C.J.&#039;s Corner Scraps

In addition to this month’s Mixed Media Kit and Scrapbooking Kit, I used (from previous Tres Jolie Kits):

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

Reveal Day! – August 2023 Tres Jolie Kit Club Kits!

Image | August 1, 2023July 28, 2023 | Corner Scraps

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:

Debbie Adams

Olivia Marmara

Kim Heard

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.

Tres Jolie Kit Club–Vintage Steampunk Ledger–June 2023 Scrapbooking + Cards, Tags, & More Kits

Image | June 22, 2023June 21, 2023 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all! This week I have my mood board inspired project for you – a vintage-ish, steampunk-ish, envelope ledger/folio I created using the July Cards, Tags, & More Kit and Scrapbooking Kit! I hope everyone has had a chance to check out this month’s mood board challenge! And don’t forget to enter your projects for a chance at a prize from Tres Jolie!

I have an overview video for you explaining what I did to create this – I had attempted a process video, but the hours of video were really getting out of hand! Be sure to check it out – this isn’t really a complicated project to create, it was just complicated for me to figure out as I was going along!

Vintage and steampunk are my two favorite styles – so I was ecstatic about the kits and mood board this month!

Don’t forget to share your mood board project in the June 2023 folder over at the Facebook Café for a chance to win a prize!

To give my pages and pockets a metallic hue, I sat down with a variety of metallic paints and a gel plate from my stash and went to work! I gel printed on the kraft stock, the kraft card bases, and the envelopes from the Cards, Tags, & More Kit. I also gel-printed on a variety of tapes – paper tape with water-activated glue, fabric medical tape, and shipping tape – to create my “metal” steampunk-themed tapes.

I used pieces of the patterned paper from the Scrapbooking Kit throughout – some pieces as flips, some to make hidden paperclips. To add some lines on a few pages, I used a stamp I’ve had FOR-EV-ER with some StazOn Ink.

I cut one of the envelopes in half and created some smaller pocket pages – reinforcing the edges with various pieces of patterned paper, kraft stock, and tape.

For the cover – the envelope that initially led me to think about creating an envelope ledger – I covered the outside of the envelope and the flap with a piece of patterned paper split the envelope flap in half, and decorated it with the two pieces of Tres Jolie Chipboard from the Scrapbooking Kit after coating them with a variety of metallic embossing powders.

I used four Tim Holtz Hitch Fasteners from my stash to create the posts for my tie closure and added a few of the Finnabair Mechanicals (found in the Scrapbooking Kit!) for a bit of decoration and reinforcement.

For the binding, I cut two, 3/4” strips of the woodgrain kraft stock for the outer surface, but to build up my binding, I layered multiple 3/4” strips of (up-cycled) packaging. Then, for the final detailing, I grabbed some brown, red, and yellow rust-effect paste to cover the slotted head screws and spread some along the spine.

Thank you for joining me here today on the blog, I hope this project inspired you and gave you some ideas of what you can make using one or more of the kits this month and inspired you to join the mood board challenge!

Stay Crafty, Friends

Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!

Thank you for joining us here at Tres Jolie Kits!

Tres Jolie can also be found at:

In addition to this month’s Scrapbooking Kit and Cards, Tags, & More Kit (from previous Tres Jolie Kits), I used:

My mix of embossing powders on the Tres Jolie Chipboard: 13@rts “Red Bronze” Ayeeda Paint, Gary M. Burlin Embossing Powder: Ultrafine Gold & Patina Bronzed Copper (*my Copper was mixed with Ranger Relique Glitz Copper), Lindy’s Gang “Midnight Violet” Embossing Powder, Seth Apter Baked Texture “Chunky Rust,” Ranger “Bubbly” Embossing Powder

For the gel printing and/or vintage style tape: Tim Holtz “Screwed” Stencil, Folk Art Metallic Paint: “Brushed Gold,” “Brushed Rose Gold,” “Antique Gold,” & “Brushed Bronze,” Lindy’s Gang “Beaver Tail Brown” Starburst Squirts, Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink: “Ginger,” “Gunmetal,” “Copper,” & “Gold”

