Hey, y’all!

The year is already half over, and now we count down to autumn and winter to get relief from this summer heat! (Seriously, is it October yet? )

Have you had a chance to dig into your Cards, Tags, & More Kit from Tres Jolie Kit Club yet? There is a fabulous folio kit and some gorgeous Graphic 45 papers in it – which is what I have for you for my first project of July!

I have a video up showing how I decorated my folio – I didn’t put mine together fully to start; I left my pockets and flaps unattached until after they were decorated! I don’t show the assembly of the folio, because I felt it would add unnecessary time to the video since it has instructions in the package, and Photoplay Paper has a step-by-step; follow-along assembly video on their YouTube channel.

Video:

I really wanted to make my cover one continuous image, and I ended up using all three of the “Living the Simple Cottage Life” sheets from the paper pack to do it! I hadn’t originally planned to add the extra garden scene as a flap, but as I started going along, I knew I really liked that image as a whole.

I have stitching as a border for all my patterned paper pieces, sometimes added to just the Graphic 45 paper, sometimes I stitched the Graphic 45 paper to the folio piece (this was semi-planned out – for me anyhow! – and is why I didn’t attach all the folio pieces in the beginning!). I also grabbed up my Aged Mahogany Distress Ink and inked around the edges of all my Graphic 45 pieces and the bits of chipboard I added on.
When it came time to add my finishing touches, I had the little round piece of chipboard and the rectangle left of my ink pieces, and decided to pop them onto the cover – finding out the round one makes a nice little “door knob” at the edge of my flap!

On the inside of the left flap, even though I used some strong double-sided tape to attach my extra flap, I added a piece of the chipboard to help stabilize that addition. You can see how I covered the larger folio cover flap with one sheet of the paper and, very carefully, lined up the pieces on the shorter cover flap and my additional flap.

For almost every piece of Graphic 45 paper I used to decorate the folio, I waited until after I added the stitching to distress and ink the edges. However, on the pieces I stitched onto the folio parts I hadn’t attached yet – pockets & flaps – I distressed and inked the edges before stitching them together.

I made up a few specimen tags and used some of the chipboard pieces to make my samples, sandwiching my samples between some iron-on vinyl, then attaching everything with a brad from my stash.

I cut out some of the cards from the cut-apart sheets in the paper pack and just added some stitching to them and backed them with some bits of index cards so there would be a place to write.

While some of the cards were tucked into pockets, I left some of them out and just used some paperclips to hold them to the edges of the pages.

With the largest specimen, I didn’t attach the chipboard frame to the card, but just tucked them into a pocket together and held them in place with a paperclip.

For the flap of the pocket that is on the (inside) back panel, I stitched the top piece of patterned paper to the flap, then added my stitching to the paper that was going on the underside before gluing it in place. I didn’t stitch all three together, because when sewing through paper the underside of the stitch holes tend to be rougher. After my flap was together I stuck it down in place before adding the blue & white paper so the flap edge would be covered.

For these two pockets, I layered up some of the papers and cards to cover them, then cut a couple more cards down to fit and added some tabs so they would be easier to pull out. The backs have an index card attached, and the tabs are just made from of the strips of patterned paper I had leftover after all the cutting.

As you can see, I used the same patterned paper for both the insides and outsides of the spines; I added my stitching and inking to the back paper and glued it down.

The three specimen samples I have on brads allow them to be spun off to the side to see the card underneath or hang over the edge of the pocket they are in. All of the flowers I used came from my yard – I had picked and dried them a couple of months ago – so I know they are free of pesticides! And even though I didn’t get the cards filled out (yet), I even know what a couple of them are!

Thank you for joining me here in my corner, I hope you enjoyed seeing how I decorated my Photoplay Folio-4 found in this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit!

Stay Crafty, Friends

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

**Some items contain an affiliate link (non-Tres Jolie!) which allows me to earn a small commission at no extra cost to you!**

Distress Ink “Aged Mahogany” , Ranger Mini Round Blending Tool , double-sided tape 1”, 1/2”, 1/4”, & 1/8” , Art Glitter Glue , Aleene’s Tacky Glue , JudiKins Diamond Glaze , Scotch ATG , Heat n Bond Iron On Vinyl , brads , mahogany thread , blending brushes , paperclips , index cards , Betckey label paper