It’s the first of the month, and you know what that means?!?! It’s Reveal Day! And for April, you will find a wonderful assortment of papers and embellishments ready for you to get your Spring projects going full swing!
Flowers are popping, trees budding, and pollen is in the air – best to stay indoors and craft than go outside and sneeze! Make sure to get your kits before they’re gone! Or, better yet, subscribe to Tres Jolie Kit Club so you will never miss out!
Be sure you follow us on all social media platforms (Tres Jolie Kit Club links at the 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.
The April 2023 Scrapbooking Kit is filled with the beautiful 12”x12” First Kiss papers from Paper Heaven, coordinating epoxy coated Mango stickers from 49 & Market, fabulous flowers from Little Birdie Crafts, and a beautiful piece of Tres Jolie Chipboard! As always, these papers will be amazing for all your upcoming projects, whether they are beautiful layouts, junk journals, cards, or anything in between! You will find a lovely assortment of patterned papers and perfectly coordinated embellishments.
In the Mixed Media Kit, you will find a wonderful assortment of Finnabair mediums – paints, paste, and metallic flakes – to create your own beautiful, one-of-a-kind decorations using the Craft o’Clock stencil and ScrapBerry’s wooden blanks! Get this kit, and get ready to have some fun!
In the Cards, Tags, & More Kit, you will find Happiness – and I don’t just mean by getting to play with the kit! This month’s kit has some 8”x8” papers and elements from LemonCraft’s Happiness line! Ink up one of the Kelly Creates sentiment stamps with the Bamboo Leaves Dew Drop ink from Memento and add a flower or two from the ScrapBerry flower packs found in the kit, and you have yourself some fabulous “little” projects! Cards, tags, ATCs, MemoryDex®, etc.! 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 April 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.
Love them, right?!?! You can still get one of your own (some kits are in very limited quantities). Become a subscriber and you will never miss out on our gorgeous, coordinated kits. Just visit Tres Jolie Subscribe.
The designers at Tres Jolie have created some amazing layouts and projects with this kit. This month, in addition to a sneak peek of my first project for April using the Cards, Tags, & More Kit, I have a super-duper special sneak for you! Stay tuned to all of the Tres Jolie social media accounts because this month we will be sharing collaboration projects created using the kits and some beautiful Clear Scraps products!
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 April 2023 challenge folder on the Tres Jolie Kit Club Café Facebook page. This challenge ends on April 30th, 2023 at 11:59 pm CDT. 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!
All the designers will be revealing their projects on the Tres Jolie Blog all month. Be 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.
Hey, y’all! March is drawing to a close, and soon it will be time to see the fabulous kits Tres Jolie Kit Club has put together for April! They will definitely have you blooming for spring!
For my final March project, I combined elements from all three kits and a few items from my stash to create this little hoop album. Check out my video to see how it came together – it really is rather simple.
Everything started with me looking at a 3-inch embroidery hoop I’ve had in my stash forever, and knowing I wanted to use the clock and flower chipboard piece from Stamperia in the Cards, Tags, & More Kit this month. I hadn’t originally intended to cut the clock out, it just worked out that it was a perfect size – sometimes serendipity steps in for these projects!
I didn’t want to leave the hoop its natural color, but I also didn’t want to have layers that could rub off, so I just used my hands and rubbed in the Lindy’s Moon Shadow Mist spray from the Mixed Media Kit. (And as soon as I figure out where I moved it to, I will add some cutting board wax to seal and protect the wood!)
I backed the flowers with the large Tres Jolie Chipboard piece from this month’s Scrapbooking Kit after adding some of the Lindy’s Magical Powder from this month’s Mixed Media Kit and some embossing powders from my stash. For the bottom of the base hoop, I used the solid circle from the Tres Jolie Chipboard frame, adding the same embossing powders and Lindy’s Magical Powder to it.
I turned the chipboard clock face into a shaker, adding tiny seed beads from my stash and using a length of paracord as the spacer between the acetate and chipboard. Then I slipped the larger (outer) ring from the embroidery hoop over it – face down so the top surface would be flat, and backed the shaker with a circle cut from the 49 & Market papers found in this month’s Scrapbooking Kit.
I used the packaging from the 49 & Market chipboard package to create the cover for the bottom – since it wasn’t very “pretty” with the cut-up pieces of the Tres Jolie frame showing!
I just rough traced the chipboard base, fussy cut the shape out, and to add some coverage to the random print that peeked through the Tres Jolie frame, I added a coat of gesso with some Moon Shadow Mist and gum arabic – then sprayed more Moon Shadow Mist until I got a fairly good cover!
With my base and lid together, it was just a simple matter of cutting out twelve circles to create six pages, running a length of ribbon through the two sides of each page, and stitching around the edges.
After my pages were all stitched to the ribbon, I glued the ribbon to the bottom and added a little phrase. If you don’t want to add a phrase, or you just want your ribbon to be tucked in, you could easily put your pages together before putting all of your base layers together and tucking the ribbon in along the way!
The last step was just adding some light decoration. The pages aren’t very big, so it doesn’t take a lot to add just a little more interest while still leaving space for photos!
Thank you for joining me here today on the blog! I hope you enjoyed this project and it gave you some ideas of what you can make using items from all three kits this month!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! How’s everyone doing? Have you been having fun playing with your Tres Jolie Kits this month? I know I have, and this week I have a mini-album for you using the beautiful 49 & Market “Tranquility” Collection, and, for good measure, I added the Stamperia rice paper from the Mixed Media Kit.
I have my video up and ready for you to check out to see how I put this all together! Make sure you swing by and check it out!
Are you joining the Tres Jolie challenge this month? All of the kits this month work wonderfully with the “Spring Flowers” twist! As you can see, the flowers were definitely a factor in my project, but I also worked the two pink doilies from the kit (and mood board!) in as well!
Be sure to place your entries in the March 2023 challenge folder on the Tres Jolie Kit Club Café Facebook page. This challenge ends on March 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 limit the same winner to once every 3 months).
I don’t know if it’s really a “cheat” or not, but it is quite a bit easier than cutting thick chipboard – I used two 4”x6” (approximately 101-102mm x 152mm) canvas panels for my front and back covers! Then all I had to do is grab up some scrap chipboard to create my 2-1/2” x 4” (approximately 63-64mm x 101-102mm) spine.
I honestly couldn’t decide if I wanted to use the rice paper from the Mixed Media Kit or one of the papers from the Scrapbooking Kit for my cover – so I decided on both! – especially since rice paper makes a wonderful top layer on a collage. I cut one of the 49 & Market sheets (almost) in half, so I had two 6” (or so) by 12” pieces, lined up two of the ends – creating a 6” (or so!) by 24” strip to use as my album cover. To “cut” my rice paper, I used a water brush to outline the section I wanted to use, then just gently tore the paper apart. One of the best things about rice paper is that getting it wet is – in my opinion – the best way to cut it because it’s easier and creates a feathered edge. Of course, the other “best thing” about rice paper is that the white areas of a print become practically invisible as soon as you add your collage medium – which for this project was some Soft Matte Gel from Prima-Finnabair.
After the gel dried, I added my canvas panels and chipboard spine to the cover paper, lining the center of the spine to the seam between the two strips of patterned paper, and to make sure my cover would fold like it is supposed to, I used a 1/4” (a little over 6mm) fiberglass rod (it’s what I have, a wooden dowel rod would work just as well!) to create the necessary space between the spine edges and the canvas panels. After the glue had dried, I gave the cover a coating of matte varnish to help seal the rice paper and 49 & Market paper, let that dry, then trimmed the excess away, leaving about one inch to fold over the edges. I trimmed the corners – more than I normally would since I was going to add some pink doily corners – and a little at the top and bottom of the folds to keep the bulk out, added double-sided tape and glue, then folded everything up!
I gave the doily I was going to use for my corners a coating of matte varnish to help protect and strengthen it, cut the doily into four pieces, and wrapped all four corners of my cover with those pieces – just using more varnish as my glue.
Once everything on my cover had dried, it was finally time to get to work on the inside and add my closure. I used a couple of strips of linen hinging tape on the inside folds for more stability, coated my second doily with the matte varnish and cut it in half, and cut my end papers down to size – 3-3/4” x 5-3/4” (about 95mm x 146mm).
I added the two halves of the doily I had just cut to the edges of the endpapers that would be closest to the spine and glued the finished pieces into place after I added my closure hardware (see below). Although I didn’t add the ephemera until closer to the end of the project since I am talking about the cover already, I thought I would just try to keep things a little more “together” here on the blog and show the finished insides – plus it allows you to see how the inside doily pieces look in place!
I added a few pieces of the 49 & Market ephemera – a spot to mark the date on the front, and a little spot for journaling on the back.
After I had my end paper in place, it was time to add the spine cover/page holder. I cut a strip of paper 6-1/2” x 3-3/4” (165mm x 95mm) and added a score line every 1/2” (12-13mm) so I could create four tabs sticking up to hold my sleeve pages in place. For all of the folds that would be against the spine, I added linen hinging tape to help strengthen all of the hinges, then I glued all of my tabs together so I would have the finished piece ready and be able to trim off any excess from the left and right edges – which ended up being about 1/16” (1.5mm) from each edge – before gluing it in place.
For my closure, I used a D-ring and a short slotted head screw, leaving the smooth side of the slotted head screw showing on the outside of the covers, but covering everything on the inside!
To keep the D-ring from twisting under the paper with use, I added some 3D Matte Gel to the surface that would be again the canvas panel cover, some Loctite to the screw threads, and more Soft Matte Gel over the inside screw head and edges before finally getting the end papers in place.
I carefully used my bone folder to shape the paper around the screw and to make sure everything was smooth and wrinkle-free!
Finally, with my cover together, I was able to set it off to let it dry completely and get to work creating my pages. I decided to create sleeve pages to allow for more areas for photos, ephemera, or journaling since this is a mini, 4-page album. So first, the easy part – the inserts! I just cut four 5-1/4” x 3-11/16” (133mm x 93-94mm) rectangles. Why that size? So when they were in the pockets – which would have those tabs holding them in place – they would still have a little peeking out of the sleeves which were also cut 5-1/4” (133mm) wide and I shaved off the extra from the edges to make sure they would slide freely.
With my inserts cut, I just set them off to the side and got to work creating the sleeves. I cut four 8” x 5-1/4” (203mm x 133mm) pieces – trying to mentally keep in mind where my folds would be and which side of the pages would have the image right-side up and which side would be up-side-down! (Although, to be honest, it isn’t really that big of a deal – just more for personal preference!)
To help make sure my pockets wouldn’t be too tight – allowing photos or other flat ephemera to be added to the inserts – I gave my sleeves rounded edges with an approximately 1/16” (1.5mm) “gap.” Along the long edge of the paper I was using for the sleeve, I scored at 3-7/8” (98mm), lined that score up on one of the “bumps” of the scoreboard, and added a second score to the right of it. My scoreboard has 1/8” spacing – so moving over to a bump, gave me the 1/16” (or so) spacing I was looking for! Plus, I did add some light markings on my paper before starting the scoring process to help!
After the first edge fold was scored, I moved the paper back to the corner of the scoreboard, added a score line at 7-3/4” (197mm), moved the paper over half a tick again, and added another score to the right.
I have a thin metal ruler with smooth edges that helped me shape the edges – since making two folds that are so close together isn’t the easiest thing to do! I just wrapped the folds around the edge of the ruler, used my bone folder to help shape them, and kept the ruler in place until I had everything glued down so I wouldn’t crush the edges while burnishing to get a good seal!
And, with that, the hardest parts were done! All that was left to do is start adding photo mats and ephemera to my sleeves before sliding them onto the tabs in the spine!
I did turn some of my photo mats into 3” (76mm) circles – depending on what I wanted to show on the background – but most of the photo mats are 3-1/2” (89mm) squares.
