Sunday, June 29, 2014

Fun Folds and Stamping along a Curve

I've spent a lot of time recently looking through my extensive hoard collection of books on bookbinding and artist books, and they're giving me so many ideas for accordion-fold cards. Today's card uses some free-hand craft knife skills to give a fun, slightly more organic shape to standard rectangles.



To make this, I started with a 9" x 6" piece of card stock and scored it at three and six inches.

Scoring Tip for Obsessive-Compulsive Stampers: When you score a line to fold card stock, the scored side (with the canal, not the bump) should be the outside of the fold...the mountain, not the valley. The scored canal keeps the paper fibers from cracking and looking unsightly as you bend and press the paper down. When making an accordion, you alternate mountains and valleys, so you need to flip the card stock as you score if you are a purist and want perfectly clean folds. Since I'm using a heavy white card stock, I scored one side of the accordion at 3" and then flipped the card stock over and scored at 6". The folds are lovely and clean!

I then cut the cascade using a craft knife, starting at the back fold about 1/4-1/3 the way down, and added curves as I cut down to roughly the bottom 1/3 line. Once the curve was cut, I put a quilt ruler on the back fold and cut a straight line to the top and removed the extra card stock.

The sentiment comes from a very old set from October Afternoon called Love Notes. The stamp is very bendy, so I was able to reposition it easily to match the curved edge for each impression. I cleaned the stamp between each impression so I did not get ink on my fingers and smudge the card).

Note that the two red sentiments and the hearts form a visual triangle, and the three hearts, of course, form their own triangle.

Side view of inside of card

Side view of "outside" of card

It will be fun to write on this card...nooks and crannies! I plan on giving it to my husband, sneaking it into his lunch box one day this week.

Supplies
stamps: October Afternoon (sentiment, Love Notes), Papertrey Ink (hearts, Love Birds)
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey Ink
accessories: ScorPal, craft knife, quilt ruler, corner rounder

11 comments:

  1. this is so fun. I don't think I could cut with a craft knife so evenly. Great result!

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  2. I LOVE this card! What a different, clean design. Your husband will surely smile!

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  3. This is wonderful Susan! Very neat cutting and stamping! I love that you plan to leave it hiddedn for your hubby to find at lunchtime...so romantic!
    Lizy xx

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  4. A stunning card !! What a great idea !

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  5. Ahhhmazing work with a craft knife. Nope not on my agenda, I kind of tear with my craft knife!

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  6. Brilliant and beautiful! I, however, am a total klutz with a craft knife.

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  7. Thanks for the tip about scoring - didn't know that and this now explains why I'm unhappy with some of my folds. I love learning something new

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  8. Awesome work as always, Susan. I would like to share a link to my card I made, inspired by all your posts I have been reading and learning quite a lot from. How much I have put that learning into use, I will let you decide that. :) It would be great if you could leave me any suggestions or words on my work Would love to hear from you..> http://happilyevacrafter.blogspot.in/2014/07/bling-makes-my-heart-sing.html

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  9. Love it, but I'm with Joan B - I can't cut like this, even with a line. I shall continue to admire your work and leave it at that. :)

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!