Planner Essentials

Retro bus mini booklet – too much fun!

January 18, 2022

Hi fellow crafters, 

My name is Devid, and I am honored to be a new Band Ambassador for the Planner Essentials collection. It is a great collection, and I am completely hooked. This is my first ever blogpost here for Elizabeth Craft Designs and I am super excited!

In this blog I am working with the fantastic new Retro Bus Special, in this case I am making a mini book. 

Step 1: Die cut all the pieces you need out of the cardstock. 

Step 2: I used cardstock with a colored core. Using a sanding block, I distressed the paper exposing the lighter core. 

Step 3: Using Distress ink Frayed Burlap to lightly color the edges of the main parts. This not only gives it a vintage look but also helps to create depth. Always remember: light brings forward, dark creates depth. 

Step 4: Distress the metallic parts with a sanding block and give it a rusty look using a rose gold gilding wax.

Step 5: assemble the cover page in this order: base page, base layer, cover layer, insert windows if you made these, add tires and finish with bumper, head lights, mirrors and other embellishments.

I hope you give this fantastic set a go and enjoy it as much as I did. Thank you for reading my process and see you for the next one! All products I used are listed below.

Elizabeth Craft Designs supplies used:

ECD Retro Bus Special kit
ECD Clear Double sided adhesive

Other products used:


Core-dinations cardstock
IDEA-OLOGY TIM HOLTZ PAPER STASH 8″ X 8″ – METALLIC 
Ranger Distress Ink Frayed Burlap
COOSA CRAFTS GILDING WAX – BRONZE
Florence Cardstock Kraft 200 gr.
Florence colored cardstock 216 gr.

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  • Abby February 2, 2022 at 11:59 am

    Nice 1st blog post. I picked this set up at my LSS. ??. Excited to make a mini with it. I think it will be fun and I’ll get great enjoyment from it.

  • Vicki Kroll January 18, 2022 at 3:24 pm

    Love this set and the technique for the vintage look. Congratulations on your new Ambassadorship with Elizabeth Craft Designs. You could not be in better hands. Great company and loved the video. Look forward to more.

  • Therese H January 18, 2022 at 1:51 pm

    I love your vintage bus. I really enjoyed learning your tip about light/forward and dark/background.

  • Arlene January 18, 2022 at 12:16 pm

    Excellent video. Congratulations on joining the Elizabeth Craft Designs team. Well done!

  • Randy January 18, 2022 at 11:14 am

    This bus is so adorable and I love how you demonstrated how easy it is to put together. I also enjoyed the lesson on dark in back and light up front. Your bus had nice depth. Thank you for sharing. Can’t wait to see more of your skiing adventure.

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