Hey, y’all! The year is coming to a close, but that means a whole new year of Tres Jolie Kits to look forward to! YAY!!!
For my last project of 2022, I used this month’s Scrapbooking Kit – along with my stash of junk journaling materials – to create two Christmas journals. Each journal has envelopes, tuck-ins, flips, and loads of pages for journaling your Christmas thoughts and memories. And even though Christmas 2022 has passed, you can still create a memory journal while we are in that awkward time between Christmas and the New Year when it’s questionable if we are sure what day it is!!
Did you have a friend and/or family gathering? You could have everyone who attended write what they remembered about Christmas! Did people travel from various distances? Just send it around in the mail or have them write letters you can glue or clip to the pages!
Check out my overview video where I give some details of what went into these journals:
The two journals are very similar – it was just a matter of what signatures were added to which cover after I decided I had more than enough to create two journals. I used some canvas-type fabric on the covers, and some mulberry paper to cover the spines. On the journal with “Memo” on the cover, I inked the mulberry paper and added some ink splotches to the printables. For the closures, I just stitched together layers of ribbons and fabric scraps to create a wrap.
I digitally create some Christmas-themed end papers for my journals and attached them in a non-traditional way by either cutting or tearing the side that isn’t attached to the cover gluing it down to the first page of the journal.
For added texture and to fit with the “put together” and “vintage” style, I would just stitch my printables straight to the pages I wanted them on.
I used a few black tags from my stash and added some layers of the various papers from the Simple Stories papers in the kit, created tuck-in spots using some of the Simple Stories ephemera and backed a few of the cut apart Simple Stories cards with pieces of hanging file folder!
I have a variety of paper and pages throughout the journals created using patterned paper, printables, and some original vintage pages. I also created and added some homemade glassine using the method I learned from Nik the Booksmith. I also created a couple of Nik’s “Raggedy” inserts into the journals made up of a cardstock base and a variety of ephemera stitched and glued on.
I created my own vintage style, Christmas-themed labels to add in, and even decided I needed a custom Bookbinders Label to add to both journals. You can grab up a free printable with some Christmas-themed labels on them over on my Flickr!
Thank you for joining me here today! I hope you enjoyed these journals and that they gave you an idea of what you can make using this month’s Scrapbooking Kit!
Warm Wishes for a Safe and Happy New Year!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! It’s officially been autumn for a week now, and I don’t know about you, but I’m still wearing shorts! It’s the give and take of living in a southern state. Mild winters, which makes the husband’s hot-mess joints happy; but less-than-desirable (for me) hot and humid summers. As for me, I’d be happy with two seasons – spring and autumn! The best temperatures and the best colors!
It is almost October, and besides the lower temperatures here in the northern hemisphere, the October Kits from Tres Jolie Kit Club will be getting revealed on Monday! YAY! New crafty supplies and lower temperatures? Yes, please! So, to bring September and the summer to an end, I have two more cards this month – with a little extra touch to them using mixed media mediums.
Neither of these cards is difficult – the majority of their assembly time is spent just waiting for the mediums to dry. Check out my video to see how these two cards came together.
Now, let’s get to some photos and highlights of what you saw in the video.
This first card is a step-card that I created. I used a dark pink cardstock for the base topped with some white, printer-weight cardstock. I did put a solid back on my step-card, which also required a couple of extra pieces tucked in to make sure my “Let’s Celebrate” square popped forward when the card was standing up.
Before I glued on the patterned paper, I added some light mixed media. I used the DecoArt Crackle glaze from this month’s Mixed Media Kit with the Prima stencil from the August (2022) Mixed Media kit, and before I removed the stencil, I added a little dusting of some Jaquard PearlEx powder, and a little spritz of Finnabair’s “Pixie Dust” Fixative . Then I just set those pieces off to dry while I worked on the center pieces.
I used the dies from the kit this month to add some decorative cuts at the tops of the patterned paper that would be going on the steps and backed them with a piece of paper that I coated in the beautiful ink from the kit. Now it was just a matter of gluing everything down!
I added the patterned paper that I had stenciled on and started building up my steps. I glued the top of the back step patterned paper to the back of the card, and the bottom of the back step patterned paper to the back of the lower step. Then, to help keep the “Let’s Celebrate” square stay forward, I added some extra pieces of white cardstock to help “push” it forward.
When everything was done, I added some of the Prima gold trim circles to the front and gave the card a final spritz of Finnabair’s “Pixie Dust” Fixative for a little extra shine.
This slimline card went together even faster than the step-card, because I didn’t have any cut files! I used another piece of dark pink cardstock as the card base, set it aside, and started working on my layers.
