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

Tres Jolie Kit Club–Altered Paintbrush–July 2023 Mixed Media Kit

Image | July 13, 2023July 13, 2023 | Corner Scraps

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

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 Mixed Media Kit and a few flowers from the Scrapbooking Kit (from previous Tres Jolie Kits), I used:

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

Tres Jolie Kit Club–Tags & a Pocket–May 2023 Cards, Tags, & More Kit

Image | May 25, 2023May 25, 2023 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all! May is drawing to a close, but that just means it’s almost time for the June Tres Jolie Kit Club reveal! YAY! New supplies!

For my fourth and final May 2023 project, I used the Cards, Tags, & More Kit to make a rather quick and easy pocket to hold my tags. Make sure to check out the process video, then go grab up your kit and make yourself one or more of these pockets to have on hand for whatever you decide to do with them!

Pretty easy, right? A few simple folds and I have a triple-tag pocket!

All of my pockets were folded in half on the long side, and the only pocket that had the extra flaps was the largest “main” pocket.

After I had my pockets cut to size, I started layering them up. I started with the smallest pocket and glued it to the back (the half without the flaps!) of the largest, glued the middle pocket in, then folded the large pocket up and adhered the falls around the back.

To help make sure I had space, I added a second score line – 1/8” spacing – and then used extra tags as placeholders in the pockets so I could wrap my flaps around – instead of just creating a flat fold. My pockets are snug, and if I were to make another pocket that would hold more than three tags, I would have to add a little extra to the flaps of the outer pocket!

To help reinforce the tops of the inner pockets, I added a 1” wide strip of solid cardstock – folded in half and cut a hair shy of the width of the pocket – and slid it in place. This helps reinforce the edges and creates a smoother finish. I also added strips of patterned paper to the two outer edges of the pocket to reinforce those since tags would be sliding in and out.

Once the pocket base was complete, the decoration was quick and easy! I used three – maybe closer to 2-1/2 – sheets of the BoBunny paper to cover one side of my tags and both sides of my pocket.

When I cut the blue plaid paper, I added approximately 1” extra so I could have a little extra to fold over the top of the pocket and a little extra to fold around the bottom and onto the back. For the ledger print patterned paper, I made sure to have an extra 1/2” at the top to fold over the top of the pocket and tore the bottom edge at the length needed to cover the edge of the blue plaid print paper. Super easy! Especially since I didn’t have to worry about wrapping the sides because I had already done that!

On the pocket front I added a few of the “Transfer Me” decals from this month’s Mixed Media Kit, then using my hot glue gun I popped on the flower buds I had left from my layout last week, two of the wicker hearts, and three of the BoBunny butterfly stickers. Since I have the wings lifted a little on the butterflies, I just gave them a light coating of glue so the sticky backing would no longer be sticky!

And although I hadn’t planned on adding so many KaiserCraft pearls, when I saw how the half circles looked, I knew I needed them all! I added some Diamond Glaze where I was going to attach the pearls – partly for extra hold, partly to give me the ability to slide the pearls around and make sure they were where I wanted them instead of just sticking them on and hoping I didn’t have to try and peel them back up!

I laid the blue sections of the patterned paper I had left together, added the “Transfer Me” decals, then started the process of gluing the patterned paper to one side of the tags. It really was just as simple as that! For the backs of the tags, since I didn’t want to leave them the manila color, I added some of the chalk onto my work surface, watered it down, then just dabbed and dragged the backs of the tags through the puddle.

After the tags had dried fully, I picked some of the flower stickers from the BoBunny sticker sheet to add to the front, then decided my tags need some of the banner pieces – so I added three banner stickers!

The final addition to the tags was the pieces of Prima Trim over the tag holes. All I did is cut six of the trim pieces off and glued one to the front and one to the back using hot glue.

