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
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Hey, y’all! The year is coming to a close, but that means a whole new year of Tres Jolie Kits to look forward to! YAY!!!
For my last project of 2022, I used this month’s Scrapbooking Kit – along with my stash of junk journaling materials – to create two Christmas journals. Each journal has envelopes, tuck-ins, flips, and loads of pages for journaling your Christmas thoughts and memories. And even though Christmas 2022 has passed, you can still create a memory journal while we are in that awkward time between Christmas and the New Year when it’s questionable if we are sure what day it is!!
Did you have a friend and/or family gathering? You could have everyone who attended write what they remembered about Christmas! Did people travel from various distances? Just send it around in the mail or have them write letters you can glue or clip to the pages!
Check out my overview video where I give some details of what went into these journals:
The two journals are very similar – it was just a matter of what signatures were added to which cover after I decided I had more than enough to create two journals. I used some canvas-type fabric on the covers, and some mulberry paper to cover the spines. On the journal with “Memo” on the cover, I inked the mulberry paper and added some ink splotches to the printables. For the closures, I just stitched together layers of ribbons and fabric scraps to create a wrap.
I digitally create some Christmas-themed end papers for my journals and attached them in a non-traditional way by either cutting or tearing the side that isn’t attached to the cover gluing it down to the first page of the journal.
For added texture and to fit with the “put together” and “vintage” style, I would just stitch my printables straight to the pages I wanted them on.
I used a few black tags from my stash and added some layers of the various papers from the Simple Stories papers in the kit, created tuck-in spots using some of the Simple Stories ephemera and backed a few of the cut apart Simple Stories cards with pieces of hanging file folder!
I have a variety of paper and pages throughout the journals created using patterned paper, printables, and some original vintage pages. I also created and added some homemade glassine using the method I learned from Nik the Booksmith. I also created a couple of Nik’s “Raggedy” inserts into the journals made up of a cardstock base and a variety of ephemera stitched and glued on.
I created my own vintage style, Christmas-themed labels to add in, and even decided I needed a custom Bookbinders Label to add to both journals. You can grab up a free printable with some Christmas-themed labels on them over on my Flickr!
Thank you for joining me here today! I hope you enjoyed these journals and that they gave you an idea of what you can make using this month’s Scrapbooking Kit!
Warm Wishes for a Safe and Happy New Year!
Stay Crafty, Friends
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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
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We’re halfway through December, and almost to 2023! Hopefully during this hectic time of the year you’ve been able to take some crafty time for yourself! This week I used the December 2022 Mixed Media Kit and put my adorable little trees together. (Although, I did have some struggles trying to get the photos taken!)
I didn’t pull too much from my stash to create these trees, only a few staple items and a few mediums from previous Tres Jolie Kits to help [me] hold my colors and embellishments in place.
Make sure you swing by and check out the video to get the full process!
I created all three trees the same, so I’m just going to go over that process and pop in the photos as I go along! I did not glue my trees together! I knew they would be getting wet and I didn’t want to try and get them together after the wood had swollen! And they don’t really need any glue – they fit together well on their own, and by the time I was done, all that swelling was all that was needed to finish the hold. The only place I added a touch of wood glue was at the tree tops to help hold the point together while I dyed, sprayed, painted, and sprinkled!
The first thing I did was put my trees together and add a bit of wood glue to the tops to hold the tips together. Once that glue had dried, I sprayed down the trees with water, to start getting the wood to swell some so the “Merrymint” Distress Mica would be able to soak in better. After all three trees were thoroughly coated, I let them air dry overnight.
The largest tree.
The next morning I took my trees to a well-ventilated area and gave them a light spray of some Workable Fixatif. The Distress Mica Sprays are water-reactive and I didn’t want them to start dripping color as I worked with them!
After the Fixatif had dried (it only takes about 5 minutes), I used a small brush to “paint” on some Ranger Embossing Ink (refill bottle) to the areas of the tree with the snowflake cuts, added the Bubbly embossing powder, and heated it up. Then I repeated the same process to the tree trunks. Since embossing powder is a smooth, slick surface after it’s melted, I gave my trees another spray of Fixatif so my next layer of color would have something a little better to grab ahold of.
The middle tree.
As I was shaking up my bottle of Shiny Bauble, I got to thinking that I really wanted it to stay put and not drip during or after spraying – and that led me to grab up my bottle of Liquid Color Fluid Medium and add a thin coat to the tree. You could use clear gesso, just keep in mind it is a matte finish – I didn’t want to lose the shimmer and shine of the mica which is why I didn’t use gesso. I didn’t heat dry the spray and medium thoroughly, but I did use the low heat setting to dry it all just enough so it wouldn’t run. After all of that had finished air drying, I added embossing powder to the trunks again, and to the base to cover any spray that might have landed where I didn’t want it!
Then, before I started sprinkling on the Mini Prills and chunky glitter, I gave my trees a good coating of Fixatif then, after the Fixatif had ample time to dry, I sprayed my trees down with water to remove any spray that hadn’t got sealed well! I didn’t want any of that spray to bleed into the clear medium I would be using to hold the Mini Prills and chunky glitter in place!
The smallest tree.
Now the only things I had left were the finishing touches! I used some Distress Crackle Paint, coated the tree, one section at a time, and sprinkled on the glitter and Prills. I didn’t put a heavy coat of paint on, and it is a thicker medium – so I could stand my trees up and let them air dry and my paint didn’t run down!
To make sure all those little bits of glitter and Prills stayed put, I gave the tree a light coating of Triple Thick Crystal Clear Glaze before adding the finishing touches to the trunk and base.
I wanted to add some texture to my trunk and base, so I decided to experiment a little. I coated the trunk and base with some DecoArt Crackle Glaze (not too thick!) and then covered it with more of the embossing powder. I didn’t know what would happen; I wasn’t sure if it would crackle or not, but I figured I’d get some kind of texture in the end!
I let that glaze dry overnight, then I came in with the heat gun and hoped for the best! It may not have made noticeable crackles, but it did produce a bubbly, rough texture!
With all of the decoration done, I gave the trees a final coating of the Triple Thick Clear Glaze to provide protection and to really make sure my glitter and Prills stayed on.
Thank you for joining us here at Tres Jolie! I hope you enjoyed this Tree Trio and it gave you some ideas of what you can do with this month’s Mixed Media Kit to create your own unique Christmas Tree décor!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Do you have cards to make still this holiday season? Well, this week I have a couple of cards that go together as quickly as you can cut and glue! Even the card with some texture paste goes together quick.
Both cards finished size is 4” x 6”, made from just a few bits of ephemera and a couple of sheets of the patterned paper from the November Cards, Tags, & More Kit from Tres Jolie Kit Club, one sheet of cardstock and mediums from my stash.
I have a quick video for you to give you an overview of these cards being built!
For the middle layer of both cards, I cut out the center – essentially making a frame about one inch on all sides. Since there was only going to be about 1/16” peeking out from around the top layer, I didn’t think I needed the whole 3-7/8” x 5-7/8” piece! I just used my ruler to mark my lines, then used my craft knife to cut along them.
The top layer of both cards is cut to 3-3/4” x 5-3/4”, I fussy cut the gingerbread people, heart, and “Gingerbread Kisses” from one of the sheets in the paper pack, and just trimmed down the “Snow Fun” piece a little around the edges so I could use it with the tree background.
After I decided where I wanted to add the banner to the gingerbread card, I stamped it on with some “Timber Brown” StazOn so I could come in and use one of the new Tim Holtz watercolor pencils to color it in! You could use any type of medium you want to color your banner in – or stamp it on a separate piece of cardstock and then fussy cut it out. I just really wanted to use those watercolor pencils! After I made sure the banner was dry, I came back and added the “Happy Holidays” sentiment using the same StazOn ink. The only thing left to do was layer up the bits of ephemera and my fussy-cut pieces. I popped the gingerbread people up on some foam dots, added a couple of small staples to the “Gingerbread Kisses”, and added on the heart – and this card front was done!
For the “Snow Fun” background, I grabbed up my Tim Holtz “Woodland” mini stencil from my stash and inked on a few trees using some “Rustic Wilderness” Distress Oxide. I have two trees that peek out from behind the top of the little “Snow Fun” card, and a third tree that I inked partly on the background; partly on the mouse card. I just held the smaller card down in the place where I wanted it and added the ink. After my trees were inked, I added a bit of water to activate the Oxide, made sure everything was dry, then added a layer of MicroGlaze to help keep the texture paste from turning green when I added it!
My first layer of texture paste is a thin layer of Ranger Opaque Texture Paste, then to add a little shimmer, I came back in with some Tim Holtz “Snowfall” Grit Paste. I did my texture paste in the evening, and just let it dry overnight, but it didn’t really need that long to dry because it isn’t on very thick – and you could gently help it along if you needed to by gently using a heat gun. (If you do use a heat gun on texture paste, keep it moving and take a break here and there – texture paste can bubble if it is heated too long!)
