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–Cards!-January 2023 Cards & Mixed Media Kits

Image | January 26, 2023January 26, 2023 | Corner Scraps

Hey, y’all! This week I have some super easy cards for you – even if they are mixed media cards – since the Lava Paste is made to be heat dried!

I’m going to make this a short overview post, mostly because there aren’t all that many steps involved! If you want to see the full process, make sure you check out the video!

Originally I had only planned on making the two slimline cards, but I decided to add in the little notecard when I thought of something I wanted to try while working on the other two!

The backgrounds were super easy, for the butterfly card, I coated the cardstock with some clear gesso before stenciling on my lava paste, and for the dragonfly card, I added the lava paste directly to the cardstock, then after I had dried the lava paste, I sprayed a coat of Workable Fixatif over everything. This way I could test a couple of different techniques with the lava paste and the Pixie Dusts in this month’s Mixed Media Kit.

Once the backgrounds were dried, I sprinkled on some of the Pixie Dusts, watered them down some, and then did some light drying just to keep the colors where I had decided I liked them and to keep the paper from getting too wet, then I just set them off to finish air drying. (There may have been some coatings on them, but gesso and Fixatif aren’t made to just sit with puddles on them!!)

It was during all of this that I thought of a third technique I wanted to try – adding the Pixie Dust to the wet Lava Paste and adding just a light mist of water to activate it! When I heated the Lava Paste, it created some lovely veining with the colors as the paste expanded and poofed up! I also wanted to see how the dust would work directly on the background without any type of gesso/sealer, so I added it on top of my [now dried] Lava Paste, used a soft brush to spread it around, misted it with some water and then just let it dry.

With my background done, it was just a matter of adding the bits and pieces to the card fronts. I added a layer of the Lava Paste to the backs of the cutout pieces and the sentiments because I figured it would be a nice way to give those pieces some lift and a little support to the cardstock! I also added some of the paste to the edges of all of the pieces, then it was just a matter of sticking all the embellishments down and adding a few sequins from my stash.

Thank you for joining me today on the blog, I hope these cards gave you some ideas of what you can make using the January Cards, Tags, & More Kit and Mixed Media Kit!

Stay Crafty, Friends

Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!

Thank you for joining us here at Tres Jolie Kits!

Tres Jolie can also be found at:

In addition to this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit and Mixed Media Kit (from previous Tres Jolie Kits), I used:

TCW “Mini Screen Print” Stencil , TCW “Mini Specimens” Stencil , Finnabair “Passiflora” Stencil , Simon Says Stamp “Extra Talkative Set” , StazOn “Royal Purple” , Marco’s Papers Cougar Opaque Cover “Natural” , EK Tools Scoreboard , Finnabair Clear Gesso, Krylon Workable Fixatif, Ranger Glossy Accents , Fabri-Tac , sequins , spray bottle

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–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!

Tres Jolie can also be found at: