Tag Archives: Mintay Papers

Card making: Work with what brings you joy

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This week’s card was created with Together, a 6×6 design paper pad by Mintay. It’s an older design paper collection, but you’ll have to forgive me not buying anything new any time soon, due to my rather large stash 😅

I love the color palette of these papers, the soft corals and aquas, laced with some sage green and beiges, it all comes together perfectly with the dreamy air balloon theme. I used this collection before, when I worked on a little pre-made album, you can check out the video on that here.

As a specific theme for this card I chose tea time, which I incorporated by way of some cute little stamps on the front.

I don’t know why the card looks so crooked in this picture, I guess I held my phone a bit crooked (sorry)

I also stamped a floral element in coral on the front, which you can see peaking out behind the little layout I did on top of it.

I kept the inside extremely simple, matting with a floral design first and then choosing a second piece of design paper that offered some natural room to write. I did decorate, but subtly: I only added some liquid pearl around the edges of the journalling spot.

I also matted the back of course.

Although technically this wasn’t one of my so-called tea cards, which I always design around an actual bag of tea (check out all of my tea card designs here), I did add a tea bag to the envelope when I sent the card to my friend. And created a little custom tea tag to go with it 🙂

I always write what kind of tea it is on a little custom tea tag – in this case: Pina Collada tea! 🙂

All in all I loved to work on this card. The lovely colors and graphic designs of the papers, together with the simplicity of the design, made for a great afternoon of crafting.

So I guess the main tips this week are: choose to work with what brings you joy, and don’t be afraid to keep it simple! (On that note, also check out my previous post, on the K.I.S.S. method and applying it to paper crafting).

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

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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

Trying a pre-bound mini album: My end result + review (pros/cons)

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Sometimes I feel like crafting, even crafting a mini album, but am no where near in the mood to do everything required. So as an alternative, I thought I’d try a pre-bound mini album. I chose Prima Marketing’s Tiny Journal, which is from their Memory Hardware collection by Frank Garcia.

I figured such a small album (it sports 4×4″ pages) would be perfect for my (rather enormous) stash of 6×6″ paper pads. I went for the Together paperpad by Mintay Papers, which I felt would suit the kraft-colored Tiny Journal pretty well.

Having tried my hand at it, I feel there are some pros and cons to these pre-bound albums. So in the video, after I show you the finished project, I’ll share some thoughts: what’s it like to work on a pre-bound album, which pluses & minuses did I encounter, and – most importantly – would I do it again?

Share your thoughts in the comment section! Have you ever tried one of these pre-bound minis?

Six Easy Card Ideas

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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! 😃

Learn how to design your own card

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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

A Luxurious Easter Card

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Springtime! And at the moment (for as long as it lasts) I’m loving all of those bright pastels! This year I’m sending out three Easter cards, two of which I’m showing you this week.

I used Mintay’s perfect springtime collection, Better Times. Gosh, those images are like frameable paintings all by themseleves, but I got over those qualms and cut into them anyway 😱

I focussed on designing one large, luxurious card with three sheets of double-sided design paper plus a cutapart sheet. I think I succeeded quite nicely 😊

In the end I still had enough paper left over to create a bonus card, which I’m sharing towards the end of the video.

Wishing you all a very lovely Easter and a happy spring! I’m curious, are you sending any Easter cards this year? Let me know in the comments!

And the Bonus Card!

Home for Christmas – 6 Christmas Cards

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For my first batch of 2020 Christmas cards I planned on scrapping up an entire 6×6 inch paper pad and make 7 cards in the style I showed in my previous blog post.

To that end I have a tip for you: to avoid being overwhelmed by an entire pad, just rip out all of the sheets and make little 3-sheet stacks – for you’ll need 3 sheets for each card (plus some cardstock of course).

In the end I made only one card in the style I planned; then I went with the creative Flow and made five more cards, all in their own unique styles. Oh well, plans are made to be thrown out right.

The point being, don’t let those pesky little paper pads get the advantage – you’re the boss, so rip them apart and use every single last one of those lovely sheets. You go!

Stay crafty, see you in my next!

4th of July project: 1-sheet Multipocket Card

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One of my new favorite brands is Mintay Papers, and even though I only bought one sheet of their beautiful red-white-blue Berrylicious collection, I think I managed to squeeze the absolute most out of it! 🙂

I created a multi-pocketed interactive 1-sheet card – Tutorial #9 in my shop – and this time I used cardstock as a base and matted with the double-sided Berrylicious sheet (instead of design paper only/no cardstock).

The color theme of this paper collection makes it ideal to celebrate national holidays – (if those are your national colors) – without having to work with actual flag-themed papers. Like this week, if you’re an American and celebrate the 4th of July. Or when you’re in the Netherlands like me, and celebrate Liberation Day (5th of May).

Mintay Papers, Berrylicious, MT-BER-01

Or you can totally ignore any national theme and simply enjoy the bright, fun colors and homely images and patterns, and send it to your mom for Mother’s Day – which is what I did 😊

Enjoy the video – and if applicable: Happy 4th of July! 🎉

Dear Diary Gatefold Album + Bonus Project

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If you’re in the mood for a larger project, I’ve got just the thing for you! 🙂 For here’s my latest design, a gatefold mini album with a small box pocket and a bonus project, a mini folio!

If you’re going to work many hours you should choose the loveliest papers you can find, for you’ll be looking at them for quite some time 😉 My choice this time was the Dear Diary collection by Mintay Papers. Very lovely indeed.

So, enjoy the show & tell video, and of course some pictures below. Tutorial available!