Now I have a triple-tag pocket that could be used as it is – maybe add a photo or two to the tags. The backs could have notes added. The tags could be used as a card and words of encouragement could be added to the tags, or the whole pocket could be used in a junk journal or book! Endless possibilities!

Thank you for joining me here on the blog today, I hope you enjoyed this quick and easy tag-pocket project and it gave you some ideas of what you can make using this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit!

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 “Transfer Me” decals from the Mixed Media Kit & the few flower buds from the Scrapbooking Kit!), I used:

Gorilla Hot Glue Gun & Hot Glue Sticks, UHU Stic, JudiKins Diamond Glaze, Ranger Craft Tags

Tres Jolie Kit Club–Let’s Explore!–May 2023 Scrapbooking Kit

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

Hey, y’all! This week I have a mood board inspired layout for you using the 49 & Market “Everywhere” collection from the Scrapbooking Kit and the mediums and stencil pack from the Mixed Media Kit. I started my paper crafting journey close to 15 years ago – with paper, glue, and scissors – it didn’t take long for me to realize I “needed” a few more supplies! I started with solid papers – I was terrified of patterned paper! How do you not have elements clashing?!?! And, even though I used duplicate photo prints, I still couldn’t fathom cutting them! Suffice it to say, my initial layouts are, comparatively, bland.

What was my biggest game-changer? Learning about the existence of gesso – especially clear gesso. I have zero formal training in physical art, so for everything I do now, I had to learn from videos, experience, and luck! Lots and lots of “dumb luck” LOL! Y’all, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how others were adding wet mediums to their layouts and getting them to move around instead of soaking in and becoming splotches. Then I learned about gesso. Clear gesso when you don’t want to cover everything, and white gesso to create a “clean” area for your feature photos. And, even though I haven’t needed to (yet!), black gesso could easily be used too!

That brings us to my layout! A remarkable evolution from my first layout which had two solid colored cardstocks and two 4”x6” photos. Make sure you check out my process video to see what I did to put it all together!

This project was also inspired by this month’s mood board – maps, travel, and adventure – even if the adventure is a walk and picking flowers. Plus the twist “Oh The Places You Will Go” has both a literal and figurative interpretation. There isn’t just the physical adventure or possibilities of adventure, but the great adventure of life!

After I finally managed to decide which sheet of patterned paper I wanted to use, I added a coat of clear gesso. While that gesso dried, I remembered I needed to coat the Tres Jolie Chipboard pieces – but I had already rinsed out my brush and was preparing to wind down for the day, so I gave them a spray of Workable Fixatif for convenience!

After the gesso had dried, I used the Seth Apter “Flakey” Texture Paste and the Tim Holtz Circle Fade Stencil from the Mixed Media Kit this month to start building my background with a few random areas of texture where I was planning on adding my photos and clusters.

After the texture paste had dried, I mixed together each of the three PearlEx Powders from the Mixed Media Kit with water in a small palette to use as watercolors to add on and around the stenciling – then I just dipped into my three watercolors, let them move around on the background naturally and added a few extra splatters of the “Duo Aqua Blue” and “Sky Blue.” I also added a light coating of Workable Fixatif after my colors had dried to hold those powders in place.

As I started playing around with the elements I had decided to use, I realized I needed a little extra separation between the background and the photos, so I added some extra, torn-edge, pieces of paper as part of my layering process. I have my photos backed with some adhesive foam to help stabilize them, and then I just started positioning everything where I wanted it, then came in and added hot glue underneath the pieces – because I didn’t want to “forget” what I had originally planned if I tried taking everything off then rebuilding with the glue!

For the Tres Jolie Chipboard, I used a mix of the “Worn Jeans” Chalk Ink found in this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit, the three PearlEx Powders from the Mixed Media Kit, and clear embossing ink (refill bottle) and Extra Thick Embossing Powder from my stash. I started with the chalk ink, sprinkled, brushed, and watered down the PearlEx Powders while the ink was still wet, then decided what I really needed was some embossing – and that’s when I used my refill embossing ink to “paint” my powders in place before adding the Extra Thick Embossing Powder. Then I did it a second time – minus the chalk ink – so I have two layers of color and embossing powder!

