Tag Archives: birthday card

K.I.S.S. papercrafting: Don’t overthink the front of your card

Posted on by
Reply

In one of my previous posts, my first one on the K.I.S.S. way of papercrafting (Keep It Simple, Stupid), I gave some examples on keeping your cards simple yet lovely and your crafting easy-going and timesaving. One of the examples I gave is to make use of post cards – the kind you buy somewhere – and incorporate those into your card projects.

This week I’d like to elaborate on that a little bit, with another example. The trick, for me, is to buy a postcard with some kind of special depiction or sentiment: not your general ‘Happy Birthday’ card with a bunch flowers, funny drawings or a joke, but one depicting something meaningful – to you and/or the person to whom you’ll be sending the card.

For this week’s birthday card project, I chose a postcard that I bought in an art museum, it was depicting a special piece of fashion by Viktor & Rolf. I picked it because the person I was going to send it to, appreciates fashion, art & lifestyle.

I matted it on top of two layers of design paper, in a matching color scheme. I stamped congratulations (in Dutch), but added no extra decorative elements, adhering to the K.I.S.S. principle.

I matted the inside with several papers from the same design paper collection – Reflections by Echo Park (no longer available) – and added a journalling spot on top.

I wrote the specifics of the fashion piece on the inside of the card, and the museum in which it was photographed

I also matted the back, and decorated with a sentiment sticker.

So, even though I invested a little more time and energy into this card than I did the previous example (in the aforementioned earlier blog post) I still kept it K.I.S.S.: the card design was simple yet elegant, and I had a lovely time creating it.

Have a great week, don’t overthink things! 🙂

Perfume Card Series: How to Fasten Your Perfume on the Inside, pt. 2

Posted on by
Reply

In my last post I shared one way of adding a perfume sample to the inside of a card. In this post I’ll illustrate a second way of doing that: by way of what I would call an integrated belly band.

By ‘integrated belly band’ I mean a belly band which is not layered on top of a (design) paper surface, but which has seemingly been integrated with it instead.

Basic construction is the same: fold a card and make sure it has a wide enough gusset (or spine). But before you start matting and decorating, attach the belly band first! Simply dry-fit a strip of (design) paper around a small perfume vile or sample and glue its ends to the base card, on either side of the spine.

Only then mat & decorate. And a nice ribbon closure would be fun too 😉

In this example I created an ATC card-sized double card with a spine, of about 3 x 4″ (7.5 x 10 cm). I used design paper by Mintay Papers.

Done! Let me know in a comment: have you ever sent out perfume samples over the mail, as a little extra ‘something something’ for a dear friend or a loved one?

Mat with design papers, layering them on top of both ends of the belly band, thereby hiding them
Decorate the outside however you like. E.g. I added some flowers, blings and a stamped sentiment

Perfume Card Series: How to Fasten Your Perfume on the Inside

Posted on by
Reply

In my previous post I shared the idea of fastening a perfume booklet to the front of a card. This allowed for the rest of the card to be a standard folded card, since the bulky part was on its outside.

But what if you want to add your perfume to the inside of your card?

One way of doing that would be to create a belly band on the inside.

However, this only works if your perfume sample comes with its own booklet (see picture below), for then you can tuck the edges of the booklet behind the belly band. If it didn’t come with a booklet, then we’ll need a different design – so keep an eye on this series of blog posts! Simply click the tag Perfume cards and you’ll get all relevant posts on my blog at any given time.

But first things first: your card will need a gusset, otherways it would not close around the vile. Depending on the girth of your perfume sample, create a gusset that is wide enough. For most samples a gusset of 3/8 to 1/2 inch (1-1.2 cm) will probably suffice.

If you use only one sheet of double-sided design paper that already has 6 double-sided 4×6″ cards as a pattern, you’ll be able to create two VERY quick & easy cards! 🙂

1 sheet of A4 cardstock + 1 sheet of 12×12″ double-sided design paper is all you need for these two cards!
This gorgeous paper collection is Desire by Stamperia. The sheet is called ‘6 cards’ (SBB891).

