C.J.&#039;s Corner Scraps

All the designers will be revealing their projects on the Tres Jolie Blog all month long. Make sure you join us for tons of inspiration, including video and photo tutorials. Also, make sure you check out the newest Tres Jolie Chipboard designs that were just added to the store.

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

REVEAL DAY!!- February 2023 Tres Jolie Kit Club Kits!

Image | February 1, 2023January 31, 2023 | Corner Scraps

It’s the first of the month, and you know what that means?!?! It’s Reveal Day!

It’s February, and not only is it Black History Month, but it is the month most associated with love because of Valentine’s Day – and I am L-O-V-I-N-G these February 2023 Kits from Tres Jolie Kit Club! Make sure to get yours before they’re gone!

The February 2023 Scrapbooking Kit is filled with more new papers, Meadow Bouquet Collection, from 3Quarters Design. I can’t express how much I love 3Quarter papers and am always thrilled to see them make an appearance! These papers are a little bit grungy, and a little bit romantic, and as always, they will be amazing for all your upcoming projects! You will find a lovely assortment of patterned papers and perfectly coordinated embellishments in this kit!

This month’s Mixed Media Kit is a texture paste lover’s dream come true! There are SEVEN(!!!) different pastes for you to try! Four crackles and three rust-effect pastes! For me, it’s heaven, because I am a 100% texture paste lover! And if you need more texture to add to your canvas panel, there is some cheesecloth, a stencil, a resin frame, and a cut-apart sheet! Get this kit, and start getting messy!

And finally, the February 2023 Cards, Tags, & More Kit! In the kit, you will find the amazing Endless Love papers from The Paper Boutique and a Ciao Bella heart-shaped mini album! Get this kit and start preserving memories and creating some amazing cards or tags or ATCs with the papers, flowers, ink, mini-frames, and Tres Jolie Chipboard in this kit! Who doesn’t like creating a variety of projects from one kit?

These kits are for the beginner to the advanced; from clean and simple – to mixed media maven. No matter your style, there is something for everyone. We know you are going to love it!

And now (drumroll, please) the February 2023 Kits from Tres Jolie:

Scrapbooking Kit

Mixed Media Kit

Cards, Tags, & More Kit

Don’t forget to stop by the Tres Jolie YouTube channel and see our video reveal for all our kits.

The designers at Tres Jolie have created some amazing layouts and projects with this kit. This month I have a sneak peek for you of my mini-album! I promise I will have more than one project this month though, don’t worry! (If you’ve been following me, then you have heard me mention that my ADHD is running free due to the medication supply shortage happening! It’s been rough trying to get my brain to do its brain-ing!)

Please stop by the other designer’s blog to check out their sneak peeks:

We have a new mood board challenge for the month, with the following rules and guidelines:

Place your entries in the February 2023 challenge folder on the Tres Jolie Kit Club Café Facebook page. This challenge ends on February 28th, 2023 at 11:59 pm CST. All entries must be in this folder to be eligible for the prize (to have everyone eligible to win, we limit the same winner to once every 3 months).

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:

Tres Jolie + InkyStamper 2023 Calendar

Image | January 19, 2023January 18, 2023 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all! This week, I have a quickie project for you using the adorable 2023 Calendar Kit from InkyStamper that includes a stand made by Tres Jolie! How super is that! Small business supporting small business!

I kept my calendar rather simple, just enjoying the process of coloring in the pre-stamped images. It was a nice change of pace to just work with what I had and not have to do, what I like to call, “heavy thinkin’.” Since I am assuming that the use of Copic Markers will be touched on – and the example images on the 2023 InkyStamper Calendar Class Kit store page appear to be colored with marker – I decided to use some Workable Fixatif and my Distress Watercolor Pencils for my images. You can use whatever you want or have on hand though! Your kid’s crayons? Go for it! Colored pencils? Use them! You don’t need anything fancy or a “professional artist” brand or quality item to color these images!

I have a 15-ish minute video for you to go with my calendar, where I talk about the kit, using watercolor pencils, & why I love Workable Fixatif, make a mess trying to get my stand how I was picturing it in my head, and show the real-life inspiration for my September and October!

Easy-peasy, right? Except for me and my stand – that may have been more comical! Orange mediums EV-ER-Y-WHERE!!

As promised in the video, here is the chart of all the colors I used from [all three sets of] the Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Pencils. As always, the complete product list can be found at the end of this post.

