Wooden alphabet letters are always great embellishments for gifts. Add the letters of the first and/or last names of your friend, co-worker or loved one to any card or mini album page, and the result will be instant success 🙂
For the front cover of my most recent paper bag mini album I altered such a wooden initial.
I first added two colors of Distress Oxide ink to color its base. I also chose several Distress Crayons to decorate later, after the second step.
Once the letter had a base color, I added a texture paste and let it dry. I chose Distress Grit Paste by Tim Holtz, but you can use any paste as long as you choose one that can be colored (some pastes act as a resist, avoid those for this type of project).
I added the paste in random spots, to give the letter a dimensional texture. Distress Grit Paste is semi-translucent, which is why I colored the letter first.
Then I used the Crayons to color the paste. (Crayons work best to color Distress Grit Paste,)
Lastly, when everything had dried, I added it to the album cover as an embellishment.
So you see how you can add a very personal touch to any of your gift projects without it taking a million steps! 🙂
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.
Most of us can’t go to our nail techs these days, so here’s a way to do some great nails yourself! You can do it straight onto your own (polished) nails, or if you have any falsies, use them instead.
Although I’m a bit of a design paper collector and like to have a lot of choice when deciding which project to create next, I’m also a frugal crafter. I simply don’t like to throw away design paper that could still be used.
But if you only have like one piece of paper left of any substance, the question may rise what to make with it. This week’s post is all about that: I had one piece of design paper of about 4×12″ (10 x 30 cm) left over from my Harmonica Micro Album, plus some small snippets.
Here’s what I created with it – and you can create it with me.
A little while ago I shared a video tutorial on how to create Version 1 of my deconstructed envelope cards. Today it’s time for Version 2, the original of which I shared in one of my previous posts, it looked like this:
So this week you can learn how to create one yourself, by following along with my new video tutorial! Just pause the video at any time you want to read one of the measurements or instructions, or if you want to study a detail.
Have fun creating, and leave a comment if you like!
Ever received an eyeshadow palette over the mail that arrived broken, like the one in the picture above? Or perhaps, also like me, you’ve dropped it on the floor yourself and can’t think of anything else but throwing it away frustrated? Well, no more, for here’s the solution! 🙂
In between all of the craft videos I thought I’d insert this makeup-related tutorial, it’s really a great fix so I wanted to share it with you. And it’s at least somewhat in the same realm of crafting, right 😉
Next video I’ll be back to papercrafting, I promise – but I hope this helps at least some of you out anyway, please let me know in the comments if it does – or if you have other ‘fixing tips’!
In my previous video I shared a card with a very large handmade 3D butterfly on the front. Today I’m sharing the steps to create such a decorative element.
First, create a background with any color mediums you like. I used Distress Stains and a Distress Spray Stain by Tim Holtz, in three colors.
Next, enhance the background with some stencil art. I used a Distress Oxide in the same color as one of my sprayed inks, through a mini stencil by Tim Holtz.
Stamp your image onto the background (after it has completely dried) with Archival Ink.
Fussy cut the stamped image.
Don’t forget to color the (still white) back of your butterfly, since we will be folding its wings up! I simply inked it with one color and stencilled over it with another, again using the Distress line.
To add some extra interest I also sprayed the back of the butterfly with some silver, using Distress Mica Spray in Brushed Pewter.
Now your image is ready to be used as a great eyecatcher on your card or art project!
Hope this was useful to you, if so, let me know in the comments!
My friend told me her 13-year old daughter (hi Mia!) was on the lookout for papercraft projects to create herself, especially since the lockdown measures have been keeping all of us mostly at home the past months. So I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be fun if she had not only an idea offered to her, but also the materials to create it, together with an actual project example to learn from.
So I chose one of my card designs that would be fairly simple to imitate, and set out to make one. After which came another fun part: rummaging through my (quite elaborate) stash and finding all kinds of bits, pieces and ephemera for her to use to create her card.
There were some things she would not be able to imitate, like the stamps and die-cuts I had used, so I stamped and die-cut several elements for her and added them to her gift box.
Finally I decided that she could use some extra supplies, since she might want to create even more cards on her own.
I had a lot of fun with this ‘reverse haul’ – giving gifts always makes me happy, it’s so much fun to think about little details that capture what you know about someone, even if that isn’t very much 🙂 So I hope this video inspires you to go look for that same kind of happiness, by creating your own gift box for someone you know (or their teen).
By the way, stay tuned for my next blog post, in which I will show you my step-by-step proces of creating the large butterfly. 😉
Today it’s time for some papercrafting again – with actual design papers I mean 🙂 I fell in love with one of StudioLight’s recent collections, Jenine’s Mindful Art. I took two double-sided 12×12” sheets (plus a sheet of cardstock) and created a deconstructed envelope card.
And because it’s summer and we’re still suffering from various lockdown measures, I’m offering you a free video tutorial to take your mind off things.
Back in February I shared one of my Mailable Mini Album designs, and invited you to let me know if you’d like me to do a tutorial. Well, you guys let me know 🙂
In these times, when we’re all spending much more time at home than usual, we’re perhaps in need of some extra inspiration for our papercraft projects. So I thought I’d offer you all a free video tutorial on how to create beautiful printed tags, meant especially for people who aren’t very tech-savvy but do wish they knew how to do these things.
And the good news is, this is relatively simple! The only things you need are a computer, a printer, and some kind of word processor software, like Microsoft Word, Apple Pages or other kinds (though if you even know of the other kinds, you probably don’t need this tutorial anyway 😉 )
Let me know if you want me to do more of these “digital basics” tutorials, for instance, on how to find nice pictures and sentiments to print.
For the First Tutorial of this new year, I’m sharing a little instructive video on how to wrap chipboard with design paper. Think mini album (or junk journal) covers, or as I did, a layout that you’d like to mount on chipboard.
I mostly used Kaisercraft’s Christmas Edition papers to get an elegant black & white theme.