I decorated a little bit but not too much, for I only wanted to enhance this stunning paper here and there and not get in its way.

Added some flowers where it would actually integrate with the design pattern
Strategically added a small bunch of roses and two pieces of chipboard; in this case, less was indeed more.

The end result was lovely. I simply tucked the perfume booklets behind the belly band, which automatically kept them closed.

Don’t underestimate the importance of details: I colour-coordinated my perfume samples with my design papers, and this definitely enhanced the card design! 🙂

Have fun crafting! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment with this post!

Perfume Card Series: Easy ways to send someone some fragrant love

Posted on by
2

Over the years I have often shared design ideas for cards to send someone an original ‘hug-in-a-mug’, or in other words, how to incorporate a teabag in a creative way.

I’d like to add to that a new series of design ideas, this time centered around perfume and how to send someone an actual vile of perfume. This can be a decant from that awesome niche bottle you own yourself, a small test sprayer you bought online or the official samples that brands hand out and are often added for free to your purchase at your local perfume shop.

Keep those little brand samplers around, they make for great card gifts!

These are small enough to send over the mail, but you will have to find original ways to add them to a card design. Fret not! For that is where this new series comes in.

And here’s my first idea: take a brand’s sample booklet and add it to the front of your card. Choose or create a coordinating background. Keep the booklet closed with a swing tab closure. Stamp a nice sentiment, decorate, and done!

I sprayed my own background in the below example, but you could make this card with design paper too.

I diecut the butterfly with a 2-die set from some papers I inked myself, and added some extra Stickles to highlight.

It’s fast. It’s easy. It adds a lovely little extra ‘something something’ to your card.

Have fun creating!

Cardmaking Tips, tools & ideas | Avoiding the Chore Aspect of Crafting

Posted on by
Reply

Have a blessed New Year every one! And thank you for your continued readership and support in 2022!

So, speaking of last year, apparently I forgot to post my 2022 Christmas cards here on my blog after uploading it to Youtube last December…. However, the tips are still useful, for they are for card making in general, not just Christmas cards.

So imagine any occasion you’re planning to celebrate with a card, sit back & relax and apply every tip to your own cards. I hope you find some inspiration, not only by way of card ideas but also to avoid the Chore Trap of crafting. Enjoy the video 🙂

Time for Some Fall Cards

Posted on by
4

A few weeks ago I discovered the beautiful Vintage Artistry Wedgewood collection by 49 and Market. Even though I loved the entire collection, I purchased only a single sheet to make it easier (for me) to immediately use it, and to save some money at the same time.

Now the challenge I gave myself was to create more than one project that all featured this paper. I came up with three cards and they all turned out lovely. Gosh that paper is so stunning.

Detailed walkthrough in the video!

Two kinds of embossing + stencilling and Distress embossing glaze.
Showcasing the paper, stamping…
…and a box pocket (with some tea!)
Using even the last bit of paper, stencilling, embossing, colorizing leaves and turning them grungy

Six Easy Card Ideas

Posted on by
Reply

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! 😃

Stamperia Vintage Birthday Card

Posted on by
Reply

Today I’m sharing a birthday card with Stamperia’s lovely vintage Time is an Illusion collection. There’ll be some more cards the coming days, for I – finally! – finished the new mini album (mini tome, rather 😅) using four of Stamperia’s vintage collections. And as per usual I’m using the leftovers to create all kinds of nice cards and booklets.

This one is in fact a pretty simple card to make: you only have to decorate the front, and you only need three pieces of design paper to layer. Decorate any way you like. Done.

For instance, I used some dimensional tape between the layers of design paper to achieve a 3D effect. I also put some Tim Holtz Distress Grit Paste through a flourished stencil, and colored it with Distress Embossing Glaze – which also adds some nice shine & gloss.

