Hey everyone its Tracy here today I am bringing you a process, video. Actually, it’s, more of a Tips & amp Tricks, type, video using the we r memory keepers fuse tool, and how do you incorporate it in your project? Life spreads.
So I’m, going to be showing you five ways that I use the fuse tool with my album, and hopefully you guys will learn something new that maybe you hadn’t thought to do before using some of your left over page Protectors and lots of little embellishment, some mainly sequins, and so I picked up this glass cutting mat by we r memory keepers from Michael’s a few weeks ago before then, I was using the fuse tool on my marble countertop in my kitchen, which Totally worked, but this is a bit more convenient because I can bring it over to my desk.
I’ve, been heating the fuse tool for about 10 to 15 minutes. You want to make sure that it’s, nice and hot, so it will properly melt your page protectors. I’m, going to be using the ruler that came with the fuse tool as well as this metal ruler that I picked up from Staples yeah.
It’s 15 inches long, so it works really great. If you’re working with 12 by 12, page protectors, this group, this small one, is good too, for when you’re doing smaller pockets. But I found that it was really difficult to measure out long strips with the fuse tool.
Using this smaller ruler, so I picked up this one from Staples, I think, was about five dollars again. You’ll want something that’s, metal just because the plastic will be melted because of the hot fuse tool.
So this is. I was really excited that I picked this up and it was really inexpensive. So and if you don’t know Staples near you, any sort of stationary store will hopefully carry it. So one of the first things that I have done with the fuse tool is, I’ve made this flip pocket here.
My brother’s, going to be really excited that I used that very unflattering picture of him, but that’s, okay, so what I did is quite often I take 12 by 12 page protectors, and I cut them down just because I Have a bunch on hand and it’s, just the easiest thing for me to do right now, so this was a Becky Higgins, 12 by 12 page protector.
I believe it was designed F, which means that this top pocket here was a four by six that I used the fuse tool on to make into all three by fours. So when you cut down your 12 by 12 page protector, you end up with a strip left over.
A lot of people probably will just throw these out. I like to keep them. I have a small box that has all of these old bits and pieces of page protectors that I’ve, a little bits and pieces that I’ve cut down.
So because I just I don’t like throwing things away, so I tend to I’m a bit of a hoarder, but I’ve, been keeping these long before the fuse tool was even around so yeah. I’m just I’m glad that I kept these because I can reuse them.
So what I did is, I took my a paper trimmer and I just cut one side down which I’ll, just quickly show you how I did here. So as you see, they’re open on the side here. So what I did is, I just cut it down just above where the perforated lines already are so then now here we ‘
Ve got just a three by four little sleeve, so what I did is I sealed up this side. I just took the little ruler here, just lined it up. I work on the outside, just because I find that that’s a little bit easier and then you just seal it close.
So now it’s open just at the top. Here so what I did for this picture is, I took this picture of me and Sophie. We were facetiming with my brother and I took a screenshot of it, so I layered it onto a journal card and I stuck it in the pocket and then on the upside.
I wrote on the back of the journal card and then I stuck this picture in so of course I did it on the backside, and so I just stuck them all into the pocket. I took my spare 3 by 4 a little page protector, and I just lined it up along the top here and I’m, not going to actually do it just because I don’t want to seal up this pocket, but I Took the little ruler and there’s a little bit of space along the top.
So I just took the fuse tool and I went across it a couple of times just to make sure that I had actually melted the plastic together and it cooled basically right away, and then I was left with this really neat little flip pocket.
So what you could do is, you could add a little tab to the side. Just so it’s, more noticeable that it’s, a flip pocket. You could use it to hide some journaling if you wanted to or really you could put anything in there.
I really liked how this turned out just because I’ve got. You know the picture of me and Sophie facetiming and then what it looked like when we were actually facetiming with my brother. I know it seems kind of weird but Sophie actually really so he really likes to FaceTime with my family.
So, yes, I thought that was just kind of a cute little thing to do and it used up some of this. There bits that I had left over, so I mean you could do that if you wanted to like, because you can’t even see it on the other side, what could be kind of cool is if you filled up all of your pockets on The other side – and you took little individual ones and you did it on all nine of these pages.
You could have like some sort of story. You could have your pictures on the outside and then underneath you could have all your journaling or general. That would be a really cool sort of interactive type page that you could use so that’s.
