Category: Fun Folds

Friends for Life · Fun Folds · Gifting

Happy Birthday, Friend

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Today we’re continuing to explore all the many ways we can use the Friends for Life bundle by Stampin’ Up! to create fabulous projects. I don’t know about you, but I like to have birthday cards of all kinds on hand for those moments when I need to grab a birthday card on the run. And today’s design is a two-for-one — a gift and a beautiful card!

This gift card design is a modified version of the Slide Up Gift Card Holder by fellow demo Jackie Bolhuis over at Klompen Stampers. I simplified the design to have a slide out gift card holder rather than the slide up version Jackie makes, but both are equally as wonderful for providing a lovely way to give a gift card. What I really loved about this design is it offers so much visual interest. From a beautiful card front that serves double duty as the gift card pocket to the ample space on the inside to dress things up, you have plenty of opportunity to express your creativity.

We get started with a base of Pretty in Pink cardstock. The cardstock is halved on the long edge for this design, but rather than scoring in the center, you’ll instead score at 3 3/4-inches and 9 1/4-inches. That gives you a center portion of standard size and then a flip-up flap and smaller bottom flap for the card front. The smaller flap should be adhered to the card base on either side to create the small pocket, which will be visible when the card front is closed. I chose a sheet of the Flowering Zinnias designer paper as the background panel and cut it so that a small border shows on each of the front panels. The fun background image is the large heart from the Friends for Life die set. I cut a Pretty in Pink heart and used the center portion as the background for the Pretty in Pink glimmer hearts. For the glimmer hearts, nestle the leaf heart die inside the large heart die when diecutting. I then used both the outside and inside hearts on top of the Pretty in Pink solid heart. The sentiment panel is diecut from Pretty in Pink using the smudge banner and then the sentiment is stamped tone-on-tone toward one end. The word friend from Friends for Life is stamped in Pretty in Pink on white cardstock and then diecut with the coordinating die. The sentiment is adhered to the card front with dimensionals .Two small hearts are diecut from white glimmer paper and used as eye-catching accents for the sentiment. The card front is finished of with a few In Color shimmer gems.

The inside of the card is finished to coordinate with the card front. The top flip panel has a piece of the Flowering Zinnias designer paper. Two shimmery banners diecut from glimmer paper and cut using the Filled with Fun dies bring festive fun to this top panel. The inside sentiment from Filled with Fun is stamped on white cardstock diecut using the Autumn Leaves dies. TIP: In order to get the banner long enough for the sentiment, you’ll want to use the extension method.

The gift card holder itself is a pocket within a pocket. It’s made two-sided so that the portion visible through the card front disappears into the background. A tug on the Pretty in Pink bordered ribbon reveals the gift holder and the gift card in the pocket on the reverse side. Each side has a piece of the Flowering Zinnias paper to coordinate with the rest of the card, along with a repeat of the happy birthday sentiment. I chose to keep the inside of my card very simple, but you can see where you could really dress it up.

I hope you’ll join me tomorrow for a more masculine inspired design.

Products used in today’s gift card:
Pretty in Pink, Basic White cardstock
Flowering Zinnias, In Color glimmer, White glimmer DSP
Friends for Life, Filled with Fun stamps
Friends for Life, Autumn Leaves, Filled with Fun dies
Pretty in Pink bordered ribbon
In Color shimmer gems, In Color resin dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Flowering Zinnias · Fun Folds · Shop the catalog

Wishing Strength

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We’re finishing out this week’s tour of the Flowering Zinnias suite with a beautiful fun fold featuring the designer series paper. The paper in this suite is what initially caught my eye, but once it was all said and done, I ended up with all of the coordinating products after being inspired by what other crafters were able to do with the suite as a whole.

Today’s card design uses a double fold-over panel fun fold and showcases the Flowering Zinnias DSP. We’re using the coordinating Simply Zinnia dies to accentuate elements of the gorgeous paper.

We start this card with a standard base of Mossy Meadow cardstock, which is scored in the center. The front panel is cut diagonally to make a smaller fold-over panel in order to reveal more of the gorgeous designer paper on the fold-over panel underneath. This small panel is then covered with the leaves and stems patterned sheet from the Flowering Zinnias paper pack, which is matted with a piece of Soft Sea Foam cardstock. Each layer is 1/8-inch smaller than the next.

