Hey, y’all! For my first May project, I have a mini pocket album inspired by the “Tea Book Ephemera Organiser’s” from Bohemian Crafting! When I saw the original video, I knew I had to make my own little book! Not only is this an adorable little book/album, but it is also easy to put together!
Make sure to check out my video and see it all come together!
For my cover, I used a piece of poster board from when my kids were in school. It’s flexible, yet sturdy – I’m not very good and guessing the weight of paper, but I do know it isn’t as thick as the 130# cover stock I like to use as card bases!
I cut out a 10-inch by 8-1/4-inch rectangle from the poster board, then on the 10-inch side, I scored at 4-1/2-inches, rotated the cover 180 degrees, and scored at 4-1/2-inches again. You could also score at 4-1/2 inches and 5-1/2-inches if you didn’t want to rotate your cover piece, I only rotated mine to make sure I had the front and back flaps of the cover as close to equal as I could get! This way, if my original cut wasn’t “exactly” 10 inches, my front and back cover would still be 4-1/2 inches, and any “excess” would just find its way to the spine!
I picked out the papers I wanted to use for my cover and cut four 4-1/2-inch by 3-inch rectangles out of the floral paper and two 4-1/2-inch by 2-1/4-inch rectangles out of the orange-ish paper. I added the extra 1/4-inch to the orange-ish paper to give a little bit of extra to work with to make sure I didn’t have any gaps – which is also why I glued it down before the floral paper! I didn’t glue the paper down to the spine until after I had the pages stitched in, because I knew I wanted to cover all the thread.
After the outer papers were glued to the front and back cover, I poked some stitch holes and added some simple stitches using 6-strand embroidery floss (I used all 6 strands!). Then I picked out the papers for the inside of the covers, cut the background papers just long enough to have the edge hidden by the 3-inch pockets, glued them to the cover, and added the pockets.
I have three different pocket page sizes – 3, 3-1/2, and 4 inches – made from 6”x6”, 7”x7”, and 8”x8” squares of paper. And, regardless of the finished size, they were all made the same – folded in half, then half again! This gives an opening at one long edge of the paper (the top of my pockets) and the two short, outer edges. To seal the outer edges, I didn’t glue them closed, I used leftover strips of the BoBunny paper, solid cardstock, and BoBunny stickers to hold them closed. As an optional step, you can also use a circle punch – or just scissors – to add thumb holes to the top edge of the pockets! I inked the edges of my pages, and since it is chalk ink, I have my pockets a spray of Workable Fixatif to help the chalky finish stay in place.
After I had the edges sealed, I added a strip of green cardstock to the inside spine and finally stitched my pages to the spine through the holes I had pre-poked using a template I had made to help me keep my pages centered and evenly spaced. Each page has two holes for stitching through – 1/4” from the top and bottom of the pocket – and I just used simple straight stitching to hold them in.
Once the stitching was done, I finally added the papers I had picked for the spine to cover my thread.
After the pages were sealed, I used more of my scrap pieces –the solid cutoffs stamped with one of Tim Holtz’s newest stamps – and some of the stickers to add some simple decoration to the pages and cover – sometimes adding another wrap around the edge, sometimes creating tabs for the edges. On the cover I also used one of the Tres Jolie Chipboard pieces, coated with clear gesso from my stash, the Faded Jeans Chalk Ink from the kit, and a little clear embossing powder, and with some of the KaiserCraft pearls on the stem.
Thank you for joining me here today, I hope you enjoyed this mini pocket page album and it gave you some ideas of what you can make using this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! 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! 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!
Hey, y’all! Did you see the Tres Jolie Kit Club October Kits yet? Aren’t they all just fabulous?
I must admit, I love pumpkins! As decoration. I won’t eat or drink them, but I love pumpkins and gourds as décor; so I was super excited to see this adorable Tres Jolie Chipboard Pumpkin Mini Album in the October Cards, Tags, & More Kit!
I used the amazing “Autumn Moods” papers from Craft o’ Clock found in the kit, and some beads and mediums from my stash to add some highlights.
Check out my video to see how easy this album comes together! All you really need are the papers and chipboard found in the kit – and a trusty pair of scissors – the mediums and embellishments are in my “use ‘em if you got ‘em” category! You can easily leave the chipboard plain – which in itself gives a rustic appearance! (Note: If you do use unfinished chipboard, wipe it down with a damp cloth/paper towel, or a baby wipe! The chipboard is laser cut, so there is often some sooty residue!)
There honestly isn’t a lot to describe for this mini album. The first thing I did was get all the cut apart pieces, cut apart. If you have an electronic cutting machine and a scanner (or camera), you may be able to speed up the “fussy cutting” process. (The most common ones I’m aware of is the Silhouette PixScan mats, the Brother Scan-n-Cut, and I don’t know about Cricut, but I would think they would have something.)
The same can be done with the pumpkin shape – you can scan one of the chipboard pieces, double-check the size, and then just cut them out. Or, as I showed in my video, it’s easy enough to trace the shape lightly onto the patterned paper and cut it out.
To prepare my chipboard, I grabbed up my jar of TCW’s “Marigold” Stencil Butter and brushed it all along the edges of all of the pages and the front of the cover piece.
In addition to the Stencil Butter, I used some Halloween & Holiday Distress Crayons (2021 & 2022 releases) to add a little more shine, color, and highlights to the outside of the cover pieces. For the front cover, before adding the patterned paper, using my water brush, I added “Crooked Broomstick,” “Decayed,” “Tree Lot,” and “Bubbling Cauldron” to color the leaves and vines, then a little “Burning Ember,” and “Jack-O-Lantern” to add a little shading on top of the Stencil Butter.
With the Crayons added to the front cover, I started the process of gluing all of the patterned paper down to the chipboard – adding my flip-outs and eyelets as I went along. On the front cover, I used some Diamond Glaze – making sure all of the swirls and curls were glued down – because it dries very clear and I knew I’d be coming back later to add a bit more decoration to the front. For every other page, I just used some Art Glitter Glue.
When I added the eyelet to the front cover, it was a little off-center, which left an edge sticking out. I trimmed off that edge, but I also wanted to cover the sharp metal, so I just dabbed on some 3D Matte Gel. Even though it wasn’t in the original plan, I think adding that little extra bit of texture worked out well, especially after I added some of the Distress Crayons to it!
I also did distress the edges of every page, only the patterned paper on the two cover pieces and the tops of the little pockets from the cut-apart sheets.
On a few pages, I wanted to add some little flip-outs, so I traced the shape of the album onto the patterned paper but left off the leaves and vines – just hand drawing the rest of the pumpkin top – and cut a tab at the edge that would be the hinge. I cut the tab to tuck into a slot I had cut using my craft knife before gluing the patterned paper down to the chipboard.
As I was working, I decided I wanted to add a little extra reinforcement to the hinging edges of the flip-outs to help keep the paper from weakening and potentially tearing with use. I didn’t use any type of special tape, just regular gift wrapping tape that I aged with some alcohol inks.
For this tape, I used Ranger “Sunshine” and “Eggplant” alcohol inks to go with the autumn colors of the patterned paper, but I have used Ranger’s “Caramel” and “Ginger” to create the more “traditional” aged tape pieces.
For the little pockets, I just used my Art Glitter Glue to hold them down, but for my tuck-in spots, I used my hot glue gun so I would be able to give them a little extra lift off the surface of the page.
You can use some of the longer tags, or cut out some stripes to create one or more belly bands for your album if you would like! For the page above, I just tucked the top and bottom of one of the longer tags under and glued them down to the page.
I added some of my faux vintage tape to the bends and edges of the envelopes since I decided not to glue their edges closed.
For the tag on the envelope above, I created some faux brad heads using a few small beads and Diamond Glaze.
With so many cut-apart pieces to choose from, it’s super easy to create layers in your clusters for some added dimension!
I used the “Decayed” Distress Crayon on the edges of all the cut-apart pieces (fussy cuts) to soften the white of the edges.
Now the only thing that is left is adding any photos or ephemera to this adorable pumpkin album!
And that was all there was to put the inside of this little pumpkin together!
Before I added everything to the book ring I was using, I added the final details to the cover pieces. On the front cover, I used a small paint brush to add some Micro Glaze to the patterned paper to give it a layer of protection so the two purple Distress Crayons (“Hocus Pocus” and “Fortune Teller”) I used wouldn’t just soak in and leave “stains.” After the paper was protected, I added my purple, spread it around some with my water brush, and let it dry. After that had dried, I added a couple different glass beads inside a few areas of the cover using my Diamond Glaze, and after that was set up, I brushed on some more Diamond Glaze and sprinkled on a few microbeads.
For the back cover, I gave the patterned paper a coating of the Micro Glaze, watered down and mixed together the purple Crayons on my mat, and just set the back cover on that mix letting the color go where ever it wanted!
When everything had dried, I added my pages to a book ring and used the same fine jute twine on the tags to tie one of the leaf charms to the ring.
Thank you for joining me here in my corner! If you haven’t had a chance to start playing with your kit(s) this month, I hope this project will give you some ideas of what you can do with your October Cards, Tags, & More Kit!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! The project I have for you this week is a mini album I created using items from my stash and this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit from Tres Jolie Kit Club – along with a card to go along with the album using the card blank from the kit!
This album is sized just right to be able to use the Craft Consortium Belle Fleur papers in the kit without having to piece any together – in other words, the circles are slightly under six inches!
Make sure to check out my video to see how I put this album together and what I did to create my card!
Front and back cover piece measurements.
Inside pages measurements.
For my cover, I added a little batting to the underside of some stretch (faux) suede and then wrapped it around pieces of heavy chipboard for the back and front covers and carefully stitched about 1/4” from the edge (the spine is also heavy chipboard, but it doesn’t have batting or the fabric). I wanted to add a little something extra to break up the solid brown of the fabric, so I added some interfacing to the back of a piece of the Finnabair Decorative Paper that was in the July Mixed Media Kit, and some iron-on vinyl to the front to turn that paper into something that would be sturdy enough to be used on the front side of an album!
After all my fabric and paper were in place, I added some of the Belle Fleur rub-ons where the two materials met. I wasn’t sure how well they would stick to the fabric, but it was easy! I had to rub a little harder to get to the solid surface (the chipboard/my desk!) because of the batting, but it wasn’t a difficult process at all. To give the rub-ons a little extra protection I sprayed the cover with some ScotchGard and dabbed on some matte gel to help hold them down (do this very gently, because they liked to stick to my fingertip).
With the matte gel dry, I added my macramé cord along the edge of the decorative paper and the seam side of my cover circles – using the cord to finish the circle. Then I popped on the wicker hearts, some of the Prima flowers, the enamel dots, and my bit of ribbon. To harden the ribbon so it would hold the wave, I soaked it in some (water-thinned) Glossy Accents, placed it on the cover, and shaped it, then brushed on a layer of the Glossy Accents to really get it to hold its shape.
My spine is (about) 1-5/8” (41mm) wide and 4” (102mm) tall. The inside of the chipboard is covered with some of the same decorative paper used on the outside with some iron-on adhesive on the back to act as a “moisture barrier” so the glue doesn’t soak through and without vinyl. I did however use some of the vinyl-coated decorative paper to cover and reinforce the rectangle sections of the pages and to create the hinges. There is approximately 1/8” (32mm) space between the pages and from the edges of the spine to the first and last pages.
Photo page ring measurements.
Photo mat measurements.
For the inside, the Craft Consortium patterned paper on the front and back covers and the pages are 5-7/8” (149mm) circles. I distressed the edges of the circles with my scissors, added some of the chalk ink from the kit, and added some vintage-style crochet lace to create pockets on the inside front and back covers then started adding my photo windows.
The acetate and rings are not flush with the surface of the page, I left a little space to allow some room for a photo to be added to the photo mat and still have space to slide in and out. The windows are layered as follows (top to bottom):
Patterned paper ring
Cardstock ring
Acetate
Craft foam ring
Cardstock ring
Just remember to only glue half of the ring onto the page – starting at the widest point – or your opening will be too small for the photo mat! The photo mat is a 5” (127mm) circle of cardstock, and I added a little piece of the Belle Fleur trim to use as a pull tab, with some stitching and glossy accents to reinforce it.
My card is really a lot simpler than it may first appear! I used the chalk ink from the kit along all of the edges of the card, then added my patterned papers to the back and flaps. It was at this point that I took everything over to my sewing machine and added a line of stitching – sewing the outside papers to the card base, adding stitches to the papers that would be going on the inside, and adding stitches to the two circle halves.
I grabbed up my “Royal Purple” StazOn and created a ring of stamping around the card front and attached the two circle halves with some double-sided foam to give it a little lift. The doily is cut using a Dress My Craft die from a previous kit and the heart is a Sizzix die that came with my Big Shot Plus. To get that doily and the flowers to really pop from the background, I added some “Villainous Potion” Distress Ink along the outside edges. The heart is coated in a mix of the Distress Ink and the “Pale Brown” chalk ink.
There is a stretch of trim across the front of the card, cut slightly over the halfway mark for the opening, and the flowers run along that trim. The closure for the card is a couple of tiny magnets placed behind the (right) edge of the heart and one of the petals of the flowers, so now it stays closed and looks like it is all one piece, but is very easy to open!
The final details of the card are rub-on flowers that I added a layer of Glossy Accents to, some of the enamel dots, and a rub-on sentiment on the heart – also with a layer of Glossy Accents.
The inside of my card has the patterned papers glued in and it’s ready for personalization – which I would probably do by printing the message on some coordinating vellum and gluing it in place.
To make my envelope match the card, I blended on some of the Villainous Potion and stamped on a couple of flowers using my Royal Purple StazOn topped with Pumice Stone Distress Oxide. I used the Pumice Stone because by this point I had used every last drop of the chalk ink between last week’s project and the album! Plus, the Pumice Stone is a perfect match for the colors on the card! Then, to finish it up, I blended some of the Pumice Stone onto the envelope.
Thank you for joining me here in my corner! I hope you enjoyed this mini-album and card and they gave you some ideas of what you can make using the papers and the card blank in this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
For my final Tres Jolie Kit Club project of October, I’m bringing you an “Anything Book.” I call it an anything book because you could easily use it as a mini-album, mini art journal, mini notebook, etc. Personally, I really wanted a mini art journal with pockets and flip-outs.
My inspiration for this project came from Pinkstrawberryz “No Binding Easy Mini Album.” It was just one of those “You might like” recommendations that randomly popped up on YouTube, so I decided to have a look! As soon as I watched the video I had ideas brewing! Check out my video to see how I put my Anything Book together. (Below the video you will find photos of the inside and the measurements for my pages.)
Video:
Here is a look at some of the pages I started preparing:
After my book was together I used clear and white gessoes to prepare the pages. With my gesso dry, I was then able to start laying down mediums to prepare working backgrounds. I just grabbed up various paints and started laying them down! To make the book cover, I grabbed up some burlap trim, cut it to length, and stitched it in place during assembly.
Some areas have acrylic paint and some have watercolors. I started drawing on a couple of the pages—flowers in some places, and this face above. I also grabbed a few pens and outlined the flowers from the paper pack.
I didn’t always use a brush with my paints, some times I just used a palette knife to scrape it on! I also grabbed up some of my Dina Wakely Scribble Sticks and added some…well…scribbles! I have a short flip-though of my mini art journal (as far as it had been “finished” at the time of filming!) over on my Instagram post for this project.
Measurements (in order of page in book):
In my video, I talk about the process of making the cover using some Amazing Cast Resin and the embossing folder!
Thank you for joining me here in my corner! I hope you enjoyed this project and it gave you some ideas of what you can make using items found in this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
For my final Cards, Tags, & More Kit project for the Tres Jolie Kit Club this month, I’m bringing you an “Envelope Gift Mini Album” using a Paige Taylor Evans cut file. (Links to PTE’s tutorial & the Silhouette Store ID# in the product list.)
I used the cut file as my base, and decided it needed to become a *shaker* envelope mini album! In my video, you’ll get to see how I worked through that process (which means you’ll get to see how to do it the hard way, LOL!).
Check out my video! Hopefully it makes sense – I was working out the process as I went along!
Video:
Close-ups with some explanations:
For the album (and the inside envelope) I used some Paige Taylor Evans papers from my stash, but used papers from the kit as my ‘accent’ pieces and to make the bow. To make this into a shaker, I grabbed up a 12×12 page protector, inserted the album cut, and started stitching to make the pockets. After all the stitching was completed I trimmed off the excess page protector.
Here you can see the inside envelope, I added little magnets just to help keep the flap down. It wasn’t really necessary, I just found it helped keep the flap down for when I folded the album up. You can see I used the Altair Art papers from the kit to make my inside panels, with some doily’s added in that were made using the Dress My Craft Die from the kit.
When I first decided to add in some stamping from the Bo Bunny stamp set I thought I would have a lot more, but as soon as I added these little edges I thought it was enough! Sometimes less is more!
I just had to add in these beautiful Tres Jolie Chipboard leaves from the kit! I found the angle of the leaves made a perfect match up for the flap of the envelope. The addition of the leaves, however, are also the reason I added a button a twine closure, like the one on the right flap, under the outside bow and band closure!
Thank you for joining me here in my corner. I hope you enjoyed this project and it gave you some ideas of what you can make using items from this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit!
Stay Crafty, Friends!
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
In addition to items from this month’s kit, I used:
“Envelope Gift Mini Album” – Silhouette Store ID# 240883 by Paige Taylor Evans; Pink Paislee/Paige Taylor Evans: 19 & Turn The Page 08; Prima/Finnabair: Heavy White Gesso; Ranger/Tim Holtz: “Picket Fence” Distress Paint, “Salvaged Patina” Distress Oxide & Embossing Glaze; Simon Says Stamp Clear Embossing Ink; pink & white bakers twine; Scotch ATG; white thread; E6000; magnets; Art Glitter Glue
Hey, all! Welcome back to my little corner! Today I’m bringing you my first project for the Tres Jolie Kit Club using the June Cards, Tags, & More Kit!
This project is a “kit only” project, using the Graphic 45 ATC Tag Album, Stamperia Papers, and one of the resin clocks from this month’s kit.
Video:
This project is rather easy-peasy! For all the pages and the cover, I just cut the paper to size and glued it down. I created a custom-fit piece for the spine, using my Silhouette Cameo to cut the bracket shape in the piece of paper I was using.
Here are the measurements I used and the JPEG or, if you choose, the SVG for the tag and spine.
I really wanted to keep the cover simple so the album could be carried around easy while traveling, so I made sure my cut-out pieces were glued down good and I used some Liquitex Super Heavy Gel to make sure that resin clock was attached nicely!
I cut the lined sheet of paper from the Stamperia pack in half and turned it into a couple of fold-out pages for taking notes.
For some of my pages I did some paper piecing to create the background!
I had originally thought I might cover the tags with the Stamperia paper as well, but then I decided to leave them blank for notes and/or photos.
I picked one of the phrases from the cut apart sheet to put in the bracket. You could also make a custom label describing what the theme of your album is!
This Graphic 45 ATC-Tag Album is so adorable and just the right size to make a little memory book; paired with the Sir Vagabond Papers from Stamperia, and you have a handy place to record a little vacay!
Thank you for joining us here at Tres Jolie, I hope you enjoyed this project and it gave you some inspiration to create your own little album!
Stay Crafty, Friends
C.J.
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
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C.J.
C.J.'s Corner Scraps 