One way of using it, which is really cool. I’ll, definitely be doing that again. There used to be these little pockets that you could it was it had an adhesive on it and then you could tape or you know, put it down.
I found those were really hard to work with and they weren’t actually three by four. They were a little bit bigger, which overlapped and then it didn’t, look really nice, and so using these spare bits.
You know that they’re, going to be three by four and that they’ll fit nicely over top. If you want to make it a little bit smaller, you can trim off the side before you seal it up, and then you got your little interactive flip pocket there, so that’s, one way of using it.
Another thing that you could do is so this is another page protector that I had that I have cut down. That was a 12 by 12. It’s, a design F page protector, so it has one four by six and then it has seven.
Three by fours this is kind of my go-to page protector. I like that it gives me the one four by six spot and the three by fours are my favorite size to work in. They were my favorite size to work in last year as well.
So I liked to continue that it’s, a great way to have a lot of pictures and on one page. So if you want one like the previous one, I showed you that had all four by sixes. What you can do is what I like to do, just to make sure that I have everything in here: okay, you can take two journal cards and just put them in the side.
This works better than if you were to measure it out, because I find that sometimes the it’s, not actually six inches, and so, if you do it down to three, then you ‘ Ve got one pocket that’s. Bigger than the other, and I’ve had yeah, I’ve had that happen before, and it wasn’t fun.
So what I like to do is I like to put in both of my page or sorry both of my journal cards or my pictures. Whatever you’re going to use, and then you see how you have this line here in the center, you can take the little ruler and then you just line it up with the previous line, and you take your fuse tool and you just go Down the center of the page, I find that it works better to pull it towards you kind of messed up here and instead of pushing away from you.
I just feel like because this way you can see you know exactly what’s happening, and then you just go over it. I use sort of moderate pressure there’s, definitely some trial and error with the tool you should well.
I found that if you leave it on long enough, you know, as I said at the start of the video ten to fifteen minutes, so it’s really hot. That helps otherwise it doesn’t, actually seal the pockets. Another thing is, I find that sometimes it gets stuck, and so it kind of drags along your page protector, and then you end up with sort of like a line.
Instead of the little dots, it still will seal your pocket, and I mean it’s, not really that noticeable. But that is something that you just kind of want to watch out for so just kind of use, moderate pressure – and you saw the speed that I went.
I didn’t. Go too fast. I didn’t, go too slow again. It’s, kind of trial and error for whatever works for you. It also depends on what brand page protectors you’re using. I find that certain ones like the thick of the plastic.
If they’re thicker, you have to go slower, so it really melts the plastic other ones just kind of going along works. So this one turned out pretty well, you’ve got now. I’ve got that one four by six pocket is now turned into eight all three by four pocket.
So I’m just going to take these out, and this is a little preview of what I’m, going to be working on for my last item. So what I’m, going to do now, just for fun, is I’m, going to show you how to make a confetti pocket.
These are a lot of fun and I showed you can show you here. I used them on this spread here. I took the studio calico nine by twelve page protector, and I took the one that has the all squares, and so I cut down some journal cards and I added some sequins into these pockets because I thought it gave a really neat.
You know little effect, so you can see through it. You could see what was happening on the other side and yeah, so this was just kind of a fun little way to add a little bit of a design. Had I redone it now, I probably would have done this one facing this way too, just so it kind of balanced a bit.
But overall I’m, pretty happy with how this turned out and it’s. Also, it’s, a great way to use up. I know we all have a lot of sequins and we have a lot of wood veneers. This is a great way to include them without only putting one or two around.
You can really use one little pocket and you can see here. I use quite a bit here and I used a quite a bit up here, so I’m, going to show you how I did that with this page protector. So I keep my sequence in a bead box from Michaels.
I have a lot of these and, as you can see, I kind of have all these ones color-coordinated these ones I just kind of threw in there, because I just no – I just didn’t feel like going through and starting them.
So these boxes are really inexpensive and they’re really great because they have a little lip on the bottom and it curved. So it helps you pick up your sequins or whatever you have in them. I also have my wood veneers in them as well, and my flare badges.
Those are in a different spot right now, but trust me this is a great way to store them. So I’m just going to put this up here, so I think I’m going to put I’m just going to work on this bottom corner here.
So you just take a take your page protector and you take your sequins and you can just drop them just well. This would work with buttons or, as I said, flare badges, wood, veneers sequins. You could actually even use glitter if you wanted.
