Hello, my planner friends, Julie here today to set up a couple of dashboards with you. If you’ve seen my flip-through, you’ll know that I used a bunch of cut files in my planner for November. For the purposes of today’s blog, I’m not getting into the cutting part of the process, just the assembly. So, for my first dashboard, I have all of the pieces and parts cut out and ready to go. I’ve also pulled a strip of paper and some glitter dots from the Memory Keeping kits as well as a card from the Memory Keeping Pocket kit. If you prefer, you can also watch a video of this process by clicking on the image above. I will be releasing additional assembly process videos throughout the month of each of my November dashboards on YouTube.

I couldn’t find a cut file of an autumn wreath that I liked so I just used several different cut files to create the wreath that I envisioned. To begin, I gently bent the edges of both of the wreath files so that they would have some dimension on the page.

Before arranging my leaves to create the wreath, I took a brush pen and colored along the edges of the brown leaves so that you didn’t see the contrast of the white paper on the sides. Because I slightly bent each of the leaves as I attached them, the white edges were definitely visible before I marked them with the brown brush pen. I was very methodical in putting down the leaves and even had a cadence going in my head, “Brown leaf, yellow leaf, orange leaf, craft” as I went around the wreath. You could also do this with a small leaf punch without the green wreath forms behind if you don’t have a Silhouette or Cricut.

Once I got all the leaves attached, I added branches at the bottom of the wreath as a base for my bow.

I settled on this petite orange satin ribbon for my wreath bow and then loosely laid down the additional items to see how I liked the layout. I trimmed the pocket card just tall enough so that I didn’t cut off any of the letters in November and I cut two very narrow strips of the paper from the Memory Keeping kits. When I turned the paper over to put adhesive on it, I discovered that I preferred the pattern on the backside of the paper so I made a quick pivot and changed from the multicolor stripe pattern to the diagonal plaid pattern.

I glued down the trimmed-down November card and strips so that I could decide where to place the velvet bow. I marked two spots with my brush pen that were approximately centered vertically between the November banner and the bottom of the page and visually centered horizontally. I prefer to “eyeball” this as the fact that there are holes punched on the left makes true center look like it’s off-center.

I punched the holes and tied the ribbon using a technique that I learned while designing stationery in a former career. It helps to watch the video for this part but basically, you thread the ribbon from the front to the back through both holes and then twist the ribbon on the backside and thread it back through to the front. The twisting part is not necessary if you have a double-faced ribbon but my velvet only had one good side. For this technique, and especially if you use a velvet ribbon or another type of ribbon with some bulk, you will need to create some clearance on the backside of the dashboard.

I used foam tape around the edges of the dashboard to allow room for the back of my bow as well to allow room for the shaker bits that I am adding to the back of this dashboard

So here is my (almost) finished product. If you look at the first image, you’ll see that long after I created this dashboard, I decided that it looked a little bare in the top right corner and I added a die-cut.

Now it’s time to set up the back of the dashboard. I don’t always go full out on both the front and back of my dashboards but often, I have more ideas than dashboards so I take advantage of having two sides. I’ve gathered up my supplies for this side, using a paper from the Memory Keeping kits, the wood veneer bits from the Classified: Memory Keeping Edition kit, some ribbon, twine, glitter paper from my stash, and a mixture of sequins from my stash and the Flannel & Frost kits from Cocoa Daisy in October. I cut the leaf and the two holes for the twine with my Silhouette. I pulled the twine through the holes because this step really needed to be done before I put the shaker on the back and I felt like I would forget it.

I put adhesive on one side of the leaf so that I could secure it to the page. I wanted it to look like it would pivot, but I wanted to make sure that it didn’t come loose.

I gathered up the sequins and put them in one of the Cocoa Daisy packaging bags that was just a little bit bigger than the leaf cutout. Look at how cute those little leaves are from the Flannel & Frost sequin mix

The copper stars and the round brown sequins were from my stash but they looked wonderful mixed in with the leaves.

Even though the packaging has a sticky strip to seal it, I took the extra precaution of taping down the packaging, because sequins and glitter have such an extraordinary ability to escape.

Once I had securely sealed the packaging, I just used clear tape to adhere the packaging to the back of the dashboard.

And . . . this is the point that I remembered that I had cut the front side of this dashboard a little bit larger than A5 and I had cut the back exactly A5.

So now, I have a little bit of the foam tape showing. This reminds me of a quote that design is essentially solving problems. I decided to continue making my dashboard and ruminate on this issue and how I was going to solve it.

Once again, I used clear tape to attach the glitter paper to the back of the card, making sure that it covered the entire leaf cutout.

I tied the twine into a small bow to make it appear that I was tying two leaves together. I really like how it’s coming along at this point.

To ensure that my bow does not come undone, I put a little dab of glue right on the tied part of the bow. Okay, so actually, I put a large dab of glue there and had to come back and remove some of it. But glue dries clear and you will never see it once it dries.

I’ve put it off long enough; it’s now time to solve the problem of the front and back not being the same size. It’s a pretty easy solution. I just used another piece of paper from the Memory Keeping kits and cut it to the size of the front side. I had to trim the top piece to ensure that the frame was the same on all 4 sides and in hindsight, I think it adds a little extra to the look of the dashboard.

I have a wide satin ribbon for the top and a smaller brown velvet ribbon to place on top of the satin one.

I simply use my Tombow Mono Dots Adhesive Runner to attach the ribbon. I was a little worried that it wouldn’t hold it but it’s stayed down perfectly. I did the same thing with the brown velvet, centering it on the satin ribbon. Before I put the ribbons down, I tested the velvet to see how well my hole puncher worked with it since I would have to punch a hole in it after I put it down. I was surprised at how well the hole puncher worked with the velvet. It created a clean hole. I put Fray-Check on the sides of the ribbon after I trimmed off the edges to keep them from fraying. It did end up staining the satin ribbon some but it is hardly noticeable once it dried.

I used E6000 craft adhesive to attach the wood veneer pieces. I was a little too generous with the E6000 and had to use a paintbrush to remove the excess adhesive.

And here is the backside of the dashboard, once again (almost) complete. After I stopped filming, I decided that the “Hello Autumn” wood veneer piece didn’t have enough “oomph” so I removed it and inserted a brown chipboard piece underneath it to complete this project.

I hope you enjoyed walking through this process with me. I will be releasing several additional process videos on YouTube this month showing how I put together all of my dashboards.

Keep crafting my friends!

Julie

IG: juliedealmooney

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