Happy Friday, Everyone! Sharon here with you today, to share one last F-U-N We R Memory Keepers Fuse Tool project with you this week! Oh, boy -- I had not tried this fabulous tool yet and now I am totally hooked ... I'll be Fuse'ing everything!! You may know I have an affinity for calendars, so I thought I would incorporate this fun tool into my daily/monthly lifestyle and make a fun Fall divider page/dashboard for my planner. This is what I came up with:
Here's a different view of the front of the divider, out of the planner:
I found Ellen's Essentials by Ellen Medium Storage Envelope (normally used for tall stamp set storage) are a good size for my Erin Condren 7" wide x 8-3/4" tall planner pages. I just cut off the top flap of the plastic storage envelope with my paper trimmer, leaving an approximately 5-1/2" wide x 9" tall "pocket" enclosed on three sides:
This favorite photo of the people I love has been floating around on my desk since we moved this April, needing to find a home, so I thought using it was the perfect choice! Plus, it happened to have some of my favorite colors in it, that matched the fun Authentique Utopia 6x6 paper pad I purchased earlier this summer and hadn't had a chance to use yet! I am trying to hold on to the last bit of Summer here but the temps finally dropped below 70 this week, so this is my attempt to remember warmer days! :)
Next, I laid out and prepared all of my inserts, making sure to also finish the back sides since they would also show through the clear envelope. After everything was finished, I positioned the envelope with the opening at the bottom and started loading in the inserts. First, the topper:
Then I used the Fuse tool and metal ruler to seal a horizontal line, using my grid paper stamping pad as a handy guideline:
Since Ellen's envelopes are heavy-duty, I found moving the hot wheel of the Fuse tool VERY slowly ensured a good seal:
Next, I sealed in three 2" x 1-1/2" pieces of pretty scenic "postage stamps" from the Authentique Utopia 6x6 paper pad, addding a watercolored Essentials by Ellen Gord-Jus die cut (leftover from a previous project) to the center stamp/tile. <==(More details on that in a bit)
Here's are some detailed views of my work . . . The topper is a piece of the patterned Authentique Utopia paper, with my own word die cuts added. I die cut Julie's Essentials by Ellen Brushstroke Hello from gold glitter paper, Totally Fabulous from blue marbled Utopia paper, and used MFT's Little Letters Alpha to die cut more Utopia paper to spell the word FALL. Some Pretty Pink Posh Aquamarine sequins were scattered and glued in place:
The middle row is made up of those previously-mentioned "postage stamp" scenes from the Utopia paper pad. The middle one is the pretty backside of those scenes. I topped it with an Essentials by Ellen Gord-Jus die cut from watercolor paper that had been dipped into Distress Inks. I took these Distress Inks (Aged Mahogony, Barn Door, Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint, Ripe Persimmon) and smooshed them onto my craft sheet, lightly misted them with a little water, then dipped the paper into the ink and let dry:
On the bottom right I inserted the photo and sealed the left side with the Fuse tool, leaving the bottom open for the moment. Next, for the heart I die cut another pattern of the Utopia paper with an Essentials by Ellen Folk Heart, and topped it with the word FAMILY spelled out with MFT Little Letters alphabet Die-namics. I used Copic's Sand Atyou Spica Glitter Pen to outline the right sides and bottoms of the letters, creating a shadow effect. Then I wedged the heart into the envelope/sleeve at the angle I wanted it and sealed the diagonal line. This created a little triangle pocket in which to place rose gold and aquamarine sequins. I also added the sequin mix to the photo insert, then sealed the entire bottom edge.
Next, here's a full view of the back side of the envelope:
I placed the strip of patterned paper from which I die cut the FAMILY letters, backed with gold glitter paper, and added another watercolored die cut Gord-Jus leaf. The middle section is just the backs of the "postage stamp" scenes, with more Gord-Jus watercolored die cut leaves.
On the lower portion, left: Backing the photo is another Utopia patterned paper, gold heat embossed with one of my favorite sentiments from Julie's Essentials by Ellen Love You So stamp set, and another Gord-Jus watercolored die cut pumpkin. I love how the back sides of the patterned paper Folk Heart and sequins show through the envelope, with no additional effort!
Here's a look at the divider/dashboard in my planner (I used last year's planner for these photos, because these pages were blank and a lot neater than my current planner, LOL!)
Since my planner pages are spiral-bound and have a gazillion holes in them, I wasn't about to try and punch that many small holes in my pretty dashboard divider in order to attach it in. (But if yours has fewer holes and is a binder that can open, that's totally what I would do). Instead, I just put a few small pieces of double-sided high tack tape on the acrylic divider that came with my planner and just attached the dashboard to that:
In the future if I want to switch out the dashboard/divider, taking it off the small acrylic divider will be easy to do.
Having the dashboard/divider about 1-1/4" narrower than the page makes it easy to grasp and turn:
So you can also see the pretty backside, too!
Thanks so much for joining me today ... I hope you'll give the Fuse tool a try and love it as much as I do! ~ Sharon
