Fancy Fold Valentines - Taylormadecards4u Design Team

Hey Procraftinators! 
Today, I am back sharing another Taylormadecards4U Design Team project. This time, I am sharing a new Valentines kit! This is the Fancy Folds Valentines kit. 


 

It comes with 3 full pages of designs. The first one has the 2 adorable teddy bear A2 cards. One top folding and one side folding. I didn't use this page in my video today, but I still think it is super cute. The second page has a fun z fold card & 2 heart ephemera pieces. I used this page in my cards. However, the heart ephemera that I used were shrunk in size. When I first printed this kit, my printer was set to print on much smaller paper for another project and I didn't notice. It ended up working out ok in the end though. As the smaller pieces ended up being perfect sized filler pieces for my design. This third page includes a fun card that stumped me a bit at first, but I am going to show you exactly how this works. So, you won't have any issues putting this together correctly the first time.


I'm going to start with that third page. The one that looked a little confusing, but I promise, it's easy peasy! These would be perfect to mass produce, if you don't mind a bit of fussy cutting. So, first, cut around the whole card. Then, take your scissors and just cut along the left side of the curve of the heart until you reach the grass.



I printed all my pages on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80lb cardstock. Since the cardstock is fairly rigid, I decided to bring out my old, well-loved (this translates to dirty) score board and score where I needed to fold. I am going to be folding horizontally along the grass on the boy's side of the card. Then vertically along where the puppy is sitting. So, I will need to score in both places. 


Once done scoring, I carefully fold my card, making sure that everything lines up nice and even. This card would be quite noticeable if it was folded crooked and after I spent all that time fussy cutting around it, I wasn't going to mess it up now! Fussy cutting really isn't top on my list of favorite crafty things to do. haha! 
Once I got it folded, I decided to ink blend Distress Ink in Vintage Photo around the endges. The thing with fussy cutting images out of white paper, is that you get a white edge on your images. You can either take a black pen to the edge or you can ink blend it. Since these images are vintage in nature, I feel like ink blending with vintage photo to give that distressed feel is completely appropriate here. I was careful to keep my Tim Holtz Glass Media Mat fairly clean during this process, since the card is face with one side laying printed side down and one side laying with the white side down when the card is open. Plus, this is my card base. I am not adhering this to a card base, like I normally would an ink blended piece. I don't want to get ink anywhere it doesn't belong at this point. Once I was done ink blending, I glued the little flap on the back that holds the card together, down to the back of the card. This way the card would stay adhered and only open horizontally. 

I also decided that since there was very little room to write on the inside of the card, that I would glue a white panel to the back to the card, covering up that cream flap that I just glued down. This just cleans up the back of the card a little and made the whole back white. To do this, I started with a rectangle, laid the card over it to trace the right bottom edge of the heart,snipped that piece off and glued the panel on the back. 






I finished the card off with Yellow Bird & Pink Champagne Nuvo Glitter Drops right over the flowers that are printed on the front of the card. 

 
For the second card, I decided to do the Z fold card. So, this z-fold piece is supposed to be for a card that is smaller than an A2 card. However, I know that most card makers make A2 cards. So, I wanted to make it work with one.....but in the end, I boogered up my card and ended up chopping the bottom of my card off. Which made it smaller than a 4.25" x 5.5" card. However, if you follow my directions and don't chop the bottom of your card off at the very end, like I did, then it will work with an A2 card. I started by taking a scrap piece of paper that was 11in in length and using a Stampin Up scallop punch on it. Then, I trimmed it down to 2.5in wide and use the scallop punch on the other side of it. I did my best to line the scallops up on top and bottom, but I am sure they are not perfect. Once punched on both sides, I trimmed it to 8.5in in length.

