1-sheet Valentine’s Project: Romantic Drawers

When it comes to design paper, I’m a bit of Collector. By which I mean that collecting specific older collections that are no longer manufactured, particularly scratches my collecting itch. It’s the Hunt you see, scouring the most obscure local scrapbook stores, the forgotten corners of the internet, and the hidden treasures of people who are destashing all of a sudden. And then the thrill when I find that one last sticker sheet, belonging with an ancient collection in my stash!
Of course I do regularly buy some of the latest collections, but even those I tend to leave alone for quite some time. Not consciously, but usually it’s only when they are somewhat older and no longer in print, the urge to create something with them hits me.

The Secret Admirer collection by Kaisercraft is one such treasure. It’s a Valentine’s Day collection from 2012, and I designed my Cross-haired Memories Folio Album with it, which I showed you a while ago. Of course I had some papers left over, so in this and the next post I’m sharing the projects I created with them.

Today it’s a 1-sheet project, with a particularly gorgeous 12×12″ Secret Admirer sheet. I found this mini drawer box in one of our dollar bins, and after painting it, I used the Mystical sheet to mat. Added some labels and flowers, and there it was, a beautiful, romantic set of drawers. Love it!

As a bonus projects, I used the tiny scraps I had left from my previous project to decorate a chipboard box, turning it into a great stamp little storage!

Enjoy!

 

 

Adorable Altered Wooden Jewelry Gift Box

A little altered treasure chest can be a cute gift in an of itself, but turning it into a jewelry gift box will add a lot of interest!

This micro treasure chest measures 6 x 4 x 4 cm (2⅜ x 1½ x 1½”). I painted it inside and outside (always remove the hinges & closure pieces first), then decorated it with Stationer’s Desk design paper by Prima Marketing plus some flowers.

Then I folded a piece of design paper to hold a pair of earrings – which is removable so the micro chest can be reused.

So, it’s all very simple to do – but what an amazing gift this makes! Think birthdays, weddings, graduations, Mother’s Day, and of course Christmas 🙂

Enjoy the video & pictures, hope you feel inspired!

December Deluge 10: Decoupage Your Winter Home Decor

And here’s the Final Blog Entry for 2015 – how time flies when you’re having fun! 🙂

You’re all probably very busy enjoying your Christmas holidays, and preparing for New Year’s Eve, so I’ll keep it short but sweet with a blog exclusiveso no video this time.

Since winter has only just begun, I thought I’d share a home decor idea with you: why not throw some decoupaging at some wooden boxes, but also a coffee mug and even a lamp!  🙂 Use candle podge for the candle and textile podge for the lamp, grab some nice napkins and you’re all set!

And when you’re done: don’t forget to accessorize your home in the same color scheme, which will give your living room a surprisingly new and fresh look.

Tea box:

Ephemera box:

Coffee mug:

Lamp:

Accessorizing! 🙂 (Lamp in the background) :

 

Happy New Year!

Thank you to all my subscribers and visitors for supporting this blog with your continuing attention, likes comments and questions!

I’m looking forward to meeting you all again next year, with new paper art projects, tutorials and ideas!

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December Deluge 8: Christmas Treasure Chest – A Signature Sheet Idea

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 several December projects, the first of which was a quick Christmas Mini Album, so you can start there if you’d like to see them allToday: Part 8 of this December Deluge of creative ideas 🙂

As you may know, Graphic 45 paper collections always have a so-called signature sheet, which features the title design of the collection. It’s always the first sheet in a 12×12″ or 8×8″ paper pad, and its design generally depicts a collage of elements that together make up the title of the collection.

In several of my previous December Deluge projects I used the Nutcracker Sweet collection, and used up all of my 8×8″ papers – that is, excepting one: the signature sheet! There’s two of them in each pad, and I saved them for something special. So in this blog post and my next I’m sharing two ideas to use these special signature or title sheets.

First: a Christmas Treasure Chest – enjoy the video and pictures below!

 

 

 

Next up: December Deluge pt. 9: an 8×8″ Signature Sheet Christmas Card!

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December Deluge 5: Decoupaged Candle & Box

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 Walleta set of Nutcracker Sweet Christmas Cards and some Trishutter Christmas Cards. Today: Part 5 of this December Deluge of creative ideas 🙂

Decoupaging is a great technique for altering projects, especially when you’re out of paper crafting ideas and want to switch materials a bit to stir things up again 🙂

This decoupaged set of a Christmas candle and a matching box is quite easy to make and will make for a great Christmas holiday afternoon. Plus, they’re a great little emergency gift set for that one neighbour you forgot 😉

The only materials you need are:

  • one or two Christmas napkins (the regular, layered paper ones),
  • some mod podge (and a brush to apply it)
  • the objects you wish to alter

And: some patience while it’s drying 😉

Note: if you wish to alter a candle like I have, please use special candle podge.

You can watch my free video tutorial on how to decoupage a candle to see how it’s done, and how easy it is!

Here’s the little Christmas set I created!

 

Next: December Deluge 6 – Candy Cane Lane – Twice! 🙂

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Personalized Treasure Chest for a Man

Little boxes and chests are great gifts for guys, for you can alter them any way you like to give them a masculine look & feel. Some time ago I altered a little chest with the Craftsman paper collection by Prima Marketing. Today I’m showing you the same basic chest – looking completely different!