Since the slimline card is 4” x 10”, and the pink and white striped paper from the kit was an 8” x 8” square, I cut one piece 6” long and a second piece 2” – both are 3.75” wide – I knew the seam would never be seen by the time I was done! (I used some double-sided tape to hold the two pieces together at the seam while I kept working!)
I mixed some of the ink from this month’s kit with some of the glitter paste from this month’s Mixed Media kit together and lightly brushed it along the edges of the flowers, and then added what was left to the striped paper. After the glitter paste had dried, I grabbed up some white texture paste and a palette knife, scraped a thin layer of the paste onto the surface of the striped paper, and used a paint comb to add some stripes to the texture paste; then I glued the striped pieces down to the white cardstock.
Once the texture paste had dried, it was just a matter of gluing all of my flowers down, along with some leaf die cuts (using a die from my stash), a few bits of lace trim, and the sentiment square. I used my hot glue gun for all of this, so I was able to move right to adding the sequins to the front after adding the top “For Someone Special” sentiment at the top and a little square of the same teal paper at the bottom just to have that blue “continue” all the way down. All I did to add the sequins was use some more texture paste, watered down a little to make it more spreadable, dipped a brush into the paste, use it to pick up some sequins, and “brush” them on.
Thank you for joining me here in my little corner! I hope you enjoyed all of the cards I created this month and they gave you some inspiration and ideas for your own cards!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! Have you checked out the Tres Jolie Kit Club September Scrapbooking Kit yet? Seen this month’s mood board? Both are fabulous! The kit has the “Gilded Steampunk” Collection from 3 Quarter Designs – the perfect fit for the “Shabby Steampunk” mood board challenge!
Now, I love, L-O-V-E, Steampunk, and while I’m not a 100% Shabby Chic type of person, there are aspects I really love about that style too. This week, for my mood board inspired project, I have a Shabby-Steampunk Top Hat I created using a cut file I designed, the “Gilded Steampunk” Collection from the kit, a couple of moulds, and lots of mediums from my stash – quite a few that are from previous Tres Jolie Kits!
It wasn’t until I was editing the video that I realized this project isn’t all too “complicated.” The majority of the time spent working on it was really just “busy work” – i.e. rolling clay, gluing, painting, etc. Once I had my base together, and finally figured out where this hat was headed, it went together rather smoothly! Check out my video and see what I mean!
Don’t forget to join the Tres Jolie Mood Board Challenge this month! Make sure to place your entry in the September 2022 Challenge folder on the Tres Jolie Kit Club Café Facebook page by 11:59pm CST on September 30, 2022, for your chance to win a prize!
Alright! Time to get talkin’ about this Shabby-Steampunk Top Hat!
The first thing to do was to put my base together. There aren’t too many pieces – I tried to keep it as simple as possible while creating the size I wanted while using my 12” x 12” cutting mat and cardstock. There really is only one way everything fits together, but I have included a photo for reference using the cut file.
After my cardstock base was together, I added some black gesso to all of the areas that I thought may or may not get covered by the patterned paper pieces – I did it mostly because I had used white cardstock, if I had used a darker cardstock or a coordinating cardstock, I don’t know if I would have added the gesso. However, it did also give a little extra stiffness to the base, so that was a bonus I hadn’t really thought of! And, even though it is no longer noticeable, I also added a layer of “Halo Pink Gold” Metallic Paint on top of the black gesso – just to be prepared in case any of those areas didn’t get covered in the later stages.
I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do for the inside of the hat, I just knew I didn’t want to just give it a coat of paint. Finally, I decided to see if I could do a paint pour – on some tissue paper – to create a liner! It was messy, but it worked! And I was able to use that paint pour on the inside, sides. For the inside top, I just mixed up a little more to pour and dumped it right in.
I wanted to get as many pieces ready for assembly as possible before sitting down to start the process, so I used some leather-effect polymer clay to create the “leather” underside of the brim and I used some metallic and glitter polymer clay in a couple of embossing folders to create the sheets of “metal” to fill between the leather-clay and to use along the outer edge of the brim.
The final set of pre-assembly pieces I made were the patterned paper panels and the pink band for the hat. For the pink band, I just cut the half-sheet from the paper pack in half and connected the ends to make one long strip.
For the top, side, and brim patterned paper panels, I partly eyeballed, partly measured approximately where the cut would be – especially for the pieces that have the mannequins, hot air balloon, etc. – and cut them all out. Much like the base pieces, there are not a lot of ways for the pieces to fit all together, but I will add a reference photo here for the panel locations on the base.
As I sat staring at all my pieces, trying to decide how to use those chipboard and cut-apart pipes, I thought of windows; little steampunk windows to see the “inner workings” of the hat. I grabbed up some circle dies, picked a few places around the brim and on top of the hat, and cut the circles out of the patterned paper.