I added a bit of decoration to the tops of my inserts, strengthening the edges and making them a little easier to hold on to.
After I had added the sleeves to the spine, I did go back through and added the dimensional flowers from the flower vine found in the kit. I took a pair of wire cutters to the vine, chopped it up, and just popped the pieces in place. I waited until the album was fully together to make sure I didn’t add too much bulk between the pages!
When the time came for me to add my sleeves, I wanted to make sure they weren’t going to be flat against the spine, which would keep them from flipping smoothly, so I cut a couple of strips of chipboard and used them as spacers on each side of the tab when adding the pages.
With the pages in place and the ribbon knotted to the D-rings, my album was done!
Thank you for joining me here today on the blog! I hope you enjoyed this mini album and it gave you some ideas of what you can make using the Scrapbooking Kit and rice paper!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Finnabair 3D Matte Gel, Finnabair Soft Matte Gel, Prima Water Brush, Spellbinders “Standard Circle SM” Nestabilities, We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile II, double-sided tape, 4”x6” canvas panels, heavy chipboard, Liquitex Basics Matte Varnish, LineCo PVA, LineCo 1.25” Linen Hinging Tape, Art Glitter Glue, Fabri-Tac, washers, Loctite Blue Thread Locker, D-Rings, slotted head screws
Hey, y’all! How’s your March coming along, and why does March always seem like it is at least 62 days long? I swear it feels like it should be closer to the middle of the month than it is!! Anyhow…
This week I have a couple of slimline cards for you I created using the March Cards, Tags, & More Kit and the mediums and stencil from the Mixed Media Kit. These cards are relatively quick and easy – waiting for the texture paste to dry was the longest part! Make sure to check out my video to see what I did!
Pretty easy, right? With the wonderfully beautiful Stamperia papers and chipboard, these cards are quick and easy to put together! I used some cover stock for my card bases, and some craft foam as the base for my card fronts – just building the layers of paper and ephemera on top of the foam.
From the moment I saw the damask-ish print paper in the Stamperia stack, I knew I wanted to put on a card front – I just love the color and pattern! I also knew I wanted to use that little section of script print on a card, so that’s what I put together for my “Soulmate” card front! For the “Greetings” card front, I used the cut-offs from the damask-ish paper as a bottom border and a piece of the cover stock I used for the bases above it – also glued to a rectangle of craft foam.
I didn’t start out with measurements in mind; I was just working with what I had! However, since measurements can sometimes be helpful, I have added a couple of photos here with the “Soulmate” card front – the “Greetings” card was made with what I had left!
Once I had the papers glued down and let the glue dry completely, I coated the card fronts and the larger chipboard I planned on using with some clear gesso, grabbed up the stencil from the kit, some texture paste from my stash, and added some stenciling to the backgrounds. With the stencil still in place and the texture paste still wet, I started adding Lindy’s mediums. I didn’t want to mix the mediums into the texture paste, because I didn’t want a solid, even color! For the “Soulmate” card front, I spritzed some of the Moon Shadow Mist on the top-ish area of stenciling, sprinkled on the Magical Powder closer to the bottom then just scraped everything together – creating a little bit of a gradient effect. For the “Greetings” card front, I only used the Magical Powder, but I made sure to sprinkle it on unevenly so there would be some variation in shading after everything had dried.
I did the same basic technique with the stencil and texture paste on the larger chipboard pieces I was going to be adding to the card fronts – the only difference was with the vase. For the stenciling on the vase, I didn’t add any of the Magical Powder or scrap the Moon Shadow Mist after I added a couple of splatters, I just let it soak into the texture paste a little and carefully soaked up some of the larger drops before removing the stencil.
Once the stenciling had dried on the chipboard pieces, I decided I needed to add some of the gold to the intricate edge on the Tres Jolie Chipboard – the off-white of the original just stood out too much! I didn’t want a heavy coating, I just wanted to add some shine and create a smoother transition between the chipboard and stenciling – so I grabbed the gum arabic and magical powder, added a bit of water, and brushed it on.