The only thing left to do for the “Snow Fun” card was to put the layers together! I added some foam squares under the mouse card to give it a little lift, used some “Olive Green” StazOn to stamp the two sentiments on the two pieces of ephemera, added a couple of decorative staples, and glued them down! That was it!
For the card bases, I cut a 12”x12” sheet of cardstock in half, then each of those 6” x12” pieces were cut at 8”, scored, and scored at 4” – creating my two, 4”x6” card bases – then I just glued down the two card fronts I had put together.
Thank you for joining us here at Tres Jolie! I hope that these two quick and easy cards gave you some ideas and inspiration for your holiday cards using this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! Can you believe there are only two months left in 2022? Wow!
Here in the States, we have entered our Holiday Season – fully. Granted, I was listening to musical Christmas Trees after walking past the still-fully-stocked Halloween aisles, but I digress…
Anywho, on to the second best part of the Holiday season – the food! (The first is, of course, the people you choose – or don’t choose – to celebrate with – or without.) And what better way to encompass both the family and the food than with a customized recipe book? Whether you already have “old family recipes” that are a staple at your holiday table, or you are starting your own traditions, this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit from Tres Jolie Kit Club has what you need to get those recipes in order!
If you haven’t already seen the video, it is one of my more edited, cut, and put-back-together videos. I think, if I had tried to just have the video in the same order of creation, it would have been A) longer and B) absolute confusion! So, to get a look at how I (finally!) managed to get my recipe book together, make sure you check out the video!
My cover evolved quite a bit during the process – I just couldn’t seem to get it going the way I was thinking! I really wanted to add some age to my recipe book – give it the appearance that it had already seen a kitchen or two in its life. That’s why I didn’t way a “perfectly clean” cover and why I sectioned the interior sectioned the way I did. I wanted to have a story to tell – to look like others had already been adding to it over time.
There have been a few red paints in previous Tres Jolie Kits, and I grabbed a few of them up to use here. I didn’t use an actual gesso as a basecoat for my chipboard, I just used some Tres Jolie Red Paint as my base coat, worked it in a bit with the brush, and coated the outside of the front and back covers the edges of the interior sides, and around the edges of all the interior pages.
To save some reading time – and possibly confusion – I am just going to give the overview of the finished front cover. In my video, I do show the entire process because I think the layers you can no longer see helped to create the finished product, but I don’t know how to point those out now that they are unseen! I’ll just say that there is some embossing powder under the layers of embossing powder and Foundry Wax that you see now!
Now, for what can be seen. I added some (red) Impasto paint to the cover to give it a bit more protection while I worked since it is a heavy-bodied paint, added a couple of splatter layers of Rustic Wilderness Distress Oxide Spray, using MicroGlaze between the layers to add a little depth. I used a holly stencil with some StazOn and metallic red paint since both are permanent (i.e. not water-reactive) mediums, and cut a couple of slits along the top and bottom of the title section so I could add my ephemera cluster behind it.
It doesn’t show up in the photos, but there is some light inking behind the ephemera using Rustic Wilderness Distress Oxide to create a little of a shadowy effect. To get the ink in the correct areas, I used a white Stabilo pencil to trace where the pieces would be going and added more MicroGlaze to help hold the Oxide in place. You can see which ephemera pieces I chose for my cluster, I just cut the cluster and tucked the cut edges under the title block to give the appearance it was one piece that when all the way behind, stitched it to the cover and added stitching to the title block. I coated the ephemera with MicroGlaze, but not quite thick enough, so it ended up with a little too much Oxide splatter on it – which then required me to re-whiten it some using white gesso and my white Stabilo. Then, to get “Grandma’s Cookies” to pop, I traced over the text with a black gel pen.
For the title block, what you see is some Gilded Foundry Wax and some Lindy’s Holly Berry Red Gold embossing powder. I used my Candied Apple Distress Marker to trace over the title text to add the Lindy’s to – using the brush tip for “Homemade” and the fine tip for “with love & butter.” However, there are layers under all that can be seen, and I’m sure they helped give “Homemade” a bit of extra lift!
The rest of this project should take a lot less time to explain! Mostly because the insides are, more or less, the same process, just different layouts. However, before I get to the interior, I’ll get the back cover, uh, covered! After I added a layer of the Impasto paint and it had dried, I just used an Echo Park stencil from my stash, some clear embossing ink, and some white embossing powder for the first layer. Then, after heat setting the white embossing powder and letting it cool back down, I added some Candied Apple Distress Ink to the whole surface, watered it down, wiped up a bit, sprinkled on some of the Lindy’s Holly Berry Red Gold, brushed off any areas I didn’t want and melted it down. That was it! Far easier than the front cover!!
