Hey, y’all! I’ve been working on a project when I have some free time – I decided to turn an old bottle-carrying box into a new-old mini apothecary! Now, I have no intention of filling mine up with “medicine” – or at least not “real” herbs, spices, or ground dragon bone you might have found in an apothecary a few hundred years ago!
Anywho…
It will be a multi-part video project that you can catch over on my YouTube channel – and as I do more work, I’ll keep the product list updated over here on the blog. But, to start, here is the first video, and a link to the playlist so you can ensure you don’t miss any of this apothecary adventure!
Finnabair Stencils: Victorian Tiles, Tapestry, Book of Numbers, Machinery, and Gothic, Finnabair Mechanicals Roman Numerals, Finnabair Heavy Black Gesso, Finnabair Matte Wax Ochre, Stained Wood, Rusty Red, Old White, Patina Blue, & Patina Green, Finnabair Antiquing Wax Clear & Ash Grey, Finnabair Metallique Wax Brushed Iron, Finnabair Rust Effect Paste Rusty and Green, Finnabair Mica Powder Silver, Finnabair Texture Powder, Prima Art Ingredients Mica Flakes Frosted, Cosmic Shimmer Metallic Gilding Polish Silver Hessian, 13@rts Cafe Au Lait Acrylic Paint, Finnabair 3D Matte Gel, AB Studio Stencil, Folk Art Brushed Metal Acrylic Paint Brushed Antique Gold, DecoArt Shimmering Silver Metallic Acrylic Paint, Tim Holtz Sterling, Gilded & Statue Foundry Wax, Tim Holtz Distress Mica Flakes Midnight, Tim Holtz Hitch Fasteners, Tim Holtz Vignette Hardware, Distress Oxide Spray Pine Needles, Sculpy Basics Polymer Clay White, Black, & Blue, Sculpy Gloss Glaze, 8”x10” Gel Press Gel Plate, Gel Press 4” Brayer, Ranger 2.5” Brayer, Krylon Matte Finish, Heat-n-Bond Ultra Hold, Fabri-Tac, double-sided tape, E6000, Ranger Glossy Accents, Original Gorilla Glue, any hinges, latches, and hardware you have on hand and need or want to use (not all of mine were still in packaging, so I’m not sure of their origin!), Scrapbook.com Mint Masking Tape
Paint Mix: Dina Wakely: Sedona & Eggplant, Distress Paint Ground Espresso, Apple Barrel Nutmeg Brown, Folk Art Brushed Metal Acrylic Paint BrushedRose Gold, Dina Wakely Fuchsia Glossy Spray, Liquitex Basic Matte Varnish, Lindy’s Magical Powder Bratwurst Brown, Finnabair Poppy Red Heavy Body Acrylic Paint, Gum Arabic, Cosmic Shimmer Botanical Stains Black Bean, Prima Art Alchemy Fire Brick Concentrated Watercolor (mine wasn’t concentrated anymore though because I had previously refilled the bottle with water to help get all the color out!), **Distress Reinker Aged Mahogany (added to a bit of watered down paint mix in video 8)**
Hey, y’all! I hope the weather this month hasn’t been too bad where you are. Fires in Maui and Canada, a tropical storm hitting Southern California, a massive steam cooker over the southern and mid-western United States, 100°F (37.8°C) waters around Florida, and hurricanes forming in the Atlantic – just to name a few of the weather incidents. I think it would be almost easier to make a list of where the weather isn’t causing problems. Wherever you are, I hope you are staying safe!
If you need something to unwind with, give yourself a little crafty break and check out the notecards I created this week using the August Cards, Tags, More Kit (and a bit from the Mixed Media Kit plus one butterfly from the Scrapbooking Kit!) – then grab your scissors and glue and make some yourself! With the card and envelope blanks in the kit, all you really need to do is add a little decoration and you can get a few finished in a relatively short period of time. Be sure to check out my video for the details of how these came together!
There really isn’t a lot to these quick notecards – a little adhesive, maybe a medium or two, and they are basically done! Since I wasn’t entirely sure where the project would take me, I started out by putting my patterned paper and some of the Dresden Trim on an adhesive sheet, just so I could turn my papers into quick peel-and-stick pieces then coated everything as well as the unfolded envelopes with clear gesso.
The “Thank You” card was the most involved because I used the stencil and Lindy’s Moon Shadow Mist from this month’s Mixed Media Kit on it. For the notecard, I used some clear embossing ink and powder from my stash with the Prima stencil from the Mixed Media Kit to create a resist on the surface, then sprayed the surface with the Moon Shadow Mist. I added a little stamp, a butterfly I had left from last week’s project, and the sentiment.
For the “Thank You” envelope, I sprayed the Lindy’s through the stencil and added a little bit for blending on the top and bottom flap and some “splotches” with the stenciling. After everything had dried, I used the outline die to make a little window in each of the envelopes and then backed the windows with sections of patterned paper.
For the “Hello” notecard, I just adhered a section of patterned paper, a few strips of the Dresden Trim, and a few of the smaller flowers from the kit to the card front. I had thought I would add more, but in the end, all I did was use the ink to stamp the sentiment. I inked the envelope front using a blending brush, added my patterned paper to the back of the window, and stamped the sentiment again.
For my third and final notecard, I added a strip of wood plank patterned paper that had the light string print on it to the top edge, then decided to add some random lengths of the Dresden Trim to the lights! After all of that, the only thing I felt was needed was a sentiment – which I stamped with clear embossing ink and added gold embossing powder to.
The “Congratulations” on the envelope was also done with gold embossing powder after I had my window backed and filled. I have a few more bits of the Dresden Trim on the solid patterned paper I used to back the window with, and then I added the decorative die cut into the window cut-out.
Thank you for joining me here at Tres Jolie, I hope you have a safe and happy rest of the year and beyond! I will be taking a break from Design Team work because as the temps drop around my neck of the woods, it’s going to become SUPER-DUPER busy! I will still be able to craft – I assume! – but I can’t make a guarantee I could fulfill Design Team requirements and deadlines! (I almost didn’t make it through August because events had unexpectedly longer timelines! Whew!)
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! I hope your August has been going well. Have you had a chance to check out the mood board challenge yet? This week I have a couple of mixed media projects for you that I created for my mood board inspired project! I couldn’t decide if I wanted to do a canvas or a clipboard, so I did both!
Be sure to check out my video to see how they came together!
August 2023 Mood Board:
There aren’t really a lot of details needed to describe the process for my projects – it’s mostly a lot of layering and adhering!
I added black gesso to my clipboard along the edges, the clip, and the back, but since I was wrapping the patterned paper around the canvas, it didn’t need any gesso.
I used a 3”x9” canvas, and after deciding which paper I wanted to use, I cut a 4”x10” section out – keeping the printed flower cluster I had planned to focus on to the top right of the canvas. Since I didn’t want to wrap the flower cluster around the edge of the canvas, that led me to cut a couple of strips of the glittery half-sheet to use as my edge wraps for the top and right edges.
I used the Champagne Stardust Butter to accent the edges of the canvas and coated the surface with the same matte medium I used to glue the paper to the canvas. After the matte medium had dried, I added some of the Lindy’s Moon Shadow Mist from the Mixed Media Kit to grunge my background up a bit, then gave everything a spray of Workable Fixatif.
I coated the die-cut and fussy-cut flowers and leaves I wanted to use with more of the Champagne Stardust Butter, separated the leaves and some of the flower petals so I could give the die-cuts a bit more shape as I was putting everything together, then grabbed up my jar of 3D Matte Gel and started the assembly process.
I used more 3D Matte Gel to attach the Prima flowers, gave them a light coat of matte varnish to help protect them, then brushed on a bit of both Stardust Butters just to blend them in a little with the background.
My final addition was to brush on some art stones and Mini Art Stones using Soft Matte Gel and to attach the sentiment/quote.
The process for the clipboard wasn’t very different from the canvas. I didn’t wrap the patterned paper around the clipboard – instead, I distressed the edges, added a few tears and curls, and backed those tears with pieces of the same glittery paper I used to wrap the top and right edge of the canvas.
