C.J.&#039;s Corner Scraps

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 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–Tag Flip-March 2023 Cards, Tags, & More Kit!

Image | March 2, 2023March 1, 2023 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all!

Welcome to March and new projects using Tres Jolie Kits! Did you get a chance to check out the reveal yesterday? All of March’s Kits are as fabulous as ever! Make sure to swing by the Tres Jolie shop and pick yourself up a kit or three!

For my first March project, I used the Graphic 45 ATC Tag booklet/album … thingy … and the Stamperia “Garden of Promises” papers and chipboard to create a little motivational and/or photo flip-book.

Make sure you check out the video to catch my thought process and see how I put this all together!

I know Graphic 45 has dies that are made to work with their (larger) tags, I’m not sure if there is an ATC Tag one, and even if there is, it wouldn’t have worked for everything I wanted to do! My solution was simple though – I just used some clear plastic packaging, traced two tag shapes on it (side-by-side), and rough-cut it out! Why did I trace two side-by-side? So I would be able to make a few backgrounds with little flip-outs! Then all I had to do is use it to create all of my backgrounds.

Not all of my backgrounds are solid pieces, after I had cut into a few of the patterned papers, I decided to straighten up a few edges, grabbed a partial piece of an adhesive sheet I had left from a previous project added some scraps strips of printer paper, peeled the backing off, and started laying down all the various left-over strips and squares! I don’t like having a lot of little pieces laying about and I like the feeling of using up as much as I can, so paper piecing is my go-to move!

I was never concerned about having perfectly straight, neat, and tidy edges because I had planned from the beginning to distress and ink them all – which is exactly what I did! I just used my scissors to distress all of the edges – including inside the ring hole – and used the “Pale Brown” Fluid Chalk Ink for a bit of color.

After I had my bases distressed, inked, and (mostly!!) ready to go, I started the sewing process. I picked one background to stitch directly to the tag, then on the background for the flip-side, I added the stitching first, then glued it to the tag. I decided to do my stitching this way so both sides of the tag would have the top stitching showing. It doesn’t really matter as far as the stitches are concerned, but the side of the paper the needle goes through tends to be a bit rough.

As seen in the photos above, six of my tags have flaps that flip out. Of those six, four were created using a single piece I made using my template (double-width, and scored), and for the other two, I decided to make the flaps separate just because I wanted a little more control over what image was showing and which way the flap was going to flip!

I don’t like leaving folds without some kind of reinforcement when they are in a project that is interactive, and these ATC Tags were no exception – so I just added some of the seam binding from the kit to the insides of all the folds and stitched along each side.

I really loved all of the quotes and phrases found throughout the patterned papers, and I wanted to incorporate them in a variety of ways. One was I did was to use the three bookmark-looking rectangles and create some fold-down, interactive elements – mostly because the paper strips were approximately 4” long, and I didn’t want it dangling out of the bottom!

Again, I had to reinforce all of my bends, except this time I used some linen hinging tape instead of the seam binding. Not for any particular reason beyond that it was a 9” piece I had “misplaced” during a previous project, and since I finally found it, I wanted to use it up! My linen hinging tape, however, is 1-1/4” wide – about 1/4” wider than the stripes – so I trimmed off the excess before attaching it to the backs of my pull-downs.

I added stitching to the sections that were attached to the background and added the three blue chipboard butterflies to use as “handles” (One apparently got edited out from the middle photo above without me noticing! Oops!)

What did I do with a 1/4” wide, 9” strip of linen hinging tape? I cut a couple of pieces off and used them to reinforce the folds on the two fold-out pieces I added using more bits from the cut-apart sheet! And, just like with the pull-down stripes, I stitched the back of the fold-out piece to the background.

I wanted to use some eyelets that I’ve owned for far, far too long, so I grabbed up a few and added them to the pre-punched holes on four of the chipboard pieces, then glued the chipboard where I wanted it. I didn’t use the eyelets to attach the chipboard to the background paper or tags, just because I didn’t! No real reason beyond that there wasn’t a real need to!

