature has the ability to make us see through another person’s eyes.”

Back – Two matching side-loading pockets with identical dolphin tags/photo mats. On the other side of the tags is room for journaling, or for writing some personal messages to the recipient.

What colors do you associate with summer? And with what craft project are you saying goodbye to this year’s summer season? 

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Summer tag card “Mediterranean”

One of my very first scrapping projects was actually a tag card for my friend. I had found its design on the internet, created by a lady called Elsa, with Justafew Designs (you can check out her Youtube channel here). The tag card is quite easy to make and you can personalize it with photos or beautiful pictures.

My first tag card

I don’t know about you all, but here in the Netherlands we’ve had an unexpectedly hot summer the last couple of weeks. So to inspire your summer craft projects, here’s an alternative version of that first little tag card of mine – mediterranean style!

Click here if you can’t see the video below.

 

Klik hier als je het filmpje hieronder niet kunt zien.

Are you working on any summer-themed craft projects? By all means, let me know and share your thoughts/ideas! 🙂

Until next time, stay creative!

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Explosion box with Uptown Flair design paper

Here’s my second explosion box, decked in the gorgeous summer colors of The Paper Studio’s Uptown Flair design paper. Not only is an explosion box a great alternative for your usual birthday card or gift, it is also kind of a mini album since it will actually hold about 20 pictures!

I had so much fun creating my first explosion box, in the blue jeans colors of the Fiddlesticks paper pad, so I was very happy when I was commissioned to create a second one.

Uptown Flair’s color theme is so inspiring! Almost every sheet of its 12×12 inch paper stack has glitter in its design, which gives it a truly glamorous and festive look and feel. I had already used it on some other projects – two birthday cards, one a mini wallet and the other a photo wallet – but when you make an explosion box you really have to use each and every sheet of paper; which automatically means you get to enjoy working with each individual design.

Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think. If you’d like to create one yourself, please check out the tutorial in my Etsy shop. Oh, and for the link to the “Print your tags” (free) tutorial I refer to in the video, click here.

Click here if you can’t see the video.

 

Klik hier als je het filmpje niet kunt zien.

Dit explosiedoosje is een leuk alternatief voor een verjaardagskaart of zelfs een minialbum – er kunnen nl. ongeveer 20 foto’s in!

Ter inspiratie om zelf ook te maken – er is een Engelstalige werkinstructie beschikbaar in mijn Etsy shop. Ik kan ook een Nederlandse versie voor je maken, tegen dezelfde prijs. Geen tijd/zin om zelf te maken? Je kunt er ook eentje bestellen op dit blog, via de Showroom, papierkeuze/kleur/thema in overleg.

Decoupage your shoes!

About a year ago I saw a picture on the internet of someone who had decoupaged her shoes with what I guess was some paper from a Star Wars magazine. They looked so cool! I decided I wanted to try my hand at that myself, but it took me a while before I even dared to take the risk of wrecking a perfectly good pair of shoes. Then the time came, and I just did it!

I decided to try napkin technique for my “shoe project”. In case my attempt was successful, I might some day try regular paper as well.

Results:

1. Find some shoes and strip its top layer away (in this case, fake leather), so that the underlying fabric is exposed. Apply textil potch or some other adhesive for paper napkins suitable for textiles, and start glueing the first pieces of napkin.

 

2. Use any tool that might help you with tiny corners and difficult spots. Like this metal spatula.

 

3. Finished!

 

4. Don’t forget to waterproof with an acrylic finisher, like the one in the picture below.

5. Start rocking those shoes and keep Walking! 🙂

To be continued….

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