After everything was in place and the hot glue had cooled down, I came back with my palette of “watercolors” to extend the areas of color and to blend in the torn pieces of paper I had added with my clusters and photos.

I hope you enjoyed this layout and it gave you some ideas of how you can use the mediums from the Mixed Media Kit and the “Everywhere” Collection from the Scrapbooking Kit!

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 Mixed Media Kit, I used:

StazOn “Jet Black,” Dear Lizzy Date Stamp, Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, Finnabair Clear Gesso, Ranger Clear Extra Thick Embossing Powder, Ranger Clear Emboss-It Ink Refill Bottle, double-sided adhesive foam, Krylon Workable Fixatif, Art Glitter Glue, Gorilla Glue Gun & Glue Sticks

Tres Jolie Kit Club–MemoryDex Cards!–April 2023 Cards, Tags, & More Kit

Image | April 27, 2023April 26, 2023 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all! For my final project of April, I have some quick and easy MemoryDex Cards for you! I used up scraps I had leftover from the Easel Cards I made at the beginning of the month, finished off the flower pack from the Scrapbooking Kit, and added a little splatter from the “Fairy Wings” paint in the Mixed Media Kit!

There isn’t a lot of “instruction” for these easy-peasy cards, but I do have a process video for you to check out where I go over briefly what I was using and doing!

As I started cutting my cover stock to size, I decided I would use up as much as I could, and that led me to create a tiered set of cards. All three cards are 4 inches wide, but their heights are 3”, 3-1/4”, and 3-1/2”.

I already had quite a bit of the flowers and foliage cut out from my Easel Cards, but I wanted a few larger pieces, so I cut the tags from one of the patterned papers, the hearts and scalloped edge circles from the cover of the elements pack, and picked out a few of the words from a page in the elements pack.

I picked out one sheet of patterned paper to cut to the same sizes as my three bases, punched the MemoryDex holes along the bottoms, and glued the two layers together.

I tried to keep each card similar to each other, but not identical, so I sorted the pieces I planned on using before gluing everything together.

I also wanted to add a little dimension to the layers – help them stand out a bit – so I used a blending brush and inked up the edges of the ephemera pieces before attaching them.

Because I had already opened the Little Birdie flower pack from the Scrapbooking Kit when I was playing with color, I decided I wanted to finish it off! (If you haven’t heard, I don’t like having partial flower packs!!)

I had one cluster, but three cards, so what else was there to do but dismantle the flower cluster and distribute the parts across the cards as evenly as possible?

After I had all my layers glued down and my Little Birdie flowers on, I realized I needed to add a little “something” to the flowers to create a more cohesive look – all it took was a light brushing of ink from my blending brush! Well I could have easily called the cards done after adding the sentiments, I still felt they didn’t look quite finished – so I added a little butterfly, and splattered on some of the “Fairy Wings” Sparks paint.

Thank you for joining me here today! I hope you enjoyed these quick and easy MemoryDex cards and they gave you some ideas of what you can make using this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit – or scraps you have left from other projects!

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:

We R Memory Keepers 3-Way Corner Punch, Heidi Swapp MemoryDex Punch, UHU Stic, eyelets, Marco’s Papers “Natural” Cougar Opaque Cover, Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, hot glue, hot glue gun

Tres Jolie Kit Club–Let’s Play With Color!!-April 2023 Mixed Media Kit

Image | April 13, 2023April 12, 2023 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all! This week I wanted to dive into the Mixed Media Kit and just play with the colors! Sometimes colors or color combinations can be daunting, especially when sitting in separate containers! You might find yourself asking questions such as: “Do they really go together?” “Can I put orange, blue, and green together?,” and “Are there other colors I have around that can be used too?”