Before I ever got started with any decoration or assembly, I used a couple of acrylic blocks to try and figure out (approximately) how much extra space I had to work with given the size of the book rings provided with the kit. When I did the measurement, I hadn’t decided if I wanted to use the Simple Stories dividers as they were, or if I wanted to glue them to the chipboard – and I came up with about an inch of wiggle room. I exceeded that inch, but I still was able to use the rings from the kit – barely! The good news about a build like this is that the spine of the book isn’t permanent, so as recipes get added, the book rings can be replaced if needed!
As you can see in the photos, I used the ribbon from the kit to create hinges and “spines” for a few of the sections. Essentially creating a few mini-books – maybe they would be closer to folios – inside the main recipe book.
I wanted to give my pages a layer of protection, so I used a lot of laminating pouches to add some strength, stability, and moisture protection. I talk a bit about different options for protection in my video, so I’ll just give a little overview here. You could use page protectors, cut them down to size, and stitch them to what you want to protect (warning: they tend to be hard to machine stitch because they are so slick!), you could use laminating pouches that are self-sealing, so you don’t need a laminating machine, in some areas, for example, edges of pockets or the book ring holes, you could use packing tape. Packing tape is relatively strong, however, I’m pretty sure it isn’t acid-free, and it would eventually begin to deteriorate.
In addition to my lamination, the other constants throughout this project (that may not be immediately noticeable in the photos, like all the stitching) are the use of some Fuse pockets that I’ve had in my stash FOR-EV-ER and the use of the pink and white patterned paper or stripes of the packing that I used to (re)create the edges of the Simple Stories dividers. I also used the packaging from the ephemera and dividers to punch out my hole reinforcers. I didn’t use my Fuse tool with the pouches, I decided to stitch my pockets together, and I used Gorilla Clear Grip glue when I needed to attach any of the plastic(s) and it wasn’t in an area I wanted stitching. For my flaps and closures, I added small magnets or made tie closures to keep them in place, or I used some up-cycled blanket edging to make wrap-around closures.
On the inside of my front cover, I just wanted a simple pocket, so I cut one of the patterned paper sheets down to use as a flap and the pocket front. I have some light magnets on the flap and a couple of paperclips behind the background paper to help keep it closed, and, since I was giving the example in the video, I used packing tape along the top edge of the pocket so the paper would (hopefully!) not tear with use.
In some areas, like the back of the “Favorites” divider and the chipboard page that faces it, I used some tie-closure pouches. Part of the reason is that it was what I had available, and part of the reason is they could be used to hold notes or spare recipe cards. For the front side of this chipboard page, because I stitched through from the other side, and because the pockets are clear, I gave it a coat of the Impasto paint and some of the holly stenciling before gluing the pouches in place. On the back of the chipboard page, I added a waterfall recipe section with four numbered pockets. I thought those pockets worked great in the “Favorites” section of the recipe book!
These pockets and flaps are stitched directly to the chipboard, and I just eyeballed the distance between them since I only really had to space pockets “2” and “3” between “1” and “4.”
The next section is a combination of “Appetizers” and “Soups & Salads.” I used a length of the ribbon from the kit to create a hinge between the two Simple Stories dividers and when I added everything to the book rings, I place a chipboard page between the two dividers.
On the back of the “Appetizers” divider, I added some pre-made 4-1/4”x4-1/4” Fuse pockets and used the image from the front of the paper pad, backed and hinged with some of my up-cycled blanket edge, to create a flap. On the opposite page, I have more pockets, held in place with a piece of the ephemera pack that I laminated and stitched to the length of the blanket edging.
On the back of the chipboard page, I laminated the Santa card to the bit of patterned paper, stitched it to more blanket edge, and stitched on the (laminated) tap at the bottom to create the closure.
To hold the pockets in place on the back of the “Soups & Salads divider, I stitched a laminated card from the ephemera pack to the edge of the divider that just acts as a little tuck-in/catch for the pockets.
Next up, “Side Dishes”! That little banner piece at the bottom of the divider can be used as a tuck-in spot if, for example, you have a recipe pulled out and just want to keep it held in place while using it. But, its second function, is to allow the brad to be the catch for the magnet on my snowman closure on the other side!
I have my snowman laminated fully on the back and partially on the front. I laminated from the top line up and the bottom edge of the snowman so the lines would still be able to be used. Then I just tied the string under his arms so he would swing around and have fun!
Facing the snowman is one of my wrap-around closures. I attached the “Joy” card to the length of the blanket edge and created my own tie closure on the backside of this chipboard page.
That leads us up to the “Main Dishes” section of the recipe book – and it really is a section all on its own! I used a length of the ribbon from the kit to connect the divider card to the following chipboard page, and added a closure across the front to hold them together.
Because I added a closure for my main dishes section, none of the interior pockets have any flaps or closures holding them in place. However, the pouches on the back of the chipboard are held in place by the little tag at the bottom. It turns on the brad holding it to the chipboard and is used to catch the bottom-left pocket, which in turn holds the other pockets tucked under it in place.
Only three more sections left! Probably my three favorite food groups – breads, cookies, and dessert!
My “Breads & Baked Goods” section is made up of pouches and a couple of small pockets. I know a lot of bread and baked goods exist, but, for me, I have about three bread dough recipes that get expanded on, and biscuits. I just found it unnecessary to make a lot of space to just repeat the same base!
I can almost smell the cookies baking just thinking about this section! I don’t have any type of flap for the pouch and pockets on the back of the “Cookies & Candy” divider – there are only two pockets and one pouch, and I’m thinking that they should stay fairly well put. On the front of the chipboard page, however, I used the snow globe ephemera piece to create a closer in the same fashion as I had done the snowman previously. I had the four decorative edge pouches you see in the photo, and I couldn’t help but think of adding some sequins – because they made me think of sprinkles – to three of them and stitching the filled edge up so the sequins would stay in place.
For my cookies section, I have an extra step for the length of ribbon I used to create the “spine.” I added a 1/2” length of lamination to the ribbon, right down the center, to give it a little extra space, and it makes that area stand out a little more when you look at the spine of the entire book!
I didn’t cover every surface with pockets or pouches, I really loved the “Gingerbread Kisses…” and “Baking Christmas Cheer” sheets from the paper pad, and decided to leave them in plain view at the end of the cookies section and on the front side of the chipboard page in the “Desserts & Pies” section. I only added a pocket that was small enough as to not cover any of the text.
For the pockets on the back of the desserts divider, I used a single piece of string to go from the top pocket to the bottom pocket, instead of doing them separately. It’s the dessert section! I know I’ll want to get to the recipes as quickly as possible!
I have finally made it to the last page and the inside of the back cover! Once again, I used a single string for the two small pouches tie closure, and then to hold all the pockets, I made a swing-arm type of closure. The tag and card are both laminated, I stitched them together, and then just used a brad to attach them to the chipboard.
The back cover has a large, Fuse pouch that I stitched the laminated (Mrs. Clause?) card along the sides and bottom to create a smaller pocket before stitching up the side of the large Fuse pocket. To close it up, I just tucked in some small magnets and a paperclip under the bit of patterned paper and the tab.
Thank you for joining me here in my corner! I hope that this project gave you some ideas of what you can do to create your own unique recipe book.
Stay Crafty, Friends
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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
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Hey, y’all! I just love the papers in this month’s Scrapbooking Kit from Tres Jolie Kit Club! The mix of white with a touch of light grey is perfect for building or expanding on.
Now I know, if you’ve seen the mood board you may be wondering how I came to a pink and grey mixed media panel from a mood board filled with autumn colors and décor with a “Vintage Fall” twist (Shabby is a form of “vintage,” right? I’m not the only one that thinks that, am I?). Well, I’ll tell you – it all started with the sweater pillow – and I do have some leaves on here!
I will admit, I love the mix of white and grey – I adore Farm Chic décor – but I don’t usually lean towards pinks. In fact, there are probably people who know me that are very confused right now seeing this pink! However, contrary to popular belief, I don’t hate pink, I just won’t wear it (unless it’s socks!) or decorate with it. (Fun fact: I will put pink in “strange” areas – my phone cases, Kindle cover, wallet, etc.)
Check out my video to see what I did to get this project all put together:
This month’s mood board is filled with beautiful autumn colors and fabulous textures to inspire your project! Mood boards aren’t really meant to be “copied” – they are, as the name suggests, designed to invoke a mood in you. How do they make you feel? What parts catch your eye?
As I mentioned, I saw that cable knit pillow and then just ran with it! I just thought something like that would be a fabulous background. Truthfully, I didn’t even notice that the mood board had some pink flowers on it until after I had finished my panel!
Make sure you join us for the October 2022 challenge! Place your entries in the October 2022 folder on the Tres Jolie Kit Club Café Facebook page before October 31st, 2022, 11:59 pm CST. All entries must be in this folder to be eligible for the prize (to have everyone eligible to win, we are limiting the same winner to once every 3 months).
For my panel, the first thing I did was get the paper I had picked out collaged down to the canvas using some Liquitex Matte Medium – although any collage medium would work such as Mod Podge, Distress Collage, etc. I didn’t trim my paper until after I had it glued down and it had a chance to dry. It is a little less stressful if I am not worrying about every edge being perfectly lined up!
After the matte medium dried and I cut down the edges, I started the stenciling process. I used my “Victorian Tiles” stencil first, with a mix of regular (Ranger Opaque Matte) texture paste, then came back through and added some areas of Distress Crackle Paste. I also grabbed up a leaf stencil and added it to a few areas between and on top of the previous stenciling. Then, and this might be the most important part for me, I let it all dry overnight! It is possible to use a heat gun on texture paste, even crackle paste, but allowing anything “crackle” to dry naturally has always given me the best results. Drying too quickly just doesn’t allow the crackle to crack as much. Then, the next morning, I came in with the leaf stencil again, lined it up on the previous stenciling, and added some extra crackle paste and some “Kitsch Flamingo” Embossing Glaze – then set the panel off to dry and crackle before coming in and melting the glaze.
To finish off preparing the base, I added the two skinnier ScrapBerry column pieces and little “bricks” along the top – cutting one of the columns in half (I used a pair of wire cutters, and with a little squeeze it snapped right apart!). I didn’t want my canvas perfectly symmetrical, so I used one of the halves and one of the bricks on the left, the other half, the whole piece, and the second brick on the right. Then, after the glue had set, I coated the entire background in clear gesso and set it off to dry while I started work on the flowers.
For my flowers, I started by gathering up some white roses and leaves from my stash and dismantling the pink flowers from the kit – separating the green parts from the pink. Then the prep work began!
I started by coating all my white flowers and leaves, along with the two long leafy pieces from the 49 & Market flower pack, with some white gesso. Then I grabbed up a sheet of the paper from the kit to cut out some extra leaves from one section, and I fussy cut a few of the larger pink flowers from the other side of the sheet (it is the second, matching sheet from the pack that I used for the background).
Now things were really about to get messy!
I coated all of the die-cut leaves in Distress Translucent Grit Paste – working carefully with the now wet paper – to crumple, uncrumple, and shape the leaves while placing them on my background where I planned on building up all the flower clusters. I also took this opportunity to add the Translucent paste to the fussy-cut flowers so I could shape them, add a layer of protection, and get them in place.
For all of my green pieces from the flower packs and the white roses and leaves from my stash, I made a mixture of white gesso and opaque matte texture paste to coat them in, placing the long leaf pieces from the 49 & Market pack on my background and setting the rest off to dry.
My next step was to get some extra color on all of my flowers and foliage!
For the fussy-cut flowers on the background, I used a combination of Tattered Rose Distress Oxide and my Kitsch Flamingo and Cocktail Party Distress Crayons – just using a water brush to add a bit of color and definition to the fussy-cut pieces.
Then, to add a bit more depth to the pink flowers from the kit, I made a “puddle” of the Kitsch Flamingo and Cocktail Party Distress Crayons mixed together and brushed them onto the inner edges of the petals. To get the color to feather out a bit, I just gave the flowers a light spray of water and let them air dry.
For the six smaller 49 & Market flowers that I pulled off their stems, I put them in a little palette and let them soak in some Cocktail Party Distress Mica Spray.
To get all of my other pieces various shades of gray, I started coating them in a mix of Grave and Crypt Distress Grit Pastes with some Pumice Stone Distress Oxide Spray thrown in!
After they were all coated with that mixture, I decided they needed more gray – the Pumice Stone has a tan-ish tone – so I sprayed them with a combination of Hickory Smoke and Weathered Wood Spray Stains and Oxides.
Even though a lot of my water-reactive mediums are mixed with texture pastes, the colors on the flowers were not! So I took this opportunity to give everything a coat of Workable Fixatif so I could continue working without worrying about my colors moving.
Now I had to add some color to the 49 & Market leaves I had already attached to the canvas. For those, all I did is make a mix of Hickory Smoke and Weathered Wood Distress Crayons on my mat watered them down and used my water brush to brush the colors on.
After a spray of Workable Fixatif on the canvas, I started the process of getting all of my flowers and foliage in place using some 3D Matte Gel.