Do you like Stamperia papers? What is your favorite collection?

Quick Birthday Tag – Vintage Style!

Posted on by
Reply

Tip: You don’t always need to create a full-blown birthday card, a nice tag will go a long way too – especially when added to a gift to carry your birthday wishes.

Here’s an easy little gift tag and the steps to create it. I designed it to go with some birthday flowers for a friend.

  1. I chose a cutapart from Stamperia’s Time is an Illusion collection;
  2. Layered a second cutapart on top;
  3. stamped some butterflies;
  4. added a ribbon on top;
  5. added a Tim Holtz quote chip, after using some Distress Mica Sprays to grunge it up a bit.

Easy peasy! 😃

Materials used

Time saver! Using your own mixed media backgrounds

Posted on by
Reply

I tend to compartimentalize my mixed media crafting: one day I do my spraying, inking and/or painting, one day I use my stamps, stencils & texture pastes, and lastly I turn it into a card or tag to send out or give away. This not only keeps it fun and practical, it also saves time when you actually need a quick card or tag.

Stash of art backgrounds

In this post I’m sharing several of these follow-up projects, starting with the finished background, followed by the final project. You can find the making of some of these backgrounds in previous blog posts btw, should you be interested.

1. Birthday tag

Just the art background
All dolled-up

2. Textured birthday tag

3. Alcohol ink on gesso birthday card

4. Black background cards

5. Printed close-up photo of above art project, matted on cardstock

6. Marbled Distress Paint on black card

Learn how to design your own card

Posted on by
Reply

Crafting a paper project is one thing, but feeling confident about actually designing it, that’s quite another. You cannot teach creativity, but what I can do is taking you along in my thought process while I design a special kind of card.

Using a sheet of Mintay’s Next Trip collection, I’m designing a card with a spine, meant to hold a hand-made tea bag filled with delicious tea.

Mintay Papers – Next Trip – MT-NEX-03

You can watch me come up with measurements – while I explain all kinds of different design options – where to cut and fold, and how to get the most out of your one sheet of design paper. You will also see me design an actual belly bridge, vs. the more common belly band :-), one which is able to accomodate quite a bulky tea bag.

In the video I’m also using a tea bag die, but you can of course also cut and fold your own little tea bag. If you don’t know how to do that, there’s a complete instruction on how to replicate this particular one, including measurements, in my Tea Bag Micro Album tutorial.

Hope this is helpful to you, let me know in the comments!

PS: I’m not creating as many projects as I used to, it’s just a phase I’m guessing. This past 1.5 year has beaten my creativity down somewhat. I’ll still be here though, and on Youtube. Just not every single week. Sorry! 😔

To my Dutch followers: if you want to see what I’ve been up to lately, check out my second YT channel, which is entirely in Dutch, and my second IG account (English) 🙂

Makeup with Katja

Quick, easy and lovely: String-tied Layered Cards

Posted on by
Reply

It doesn’t always have to take many long hours of work to create a beautiful card. In this week’s tutorial I’m sharing an idea for a quick & easy card design, for which you only need some pieces of paper, a piece of string and some tools.

You can use colored cardstock, design paper or a mixed media background to be the showstopper piece. I created my backgrounds with Distress inks by Tim Holtz.

A nice detail of this design is the piece of string, which you wrap around your card and tie into a bow on the inside of your card.

All in all I think you may actually create this card in under ten minutes – provided you already made your mixed media backgrounds at some time in the past, and have them at the ready (if you’re not opting for design paper or colored cardstock).

If you don’t have a die-cutting machine, you could also stamp a sentiment, or adhere a chipboard piece like in the picture below. In case you don’t own an embossing machine, you can easily skip the embossed layer entirely, also like the card below (shown in more detail in the video).

Enjoy the video tutorial! – which is, like this card design, short & sweet 🙂