I used the Marcasite Stardust Butter on the clipboard’s background – covering the clip and the underside of the curled tears, as well as adding it to the corners and edges – but the rest of the assembly was the same process.
The main reason I decided to create both the canvas and the clipboard was that they weren’t going to be vastly different projects, and since they were both smaller, I could very easily work on them side-by-side!
Thank you for joining me here on the blog today! I hope you enjoyed these two projects and they gave you some ideas and inspiration for your next crafting adventure!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Finnabair Heavy Black Gesso, Finnabair 3D Matte Gel, Finnabair Soft Matte Gel, Finnabair Mini Art Stones, art stones, mini clipboard, 3”x9” canvas, Liquitex Professional Matte Medium, Liquitex Basics Matte Varnish
Hey, y’all! Have you had a chance to break into your August Mixed Media Kit yet? It is a fabulously fun kit to play with!
I turned the Prima trays in my kit into a photo spread – using my photo as the center, stretching the hand to the left frame, and adding a few butterflies.
Be sure to check out my video to see how my frames came together – a little acetate for stenciling, various papers for photo printing, some clear glue and sealers and I was done!
Since I was going to be working on acetate, I couldn’t use a heat gun to expedite the dry time of the Stardust Butters, so I did all of my wet mediums at the same time and allowed them to air dry.
For the trays, I started by adding a light spritz of water to the trays to help the Lindy’s absorb a little quicker when I sprayed it on. I wasn’t sure how many coats of Lindy’s I would need for the trays to get the color I wanted, but for what I wanted, I only used one coat of the Lindy’s, then sealed the trays with some Crystal Clear and Gloss UV Resistant Krylon.
After I had the trays sprayed, I went to work adding the Stardust Butters to acetate. On the first sheet of acetate I worked on, I measured out the areas I would need for the three trays because I wanted to keep the stencil design as centered as possible. After I had my first sheet done, I got curious about how a second layer of stenciling would look and ended up creating a second sheet of stenciled acetate that I could offset the first pieces over.
While my trays and acetate were drying, I went to work on my photos. In the video, I talk about my experimentation, but in the end, I did print the images on a sheet of white tissue paper and heavy vellum, layered them up, then sprayed them with the Crystal Clear and UV Resistant Krylon sprays.
After everything was dry and I fussy cut my images, I started the assembly process. I glued the images to more acetate that I had cut to the size I needed for the trays, glued my stenciled acetate layers together, and added all of my layers to their frames (trays).
I spent much more time working out all of the “hows” and waiting for the mediums to dry than I did doing any actual “work” on this Tri-Frame Photo Spread! So next time I want to do something like this it will be (should be!!) a rather quick and easy process!
Thank you for joining me here today on the blog, I hope you enjoyed this project and gave you some ideas of what you can create using this month’s Mixed Media Kit.
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! I’m up on the blog today with a mini sketchbook/journal for you! I created the cover of this mini-book using the papers, notecards, ink, die set, and Tres Jolie Chipboard found in this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit. I don’t know why, but as soon as I saw the die in the kit this month I knew it needed to become the spine of a book – plus I thought the size of the notecards were perfect to create a cute little cover!
Overall this isn’t a difficult project, it was really a lot more “fiddly” work – measuring, cutting, and stitching. Make sure you check out the video to see how I put my mini-sketchbook together!
The first thing I needed to do to create my cover is to piece together some of the patterned paper so it would be large enough! Truth be told, the thought process looked a little like this:
Hmmm….six inch paper, six-ish inch notecards…that’ll be good! Oh…wait…I need it to be able to wrap around.
So, after coming to that realization, I cut my main cover papers down, using the wreath print as my guide because I wanted to keep the wreath centered on the front cover. Fortunately, the circle of the wreath is 3 inches, and that made my work a little easier because I had already planned on wrapping the spine paper over 1 inch to the front and back covers.
I cut along one edge of the circle – the edge that would go against the spine papers – and left about 4 inches – 3 inches to show on the cover, and 1 inch to wrap around the front edge. For the top and bottom paper piecing, I cut off as little as I thought was possible that would leave as much foliage intact, but also leave enough to make sure I could securely adhere the 1-1/2” strips I needed to wrap the top and bottom of the cover.