On the tag that has the large chipboard flower cluster, I didn’t use any glue, I just stitched it along one edge and the bottom so it could work as a tuck spot.

Thank you for joining me here today on the blog! I hope you enjoyed this little project and it gave you some ideas of what you can do 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, I used:

UHU Stic, Art Glitter Glue, adhesive sheet, double-sided tape, eyelets, We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile, LineCo Linen Hinging Tape, ivory/cream-ish thread

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–Mecha Love – February 2023 Mixed Media Kit

Image | February 9, 2023February 8, 2023 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all! I hope you’re having a fabulous February and have had a chance to play with your kits! This week I have a project for you I made using the February Mixed Media Kit! I grabbed up my kit, added some extra mould pieces, mechanicals, and paints from my stash, and created my Mecha Love mixed media piece!

Make sure to check out my video to see what I did!

To start building up some texture, I added some of the sand texture paste using the stencil from the kit onto the canvas board. I didn’t cover the entire surface with stenciling, I just added the stenciling to a few random areas. In the video, you will see that I added black gesso after the sand texture paste had dried, but that was because I hadn’t planned on adding the cheesecloth so soon! If I had thought I would be adding the cheesecloth to fill in the areas without the stenciling I would have waited to add my gesso. Anyhow…I had been rust-staining fabric around the same time I received my February kits, so my cheesecloth got sucked into the process – even if that rust staining doesn’t show much on this canvas – and while I was playing with different ways to build my canvas, I just happened to lay the cheesecloth down in a way that sparked inspiration! I ran with this new inspiration and used some matte gel to adhere some of the cheesecloth to my canvas.

Since my cheesecloth led me on a slightly different path than what I had planned originally, I decided I wasn’t going to add gesso again until I had the majority of my mould pieces in place. I grabbed up a variety of gear mould pieces from my stash – made from a wide range of materials since I tend to pre-create pieces when I have extra resin or clay from a different project or I just need to use up old material – and started layering them up using some 3D Matte Gel. I had some broken bits and pieces in the mix, so I just used them as filler to create some lift under areas they wouldn’t be seen, you could just as easily use scraps of cardboard or chipboard as filler! After I had all my gears in place I added the resin frame from the kit and topped it with the large heart from Finnabair’s “Love Machine” Mould (from my stash). I let the 3D Gel dry overnight, then I came back with my matte gel and some more cheesecloth, adding more to the background and laying it across a few areas of the mould cluster. After the matte gel had dried, I added black gesso to everything.

Now it was finally time to start getting my colors built up! I started with some “Linen” Impasto and a lot of water! All I knew was I wanted to create some type of gradient or ombre effect, so I kept the layer of Impasto heavier on the top half(ish) of the canvas and more watered down on the bottom half(ish).

After the Impasto had dried, I mixed some Tres Jolie “Red” Acrylic Paint and DWM “Fuchsia” Glossy Spray and added this mix to the canvas.

When my paint and glossy spray mix had dried, I came back with more cheesecloth and added it to areas of my resin pieces and canvas. You can see some of the rust-stained cheesecloth on the finished piece still because this final layer of cheesecloth didn’t get completely covered by mediums!

After the matte gel had semi-dried (being fully dry wasn’t necessary!), I returned with some of the Copper and Graphite texture paste from this month’s kit and used them more like paint than paste. I added the copper to a few areas (very few!) of the cheesecloth I had just placed and the gears on the heart, and I added the graphite to the gears. I didn’t want a lot of build-up, I just wanted a bit of color.

After those pastes had dried, I came in with the Platinum Crackle Paste from the kit and added it to the bottom half(ish) of my canvas, then I set everything off to air dry for about 24 hours. When I came back, I had lovely crackles and it was finally time to get the Brown, Red, and Yellow Rust Effect Paste on the (mould) gears, the resin frame from the kit, and slightly spread out onto the canvas.

When I had my rust how I wanted it, I added some “Red Wine” Metallique Paint to my heart and on the top half(ish) of the canvas background. For the background, I really kept the metallique paint watered down, I didn’t want to completely cover what was already there, I just wanted to add a bit of variation.

Once the “Red Wine” was dry, I added some “Vintage Silk” and “Indian Pink” Finnabair waxes to highlight a few areas on the heart. Finally, I grabbed up the (partial) package of Mechanicals from my stash, kept them “as is,” and adhered them to the gears “on” the heart mould using 3D Matte Gel.

Thank you for joining me here today on the blog! I hope this project gave you some inspiration and ideas of what you can do with the items in this month’s Mixed Media Kit! I tried to use the texture pastes in a variety of ways to help you see them in action if you haven’t experienced the joy of crackles and rust effect pastes 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 Mixed Media Kit, I used (from previous Tres Jolie Kits):

Finnabair Moulds: “Love Machine,” “Large Gears,” “Machine Parts,” “Steampunk Hearts,” Finnabair “Steampunk Gears” Mechanicals, Finnabair Heavy Black Gesso, Finnabair “Linen” Impasto, Finnabair “Red Wine” Metallique Paint, Finnabair “Indian Pink” Metallique Wax, Finnabair “Vintage Silk” Opal Magic Wax, DWM “Fuchsia” Gloss Spray, Tres Jolie Red Acrylic Paint, DecoArt Black Gesso, Liquitex Matte Gel

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–Ornaments!–December 2022 Cards, Tags, & More Kit

Image | December 22, 2022December 21, 2022 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all! Yesterday was the first day of winter (Winter Solstice). Today is the 4th-5th day of Hanukkah (the 5th day of Hanukkah will start at sundown tonight if my counting is correct – if I’m wrong, feel free to correct me!), Christmas is on Sunday, Kwanzaa starts Monday, and 2023 is ten days away! It’s been a year I tell ya! Don’t worry though, this isn’t my last project for 2022, I still have one more for you next week!

This week I made some ornaments for you using this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit and the Mixed Media Kit. Although, the Mixed Media Kit ornaments took a while to dry and haven’t been 100% completed. They weren’t part of my original plan – I had only planned on the three “double” ornaments made using the papers and cardstock from the Cards Kit. (Check out the video to get the details about all the hows and whys!)

My ornaments are also for the mood board challenge – what is a better holiday tradition than handmade ornaments or décor? For me, Christmas Trees need the ornaments my kiddos made – even if it has been close to a decade since the last one was made!

For the blog, I’m just going to talk about what your seeing in the photos, the video is where you can watch my thought process in action!

All of the clear plastic ornaments are 4 inches, and none of my inner, paper ornaments are over (approximately) 2-5/8-inches in diameter.

For this first ornament, I cut four circles, in each size, out of one of the sheets of patterned paper and one of the cardstock sheets from the kit. After I had them together – not all the way “closed” – I added a touch of embossing powder along the edges, then I glued a hat pin along the centers, using a small bead as separators.

I wanted to add a bit of a frosted look to this ornament, so I grabbed up some Finnabair Crushed Crystal and dabbed it onto the inside, keeping to the outer edges so the center would remain mostly clear, allowing the inner ornament to show. I used a combination of hot glue and 3D Matte Gel to hold my ornament in place – the hot glue to tack it in place long enough for the gel to dry – and after all the mediums had dried, I glued my halves together.

This ornament was my “experiment” with Foundry Wax – I had assumed the plastic would not hold up to the heat needed for the Foundry Wax, but I experimented so you wouldn’t have to! My official stance is – don’t use mediums that need to be heat set!

