A few weeks ago I launched a new collection in my etsy store, Rainbow Doodles. Just fun and simple shapes, colourful with simple doodles on top. Great for art journaling, and creating layers and clusters in your creative projects.
Now that many of us are in isolation or lockdown, I wanted to share something to help in a tiny way. So here you can download two free printable sheets of this collection to use at home in your own projects. Staying busy and staying creative is important at the moment.
These pictures were made with the stickers and die cuts available in my shop, but gives you some idea of how you can use these in projects.
Just a couple of things before you download:
These free printable downloads are solely intended for personal use. They are not to be reproduced in any way to be distributed or sold.
These designs are purely my own creation, and are not to be reproduced.
If you use these in your projects, then I’d love to see, so please tag me on social media if you share. All my social media links are at the top of the page.
To go along with this week’s Trimcraft Tuesday video, where I make a baby-themed scrapbook/mini album, here are the instructions on how to make the album.
You can watch the accompanying video here:
This album is one I’ve made many times, based on this video from YouTube (I’m not clever enough to come up with these ideas from scratch!), but I have adjusted the measurements, which is why we have this blog post!
You will need:
Chipboard, or other very sturdy card (I’ve used old ‘do not bend’ envelopes in the past and they work just fine!)
A3 white card/cardstock ( I used 210 gsm)
A4 white card/cardstock
Double Sided Tape
Strong Glue
Red Line Tape
Scoreboard and bone folder
Ruler or t-square
Start by cutting your board, two pieces at 16.7 x 14.5 cm, and one at 3.5 x 14.5 cm.
Take your A3 card and cut down to 42 x 18.5 cm (A3 is 42cm long so you will only need to cut one side). Mark 2cm in from the edge of each side of the card, and use these marks to adhere your chipboard pieces to the card.
Mark 4mm from each corner of the chipboard, and use this mark to draw a diagonal line across the corner (to create a triangle), and cut along these lines.
Fold the card around the chipboard, using the chipboard to help bend the card, you can use a bone folder to make the folds neater. Make sure to fold the long edges first. Adhere down the long edges (you can use either double sided tape or liquid glue here, whatever you prefer).
Use the bone folder to push and fold the edges in as seen so that all the corners are neat, then fold and adhere the short edges to the chipboard.
Put the album aside for now to work on the ‘binding’. Cut three pieces of card (you can use the leftover from the A3 piece you cut down for this), to 5.5 x 13, 4.5 x 13, and 3.5 x 13 cm. Score 1.5cm in on both sides of each piece, and fold and burnish the lines.
Add double sided tape to both sides of each ‘flap’ on all three pieces, then snip off all the corners. Then add adhesive to the centre of the largest piece and adhere the middle piece on top, repeat to add the smallest piece on top of the middle piece, you should end up with something like this:
Cut another piece of cardstock to 13 x 12.5 cm, on the 12.5cm side measure 5cm in from each edge, and mark at the bottom and the top. Use the marks to adhere this to the centre of the album. Then again use the marks to adhere the binding piece to this – use strong adhesive, you really want this one to stay in place!
Cut two more pieces of cardstock at 16.5 x 13 cm, and adhere these to the inside cover to cover up the chipboard.
Now we can make the pages/inserts for the album. Cut six pieces of cardstock at 27.5 x 13, and then score at 1.5 and 14.5 cm.
Fold and burnish the score lines. Then turn over and add double sided tape to the bottom ‘flap’ as seen.
Now it’s time to add these into the album, which is one of those things that on paper is really simple but SO easy to mess up! Start from the last page (on the right).
With the insert ‘open’, align the left edge to one of the binder flaps as in the photo (with the insert flap at the bottom ). Take the tape backing from the binder and stick down, then take the tape backing from the other side of the flap.
Fold in the flap from the insert, and remove the backing from this piece, then fold the insert to meet the bottom edge, and use your bone folder to seal everything in place.
Once all pages/inserts are in place, carefully bend the album like this to finish it. It is best to leave this step until the end as it’s easier to do all the other steps when the album is still flat.
Now you just need to add in pages for each of the pockets created. Cut yardstick to 12.5 x 13 cm. On the 12.15 cm side, use a border punch (of any type, I just chose a scallop edge for this album as it works well) to add a decorative edge.
Do this six times and insert into each pocket. If you want colourful pages then cut these inserts with papers to match your theme – or you can just cover them with appropriate colours, it’s up to you.