For the spine, because I would still need a little to wrap around the top and bottom, I used two sheets of the wood plank patterned paper and lined the plank print up a little, but didn’t cut down the height until the two pieces were glued together so I could work from the edge of the overlap – because I wanted to keep the seam centered along the spine.
Before I glued the main patterned paper for the cover to the extension pieces, I inked along the top and bottom edges to add some definition between the two layers. After the pieces were glued together, I added a couple of layers of matte varnish to help seal and protect the papers.
When it came time to add the cover papers to the notecards, I marked on the notecards where the edge closest to the spine would need to line up and where the edge of the main cover patterned paper needed to line up to be centered on the cover.
For my spine, after the glue had dried where I had pieced the papers together, I used the decorative die from the set in the kit to cut through the wood plank paper. I backed the wood plank paper with a 1-1/2” wide piece of patterned paper decorated at the top with some of the Dresden Trim and added a little glue to hold everything together before coming back with a matte varnish to help seal the edges of the die cut so it will (hopefully!) not get caught on anything.
I cut my spine paper to a total width of 3-3/4”, 1-1/2” for the spine, 1” to wrap around the front and back cover, and, since I had marked where the cover papers needed to line up with the spine paper 1” from the edge, that left me a 1/8” gap between the spine and notecards to allow the cover to open and close. Then I just made sure everything was glued down and wrapped the edges around creating the cover.
For my endpapers, I needed a total of 8” to cover the inner cover and create the first and last pages of the sketchbook. Since the patterned papers in the kit are 6”x6”, I once again did a little paper piecing. I kept one of the sheets at their full 6” width, then added the extra 2” I needed with cut-off from a second sheet of patterned paper – cut to 2-1/2” so I could glue the two pieces together.
I used the full six stands of some off-white embroidery floss and added a simple straight stitch along the seam for a little extra interest and texture – eyeballing how far from the seam I wanted the stitch line, and pre-poking my holes 1/4” apart so my stitches would be even. After the stitching was complete, I added some of the Dresden Trip to the back side of my stitching since that was the side that was rougher from the awl and needle going through.
Front Endpaper
Back Endpaper
For the blank pages in my mini sketchbook, I used 9”x12” mixed media paper. I was able to cut two 5-11/16”x8” pages from each sheet of mixed media paper, and in the end, I ended up with 16 signatures that had four pages each to get the 1-1/2” text block I needed for the spine. The size of my pages was determined by the size of my cover, so when I was determining the size needed I cut them to allow about 2mm from the top, bottom, and outer edges of the cover.
I created a 5-hole template for all of the hole poking, got all of my signatures ready, then started sewing my text block together using two strands of embroidery floss. I used a traditional method for stitching my signatures together, and if you are familiar with Coptic Stitching, it is a very similar technique. You can find a step-by-step pictorial tutorial from Nik the Booksmith here and a video tutorial from Sea Lemon here. If you don’t have a means to trim your text block together and you want to try and even the edges out a little, you can use a sanding block and some gentle sanding. It may not create “perfect” edges, but it can help some!
With the text block stitched together, I added my endpapers, clamped everything together, and added a thin layer of PVA glue, then my Super (traditional bookbinding cloth), followed by a couple more thin layers of PVA glue. I worked in thin layers of glue and allowed about 5 minutes of dry time in between so I wouldn’t saturate the text block or have glue leak between the signatures and accidentally glue everything together. Before getting it set in the cover, my final addition to the text block was some homemade headbands – mostly because I came across them while I was searching through all my book-making papers and decided that if I made them, I should use them sometime!
The final decorative touches to my cover were to add a piece of Tres Jolie Chipboard to the front spine edge and stamped Journal across the center of the front cover paper (I just used some artist masking tape to hold my alpha stamps together so I could keep them mostly straight!). I sealed the chipboard with some matte varnish, then used Glossy Accents to attach it. I sprayed my stamping with some Workable Fixatif, then added a final coat of matte varnish to the cover.
