Fun2craft: Two Box Cards

A superfun type of card is the so-called Box Card. Its design has been around for quite some time I think, and I don’t know who originally came up with it. This kind of card looks like a box but behaves like a card, in that it is made from cardstock and fits perfectly into an envelope!
By the way, it’s in no way comparable to a so-called explosion box, of which you can view some examples here.

Using the richly colored Fly Free paper collection by Kaisercraft, I created two: one as a birthday card, the other as a New Baby card. If you like die-cutting, fussy-cutting and overall embellishing, this is an absolute Must Try for you! 🙂 To help you along check out my very affordable Tutorial #26, containing easy-to-follow instructions with 69 very clear pictures, which you can acquire here.

Have fun watching the video and do let me know what kind of box cards you would like to see, or for which occasions you have created one yourself! 🙂

 

 

 

Nursery Gift: Cute Micro Album with Forest Friends

When a new grandmother asked me to create one of my little micro albums as a nursery gift for her daughter, she wanted a modern, on-trend paper line, and “no pinks please!” – even though her grandchild was a baby girl. And why not, after all, practically every color looks cute on a baby and why should her granddaughter be limited to the most predictable one 😉 .

We settled on Scrapberry’s very cute Forest Friends. Not specifically a nursery collection I don’t think, but very fitting nonetheless with its soft colors and adorable little animals.

I created it after one of my own previous designs, the Fresh & Bright micro album – the tutorial of which is ready and waiting for you in my Etsy shop.

Have fun watching the video and please don’t forget to like this post before you leave! 🙂

Next: Check out my Baby Boy version!

December Deluge 3: Nutcracker Sweet Christmas Cards

This December month I’ll post many projects on my blog, to give you some inspiration and ideas for your Christmas projects – and also to help you spend your holiday time creatively. In my previous post I showed you a quick Christmas Mini Album and a 1-sheet Micro Wallet. Today: Part 3 of this December Deluge of creative ideas 🙂

The Nutcracker Sweet papers are an older (2012) collection of Graphic 45, but once I discovered it, I really fell in love with its beautiful purple, pink and clear-winter-sky-blue hues. So I decided to use it – papers & chipboard tags – for my Christmas cards this year.

I’ve created cards of several different sizes and styles, and today I’m sharing the first: the 4×4″ Double Card.

 

 

 

Next up: December Deluge pt. 4 – Caramel Christmas Trishutter Cards

 

BewarenBewaren

Teddy Bear Baby Card

Recently I found the most adorable baby scrapbook sheets while browsing through the clearance bin in my local scrap shop. They were from the Teddy Bear collection by K&Company, a collection I think is so old I can hardly find any information about it on the interwebs…

Naturally I decided I needed to have them 🙂 and to be on the safe side I chose a third sheet from an entirely different collection that coordinated well with the other sheets. So when my cousin’s new son was born soon after, I was very happy to use this cutest-of-the-cute paperline and created an interactive card.

My goal was to let the design paper speak for itself: it was already so cute & cuddly in and of itself, it didn’t need any fancy layering or embellishing!
So here’s the card I designed.

This gatefold card is kept closed by a swing tab. To create the swing tab I fussy-cut one of the bears from the paper, backed it up with some cardstock and attached it to the card with a brad.

I chose a nail brad on purpose, hiding it in plain site by attaching it to the spot in which a teddy bear would normally have some kind of nail or screw to function as a hip joint – especially the really ancient models… 😉
Centered on the inside is a pocket. For some added interest and to really show off the paper I kept the ‘marching’ teddy bear intact, fussy-cutting around it rather than simply cutting the piece to size to mat the pocket.

Hiding inside the pocket is a little card-inside-a-card. First I matted this little card, then embellished it with two separate teddy bears that I fussy-cut from the design paper.  

I lifted the smaller teddy with some dimensional tape.

