This week I’m sharing a card for a guy – with some extra embellishment tips! I used Graphic 45’s wonderful A Proper Gentleman collection, which I still can’t get enough of 🙂
Enjoy the video!
Also check out my Man About Town sturdio album, which I made with the same paper collection!
Usually I’m quite structured and disciplined when it comes to designing and creating new papercraft projects. But sometimes I just like doodling around with some paper, and simply watch the magic happen in my hands while a project seems to create itself 🙂
This is how I created the cards, or perhaps more aptly card-letters, that I’m sharing with you this week. I was playing around with a piece of paper, randomly folding and turning it, until I decided to cut off some excess pieces and be done with it. I was surprised by the results!
So I decided to create a second one and do a process video tutorial for you all, to share my method – no measurements taken this time, for every such card will be unique. Hopefully you will enjoy creating your own just as much as I did creating mine.
Have fun watching the tutorial video and be aware that there is a second doodle-fold card I share at the end of it, so you’ll have two examples. Also, you can see both of them in the pictures below 🙂
At first glance this may look like your average layered card, matted on the inside and outsides. It holds a surprise however, for if you untie its little bow on the front, a little tri-fold is revealed, with five cute panels you can use to stamp or add some sentiments or images, or even to hide a little picture.
I used Romantique papers for this card, a 2010 Prima Marketing collection. Its romantic vintage patterns were so lovely I didn’t really want to cut into them, so I made my card 6 1/8 x 6 1/8″ (15.5 x 15.5 cm) – which turned out to be a beautiful, luxurious size, but note that you will need a larger envelope as well.
So enjoy the video – which this time is with music only 😉 – and please click the Like button below! 🙂
I tried out a new die set, called Modern Patchwork, which lets you create your own, well, patchwork of papers. 🙂
I really like the results, these cards were fun to create, give you a totally different look and as a bonus they are perfect to use up those beautiful scraps of paper you’ve got lying around everywhere because you can’t bring yourself to throw them away 🙂
So here’s the video! (and please don’t forget to click the like button 😉 )
The die-set’s product number is CLMP02 by the Dutch company Crealies. I used Coral Couture papers by DCWV.
Today I’m sharing a second iteration of one of my wallet card designs. I used the Simple Stories Say Cheese collection, including some tags and cutaparts, to create a lovely birthday card. The bright, high-contrast colors of this paper line make it very suitable for winter birthdays – like my friend’s, who has her birthday in February. So I printed some fun birthday sentiments on the large tags – though you could also do some stamping or even use them as photo mats. The inside of the card offers room for journaling or a personal birthday message.
Although I used several sheets of design papers to decorate, this type of card will also allow you to use only one sheet of double-sided design paper – to see how that might look, check out last year’s Easter iteration!. That way you won’t need much more than two pieces of cardstock and one sheet of design paper!
All in all it was a very fun project which I enjoyed creating just as much as the first one, so check out the affordable tutorial if you’d like to create one too!
A so-called tri-shutter card is easy to make and almost always generates amazed and admiring responses. You can create them at different sizes and shapes (i.e. rectangular or square), simply by playing around with both the horizontal and vertical measurements of your cardstock.
I created different Christmas versions in the past, with the square (when folded closed) Holly Jolly cards and the smaller, rectangular Caramel Christmas versions.
Today I’m sharing a third variation: a birthday card for a golf player, using a Proper Gentleman paper by Graphic 45.
I fussy-cut an actual golf player from the paper and glued it to the left front panel, making sure the glof club was sticking out.
I also die-cut and embossed the first letter of the name of the guy to whom I was going to send it. I lightly went over it with some distress ink, to highlight the embossed parts.
I always use a light color for the central panel, to be able to write or stamp a message. In this case: Congratulations in Dutch.
When creating a card or other project for a guy, I always keep the embellishments at a minimum. No fuss for a man! 🙂
Sometimes it’s difficult to establish whether the male recipient of your card genuinely likes it for its own merits – for though he may truly appreciate and enjoy the gesture, he might still feel neutral at best about the esthetics of your work. Nevertheless, in this case I think the colleague who received this particular card actually deemed it quite likeable 🙂
So, hope you feel inspired for your first new cards in 2016. As I said this design is very easy to make. If you’d like to try it but don’t know how, check out my free video tutorial!
Next week’s video: Boxing Days – A chipboard storage or gift box to create yourself!
For these final months of the year (boy, how time flies!) I created some cards using the Time to Flourish collection by Graphic 45. This collection is the perfect seasonal collection, with a special focus on all things floral.