Other mediums, adhesives, & tools: Distress Oxide: “Brushed Corduroy,” & “Rusty Hinge,” Finnabair 3D Matte Gel, Finnabair Clear Gesso, Tim Holtz Hitch Fasteners, StazOn “Timber Brown,” Hero Arts “Life Can Be” Mounted Stamp, We R Memory Keepers “Crop-A-Dile II,” Gel Press 8”x10” Gel Plate, Gel Press Brayer, Aleene’s Tacky Glue, water activated paper tape, double-sided tape, UHU Stic, 3M Nexcare Tape, Seloky Slotted Head Screws

Reveal Day! – Tres Jolie Kit Club June 2023 Kits

Image | June 1, 2023May 31, 2023 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all! It’s June 1st, and that means it’s time for the Tres Jolie Kit Club June Kits to be revealed! YAY! I always love this day!

June is also Tres Jolie’s anniversary month! We are 5 years strong thanks to our customers! Join us all month long for sales, weekly challenges, new chipboard items, more limited edition kits, a special summer banner kit, and a free gift with purchase. We have added new members to the design team and the website has a new look!

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 June 2023 Kits!

The June 2023 Scrapbooking Kit is filled with the Vintage Man Collection from 3 Quarter Designs. This collection offers you a fabulous variety of designs for vintage and steampunk-themed projects. You will also find fabulous Finnabair Mechanicals and coordinating Tres Jolie Chipboard – a lovely assortment of patterned papers and perfectly coordinated embellishments!

This month’s Mixed Media Kit offers you a chance to play with oil pastels! And to go with them, there is a canvas panel, a stencil, and some Lindy’s Magical powder!

Our card kit is filled with A4 embossed papers and gold foiled kraft card embellishments from Hunkydory. As well as A4 kraft card blanks, white envelopes, and a gold Transfer Me sheet from Dress My Craft. 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, clean, and simple to 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 June 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.

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 June 2023 challenge folder on Tres Jolie Kit Club Café Facebook page. This challenge ends on June 30th, 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:

Tres Jolie Kit Club–How I make My Pocket Letters – February 2023 Cards, Tags, & More Kit

Image | February 23, 2023February 22, 2023 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all! Do you make Pocket Letters® (PL for short, also referred to as pocket mail)? Participate in a pocket letter swap? The Cards, Tags, & More Kits from Tres Jolie Kit Club are perfect for all your “smaller” projects! This week, I’m going to use my kit – or what I have left of it from previous projects – to throw together a quick, yet still fabulous, pocket letter!

Although it had been quite some time (pre-pandemic!) since I had made a pocket letter, I managed to remember my process! I don’t know if my process seems “obvious,” but it is what works for me and helps make the creation process a bit more streamlined [for me]! As always, make sure to check out my video if you want to see how this project came together and learn a little about pocket letters if you haven’t come across them yet.

The original Pocket Letter format was to use a 9-slot trading card protector then fill them with ATC-sized (2-1/2” x 3-1/2”) cuts of your patterned paper/cardstock decorated to varying degrees, then tuck in some bits and pieces as gifts (i.e. ephemera, washi samples, stickers, etc.) and your pen pal letter. I believe the first Pocket Letter was created “flat” so it could fold at the horizontal seams and still fit in a U.S. letter-sized envelope (#10 envelope).

Although I haven’t done it personally, I do believe some people will use Project Life® Page Protectors or even just create their own pocket pages (using the Fuse® Tool for example) so they can make their pockets a custom size! However, I didn’t want this project to get quite that complex; I wanted to keep it rather simple so I could highlight the origin of PL’s and have this project be a little bit more relaxing than last week’s lapbook!

After I had cut a few of the Paper Boutique papers down to size, I started playing around with how I would want them laid out – creating the layout on my work surface so I could see the “big picture.” Now, you don’t have to create a “big picture” Pocket Letter, you can easily create nine “little pictures” or create a scene for each row or column! It really is a very customizable and personal project! If you participate in a swap, there may be a theme to follow, or you may want to create your Pocket Letter using your partner’s favorites – but, overall, it really is a very customizable project!

After I had decided on which patterned papers I wanted to use as my card bases, I started sorting through all of my little bits of ephemera and flowers from all of the kits this month – and that led to the decision to use some of the chipboard pieces from the 3Quarter Designs papers found in this month’s Scrapbooking Kit. I kept the chipboard bare, and just used the Platinum Crackle Paste and the TCW stencil from the [February 2023] Mixed Media Kit to give them some texture. And, since I knew I wanted to use the Tres Jolie Chipboard Dragonfly somewhere, I coated the solid base with the Platinum Crackle and “smooshed” the dragonfly outline on top.