Next, we move to assembling the overlapping front sentiment panel. The base layer is Mossy Meadow cardstock that has been diecut with the second largest hexagon from the Nested Essentials die set. Cut an identical size hexagon from Soft Sea Foam and then cut a sliver from the center so that a small border of Mossy Meadow is exposed on either side at top and bottom when the two hexagons are adhered together. The sentiment panel is cut from white cardstock with the next-smallest nesting hexagon from the die set and the sentiment from the Inspiring Snapdragons stamp set is stamped in the center. All three layers are adhered together in one flat panel and adhered directly to the bottom of the front fold-over panel. I cut a second sentiment panel from white cardstock and stamped the sentiment from Something Fancy in the center. This is adhered to the back of the hexagon on the inside of the small fold-over panel.

Now we move to assembling the inside fold-over panel. This panel also begins with a base of Mossy Meadow cardstock, which is cut so that there is a 1-inch flap to adhere to the card base and serve as the hinge for this panel. The sheet of designer paper from the Flowering Zinnias pack is matted with a sheet of Soft Sea Foam and then adhered to the flap base. Each layer is 1/8-inch smaller than the one underneath. The inside message panel is a plain white sheet of paper that has been left blank for an extended message.

We finish off the card design by accentuating the zinnias in the patterned paper panel. Using the Simply Zinnia dies, I assembled two blooms. The petals are cut from Calypso Coral and Flirty Flamingo, while the flower centers are cut from Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie. I also cut a single bloom from the edge of the sheet of blooms paper from the paper pack and adhered a flower center to the top to add that bit of realism to it, as well. The partial flower is adhered to the left side of the sentiment panel to cover the center seam of the Soft Sea Foam layer. The two diecut zinnia blooms are placed so that they give some life and realism to the two DSP panels—one over the stems and leaves flap and one nestled in the floral DSP panel just under the sentiment. Everything is finished off with sequins and a butterfly.

Click here to download the detailed PDF tutorial for today’s card. Don’t be intimidated by the number of steps! I break things up into bite-sized pieces to help ME not miss a step the next time I pull out my directions. *wink*

Tomorrow we’re (finally) going to get a look at those By Your Side Kit alternatives. I hope you’ll pop in to see how you can make a few little tweaks to kits to give them a fresh look.

Products used in today’s card design:
Mossy Meadow, Soft Sea Foam, Calypso Coral, Flirty Flamingo, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Basic White cardstock
Flowering Zinnias DSP
Simply Zinnia, Nested Essentials dies
Inspiring Snapdragons, Something Fancy stamps
Paper butterfly
Shiny sequins, sequins trio
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Fun Folds

Brighter Tomorrow

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Hello, friends! I hope your week has gotten off to a good start. Thanks so much for hanging with me as I took a little break to tend to my hubby who was in the hospital. I’m pleased to report that we are now home! And as the saying goes, there really IS no place like home!

Over the weekend, I had a small bit of time to play around with some of the products I purchased from the new Annual Catalog. I kept things really simple and used a few sketches that I pulled from my sketch book.

Today’s card is a faux fold-over fun fold card. The center section lifts up, just as a fold-over would, but this card is constructed entirely of the card base without any extra layers like the usual fold-over design has. The front panel of the card is cut to give you a large center section and the two small side sections are adhered to the card base so that, rather than the entire card front opening, only the panel in the middle opens. I like to call this a fun fold cheat because it has all the pretty and half as much work — haha!

We begin with a base of Petunia Pop cardstock, which is one of the new In Colors. The base is cut to standard size and scored in the center. After selecting a side to serve as the card front, cut a one-inch strip on each side of the card front, leaving a larger panel in the center. Be sure you’re only cutting from the bottom edge to the center score line. Next, choose and cut a piece of the Thoughtful Journey designer paper so that it is slightly smaller than the entire card front. Then cut a three-quarter inch strip from each side. This will leave you a center piece of designer paper that should lay perfectly over the entire center flap of the card front, leaving only the small border of Petunia Pop on the top and bottom. The sentiment from Unbounded Love is stamped in Petunia Pop and black on a piece of vellum diecut using the Nested Essentials set. It’s adhered to the center section using glue dots on each end. A few sequins and a paper butterfly finish things off and draw the eye across the card to rest on the sentiment.

I have a few more cards to share this week from my weekend crafting mini session and hope to get back into the swing of things as we settle into an appointment schedule here at home.

Products used in today’s card:
Petunia Pop, vellum cardstock
Thoughtful Journey DSP
Unbounded Love stamps
Nested Essentials dies
Paper butterflies
Shiny sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Clean and Simple · Fun Folds

Picked for You

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This week, we’ll be frolicking in the meadows and stopping to smell a few flowers along the way. Stampin’ Up! has a whole host of papers and stamps that put us squarely in the middle of beautiful fields and fragrant flower patches. And we’re going to explore some of my favorites throughout this week.

We begin today with a new take on an old fun fold. I recently ran across the hidden barn fold design and knew I had to give it a try. Why is it called a hidden fold? When the card is completely closed, the two sections of the front panel meet, they make the center cut virtually disappear.

So our take on this card begins with a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. The focal panel consists of a bottom mat of Lost Lagoon soft shimmer paper that is diecut using the largest Perennial Postage die, followed by a layer of Highland Heather cut just a tick smaller, and finally with our section of Meandering Meadow designer paper on top. To accomplish the two perfect sections, I cut the shimmery layer in half after I diecut it. I adhered the DSP and Highland Heather mat together first before also cutting them in half with the trimmer. Then these three layers were adhered together before carefully adhering them in place on the card front so that they meet together perfectly at the center. The sentiment from Charming Sentiments is stamped on white cardstock and diecut using the smallest Thoughtful Expressions die. The sentiment mat is cut from Lost Lagoon shimmer paper. A twist of silver & white sheer ribbon and Lost Lagoon bordered ribbon are adhered in between the two sentiment layers. Using dimensionals, the sentiment is adhered to the left flap of the card front. I added a few purple fine shimmer gems for sparkle and to move the eye diagonally across the card front.

This particular design is super easy to put together. And by changing the color palette and DSP, each card has a completely different look. This is going to be a go-to design for me if I need to make a whole host of simple yet beautiful cards!

Tune in tomorrow as we explore the rolling Hills of Tuscany!

Products used in today’s card:
Blackberry Bliss, Highland Heather, Basic White cardstock
Meandering Meadow, Lost Lagoon soft shimmer DSP
Charming Sentiments stamps
Thoughtful Expressions, Perennial Postage dies
Silver & white sheer trim, Lost Lagoon bordered ribbon
Purple fine shimmer gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Fun Folds · Terrific Tuesdays · Tutorials

Terrific Tuesdays: Episode 13

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Welcome to a new episode of Terrific Tuesdays, where each week we’ll explore new projects using some of the latest projects from Stampin’ Up! I know what you may be thinking….wait, it’s not Tuesday. And you’d be right. If you’ve followed me here or on any of the socials for the last several months, you may remember that I had to take a break due to a family emergency. And I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for sticking around and waiting for my return. While I’m back to posting more regularly now, it will still be necessary for me to take breaks here and there as we continue to address some long-term medical needs.

But today, I’m bringing you a new Terrific Tuesdays video. Earlier this week, I shared a treat holder fun fold with a teaser that a video tutorial would be forthcoming and this is it! I walk you through this cute treat holder step-by-step and give you some pointers, i.e. lessons in avoiding mistakes that I learned the hard way! *wink* For those folks who like to watch and also follow along with written instructions, I’m including the PDF tutorial for FREE download.

I hope you enjoy this twist on our Terrific Tuesdays format!

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Fun Folds · Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team

Big Hugs Giftie

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Our monthly Luv 2 Stamp Team challenge is using designer series paper and to include at least one 3D project in the mix. I decided to make a fun treat holder for my 3D project since I had just recently made a whole slew of this design for a craft fair.

What I love about this particular fun fold is that you can adapt it to numerous occasions based on what you stuff in all of the treat holder slots. For today’s design, I chose to focus more on afternoon tea time. But I’ve also used these little gifties to feature get well items, like a package of tissues, some tea and honey, and vitamin mixes. There’s really no limit to how you can tailor them to any occasion.