While the 3D Matte Gel started drying, I worked on all of my mould pieces. After coating everything in white gesso and letting that dry, I started adding all of the other mediums.
For my large, pink keyhole frame, I started with a base of Tattered Rose Distress Paint, Translucent Grit Paste, and Finnabair Texture Powder for a little extra texture to make up for the watering down of the paste. While that mix dried, I started work on all of my gray pieces, using a mix of Grave and Crypt Distress Grit Pastes, and Finnabair’s Cool Gray Rust Effect Paste. After all those pastes were dry, I coated them in a light layer of Hickory Smoke Distress Paint, gave them a light mist of water, and dabbed off areas of the paint to allow areas of the texture pastes to show through and add some variation of color.
While the paint was drying on the gray pieces, I went back to the pink piece and gave it a light, inconsistent coating of Kitsch Flamingo Distress Paint, some spots of Cocktail Party Distress Mica Spray, and some water. After all of that was dry, I came back with Kitsch Flamingo and Cocktail Party Distress Crayons, adding them directly to the mould piece, and watered them down so the colors could flow where they wanted as they air dried.
To finish up all of the gray mould pieces, I added some Hickory Smoke Distress Spray Stain, mixed it up with some Graphite Texture Paste, spread it around some, then sprayed them all with both Hickory Smoke and Weathered Wood Distress Oxide Sprays before that paste has a chance to dry.
Now it was finally time to get everything on the panel and finish it up!
After all of my mould pieces were in place, I added some areas of DecoArt White Crackle Paint, tucked in some pink sisal, added more crackle paint, got my Ingvild Bolme birds in place, and added a little crackle paint to them.
After the 3D Matte Gel had a chance to set up overnight, I mixed some Payne’s Gray watercolor paint with some water and Liquid Color Fluid Medium and used a pipette to get that mix under all of the flowers and mould pieces. For any areas I wanted to make a little grayer, I mixed the Payne’s Gray with some of the fluid medium and brushed it on, watering it down some if I needed to.
For all of the “shadow” making, it was just a process of adding the mediums, adding water if I needed to, and tilting and turning the panel until I had the colors where I wanted them – drying a little at a time to start getting the color set as I went.
For the cabochon [mould] pieces, I used a mix of white gesso and Tattered Rose Distress Paint as my base coat then added some Kitsch Flamingo Distress Paint before adding them to the canvas. Once on the canvas, I added a thin layer of crackle paint to them, blending it onto the canvas around them.
On top of all the crackle paint I added, I started to give some extra color and definition to all of my pieces using Distress Crayons – Kitsch Flamingo and Cocktail Party on the pink areas, and Hickory Smoke and Weathered Wood on the gray pieces and birds.
To add a little extra sparkle to the flowers, I brushed on some Finnabair Pixie Effect Paste – it has the pink flakes in it to go with the canvas, but it also has some light teal-ish flakes for a bit of contrast.
After everything was dry, it gave me a chance to stand back and take a look to see if there were any areas I wanted to add a bit more Payne’s Gray to.
The last step was to add the final touches with some Finnabair Waxes, and I was finally done!
Thank you for joining me here in my corner. I hope my non-traditional, vintage-shabby-fall, mixed media panel gave you some ideas about how you can interpret the October mood board and what you can do with this month’s Scrapbooking Kit.
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! Did you see the Tres Jolie Kit Club October Kits yet? Aren’t they all just fabulous?
I must admit, I love pumpkins! As decoration. I won’t eat or drink them, but I love pumpkins and gourds as décor; so I was super excited to see this adorable Tres Jolie Chipboard Pumpkin Mini Album in the October Cards, Tags, & More Kit!
I used the amazing “Autumn Moods” papers from Craft o’ Clock found in the kit, and some beads and mediums from my stash to add some highlights.
Check out my video to see how easy this album comes together! All you really need are the papers and chipboard found in the kit – and a trusty pair of scissors – the mediums and embellishments are in my “use ‘em if you got ‘em” category! You can easily leave the chipboard plain – which in itself gives a rustic appearance! (Note: If you do use unfinished chipboard, wipe it down with a damp cloth/paper towel, or a baby wipe! The chipboard is laser cut, so there is often some sooty residue!)
There honestly isn’t a lot to describe for this mini album. The first thing I did was get all the cut apart pieces, cut apart. If you have an electronic cutting machine and a scanner (or camera), you may be able to speed up the “fussy cutting” process. (The most common ones I’m aware of is the Silhouette PixScan mats, the Brother Scan-n-Cut, and I don’t know about Cricut, but I would think they would have something.)
