Crafting Your SoulCollage® Card Portfolio               

Once a pastry chef always a pastry eater. I can’t teach you how to create a five-tiered chocolate Opera, but at least I can introduce you to some of my favorite Christmas treats.

So to kick-off our first Christmas in Ireland, and before you settle into constructing a portfolio for your Xmas deck, here’s how you conjure a batch of scrumptious nutty-chocolate brownies:

Homemade Brownies

Ivette’s Scrumptious Chocolate Brownie Recipe:

First read the recipe & instructions to make sure you have the ingredients and equipment:

250 g (grams) dark chocolate 70% at least cacao

200 g sweet butter (save a spoonful to butter baking tray)

175 g granulated sugar

163 g eggs (whole)

113 g Type 55 Flour (sift)

1g sea salt

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon vanilla aroma

110 g fresh cream

160 g of assorted nuts: crush cashews, almonds, hazel…set aside a handful for topping

Preheat oven 165°c

• Melt chocolate over bain-marie, set aside & allow to cool at 45°c

• Melt butter in a pan, set aside & cool at 22°c

• In a bowl add eggs, sugar, salt and whisk till blanched

• In a separate bowl mix cream and both vanillas

• Add cream/vanilla mixture to egg mixture use a whisk to combine

• When cooled, pour butter into melted chocolate incorporate using a spatula
• Pour the cream/egg mixture into the melted chocolate, gently rotate the mixing bowl while incorporating and combing ingredients with a whisk
• Slowly add sifted flour a portion at a time, gently stir between additions using a whisk
• Add crushed nuts and gently mix with spatula
• Butter 20X20 x 4cm (square) baking pan, and line with baking parchment
• Pour brownie batter into lined pan at least 3/4 full
• Tap pan against table to level batter
• Decorate top with remaining handful of nuts
• Bake 30-35 minutes at 165°c
• Remove from oven
• Check center that should be gooey/moist when poked not dry
•  Allow to cool completely before serving and/or cutting into squares 

Wrap, refrigerate and save brownies for Christmas. Or serve them on a cheerful plate, grab a cup of green tea and munch while reading How-to Construct a Portfolio.

Holy day albums make wonderful keepsakes and this accordion-style portfolio is easy to make.

Think of yourself as a Father Christmas Elf or a Mother Christmas Elfina, conjuring a Xmas treat for the rest of the world to savor. To continue with our series, here in Part 2 we’ll make fold-out pages, create sleeves from our Pre-Raphaelite designs, attach ribbons, make covers, and collage artwork on the front.

portfolio art supplies

Materials list for an Accordion-style portfolio :

Your stack of Pre-Raphaelite Daughters of Mother Christmas and Sons of Father Christmas, SoulCollage®  cards. I have twenty.

Glue stick

Transparent tape

Ruler

Pencil

Scissors

2 5X8 inch mat boards for front and back covers (add a 1/4 inch to length & width if Xmas cards are larger)

2 sheets of festive paper (larger than or cut to the exact size of mat boards)

3 1/2 sheets of A4  construction paper for album pages (mine are black)

2 strips of ribbon (mine is watermelon pink)

Print extra Pre-Raphaelite images on heavier paper to use as inserts or  sleeves for cards

To create the accordion effect, fold each sheet of A4 black paper in half, open the sheets, lay one alongside the other and tape together. Fold and tape together as many pages as you need for your cards.

album pages

I have twenty cards, two cards to a page, so this is why I need 3 1/2 sheets of A4 paper. I need to make ten sleeves to hold my entire deck of SoulCollage® cards.

sleeve and sample cut-outs

To create a sleeve choose a patterned motif. Cut one side of your design at a right angle, the other side follow the outline of the design as you cut (see photo).  On the backside of your sleeve add glue along the edge of the right angle, towards the corner and across the bottom (not along the outline side, this remains open!). Flip the sleeve over, align it to fit the page and press to adhere.

Before gluing the 1st and last pages to each of the mat boards, cover the front of both cards with your festive paper. Mine is a yuletide-green with a lovely white floral design on one side. Cover the entire front of the board with glue and if the paper extends,  fold, and let it overlap onto the backside. The backside of your mat boards is where you glue the 1st page, and the last page of your accordion fold-out. Don’t forget to glue an inch of ribbon between the backside and the 1st page of your fold-out (do the same between the last page and the back cover). The ribbons tie the album together.

Front cover. Ribbon. Sleeve with card.

Before inserting all your cards in your portfolio, collage an image on the front cover. Be creative. Use you imagination.

Daughters of Mother Xmas and Sons of Father Xmas Portfolio

I collaged an angel and Christmas ornaments, stamped letters, tucked my cards inside, and tied the ribbons to complete my portfolio.

Click Here To Review All I Want For Xmas Part I

To Be Continued Click Here For Part 3 Truth Be Told: Naming Your Cards, Asking What They Mean