When I published the video for my Treasured Memory Keepsake Album XL, I got several requests for a tutorial. It took me some time to get around to it, but this summer I took advantage of my time off of work, and created another Keepsake Album XL of the exact same design, in order to write a tutorial.
It’s turned into a large tutorial for a large album :-), sporting 181 pages and a whopping 479 clear pictures to guide you through the step by step process! It will probably not be a “quick project” for you, which of course makes it ideal for the rainy Sunday afternoons that will probably soon dominate our upcoming fall weather.
So, without much further ado, I happily present to you my Joyful Reminiscing Keepsake Album XL, created with the beautiful Coral Couture paper collection by DCWV! 🙂
Click here to purchase the tutorial in my Etsy shop!
My mom and I went to Gran Canaria last May, one of Spain’s Canary Islands just off the southern coast of Morocco. I was really looking forward to designing something new to hold my pictures. I decided to try my hand at a photo folio, using K&Company’s gorgeously vintage Travel collection – which had been waiting in my stash for just the right project.
So here’s a brand-new design, into which I managed to get 82 pictures, most of which sized 5×7″ (13×18 cm)! Meanwhile, its spine still is only a meager 1⅛” (3 cm). Suffice it to say I’m very pleased with this project, which took me a couple of weeks to come up with and wrap my head around some design issues.
And of course there’s a tutorial for you, available in my Etsy shop! It has 55 pages and a whopping 136 pictures – check it out for it is very affordable. 🙂
Hope you enjoy, stay crafty!
Also check out the second iteration of this photo folio, with the Say Cheese III collection!
I remember the time, not too long ago, when almost all condolences cards were rather stark. Most had only small illustrations on a large plain of white, and always in black and gray-tones. Then, slowly but steadily, color was added. First came the browns, with a few small and very tasteful autumn leaves, then here and there a flower creeped in.
Nowadays many condolences cards show more colors than just blacks, grays and browns. Only a few years ago I would probably be hesitant to send a rather colorful condolences card to someone, but I have to admit, since I have been the recipient of several of those when my father passed away, to my own surprise I appreciated the colorful ones very much. This is not to say that the more traditional cards are not a good choice of course. It’s just that my own personal experience in this area has convinced me not only that it’s okay to use color, but that it may actually add to the card’s (admittedly limited) effect.
So here’s an idea for a condolences card for scrappers and card makers: create a card of color, which requires only one sheet of double-sided design paper; do not embellish it too much, just let the paper speak for itself.
For instance, I decorated my card sparingly with only two stamps, some die-cuts and a swing-tab. Some folds and cuts did the rest.
All in all a very simple yet stylish choice for a condolences card. Meanwhile I truly hope you won’t need to send out many… though unfortunately we’ll probably all have to at least once or twice in our lifetimes.
If you’d like to add a very personal touch of comfort by creating this 1-sheet condolences card yourself, you can follow the clear instructions (with 63 pictures) in my tutorial.
Although most people in the Netherlands don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d post a romantically themed mini album today anyway. 😉 ♥
This album was commissioned by a young man in Singapore who wanted to surprise his girlfriend. He wanted it to be romantic – with pinks, flowers and some love-themed ephemera, etc.
So I chose Kaisercraft’s Oh So Lovely paper collection, which is perfect for precisely such a mini album! It has florals, pinks, wood patterns and some great sentiments!
The album is a pocketstyle mini with 5×5″ (12,5 x 12,5 cm) pages. It sports ten interactive page layouts, including the inside covers, and four large photo mats. I decorated it with the O So Lovely Collectables die-cuts, the ATC cards of the collection (called Captured Moments – Pretty Little Things) and some decorative elements from other brands on the front cover and throughout the album.
For the page designs I mainly followed my Life’s a Picnic mini album tutorial – which by the way has 14 interactive pages so you’ll get 4 extra page designs if you purchase the tutorial!
So enjoy the video, and don’t forget to check out the close-ups below of the two Oh So Lovely cards I created with the same paper collection! 🙂
For those of you who celebrate it, have fun preparing for Valentine’s Day 🙂
Happy New Year everyone!I’m very happy to be able to start this new year by sharing with you my first new design of 2016: a Removable Folio Album! 🙂
This folio can house 60 pictures, folds in and out like an accordian and… can be completely removed from its cover to grant maximum freedom of movement! As a bonus feature, the cover can fold a full 360 degrees!
