I love butterflies so it is no surprise I bought the Sketched Butterflies Bundle. This is such a wonderful set and I wanted to make a wonderful card to show it off.
It actually took me a couple of weeks to come up this idea as I literally looked at the stamp set everyday waiting for that special inspiration. Earlier in the week I knocked the Thoughtful Journey papers off of my side desk and scattered them all over the floor (with the help of the fan). As I was picking them up and setting them beside the stamp set, my brain finally connected the dots. Ok, so now I had my papers and colors and stamp set, how can I make it stand out? Enter the fun fold, you guys know I LOVE a good fun fold, right?
Supplies
Sketched Butterflies Cling Stamp Set
Sketched Butterflies Dies
Stylish Shapes Dies
Misty Moonlight Card Stock
Wild Wheat Card Stock
Basic Beige Card Stock
Vellum Card Stock
Thoughtful Journey Designer Series Paper
Misty Moonlight Stampin’Pad
Multipurpose Liquid Glue
Tear and Tape
Mini Glue Dots
Paper trimmer
Stampin Cut and Emboss
Directions
Card Base
The card base is a half sheet of basic card stock, 29.7cm x 14.85cm (11″ x 4-1/4″) and is cut from Misty Moonlight card stock.
Score at the following measurements:
For Metric: 1.5cm, 3cm, 11.8cm, 13.3cm, 14.8cm, 16.3cm, 17.8cm, 26.7cm. 28.5cm.
For Imperial: 1/2″, 1″, 4-1/2″, 5″, 5-1/2″, 6″, 6-1/2″, 10″, 10-1/2″
Fold the card in half first. I found it was easiest to start at the center with the folding. Fold the score line at each side of the center fold outward, the second score line fold inward. Move to the outside edges, work the front and back of the card separately. For the front, fold the score closest to the end up/out and the score closer in fold inward/down. Flip the card over and repeat on the back. See diagram below for the shape you are looking for. Do not glue closed yet.
Time to Decorate
The die cuts used on the inside of this card are stamped on vellum with the Misty Moonlight ink and left to dry before being die cut. I want to reiterate the left to dry part, it took a good 10 hours for the ink to completely dry on the vellum. You can also use Stazon ink, while it does take time to dry, it does not take as long as the dye inks. If you plan to do the stamping on vellum then do this step first or even better, the day before so you have plenty of dry time.
Alternatively you could stamp on white or basic beige card stock. However, it will lack the illusion of the easy movement of the vellum.
In addition to the vellum butterflies, I die cut the triple butterfly image in Wild Wheat and Misty Moonlight and stacked them off set before attaching to the card front.
Cutting the Designer Paper
Because this is a ‘picture’ type of paper I am including a cutting guide. You will need a piece for the front panel cut to 8.7cm x 10.2cm (3-3/8″ x 4-1/8″). Next cut four strips of the designer paper to 1.2 x 10.2cm (3/8″ x 4-1/8″). These pieces are for the narrow sides.
I placed a space to write a message on the back of the card. This panel was cut from basic beige to 8.6cm x 10.2cm (3-3/4″ x 4″). I also stamped two of the images from the stamp set before gluing it down.
The final decorative piece to cut is the panel for the inside. In this case I just figured out which part of the picture I wanted and cut it to size, 8.6cm x 10.2cm (3-3/4″ x 4″).
Assembling the Card
Glue down your outside pieces as shown in the photograph.
The next step will be to cut out the opening. I used the 7.5mm (2-3/4″) circle from the Stylish Shapes. You could also use the same size circle from the Deckled Circle dies or the Spotlight on Nature dies. I would also like to note that you don’t have to use circles, you can use any shape, I saw cards done with rectangles, squares, and free-form shapes.
If you are using a die to cut your opening I suggest running it through your machine twice to be sure it cuts cleanly through both the designer paper layer and the card stock.
If you are going to use a punch, punch out the shape on your card stock first and then glue down your designer paper. You can easily turn the punch and the card over and see how to line up the shape to cut the paper portion of the opening.
After cutting your opening place down your card stock butterflies. I found using a sponge and a bit of the liquid glue worked well to affix the butterflies to each other and again to the card front. The photo of the finished card can help if you have problems with the placement.
For the inside of the card stamp your greeting directly onto the Thoughtful Journey Designer Series Paper using the Misty Moonlight Stampin’Pad. Now that your butterflies are dry gently fold them in half along the body. Place glue dots on one set of the wings and press to the background. I found glue dots worked the best as the glue was slippery and took a long time to dry.
Finish by closing up the card. I used the liquid glue on my first sample and got frustrated at having to hold it closed while it dries. For this sample I used Tear and Tape although the Stampin’Seal would probably work as well. On the spine fold I used one strip of the tape next to the score lines. For the outside I did use two strips, placed up close to each of the score lines. If you are unsure where to place the tape see the diagram at the beginning showing how the card is to be folded.
Your card will fold flat to mail, will fit into a regular card envelope and should only require the regular postage for a greeting card of normal size. How cool is that?
Thank you for reading this post. For this totally amazing fun-fold design I can only take credit for working out the metric card stock measurements (and that was pretty easy). You can find many versions of this shadowbox card on line, however after trying a few of them I nearly gave up.
Enter my favorite fun-fold gal Jackie Bolhuis of Klompen Stampers. I searched her channel praying I could find a workable version of this card. And I’m so glad I did, Jackie even says in her video that she had tried other versions of this card too. So if you have a moment, head over to her video and give it a thumbs up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDKUzVItqoM&t=1598s Thank you Jackie! I bow to your brilliance! Oh and just so you know, there is another card on that video that I will be doing as well, I bet you can guess which one it is.
And finally, as always, if you make this card I would love to see it. Please post a picture below or on social media and tag me @loriothen.
Product List