 

I matted the back and stamped Handmade with love. This mat is actually from a fourth design paper collection: Romantic Nursery by Marianne Design. I left the inside plain so I could write a personal message.

 

I matted the back of the card with some button paper, which was the third sheet I found in the clearance bin. I thought it coordinated remarkably well with the two sheets of teddy bear paper!

 

I really enjoyed working with these three treasured sheets of design paper I found. What kind of projects have you created to show off a particular paper collection?

Boys’ Heroes Ultra Mini Album

This was a great project for me, for I got to get my Geek on! 🙂

I created this Cinch-bound mini album for Merijn, the 8-year-old son of a friend. A couple of weeks ago I also created one for his older brother Thijmen, and because they are brothers I really wanted each album to have a unique look and feel, so that each boy would really have their own very personal album.

Whereas Thijmen’s album was all about natural history, with wildlife, animal foot prints and dinosaurs, the one I created for Merijn sports several superheroes and other boy favorites. (Of course I consulted their mother to find out what each boy liked.) The paper I used is That’s My Boy by Echo Park, the 6×6 inch pad.

Anyway, it was great fun to create this album and in the process come up with an alternative use for your Marvel comics calendar  – which of course you would have lying around if you’re even half the geek I am. 😉

Okay, so here’s the video. After which, please take a moment to like & subscribe. And, if by any chance you’re curious about my geeky side, try my other blog, Comics & Gadgets! (or its original Dutch version, Gadgets and Geekery.) And, you know, like & subscribe, or just say Hi in the comment section 🙂

 

 

BewarenBewaren

A Natural History Adventure Ultra Mini Album


Hello, and welcome to part 2 of September Mini Album Month on my blog! (which simply means I’ll upload a mini album video every Sunday, instead of the usual once a month). We started off Mini Album Month with a sweet baby girl mini – if you’ve missed it, you might wanna catch up 😉

This week it’s all about the ultra mini album I created for the son of my colleague & friend, who would be turning ten soon and his mother wanted him to have his very own 10-year-old’s-mini. She told me that of all the things he liked, he loved animals, nature, sea shells, and Minecraft the most. A fun challenge for me, for I had to imagine myself a little boy and try to answer the question: what kind of mini would I like?

I came up with an album that fit the ultra mini album category, by which I mean a type of album that sits right between the regular mini album and the micro album, both in size and complexity. Bo Bunny’s Trail Mix collection perfectly fit the natural history theme I had in mind.
By the way, I’ve shown you an ultra mini album some blog posts ago, so check it out for a Flora & Fauna-themed one.

For your convenience I included tutorials for the basic construction of the pages of this mini, so stay tuned for those in the second half of the video.

Last but not least: during the page tutorial I mention the magnet closure and ribbon pull fairly briefly, based on the assumption that you guys already know how to create those. If you don’t, however, I recommend one of my earlier tutorials, where I go over them step by step.

Have fun and let me know what you think!

 

BewarenBewaren

BewarenBewaren

Girly Girl’s Precious – an XL mini album (incl. some Hello Kitty!)

This luxury mini album is 20×27,5 cm (approx. 8×11 inches) and was commissioned by the grandmother of a 7-year old girl who’s fond of – among other “girly stuff” – Hello Kitty and the Belgian/Dutch pop group K3. I offered Grandmother a choice of different paper lines, and DCWV’s Preppy Princess immediately caught her eye. Then she asked if I could incorporate Hello Kitty and K3. Of course! I cried enthusiatically. Only to scratch my head at home, for here was a whole new challenge. I mean, it’s not as if there’s any Hello Kitty scrapbook paper, let alone any K3 lines…

Well, check out the video to see if you think I succeeded. 🙂

Oh, and as for the scrap mats in the album, you can make them yourself pretty easily, just check out my tutorial to see how.

 

Want more of where this came from? Check out my other mini albums!
But not before you like and subscribe of course 😉

BewarenBewaren