While my texture paste was drying, I got to work deciding how I wanted my overall design to look. I used some of the round punch-out pieces – and their negatives – to create the crescent moon look on the four cards made with pink with pink flower print patterned paper as the base. You can see in the photos that I cut the round pop-out pieces to create an overlap or continuation of the “big picture” on adjacent cards – and, I will admit, this is one of my favorite things to do with pocket letters!

Since Pocket Letters were originally intended to be filled with goodies, I tend to leave my cards rather flat (plus, the pre-made pockets don’t stretch all that much!!), so I picked out the pink flowers from the 3Quarter paper pack die-cut sheets (from this month) and used them to create some clusters along with the chipboard I had stenciled. I used a light pink thread in my sewing machine and stitched some simple straight stitches along the perimeter of each card, some zig-zag stitching along the round edges and some straight and zig-zag stitching through my clusters. I didn’t stitch my clusters to the cards – I opted to just glue them in place – because I didn’t want too much stitching on the back side! And, speaking of the backs, some crafters choose to make double-sided Pocket Letters, and some don’t! For me, it varies depending on what the back looks like. In this case, I kept everything single-sided because the back of the patterned paper was white and there was only a little stitching.

With my cards, all put together and ready to go, I turned my focus to the protector sheet! As it tends to happen quite often, once crafters and artists get their hands on an idea, we tend to expand upon it – and the protector sheet was no exception! The cards may not get to have too many embellishments or dimension, but that doesn’t mean dimension won’t be popping up somewhere! And of course, we can’t just leave the binder edge unadorned, can we? No! And, once again, the amount of decoration varies, I prefer to keep my edges simple most of the time, because some people keep the letters they receive in a binder, while some may opt to hang them up! The binder is also the reason I re-punch the holes (if they go covered) and insert 3/16” eyelets (they generally fit on binder rings, in my experience). For this project, I stitched on a bit of ribbon and some ricrac, added some pale pink, 1/8” eyelets for decoration, and popped in some brown flower eyelets for the binder holes.

After I put all my cards in the pockets, the only thing left to do was add a few bits of decoration to the outside of the protector. I finished off the flower pack from the Cards, Tags, & More Kit and the package I had opened for last week’s lapbook from the Scrapbooking Kit. For the peach-ish flowers from the Cards Kit pack, I wanted to pink them up a little, so I – more or less – washed every last drop of ink from the mini Worn Lipstick Distress Ink pad and let the flowers soak up the watery mess!

Once the flowers were (mostly) dry, I started laying my remaining pieces out on my pocket protector page and used some Gorilla Clear Grip to make sure everything stuck to the plastic! I added stitching through the quote (cut from the bottom of one of the 3Quarter papers) just to give it a little more visual interest and backed the strips with some light chipboard to help give them a little support. For the center of the chipboard flowers, I didn’t want to leave them empty, so I grabbed up some Nuvo Crystal Drops and filled them up.

And that is it! Pocket Letter complete!

Thank you for joining me here on the blog, I hope you enjoyed this project and it gave you some ideas of what you can create using the kits this month! (And maybe introduced you to Pocket Letters if you haven’t come across them yet!)

Stay Crafty, Friends

Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!

Thank you for joining us here at Tres Jolie Kits!

Tres Jolie can also be found at:

In addition to this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit (& the few bits from the Scrapbooking Kit and Mixed Media Kit), I used (from previous Tres Jolie Kits):

Nuvo Crystal Drops “Carnation Pink,” We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile, ribbon and ricrac from my stash, Art Glitter Glue, Gorilla Clear Grip, UHU Stic, pink thread, eyelets, trading card protector

Tres Jolie Kit Club– “Dear Diary…” –February 2023 Kits

Image | February 18, 2023February 17, 2023 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all! This week, I decided to make a lapbook with a removable journal/diary. I have tons of pockets and flips in my 2-inch thick lapbook, so there will always be someplace to stick little notes or ephemera in!

Make sure you check out my video to get an overview of what I did. It isn’t a full tutorial – because otherwise, it would be hours and hours long – but I tried to give an overview for you to pick some ideas from.

I forgot to add this in the video – that’s a whole other issue! – but my lapbook idea did spring from this month’s mood board! I am not a particularly “frilly” type of person. I never have been – much to my mother’s dismay of not getting that delicate, sweet, “girly girl” who loves pink, ruffles, and such! (I tell her it was because of the trauma of the pink ruffle diaper pants she dressed me in! ROFL!!) (Disclaimer: I am also not delicate or sweet! )

But I digress, well there is never likely to be an occasion where I will ever wear pink ruffles (again!), I don’t hate the entire concept and this month’s mood board – and Valentine’s Day – got me thinking about diaries, which led to journals, but I didn’t want to make a journal, so I made a lapbook!

I will try to cover what is in the lapbook here on the blog, but I think the video will do a better job of showing a bit more of a “before and after” overview! A picture video is worth a thousand words!

I used some 3-inch bookbinding to put my cover together using two book covers from my stash that were the same height, and slightly different widths! This meant all I needed to do was cut some heavy chipboard down to the widths I wanted for my spines. My main spine is about 2-1/4 inches wide – because I found a cut of chipboard that width so all I had to do is cut it down to the correct height, plus, it went well with the two 1-inch chipboard strips I had laying around! Basically, I got rather lucky finding all of my main pieces ready – or almost ready – to go!

I just used the papers from the kit to cover all of my outside book surfaces and spines, as well as the inside spines. I stitched together some random fabrics I had in my stash and a bit of frilly pink ruffle “stuff” to create a tie closure, but I only attached it to the front cover so it could be moved out of the way when the book is laid down – and it is a handy “cushion” for the frame, flower, and butterfly cluster I added to the front of the lapbook!

I grabbed up some envelopes I’d been saving from junk mail, covered them with a wide variety of papers – some ledger paper, some rice paper – and if I needed to, I trimmed them down to fit within the covers. I personally love the look of things looking “pieced together” so I added stitching to the cut edges of the envelopes to seal them back up.

I used part of my old Kindle cover to create one of my flaps (the grey-bordered flap in the right photo above) which also led me to the belief that I needed to add windows everywhere! Well, everywhere on the inside! I used a variety of vellum and transparency pieces from my stash to cover my windows – some backed with patterned paper, some not – stitched them in place and started [trying] to work out how everything was going to fit together.

I also used the cover from a small book to create two inside flaps. I didn’t want to cover the original red cover on it, but I also needed to cover the raw edge where I had cut out the spine, so I used some homemade “vintage” tape!

For the first [main] flap (if you think of the lapbook unfolded all the way, and going left to right), I have an envelope/triple pocket under a smaller decorative flap on the inside of the red book cover. Under the red book cover, I have three manila-type mini-folders stitched together, they flip out and reveal a large envelope with a gold foil acetate window, and finally, a large pocket with a tie closure.

The next panel in the lapbook is where I added my old Kindle cover piece. I layered a piece of flower-shaped transparency, vellum, and a piece of patterned paper to the Kindle frame/window, then a second piece of patterned paper and an envelope/tuck spot combo on the back side. Under that Kindle cover, I have a small flap for decoration and a couple of my re-covered envelopes that fold up and flip out!

The two re-covered envelopes flip over and reveal a receipt folder that flips to the right, revealing a large pocket created from some homemade – very colorful – glassine and a piece of gold foil acetate.

I kept the third panel rather simple and “flat” so the journal would fit easily, and even have a little extra space for more pages to be added. I used an elastic headband to hold the journal in place, which also allows it to be removable. On the panel under the journal, I have a simple pocket covered by a large envelope that flips out.

My journal is created from an old notebook folder that I altered a little, punched a couple of holes in for eyelets, and decorated with some rust-stained cheesecloth and sections from the 3Quarter papers. I didn’t stitch my pages to the cover, instead, I used a length of Prima Wire Thread to hold the pages in place and allow for them to be removed – and tucked away in one of the pockets!

Finally, to the final panel! This panel is made up of three envelopes that fold over each other and a tri-fold element on the underside of the red book cover. I didn’t add anything to the back of this panel, because I really just like the image on this section of the patterned paper!

