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!
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 bought two of the Sydney Grace x Temptalia eyeshadow palettes, and found the packaging so lovely that I couldn’t bring myself to simply get rid of those wondrous sleeves, never to be seen again.
So, I turned them into a tea gift booklet, that I sent out to my friend. And let me tell you, that re-purposing was far more satisfying than simply throwing them out. 🙂
I didn’t use any design paper this time, just the two sleeves. For the inside and the two tiny booklets, I made my own mixed media background, using Tim Holtz’s spray and oxide inks.
In the below video I’m sharing this tea gift project, and the steps to create it. Enjoy!
The eyeshadow palettes of which I used the packaging: Sydney Grace x Temptalia
I have great admiration for design paper companies and their graphic designers: having to come up with unique, lovely and most of all sellable designs several times a year seems like a sheer insurmountable challenge to me. So I can understand that every once in a while some design paper collection comes out on the market that in itself looks great – stunning even – but has a slightly odd theme.
This week I’m sharing what you could do with such fairly non-practical themes; like the pastry-themed Sweety collection by Stamperia.
Lovely colors and beautiful graphic designs – they look so good I want to eat them all!
Other than making me seriously crave some chocolate & cherry pie topped off with some pistachio mint ice cream (yummie!) I’m not sure what to do with this collection, except admire its visual gorgeousness. Yes, I know, the theme is great for birthdays and other parties, but then I would prefer a 6×6″ size for cards and Stamperia doesn’t do those. Now take the 12×12 inch sheets: these elaborate graphic designs look more like a picture you would frame and hang from your wall, than cut it up (how?!) to make it into, say, a mini album or, even more difficult, a card.
A seriously uncuttable 12×12″ sheet
So, here’s what I do whenever I encounter a collection I love but cannot for the life of me think of a project intended for some actual, practical use: I buy only the cutapart sheet, and design one card around it, preferably while using up the entire sheet.
The Stamperia cutapart sheets are always great, plus, they come with beautiful journalling spots on the back. Perfect.
So, here’s a short video tutorial on how to design a card around your specific cutaparts. If your cutapart sheet has differently sized cutaparts, then here’s a tutorial around a second design.
Did you know that you can use Tim Holtz’s Distress Paint as a resist? To create a mixed media tag, I used this specific technique. I also used clear embossing powder to add a glossy accent – and here are all of the steps to do it!
Step by step
1. STAMP with Distress Paint and/or use a stencil, to add an image or some random patterns. I did both. Use a light color of paint, like white, cream or a very soft pink. Let the paint dry.
Btw, be careful and immediately clean your stamp, for this paint dries quickly and once it dries you won’t be able to get it off your stamp anymore…
2. Color your tag (or any other piece of mixed media cardstock) by blending with different colors of ink. I used both Distress Inks (translucent) and Distress Oxides (opaque). Simply blend right over your patterns – for the paint will act as a resist!
3. Optional: add some extra, subtle background effects by blending through a different stencil.
4. Spray some kind of metal spray to add some sparkle. I used Distress Mica Spray in the color Tarnished Brass.
5. Once everything has properly dried, add a different layer: time for some stamping. Choose one or more images and/or patterns and stamp on top of all the previous layers. First I used a background color of Distress Oxide to add still more interest to the background, this was a script stamp. You can see it on the right side of the tag, on the upper half.
I then stamped the main image in black Archival Ink. This is an oil-based ink, which therefore does not react with or bleed into all of the water-based inks underneath.
6. Pick one or more pieces of your main image that you want to highlight. Cover those fragments with embossing ink – ideally, if you can, use an embossing pen, which gives you maximum control of where you place the embossing ink.
Then take a clear embossing powder and emboss your accent of choice.
Glossy highlight
7. Take some chipboard sentiment pieces and use the same inks to colorize them. Then stick them to your tag.
8. Die-cut a decorative element from metallic paper and add it to the tag. I used Metallic Confections paper by Tim Holtz, but any metallic (or holographic!) paper would do.
Done! Now all that’s left is to tie a piece of string to your tag 🙂
Hope this little step-by-step was helpful! Now go, experiment to your heart’s desire and play with all of the stuff in your stash 🙂 Let me know in the comments if you’re going to try some of the techniques I used here!
If you want still more inspiration, here’s an earlier post where I also used Distress Paint as a resist.
