Encre, papier, ciseaux

Mini Pocket Folder

Inspiration: YouTube tutorial by Pinkstrawberryz

This is the last tutorial from the YouTube video I drew inspiration from to prepare projects I could make with my niece. This may be my favorite yet, if only because I used a piece of paper I had leftover from the Shimelle Little by Little collection and it looks really cute used up like that. I again went to my Planner Essentials dies to add embellishments. It happened that the tab I had leftover from my school project was the perfect shade of aqua to fit with this project so that was a nice coincidence. Another one was that when I pulled out my white cardstock to finish the tab, I found the word Joy stamped in soft aqua ink on a scrap, so I punched it out with a circle punch and added it inside the project.

This could be used on its own and filled with notes or embellishments, or it could be added to a scrapbook page as an interactive elements that opens.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Unknown (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Paper: Little by Little (Shimelle for American Crafts)
Cardstock: Soft Sky, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Planner Essentials #21 (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Ink: Soft Sky (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Island Indigo Baker's Twine, White Polka Dot Tulle Ribbon,
Elegant Faceted Gems, Circle Punch, Delightful Tag Topper Punch (Stampin' Up!);
White Rickrack (Unknown); Hole Reinforcer Punch (We R Memory Makers)

 

School Days Mini Folder

Inspiration: YouTube tutorial by Pinkstrawberryz and The Paper Players #504 (Back to School)

This is a second project that I picked up from the YouTube video tutorial I was watching and that I thought would make a nice and easy project to do with my niece using paper scraps. The starting paper again measures 6" x 6", which is easy to come by. Because the Paper Players challenge's theme was Back to School, I was inspired to pull out the oh-so-fun School Days papers from Doodlebug Design. 

I wanted to fill the folder with something so I used my new Planner Essentials #21 dies from Elizabeth Craft Designs. They include sheets torn from notebooks, which were perfect here. I used the little cut-aparts from the paper pad to decorate the front and inside the folder, using a green paper clip to keep one in place. The little arrow and the tab are from the same Planner Essentials die set. I don't do planners, but this die series is SO useful for paper crafts in general. And I'm always amazed at how many dies are included for a very affordable price. Can't recommend those enough.

To finish it off, I added a icon sticker, a resin dot on the tab and two star shape sprinkles as well and tied it shut with red baker's twine. I was planning on making this really simple since it was only supposed to serve as inspiration for my niece, but it turned out way cuter than I anticipated. That's Doodlebug for you!

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers, Icons Stickers: School Days (Doodlebug Design)
Dies: Planner Essentials 21 (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Accessories: Real Red Baker's Twine, Stampin' Dimensionals, Corner Rounder Punch,
All the Trimmings Embellishments (Stampin' Up!);
Star Shape Sprinkles (Doodlebug Design)

 

Platform 9-3/4

I'm slowly working on my London trip album. Those pictures of platform 9-3/4 were taken during my visit of the Warner Bros. studios. The reproduction of King's Cross Station is quite impressive, and I had fun taking pictures with the luggage going through the brick wall.

I mixed Project Life and traditional together on this layout, which helped me include more pictures while embellishing a little bit more. I particularly like how my 9-3/4 circle turned out. I found some numbers that were the right scale in the Plain digits and punctuation grungeboard kit from Tim Holtz. I've had this set for at least a decade and I keep going back to it from time to time. It has so many pieces in it, it's been lasting me a long time and there's still quite a few pieces to use left in it! This time, I tried something new to cover the grungeboard: Distress crayons! I recently added two new colors to my stash, Antiqued Bronze and Black Soot, after seeing online how you can easily darken some details on your projects and blend the colour using your fingers. I don't do a lot of mixed medias and I don't usually like getting my hands dirty when crafting (I have a bunch of tools, that's what they are for), but I found myself really enjoying blending the crayons in the nook and crannies of the grungeboard and around my papers using my fingers. (In bit part because the crayon will wipe off your fingers super easily without leaving a trace.) I was laying the numbers over a circle die-cut out of Merry Merlot cardstock from Stampin' Up! (which matches the Harry Potter burgundy so nicely), but it felt a little flat, so I pulled out my Black Soot Distress Oxide ink to blend on the outer edge, which made a huge difference.