Thank you for joining me here today on the blog! I hope you enjoyed this mini sketchbook/journal and it gave you some ideas of what you can create using the items found in this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! Another month has gone, and another month of Tres Jolie Kits! The August kits are fabulous and will give you plenty of reasons to stay indoors while we wait for the heat of August to pass. I don’t like being cold or hot, so my favorite seasons are spring and autumn – which means I spend about half the year waiting for something better! Anywho…on to what you are really here for, the newest kits!
If you haven’t heard, Tres Jolie now offers free shipping on regular orders over $49. Just use the code: FREESHIPPING. Make sure you have your Tres Jolie Kit Club kits so you can create your summer memory crafts and preserve your summer memories! Be sure to get your kits before they’re gone! Or, better yet, subscribe to Tres Jolie Kit Club so you will never miss a kit!
Be sure you follow us on all social media platforms (Tres Jolie Kit Club links at the end of the post; Corner Scraps links to the right) and have joined the Tres Jolie Kit Club Facebook Café so you won’t miss a single announcement or project created with these kits.
Now for the August 2023 Kits!
The August 2023 Scrapbooking Kit is filled with the 12”x12” Blush Indulgence Collection from 3Quarter Designs, fabulous flowers and Resist Alpha from Prima, and lovely Tres Jolie Chipboard. This month’s kit is absolutely gorgeous and combines rustic and grungy greys with beautiful pinks and corals! It is a lovely assortment of patterned papers and perfectly coordinated embellishments!
This month’s Mixed Media Kit is a fabulous treat! In it, you will find a pack of Wooden Trays and a wonderful Bloom stencil from Prima, two shimmery Stardust Butters from TCW, and a beautiful Smokey Sapphire Moon Shadow Mist spray from Lindy’s Gang. So many possibilities for your creativity to flow with this kit you could create a set of personalized trays, shadow boxes, or picture frames!
In the Cards, Tags, & More Kit, you will find Enchanted papers from Memory-Place, Dresden Trim from Prima, wonderful red roses from 49 & Market, blank notecards and envelopes, and beautiful Tres Jolie Chipboard. There is enough for you to create some fantastic cards, tags, and ATCs – a wide variety of “mini” projects! Who doesn’t like creating a variety of projects from one kit?
These kits are for the beginner to the advanced, from clean and simple to the mixed media maven. No matter your style, there is something for everyone. We know you are going to love it!
Now (drumroll please!), presenting the August 2023 Tres Jolie Kits:
Scrapbook Kit
Mixed Media Kit
Cards, Tags, and More Kit
Don’t forget to stop by the Tres Jolie YouTube channel and see our video reveal of all our kits.
Love them, right?!?! You can still get one of your own (some kits are in very limited quantities). Become a subscriber and you will never miss out on our gorgeous, coordinated kits. Just visit Tres Jolie subscribe.
The designers at Tres Jolie have created some amazing layouts/projects with this kit.
Here is a little tease from me:
Please stop by the other designer’s blogs and check out their sneak peeks. They are listed below:
We have a new mood board challenge for the month. Here are the rules:
Place your entries in the August 2023 challenge folder on Tres Jolie Kit Club Café Facebook page. This challenge ends on August 31st, 2023 at 11:59 pm CST. All entries must be in this folder to be eligible for the prize (to have everyone eligible to win, we are limiting the same winner to once every 3 months).
Don’t forget to follow us on all our social media:
All the designers will be revealing their projects on the Tres Jolie blog all month long. Make sure you join us for tons of inspiration, including video and photo tutorials. Also, check out our newest chipboard designs that were just added to the store.
Hey, y’all! Whew! Made it to the end of July without getting too overheated! I hope you had a fan-tab-u-lous July and are getting ready to catch the August Kit reveals on Tuesday! (Hint: August is filled with beautiful products, just like every month!)
For my final July creation, I have a few –dex cards for you using this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit and the Botanical Stains from this month’s Mixed Media Kit. Be sure to check out the video to get the details about my thought process during all this, and to watch how long it takes for me to realize a pen leaked all over me!