For today’s treat holder, I used a sheet of the Delightfully Eclectic designer paper. The decorative insert has a base of Gorgeous Grape diecut using the Thoughtful Expressions dies. The sentiment from Perennial Postage is stamped on white and then diecut using the All That dies. I cut a flower from the DSP to tie everything together. I hope to post a tutorial video tomorrow (cross your fingers) and will also share the PDF tutorial.

Products used:
Gorgeous Grape, Basic White cardstock
Delightfully Eclectic DSP
Perennial Postage stamps
Thoughtful Expressions, All That dies
Rainbow dots
Silver trim
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Fun Folds

Sprinkling of Love

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The Bright Skies stamps and dies in the current Stampin’ Up! Mini catalog are some of my favorites because they allow you to make so many different cards for a variety of occasions. This is one of those sets that will remain in my stash even after the current mini catalog retires.

This card design uses a peek-through fun fold design to reveal the sentiment. And for me, the eye-catching twist on this fun fold is the use of the vellum.

This card is built on a base of Pretty Peacock. I removed 2 1/2-inches of the front panel to create the peek-through portion. A piece of the Sunny Days designer series paper serves as the base for the front panel. A sheet of vellum is diecut on each end using the Bright Skies cloud bank dies and then embossed with the Raindrops embossing folder. This vellum panel is adhered with dimensionals over the base. To create a variety of clouds, I stamped two of the four clouds on cardstock using the Bright Skies stamps and simply diecut two from colored cardstock. Dimensionals help create the cloud layers over the vellum.

The sentiment for this card is stamped in the inside message panel which is visible thanks to the peek-through panel we created with the front card panel. The little scene is created with the Bright Skies stamps and begins with the little hill of flowers. I used the back of one of the smaller clouds to stamp the hill and then filled in with the flower stems and tulips. And finished with the sentiment. A few foiled gems help the eye settle on the sentiment.

Peek-through designs are such a great way to dress the inside and outside of your cards at the same time.

Products used in today’s design:
Pretty Peacock, Shaded Spruce, Lost Lagoon, Smoky Slate, Basic White cardstock
Sunny Days DSP
Bright Skies stamps
Bright Skies dies
Gold foiled gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Fun Folds

You Are Loved

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Happy Thursday, everyone! And more importantly for us here in the U.S., happy Thanksgiving! My family will be gathering today to celebrate but, more importantly, we will be together to laugh and spend time together. I am blessed to have a close-knit family who gathers together often, not just for holidays. We share in joys and sorrows and tough circumstances together. And when we have friends who are far away from their families for the holidays, we wrap them right into ours!

I hope you have reasons to offer thanksgiving today. And if you are far away from family, I hope God sends you friends who will love you like family. And it’s the idea of being part of a community that inspired this week’s card design. Let’s take a look!

The new Meandering Meadows designer series paper currently available in Online Exclusives is simply stunning, and each of the scenic sides of these papers lend themselves to beautiful cards with very little else needed outside of the gorgeous paper. There are a whole host of fun folds that allow us to retain large sections of paper while still providing variety of design and, of course, gorgeous cards.

Today’s card design is based on a fun fold, known as a Split Panel, that I learned from fellow demonstrator Jackie Bolhuis with Klompen Stampers. This fold came by its name because the front and back panels are split apart and held together by a Z-fold in the center. I chose the portrait orientation, but you could easily turn the design landscape.

The two panels of the base of this design are Pretty Peacock cardstock. I wanted to draw out the beautiful pinks in the clouds and flowers in the sheet of Meandering Meadow DSP I selected, so I chose to mat the sheet with Moody Mauve. I used the Deckled Rectangles dies to cut both the mat and DSP panel. I tied a piece of silver and white sheer ribbon around the bottom of the panel before adhering to the card front with dimensionals. A few pink tinsel gems in opposing corners add a little sparkle and allow the eye to move across the focal panel. Although difficult to see in these photos, I highlighted the pinks in the clouds and across the mountain front by going over them with Wink of Stella. It’s a truly stunning effect in person! I stamped the sentiment, from the Softly Said stamp set, in the center of the inside fold-out. The message panel is framed on one side by a scrap of the DSP I cut for the card front.