I used a couple of stencils with a couple TCW Stencil butters to add some dimension and texture to the circles I cut out, coated the chipboard pipes in copper embossing powders, and added some Beads In A Bottle to create a little dimension and bolts/rivets to the chipboard. Then I started the assembly process while I waited for my resin to set up in my gilding flake coated, polymer clay window frames.
After all my pipes were in place I gave them a coating of clear gesso so I’d be able to add my paints to create the illusion of depth with shadows.
Now it was finally time to add my patterned paper panels! I also added the pink band, and I created the inside band using the half-sheet of paper from the pack that looks like leather. I finished adding all my clay pieces to the underside of the rim and added them to the outer edge of the brim.
So now I had all of the pieces of the hat together – except the windows – and started my work on filling any gaps and smoothing it all out. I used a mix of gold Stencil Butter, gold Beads In A Bottle, and 3D Matte Gel to smooth along the edge of the brim with all the layers, and to fill in any spaces that I thought needed it. To prepare for the addition of the windows, I added a ring of Beads In A Bottle around the circles on the hat brim and top.
While my hat sat off to let that gold mix dry, I got to work on putting the focal point of the hat together. I grabbed up some mould pieces and used 3D Matte Gel to hold them in place, and after adding my gesso, I started adding the first layers of paint. While the gears and heart were setting up, I put my pipe pieces together and added the first layers of paint to them. I added the heart and gears to the pipes using more 3D Matte Gel, and set it off to let it set up while I added my lace bits and gilding flakes to my hat base. Before I got too much further along, I added a coat of Workable Fixatif so when the time came to add my final paints there would be a layer of protection on the patterned paper that would keep the wet from just soaking right in.
I laid my hat on its side, using whatever I had on hand to hold it in place and prop it up so the side I wanted to add the heart and pipes to was, at least mostly, level. I made sure to do this close to bedtime, so the 3D Matte Gel I used to hold the resin pieces in place had time to set up – without me becoming impatient and checking it too soon! I also started adding some art stones to the areas I could get at with the hat on its side.
Now it was finally time to add on the windows in preparation for the final layers of paint, art stones, and waxes.
I added more paint to my resin pieces, being careful when I was near my windows so they wouldn’t get splatter on them, and then just started working my way down from the top of the hat with more art stones and my paints. I let all the paint dry before flipping my hat over and adding some paint to the underside of the brim.
The final touches on this Shabby-Steampunk Top Hat were the addition of a few Finnabair waxes to the top, sides, art stones, lace, and the top and underside of the brim.
Thank you for joining me here in my corner! I hope you enjoyed my Shabby-Steampunk, mood board inspired, Top Hat and it gave you some ideas and inspiration for how you can use this month’s Scrapbooking Kit and/or find inspiration for your own mood board project!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Welcome to June! Did you get a chance to check out the kit reveals yesterday? This month’s kits are just fab!
For my first June project, I made a little tag-filled folio using this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit from Tres Jolie Kit Club, a few extras from my stash (ink, thread, & eyelets), and a cut file I created (I have the measurements I used listed below!).
So, grab your supplies and make yourself a little tag-folio!
I have a two-part tutorial (well, I talked a lot at any rate!) for this folio, part 1 is the tag cutting and base construction, and part 2 is the decorating and final touches. I go over cutting your folio base by hand if you aren’t using an electronic cutting machine, and my assembly process when putting everything together.
Part 1: Tag Cutting & Base Construction
Part 2: Decorating & Final Touches
First, a quick look at all the tags I made for my folio. I die cut a full sheet of the white cardstock, and six sheets of the patterned paper into a variety of tags – some to use this week, some to have ready for the rest of my projects this month. I used the white tags as my base, tore the patterned paper tags at about a 1/3rd – 2/3rd split, and mixed and matched the sides. I have had those butterfly eyelets for years now, and I thought it was about time to use some up, so I popped them into the holes on the tags.
I used a full sheet of the white cardstock to make my base. I have vertical score lines at 3-3/4”, 4”, 4-1/4”, 7-3/4”, 8”, and 8-1/4” and a horizontal score line 6” from the top. I didn’t cut the bottom 1/2” with the barcode and “KaiserCraft” off my sheet, so I have a score line at 12” also. I actually used that little bit during the construction to “protect” the bottom edges of my pockets during construction! Check out the image below to see all the measurements, plus I have some slot placement templates.
Slot Measurements:
Slot positioning templates are available as a PDF from my personal (non-Tres Jolie!!) DropBox for personal use only, please (attribution appreciated, but not required). When printed, the panels should be 4”x6” for an easy lineup with your edges and score lines – although printers & printer settings may vary! (Note: when testing, I made sure to print “actual size” from the printer dialog box and not “to fit” because Adobe and/or my printer wanted to make the 8-1/2”x11” image smaller to fit with margins on an 8-1/2”x11” sheet of paper!)
I made a pocket for each slot of my folio, but I have also added the measurements for alternate pockets so you have a variety to choose from:
*Measurements are to the center of the slot*
Part 1 of my videos covers the construction of the folio base, so I’ll just add some refresher details here on the blog. I lined my pockets up carefully, and got them in place – they are sized to be able to just be folded in half to fit – more or less – there may be a couple that requires some tweaking by folding slightly more than half. I used a combination of double-sided tape and glue to hold everything together – because I like adhesion! You could easily put it all together with just one or the other!!
Before I folded the folio over to close it up, I added a length of the seam binding from the kit across the middle, cut a slot in the hinge between the middle and last panel so I could feed the seam binding through and I would be able to tie it together when that last panel was folded in. For the end of the seam binding that came out of the edge of the folio, I added a couple of tiny staples to help keep it in place through all the tying.
I wanted to reinforce the hinges some, but I didn’t want to add a lot of bulk, so I used the cover sheet from the paper pack to reinforce the hinges on the [folded over] inside of the folio and to reinforce and add some more color to the hinges between the panels on the [visible] inside of the folio. After I had the folio folded in half and glued together, I added the last bit of seam binding to the outside of my hinges to help reinforce all the bending of the paper and cardstock.
With my base finally put together, it was time to start getting the finishing touches done, so I added the papers I had chosen for the outside of the folio. Since I was going to be adding stitching around my edge, I didn’t worry about making sure my adhesive went all the way to the edge, if you aren’t going to add stitching, you will want to make sure you have a secure seal so your cover paper doesn’t pull up!
Even though I wasn’t going to be doing my stitching yet, I wanted to get my holes made so I would know where my stitching would be, so I made a template that would help me make sure everything was spaced evenly and lined up where I wanted them. You can grab that template as a PDF from my personal DropBox if you would like to use it for your personal folio. I have it made to print on two sheets, with a little overlap in the middle to help line the holes up. Printers being what they are, you may or may not get lucky enough to have it print “perfect!” I didn’t get that lucky, but my second page was only a hair “off” so it wasn’t a big problem. (Note: Just like with the slot templates, make sure you print “actual size” and not “to fit”!)
After my holes were all poked through, I cut some 3/16” stripes of white cardstock and a 1/8” strip to use as a spacer so I could even out how my hinge papers looked. I used the 1/8” strip to add the space between the edges of the holes and the edge of the 3/16” strip. I also added 3/16” strips to the outer [vertical] edges so my slot reinforcements would sit evenly (I also have a layer of cardstock under slot reinforcements – so my tag slots are super reinforced now!). I inked up my slot covers and glued them in place.
Now it was finally time to start thinking about how I wanted to decorate the folio, and which finishing touches I wanted to add. I used my “Royal Purple” StazOn to stamp my butterfly images and to dye my seam binding tie closure. For my main image/cluster, I go over getting permanent ink to bleed out and create the shadow effect in the second video. A helpful “fix” for images that don’t stamp clearly! (Personally, if I were to do this project again, I would add my stamping to the cover paper before adding it to the folio. It was all the pocket layers that caused the stamping issues because it was no longer flat!) Anyhow, even if something goes “wrong,” there is always a “fix.” In this case, I used some 91% isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol to cause my StazOn to bleed. I added my inks to the cardstock, then stamped the image on and fussy cut it out. The flowers and leaves are glued flat to the surface, offset just a touch to give a shadow effect, and the butterfly is popped up on some foam. The rest of the images I just stamped and left however they came out. (I did use a strip of cardstock to protect my seam binding covered hinges when I wanted to stamp across them.) I popped on some of the orange pearls and thought about what I wanted to add to the panel that folds in.
On that third panel that folds in, I didn’t want to just leave it blank, so I added a couple of the tags I had cut out. I glued the middle-sized tag on white cardstock near the bottom horizontally and added a tag in the next size up (second largest) as a flap with a simple tab added on. The “bloom” was stamped using the P13 stamp set that had been in February’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit.
Finally, I decided it was time to add my stitching! I just have a simple blanket stitch around the outside of the folio and some straight stitching along the hinges. I added some extra stitching to wrap up the corners of the folio, and added the last little bits to the decoration – the Prima flowers under the butterfly wings, and the green pearls along the bottom of the tag flap. With all that done, I added my tags to their slots and closed it all up!
Thank you for joining me here in my corner, I hope you enjoyed this folio project and have a chance to check out the videos that accompany it! Don’t forget to check out my Etsy shop to get the discounted cut file!
In addition to this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit (*from previous Tres Jolie Kits), I used (some non-Tres Jolie Kit Club items contain an affiliate link where I earn a small commission with no extra cost to you!):
C.J.'s Corner Scraps 