After all the mediums had dried, it was only a matter of adding the chipboard flowers, phrases, and ribbon/seam binding! I used two layers of craft foam to lift the vase off the background, added some of the smaller chipboard flowers to the flowers in the vase for some depth, added a small length of the seam binding to the “Soulmate” tag – tucking the ends under the edges of the card front – and glued everything down to my base!
I glued the chipboard flowers flat on the base of the “Greetings” card, added a single layer of craft foam under the Tres Jolie Chipboard to give it a little lift, and tucked in a few of the flowers from the pack in the kit after I added some gum arabic/Lindy’s “paint” to them. I tied a bow in the last bit of seam binding I had, added it between the chipboard butterfly and the “Greetings” sentiment (backed with a small piece of craft foam), and glued the card front to the card base.
And that was it! Two cards are done in a relatively short amount of time!
I hope you enjoyed these slimline cards and they gave you some ideas of what you can make using your March 2023 kits!
Stay Crafty, Friends!
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Ranger Opaque Matte Texture Paste, Finnabair Clear Gesso (Because it was already open! Remember, there is a DWM Clear Gesso in the Mixed Media Kit this month!!), white craft foam, Fabri-Tac, Dritz Fray-Check, Marco’s Papers Cougar Opaque Cover (130#/192.4gsm) “Natural”
Welcome to March and new projects using Tres Jolie Kits! Did you get a chance to check out the reveal yesterday? All of March’s Kits are as fabulous as ever! Make sure to swing by the Tres Jolie shop and pick yourself up a kit or three!
For my first March project, I used the Graphic 45 ATC Tag booklet/album … thingy … and the Stamperia “Garden of Promises” papers and chipboard to create a little motivational and/or photo flip-book.
Make sure you check out the video to catch my thought process and see how I put this all together!
I know Graphic 45 has dies that are made to work with their (larger) tags, I’m not sure if there is an ATC Tag one, and even if there is, it wouldn’t have worked for everything I wanted to do! My solution was simple though – I just used some clear plastic packaging, traced two tag shapes on it (side-by-side), and rough-cut it out! Why did I trace two side-by-side? So I would be able to make a few backgrounds with little flip-outs! Then all I had to do is use it to create all of my backgrounds.
Not all of my backgrounds are solid pieces, after I had cut into a few of the patterned papers, I decided to straighten up a few edges, grabbed a partial piece of an adhesive sheet I had left from a previous project added some scraps strips of printer paper, peeled the backing off, and started laying down all the various left-over strips and squares! I don’t like having a lot of little pieces laying about and I like the feeling of using up as much as I can, so paper piecing is my go-to move!
I was never concerned about having perfectly straight, neat, and tidy edges because I had planned from the beginning to distress and ink them all – which is exactly what I did! I just used my scissors to distress all of the edges – including inside the ring hole – and used the “Pale Brown” Fluid Chalk Ink for a bit of color.
After I had my bases distressed, inked, and (mostly!!) ready to go, I started the sewing process. I picked one background to stitch directly to the tag, then on the background for the flip-side, I added the stitching first, then glued it to the tag. I decided to do my stitching this way so both sides of the tag would have the top stitching showing. It doesn’t really matter as far as the stitches are concerned, but the side of the paper the needle goes through tends to be a bit rough.
As seen in the photos above, six of my tags have flaps that flip out. Of those six, four were created using a single piece I made using my template (double-width, and scored), and for the other two, I decided to make the flaps separate just because I wanted a little more control over what image was showing and which way the flap was going to flip!
I don’t like leaving folds without some kind of reinforcement when they are in a project that is interactive, and these ATC Tags were no exception – so I just added some of the seam binding from the kit to the insides of all the folds and stitched along each side.
I really loved all of the quotes and phrases found throughout the patterned papers, and I wanted to incorporate them in a variety of ways. One was I did was to use the three bookmark-looking rectangles and create some fold-down, interactive elements – mostly because the paper strips were approximately 4” long, and I didn’t want it dangling out of the bottom!