To get the process started, I cut one of the white cardstock sheets into two, 4”x11” strips. I didn’t know exactly how tall my finished cards would end up being, so I didn’t want to limit my heights yet. For the patterned paper fronts on the cards, I kept the 3-1/2” width of the paper from the pack – to use as the height – then cut the width of them at 4”.
To start the decorating process, I grabbed up my set of Tim Holtz’s “Floral Trim” Stamps and some permanent inks. I had thought to try “Barely Beige” from Simon Says Stamp, but, as you can see, it really is Barely! So I did all of my stamping with “Chrome Yellow” Archival Ink. The color of the ink didn’t really matter all that much in this case since I was planning on adding embossing, but if I was just going to color in the stampings, using a light ink that is easily disguised tends to work best – unless you want the outlines to show that is!
After the stamping was done, I coated the patterned paper with clear gesso and started using the Botanical Stains as watercolors to fill in the designs. There are two ways I talked about in the video, you can stamp the image, add your color(s), then add your embossing, which would keep your embossing lines “clean.”
The second method is to just start out with your embossed image and then add your color(s). The embossing acts as a resist, and in this case, the botanical stains are easily wiped off, but if I were to do the same thing with more permeant mediums – such as markers or acrylic paint – I would save my embossing for last!
With all of the stamping, embossing, and shading finished, it was only a matter of attaching the ephemera, punching the bottom slots, and figuring out how much – if any – of the white cardstock I wanted to show.
For the card with the Tres Jolie Chipboard Butterfly on it, I first added white embossing powder to the chipboard, then used Glossy Accents to glue it down to the card front. I made sure there were no gaps between the butterfly and the card front so I would be able to fill in the wings with a thin layer of Glossy Accents with a few drops of the Marigold and Woad Blue Botanical Stains added in. Then I just let the colors in the wings mix and air dry before adding the little word snippets.
To create a grungier look and provide a bit of definition around the words and phrases on the “Focus On The Good” card, I started outlining the ephemera with a bit of black Stabilo pencil, then added in some of the “Black Bean” Botanical Stain to help spread it around.
With a little extra pencil around the edges, a spray of water, and some smearing using my fingers, this card was ready to set aside to dry!
I added Glossy Accents to a few of the word snippets or ephemera pieces to create a faux enameled look before adding them to the cards, as you can see on the “Dream” –dex card.
Then, for the top of the “Dream” card, I hand-drew a wavy line on the white cardstock, cut it out, and added a bit of the Woad Blue Botanical Stain. To help the stain spread out, I spritzed on a bit of water and then set the card off to air dry.
For this fourth and final card, I created a little cluster of ephemera, added the tab topper with a few mini staples, and glued down a few of my faux enameled word snippets! No extra mediums were added to the card front on this one!
Thank you for joining me here on the blog today! I hope you enjoyed these –dex cards and they gave you some ideas of what you can make using this month’s Cards, Tags, & More and Mixed Media Kits!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! I hope everyone staying as cool as possible in this July heat!
This week I have a mood board inspired, accordion fold mini-album for you created using the July 2023 Scrapbooking Kit from Tres Jolie Kit Club. After I had everything worked out the way I wanted, the longest process of it all was gluing everything in place!
Be sure to check out the video to see how I made my mini-album!
video
Be sure to get your mood board project finished by the end of the month and add it to the July Challenge folder in the Tres Jolie Café!
Truth be told, this isn’t a difficult project – there is just a lot of arranging all of the ephemera and gluing! And I found it much easier to sort out – at least mostly – which ephemera I wanted to add to which page before coming back through and gluing everything in place. Once I had the ephemera sorted out, then I could just zone out and relax through the gluing process!
My first step in this project was to start working out how I wanted to build the pages of the album. I started with two of the white cardstock sheets from this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit before working my way out with the Simple Stories patterned paper from the Scrapbooking Kit. I cut the cardstock into 4”x11-1/2” strips, then scored at 1-1/2”, 5-1/2”, and 9-1/2”.
After I lined up my cardstock strips to make sure they were all going the way I needed them to, I grabbed up a pencil and marked the side of the flaps I needed to add the adhesive to. Once the cardstock was glued together, I was left with three pockets.