This second ornament is made up of four circles cut from one of the patterned papers and four circles cut from one of the cardstock sheets. I used a touch of paint along the edges, nothing that stands out, just a bit of White Pearl Metallic Paint. Once again, I didn’t close up my inner ornament until I had glued in what I was using to suspend it within the clear plastic ornament – in this case, a bit of gold (costume jewelry) chain. I added the gold Little Birdie wreaths to the sections that were made of the cardstock, used my hot glue and 3D Matte Gel to start the process of holding everything in place – then decided that wasn’t enough!

As I was looking at this ornament, I decided it need a little something more – not frosted like the first one – but something, so I grabbed up some glitter and added it to the top and bottom of the ornament, trying to create the look that the chain was coming out of the glitter “mound.” After I had the two halves glued together, I still thought there should be more, so I did something rare – I added glitter to the outside of a project! I just used some (regular weight) matte gel since it wouldn’t run the way glue might to hold the glitter in place, and set it off to dry.

For my third and final (actually finished) ornament, I used a small doily die to cut out four pieces of patterned paper and four pieces of cardstock, then glued them together the same way I did all the circles in the other two ornaments. Since this patterned paper is a darker and busier print, I only added a touch of the Bubbly Embossing Powder from this month’s Mixed Media Kit to the edges and wrapped the “Holly” and “Jolly” Tres Jolie Chipboard words around the center. The chipboard words are embossed in a layer of the Bubbly powder, and an extra layer of Lindy’s Holly Berry Red Gold on the bottom half-ish to create a bit of a gradient effect.

I was attempting to create the illusion that the inner ornament was floating within the outer ornament, so I used a length of fishing line to suspend it inside – just adding a few small beads to give it a little “extra.” I didn’t add any mediums to my outer ornament besides the bit of Vintage Gold Finnabair Wax – after adding a light coat of clear gesso – at the top where the hook will go.

Alright, as I stated in the video, I have a photo here for you of the two ornaments that had the Distress Mica Sprays and some glittery mediums in them – that took for-EV-er to dry! They are dry now, but they weren’t dry soon enough to do anything else with – that would also need time to dry! They were unplanned, I just needed something to experiment on before doing “things” to my planned ornaments! I’m hoping that I will finish these unplanned ornaments before next December!

Thank you for joining me here in my corner, I hope you enjoyed these ornaments and they gave you some ideas of what you can make using this month’s kits.

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 Cards, Tags, & More Kit (*from previous Tres Jolie Kits), I used:

Finnabair “White Pearl” Metallique Paint , *Finnabair “Crushed Crystals” Jewel Effect Paste , *Cosmic Shimmer “Sparkle Texture Paste , Distress Foundry Wax “Gilded” (although, I don’t recommend heat with plastic ornaments!) , Lindy’s Gang “Holly Berry Red Gold” Embossing Powder , *DecoArt Gold Glitter , *DecoArt Crackle Glaze , Shimmerz Paint “Puttin’ On The Glitz” Paste-Eez , Distress Clear Embossing Ink , *Dress My Craft “Classic Doily” Die , Spellbinders Standard Circle Nestabilities , Gorilla Hot Glue Sticks , 4” clear plastic ornaments, hat pin , gold chain (costume jewelry) , fishing line , gold beads , Art Glitter Glue , JudiKins Diamond Glaze

Tres Jolie Kit Club–November Memory Dex–October 2022 Cards, Tags, & More Kit

Image | October 27, 2022October 27, 2022 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all! For my final project of October for Tres Jolie Kit Club, I have some November Memory Dex Cards for you. I don’t have a card for every day of the month – although I think it is possible with all of the “(Inter)National Day of’s …”. I just picked the more commonly known days – and National Button Day, since we are all crafters here!

The video is a quick watch – most of the project is die cutting, layering, and gluing – so I really spend the majority of the video time with the assembly of the shaker card and I give an overview of what mediums I used.