 
I wanted the scallop piece to go behind my z fold piece from the kit. You will see that I left my scallop piece much longer than the z fold piece at first,  but in the end, I do trim this to match the length of the z fold piece. So, ignore the fact that that it's longer right now.  Anyways, I laid the scallop piece behind the z fold piece, which I pre-folded, and marked where the folds were. This is so I can score and fold the scallop piece in the exact same spots. 
Once I scored the scalloped piece, I glued the two pieces together, lining up the folds. I had a little trouble with one scallop that was right on the edge of a fold and on the left edge of the heart. Instead of folding up the edge of the heart, I just tucked the scallop around the front edge of the heart to allow it to fold around the heart. I hope that makes sense.I have a picture below to help clarify.

For the card base, I used The Paper Studio Heavy Weight Cardstock in red. You have two options of how to do this. You can either cut a card base to 7x5.5in and scored it at 1/3/8in and 2 3/4in or if you have pre-cut and folded card bases, like myself, you can just cut 1.5in off one side and then score it at 1 3/8 only, because it will already be scored at the 2 3/4" (originally your 4 1/4in score). 
After scoring the card, I went to adhere the z fold portion to the card base and this is where I made my fatal mistake. I wanted to stencil some glitz glitter gel in the corners of the card. Of course, I didn't mark out where I needed to do this and thought I could just eyeball it. So, I laid down the z fold piece with my glue on it and laid it down on my card base. Then took my paper stencil that I made with a very old McGill corner punch from my stash and realized I didn't have enough room. So, I quickly pulled up the z fold, marked out where my stencil needed to go and then re-glued down my z fold. Well, the Nuvo adhesive I used dries clear, but it dries with a shine. The one thing I do not like about it. I REALLY should've used to Distress Collage Medium in Matte, instead. But I didn't. So, I tried to remove it with my adhesive remover and my sand eraser. I just kept marring up the cardstock. I tried to ignore it and move on and I finished adhering the rest of the z fold piece. 
Next, I adhered a piece of this ribbon lace stuff I had in my stash from who knows where. I thought it really worked with the vintage feel of the card. I wanted to cover the edge of the card where the z fold did not quite make it to the edge. Of course, if you did not want to add ribbon of some sort or you don't have something that would match. You could just cut the edge of your card to match up with the edge of the z fold. I used SCOR tape to adhere my ribbon. The reason I used a dry adhesive, is because I find the sometimes wet adhesive will show through to the front side. I don't like to risk that, so I always use a dry adhesive when adhering ribbons or any fabrics to my cards. 

You probably noticed that I did add a tiny bit of liquid adhesive to the very edges of this ribbon. I was afraid that it might fray. So, I was using the liquid glue as a make shift fray check type product. I do have actual fray check, but it was upstairs in my sewing room and I was too lazy to go up and get it, quite honestly. 
Next, I took my little paper stencil that I made out of 2 layers of scrap pieces of 110lb cardstock that I punched first and then glued together. Then, I used Gina K Glitz Glitter Gel in white to add hearts in the 2 right hand corners of this card. 


After I was done, not only was I not happy with the marred up area of my card, where I got that glue, but I was really unhappy with the placement of the glitter gel hearts on the bottom side too. Since I couldn't see through the paper stencil, it was hard to tell exactly where I was stenciling the hearts. I let the glitter gel dry first, then I chopped off the bottom of my card, even with the scalloped piece to rid myself of the part of the card that I was unhappy with.
Last, but certainly not least, I made a step card to use up some of my left over pieces. I thought it was perfect to go with the fancy fold theme. This is a 5 x7in card. I started with a piece of Neenah Solar White Classic Crest 110lb cardstock cut to 10 x 7in. I need to make a cut from 2.5in to 9in along the 3in mark vertically. I used my T- square ruler to help me find those measurements. I have a hard time staying straight on my scoreboard if I don't start from the top and work my way down on the score board. Since, I had to start from the 2.5in mark, I was struggling. I used my T-square ruler to make little marks 3in in all the way down my paper. That way, when I put the paper into the corner of my score board, I could just line my exacto knife up with the 2.5in mark and start cutting there and keep cutting until I got to the 9in mark, cutting along those little marks I made along the 3in vertical mark. I hope that makes sense. 