Then there’s the biggest question of them all: “What happens if…?!?!”

Hopefully, my project this week will provide you with a few “answers” and spark some ideas for you!

Make sure to swing by YouTube and check out just how big of a mess I can make!

For this first project I played around with, I used a Clear Scraps wooden blank, the paints, texture paste, and stencil from the Mixed Media Kit, and some flowers from both the Scrapbooking and Cards, Tags, & More Kits. (y’all know Tres Jolie is having a collaboration with Clear Scraps this month, right? Make sure you keep your eyes peeled for the Tres Jolie and Clear Scraps “official” collaboration projects coming up!!)

I coated the “You n Me” frame with some white gesso and then started my color experiment using a gel plate! I have always loved how gel plates allow a thinner layer of paint(s) to be applied, and how easy it is to put your layers together and lift it all at once! For the two base ovals, I only used the paints on the gel plate, but for the main feature, after I had my color down, I rolled some white gesso on, then lifted. The white gesso gave the paints a more faded look – and since I liked it, I kept it!

After all that gel plate “work,” I added some random areas of stenciling. Now, with the stenciling on, I had to figure out how I wanted to go about adding some color to it, so I grabbed up a sponge and just started dabbing. I think the sponge worked great, it created a nice even coverage, but it also allowed for more control over how thick the paint went on – plus, it just worked better for me over the uneven surface of the stenciling!

For the frame, I lightly and unevenly added some of the “Fairy Wings” paint using a brush. I didn’t want a “perfect” coat of paint, I figured this project should look as aged as the photo (the photo was taken 20 years ago this month!). To help protect the photo from dust, fingerprints, etc., I added a layer of acetate and glued everything in place.

The white flower cluster came from the Little Birdie Crafts flower pack in this month’s Scrapbooking Kit, then I decided I needed to add a little more color, so I popped in some of the green flowers from the Cards, Tags, & More Kit (for me, it was the rest of the green flowers from last week’s cards). Then, because I was adding them to the other three projects, I decided a little extra texture from art stones would be a nice final touch.

Before I give an overview of the ScrapBerry’s Bird and Butterfly blanks found in the Mixed Media Kit, I am going to very quickly cover the daffodils in the clockfaces.

I hadn’t tried adding dried flowers to thinner resin pieces before, so I was experimenting with the process – and that process involved a bit of trial and error to work out the best way to cover flowers that are thicker than the mould! It also resulted in some gaps and uneven resin areas, but since I love old and vintage, I always figured I’d just work them into the design!

So, in short, I dried my flower in silica gel crystals, sprayed them with preservative for storage, then added them to my moulds.

With that covered some, it’s time to go over the remaining projects!

For the bird blank, I coated the wood with the black gesso from the kit, added some spray adhesive from my stash, then pressed the metallic flakes into place. After the glue had a chance to dry, I brushed off the excess flakes and started adding some stenciling. Then, I got the bright idea to add more metallic flakes to the texture paste while the stencil was still in place! It mostly worked. Mostly.

In continuing with my color experiments, I mixed some of the “Fairy Wings” paint into some 3D Matte Gel and added some extra sparkle with a bit of “Golden Marble” Pixie Sparkle. Well, I had hoped for extra sparkle…

Anyhow, the green behind the daffodil is really very subtle, and it doesn’t stand out a lot. But, this week was about experimenting, so it’s okay!

I wasn’t entirely happy with my bird base and the metallic flakes, so I came in with my sponges and added a few light areas of the paints. It wasn’t an all-over coating, just a few areas for some blending.

To try and get the details of the clockface to stand out a little more, I used a brayer to roll some black gesso on, then after the gesso had dried, I rolled on a couple of layers of the “Fairy Wings” paint and sprinkled some “Golden Marble” Pixie Sparkle to try and get a little more “pop.”

In addition to my daffodil clockface, I also have a Sharon Ziv window frame mould piece coated in a layer of white gesso and two layers of the “Ginger Magic” paint from the kit.

After I adhered the frame and clockface to the bird, I wanted to add a bit of shadow and a vintage look, so I grabbed up some “Burnt Sienna” Liquid Acrylic Paint and a water bottle. And, this is where I discovered there were a lot more gaps in my clockface than I originally thought! All of the darkest areas of Burnt Sienna are not on the surface! The paint ran through holes! Unexpected, yet kinda cool too.

This project needed something else, so I added the entire pack of the “Mango” 49 & Market flowers from the Scrapbooking Kit and some art stones. I don’t know if I can call this project “finished,” but I hope it gave you some ideas to pull from!

Next up, my “Shiplap Milk Can” Clear Scraps blank. I used almost the same technique on the background as I did with the bird – except I used white gesso instead of black gesso. I added my metallic flakes, then added stenciling – but instead of pressing more metallic flakes onto the texture paste, the flakes are mixed in because I worked on the stenciling for the milk can right after doing the bird and I just scraped the metallic flakes off the stencil right as I was working! After the texture paste had dried, I came in with my sponges and paints and blended things together a bit. (**Note: The gel used for the art stones isn’t dry yet in the photo!)

I hadn’t originally planned on adding the butterfly to this piece – I wasn’t sure the purple would go with the blue and green of the metallic flakes – but once I saw it together, I knew it had to be done! (The butterfly has a variety of purple powders all mixed together on top of the black gesso coating!)

However, I did have to add something between the background and the butterfly, so I grabbed up a flower mould, painted it “Ginger Magic,” sprinkled on some “Golden Marble” Pixie Sparkle, and stuck everything on. I added some “Burnt Sienna” for shadow and art stones for texture.

Now, for the fourth and final color experiment project – the ScrapBerry’s butterfly blank!

I used black gesso to prepare the blank, then added layers of color using my gel plate. After the paint had dried, I added some stenciling, then added more paint to blend the dried texture paste with the background using my little sponge pieces.

I will say, without a doubt, this clockface is a favorite “thing” I’ve made! The daffodil in this mould piece had lighter petals and against the purple background?!?!? It came out fabulous!

The purple background is made of a variety of dry mediums mixed into some 3D Matte gel spread across the back, and to get the details of the surface I used my brayer again and rolled a couple of layers of “Ginger Magic” on after the black gesso had dried.

On this project, I added a Finnabair Mould Frame and a Sharon Ziv window frame mould piece – the Finnabair frame coated in “Ginger Magic” and the Sharon Ziv window coated in “Fairy Wings.”

I used 3D Matte Gel to stick the mould pieces on, and after that had set up, I added my “Burnt Sienna” shadows and some art stones. Of all of the pieces, I think this one would benefit most if I add some more “Burnt Sienna” to the art stones – but since I’m not 100% sure (and the gel hadn’t dried yet!), I have left them “plain” for the time being.

Thank you for joining me here today, I hope these four projects gave you some ideas of how you can use the colors from this month’s Mixed Media Kit together!

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 Mixed Media Kit, I used (from previous Tres Jolie Kits):
Clear Scraps “Shiplap Milk Can” & “You n Me Desktop Frame,” Sharon Ziv “Window To The Soul” Mould, Finnabair “Clockface,” “Baroque Frames,” & “Mecha Moth” Moulds, Prima ReDesign “Winter Blooms” Mould, Finnabair “Art Stones,” Finnabair Liquid Color Fluid Medium, Finnabair “Pearls & Crystals” Mica Set, Finnabair “Burnt Sienna” Liquid Acrylic, Cosmic Shimmer “Golden Marble” Pixie Sparkles, “Groovy Grape” Pixie Sparkles, & “Firework Burst” Pixie Powder, Recollections 6”x6” Clear Acetate Sheets, Gel Press 8”x10” Gel Printing Plate, Gel Press 3”x5” Gel Printing Plate, Ranger 2-1/2” Brayer, Daler Rowney White Gesso, Krylon Triple Thick Clear Glaze, Krylon Workable Fixatif, Amazing Clear Cast, Perfect Cast, Finnabair 3D Matte Gel, E6000 Spray Adhesive, spray bottle, Wisedry Silica Gel Crystals, Gemini Dried Floral Preservative