I hope you enjoyed this project and the video and/or this blog post gave you some ideas of how you can use the items found in this month’s Scrapbooking Kit, the cheesecloth from the Mixed Media Kit, and, I even have a strip of paper from the Cards, Tags, & More Kit in here!

Stay Crafty, Friends

Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!

Thank you for joining us here at Tres Jolie Kits!

Tres Jolie can also be found at:

In addition to the items from this month’s Scrapbooking Kit, Mixed Media Kit, and Cards, Tags, & More Kit, I used (from previous Tres Jolie Kits):

Bazzill White Vellum 12×12, Cardstock Warehouse Translucent Vellum Natural 48lb, Studio Light Rice Paper RICEJMA15, AB Studio Rice Paper, Stamperia “Wonderland Unicorn” Rice Paper, Stamperia Rice Paper DFSA4376, Finnabair Art Daily “Wanderlust” Decorative Tape, Prima Brown Wire Thread, Tim Holtz Jute String, Tim Holtz “Pumice Stone” Distress Ink, Hampton Art White Flower Overlays, Recollections Kraft Envelopes, Recollections 2-1/2” Circle Punch, Fiskars 1” Squeeze Circle Punch, EK Tools Binding Edge Punch, EK Tools Round Binding Edge Punch, We R Memory Keepers Hole Reinforcer Punch, We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile II, Nicapa Cutting Mat, Silhouette Cameo 3, Fabrika Decoru Gold Foil Acetate Sheet, UHU Stic, Art Glitter Glue, Fabri-Tac, LineCo 1-1/4” Linen Hinging Tape, BookGard 3” Book Binding Tape (Black), Double Sided Tape, scraps of fabric and various papers from my stash

Tres Jolie Kit Club–Heart Album–February 2023 Cards, Tags, & More Kit

Image | February 2, 2023February 2, 2023 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all! Have you seen the fabulous heart-shaped mini album in this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit yet? It is so adorable and makes putting a love-themed mini together quick and easy.

Make sure to check out my video to see how I decided to use my album with this month’s papers and embellishments, then grab your scissors and glue and get started on yours!

To prepare my chipboard, I mixed some white gesso with a bit of the Worn Lipstick ink from the kit and brushed it on the front of the heart-filled-heart chipboard page and the back of the flower-filled-heart page, as well as around the edges of the front and back of the other three pages.

Using the chipboard as a template, I traced out hearts for each of the cover hearts from all of the different patterned papers, glued them in place, then backed the page with a full sheet of the pink with white hearts patterned paper – turned 45° the paper covers all of the “holes” surrounding the hearts!

I didn’t want to over-do the flower page, so I just added some of the “XOXO” paper to some of the larger flower centers, then backed everything with a sheet of the pink floral print patterned paper.

For the background of each page, I decided to do some paper piecing instead of trying to decide which paper I wanted to use – they are all so beautiful, I had to use them all!

I just cut out some templates to work on using some plain printer paper – it is far more forgiving if I make a mistake than the chipboard would be – and randomly (by randomly, I mean I didn’t think about the width or pattern too much when selecting which strip to use!) glued down my strips of patterned paper. I didn’t bother measuring my strips either, I just put the paper through my trimmer a width I felt was good, cut, and did it again until I had a fair amount of strips to start working with.

After I had all of my backgrounds finished, I trimmed them up, distressed and inked the edges, and glued them in place.

Although I hadn’t originally planned on adding stitching to every page, as I was working on the album, I determined that it was “necessary” for each page to have some of the simple straight stitches added to them! I just created a quick template so my spacing would be even, then used an awl to poke the holes through before adding the variegated perle cotton thread.

With the base of all the pages completed, it was just a matter of picking papers to use as photo mats, pockets, and envelopes! I also decided to use the circles from the pop-out pages to create a couple of window pockets on the photo mats!

Some elements are backed with thin foam (about 1/16” or approximately 2mm) just to add a little depth, but I didn’t want my pages to be too bulky since they would be going on album rings.

The first page has a “hidden” envelope – I attached the photo mat and frame to the envelope flap, then used a bit of ribbon from my stash to keep it tied down.

On a couple of pages, I just have photo mats – again, because I didn’t want there to be too much bulk on the pages! Then on other pages, I added pockets, a couple turned horizontal, and I added touches of ribbon to almost every page, just to keep the design elements [mostly] the same.