First, a warning and apology! I am in the process of switching my recording and editing programs, and had to work out which settings were best for these new programs – so the audio for about half the video is … less than ideal. Fortunately, I think I have it worked out now, unfortunately, it is during the shaker assembly. Sorry! It really got down to the wire of working with what I had, or not being done in time!

My shaker card was the most involved card created! I decided what I really “needed” for this project was to create a large, maple leaf shaped Memory Dex card. Over on my Flickr, you can find the full-sized .jpegs of the shaker parts and my little calendar to use in your personal project(s).

I doubled up the card part of the shaker – made using some cardstock from my stash – so it would have a little extra stability when on the Rolodex tracks since it is heavier than a “regular” card. To make my solid cardstock not so solid looking, I inked up the edges with my Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide, gave it a splatter of water, dabbed up the excess, and dried everything before I glued down the solid leaf, cut from some of the patterned paper from the kit and trimmed off the bit of extra stem from the bottom.

To create my spacer ring I cut two of the outline pieces and used some hot glue between them. And honestly, I think I might have found a favorite way to create the space needed for shakers! There is no dry time, no cutting, and scissors work to trim off any parts that seep out. All I had to do is keep moving so I wouldn’t get any piled up, and if a spot got skipped over, it was easy to go back and fill it in.

For the leaf veins and “November,” I first used a gold marker in my Cameo to sketch the outlines, then I switched over to the blade to cut the pieces out. I left everything on my mat so it would be easier to work on when I added some gold foil transfer to them.

After the foil was on, I grabbed up a piece of acetate and stitched the veins and acetate together. To keep the feed-dogs of my sewing machine from marring the acetate, I just ran it through on top of a piece of tissue paper – which tears off from the stitches super easily! Then I glued down the acetate window piece to the spacer ring using some JudiKins Diamond Glaze.

Since I was in a “let’s see what I can use” mindset, wanted to add a little extra to the shaker and wanted to make sure the edges of the leaf vein cut weren’t going to snag on anything, I brushed on some Peeled Paint Stickles around the edge, and then used it to fill in along the hot glue edge to really “clean” it all up. Then the only thing left to do was flip the window over, add my sequins, and glue the base on.

After the shaker card, the rest of the cards were really just a matter of gluing all the die-cut pieces together! Each card has two layers – except the envelopes – one layer of cardstock, and one layer of patterned paper. I added a bit of random stitching and tucked in and layered up die-cuts and pieces from the cut-apart sheets in this month’s kit.

As I noted in the video, this was the day I discovered my printer had decided to retire, so my calendar is only a black-and-white printout, instead of the original design that I shared near the beginning of this post. The “Native American History Month” Card is actually one of the envelope cards, and inside it, I added a couple of little fact sheets printed from the National Congress of American Indians and the U.S. government’s Native American Heritage Month website. And of course, I have a card to remind me that Daylight Savings Time ends on the sixth, and we “Fall Back” an hour.

The eighth is our mid-term elections here in the U.S., and since I believe voting is highly important and something that should be taken seriously, I had to make a card for that day. The eighth is also the first full moon of November, known as the Beaver Moon or Frost Moon. On the eleventh, we have Veteran’s Day (also known as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day), [originally] to commemorate the end of World War I. For my November 13th card, I have another envelope, but I didn’t to say anything on the outside other than “Fun Day” since it is the Ides of November and the Festival of (the Roman God) Jupiter. And of course, as I mentioned at the start of this post, I have my National Button Day card.

For my last two cards, I have one for (American) Thanksgiving – which signals the start of the Holiday shopping season, so I had to make a card for Small Business Saturday! Don’t forget to support small businesses!!

I used a set of Hampton Art Alpha stamps with my Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide or one of my StazOn inks to stamp the titles and dates and sometimes added some gold embossing powder to make areas stand out a bit more.

Thank you for joining me here in my corner! I hope you enjoyed this project and it gave you some ideas of what you can make using this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit! Make sure you check back with us on Tuesday when the November Kits are revealed! You’re going to love them!

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: