Hey, y’all!

Ever have one of those projects that was filled with “technical difficulties” all the way through? That was me with this lapbook! My word of advice, if your sewing machine stops working at the beginning of a project, take it as a sign to stop and do a different project! I didn’t heed the warning sign, and while I waited for a replacement sewing machine I kept trying to work – but nothing went right after that! I went from being ahead of schedule with my July projects, to being barely able to finish on time; so a project that I didn’t think would take too long, took way too long!

It’s here though, I finally finished, and I have completed a Recipe Lapbook using this month’s Scrapbooking Kit from Tres Jolie Kit Club for the July 2022 Mood Board.

I tried to explain my process the best I could in my video; it did become rather difficult to work in an orderly fashion when I had to do what I could while waiting for my sewing machine. Hopefully the video makes some sense, or at least enough sense to give you some idea of what I’m attempting! It’s a rather long video – almost an hour, so you might want to watch it in sections! I couldn’t figure out a good place to split it apart and have it appear continuous since I was already fighting confusion!

Video:

The mood board this month has some deep, beautiful, summery colors to it, and the papers in this month’s kit are the perfect compliment. And, of course, lemons = lemonade on a hot summer day, and an entire recipe lapbook to go with! Place your entries in the July 2022 challenge folder on Tres Jolie Kit Club Café Facebook page. This challenge ends July 31, 2022 at 11:59 pm CST. All entries must be in this folder to be eligible for the prize (to have everyone eligible to win, we are limiting the same winner to once every three months).

• You can create any type of project for the challenge.
• You MUST say what you were inspired by.
• You MUST include the twist in your design – DAYS OF SUMMER
• We would love to see you use at least one of Tres Jolie’s products on your projects but it isn’t required to play along.
• It MUST be a new project.

You saw the front cover of my lapbook at the beginning of this post, but I also wanted to show the other three sides of it. After more work than I had hoped, I was able to get the honeycomb chipboard from this month’s Mixed Media Kit to give some nice texture along the spine. If you haven’t seen the video yet, this spine is actually the second spine I made – because the first one wasn’t working; I just couldn’t get the honeycomb to show up. I finally got it to show by using some (metal) nuts that fit inside the chipboard and my iron to get the iron-on adhesive to melt together.

I originally planned on making a single flap for the closure, but the yellow stripe ended up being off center, and that would have drove me nuts! However, I actually like the final closure better, because I like the yellow being horizontal against the vertical of the lemon fabric and the “panels” of the closure area. I didn’t actually tack the fabric down, I used lots of glue, clipped the tacks down to where they would just enter the book cover, and added some 3D Matte Gel to help keep them in place.

The main flap on the left side of the lapbook is an accordion folder made from a hanging file folder. I don’t have all of the specific measurements, because I made my folds where the score lines already were on the hanging folder, cut it to the height of my inside cover paper, and just eyeballed how wide I wanted it based on how it would look. However, I do know the sides were cut three inches wide and scored every 1/2-inch for the accordion folds.

On the back of my accordion folder I have a couple of book covers added in as flaps. The larger one is covered in some sari silk, and the smaller one has [what I think] is the last piece of that particular print. I have magnet closures for the smaller book covers, but I didn’t add any closure of the main, accordion folder, flip. Under the accordion folder, I have a double-pocket folder and three mini file folders I created just for this project using sheets of the Simple Stories paper from the kit.

On the front of the larger cover with the sari silk, I added a hinged belly band. I have some 3/4-inch magnetic tape, and I laid a strip down on the cover and on the band. At the top of the band I added a couple of stronger magnets to make sure it would stay shut even with a few recipe cards in place. On the other side of the same cover, I added some homemade glassine (using a tracing paper + semi-gloss spray technique I learned from Nik the Booksmith!) to one of the frames, propped it up on some macramé cord, and turned it into a pocket. The magnetic closure for this flips under to close, and flips out of the way so the pocket is accessible.

In the spine of the book cover I added a [new and unused!] headband so I could put a removable booklet in. It is a soft cover booklet – I layered the paper with some interface backed fabric – then I popped on the chipboard frame from the kit that I had embossed with a few different powders. After my frame was in place, I filled in the open areas with some Glossy Accents and/or Diamond Glaze, alcohol ink, and to really deepen the black on the bees, I used the “Black Hole Black” Lindy’s Magical Powder from this month’s Mixed Media Kit.

I have two folders, filled with more folders/pockets in the booklet – one for main dishes and one for side dishes.

I wanted to add in some charts, so I printed out a couple of different ones on tracing paper using a ledger paper I created as the background, then added my semi-gloss spray to create my “glassine.” I turned the 3-slot chipboard frame into a pocket with some vintage photos to give the “family history” feel.

The right side of the lapbook features a large, fold-out panel with a little box folder on it. The box folder also folds out – it is held in place with some magnets & magnetic tape – to reveal a couple of folder pockets and a little coin pocket I made.

When you flip open the large panel, you will find a little strap holding another book cover in place that has another chart on the front, and a couple of pockets on the back. I added another headband to the hinge of this cover, and created another little removable folder to slide into this space.

This folder is a simple one, with just three pockets inside it and a pocket on the back to hold another piece of “glassine” with some helpful hints on it.

On the back of that big flap I made, I have a couple of pockets for breakfast and lunch recipes, and some ephemera to add some decoration.

Thank you for joining us here at Tres Jolie, I hope you enjoyed this lapbook – even if I did have a few hiccups along the way! Hopefully I didn’t make the video too confusing and was able to explain what was going on clearly – even if it was “out of order” because of my sewing machine fiasco.

Stay Crafty, Friends … and remember, if something breaks at the beginning of a project, take it as a sign!  

In addition to this month’s Scrapbooking Kit & the Tres Jolie Chipboard & Lindy’s “Black Hole Black” from the Mixed Media Kit (*from previous Tres Jolie Kits), I used:

**Some [non-Tres Jolie Kit] items contain an affiliate link, allowing me to earn a small commission at no extra cost to you!

Lawn Fawn “Sunflower” Ink Pad , Lindy’s Gang “Desert Moon Turquoise” Embossing Powder , Seth Apter “Rocky Road” Baked Texture , Seth Apter “Vintage Beeswax” Baked Texture , Ranger “Buttercup” Embossing Powder , Ranger “Watering Can” Embossing Powder , Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink “Patina” , Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink “Sunshine Yellow” , Dina Wakley “Lemon” Gloss Spray , Distress Embossing Glaze “Salvaged Patina” , Ranger Perfect Medium Pen/Marker , StazOn “Jet Black” , Hampton Art Block Alphabet Stamp Set , Tim Holtz Index Clips , Tim Holtz Hex Fasteners , Tim Holtz Plaquettes , Stripe Background Lemon Print Outdoor Fabric , Ingvild Bolme Tiny Junkyard Treasures “Vintage Trinkets” , Finnabair 3D Matte Gel , We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile , Crop-A-Dile II , Tab Punch , Hole Reinforcer Punch , Craft Knife , 3-Way Corner Punch , EK Tools Scoreboard , EK Tools “Round Binding Edge” Punch , Recollections 2-1/2” Circle Punch , Fiskars 1” Circle Squeeze Punch , Pellon Fusible Featherweight Interfacing , Heat n Bond Ultra Hold Iron On Adhesive , Heat n Bond Iron On Vinyl , 12”x12” Heavy Chipboard , old book cover , 2” book binding tape , 1” , 1/2” , 1/4” , 1/8” double-sided tape , 3/8” Scor-Pal Scor-Tape , Fabri-Tac , LineCo PVA , LineCo 1.25” Linen Hinging Tape , JudiKins Diamond Glaze , Ranger Glossy Accents , UHU stic , ScotchGard Fabric Protector , Wrights 1/2” “Charcoal” Seam Binding , Mainstays pillow case, blending brushes , Fray No More , black & white bakers twine, Dritz 7/16″ Brushed Nickle Decorative Nails , Basic Grey Large Magnetic Discs , Basic Grey Small Magnetic Discs , unbranded magnetic discs , Xyron 3/4” Magnetic Tape , hanging file folders , “manila” folders , black, white, & grey size 5 variegated thread , black sewing machine thread , Hy-Ko Aluminum Reflective Numbers , brads , eyelets , other fabric (yellow gingham, grey & white plaid, sari silk, aqua & white print), unused headbands , uxcell Silver Tone Metal Label Holders , Bead Landing Macramé 3mm Cotton Cord, Rust-oleum Semi-Gloss Clear