Tres Jolie Kit Club–Easel Cards!–April 2023 Cards, Tags, & More Kit

Image | April 6, 2023April 5, 2023 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all! Have you played with your April Kits yet? Are they fabulous or what!?!? I absolutely love the “Happiness” line from LemonCraft found in this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit – so bright and cheery – perfect for your spring projects!

To kick off my April projects, I have a couple of easel cards for you! One is a 6”x6” “Thank You” card and one is a slimline “Happy Easter” card I created using a few pieces of Tres Jolie Chipboard from my stash, in addition to the Happiness papers! I used cardstock from my stash, and on the Easter card I added a little of the “Fairy Wings” paint from this month’s Mixed Media Kit, but all of the patterned papers, flowers, and fussy-cut bits and pieces are from the kit!

Make sure you check out my video to see how I put these together!

After I picked out the cardstock I wanted to use, I got started constructing my card base. The green cardstock isn’t heavy cardstock, I’d say it’s an average weight – about 65 lbs I think – but the “Natural” cover stock is much heavier – 130 lbs! You don’t need to use 130lb cover stock, but I love how sturdy it makes cards, so I keep it on hand! Since this card lies flat and the easels stand, you could easily use “regular” cardstock or patterned paper for your layers.

To try and make sure I am explaining my measurements as clearly as possible, I have some photos of the various pieces with their measurements! (Taking a snapshot of a video frame does come in handy sometimes!!)

This first set of photos shows the measurements for the 6”x6” card and the four easels that are on it. I cut the green cardstock in half, making a 6”x12” rectangle, then folded it in half along the long edge, easy-peasy! (My card is a top fold card, but you can have your fold wherever you want!) Then I cut two 5-3/4” squares out of my cover stock and glued them inside the base for the message to be written on, and on the front to add some contrast between the base and the easels.

For the easels, I cut four 5”x2-1/2” rectangles and folded them in half – these are the easel bases – and I cut four 2-1/2” squares to use as the easel fronts.

All four of my easels have the fold at the top so they all stand up in the same direction – and to make the easel-making process a little easier to explain! With the fold at the top, you are going to want to fold the top flap of your easel in half along the diagonal – from one of the corners at the fold to one of the bottom corners. I have my easels set to face the outer edges, so I folded two from the top right to the bottom left, and two from the top left to the bottom right. (In the two photos showing the folds, I only used a scrap of the cover stock for visual purposes – so you could see easier than me trying to show green on green!)

Once your easels are folded how you want them, all that is left to do is add the 2-1/2” squares that make up the easel fronts. You don’t want to glue them all the way down, only to the bottom triangle of your folded cardstock – this is the whole easel – the part that will stand up to be shown off!

You can see in the next pictures that I made sure my easels were all facing how I wanted them before gluing them down to the card front!

With the four easels glued down, all that I had left to do was pick out which patterned papers and fussy-cut pieces I wanted to use to decorate with.

In total, I cut eight 2-1/4” squares from two different patterned papers. I used the paper with the larger print to cover the section that will be seen while the easels are standing, and I used the paper with the smaller print on the easel faces so it wouldn’t be too overpowering when I came back and added the fussy cut flowers.

For the four squares with the larger pattern, I used an acrylic square to help me make sure the pattern I wanted would be showing!

Once all of the “main” pieces were in place, it was just a matter of adding the final decorations and the sentiment.