Because I had selected stars over hearts from the list, I used my Star Border Punch at the bottom of the 4" x 6" black panel. I tried a few options to back the punched part, but in the end, I decided I liked having it as open lace the best. I kept the punched stars aside, figuring I could use some of them somewhere on the layout. Some were glued around the journaling part and on my number circle, but I had this last-minute idea to glue some on the right page and as I was throwing some randomly on the page, I got inspired to have them come out of the train, like a magical cloud. I'm really happy with this last-minute addition.

I also punched out a few tickets, to go with the train theme, and I topped a couple of them with star-shaped enamel shapes.

I needed something to make my journaling block and none of the Harry Potter papers I had were neutral enough to write on, so I reached for my scraps, which are organized in 12" x 12" plastic drawers, by colour. While I don't use my scraps nearly as often as I could, this system does come in handy whenever I am working on a card or layout and I need a small piece that would match what I am using. It sure came in handy here, as I went through the brown/beige drawer, trying to find something that would work. I had to get all the way to the bottom, but sure enough, I found something that worked. It got even better when I die-cut the scrap with the Stacked Deckle Rectangle dies from Sizzix and inked the edges using Antique Linen and Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink. Perfect old parchment look. The Harry Potter sticker sheet had some red wax sceals on it, and I used a calligraphy pen to make a fancy first letter. Not my best calligraphy work, but let's give it points for effort and originality.

 

 

 

Supplies
Dies: Stacked Deckle Rectangles (Tim Holtz for Sizzix); Months (Echo Park);
Patterned Papers: Wizard (Moxie); Wizard 102 (Reminisce)
Cardstock: Basic Black Core'dinations, Joyous Noel 6" x 6" Glimmer Paper (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Antique Linen, Vintage Photo (Distress Oxide - Ranger)
Accessories: Antiqued Bronze and Black Soot Distress Crayons, Blending Tool (Ranger);
Plain Digits & Punctuation Grungeboard (Tim Holtz Idea-ology); Black Journaling Pen; 
Harry Potter Alphabet Stickers (Creative Imaginations); Black Calligraphy Pen;
Washi Tape, Star Border Punch, Riding Hood Red Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Ticket Duo Punch,
Mini Stapler, Regals Enamel Shapes (Stampin' Up!); Circle Layering Dies (Tonic)
Wizard 102 Stickers (Reminisce); Glitter Gloss Aqua Shimmer Brush (Nuvo)

 

Spring Shaker Window

After finishing a layout with my leftover Hello Gorgeous papers from My Mind's Eye, I moved on to a card. I hadn't used my Don't Worry, Be Hoppy stamp set from Lawn Fawn and I've been in a sequin kind of mood lately, so I decided to recycle one of my previous card layout. I had initially made a similar card with the For You, Deer stamp set where paired with the Tri Window Cover, I was able to make shaker windows and hang the critters from two fo the windows. The bunny and frog went great with the colour combo and I found a nice larger sentiment to fill in the center window. It reads, "May your day be festive and filled with nice moments." I embossed it with Patina Oxide baked texture powder. I took the prongs off of two decorative brads and added them on each side of the sentiment with Scrap Dots glue before creating my shaker windows.

The critter images were colored with Polychromos pencils. The card felt a little bare so I added some narrow shimmery Bermuda Bay ribbon and layered banners at the top, with a button and gem. Because the card is pretty thick, I made an oversized envelope for it with a scrap of pink patterned paper found in my colour bin.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Don't Worry, Be Hoppy (Lawn Fawn); Levons nos verres (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Thick Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!) 
Patterned Papers: Hello Gorgeous (My Mind's Eye)
Dies: Don't Worry, Be Hoppy (Lawn Fawn); Stitched So Sweetly (Stampin' Up!);
Tri Window Cover (Mama Elephant)
Accessories: Foam Adhesive Strips, Window Sheet, Designer Brads, 1/8" Bermuda Bay Ribbon,
Envelope Punch Board, Sequins, Iridescent Pearls, Wonderful Gems (Stampin' Up!);
Patina Oxide Baked Texture Embossing Powder (Emerald Creek); Polychromos Pencils (Faber-Castell);
Pearl Necklace and Lemon Sherbet Sequin Mixes (Little Things from Lucy's Cards);
Pale Pink Sequins (Simon Says Stamp); March Crystals (Studio Katia); Button (Foof-a-La)