Today I’m sharing a blog only project with you all, so no video this time. Several pictures though, so check it out!
Recently I created a little display with a picture of one of my aunts. It’s made of chipboard and cardstock, but is very sturdy nonetheless and can stand all on its own. It sports design paper on all sides and some cute little embellishments on the inside.
For this particular one I used some Mariposa paper by DCWV.
These little frames are very cute and are a great way to use up all of your leftover pieces of chipboard and paper. On top of that, they make awesome little personal gifts! Because they won’t take as much time as, say, a mini album, and I find them perfect for rainy Sunday afternoons 🙂
Check out the pictures below, and if you’d like to create some yourself, check out the (affordable) tutorial!
See you in a couple of days with a video post again – until then, stay crafty! 🙂
It’s always super fun to design new mini albums! This time, I created an album with two sets of pages, one above the other. Hence, a double-stacked mini album😉 . Almost all pages offer new page designs that I haven’t used in my previous albums.
There are six page assemblies, three above, three below, which together offer twelve interactive page layouts plus some large photo mats. The large front and back covers make up their own interactive pages, twice as large as the regular ones. The album has a magnetized closure and is crisp and clean on the outside, so it will easily fit into your book case.
I found that this design is perfect to create a large album with 6×6 inch papers and only a handful of 12×12 inch sheets. This makes it a lot more cost effective than an album with lots of large pages. The relatively wide spine offers ample room for you to embellish on the inside.
On its last two pages I used some special-folded paper ornaments. Both are covered in the downloadable written tutorial in my shop. For one of them I also made a free video tutorial, which will be available next week in a new blog post.
For this particular album I used the Optimist collection by Prima Marketing, including their sticky tabs, ATC cards, flowers, leaflets and brads.
I hope you’ll all enjoy this design just as much as I do!
If you wish to create this double-stacked album yourself, check out the written tutorial in my Etsy shop, which has 148 pages and 429 (!) pictures.
Please like, share & subcribe to this blog, my Youtube channel and my Pinterest! You can also follow me on Twitter.
Want to know what other people created with the tutorial? Check out the fanpage and see for yourself! 🙂
As you may have noticed by now if you’ve been following this blog, I really like to design and create what I call micro projects, small but fully functional paper craft products, perfect for your handbag or as a small but very personal gift. And great to use up those gorgeous scraps in your stash you can’t get yourself to throw away… 🙂
This week I’d like to share a new micro design: a Micro Pocket Book! I really like how this has turned out, and by now I’ve already created two! They are 3½ x 2¾” (9 x 7 cm), sport a magnet closure with a ribbon pull, three little pages + some extra room for photos/journalling, and a nice little pocket to tuck away tiny treasures. It was great fun to create them, especially because a simple change in design paper resulted in a second pocket book with an entirely different look and feel from the first.
Papers used were Bo Bunny’s Country Gardenfor the one and some sheets by Fabscraps for the other.
When I first created my Butterflies & StarsKeepsake Album Deluxe back in the fall of 2013, I had no idea it would become quite the scrapbooking hit on Youtube – as per today, it has gotten nearly 460,000 views and the number is still growing! Wow!
Unfortunately I have no explanation for this, since I have not been able to repeat these results… Its sister albums Flora & Fauna, Fairytale Treasures and Country Garden all had their shares of views, and so did my other projects, but none of them ever came anywhere near that unique number. I guess Youtube moves in mysterious ways… Oh well…
Anyway, I received (and am still receiving) a lot of requests for a tutorial on this type of album, this ‘double-spined’ gatefold-like type of album that I’ve dubbed Keepsake Album Deluxe.
And I have some great news for all of those lovely people: I’ve now been able to create this tutorial, and it is huge! It sports 132 pages with 418 pictures!
And it’s available to you now as a digital download in my Etsy shop.