Again, I had to reinforce all of my bends, except this time I used some linen hinging tape instead of the seam binding. Not for any particular reason beyond that it was a 9” piece I had “misplaced” during a previous project, and since I finally found it, I wanted to use it up! My linen hinging tape, however, is 1-1/4” wide – about 1/4” wider than the stripes – so I trimmed off the excess before attaching it to the backs of my pull-downs.
I added stitching to the sections that were attached to the background and added the three blue chipboard butterflies to use as “handles” (One apparently got edited out from the middle photo above without me noticing! Oops!)
What did I do with a 1/4” wide, 9” strip of linen hinging tape? I cut a couple of pieces off and used them to reinforce the folds on the two fold-out pieces I added using more bits from the cut-apart sheet! And, just like with the pull-down stripes, I stitched the back of the fold-out piece to the background.
I wanted to use some eyelets that I’ve owned for far, far too long, so I grabbed up a few and added them to the pre-punched holes on four of the chipboard pieces, then glued the chipboard where I wanted it. I didn’t use the eyelets to attach the chipboard to the background paper or tags, just because I didn’t! No real reason beyond that there wasn’t a real need to!
On the tag that has the large chipboard flower cluster, I didn’t use any glue, I just stitched it along one edge and the bottom so it could work as a tuck spot.
Thank you for joining me here today on the blog! I hope you enjoyed this little project and it gave you some ideas of what you can do using this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
It’s the first of the month, and you know what that means?!?! It’s Reveal Day! And once again, Tres Jolie has some FAB-U-LOUS kits for you this month!
It’s March, spring is around the corner, and what better way to celebrate than to do more crafting! Make sure to get your kits before they’re gone! Or, better yet, subscribe to Tres Jolie Kit Club so you will never miss out!
Be sure you follow us on all social media platforms (Tres Jolie Kit Club links at the 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.
The March 2023 Scrapbooking Kit is filled with beautiful laser cut elements, chipboard elements, and the 12”x12” collection pack from 49 & Market’sTranquility line! And, to complement this fabulous collection, you will find an extra 6”x8” sheet of patterned paper and two wonderful flower packs from 49 & Market, as well as a pack of flowers from Little Birdie, pink paper doilies to add to your projects and some (always fabulous) chipboard from Tres Jolie Chipboard! As always, these papers will be amazing for all your upcoming projects, whether they are beautiful layouts, junk journals, cards, or anything in between! You will find a lovely assortment of patterned papers and perfectly coordinated embellishments.
In this month’s Mixed Media Kit, you will find a beautiful, blue flower print sheet of rice paper from Stamperia, a bottle of clear gesso from Dina Wakley Media, a wonderful mask/stencil from StudioLight, coordinating colors from Lindy’s Gang – “Buccaneer Bay Blue” Moon Shadow Mist and “Gleaming Gold” Glitz Magical Powder! There is also a jar of JacquardGum Arabic for you to use with your Lindy’s mediums (Gum Arabic is an emulsifier, binding medium, and film former! In other words, it helps make watercolors “stickier” and holds them “on top” of your paper for a longer work time – here’s an article I found about it)! Get this kit, and get ready to have some fun!
In the Cards, Tags, & More Kit, you will find an ATC Tag Flip/Album from Graphic 45, and what better way to decorate it than with the chipboard die cuts and (6”x6”) patterned paper pad from Stamperia’s beautiful Garden of Promise collection?!?! You will also find a package of 49 & Market flowers, two pieces of Tres Jolie Chipboard, “Pale Brown” Fluid Chalk Ink from Prima, and a length of seam binding! After you’ve decorated your ATC tags, you’ll be ready to move on to your next project! 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 March 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.
Love them, right?!?! You can still get one of your own (some kits are in very limited quantities). Become a subscriber and you will never miss out on our gorgeous, coordinated kits. Just visit Tres Jolie Subscribe.
The designers at Tres Jolie have created some amazing layouts and projects with this kit. This month I have a couple of sneak peeks for you! One of my Tag Flip and one project using the Cards, Tags, & More Kit and Mixed Media Kit! Isn’t it wonderful how the kits coordinate with each other!