 

Gift Wrapped

I was really drawn to the Gift Wrapped stamp set from the current minicatalogue. It comes in a bundle with a matching punch, which I also like. Punches take a little bit more room to store, but they're definitely faster, especially if you're mass-producing a card like this one with the same image appearing three times. 

I also liked that the Hand Stamped colour combo included two of the new In Colors, so I was happy it gave me a chance to use them. I love this year's In Colors, The Bumblebee is a nice golden shade that's very easy to incorporate in various color pairing and the Magenta is different and does fill a hole that we had in the colour palette. (This always become apparent when I'm using patterned papers and trying to match it to cardstock - there are certain shades than I can never find in either my current or retired cardstock options).

This was kept pretty simple. I gold-embossed the three large bows from the set on cardstock and punched them out. I embossed my white background using the Hammered Metal 3D embossing folder and I added my sentiment on a piece of Coastal Cabana cardstock, punched with the Banners Pick a Punch. I added resin dots and enamel dots to the bows and strip. A little bit of Magenta Madness ribbon (love the texture of the In Color ribbons this year!) finishes the card.

I repeated the three bows in their respective ink colours on the envelope to match.

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Enveloppé d'amour (Gift Wrapped)
Cardstock: Bumblebee, Whisper White, Coastal Cabana, Magenta Madness
Ink: Bumblebee, Coastal Cabana, Magenta Madness, VersaMark
Accessories: Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder, White Medium Envelope,
Playing with Patterns Resin Dots, 2020-2022 In Color Enamel Dots,
Banners Pick a Punch, Hammered Metal 3D Embossing Folder

 

Happy Birthday Gorgeous

I'm still playing with my leftovers from the Hello Gorgeous collection (My Mind's Eye). So far, I've made a 12" x 12" layout, a regular A2 card, a bunch of little embellishments and as I was working on those, I was inspired to make this card.

I had handcut the big flower cluster at the bottom of a pink page and I kept thinking it looked really nice layered over the pink polka dot and teal plaid. It was too big to make an embellishment out of, so it sparked an idea for a card. Because the flowers were so big, I knew they would fill out a slimline card nicely. Based on the scraps I had, I decided to make my card 8" x 4" (but I made an envelope for a 8" x 4-1/2" card to accomodate for the flower overhang at the top of the card). 

I used leftover number stickers on the green rectangle (which was a leftover piece from my first card, where I had cut three windows with the Tri Window Cover die). I added two gold corners and because of the number stickers, I thought I should do a long birthday sentiment to go with it. My mind immediately went to my Hand-Penned Holidays stamp set. This was purchased from Stampin' Up! many years ago, back when they still sold French wood-mount stamps (and wood was retired on French stamps many years before they did so for English). It has always been a personal favorite but the script letters are really tall, which makes the sentiments hard to fit on a design. I knew I had enough room here, so I jumped on the chance to pull my set out.

The arrow butterflies were little pieces left on my desk. I embellished the arrow with a Sugar Art pebble from Prima, and added a few gems on the butterfly and to frame the sentiment. I tied a piece of So Saffron and gold baker's twine (from the last Sale-A-Bration offering). I decided to jazz the flowers up by lining the edges and centers with my fine-tip glue and I added tinsel glitter to it. I love the result.

The inside of the card and the envelopes were embellished with ornement pieces I had previously been working on. I selected elements based on the ones that were flat. 

Making cards out of leftover is not always easy since you have to work with whatever colour and size of scraps you have left, but I don't think you could ever guess this was made out of leftovers. One of my favorite cards I've made lately. 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Notes manuscrites (Hand-Penned Holidays - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Certainly Celery (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers and Stickers: Hello Gorgeous (My Mind's Eye); Striped Paper (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Basic Grey (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Envelope Punch Board, Stampin' Dimensionals, So Saffron Baker's Twine, Fine-Tip Glue,
My Way Die, Tag Punch, Button Die, Tag Dies (Stampin' Up!); Sugar Art Pebbles (Prima Marketing);
Tinsel Glitter (Recollections); Gold Corners (Vintage - Upcycle);
Jewels - Rainbow Sparkle Mix (Little Things from Lucy's Cards)

 

Clear Spine Halloween Mini Album

Inspiration: YouTube tutorial from Pinkstrawberryz

I've recently put together a mini Halloween album with the Halloween Town collection from Echo Park (dating back a couple of years). I knew I had to put together a second so that each niece could have her own. Today, I randomly spotted a mini-album tutorial linked on Instagram, so I went to YouTube to check it out and instantly knew it was exactly what I needed. Quick, small but incredibly cute. Putting together the album was really quick (maybe an hour at the most), but I spent the rest of the afternoon working on embellishing it. That is where most of my time was spent, but it you were to stick to stickers and simple tags, this would be really quick and easy to assemble.

I've made my spine a little too wide, I find (2-3/4" between the two covers). It would probably have been better a little narrower, but this is the kind of kinks you run into when you make a project the first time. If I was to make another one, I'd make this smaller.

On the right side, where the mini-book is assembled, I somehow miscalculated on one of my pieces and made it larger than the others. I only realized it after I had put glue on it and was ready to glue it inside the album. Because it was full of glue, it would have been hard to cut it to the right size, so I decided to just stick with three pages instead of four and I added a little pocket on the front with a leftover piece of pumpkin-print paper. The back page was decorate with the Gift Wrapped bundle, which I've been really loving (currently sold in Stampin' Up!'s August-December minicatalogue). The bow was embossed with sparkly black powder.

I die-cut two tags from the Planner Essentials 21 set, layered them and held them in place on the acetate using a purple eyelet. This avoided the problem of adhesive showing up inside the album. The tags were stamped with the Happy Halloween stamp set from Doodlebug Design, another item I received really late last season and didn't have time to really play with. I used other images from the same set to stamp the bottom of tags. I also colored and die-cut the little spider to add on the spiderweb sticker I had added to my mini-book section. I cut apart the Happy Halloween! sentiment to keep only the Halloween word, which I stamped and used on my front pocket, layered over a star.

The front and back cover stars were die-cut using the Outside In Stitched Star Stacklables dies out of Shimmer Sheetz from Elizabeth Craft Designs and held in place using Doodlebug sugar-coated brads. I love how it looks. 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Happy Halloween (Doodlebug Design); Enveloppé d'amour (Gift Wrapped - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Marigold Morning, Old Olive, Soft Sky, Blackberry Bliss, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!);
Shimmer Sheetz (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
Patterned Papers and Stickers: Halloween Town (Echo Park);
Acetate from Quatrefancy Specialty Designer Series Paper (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive (Stampin' Up!); VersaMark
Dies: Happy Halloween (Doodlebug Design); Outside In Stitched Star Stacklables (Lawn Fawn);
Planner Essentials 21 (Elizabeth Craft Designs); Sentiment Labels (Simon Says Stamp)
Accessories: Tangerine and Beetle Black Sugar Coated Brads (Doodlebug Design);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Tag Topper Punches, Baker's Twine, Ribbons, Circle Punch (Stampin' Up!);
Midas Touch Aqua Shimmer Brush (Nuvo); Markers (Copic);
Amethyst, Apricot Glaze and Bora Bora PEarls (Studio Katia);
Marigold Gems (Pretty Pink Posh); Black Sparkle (Ranger)

 

Playful Pets Cards

Inspiration: Mojo Monday #543

I love the Playful Pets collection. The cats and dogs look very "Disney" to me. Can you look at this little grey dog without thinking of Lady and the Tramp? My design was inspired by the Mojo Monday sketch, always a great starting point for any card. I was putting together the pieces, working on the cat card first, and I was trying to figure out which sentiment to use. When I spotted the word "Smile" in a flower set, I cracked up and decided it would be perfect to go with the grumpy cat. I added the little mouse image underneath. (Bonus point in French for that detail, as the words "mouse" and "smile" are the same.

