Category Archives: Spring/Summer

Throwback: Neverending Memories Folio Album + A Thank You to All Who Like It

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Today I’d like to reflect with gratitude on one of my earlier designs, that became quite popular from the start – and to this day there are crafters who manage to find it while spelunking in the deep cave that are my older YT videos. Some of them have even purchased the tutorial (it’s the Number 3 in my shop), others simply enjoy the video – which I will embed below. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

It’s a Folio Album which I’ve dubbed Neverending Memories. If you’d like to see it filled with pictures, here’s a photo (also, there’s a second video embedded at the end of this post, sharing more details):

Whence this trip to Memory Lane? Well, recently a very kind lady from the USA found it in her heart to let me know she had just finished crafting this folio album, based on my tutorial. And she just wanted to let me know she enjoyed the process, the tutorial and the end result. Needless to say her sweet message brought a smile to my face and filled my heart with gratitude! 🙂

She had also sent me some pictures and was kind enough to give me permission to post them here.

So here’s her end result, using the Born to Travel paperpad by Recollections. She did a wonderful job and I think her folio album looks wonderful and on trend, and perfectly fitting for the coming Spring season!

Creator’s Image Studio’s Neverending Memories Folio Album, by Lynn M. from the U.S.A.

Please send her some love in the comments below and/or on the Tutorials Projects Page – and while you’re there, please check out the awesome projects of the other crafters too!!

Thank you again to each and every one of you who have been supporting me over the years, by watching my videos, visiting this blog, purchasing my tutorials and sharing the creative love!

Have a blessed season of Lent!

Technique Tutorial: Getting Started on Some Early Spring Cards

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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!

Six Easy Card Ideas

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In very busy times like these I don’t find much time to craft, let alone many hours continuously. Nevertheless, a girl still needs her cards to send to her friends & extended family! So, here’s six card ideas, all of which are very easy to make and which take up relatively little of your precious time.

Enjoy the video, and don’t forget to like this post and/or leave a comment! 😃

Beautiful spring card

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And here’s the second Easter card I made this year. Like I said in my last, I forgot to post them when it was actually Easter.

But April 27th is also a great day to post, for here in the Netherlands it’s King’s Day today, and the whole country celebrates in orange colours. So, here I am, with a – mostly – orange card! 😇

Paper used: Summer Breeze collection by Studiolight.

The card sports a little doorlet, held closed with a swivel tab closure
Decorated with flowers, buttons and a die-cut in the lower right corner
Heat embossed sentiment in the top right corner
Stamped bunny on the inside of the flap
Surprise! A large top flap!
Heat embossed a stamped image
Used two sizes of butterfly punches to create beautiful 3D butterflies

1-sheet Summer Breeze Step Card – No Cardstock!

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Double-sided design paper sheets are the perfect material to create a quick step card. The one I used is from the Summer Breeze collection by Studiolight.

You can either find a template online and print/draw, fold and cut it yourself, or you can use a step card die. With the card’s basic shape taken care of, the only thing left is to decorate!

For instance: cut an ATC card and stamp a sentiment. I also added some heat embossing to the sentiment, for some extra interest. Then apply some kind of glitter glue all along the edges and adhere as a center piece.

Use some hot glue or other heavy adhesive medium to adhere larger decorations, like these bulky roses.

Don’t forget the backside of the card! I know it’s just the back, but you can still add some nice little detail to surprise the careful examiner 😊

For instance, add some transparent texture paste through a stencil on part of the back!💡

Add some final diecuts and smaller decorative elements, and you’re done – quick & easy!

3 Tips to Squeeze Out Projects With Dwindling Design Papers

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Every time I finish a craft project, I have design papers left over. Doesn’t matter whether it was a large mini album, or just a card; always there are sheets of loveliness I have to decide on what to do with them. Will I have to throw them out, of can I come up with yet another idea?

Fortunately as crafters we can always create something else with these extra papers, sometimes ending up with more than one bonus project.

A few weeks ago I created quite an elaborate desconstructed envelope card from 3 sheets of design paper + a cutapart sheet. But even after such a large card, I managed to squeeze out three extra cards from the paper pieces I had leftover!

So, hopefully I can inspire you with these ideas, to do the same and make use of every inch of paper real estate you can manage 🙂

Enjoy the video, happy crafting!

Shopping My Stash: Easter / Spring Tea Wallet Card

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This year I sent three Easter cards to friends and family. The first two I already shared in one of my previous posts. This week I’m sharing the third, which is a wallet card, or a tea bag holder card, or whatever other creative descriptive you can come up with 🙂

Also, I shopped my stash again, one of this year’s themes for me personally, in order to actually use up the forgotten-but-beautiful-nonetheless papers in my collection.

It turned out pretty lovely, and of course I filled it up with some fresh tea, as is my way – because I just love to send my friends a Hug-in-a-Mug!

Anyway, here’s the video – ask any questions or leave a remark in the comment section below!

A Luxurious Easter Card

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Springtime! And at the moment (for as long as it lasts) I’m loving all of those bright pastels! This year I’m sending out three Easter cards, two of which I’m showing you this week.

I used Mintay’s perfect springtime collection, Better Times. Gosh, those images are like frameable paintings all by themseleves, but I got over those qualms and cut into them anyway 😱

I focussed on designing one large, luxurious card with three sheets of double-sided design paper plus a cutapart sheet. I think I succeeded quite nicely 😊

In the end I still had enough paper left over to create a bonus card, which I’m sharing towards the end of the video.

Wishing you all a very lovely Easter and a happy spring! I’m curious, are you sending any Easter cards this year? Let me know in the comments!

And the Bonus Card!

Birthday Bash Stepcard (+ template!)

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Step cards come in many different shapes and variations, but they always have this common denominator: there’s always at least one ‘step’. The variant I’m showing you today is what some people call a Center Step Card, which is a ‘one-step’ step card. The first one I ever made I entirely cut, scored and shaped myself, which was quite some work because of the specific cuts and creases of this particular type. After that, I bought myself a die which made that part a lot easier. Mine is from Crealies but I’m sure other brands out there have them as well.

If you don’t own the die, here’s a template for you to make one by hand:

The papers I used here are from Pink Paislee, the collection is called Birthday Bash. They are fun summer colors and some sheets have a specific birthday theme. Each sheet is double-sided so with only two sheets I got myself four patterns.

I always like to cut only one piece to mat the front and backs, which takes some extra detailed measuring. Or you could use the same die, if you have one. I show you how in my free video tutorial on how to mat a step card using a die.

The final step is of course decorating. Here I used some layering, die-cutting and stamping. Ans as a finishing touch I wrote 80 (which is how old my aunt now is) in both glitter glue and liquid pearl, on both the right and left panels.

New Design: Medium-sized Gatefold Album

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My latest gatefold mini album isn’t as large as all of my previous ones; in fact it’s a very decent carry-on size of 14.5 x 15.3 cm (5¾ x 6”). I chose Bo Bunny’s summer-colored Serendipity collection, which is full of birds, feathers & nests, but with kind of a twist.

Also, this time I didn’t just mat the pages; I worked with lots of photo mats, which I blended with design papers while creating my own page mosaics. Use repositional tape for the photo templates, so you can easily remove them and replace them with pictures of exactly the same shape and size.

This one is a fun one again: it only takes three page assemblies to make it, but with lots and lots of page flaps, pockets and tuck spots! Of course there’s a tutorial for all of you who’d like to create and customize your own. Bonus: you get a free cutting guide with all of the photo templates and mats I used, so if you want you can completely imitate my photo mosaics – though of course you can design your own too! (or create more than one and utilize both techniques 🙂 ).

My First Corner Pop-up Card

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I always like 3D cards that will fit into regular envelopes. I don’t know, it’s the mystery of it I guess – I mean, how is such a thing even possible? 🧐🤪

This week’s corner pop-up card was great fun to make, and my aunt was really happy with it! I used Scrapberry’s Happily Ever After papers, in lovely lavenders, pinks and lime greens.

Oh, and this was another ‘first time’ for me, for I got my green screen and immediately played around with it – not actually knowing enough yet of course, which is why the green parts of my card turned out transparent and I had to skip the cool backgrounds in the actual demo part! Oh well, I’ll live.

Craft With Me: A Layered Spring Card

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When time constraints are plaguing you and you still want to send out a lovely handcrafted card, try only decorating the front. And layer to your heart’s desire!
Keep the bulk down though, if you want it to fit in its envelope.

This week’s card was created with papers & punch-outs by Studiolight and some leaf dies by Crealies. I also used two of the latest Stickles glitter glue colors.

Layering is mostly about two things:

  • Placement of elements
  • The order in which to glue everything down.

In this week’s video I’m letting you into my ‘craft kitchen’ so you can craft with me. Enjoy!