The only thing with the glitter is because these little perforated dots are not solid. The glitter will go through them, which I’ve had had, which happened to me before, and I got glitter all over. My kitchen, which well yeah it happens, so you see you just put the sequins in here um.
I’m gonna put just put some silver ones in here. She bigger silver ones in here and just drop those in there. You can put as many or as little that you want in here again you take the smaller ruler here.
Do it this way and then you just go right up at the top here. I try and go as close to the top as I can and you just take the tool and fuse it closed. You want to make sure that you’ve gone all the way across a great way to do.
That is to shake your pocket and there you go so this is a really fun thing to do, and then you can see it on both sides. Just like that. Another fun thing that you can do is you could do triangles across.
I don’t, have any pieces of paper with me right now, but I’ll. Just show you how I do it. So what I do is I’ll cut a journal card. You could cut one in half long wise, like this on sorry on the angle.
What I do is, then I stick the pocket in or that the card in you want to make sure that whatever you like on the back side is good because it’s going to seal it closed so make sure you’re Thinking about that, when you go to do this, so you just take your fuse tool along the top here and here and you just go down the side like that.
So then, what that will do is that will seal up your pocket, so you ‘ Ve got two here so now this one is completely closed. So you won’t, be able to put anything else in there, but this top one is still open, so you could put whatever you wanted.
You could use another journal card. You could use a picture. You could do whichever you wanted. Another thing you could do is go across like this and if you’ve got a sequence in one of the sides.
You can just go across like that and you could really get creative with how like you see, you could have a picture here. You can have some sequence here. You could have a journal card up here. There’s, lots of different ways, not sure if you can see that there’s, lots of different ways that you can manipulate these page protectors into working with how you want them to so that’s, a fun way To add a little bit of extra to them, so another thing that you could do I’m, not even sure what number I’m up to is that was three or four I don’t, know um.
So I’m working on this little details mini album that Tina had put together for one of the studio, calico classes. I’m a little behind on it, but all the materials there and it’s. A really great class – I’m – really excited so I had these little dividers here, and so I cut them all down, so they would fit into this 4×6 album and they were regular eight-and-a-half by 11 dividers.
So I had a lot left over. So I thought: hey I’ve got some spare old page protectors. So what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna add a page protector to this see if I can find it here so here. So this is what I did so I got a picture of Sophie on one side that I punched and put into the album, and then I had a journal card from seven paper or actually this was the dog card set.
That was, I think, was last month, and so what I did is I had some spare pages and I had these spare little transparent pieces of colored. Actually it’s plastic. So what I did is, I cut them down and I just stuck them into the pocket and I just used my fuse tool to seal it up and I sealed up along the top here along the side here.
This was the original closed edge, so it was sealed – and I think I’ve sealed along the bottom too, and I’m, really happy with how it turned out. So you can even use doesn’t mean you don’t even have to use the fuse tool for project life.
You can use it for your mini albums as well. So this is something I’m. Definitely going to do again because I just I love the effect of how it turned out and that I believe this was a six by six pocket that I cut down into four by six and popped it into my album, so that turned out really well.
I’m, really excited about that. So now. Lastly, what I’m going to show you is, I kind of had this idea for a paid project life page, but almost like almost like a scrapbook layout in a project life page.
I’m, going to use bits and pieces from one of the older kids. I think this is a mixture of Carolina Moon and Galileo, so Father’s Day is coming up and I actually it was my dad’s. My dad’s gonna love that I’m, showing this to um.
I made a card for my dad for his birthday back in April of some of my favorite pictures of us from when I was baby. So I thought this would be also a great way I mean he has the card, but I really like how this turned out, so I thought for Father’s Day.
What I’ll do is, I will put it into my album. So I printed out this 4×6 picture and then I have some of these cards from the past hits. So I think what I’m going to do. Is I’m, going to sort of have it like this, and I’m going to use the fuse tool to make it float in the page protector um? I’ve done things like this before, where I’ve, you know taking a picture or something I’ve received in the mail, and I’ve stapled it into a page protector just to give that floating Effect, I really like how that looks, but now that I have the fuse tool, I can really make this work without having to use staples.
So I’m going to stop talking now, because I’m going to fast forward through the video a little bit when I get going for this, and so I hope you guys enjoyed this video. And hopefully you will stick with me as I go through and show you how I put this layout together.
Thanks guys, you, Oh, Oh, you