January: Iced Spruce, Kitsch Flamingo, Peacock Feathers, Vintage Photo, Hickory Smoke	February: Speckled Egg, Hickory Smoke, Black Soot, Picket Fence, Antique Linen	March: Frayed Burlap, Fired Brick, Black Soot	April: Faded Jeans, Mustard Seed, Antique Linen, Tattered Rose, Walnut Stain, Picked Raspberry
May: Twisted Citron, Shaded Lilac, Crushed Olive, Rustic Wilderness	June: Villainous Potion, Shaded Lilac	July: Speckled Egg, Tumbled Glass, Wild Honey	August: Rustic Wilderness, Cracked Pistachio, Tumbled Glass
September: Picked Raspberry, Black Soot, Hickory Smoke,	October: Prize Ribbon, Black Soot, Hickory Smoke, Kitsch Flamingo	November: Rusty Hinge, Black Soot, Tattered Rose	December: Hickory Smoke, Candied Apple, Peeled Paint, Frayed Burlap, Black Soot, Picked Raspberry

Thank you for joining me here at Tres Jolie today! I hope I gave you some ideas to color in your InkyStamper Calendar! If you haven’t picked up a kit yet, now’s the time!

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:

Products (from previous Tres Jolie Kits):

InkyStamper 2023 Calendar Kit featuring the calendar stand made by Tres Jolie!, Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Pencils Sets 1, 2 & 3, Ranger Water Brush (Detailer), Krylon Workable Fixatif, Dina Wakley “Tangerine” Acrylic Paint, Dina Wakley “Tangerine” Gloss Spray, Finnabair Liquid Color Fluid Medium, Americana-DecoArt “Bright Orange” Gloss Enamels, Jacquard Gum Arabic, Art Glitter Glue, Black Fine Tip Sharpie, White Sakura Gel Pen

Reveal Day!–January 2023 Tres Jolie Kits!

Image | January 3, 2023January 2, 2023 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all! Are you ready for the first kits of 2023? Ready to start your 2023 with some craft time? Then check out Tres Jolie’s newest kits and go grab them up before they’re gone!

Be sure you are following us on all social media platforms (Tres Jolie Kit Club links at end of the post; Corner Scraps links to the right) and have joined the Tres Jolie Kit Club Facebook Café so you won’t miss a single announcement or project created with these kits.

Are you getting ready to scrap your 2022 holiday memories? Did you take a nice snowy vacation? Or maybe you just live in a snowy part of the world! Then the January 2023 Scrapbooking Kit is what you will need! This month’s kit is filled with the beautiful Christmas Wonderland collection from 3Quarter Designs. There are beautiful blues for your winter-themed projects and just enough bits and pieces to turn the project Christmas-y if you want! And although I’m not extremely familiar with Judaism, I think the blues in this kit would make some lovely Hanukkah layouts. You will find a lovely assortment of patterned papers and perfectly coordinated embellishments in this kit.

The January Mixed Media Kit has some fabulous mediums from Cosmic Shimmer, a beautiful deep blue wax from Pink Ink Designs, and a couple of assemblage bits plus a mixed media board to give you a place to give those mediums a try! Get this kit, and get started making your own one-of-a-kind mixed media art! (Hint: The Mixed Media Kit matches beautifully with both the Scrapbooking Kit and the Cards, Tags, & More Kit!)

And finally, the first Cards, Tags, & More Kit of 2023 contains the Imagine If Card Collection from 3Quarter Designs and a pack of purple flowers. This kit has beautiful purple and olive-green hues that are fabulous to work with. In fact, purple(s) and green(s) are some of my favorite color combinations! The A4-sized papers in the kit are perfect for creating a mini-journal, tags, cards, or tearing apart and collaging with for some “downtime” in your art journal!

These kits are for the beginner to the advanced; from clean and simple – to mixed media maven. No matter your style, there is something for everyone. We know you are going to love it!

And now (drumroll, please) the January 2023 Kits from Tres Jolie:

Scrapbooking Kit

Mixed Media Kit

Cards, Tags, & More Kit

Don’t forget to stop by the Tres Jolie YouTube channel and see our video reveal for all our kits.

The designers at Tres Jolie have created some amazing layouts and projects with these kits, and a little something extra in collaboration with InkyStamper! Here is a few sneak peeks of a few of the projects I’ll have for you throughout the month!

Please stop by the other designer’s blogs (listed below) and check out their sneak peeks:

We have a new mood board challenge for the month, with the following rules and guidelines:

Place your entries in the January 2023 challenge folder on the Tres Jolie Kit Club Café Facebook page. This challenge ends on January 31st, 2023 at 11:59 pm CST. All entries must be in this folder to be eligible for the prize (to have everyone eligible to win, we are limiting the same winner to once every 3 months).

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:

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 – Tree Trio! – December 2022 Mixed Media Kit

Image | December 15, 2022December 14, 2022 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all!

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!

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 Liquid Color Fluid Medium , Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint , *DecoArt Media Crackle Glaze , Ranger Emboss-It Ink Refill , Krylon Workable Fixatif , Krylon Triple-Thick Crystal Clear Glaze , Gorilla Wood Glue

Tres Jolie Kit Club–Mini Folio Album–December 2022 Cards, Tags, & More Kit

Image | December 8, 2022December 7, 2022 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all! Hope you’re having a fabulous December!