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 March 2023 challenge folder on the Tres Jolie Kit Club Café Facebook page. This challenge ends on March 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 limit the same winner to once every 3 months).
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
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.
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!
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
Hey, y’all! I hope you’re having a fabulous February and have had a chance to play with your kits! This week I have a project for you I made using the February Mixed Media Kit! I grabbed up my kit, added some extra mould pieces, mechanicals, and paints from my stash, and created my Mecha Love mixed media piece!
Make sure to check out my video to see what I did!
To start building up some texture, I added some of the sand texture paste using the stencil from the kit onto the canvas board. I didn’t cover the entire surface with stenciling, I just added the stenciling to a few random areas. In the video, you will see that I added black gesso after the sand texture paste had dried, but that was because I hadn’t planned on adding the cheesecloth so soon! If I had thought I would be adding the cheesecloth to fill in the areas without the stenciling I would have waited to add my gesso. Anyhow…I had been rust-staining fabric around the same time I received my February kits, so my cheesecloth got sucked into the process – even if that rust staining doesn’t show much on this canvas – and while I was playing with different ways to build my canvas, I just happened to lay the cheesecloth down in a way that sparked inspiration! I ran with this new inspiration and used some matte gel to adhere some of the cheesecloth to my canvas.
Since my cheesecloth led me on a slightly different path than what I had planned originally, I decided I wasn’t going to add gesso again until I had the majority of my mould pieces in place. I grabbed up a variety of gear mould pieces from my stash – made from a wide range of materials since I tend to pre-create pieces when I have extra resin or clay from a different project or I just need to use up old material – and started layering them up using some 3D Matte Gel. I had some broken bits and pieces in the mix, so I just used them as filler to create some lift under areas they wouldn’t be seen, you could just as easily use scraps of cardboard or chipboard as filler! After I had all my gears in place I added the resin frame from the kit and topped it with the large heart from Finnabair’s “Love Machine” Mould (from my stash). I let the 3D Gel dry overnight, then I came back with my matte gel and some more cheesecloth, adding more to the background and laying it across a few areas of the mould cluster. After the matte gel had dried, I added black gesso to everything.
Now it was finally time to start getting my colors built up! I started with some “Linen” Impasto and a lot of water! All I knew was I wanted to create some type of gradient or ombre effect, so I kept the layer of Impasto heavier on the top half(ish) of the canvas and more watered down on the bottom half(ish).
After the Impasto had dried, I mixed some Tres Jolie “Red” Acrylic Paint and DWM “Fuchsia” Glossy Spray and added this mix to the canvas.
When my paint and glossy spray mix had dried, I came back with more cheesecloth and added it to areas of my resin pieces and canvas. You can see some of the rust-stained cheesecloth on the finished piece still because this final layer of cheesecloth didn’t get completely covered by mediums!
After the matte gel had semi-dried (being fully dry wasn’t necessary!), I returned with some of the Copper and Graphite texture paste from this month’s kit and used them more like paint than paste. I added the copper to a few areas (very few!) of the cheesecloth I had just placed and the gears on the heart, and I added the graphite to the gears. I didn’t want a lot of build-up, I just wanted a bit of color.
After those pastes had dried, I came in with the Platinum Crackle Paste from the kit and added it to the bottom half(ish) of my canvas, then I set everything off to air dry for about 24 hours. When I came back, I had lovely crackles and it was finally time to get the Brown, Red, and Yellow Rust Effect Paste on the (mould) gears, the resin frame from the kit, and slightly spread out onto the canvas.
When I had my rust how I wanted it, I added some “Red Wine” Metallique Paint to my heart and on the top half(ish) of the canvas background. For the background, I really kept the metallique paint watered down, I didn’t want to completely cover what was already there, I just wanted to add a bit of variation.
Once the “Red Wine” was dry, I added some “Vintage Silk” and “Indian Pink” Finnabair waxes to highlight a few areas on the heart. Finally, I grabbed up the (partial) package of Mechanicals from my stash, kept them “as is,” and adhered them to the gears “on” the heart mould using 3D Matte Gel.