This time I used Cold Country papers by 7 Dots Studio, a gorgeous collection in cool gray, black and violet tones. I stamped a sentiment onto the top tag and adhered a photo of our team to the other side – for this was a Goodbye & Thank You gift for our (now former) boss. I also diecut his initials and stamped them with tiny ‘Bedankt’ sentiments – which is Dutch for Thank you.

Like with the Craftsman edition, I also included a refrigerator magnet – neatly kept in place by the magnetized right side of the box. This time it said Thank You So Much.

The ‘real’ present was a group gift: as a group we added a gift card, which fit neatly into this mini chest.

Enjoy the video, thank you for liking & subscribing! You can also follow me on Pinterest.

 

Explosion Box for a Man – Still in Love

Recently a lovely lady ordered a customized explosion box as a gift for her beloved, to celebrate their love. Today I’m sharing the end results with you, for not only is this the first love-themed explosion box I created, it’s also the first that is intended for a man!

It’s a two-layer explosion box, created out of cardstock and decorated with the Natural paper collection by DCWV. It has several quotes and sentiments about love and family; some I came up with myself, based on what she shared with me about her beloved and their relationship. Others were copied from the Heirloom sticker sheet by Kaisercraft, which is a great source of inspiration for projects about family.

In the center of the explosion box is a tiny wooden treasure chest, super cute, that I altered with papers from the same Natural stack, on top of a copper-colored paint base.

If you feel inspired to create one yourself but don’t know where to start, check out my explosion box tutorial in my Etsy shop, based on my Explosion of Joy version. As a bonus, this tutorial covers a three-layer explosion box, so that’s a whole extra layer compared to this one!

Enjoy the video!

 

Curly die by Crealies:

These tags were made with some tag die sets by Crealies:

A Scented Gift Box of Cards

Fairly recently I added a sweet little paper pad to my (ever-growing) stash. It was the Spring Collection by what I think is a new Dutch brand, called Precious Marieke. It has lovely shades of purple and lavender, lots of florals and butterflies, and it really breathes spring or summer.

I decided to create an entire set of cards with this lovely paper line, and since I wanted to gift them to my friend for her birthday, I also needed a box to put them in.

So I upcycled the packaging of some scented candles. I painted it and matted it with the Precious Marieke design paper. And here’s what’s great: the enticing cinnamon scent of the candles was still clinging strongly to their former-packaging-now-gift-box!

So there you have it, a great tip to give someone an actual scented gift box! 🙂

By the way, creating a set of cards is also a great way to use an entire paper pad, without having to bother with leftovers you can’t get yourself to throw away but which are of no real use either 😉

Enjoy the video and pics!

 

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Layout in Altered Frame: Your Guiding Hand (about my dad)

Here’s my very first framed layout, which I created in memory of my father. In this season of Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for who he was all through my life.

I bought an Artemio 12×12 scrapbook frame, glued one of Bo Bunny’s gorgeous Autumn Song design paper sheets to its back, and got to work. I used several extras of the collection, like brads, pearl & bling stickers, trinkets, die-cuts, chipboard stickers etc. I also used some flowers from my stash, and a lot of cute autumn decorative pieces that I found in one of our home & garden shops.

I took care to include things my father loved: a sparrow, a bird’s nest, several butterflies, a cute little cartoonesk squirrel, flowers and lots of bright and warm colors.

The picture is very special to me, for it’s kind of a family moment even though it’s just my father. For my father and I were sitting outside, having some quality time while drinking a cup of coffee at one of the lunch rooms in the city I live in, and when I took this picture he was on the phone with my mom. So in a sense, we were all together, the three of us 🙂

Enjoy the video!

 

 

Great gift for a guy: Craftsman Chest

It’s always more difficult to come up with an original gift idea for a man than it is for a woman. I find altering some wooden object a great solution! It’s functional, it has added interest because it usually has some moving parts, like a lid or drawers, and with the right paper you can create quite the masculine project!

Like this little Craftsman Chest here, which by the way has its own little refrigerator magnet as a bonus 🙂 – perfect for hiding one or more giftcards. And, therefore, also perfect to give a present together with other people: they can all put their giftcards into this little chest!

 

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Cute little treasure chest

Here’s another idea to use up all of your design paper scraps: create scrap mats and then alter a little chest with them!
For this one I used my “neverending” design paper stack Serenity, by DCWV – neverending, for I STILL have paper left, even after lots of projects! 🙂

As for what to put into these cute little gift boxes: think gift card, lipstick & eye shadow singles, jewelry, a tiny teddy bear, or, like I’ve done with this one: a matching micro booklet to put all your happy wishes & cute little friendship photos into, plus maybe even a gift coupon of your own making.

Hope you feel inspired by the video – and if so, please like & subscribe 😉

See you next time!

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Some fun little Easter projects

It is as they say: time flies when you’re having fun! I could have sworn Christmas was only yesterday, and yet this morning Easter arrived!

Luckily I had already finished some fun little Easter & springtime decoupage projects, check them out, they’re really easy to do and look genuinely lovely on your Easter breakfast (or brunch) table!

 

Decoupaged Easter candles:

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