The same can be done with the pumpkin shape – you can scan one of the chipboard pieces, double-check the size, and then just cut them out. Or, as I showed in my video, it’s easy enough to trace the shape lightly onto the patterned paper and cut it out.
To prepare my chipboard, I grabbed up my jar of TCW’s “Marigold” Stencil Butter and brushed it all along the edges of all of the pages and the front of the cover piece.
In addition to the Stencil Butter, I used some Halloween & Holiday Distress Crayons (2021 & 2022 releases) to add a little more shine, color, and highlights to the outside of the cover pieces. For the front cover, before adding the patterned paper, using my water brush, I added “Crooked Broomstick,” “Decayed,” “Tree Lot,” and “Bubbling Cauldron” to color the leaves and vines, then a little “Burning Ember,” and “Jack-O-Lantern” to add a little shading on top of the Stencil Butter.
With the Crayons added to the front cover, I started the process of gluing all of the patterned paper down to the chipboard – adding my flip-outs and eyelets as I went along. On the front cover, I used some Diamond Glaze – making sure all of the swirls and curls were glued down – because it dries very clear and I knew I’d be coming back later to add a bit more decoration to the front. For every other page, I just used some Art Glitter Glue.
When I added the eyelet to the front cover, it was a little off-center, which left an edge sticking out. I trimmed off that edge, but I also wanted to cover the sharp metal, so I just dabbed on some 3D Matte Gel. Even though it wasn’t in the original plan, I think adding that little extra bit of texture worked out well, especially after I added some of the Distress Crayons to it!
I also did distress the edges of every page, only the patterned paper on the two cover pieces and the tops of the little pockets from the cut-apart sheets.
On a few pages, I wanted to add some little flip-outs, so I traced the shape of the album onto the patterned paper but left off the leaves and vines – just hand drawing the rest of the pumpkin top – and cut a tab at the edge that would be the hinge. I cut the tab to tuck into a slot I had cut using my craft knife before gluing the patterned paper down to the chipboard.
As I was working, I decided I wanted to add a little extra reinforcement to the hinging edges of the flip-outs to help keep the paper from weakening and potentially tearing with use. I didn’t use any type of special tape, just regular gift wrapping tape that I aged with some alcohol inks.
For this tape, I used Ranger “Sunshine” and “Eggplant” alcohol inks to go with the autumn colors of the patterned paper, but I have used Ranger’s “Caramel” and “Ginger” to create the more “traditional” aged tape pieces.
For the little pockets, I just used my Art Glitter Glue to hold them down, but for my tuck-in spots, I used my hot glue gun so I would be able to give them a little extra lift off the surface of the page.
You can use some of the longer tags, or cut out some stripes to create one or more belly bands for your album if you would like! For the page above, I just tucked the top and bottom of one of the longer tags under and glued them down to the page.
I added some of my faux vintage tape to the bends and edges of the envelopes since I decided not to glue their edges closed.
For the tag on the envelope above, I created some faux brad heads using a few small beads and Diamond Glaze.
With so many cut-apart pieces to choose from, it’s super easy to create layers in your clusters for some added dimension!
I used the “Decayed” Distress Crayon on the edges of all the cut-apart pieces (fussy cuts) to soften the white of the edges.
Now the only thing that is left is adding any photos or ephemera to this adorable pumpkin album!
And that was all there was to put the inside of this little pumpkin together!
Before I added everything to the book ring I was using, I added the final details to the cover pieces. On the front cover, I used a small paint brush to add some Micro Glaze to the patterned paper to give it a layer of protection so the two purple Distress Crayons (“Hocus Pocus” and “Fortune Teller”) I used wouldn’t just soak in and leave “stains.” After the paper was protected, I added my purple, spread it around some with my water brush, and let it dry. After that had dried, I added a couple different glass beads inside a few areas of the cover using my Diamond Glaze, and after that was set up, I brushed on some more Diamond Glaze and sprinkled on a few microbeads.
For the back cover, I gave the patterned paper a coating of the Micro Glaze, watered down and mixed together the purple Crayons on my mat, and just set the back cover on that mix letting the color go where ever it wanted!
When everything had dried, I added my pages to a book ring and used the same fine jute twine on the tags to tie one of the leaf charms to the ring.
Thank you for joining me here in my corner! If you haven’t had a chance to start playing with your kit(s) this month, I hope this project will give you some ideas of what you can do with your October Cards, Tags, & More Kit!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
C.J.'s Corner Scraps 