With the white cardstock together, it was time to get my patterned paper ready to cover the pockets and extend the album. I cut the papers I picked into three 4”x12” strips, scoring them at 4” and 8”. Then it was just a matter of arranging the patterned paper and using a few paperclips to hold it temporarily while I checked the overall thickness of the album. You can add as many – or as few – pages as you want in your album!
When I was satisfied with the layout of the patterned papers, I used double-sided tape to attach them to the white cardstock – and each other – then proceeded to sort out and arrange all of the ephemera for decorating the pages.
I added embossing powder to the Tres Jolie Chipboard Filmstrips, some of the Botanical Stains (from this month’s Mixed Media Kit) to the Tres Jolie Chipboard Clockfaces, and some Glossy Accents to all of the small hearts, stars, and photo corners from the ephemera pack.
I hadn’t originally planned on cutting the clockface apart, but I just happened to lay the viewfinder die cut on top of the chipboard and instantly loved how it looked with the Roman numerals showing through! The viewfinder with the clockface showing through became the base for the cover decoration that I built upon.
The pocket pages don’t have a lot of space in them, so I cut a single rectangle of patterned paper – 7-1/2”x4-1/2”, and scored at 3-3/4” on the long side – to fold in half and use as little pamphlet inserts. Since the inside of the inserts was a dark side of the patterned paper, I added some bits of lighter patterned paper and ephemera pieces so it could be more easily written on if desired.
And that was all there was to make this album! After working out all of the “technical details” it was really only a matter of gluing everything into place!
Thank you for joining me here today on the blog! I hope you enjoyed this mini accordion fold album and it gave you some ideas of what you can make using this month’s Scrapbooking Kit.
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! I hope everyone has been having a great summer! So long as I can craft, I’m happy!
This week I used the July Mixed Media Kit and put this altered paintbrush together. In addition to the Mixed Media Kit, I used a few flowers from the Scrapbooking Kit, a few mediums from my stash that were from previous Tres Jolie Kits, as well as some previous kits Finnabair Mechanicals.
This really was a rather quick project – with most of the time spent waiting for my crackles to dry. Be sure to check out the video below to get all the details!
The first thing I did was wonder if it was possible to cut the paper mâché heart in half! And it turns out it was relatively easy. I carefully used a craft knife to start a hole at the seam, then I used a small pair of scissors to cut along the seam. With the star cut in half, I started the stacking process, using 3D Matte Gel to hold it all together. After the gel had set up, I added a layer of heavy white gesso, then added my crackle paste and paint.
Once the crackle mediums had dried completely, I started adding my first layer of the Botanical Stains. However, because the stains are water-reactive, I gave my first layer of color a coating of Workable Fixatif so I could add more Botanical Stain layers and create deeper colors.
After the Fixatif had dried, I decided to use some crackle glaze to hold my next layer of colors in place – plus Workable Fixatif is very good at getting liquids to bead up, which made spreading the stains a bit challenging!
After adding my first crackle glaze and Botanical Stains layer, I opted to add a second one! So, in total, I have three layers of stains. The first layer is directly on the gesso, then two more layers with crackle glaze.
The final touches for my altered paintbrush were adding a few flowers, art stones, and some texture powder. I started by deepening the colors of the flowers with the botanical stains, and after they were dry, I added them to the paintbrush. Then it was finally time to use (regular) matte gel to adhere my art stones and texture powder.
Thank you for joining me here on the blog today! I hope you enjoyed my altered paintbrush and it gave you some ideas of what you can create using the July 2023 Mixed Media Kit!
Stay Crafty, Friends
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Finnabair “Small Flowers” Mechanicals, Prima “Buttons” Metal Embellishments, Finnabair Heavy White Gesso, Finnabair 3D Matte Gel, Finnabair Platinum Crackle Paste, Finnabair Texture Powder, DecoArt Media White Crackle Paint, DecoArt Media Crackle Glaze, Art Stones, Liquitex Matte Medium, Krylon Workable Fixatif
C.J.'s Corner Scraps 