To write a tutorial I of course had to create the project, for I had to take pictures of every step of the process. So here’s the latest edition of my Keepsake Album Deluxe, created using Webster’s Pages’ Nest collection, and I’m calling it Springtime Dreams. 🙂
Enjoy the video and let me know what you think!
Want to know what other people created with the tutorial? Check out the fanpage and see for yourself! 🙂
Sometimes you want to send someone an awesome card, but you don’t have the time to spend hours and hours of creating. That is why I love my quick scrap projects!
I designed this card from only 1 sheet of doublesided 12×12″ (30,5×30,5 cm) design paper, with just a couple of folds and cuts. I also added some cardstock for the tags, and a few little embellishments. This design helps you to create a luxurious, interactive card within less than 60 minutes of creating!
It also enables you to use up those single sheets of double-sided design paper you might still have left over from other projects.
Or, in my case, the design lets me indulge myself in just buying single sheets that really stand out from their collections, without having to buy the entire collections and all that goes with them 🙂
To help you all along I wrote a tutorial for you, which you can acquire for a very sharp price in my Etsy shop 🙂
Enjoy the video and pictures below, and stay crafty!
It’s springtime! 🙂 Although it’s still pretty cold where I live here in the Netherlands, you can already feel a certain ‘softness’ in the air as days are lengthening and nature is preparing to wake up. I don’t know about you, but I’m totally game for spring!
And this year we’ll have a fairly early Easter. Normally I don’t send out any Easter cards (it’s simply not a Dutch tradition) but this year I felt like letting at least a couple of people know that I’m thinking about them and wish them some great times with the upcoming holiday.
I found this lovely sheet of paper by We R Memory Keepers, from their Cotton Tail collection, and it immediately took my thoughts to all the wonderful things that make up springtime and Easter.
So in the spirit of spring, I decided to design something new. I challenged myself to use only one piece of 12×12 inch cardstock for the construction of this card! Of course you will need some extra materials, but not a lot and the main items on that list are 1 extra sheet of cardstock for tags (A4 will suffice), and 1 sheet of 12×12 inch design paper. That’s about it! This design will enable you to create an elaborate and interactive card that is still quite affordable in terms of the supplies you need – awesome right?! 🙂
Also, this card is perfect for more than one sentiment and personalized message, it can function as a gift card holder and it will come in very handy as a vehicle for a group gift, when a group of people are giving one gift together.
And last but not least, you could also use it as a mini album page insert!
Good news: I’m making this design available to you all in my Etsy shop – and like the card itself this tutorial is also very affordable, so check it out!
And here’s the show & tell video, enjoy and let me know what you think!
If you want to try your hand at this interactive wallet card yourself, please check out the tutorial I wrote for you, which you can find in my Etsy shop.
NEWS flash: this tutorial is now also available in Dutch – email me if you’re interested! Plus, several card kits to make this particular card are now available as well! 🙂
Recently Jessica, a young lady from the USA whom I had never met before, contacted me via Youtube, proposing a project swap. I loved this idea, as well as the great spontaneity she showed with this initiative, and we agreed to a friendly card challenge. I set the theme, she added some parameters. So here’s the homework we gave ourselves:
Create an interactive, not too bulky wallet-type card around the theme Encouragement. The projects would have to be true to our individual styles and personalities. Extra criterium was to try and make the message to the other person as personal as we could – without us actually knowing eachother… So we’d have to find our inner Encourager, as it were. 🙂
So, in the video below you can check out what I came up with! This wallet card measures 5.75 x 5.75″ (14.5 x 14.5 cm) and is of my own design. It has pockets, tags, layered layouts and several interactive closures. It’s perfect for more than one sentiment and personalized message, it can function as a gift card holder and it will come in very handy as a vehicle for a group gift – when there are several personal messages by different people and/or gift cards needing to be tucked away into one awesome card 🙂
I used Kaisercraft’s Lady Rose collection, which is stunningly beautiful, feminine and timelessly on trend. Plus, it has some great and encouraging sentiment labels which fit this challenge perfectly!
And here’s the video of the card Jessica created for me! So thank you again Jessica, for your lovely card and your great initiative – an encouragement in and of itself! And for those of you who’d like to see what Jessica’s up to, check out her website, which you can find at AT2 Design.