On the page with the tied horizontal ribbon, I left two of the envelope flaps open and created a double-flip out page element.

I kept my flower page rather simple – I didn’t want to create something too busy or cover up the chipboard, so all I did is add a bit of the ink and a couple of photo mats.

Finally, to finish it off, I just added a single envelope to the inside of the back cover to hold any larger ephemera or notes.

For the cluster on the front of my album, I just cut a strip of the lace print paper, added some of my ribbon to each side, and stacked a couple of the Prima flowers on under one of the resin frames and the “I Love You” piece I had cut from one of the pop-out pieces.

When I was adding the gesso to my chipboard, I also added it to the resin pieces so they would be ready to use, so when I did decide my cover would need one, all I did is add a second coat of gesso (heavy gesso this time!) after dabbing on some of the ink. I don’t know if it’s odd or not, but I really love how matte gesso is!

After everything had dried, all that was left to do is slide the pages on to my album rings.

Thank you for joining me today on the blog! I hope you enjoyed my mini album and it gave you some ideas of what you can do to create your own mini album! I’ll see you again soon!

Stay Crafty, Friends

Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!

Thank you for joining us here at Tres Jolie Kits!

Tres Jolie can also be found at:

In addition to this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit, I used:

Daler-Rowney White Gesso, Art Glitter Glue, Aleene’s Tacky Glue, UHU Glue Stic, Finnabair Heavy White Gesso, Fabri-Tac, Stampin’ Up Rococo Rose Ribbon, 3D Matte Gel, JudiKins Diamond Glaze, Variegated Pink Size 5 Perle Cotton Thread (Probably DMC), craft foam, We R Memory Keepers: Envelope Punch Board, Mini Envelope Punch Board, album/book rings

Tres Jolie Kit Club–Cards!-January 2023 Cards & Mixed Media Kits

Image | January 26, 2023January 26, 2023 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all! This week I have some super easy cards for you – even if they are mixed media cards – since the Lava Paste is made to be heat dried!

I’m going to make this a short overview post, mostly because there aren’t all that many steps involved! If you want to see the full process, make sure you check out the video!

Originally I had only planned on making the two slimline cards, but I decided to add in the little notecard when I thought of something I wanted to try while working on the other two!

The backgrounds were super easy, for the butterfly card, I coated the cardstock with some clear gesso before stenciling on my lava paste, and for the dragonfly card, I added the lava paste directly to the cardstock, then after I had dried the lava paste, I sprayed a coat of Workable Fixatif over everything. This way I could test a couple of different techniques with the lava paste and the Pixie Dusts in this month’s Mixed Media Kit.

Once the backgrounds were dried, I sprinkled on some of the Pixie Dusts, watered them down some, and then did some light drying just to keep the colors where I had decided I liked them and to keep the paper from getting too wet, then I just set them off to finish air drying. (There may have been some coatings on them, but gesso and Fixatif aren’t made to just sit with puddles on them!!)

It was during all of this that I thought of a third technique I wanted to try – adding the Pixie Dust to the wet Lava Paste and adding just a light mist of water to activate it! When I heated the Lava Paste, it created some lovely veining with the colors as the paste expanded and poofed up! I also wanted to see how the dust would work directly on the background without any type of gesso/sealer, so I added it on top of my [now dried] Lava Paste, used a soft brush to spread it around, misted it with some water and then just let it dry.

With my background done, it was just a matter of adding the bits and pieces to the card fronts. I added a layer of the Lava Paste to the backs of the cutout pieces and the sentiments because I figured it would be a nice way to give those pieces some lift and a little support to the cardstock! I also added some of the paste to the edges of all of the pieces, then it was just a matter of sticking all the embellishments down and adding a few sequins from my stash.

Thank you for joining me today on the blog, I hope these cards gave you some ideas of what you can make using the January Cards, Tags, & More Kit and Mixed Media Kit!

Stay Crafty, Friends

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Thank you for joining us here at Tres Jolie Kits!