Have you had the chance to check out this month’s kits? They are all sure to get you into the holiday spirit in no time! For my first project of the month, I used the Cards, Tags, & More Kit to create a mini-folio-album-thingy. Maybe I should call it a wallet album since the size, shape, and the way it opens reminds me of a wallet…anywho…I used a couple of the solid cardstock sheets, and about 5 or so of the patterned paper sheets to create this fun little album – then I printed out some photos from Christmas a few (or maybe more than a few!) years ago to fill it up.

To get the rundown of how this all went together, I have a video where I explain my process and try to explain my thinking! (LOL – explain my thinking )

Although the closure was the last thing I did for the project, I’m just going to go over its construction now with the photos of the folio album all closed up.

I used the full length of ribbon from the kit to create my closure by cutting the lengths needed for both the horizontal and vertical wrap and a faux bow. I wanted everything to remain smooth and flat – which is why I wrapped each direction separately – then used Fabri-Tac to hold it in place (pardon my areas of excess glue that soaked through – I had forgotten I had just got through thinning my bottle out when I went to use it and it got away from me!). My bow is a faux bow because I just folded the bit of ribbon into a bow shape, added staples to hold it together in the center, then wrapped the last little piece I had as the “knot” for the center.

For the closure, I used some white velcro. I have a couple inches of the hook side of the velcro (the stiffer side of velcro that grabs) on one end of the horizontal ribbon, then I added pieces of the other (softer/fuzzy) side of the velcro to the other end of the horizontal piece and the back of the bow after attaching my bow to the vertical ribbon.

For the outside patterned paper, I just picked out what I wanted to use, and cut it down to size.

I used the full sheet of this piece of cardstock from the kit and just added some score lines to create a size to work with! I have 1” scores along the long sides, then, from left to right, I scored at 1-1/2”, 2-1/2”, 6-3/4”, and 7-3/4”.

Then, because this cardstock isn’t necessarily “made” for a lot of sharp folds or hinging, I added score lines between the 1-1/2”, 2-1/2”, 6-3/4”, and 7-3/4” scores at 1/8” intervals. The only excess pieces I cut off were where the score lines intersected with the 1” side margins (the little flaps that are folded up in the image above).

I left the flaps for the top and bottom of the folio so I could fold them in to reinforce and round those edges some, and the flaps in the “main” (center) section are where my inside flaps connect.

As I have been known to do, I used some packing tape to strengthen my moving parts! I added to all of the folds in my base so that cardstock would have some support at all the bends. (I only added tape to one side of the cardstock, I didn’t want to make the folds too stiff!).

To help hold everything in place, before I glued my outside patterned paper in place, I added a few small staples to the corners with the top (flat) side of the staple showing on the inside but allowing the bottom (curved) side to be covered when I added the outer papers.

For these little windows/frames, I marked where I wanted to cut on the back of the patterned paper I would be using and carefully cut the centers out using my craft knife. I kept the frame edges at 3/8”, allowing just enough room for a 2-1/2”x3” photo to slide in and not have too much of the edge of the photo covered. For the green cardstock backing the patterned paper, I just used my cut patterned paper as a template and added (about) a 1/16” extra to peek out from the inside and outside edges. (Note: The windows/frames in the center section were created the same way! And since I hadn’t glued anything down yet, all I had to do was use my already-cut pieces as templates!)

For my inside flaps, I cut the cardstock into 3-3/4”x 4-1/8” pieces, then scored at 3/8” to create a 3-3/4”x3-3/4” square and glued then reinforced with more tape the 3/8” edge to my 1” flap on the base. I have my 3/8” flaps facing each other – creating a 3/4” space between them – then I just cut a strip of patterned paper down to size to cover that seam!

After the main body of the album was put together, I just went through and used up all the smaller bits of patterned paper and cardstock I had from the build to decorate the remainder of my album.

For my chipboard pieces, I gave them a coating of “Lumberjack Plaid” Distress Paint, then used the “Lumberjack Plaid” Distress Ink and Embossing Glaze for some depth and shine. After the Distress Glaze had cooled, I came back with some Lindy’s Embossing Powder and added it to the bottom half-ish of the chipboard to create a gradient-type effect (I just used the “Lumberjack Plaid” Distress Ink again for the Lindy’s since I already had it out!). Then the only thing left to do was glue my words, add my ribbon, and tuck in my photos.

I do hope I wasn’t too confusing in this blog post! If I was, the video should be far clearer!

Thank you for joining us here today at Tres Jolie! I hope you enjoyed this project and it gave you some ideas of what you can do with 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!

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

Distress Ink “Lumberjack Plaid” , Distress Paint “Lumberjack Plaid” , Distress Embossing Glaze “Lumberjack Plaid” , Lindy’s Gang “Silver Moon Mistletoe” Embossing Powder , Ranger Blending Tool , We R Memory Keepers 3-Way Corner Punch & Craft Knife , white velcro , Fabri-Tac , Art Glitter Glue , Aleene’s Tacky Glue , Gorilla Packing Tape , Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher

Tres Jolie Kit Club–Holiday Recipes–November 2022 Cards, Tags, & More Kit

Image | November 3, 2022 | Corner Scraps

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

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: