This Thursday: altered tea-box

Sample nr.2 for This Thursday: an altered teabox. Christa (my scrap friend and collegue) found this really cheap wooden box in a store. I altered it with the georgeous Oh Joy Crafting Kit papers from Cosmo Cricket.

All the papers from that crafting kit go together in any commbination. Here I used "Frosty" and "Wrapping Paper". Also needed: embossing ink+powder (gold), Acrylic paint (used Paint dabber from Adirondack "Juniper"

The dividing wood on the inside can be removed. I glued a Cristmas embellishment on the bottom.

1.Paint the box with acrylic paint. I used Adirondack paint dabber "Juniper". Remove the metal slots for better coverage or paint around them with a small brush.

2. Measure every surface and cut paper to fit. Remember to ink every edge and corner of the paper. It looks nicer that way than with white edges. I inked the box also with distress Walnut Stain for a more vintage look.

3. Stamp on the sides with distress embossing and emboss with gold. This looks complicated but it is really quite simple. Place the box on an even hard surface before stamping. Make sure the stamp comes in good contact with te box. Ink the edges of he box a bit more with distress.

I will fill the box with seasonal teas and wrap it for a Christmas gift! But chocolate or embellishments for a crafting friend is also an option! Chocolate is always a well received gift!

This Thursday: folding booklet

This is the first sample I made for This Thursday. The sponsor, Cosmo Cricket, sent me the georgous Oh Joy Paper Crafting Kit. I could not believe my eyes when I opened the package. Twelve double sided design papers, a die cuts sheet, journaling cards and a words/text strips paper. Enough for hours of crafting fun.

Because of the double sided design papers I made this folded booklet. On the inside are some corners folded to make pockets for little tags or journaling text. The rub-on is enhanced with Stickles crystal. The corner triangels are covered in Matte Accents from Ranger. Papers used from the crafting kit are "Mitten Mitten" and "Frosty" and a tag on the front cover.

1. Make folds and cuts in the paper as shown. Now you can start folding the little pages. Remember to ink every edge! That is so important give it a finished and worn look. I used distress Brushed Corduroy.

2. Here you can see how the pages fold. I cut a cover slightly bigger than the pages. Don't forget the two folds in the middle for the back of the booklet. Ink every edge and corner!

3. Create the embellishments for the cover. Some pages can be folded to make pockets for little tags. Glue pages together on the inside.

3. Glue a ribbon a little loose around the pages. You still need some room inside to attach photo's! Punch a little hole in the cover where ribbon goes through.

4. Glue cover and embellish as you wish. Add photo's and journaling inside. This is a great little booklet for Christmas memories!

Tag 3: black and white

I had a lot of comments about this praying girl. What a sweet little girl! Off course she is perfect for Christmas tags but I can think of other occasions where she could serve as well! She belongs to a stampset from Art Journey.


Ik kreeg veel reakties over dit biddende meisje. Ze is zo ontzettend lief! Natuurlijk past ze prima bij alle kerstkaarten. Maar ik kan ook nog wel andere gebeurtenissen bedenken, waarbij ze ook heel goed tot haar recht komt! Ze komt van een stempellap van Art Journey.


1. Supplies needed. White cardstock, stamps, tag, ranger white gelpen, anti static puff, enbossing powder. Off course heattool, glue, etc.

2. Swipe the anti static puff over the white cardstock. This is very important as you don't want stray specks of transparant (or white) embossing powder!

3. emboss text with transparant (or white if you are using a colored cardstock as background) Wait a few minutes till it cools off completely.

4. Stamp the girl with distress Black Soot half over the embossed text. Swipe carefully the excess black ink from the embossed text. Don't worry if it smears a little. Later on that won't be visible. Emboss girl with transparant powder. The ink is wet enough, if you don't dawdle, to catch the embossing powder.

5. Cut the image to fit your tag. Use inkblending tool to blend Black Soot over the white areas giving a shadow impression and accent the white text. Don't ink over girls face. Stamp text with Black Soot.

6. Blend Black Soot ink over the edges of your tag. Stamp a little fern (or flourish) on the top spot and accent with Ranger White gelpen.

7. Color the Grungeboard N with colorbox frostwhite and emboss with powder several times to get a nice texture. Attach it to the tag with a jumpring. Finish tag with ribbons and add a bit of Stickles crystal to the N.

Tag 2: Wrinkle free distress and Masks.

The wrinkle free distress technique has been spoken of many times. It is also a technique you can't avoid using often because it is simple, direct to paper and very lovely, messy, inky and easy to do! If you work with paper and ink you have probably done this hundreds of times with all possible colors. The masks of Tim Holtz give a whole new dimension to this technique. And an opportunity to try out even more color combinations!

De kreukvrije distress techniek is al vele keren besproken en in beeld gebracht. Toch kan je niet om deze techniek heen als je met papier en inkt werkt. Het is gewoon heerlijk, kliederig en makkelijk om te doen! Waarschijnlijk hebben de meeste mensen dit al honderden keren gedaan met alle mogelijke kleuren. De maskers van Tim Holtz geven weer een hele nieuwe dimensie aan deze techniek voor nog meer kleurcombinaties!


1. Wrinkle free distress the tag: Apply distress ink to your craftsheet. Spray on a little water and apply your tag to the mixture. Repeat several times until desired look is achieved.

2. Don't forget to heatset in between applications to get those nice "drops and swirls" on the background. If you don't heatset it will probably end up one muddy color.

3. Place sticky mask where you want it and choose your masking color ink. Blend in the ink with careful tapping, small swipes. Tim Holtz has a video tutorial about the correct way to apply ink on masks. Look at it HERE.

4. Stamp with handwriting stamp over mask. Use the same color ink you used to accent the mask.

5. Distress edges with distressing tool and color with Aged Mahoganey. Stamp quote with Black Soot. I colored the Grungeboard embellishment with Fired Brick and embossed with transparant+gold embossing powder.
Finish tag with ribbons, gold thread and grungeboard.

Tag 1: Shadow Stamping

Because Tags are such a "HOT" item at the moment I wanted to try a tag tutorial too! It's not easy let me tell you! And I don't mean the tag but the uploading to blogger. This photo upload system is very stubborn!
Anyway here is a tag with what I call "shadow stamping". It means the same stamp is used multiple times.

Omdat Tags een "HOT" item zijn op het moment wilde ik eens een tag-met-uitleg proberen. Maar makkelijk was het niet. De tag ging nog wel, maar die uploader van blogger... daar heb ik steeds ruzie mee!
Hier is een tag met wat ik noem "schaduw-stempelen". Ik bedoel daarmee dat dezelfde stempel meerdere keren wordt gestempeld.
(De uitleg is alleen in engels. Als je daar problemen mee hebt geef dat even aan in een reactie. Dan zal ik proberen te verduidelijken waar nodig)

1. Because I don't have white tags I blended in some color first. These tags do not give a bright color. If you want bright colors I recommend working on white paper and triming that to fit your tag.


2. Before embossing don't forget to heat set the ink and swipe with the anti static puff. That little pillow is a lifesaver to avoid all those specks of embossing powder!


3. Emboss with a color you want. I used transparant here.

4. Add more color to accent the embossed area's.


5. Ready any embellisment you want to use.

6. Now for the shadow stamping. Ink your stamp in the colors you used for the background (not together but one at the time!) I used Broken China and Shabby Shutters. I stamped once with the blue and once with the green. After drying the print will fade into your background leaving a very faint image. A shadow image.
Gently wipe excess ink of the embossed area's, which will resist the distress ink.


7. Distress edges and color with Frayed Burlap. Add embellishments, stamp desired quote with a permanent ink (like StazOn) and finish your shadow-stamp tag!