Once again, I am honored to be a guest designer for the Creative Creases Challenge. As always, the theme for the challenge is Anything Goes with a Fun Fold, and if you’ve been following my blog you already know I love finding new fun folds! Here’s the link to the Creative Creases Challenge #96!
For a number of years I’ve been making cards for a colleague/friend at school. This is the Christmas card for his parents, which includes a gift card pocket. His mother’s favorite color is basically any shade of blue, and he requested snowflakes for this year’s card. I was happy to oblige!
Here’s my card:
I used a video tutorial from Creating with Kristina for her W fold card. You can find her video here. It may look complicated, but if you can trim and score paper, this fun fold is for you!
Measurements:
The Night of Navy base measures 8-1/2 by 5-1/2 inches, scored at 4-1/4 inches
The Night of Navy inside W fold cardstock measures 5-3/8 by 11 inches
For the Night of Navy on the front, I started with a 5-3/8 by 4 inch piece of cardstock, then cropped it using the Frozen Edges die
HINT: When using this die, you need to trim it to the desired height before you crop it out. Trust me on this.
Score this cardstock piece at 2-3/4, 5-1/2, and 8-1/4 inches, which should fold up into equal quarters
The white cardstock on the front and inside panels all measure 4-1/8 by 5-3/8 inches
I used two other pieces of white cardstock each measuring 4-1/4 by 5-1/2 inches
Trim a piece of the cardstock to 3-1/4 by 4-1/2 inches for the back sentiment panel
I used dues from the Stylish Shapes die set to crop the front circle, and the two inside sentiments
Stamping & Embossing:
There’s quite a lot of embossing on this card using clear, white, and gold embossing powder
All of the snowflakes come from the One of a Kind photopolymer stamp set
First, I stamped the large snowflake in clear on the white cardstock front panel and heat set it
Here’s a close-up of one of the front snowflakes:
Next, I turned my attention to the inside Night of Navy W folder piece of cardstock
First, I stamped the large snowflakes in VersaMark ink, covered it with clear embossing powder and heat set all of them
Next, I stamped the medium snowflakes in VersaMark ink, covered them all with gold embossing powder, and heat set them
I did the same with the smallest snowflake using white embossing powder and heat set them
All the sentiments come from the Greetings of the Season photopolymer stamp set
The sentiments were stamped on white cardstock using VersaMark ink, covered in gold embossing powder, and heat set
Assembly:
Unless otherwise noted, I used multipurpose liquid glue to adhere the pieces of the card together
I don’t have to worry about the card being too bulky or requiring extra postage because it will be hand-delivered and still fits inside a medium envelope
Adhere a piece of ribbon onto the front piece of the Night of Navy cardstock snowflake and adhere it with tear & tape in the back
Adhere the cardstock to the front piece of white embossed cardstock
Add dimensionals to the sentiment circle and adhere
Slide the gold embossed and cropped snowflake under the sentiment circle and adhere
Adhere the two inside white cardstock panels
Add glue to the left quarter of the Night of Navy W fold and adhere to the inside of the base
Add glue to the top, bottom, and left sides of the right quarter of the W fold.
HINT: Do NOT add glue to the whole side of this part of the W fold. You will need to be able slide a gift card in that part of the W fold
Adhere the back sentiment piece
With that, I’d finished this fun fold Christmas card
Welcome to InKing Royalty’s March Blog Hop! This year’s Blog Hop themes are inspired by a single word – and this month our projects are centered around GREEN. We are excited to share our creations with you today – there’s a wonderful variety of styles and occasions celebrated in this hop! After you read my post, I hope you’ll hop over to the next person on the list at the base of this post.
March = Irish = Green
It’s March, I’m Irish, so of course, the theme of green is perfect. My first thought was that it was time to break out the frogs from So Hoppy Together cling stamp set. After waiting for the corrdinating dies to arrive, they became unorderable. Therefore, I really needed to demonstrate one way they can be used without fussy cutting. This fun fold card really developed as I worked, and I enjoyed the process. After watching Jan B’s W fold tutorial video and tweaked the size so my final project is 4.25 ” by 5.5″. The learning curve on this turned out to be steep, but wouldn’t have been if I followed more of the directions on the tutorial.
Oh, So Many Greens
Here’s the front and back of my card:
I used the Light and Dark Granny Apple Green Stamping Blends to color all the frogs on this card. The dragonflies and cute little bugs were colored using Stamping Write Markers in Granny Apple Green and Shaded Spruce. All of these markers coordinate with the Tropical Escape DSP, from which all the patterns came that I used in this card. This DSP coordinate fabulously with the Frogs! I tried to use really fun patterns, especially since the frogs are nothing by fun!
The base of the card is Granny Apple Green, with a thin Basic Black mat under the DSP on both the front and back. I really felt that something else needed to be added to the front of the card, so I used 3 of the smallest black faceted dots. I used the Sale-a-Bration Granny Apple Green ribbon and the Dotted Tulle ribbon (LOVE!) layered and knotted on the front. The sentiment on the back of the card is from the Vibrant Vases stamp set from the Ocassions catalog.
The inside of this card was a product of love and patience. I could see what I the final card that wanted in my head, but it wasn’t easy. You know when you get ink where you didn’t want it and have adhesive seep out of the layers all adds up to walking away for a bit and coming back. That’s exactly what I did.
Here’s three different views of the inside:
Inside, I took a chance on the busy DSP, but since the frog panels are clean, I think it works.
Things I Learned:
I should have paid more attention to Jan B. when she explained about needing the ribbons to tie the card shut. Since I didn’t follow her directions, I had to put the ribbon between the Basic Black 1.5″ x 11″ strip and the DSP. Then I had to quickly move the ribbons’ positions to line up with the ribbon on the front. The sentiment on the front and the inside are both from So Hoppy stamp set, while the back sentiment is from Vibrant Vases in the Ocassions catalog, yet another wonderful stamp set!
It was very helpful to do all the cropping in the Big Shot as soon as I stamped the frogs, even before I colored them. I used the new Rectangle Stitched Framelits (in the Ocassions catalog) and my very well loved Stitched Shapes framelits.
When taking pictures of my card, I figured out that I need to practice using my iPad. The first set didn’t come out well at all, so I went back to what I know, using my iPhone.
Through the whole process, which took more than one night, I happily colored, relaxed, created, and enjoyed my time. Isn’t that part of the reason we do what we do?
Enjoy the Remainder of the Hop!
Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you’ll hop along to the next stop on the bloghop, Candy Ford at Stamp Candy. You don’t want to miss all the inspiration found in this group!
Welcome to Just Peachy Stamping by Sue Jackson: an independent Stampin' Up demonstrator.
Through Stampin' Up!, I happily share my love of papercrafting through sales, classes, small stamping group meet-ups and workshops. I think that being a teacher in my "real life", I have a unique approach to sharing my fantastic hobby. I look forward to connecting with you!