I already created some cards earlier in the year, there was May, including Mother’s Day, and fairly recently I showed you two versions of August birthday cards.
This time it’s the fall, and even one Christmas card.
So enjoy the video and pictures, and please like & subscribe!
The Time to Flourish collection by Graphic 45 is really versatile. You could do a calendar of course, a mini album, or special greeting cards to send your friends and family actual month-based well-wishes. Back in May I created a birthday card and a Mother’s Day card, and today I’m happy to share with you two summer birthday cards, this time for the month of August.
One is a double layout card, the other an extra large card which measures an actual 8×8″ (20 x 20 cm)! I used a lot of layering with the design paper, cutaparts, chipboard pieces, die-cut flowers and some embellisments, mostly from the Time to Flourish collection.
Enjoy!
I’ve been working with Graphic 45’s Time to Flourish collection since the end of last year, when I was creating the first six months of an 8×8″ calendar. (I’ll show you the second half of that calendar this summer, since I haven’t finished it yet.)
Meanwhile, I added some 12×12″ inch Time to Flourish sheets to my otherwise 8×8″ collection, to mix & match a bit and create four nice cards. Today I’m happy to share the first two, centered around the month of May. They were great fun to make, especially with all the cutaparts, tags and chipboard pieces that come with this collection! I also enjoyed playing around with two different sizes of the same May sheet, the results of which you can see in the video.
So here’s two layered cards, one for Mother’s Day, the other for a birthday, both centered around the month of May.
For some more month-based greeting cards, check out my August versions!
Please like & subscribe, and let me know what you think!
(If you click on the title of this blog post you’ll find the comment section underneath the post).
Here’s an idea for a birthday card for a man. It has style, is on trend, is magnetized, and there’s no girly fuss 😉 . As a bonus, it is fairly easy and quick to make!
Supply list
Tutorial
Feel free to let me know if you’d like me to do a (free) tutorial for this type of card! (even years after this post is fine with me, just drop me line or leave a comment – I’m always in for new blog and/or video ideas 🙂 )
More detailed tutorials on a growing number of projects are available in my Etsy shop.
Although I’ve done my share of larger mini albums, and also created an XL card, I really love my micro projects as well. Recently I made a tri-fold cardlet, teeny-tiny and supercute. I aimed for a modern, stylish feel. The birthday lady for whom it was intended, while very feminine, was not of the girly-girly pink stuff persuasion 😉
I chose DCWV’s Immortal Love paper, and got to work with some cardstock, some glitter glue, a couple of stamps and a single brad. Of course I inked around all of the edges with distress ink: Black Soot by Tim Holtz.
A small word of warning in case you want to create one yourself: this is not a so-called quick-scrap that you can create last-minute when you’re in a hurry. Although it’s very easy to make, the use of glitter glue requires a lot of drying time that you’ll have to take into account when planning your project. Just saying 😉
Anyway, here’s the pictures!
Closed – A blinged-up belly band is keeping the little tri-fold closed. It measures about 4 x 6 cm (appr. 1.5 x 2.5 inches)
Open
Front panel – I used two different colors of Tim Holtz’s distress ink to stamp a rose on the front. I used sticky embossing powder by Ranger to turn the image into a glued surface, which I then sprinkled with Tim Holtz’s Clear Rock Candy distress glitter.
Left inside panel – I stamped ’46’ with black ink (the birthday girl’s age), which I then traced with red glitter glue. Simple, and gives a great effect!
Middle inside panel – I used red glitter glue to trace around the panel. Once the glitter glue had dried, I could write my birthway wish with a silver metal marker.
Back panel – No extra embellishments, this piece of paper was gorgeous enough in and of itself!
Left outside panel (turning the card over) – I stamped Handmade for you and traced the pattern of the paper with red glitter glue.
Middle outside panel – First I stamped Birthday Wishes onto a tiny tag I had created from a piece of design paper. I used red glitter glue to trace the edges of the tag. I used a silver-colored brad to attach the micro tag to another piece of design paper that I had cut to size. Only then did I mat the panel with the completed assembly.
So, this was my micro project, hope you liked it and got some inspiration from it! See ya again soon, with a new video post! 🙂
Sometimes I challenge myself to get as many projects out of 1 or 2 sheets of paper as I can (while still liking them). Recently I took two 12×12 inch sheets of the Best of Paisleys stack by My Mind’s Eye and some coordinating cardstock, and got to work.
I managed to create five birthday cards with the materials and I still have some leftovers, so I was quite pleased with that harvest.
I tried some new designs, including two “fashion-themed” cards, for which I found some tutorials on Youtube. So, hoping to inspire you, here’s the video!