I made this card with a particular friend in mind. Life has thrown my friend a lot of difficult things lately, and I wanted to offer a word of support. You know, I think we should do more of that these days. Life is hard for so many people, and some feel like the whole world is against them and they have no one who cares about them. A simple word of support or encouragement can make all the difference in whether that person carries on. Food for thought as so many of us are blessed to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends today.

Products used:
Pretty Peacock, Moody Mauve, Basic White cardstock
Meandering Meadows DSP
Deckled Rectangles dies
Silver and white sheer ribbon
Tinsel gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Fun Folds · Packaging

Oh, Happy Day

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Did you catch yesterday’s Terrific Tuesdays video? This week’s episode is all about gift card holders and was inspired by today’s card design! I love finding fun ways to give gift cards. I recently ran across this super fun gift card holder shared by fellow demonstrator Heidi Collins. I knew this would be the perfect design for an upcoming family member’s birthday as this young man is all things outdoors.

The gift card holder is built on a standard single-panel base of Night of Navy cardstock. The patterned papers are all from the Let’s Go Fishing designer series paper pack. The fold-out gift card holder portion in the center is built on a piece of Basic Gray cardstock, which is scored into thirds. For the front-facing panel, I decided to add a little interest to the navy mat by embossing it using the 3D Rope embossing folder. The sentiment panel is stamped on Smoky Slate cardstock with a border stamp from the Heartfelt Hexagon set and a sentiment from the So Sincere stamp set and then punched with the coordinating hexagon punch. The gift card pocket is made with a piece of Let’s Go Fishing DSP with the notch created by the hexagon punch. The cute vellum sentiment panel on the gift card pocket has a heat embossed sentiment from the Gone Fishing stamp set and is diecut using the Nested Essentials dies. There are a few bobbers and some line underneath the vellum panel to carry the theme through and for a bit of visual interest. The message panel is a simple piece of white paper with a strip of Night of Navy diecut and embossed using the Gone Fishing dies.

This gift card holder was super easy to put together! And with several more upcoming birthdays and the Christmas holidays just around the corner, as well, I love having a cute way to give gift cards that can easily be tailored to each individual recipient and occasion.

Wanna know more? Check out this week’s Terrific Tuesdays video to learn how this design was adapted for holiday gift-giving!

Products used for today’s design:
Night of Navy, Basic Gray, Smoky Slate, Cherry Cobbler, Basic White, vellum cardstock
Let’s Go Fishing DSP
Gone Fishing stamps & dies
Heartfelt Hexagon stamps & punch
Faceted gems trio
Linen thread
Silver embossing powder
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Fall · Fun Folds

Love Spending Time With You

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Do you love learning new things? I’m learning new fun folds to add interest to my card designs, and I really love this one that I learned from fellow demonstrator Jacki Bolhuis with Klompen Stampers. She calls it the Split Front Fold, but I like to think of it as the Cut and Twist because you cut out the center of the front panel and twist it up to make it a focal panel. What I really love about this fun fold is that you can get stellar results whether you dress up the front focal panel or leave it as a stand-alone, like I did here. So many possibilities!

For this card, we begin with a base of Early Espresso and a single sheet of the leaf pattern from the All About Autumn designer paper pack. The base is is a standard size but scored at the top rather than on the side. To achieve the cut and flip, with the long edge up, you cut 1 1/2-inches from one side and then make a second cut of 2 1/2-inches. This leaves a 1 1/2-inch strip just beyond the center fold, along with the two pieces that were cut. The larger piece gets twisted up vertically to serve as the focal panel on the card front and also holds the smaller pieces of the card front together. I chose the leaf pattern of All About Autumn to serve as the star of the vertical focal panel. The foiled pattern on the back side of the leaf sheet serves as the two decorative strips at the top and bottom. A little twist of linen thread gives a little punch to the focal panel. To allow the beautiful patterned paper to really shine, the sentiment is stamped on the card base so that it shows through the peek-through window in the card front.

What do you think of this new Cut and Twist method? I’m excited to try some other designer papers with this unique fun fold!

Products used:
Early Espresso cardstock
All About Autumn DSP
Linen thread
Adhesives

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