I decided to score the paper first before using the exacto knife. I figured not only would this ensure that I had my measurements right, before cutting, but it also gave my knife a groove to follow, instead of just hoping that I hit the groove on the board the first time with my exacto knife. I go over the cut line a few times, because I find that it is better to use lighter pressure and cut over it several times, rather than to use a ton of pressure and only do it once. However, do whatever works best for you.

Next, It's time to do our score lines for the step portion of the card. Turn the card the other direction, so now the 10in side is horizontally. Score at 2.5" and only go to the cut line, no further. Then, score at 5" and score all the way down the cardstock. In the video, I only scored to the cut mark, but I will go back and fix this later, after I realize my mistake. Then, score the rest of the measurement only to the cut line - 6.5", 8", & 9". 

After scoring, I erased all my pencil marks and then used a sand eraser to sand the rough edges of where I cut my card at the 3" mark. I may need a new blade in my craft knife. So, you may or may not have this issue. However, if you do, a sand eraser works great and so does a small sanding block. Next, start folding your card. You will want to fold the card completely in half first. This is where I realize that I didn't score mine all the way in half at the 5" mark and go back and fix that error. Then, from the bottom (at the 9" score line or the one that is only 1" away from the edge. The last score we made) do a mountain fold, valley fold, mountain fold, valley fold, & lastly a mountain fold. So, there should be 3 mountains on the right side of the card or I guess since it's called a step card, you could look at it like stairs. Whatever floats your boat. 
Like I said in the beginning of the video, it took me a minute to figure out that first card. That basically translates to I cut it wrong the first time. So, I had these two loose pieces that I didn't want to go to waste. I decided that they would go great on a step card. They were what determined that this card needed to be a 5 x 7in card, due to their size. I took some Distress Ink in Vintage Photo and ink blended it around the edges, because like I said before, I wanted to cover the white edges of the paper and give that distressed vintage feel. Next, I printed out some of the pink patterned papers from the Taylormadecards4u Soda Fountain Shoppe kit that I used at the beginning of the month, but didn't end up using these particular papers in my project. I thought they were absolutely perfect for  a Valentines card. I cut them to size to fit my card panels with a tiny white border around the and ink blended the edges off screen with Spun Sugar Distress Ink. Then, I glued each piece for each panel to the card. You will see that this is where I ended up using the small heart ephemera that I mentioned earlier in the video that I had accidentally printed some pieces too small. For the large panel on the left side of my card, I chose a pretty iridescent ribbon that I have had forever in my stash to go down the center of the panel. I adhered it to the back with liquid glue and then decided that it was going to be kind of floppy in the front, if I didn't adhere it there too. So, I again, chose SCOR tape to adhere the ribbon to the front of the panel.
After I got all of my ephemera pieces adhered to all the panels, I added Nuvo Crystal Drops  in Shimmering Rose to the large panel on the left to finish off the card. 
The links for the Taylormadecards4U kits will be in the supply list below. I hope that you enjoyed my 3 cards today. I had a lot of fun making them. Which one was your favorite? I'd love to hear in the comments! If you enjoyed my project today, I hope that you will head over to my YouTube channel and watch the video, like and subscribe to my channel. As always, I hope that you have a great day!

Supplies
Distress Ink - Vintage Photo & Spun Sugar
Nuvo Glitter Drops - Yellow Bird & Pink Champagne
Nuvo Crystal Drops  - Shimmering Rose 
Mc Gill Heart Corner Paper Punch
Creative Memories Fancy Corner Rounder
The Paper Studio Red Heavy Weight Paper for Card Base cut to 7x5.5in. Scored at 4.5in & 1 3/8in
SSS Rainbow Blending Brushes
Assortment of Ribbon from Stash
Stampin Up - Scalloped Border Punch
 

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