Thank you for joining me here today on the blog! I hope this project gave you some inspiration and ideas of what you can do with the items in this month’s Mixed Media Kit! I tried to use the texture pastes in a variety of ways to help you see them in action if you haven’t experienced the joy of crackles and rust effect pastes yet!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! Have you seen the fabulous heart-shaped mini album in this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit yet? It is so adorable and makes putting a love-themed mini together quick and easy.
Make sure to check out my video to see how I decided to use my album with this month’s papers and embellishments, then grab your scissors and glue and get started on yours!
To prepare my chipboard, I mixed some white gesso with a bit of the Worn Lipstick ink from the kit and brushed it on the front of the heart-filled-heart chipboard page and the back of the flower-filled-heart page, as well as around the edges of the front and back of the other three pages.
Using the chipboard as a template, I traced out hearts for each of the cover hearts from all of the different patterned papers, glued them in place, then backed the page with a full sheet of the pink with white hearts patterned paper – turned 45° the paper covers all of the “holes” surrounding the hearts!
I didn’t want to over-do the flower page, so I just added some of the “XOXO” paper to some of the larger flower centers, then backed everything with a sheet of the pink floral print patterned paper.
For the background of each page, I decided to do some paper piecing instead of trying to decide which paper I wanted to use – they are all so beautiful, I had to use them all!
I just cut out some templates to work on using some plain printer paper – it is far more forgiving if I make a mistake than the chipboard would be – and randomly (by randomly, I mean I didn’t think about the width or pattern too much when selecting which strip to use!) glued down my strips of patterned paper. I didn’t bother measuring my strips either, I just put the paper through my trimmer a width I felt was good, cut, and did it again until I had a fair amount of strips to start working with.
After I had all of my backgrounds finished, I trimmed them up, distressed and inked the edges, and glued them in place.
Although I hadn’t originally planned on adding stitching to every page, as I was working on the album, I determined that it was “necessary” for each page to have some of the simple straight stitches added to them! I just created a quick template so my spacing would be even, then used an awl to poke the holes through before adding the variegated perle cotton thread.
With the base of all the pages completed, it was just a matter of picking papers to use as photo mats, pockets, and envelopes! I also decided to use the circles from the pop-out pages to create a couple of window pockets on the photo mats!
Some elements are backed with thin foam (about 1/16” or approximately 2mm) just to add a little depth, but I didn’t want my pages to be too bulky since they would be going on album rings.
The first page has a “hidden” envelope – I attached the photo mat and frame to the envelope flap, then used a bit of ribbon from my stash to keep it tied down.
On a couple of pages, I just have photo mats – again, because I didn’t want there to be too much bulk on the pages! Then on other pages, I added pockets, a couple turned horizontal, and I added touches of ribbon to almost every page, just to keep the design elements [mostly] the same.
On the page with the tied horizontal ribbon, I left two of the envelope flaps open and created a double-flip out page element.
I kept my flower page rather simple – I didn’t want to create something too busy or cover up the chipboard, so all I did is add a bit of the ink and a couple of photo mats.
Finally, to finish it off, I just added a single envelope to the inside of the back cover to hold any larger ephemera or notes.
For the cluster on the front of my album, I just cut a strip of the lace print paper, added some of my ribbon to each side, and stacked a couple of the Prima flowers on under one of the resin frames and the “I Love You” piece I had cut from one of the pop-out pieces.
When I was adding the gesso to my chipboard, I also added it to the resin pieces so they would be ready to use, so when I did decide my cover would need one, all I did is add a second coat of gesso (heavy gesso this time!) after dabbing on some of the ink. I don’t know if it’s odd or not, but I really love how matte gesso is!
After everything had dried, all that was left to do is slide the pages on to my album rings.
Thank you for joining me today on the blog! I hope you enjoyed my mini album and it gave you some ideas of what you can do to create your own mini album! I’ll see you again soon!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
C.J.'s Corner Scraps 