My husband was reading a book last weekend, that I asked to see. Not because the book interested me, it was the look of the cover. So, I designed a card to look similar to the cover. However, I added a fun fold to it for a bit more fun.
To start, I cut a piece of lighter card stock (apx. 85lb) to 11″ x 5-1/2″. With the 11″ horizontal, I scored at 1-1/4″, 3-3/8″, 7-5/8″ and 9-3/4″. (This makes an A2 sized card – 4-1/4 x 5-1/2.) As I was trying to recreate the book cover and I love the colors together, this base piece was a turquoise color. I also took an 8-1/2 x 11″ piece of black card stock and sprayed both sides with Perfect Pearl mist. (I only used about 1/4 of the sheet.) I cut off a 5-3/8″ strip and cut the following pieces with that as the height: two 1-1/8″ strips and two 2″ strips.
The base piece was folded as follows: the first and last score lines were mountain folded, with the two inner score lines valley folded. I then adhered the black pieces to the top of the sides that would be showing when the card is folded.
I then took 3 sequential nested diamond dies. You can use whatever shape you want. Using the largest and smallest dies, I cut out a diamond frame from silver shimmer/shiny paper. Line them up on the paper and use some removable tape to keep them in place while running through your pressure machine (I used a Cuttlebug). I also used the largest die to cut a triangle out of the leftover strip of turquoise card. The middle sized diamond, I used to cut an aperture (hole) out of the front of the card. First, I folded the card closed, then lined up my die and used some removable tape to hold it in place on one side. Now, I tried cutting through the folded section, but that was incredibly difficult with 4 pieces of heavy paper/card and I had to finish it with scissors. On the other side, I stretched out the paper to cut and that worked great.
To resemble the book cover, I wanted gears on the bottom of my aperture, so I ran my turquoise diamond through my Cuttlebug in a gear embossing folder. I then lightly rubbed a black ink pad over the top of it. That piece I lined up on the right side at the bottom of the opening. It is adhered on the inside behind the diamond cutout. The aperture rim, or the silver diamond, I adhered on the top section on the left. You’ll notice that either by not lining my die up quite right, or running it through repeatedly with too thick of a stack, or finishing it off with scissors, I wound up cutting through the edge on the left side. As I put the silver frame on top of that, it held it together and you can’t tell. I did put a dot of glue on the back to hold the 2 points down and let that dry before folding.
To center my stamp, I closed the whole card up and put the stamp where I wanted it, before inking it. As the gears were embossed and inked, it was easy to see where I needed to stamp, and was able to lay out that piece flat before stamping. On the book cover, there was a small symbol in white, but with the sparkle of the Perfect Pearls on the black, I wanted a bit of sparkle, so stamped it in gray ink, then traced over the top with a Sakura Stardust pen in clear. You can’t read it well, so stamping in white probably would have worked better, but when you turn the card a bit, the words catch the light and sparkle, which is fun.
I realize these aren’t the greatest pictures, but you can at least get the idea. The sentiment is centered in the aperture when the card is closed completely.
I hope you try this and with my mistakes pointed out, can make it much easier than I did. It really was quite simple and fun. My husband thought it looked amazingly like the book cover. I didn’t read the book, but my husband enjoyed it.
Thanks for spending some time with me today. Have a wonderful rest of the day.
Cards and Candles in Progress 