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In addition to this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit and Mixed Media Kit (from previous Tres Jolie Kits), I used:

TCW “Mini Screen Print” Stencil , TCW “Mini Specimens” Stencil , Finnabair “Passiflora” Stencil , Simon Says Stamp “Extra Talkative Set” , StazOn “Royal Purple” , Marco’s Papers Cougar Opaque Cover “Natural” , EK Tools Scoreboard , Finnabair Clear Gesso, Krylon Workable Fixatif, Ranger Glossy Accents , Fabri-Tac , sequins , spray bottle

Tres Jolie Kit Club–Tag Journal–January 2023 Cards, Tags, & More Kit

Image | January 5, 2023January 4, 2023 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all! Hope you had a wonderful New Year celebration – whether it was out and about, or at home in jammies like me!

The best part of a new month and a new year is the new Tres Jolie Kits! YAY! And January is starting out fan-tab-u-lous-ly! I absolutely love the colors and styles that the kits are bringing this month. So, to get you started with your Cards, Tags, & More Kit, I have a little tag journal/booklet for you I made using some up-cycled packaging for the covers and decorated with the 3Quarter Designs “Imagine If” papers from the kit.

I have a video for you that covers what and how I did what I did that you can check out to recreate your own tag journal or just watch to pull some ideas from to expand upon!

I started my process by cutting up the packaging from a carton of canned beverages into approximately 5”x7” pieces, leaving the end flaps in place on two of the four pieces to create my pockets with (they measure 5”x7”-ish with the flaps folded up!)

Since my entire idea was about creating a vintage “pieced-together” look, it didn’t matter in the slightest if my cuts were straight or if the pieces were exact! It just added to the overall design! Plus, I would be coming in and distressing the edges, so there was really no need for straight cuts!

On the two rectangles that I didn’t leave the flap on for the pocket – the outside layers of the cover pieces – I used the two embossing folders from the Tim Holtz “Book Cover Set” to give them some texture. Then, I used some soft matte gel to glue my inner (the pieces with the flap) and outer (the embossed pieces) together, making sure to fill in my embossing so as I worked, it would un-emboss!

Once the gel had dried, I distress my edges and used some “Ground Espresso” stain to dye my journal covers. After that had dried, I tore the pieces of paper I wanted to add to the covers, added the same embossing, lined up the embossed areas, and glued them into place.

For the inside layers, because I wanted to make sure the pockets were well attached, I stitched my pocket (edges) to the background paper first – then I used some double-sided tape to really make sure I had good adhesion to the journal cover.

Once I had the bits of paper and fabric scraps picked out that I wanted to use and added my decorative stitching, finishing up the journal was a quick process – it was just a matter of stitching and gluing everything in place!

So I would have a “finished” look on both sides of the covers and flaps, I wouldn’t stitch the papers directly to the cover on both sides – I would only do direct stitching on one side. Then, for the other side, I would add my stitching to the paper(s) and glue them in place. This way I wouldn’t have any rough holes where the needle came through.

I really didn’t have any rhyme or reason when it came to creating all the little clusters and collage-ish pieces, I just grabbed up from the bits I had picked out, layered them up, added some of the flowers and some stitches, and just created what I felt like!

I had the same process for my tags, I created random-sized tags, created my clusters for them, then used some Fabri-Tac to make sure they stayed put! I didn’t want to stitch my clusters to my tags for a couple of reasons – the first reason being purely aesthetic – I didn’t want rough holes from the needle – the second reason is that I created a couple of ledger printables to add to the backs so notes would be able to be written on [the back of] the tags easier! (Well, easier for me, because I can’t write in a straight line on a blank surface to save my life!)

To add some extra dimension to a few of the fussy cut pieces, I gave them a layer of Glossy Accents and after they had dried completely, I added a few cracks to really create an aged appearance.

For the two tags that have the deep purple satin fabric as their pulls, I added stitching up and down them to keep that fabric from fraying. I may not have been able to tear that satin fabric, but once it wants to fray, it just keeps on going!

Then, just for these two tags, I stitched the pulls directly to the tops for the extra bit of security with that slippery fabric.

For the tags that have the variety of cotton-blend fabrics as their pulls, I didn’t sew them up like I did the satin ones, because although they can fray, they don’t quite do it all on their own the way the satin does! Then, to attach them to the tops, I just used my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher and popped in a couple of staples crossed over each other like an “X.”

Thank you for joining me today! I hope you enjoyed this Tag Journal and it gave you some ideas of what you can create using this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit and some up-cycled packaging!

Stay Crafty, Friends

Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!

Thank you for joining us here at Tres Jolie Kits!

Tres Jolie can also be found at: