You can know a design theoretically, but there’s nothing like actually seeing it in your hands, with design paper and decorations! Especially if you make different versions, with different colors, themes, occasions and recipients.
So this week I’m sharing the pretty well-known shutter-card design, done in two different ways: one is masculine, the other feminine.
Enjoy! And if you want a third variation, check out my Christmas version!
Only two more days and then it’s Christmas! So, time to share two more Christmas cards, each with a special design that makes it just a little bit more Christmassy 🙂
The first is a tri-shutter card, for which I have a free video tutorial available. The second is a gatefold pocket card, which you can fill with nice tags and pictures.
Enjoy the video, and of course a Very Merry Christmas to you all!
Here’s a fun Christmas holiday project, which will be easy to take with you in your purse because it’s relatively small. It will hold at least 47 pictures, which is perfect not only for said Christmas holidays 🙂 but also for all other occasions, like birthday events, weddings, baby’s first year, summer vacations, back-to-school brag books, remembrance of loved ones and – why not – rock concerts or visits to the zoo 🙂
The only thing you’d have to change to achieve all of those are your paper collections – and we all know What Fun that is! 🙂 Mine was the Wassail collection by Basic Grey, an older collection not available anywhere anymore I think, but you can of course substitute any awesome Christmas collection you like.
So watch the video to find the inspiration to create one yourself, or help yourself to my written pdf tutorial, sporting 70 pages with step-by-step explanations and 160 clear pictures. This makes it absolutely suitable for beginners as well.
Merry Christmas!
My Life’s a Picnic mini album was the first of several 6×6(ish) mini albums I created, back in 2015. And I finally got around to filling it up with pictures! 🙂
For those of you who are curious: my mother and I went to Madurodam last year, a park with miniature scaled copies of well-known Dutch buildings & streets. So if you look closely at the pictures I’m showing you in the video, you can see people taller than the buildings they’re standing next to 🙂
As for the album, I think I managed to fit around 65 pictures in there. Each of the 14 page designs (including the two inside covers) is unique and you can mix them up, use different papers, or create variations with less page assemblies – like I have done with my To my Sweetheart mini album.
All in all I’m convinced the extensive tutorial will offer you many hours of crafting fun! 🙂
You may have come across these press-out chipboard micro or mini albums, usually with some metal binding rings. In case you have wondered what to do with these, here’s an example!
It’s my second one actually, my first one was a bit larger and held pictures of my mom walking a fashion catwalk for elderly people – if you’re not curious about that, then by all means don’t check out that blog post 🙂
This time around I bought a really tiny one – I like tiny stuff! – and printed little tiny pictures of my three guinea pigs Todah, Rizpah and Yarden (who recently passed away alas 🙁 ). Let me know if you’d like a little video tutorial on one or two apps with which you can easily print these smaller sized pictures. If there’s more than one of you then I’ll see what I can do.
Anyway, enjoy the video and pictures below! And see you next week! ☀️
Hi all!
Today I’m sharing another idea for a birthday card to send to a man in your life. As for its shape, it’s a so-called tri-shutter card. I cut this one with a special die (by Crealies), but you can cut these yourself as well, just check out my free video tutorial, which I’ll embed again at the end of this blog post for your convenience.
For decoration I used Oxford, a nicely colorful collection by Basic Grey with mostly masculine overtones. I also did some stamping: a circle-shaped Happy Birthday stamp on the front, and some smaller gift-wrapped presents on the other panels which I fussy-cut and then lifted with some dimensional tape. And last but not least a Kaisercraft birthday sentiment which I stamped in two colors on the center panel.
A tri-shutter card fits into a regular envelope
Kaisercraft sentiment stamp on the center panel, stamped in two colors
My video tutorial on how to make a tri-shutter card:
What’s fascinating about the Oxford collection by Basic Grey is that while at first glance it has a mostly masculine feel, when you take a closer look some of the sheets are of a more feminine persuasion as well!
So this time I used it to create a little project for myself, instead of a male friend or relative 🙂 . This micro folio is perfectly suited to carry your most current & precious pictures with you in your handbag. You could also turn it into a micro portfolio representing your most important projects – like I have. It’s small, flat, magnetized and offers room for at least 11 pictures!
It’s also very easy to make, as you can see in the video.
So enjoy, and let me know for which kind of photos you would love to create a micro folio!
Sometimes you don’t have grand words or elaborate messages to share, you just want to say something important to someone. Like Thank You, or some other word of encouragment.
Then an ATC type card might be a great tip for you crafters: they are easy to make, don’t take up lots of time and materials, and they still look awesome!
When you make these for the men in your life you’ll probably feel somewhat limited as to choice of colors and embellishments. Fortunately I found some papers that are not the standard ‘manly’ black, white & grey or navy blue. They are Pyrus and Oxford, both by Basic Grey, if you just throw in some screw brads you’re good to go! 🙂
Anyway, I’m gladly sharing the inspiration with you all today. First is a word of encouragement for a colleague of mine. Created with the Pyrus paper collection:
The second is a Thank You note for my uncle, with the Oxford collection, also by Basic Grey:
Enjoy the video & pics! And stay tuned for next week, when there’ll be an all new design mini album to share again! 🙂
One cannot have too many Happy Birthday cards in stock, can one? 🙂 For the two magnetized cards I’m sharing with you today, I worked with Basic Grey’s Oxford paper collection again, the first taste of which I got when I created my recent group card fold-out.
The first card is a gatefold, with clean lines and a warm color palette. I used a Hip Hip Hooray seal stamp on a piece of designpaper, then fussy-cut around it and backed it up with some cardstock for sturdiness.
To pop it up, I used dimensional tape on the Hooray seal.
I matted the back of the card as well, for a consistend look & feel. 
When you open the card, there’s a pocket in the middle that holds a tag. The tag shows the personalized birthday wishes, which I printed on the design paper before I matted. 
I punched the border of the pocket with an awesome punch by Martha Stewart, the punch-around-the-page Party edge punch. It shows different little presents and a cute little birthday hat. Though I bought this punch as an afterthought when it was on clearance, I have absolutely fallen in love with it since! 
The second card is a double card with a magnetized closure. It’s still masculine but some of the colors I chose are more vibrant than the first, although both are from the Oxford paper collection.
You can find a free tutorial for this type of card in my blog post on the City Lights card. You’ll only have to adjust the measurements of the card to your liking. My card below is 5⅛ x 5⅛ (13 x 13 cm). I stamped Happy Birthday onto the magnetized closure; this is a great stamp by Stampendous, I’ve used it before – on my City Lights card – and will use it again because I love it!
The inside of the card shows the personalized birthday message, which I printed on a piece of design paper.
To add a little bit of interest I popped up the birthday message with some dimensional tape.
The closure piece is attached to the card with two screw brads, which is one of my favorite embellishments to use on a card for a guy, for they really look like screws! 🙂 
Hope you enjoyed this post and got some inspiration from it – for not every card has to be filled with complex layering and a lot of embellishments to still be awesome, right. So go ahead and take advantage of your spring or summer holidays to make a stash of gorgeous, magnetized cards for your peeps! 🙂
I’m off to enjoy Pentecost, which in the Netherlands always has a second day, so tomorrow (Monday) I won’t have to go to work for a change, woohoo! 🙂
This coming week we’re saying goodbye to our – now former – boss, thanking him with a gift and of course an accompanying card with our well-wishes. I offered to create a card instead of one us running to the first available store for a relatively random Thank You card. Fortunately for me, my colleagues agreed! 🙂
Since there are seven of us the card had to offer enough real estate for seven personal messages. Also, since I offered this quite impulsively, I only had one night left to create it, so the design had to be relatively simple. And last but not least, our former boss is a man, so the card had to have a masculine feel.
So here’s what I came up with. This magnetic fold-out card is easy to make and offers room for seven personal messages. I used the Oxford paper collection by Basic Grey, which I feel is a mostly masculine paper line. Since I could not use any of the girly stuff I love so much (no roses, no butterflies, no bows and ribbons!) I let the paper speak for itself. The only embellishment I allowed was a magnetic closure with a ribbon pull – which yes, was a ribbon, but which I felt was okay since it was black…
Anyway, here’s the video – hope it inspires you! Oh, and this card would also make a great mini album insert by the way, so even more possibilities!
If you’d like a tutorial for this design, please let me know in the comment section below (click on the title of this post if you don’t see one) or leave me a Tweet!
Enjoy!
Lately I’ve been practising my layering, on two calendars which are still a work in progress, but mainly on some birthday cards. I already did a video tutorial on one way you could layer a card, back in August 2014.
This week I’m sharing some extra tips with you, illustrated by three of my latest birthday cards. The paper line I’ve used for all three of them is Lucille, a paper line by Basic Grey which some of you may recognize from my Life’s a Picnic mini album (tutorial available!), of which I had some paper left over, enough to create these cards – though I had to make use of all three of the techniques I’m sharing with your below, otherwise I wouldn’t have had enough paper after all.
Tip 1 – Use scrap mats – even when die-cutting
Above: Birthday stamp by Kaisercraft
I’m guessing I’ve mentioned my scrap mats (check out my free video tutorial by clicking this link) in almost every one of my projects by now – what can I say, I’m a sucker for squeezing out the absolute maximum of paper real estate out of my paper collections 🙂
So in the pictures you can see that the second layer on this card (counting from the bottum up) is in fact a scrap mat, decorated with punched corners. An extra tip however, is that you can die cut shapes from your scrap mats as well! Check out the second to last layer (counting from the bottom up), i.e. the layer directly below the stamped sentiment label: that is a scrap mat label!
Another use for this, next to creating labels and tags, is die cutting flowers and other decorative shapes. I used this technique in the Life’s a picnic mini album, here’s an example: in the picture below you can see that every layer of the flower consists of two different pieces of design paper.
Tip 2 – Use the paper pad’s cover
Many design paper pads have covers that have at least some imagery, patterns or shapes that are very useable for fussy cutting. So even if you have hardly any design paper left, you can still embellish your project with help from the paper pad’s cover.
The Lucille 6×6″ paper pad cover has a floral image that I fussy cut and used as a decorative element on my card.
Tip 3 – Use dimension
If you have die cut two labels in incrementing sizes (my largest label in this third card had been die cut from a scrap mat by the way – see Tip 1), you could of course simply layer them flatly on top of eachother. You can add some interest however by using some double-sided foam tape to adhere the smaller label to the larger.
Adding some glitter glue along the top layer’s edges is always a good idea as well!
I’m finding this dimension thing very exciting by the way, and I’m always trying to add some of it to my layered cards & layouts. Like in the Time to Flourish calendar below:
Leave some tips for me!
These were my tips, for now! If my layering adventures lead to any other need-to-know tidbits of knowledge on layering, I’ll let you know! 🙂
Also, if you have any layering tips for me, please let me know and leave a comment – or tweet me!
Recently I went through my design paper supply (which has grown to quite the little stash) and stumbled upon Basic Grey’s Lucille paper pad. Lucille is a romantic paper with vintage fashion overtones, colorful but a little toned down and very sophisticated. A fabulous design paper, and I decided I instantly had to use it to create a mini album! 🙂
This 6 x 6.5″ pocketstyle mini album has 14 interactive layout pages, including the insides of both covers. The covers are chipboard with a reinforced binding for durability. The pages are constructed from multiple layers of heavy-weight cardstock and patterned papers. Features include large pull-out photo mats, special closures (like magnetic, or swing tabs), lots of flaps and pockets holding journaling tags and photo mats and much more! Details abound throughout this album such as punched borders, micro booklets, flowers, brads, specialty die-cuts, ribbon and trim, and specialty cut-aparts. There are 5 large pull-out photo mats and several flaps and tags inside with room for approx. 45-50 small and regular-sized photos.
And: I wrote a tutorial for those of you who’d like to make one yourselves – my first for a mini album! 🙂 You can check it out in my Etsy shop.
Check out my baby version and Christmas version of this pocketstyle album design – their page design is not exactly the same, but they give you a pretty good idea of how different styles and colors would look. If you’d like to see a version with photos inside, check out my Ancestry mini album!
Anyway, enjoy the complete show & tell video, and have a great week!