Summer is coming! Two cards to celebrate!

This week I’m actually posting from beautiful Gran Canaria (one of Spain’s Canary Islands just off the southern coast of Morocco), so I’m at least really feeling summer’s Promise of Bloom 🙂

Because of my holiday there will be no video this week, but I will share two very Summer-spirited cards with you.

My tip for you this week is one of Affordability & Frugality: the design paper you’re using does not have to be expensive, nor of ‘Brands of Renown’ so to speak, for you to be able to create some lovely cards!

For instance, the paper I used here was somewhere in the obscure dollar bin of a very affordable (and therefore not the hippest) line of shops in the Netherlands. So the paper may be brandless, but applied well it is able to remind us of a festive summer garden party nonetheless!

So, don’t skip everything that has no brand worth mentioning, but go treasure hunting and see what you can come up with! For some inspiration, check out the other projects that I created with paper lines belonging to those Cheap & Brandless Ones… 😉

Enjoy, and see you next week!

Card 1: Two bi-fold doorlets, held together with a bow

Doorlets opening up to the journalling spot inside – on which I wrote a personal wish to my aunt 

Card 2: Tri-fold card with magnetized closure

Opening up to a journalling spot inside. Just like card 1, this card can stand on its own when opened.

 

December Deluge 4: Caramel Christmas Tri-shutter 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 posts I showed you a quick Christmas Mini Album, a 1-sheet Micro Wallet and a set of Nutcracker Sweet Christmas Cards. Today: Part 4 of this December Deluge of creative ideas 🙂

You know how you often have reasonably large scraps of cardstock left over from a larger paper craft project? I always like to use them instead of throwing them out. For instance, I had some fairly broad strips of cardstock left over from my Caramel Christmas mini album, and I decided to turn them into some trishutter Christmas cards. Since their measurements weren’t the regular, like standard, size for this kind of card, they turned out somewhat smaller. Also, when folded closed, they weren’t square but a pretty small rectangle.

They turned out great nonetheless – and an extra bonus was that I could also use some leftover scraps of design paper of the aforementioned mini to decorate the cards!

Hence their name: Caramel Christmas Trishutter Cards 🙂

Oh and by the way, if you’d like to create some trishutter cards yourself, check out my free video tutorial!

Next up: December Deluge pt. 5 – Decoupaged Christmas Candle & Box

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December Deluge 1: Quick Mini Album “Caramel Christmas”

Hi guys!

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. This week, Part 1 of this December Deluge of creative ideas 🙂

I’ve got a cute little Christmas mini album to share with you all: it’s kind of a mini mini album. For with its 4⅛ x 5⅛” (10,5 x 13 cm) it’s not quite micro yet, but smaller than average nonetheless. It’s fairly easy to make, for each page has the same design, and there’s only four pages.

I’m calling this one Caramel Christmas, mainly because of the color scheme of the paper pad I was using (some nameless Dutch brand) – it just reminded me of Christmas sweets like toffee, or coffee candy. Or caramel! 🙂

Both the album’s size and its small number of pages guarantee that you’ll only need one 6×6″ design paper pad btw – probably only about half at that.

All in all this is what you might call back to basics, or perhaps Mini Album 101 🙂 If you’ve never created a mini album before, I hope this one inspires you to try your hand at it after all! No time like the present right? 🙂 And if you’d like to know how to create this, you can check out the tutorial in my shop – which has 60 pages and 126 pictures.

Enjoy the video & pics below!

Btw, as stated above,  I’ll be posting a lot more Christmas projects this month, so stay tuned!
Next up: December Deluge pt. 2 – A 1-sheet Micro Wallet!

 

 

 

Fun little micro wallet / mini album page insert

Part of the fun of creating mini albums is to design and create a myriad of nooks & crannies for your album to tuck all kinds of niceness into. You could use those spots for tags, photo mats, folded cards for journalling, etc. etc. To add to your inspiration for these kinds of bonus projects for your mini albums, I’m sharing a fun little micro wallet with you today.

You could of course also use it as an alternative card – just put it into an envelop and send it on its merry way 🙂

For this particular booklet I took my inspiration from one of Kathy Orta’s designs, so if you’d like to create one yourself you can check out her tutorial.

Anyway, here’s my version – with papers by Colors Unlimited.

My other Colors Unlimited Red projects:

  1. Birthday Card in Red, White and Black
  2. Photo Wallet Birthday Card

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Sweet New Baby Girl mini album

Welcome to September Mini Album Month on my blog:
I’ll upload a mini album video every Sunday, instead of the usual once a month!

We start off with a lovely, very girly, very pink mini album, which was commissioned by a grandmother, impatiently awaiting the arrival of her new granddaughter into this world. 🙂

The album is 15×17 cm (6×6.75 inches) and sports two paper collections: Lullaby by Kaisercraft, and a brandless A4 pad simply called Birth. To add a little contrast to all of this pink, I used a yellow distress ink to ink around all of the edges: Scattered Straw by Tim Holtz.

For the photo mats I used my so-called scrap mats throughout the album, which proves once again how much extra paper real estate you can generate by using all of your scraps.
As a bonus, I added a pair of the sweetest little baby girl socks!

So check out the video – and if you don’t want to miss out on my other September mini albums (which you don’t, of course 😉 ), simply subscribe to my channel by filling out your email adress at the top of my home page.