The red and gold ribbon I used in the background to divide my two papers is from the All the Trimmings Ribbon Combo Pack. It's supposed to be Poppy Parade, but it pairs very well with Real Red. I also used black and white twine over my horizontal stripe of paper for added texture and I used the Playful Pets trinkets on both cards.

 

 

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Allée des marguerites (Daisy Lane)
Cardstock: Smoky Slate, Basic Black, Real Red
Designer Series Paper: Playful Pets
Ink: VersaMark
Dies: Stitched Shapes, Stitched Rectangles, Layering Circles,
Stitched So Sweetly, Pets
Accessories: Playful Pets Trinkets, Playful Pets Trim Combo Pack,
All the Trimmings Ribbon Combo Pack, Stampin' Dimensionals,
White Stampin' Emboss Powder

 

Forever Young

I recently received my updated driver's license and health insurance cards. The old ones were expiring this year, which would have usually required for me to go and have a new picture taken. Because of the COVID situation, government has decided to forego the pictures this year and simply reuse the ones they had on file. Which I'm happy about because I did like the previous picture, which was not too bad despite the fact that we are not allowed to smile anymore when they are taken. I also discovered that the new cards, which used to be valid for 4 years, are now valid for eight! 

I cut apart the old cards and kept the pictures. You can see it's the same one, but one is in colour and the other is in black and white. I knew I wanted to make a smaller page with my Elizabeth Crafts Planner Essentials dies and I decided on the Mintay papers once I realized this line was called Forever Young. It was a perfect title to the page (to refer to me now aging for 12 years in my ID picture). I handcut the collection title at the top of the chipboard pieces and glued it directly on the page. I die-cut the page twice, to have my background and to add a striped border where the holes are. I added Bermuda Bay ribbon between the two papers and I used my reinforcer hole punch with Burnised Rose Mirror cardstock from Tonic. I layered two of the cut-apart frames on the page. I decorated the first one with a cut-apart banner image and the title and I handwrote my journaling on the second one. I couldn't fit it all, so I used a third frame cut-apart on the back of the page to finish the journaling. I added a chipboard piece that says "Surprise!" at the bottom and a few gems and dots to embellish.

On the back, I cut a second piece of patterned paper with the die to add a bit of details to the page. I punched the top with an old border punch from Stampin' Up! and I added Magenta Maddness ribbon to the piece before gluing it down on the page. (Could have made a pocket, but when for something flat.) The rosette is just one of the cut-apart pieces, so it's laying flat on the page, and I added a circle chipboard piece over it, as well as a chipboard sentiment banner. I repeated the resin dots and a flower cut-apart image. I used my glue pen and added Dazzling Diamonds fine glitter to the center of the flowers and to the heart balloon on the chipboard.

This cute page was put-together really quickly. I like that I was able to use a birthday-themed paper collection for something that's not birthday-related. The colours and images in this collection are just gorgeous.

 

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers and Chipboard Pieces: Forever Young (Mintay)
Dies: Planner Essentials 2 (Elizabeth Crafts Design)
Mirror Cardstock: Burnished Rose (Tonic)
Accessories: Elegant Faceted Gems, Playing with Patterns Resin Dots,
Dazzling Diamonds Fine Glitter, Lace Trim Border Punch, Magenta Madness twill and
1/8" Bermuda Bay glimmer Ribbons (Stampin' Up!); BroadPen 1554 (Faber-Castell);
Hole Reinforcer Punch (We R Memory Makers)