Affectionately Yours Floral Gatefold with a Belly Band

This beautiful Gatefold card has a lovely belly band decorated with punched and die cut flowers and a sentiment banner. This card was made by Sue Fischbach and it was a winner in our recent demo card contest. When you look at these pictures you'll know why it won.

Gate Fold means that the card opens in the middle.  For a regular gatefold you'd start with a normal 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of cardstock and cut it longways and you'd score at 2-3/4" from each short end.

This is a special gatefold because Susan started with a 12x12 sheet of cardstock and cut it to 12"x5.5". She then scored at 4" from each end and then 2" from each end. Her finished card was the same height as a normal card but a tad thinner (5.5"x4"). In this next photo you can see how Sue folded the scored flaps.

To create the heart openings Sue lined up the heart die on the 2" fold line to center it for cutting.

With this type of fold the card tends to want to open up by itself, so a pretty belly band helps you present it neatly.  Plus a belly band is always a classy addition to a card.

Speaking of additions to the card, check out the inside!

Sue made her inside heart extra special by cutting a heart shaped hole in the blue paper to line up with the heart shaped holes in the gate flaps. She then wove strips of designer paper to fill the hole. Wow!  No wonder this card was a winner in our card contest.

And check out the pretty floral texture embossing above the heart.  I thought this was a very creative way to use the small Floral Affection embossing folder. Its a perfect addition to the inside of this card because it adds texture without taking your attention away from the main feature.

Are you inspired to play? Heres a list of the products Susan used on her card.

Floral Affection  Embossing Folder [141713]-$9.00	Sweet & Sassy Framelits Dies [141707]-$35.00	Love & Affection  Stamp Set [141545]-$16.00	Rhinestone Jewels Embellishments [119246]-$5.00	Duet Banner Punch [141483]-$18.00
	Pansy Punch [130698]-$16.00	Rose Garden Thinlits Dies  [140619]-$31.00	Affectionately Yours  Designer Paper [141632]-$13.00	Night Of Navy Classic Ink Pad [126970]-$6.50
Cucumber Crush 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [138335]-$8.00	Night Of Navy 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100867]-$8.00	Sweet Sugarplum 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [141418]-$8.00	Watermelon Wonder 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [138334]-$8.00	Flower Shop Clear Stamp Set [130942]-$18.00 Wood Stamp Set [130939]-$24.00

 

Thanks for Stopping by: Take a minute and browse previous posts. If you see anything you like I'm happy to help you get the product or just to consult and explain further how the project was made . . . its all about having fun with our hobby.

Pansies on Woodgrain

I have a simple card to share today . . .

 a few pretty pansies layered on a woodgrain textured background.

This is a very simple lay-out for a card - an accent strip down the left side and the focal point slightly below center.  The thing that makes this card really "pop" is all the layers and texture.  I hope it shows through well enough in the photo, can you see the woodgrain texture embossing on the white piece below the flowers?

Its so funny, before Stampin'UP! decided to sell the Big Shot I never embossed anything and when they introduced the Big Shot machine into the product line I really balked at spending the money on such a pricey tool that I thought I'd never use.  Now I use it all the time - both for embossing and for die-cutting.

Speaking of die-cutting, the flowers on this card are not die cut, I used the Pansy Punch.  And here's a little trick to share - the leaves are also the pansy punch. I punched a couple of green flowers and cut them into pieces to layer behind the blue flowers.  Its an easy way to get double duty from a punch.

Here's the list of supplies used on this card.

Love & Affection Photopolymer Stamp Set [141545]- $16.00	Pansy Punch [130698]- $16.00	Woodgrain   Embossing Folder [127821]- $7.50	Rhinestone Embellishments [119246]- $5.00
	Big Shot [143263]- $110.00	Pool Party 8-1/2" X 11" CS [122924]- $8.00	Old Olive 8-1/2" X 11" CS [100702]- $8.00

Thanks for Stopping by: Take a minute and browse previous posts. If you see anything you like I'm happy to help you get the product or just to consult and explain further how the project was made . . . its all about having fun with our hobby.  

Add Dimension with a Folded Punched Flower

There are lots of ways to add dimension to a project and here's 1 easy way.  Punch some small flowers and fold them in half to glue to the project.  With only one side of the flower attached to the paper it adds a nice bit of texture.

The flower stem is from a new set called Love and Affection. The reason I chose this set is because the image had a rounded base at the end of each stem so it looked like it wanted a flower of this shape versus a full circle.

Since the stem image was small I needed a tiny flower,
which I got from the Tree Builder Punch.

 

By the way, check-out this post where I used the tree from that punch to make snowman arms.

This is super simple to do and you can use up scraps . . . find some coordinating Designer Paper for a few banners and a scrap of a doily and Voila!, you have a beautiful simple card.

This was one of our June Projects. Check out my events calendar to see what we're doing this month.

Thanks for Stopping by: Take a minute and browse previous posts. If you see anything you like I'm happy to help you get the product or just to consult and explain further how the project was made . . . its all about having fun with our hobby.