Now you can decorate to your heart’s content! To see how I did mine, watch my video linked at the top of this post, but I’ll finish off with a picture of how mine ended up. If you’d like a product list then everything will be linked in the description box of the YouTube video 🙂
I also love sugar skulls – and there’s lots in this paper pad! So I decided to create this Sugar Skull snail-mail flipbook, with pockets and envelopes to fill with goodies to send to a penpal. Here’s a quick video of the flipbook, then I’ll go over each section in detail:
(apologies for the annoying portrait mode, but the video was filmed for instagram!)
To create this flipbook I started with this cut file from the Silhouette design store. I offset it by a few mm, and added a rounded square shape to one side to be the ‘join’ between each section. Then I cut both the outside shape and the sugar skull itself six times on different papers from the pad. The shapes were backed together to make them sturdy, and I glued the sugar skull on four of the pages (saving two for future projects).
For the front I created a shaker pocket. I went back to the Silhouette design software, took that skull shape and made an internal offset of about 0.5″. I used that to trace over foam (twice) and glued those to the base. I used the shape again to trace over acetate, then adhered that to the shape with strong tacky glue. With the foam in place (and the glue dry) I added a mix of sequins (including skull sequins), coarse glitter, and microbeads, then again with the strong glue, adhered the acetate piece on top of the foam.
Oh, before all this I also drew around the sugar skull’s features with a white gel pen so it would stand out behind the sequin mix.
To finish I added the ‘Hi’ at the top – letters made with the WE R Memory Keepers Mini Alphabet Punchboard, a fussy cut sugar skull from the 12×12 paper pad, and a stamped, embossed, and then fussy cut sugar skull made with a Dovecraft Stamp. I finished with lots of Simply Creative gems around the edge and in the letters.
When you open up the flipbook this is what you see on the inside.
This is the first page you see when you open the flipbook. With the sugar skull in place I coloured the teeth with a white gel pen. Then added Simply Creative 3mm Rainbow gems around the eyes and nose. Then created a tiny envelope with the WE R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board, and adhered it in place.
For the second page, when I glued the sugar skull down, I did not add glue to all of it, I left a section at the top so that I could use the space as a pocket. I created another envelope with the punch board to slot into this space. I added Simply Creative 6mm rainbow gems to the teeth, created a faux stitching effect around the eyes and nose with a black 0.38mm gel pen, then added small fussy cut skulls to the centres of the eyes.
When I was glueing the skull shapes together at the beginning of the process I decided one could be used as a pocket. So for this one I added glue only to the edge at the sides. I used the inner piece after cutting the shape for my shaker pocket on the front and adhered that. Then created a tall envelope to add onto here, which is kept closed with brads and twine. The three skulls were fussy cut from the 12×12 paper pad. Lastly as there was another ‘join’ sticking out, I decided to create yet another envelope to stick onto that. I also decorated the other side of the envelope with a simple banner shape and another skull, but I seem to have forgotten to take a photo of that, whoops! I added Distress Oxide in Black Soot around the edges of the envelope.
When you flip the book over this is what you see. The page on the far left I decided to keep simple, I added faux stitching again with a fine point gel pen around the teeth, nose, and eyes, and added more fussy cut skulls in the centre of the eye – those also had Black Soot Oxide added around the edges to help them stand out.
For the final page I had another skull shape to use (made somewhere in the process of using the silhouette, there was some trial and error in creating the shapes!). I added the stamped, embossed, and fussy cut skull, and finished with more rainbow gems all around the edge of the skull shape.
Remember to check Trimcraft’s The Craft Blog for more ideas and inspiration with this collection, as well as all the other beautiful collections from Trimcraft. I also have process videos with Trimcraft collections every Tuesday on my YouTube channel (there’s a link at the top of this page underneath my logo).
This post contains some affiliate links, which mean if you purchase after clicking on these links I get a tiny percentage of the sale, at absolutely no extra cost to you.
In this post I’m going to be showing you how to make this fun, but incredibly simple banner cut out card. I’m not good with fancy-fold cards (my brain isn’t mathematical enough!), but I do occasionally like to make cards that are just a *little bit* different.
To make this you will need:
an 8×8″ paper pad (or larger). I used First Edition’s new release, ‘Let’s Celebrate’ for mine
A sentiment stamp, and decorative stamps if desired too
Heat Embossing Equipment (ink, powder, heat tool)
Ink Pad
5×7″ white card blank (or white cardstock large enough to make your own)
Banner Die 3 x 4.5″ (7.5 x 11.5cm) – if you don’t have this then don’t worry too much!