To add a little dimension and contrast to the fussy cut pieces, I lightly inked the edges using the “Bamboo Leaves” ink from the kit, glued a few of the flowers together, then popped up the little collage pieces on some foam squares.

For my easel “stoppers,” I picked out four of the smaller, fussy-cut butterflies, backed them with some double-sided adhesive foam, cut off the excess foam, and topped them with some Diamond Glaze – in essence, I created custom “enamel dots” using the papers from the kit! Once the Diamond Glaze had dried completely, I stuck the butterflies down where I wanted the easels held.

Finally, it was time to add my sentiment! All I did is pick out the stamp I wanted to use from the set in the kit, ink it up, and stamp it to a couple of the small cut of pieces from the papers I had already used!

Then, to soften it up, I created a watered-down “puddle” of the “Bamboo Leaves” ink on my craft mat and used a water brush with the puddle of ink to lightly trace over the stamping. I fussy cut the sentiment out, added some foam to the back of the words, and then added the words to the top-right square.

Now on to the slimline Easter card! The building process for easel cards is – more or less – the same. It is really only a matter of which way you are going to have your easels facing! And, for this card, since I have my easels facing forward, I didn’t even have to make diagonal folds!

For my card base, I used the 130lb cover stock, cut it down to 8”x9-1/4”, and folded it in half along the shorter edge, to create a 4”x9-1/4” card. Then for some layering, I cut a 3-3/4”x9” rectangle from green cardstock to start building my card face.

For my three easels, I cut three 6”x2-1/4” rectangles to use as the bases and folded them in half along the long edge – making them 3”x2-1/4”. I also added a score line and folded them at 1-1/2” to create the easel. Then, for the easel faces, I cut three 3”x2-1/4” rectangles.

I have the folds (at the 3” mark) for my easel at the top, and I added glue to the bottom rectangle that was created with the second fold at the 1-1/2” mark to attach my easel faces.

To keep my three easels as centered as possible, I used a 3/4” wide strip of paper as a spacer along the edge of the green cardstock on the card base and lined my easels up along that strip. My easels are “on top of” each other – in other words, I didn’t add any horizontal space between the bottom of one easel and the top of the easel under it.

Just because the patterned paper in the kit is an 8”x8” pad, doesn’t mean it can’t fit on a card that has a 9” tall face! After all, the diagonal of a square is longer than the two sides! In this case, from one corner to the opposite corner, it is a little over 11-1/4”, and since I didn’t need very wide strips – only 5/8” – everything fit just fine on the edge of the card front.

I had very minimal paper piecing required to get the front finished – only having to piece the background of the center easel together to get the “boards” how I wanted them.

I picked out the patterned papers I wanted to use to back my Tres Jolie Easter Egg Chipboard with and to use under the easels, backed the chipboard with the paper and trimmed the excess from the edges off, and cut the three pieces that will show when the easels are standing down to size!

I didn’t want too much decoration on the chipboard, so I just used the “Bamboo Leaves” ink and some water to add a bit of color to the eggs. Once I had the ink on, I decided I wanted to add a little something extra to the “Happy Easter” easel, so I gave a light brushing of the “Fairy Wings” paint (found in this month’s Mixed Media Kit) to the sentiment and popped on a few of the green flowers from the kit.

Thank you for joining me here on the blog today! I hope you enjoyed these two easel cards and they gave you some ideas of what you can make using this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit!

Stay Crafty, Friends

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In addition to the April 2023 Cards, Tags, & More Kit (and a little of the paint from the Mixed Media Kit!), I used (from previous Tres Jolie Kits):

Tres Jolie “Easter Egg Set” Chipboard, Bazzill “Apple Crush” Cardstock, Core’dinations “Kiwi” Cardstock, Marco’s Papers “Natural” Cover Stock, Scotch ATG, Art Glitter Glue, Jacquard Gum Arabic, JudiKins Diamond Glaze, Double-sided foam, Prima Water Brush

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:

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Tres Jolie Website