 

 

Click here for my other baby projects!

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Birthday wallet or Mini Album Page Insert

Here’s another Mom’s Home Original – that is, I created and filmed this project at my mom’s 🙂 Therefore the paper is by Colours Unlimited again, since that little paper pad is the only one my mom has.

This paper wallet is definitely multi-functional: you can either use it as an elaborate birthday card, as I have in this video, or you can designate it to be a bonus project for one of your mini albums – for you could very easily use this as a mini album page insert! Cool…

And: don’t forget to like & subscribe…. 😉

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Saying Happy Birthday in red, white & black

My mother recently bought this one little paper pad, which she doesn’t use at all but keeps around for when I’m visiting – just in case I get a scrapping itch that needs scratching 🙂
So here’s my first project with that 6×6 inch Colours Unlimited paper pad!
More will surely follow….

This first one is a pocket-style birthday card, with lots of tags and other niceness! Created and filmed at my mother’s, so this is a Mom’s Home Original, so to speak 🙂
Enjoy!

You can check out all of my other handmade cards here.

Please like & subscribe!

Flip card in Red

This is a cute little flip card I made in a lovely red color scheme, ideal for Valentine’s Day or any other love & romance theme! It has two flaps that close with magnets and its last “page” has a little pocket.

Well, ’nuff said, let’s go to the two-minute video!

By the way, you can find the tag card I’m referring to in the video here.

Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think! 🙂

Large pockets & tags card + bookmark – “Mediterranean”

Ah, those beautiful last days of summer… In the Netherlands summer has been short but sweet, with the early September sun trying its best to still give us a little warmth. So before we have to say goodbye to summer definitively, we can take one more look at it and celebrate its vibrant colours with this cheery birthday card!

It’s turned out rather large (A5), has a strong blue (think Mediterranean Sea) for its base and sports several tags and pockets. And, as a special bonus feature, there’s a bookmark too! An actual one, not a digital one – just adding that for the young people reading this and wondering what a paper bookmark might be… 😉

Here’s a little photo shoot I did. The design paper I used is by some nameless Dutch brand, it has no title of its own but I’m calling it Mediterranean. Because it looks……. Mediterranean – but then again, you’d already figured that one out yourself, had you not? 🙂

Front – setting the Mediterranean tone with a sunny flip pocket:

Inside the flip pocket is – of course – a tag. I will personalize it by printing some birthday wishes onto it and who knows, I may even do some stamping!

Inside – Summer landscape on the left, sea-themed pocket on the right, with a dolphin tag hanging from a gold-colored brad and a blue ribbon along the border of the pocket. The pocket holds a bookmark, with a quote from a well-known Dutch literary writer. The quote reads something like: “Good literature has the ability to make us see through another person’s eyes.”

Back – Two matching side-loading pockets with identical dolphin tags/photo mats. On the other side of the tags is room for journaling, or for writing some personal messages to the recipient.

What colors do you associate with summer? And with what craft project are you saying goodbye to this year’s summer season? 

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Summer tag card “Mediterranean”

One of my very first scrapping projects was actually a tag card for my friend. I had found its design on the internet, created by a lady called Elsa, with Justafew Designs (you can check out her Youtube channel here). The tag card is quite easy to make and you can personalize it with photos or beautiful pictures.

My first tag card

I don’t know about you all, but here in the Netherlands we’ve had an unexpectedly hot summer the last couple of weeks. So to inspire your summer craft projects, here’s an alternative version of that first little tag card of mine – mediterranean style!

Click here if you can’t see the video below.

 

Klik hier als je het filmpje hieronder niet kunt zien.

Are you working on any summer-themed craft projects? By all means, let me know and share your thoughts/ideas! 🙂

Until next time, stay creative!

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Birthday card: An actual paper wallet

This time I was aiming for a “real” wallet – if the recipient wants to, he could actually use it as one, storing his dollar or euro bills in it just like one does.

The color pallet is brown, since I’m gifting this to a male relative – which is also the reason why I toned down the embellishments. Although I did use one flower. I couldn’t help myself, I just had to… Still, I think it turned out just fine, even a bit chic 🙂

Click here if you can’t see the video below.

 

Klik hier als je de Nederlandstalige video hieronder niet kunt zien.

Tag card in Red

Voor Nederlandse versie klik hier

A tag card is a card that features, well…. tags. I’ve discovered that scrapbookers use the term rather loosely: to them it basically stands for any piece of paper or chipboard that you can either write on or glue a photo onto, that is not glued to something else itself. I’ve seen people call huge sheets of paper “tags”, and I’ve noticed them applying the same notion to the tiniest of scraps. As for me, I simply find the whole concept fascinating – who knew that such simple things as tags could be used in so many creative ways!

For this, my very first tag card, I got my inspiration from Elsa Justafew’s Father’s Day tag card on Youtube – you can find a link to her video in the description of my video on Youtube. Mine was a birthday card – also: gift card holder – for one of my dear girlfriends who turned an undisclosed age last February 1st 🙂

I also added something of myself to this design: digital photo editing. To have every picture that I used fit the design and color scheme of this tag card perfectly, I digitally altered them and gave each character a gorgeous new background. Like with my friend’s cute doggie:

It was quite some extra work, but I’m very pleased with the effect.

So, have fun watching the video – and do let me know what you think!

 

Oh, and don’t forget to check out my Mediterranean variation on this card!

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