To Start:
Die cut two banner shapes. If you don’t have the die (my set was from The Works but they don’t seem to have them available online right now), then not to worry! It’s a very easy shape to cut yourself, just use the measurements listed above.
Back each of your banners on a contrasting paper and cut around leaving a border of a few mm. If you have the appropriate sized die you can just cut that and use it to back the original shape, but I find it easier to do it this way!
Attach the banners to your 5×7″ card blank (I go for double sided tape as my adhesive, but use whatever your preference is). Make sure each banner is at the very edge of the card at the left edge and then on the top and bottom edges.
Cut around the banner shapes using scissors or a craft knife, again, whichever your preference. Be careful to only cut through one layer of card and not the back too!
Cut another contrasting paper to just under 5 x 7″ and attach to the inside of the card.
And that’s it for the card shape! You can now decorate however you wish, but I’ll show you how I did mine to give you an idea.
Stamp and emboss a sentiment on a paper scrap, about 2-2.5″ wide (about 5cm).
Cut the paper you’ve stamped into a smaller square or rectangle, back with a contrasting paper leaving a 2mm-ish border, then attach to a longer, but slightly narrower strip of paper.
Attach to card and finish with some stamping!
It is up to you whether to attach your decorative piece to just one or to both banners, if you attach it to just one then the banners can ‘open’ separately, however…
When you make a vertical card – only attach the sentiment/sentiment cluster to the bottom banner. If you attach it to the top banner then gravity will work against you and it will droop!
This card shape also works great horizontally:
How super easy is that?! You can then write your message on the inside of the banners or on the back of the card.
If you’d like to see some more projects with Let’s Celebrate, then check out the Inspiration Area of Trimcraft’s The Craft Blog.
Hi all! I have a post today to show you how to make this pretty mixed media card. Today is my parents’ 30th Wedding Anniversary, which is the ‘pearl’ anniversary, so I wanted to make something with lots and lots of pearls. Of course you could use this style and techniques to make any sort of card you wanted, and use any papers, but I will list the items I used to help you get an idea of what is needed.
I used:
A3 cardstock
First Edition Sweet Nothings 12×12 Paper Pad
Dovecraft Distressing Tool
Paper Flowers, various colours and sizes
Clear Glass Beads
White thread
Flat back pearls (lots!)
White Gesso
3D Gloss Gel/Gel Medium
I wanted to make a huge card, so I started with A3 white card to create my card blank. The card measures 7.5″ by 8″, so you will need to cut a piece 15″ by 8″, and score down the middle to create your card blank.
Matt the front of the card with three contrasting papers, one just under 7.5 x 8″, one 7 x 7.5″, and the front one 6.75 x 7″. Distress the edges of the centre paper.
For the centrepiece, I cut the numbers on my silhouette in the font ‘Beyond the Mountains’. I offset the numbers by about 0.3″ and separated the two cut files so the darker ’30’ could be backed by the lighter one. If you do not have a silhouette or other electronic cutting machine you can print out a template and then draw and cut around it, the shapes are not too complicated so it shouldn’t take too long.
Distress the edge of the larger 30, then adhere as seen in the photo below, so the numbers slightly overlap and so still leave a border of the green paper underneath. Also so there isn’t an awkward bit of green poking out where the number three ‘dips’ inward on the right edge.
Now it’s time for the messy bit, start by lightly sponging some white gesso on the corners of the card:
Gather together all your embellishments ready to put on. I also cut the ‘mum and dad’ with my silhouette with pearlescent paper (PEARLescent, geddit?!).
Add the gel medium (or other adhesive, you basically want something that will dry transparent with a gloss finish) in the first corner you’re embellishing.
Then add the thread, loop it around your fingers, make knots, whatever you like. It will look messy at first but works once all the items are in place and gives a lovely shabby-chic look.
Then start adding the rest of your embellishments! You may need to add more gel as you go. Start from largest to smallest. So I started with the large paper flowers, then the smaller pink ones, then large pearls, medium pearls, etc, and finish with the glass beads and tiny pearls to fill in any gaps.
If adding a small title or sentiment like I did with the ‘mum and dad’ cut, then add this at the very end.
Finish by painting a light layer of gesso over the flowers to help tie them in to the theme of the card – if your flowers are white or ivory you may not need to do this, but mine had a hint of yellow which I wanted to hide.
The gesso layer also contributes to the shabby-chic effect.
You can dry with a heat tool but I find it better with all these embellishments to leave it overnight to dry.
And it’s finished! One thing to remember with this card, make sure you have an envelope, or the equipment to make an envelope, that is big enough, as it is a BIG card!
Thank you so much for reading. If you make your own version of this card then I’d love to see it, so please tag me on social media! Let me know if you have any questions, and if you’re a bit new to or confused by mixed media, then I have a Mixed Media Basics video up on my YouTube channel (it’ll be published a few hours after this blog post), there’s a link to my channel up at the top of this page underneath my logo.
Ok, ok, I have been somewhat remiss in my blogging… whoops! The end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018 have been a little ‘aaargh!’ (in both good and bad ways). Now that things are starting to settle down I’m hoping to get back to blogging… and be better than before too.
So enough waffle, on with today’s post. I owed my lovely penpal Julie (instagram: @plannerprettiesandpaper) a snail-mail flipbook. And as I was little behind on my mail to her, I wanted to make something extra special.
The gorgeous Trimcraft collections, Dovecraft’s Bee Happy, and First Edition’s Wanderlust are not necessarily similar, but they have some elements that work together really well. So, the ‘Wander-Bee’ collection was born, and it’s first project, this flipbook:
I didn’t do a process video, or take process photos (otherwise there’d be hundreds!). But I thought I’d go through each ‘page’ of the flipbook with you to tell you how it was made.
The cover is this shaker card. All the hexagons (and all that you’ll see throughout the flipbook) I cut on my silhoutte machine. Due to how busy the shaker element is I only added light embellishments: the bee puffy sticker and gold buttons from Bee Happy, and the ‘hello’, which was from my stash. The only Wanderlust element here is the paper I used to die cut the ‘Bee Happy’. In the shaker itself is a mix of gold sequins and stars, gold glitter, coarse yellow glitter, and copper coloured micro beads.
Next was this simple ‘pocket’ page. To make this I cut one of my (many) pre cut hexagons in half (well, just over), and adhered it to the base with a thin layer of double sided tape around the edges. I embellished it with Bee Happy ribbon and a button, as well as both fussy and die cut elements from both Bee Happy and Wanderlust. You can just see the goodies I put in that pocket slightly out of shot to the top right.
This page probably took me the longest to make, as I had to figure out how to make a hexagon-shaped envelope. I tried following an origami tutorial on YouTube but it was WAY too complex. So I just made it up instead. I used brads and twine to keep it shut (it’s full of various die cut shapes and stickers), and decorated around the edge with that slim leaf washi (from my stash). I finished with the sentiment topper from Bee Happy and a Wanderlust fussy cut butterfly.
Next was another page with a simple pocket, made in the same way as last time. But this one is more Wanderlust-y. The bow is made with the bow-sewing technique (let me know if you’d like a blog post on that – I have shown it in a video but I can’t remember which one!). In this pocket I put a load of project life/journal cards.
This is one of the back pages, with added envelope flip-out. This one is a real mix of Bee Happy and Wanderlust, and possibly my favourite page. The small envelope (smallest size on the WE R Memory Keepers’ 1-2-3 Punch Board) is mounted on a 4×2.5″ piece of card, which is then attached with washi tape on both sides. The tape isn’t actually from the Wanderlust collection, believe it or not! It’s a Dovecraft tape from last year. The envelope is filled with little stickers.
The page at the very back I kept simple, with the three Bee Happy Hexagons and wood veneer piece, and a couple of Wanderlust fussy cut butterflies.
And here’s the finished product:
Thanks so much for reading. Check out Trimcraft’s The Craft Blog for more ideas and inspiration with these collections.
Woop! Another installment of my Super Simple Christmas Crafts! This time making this attractive circle wreath card. You can watch the video tutorial for instructions here;
Aren’t these gift boxes cute? I love a Poinsettia, though I generally avoid having them in the house as they’re midly toxic to cats and mine has a tendency to chew on house plants.
So instead – I made some paper ones to decorate these gift boxes! I have a few people this year who are getting multiple small presents from me, rather than one big one. So I needed some lovely boxes to put all those little gifts in – though even the people who get one thing might be getting a box as well, I just love making them!
For the more traditional box on the right I used the First Edition Gift of Christmas Paper Pad, and for the one on the left I used the First Edition Merry Little Christmas.
The instructions on how to make these can be found in my corresponding video tutorial – it is a little long and rambly, sorry about that, I’m out of practice with video tutorials!
Here are the templates for the Poinsettia leaves, I used the first file for the ‘petal’ leaves, and the second for the larger leaves on the bottom.
Of course if you have some leaf dies you can use those too, my templates really are very simple shapes. It would however be a good idea to have a few different sizes of leaf for the full effect.
Right then, happy crafting everyone! Do tag me in anything you make and share – I’d love to see!
Well… almost. As I write this it actually isn’t even Halloween yet, but I’m trying to be super prepared this year. My birthday is in mid December and my goal is to get everything Christmas card and gift related completey sorted by then so I can really enjoy the season. And some Christmassy Brimbles stickers have helped me on my way to that goal!
I started out doing something a bit different, as I fancied trying something new with the stickers. And so I made some gift tags!
I made the tags on my silhouette machine with some standard Christmas cardstock, but they’re very simple shapes it would be very easy to draw and cut them or use a die cut machine. The cardstock needed to be something simple so the pattern wouldn’t take attention away from the stickers. I cut up the washi strips, as well as some red and green glittery washi I had in my stash, and layered them at the bottom or sides of the tags, then added the cute mice from the decorative sheet as the main elements.
Then looped either some Christmas ribbon or washi through the top of the tag and they were done! A really simple craft but I think quite effective. The tags are super cute and will look great either on gifts or in the pockets of my Christmas planner. I could also use them in happy mail, as bookmarks, and even as decorations.
Next was my usual sticker project, which was to decorate a week in my personal size planner.
There was quite a lot of layering and sticker clustering involved in this spread – one of my favourite things to do! Here are some close ups:
With some of the remaining stickers I decorated some pages in my Christmas planner, just to add a bit of fun to some otherwise plain pages.
With the remaining checklist and other functional stickers, I’ll be using them in my Christmas planner as and when needed to make to do lists, shopping lists, or highlight important things.
Oh, and speaking of my Christmas planner. The set up video and corresponding blog post will be published within the next few days, and the blog post may involve some free printables 😉
This month’s kit has certainly made me feel way more Christmassy than I usually do two months before the event, I hope my projects have given you some ideas and inspiration. Thanks so much for reading!
P.S. If you haven’t got yours yet you can buy the November Sticker club here, or get next month’s here!
As the title implies, I made this card using the ‘Pretty Posy’ paper pad from Trimcraft’s First Edition range.
(apologies for the price label still on there, but it damages the cover when you try and remove it!).
After choosing which papers I wanted to use, I started on sorting what elements I needed to make the card. First I fussy cut some florals and hearts from two of the papers (which you can see the pile of in the top left of the photo below).
I also tried out a new toy, this rather rudimentary circle cutter I got from The Works for a whopping £2. It isn’t great, but it’ll do for now.
You can see here the four main parts of the card: the card blank (a 6×6 one). One 6×6 paper (one of the pearlescent designs), with the centre gutted out to make a frame. Then two papers cut to about 5.5×5.5″ (the green one slightly larger) with circles cut from the middle.
…oh, and the lid that covers the circle cutter’s blade has crept it’s way into the photo too, whoops!
Then, assembly! The ‘birthday wishes’ is a cardstock sticker from a Pebbles sticker book – which I now wish I had purchased 2384023 of because I use it all the time for cards and now it’s discontinued, waaaaaah!
It’s also raised up on some foam tape. It was a bit fiddly and took a while to get the fussy cut elements in their right places, and required the combined efforts of foam tape, glue dots, pritt stick, and double sided tape to get the job done.
But that’s not the end! I always like to add something to the back and centre of my cards, even if it’s something small, just so you don’t have a beautiful front of a card and then stark white space elsewhere.
So inside I just added some washi tape:
For the back I did a little more, first I cut another paper to 6×6, and punched the corners with a fancy corner punch:
Then embossed a ‘handmade with love’ stamp on top of some cut off paper I’d used for the front of the card, stuck a doily behind that, and there we go!
I always find adding something to the back and centre of your card (other than your message, of course), makes a handmade card seem more ‘finished’.
Thanks so much for reading, and look out for some more card posts soon 🙂
ms.paperlover 