Cardmaking for beginners - let the paper do the work

I love making cards, but after the previous card, the interactive infinity card, (read more about it by clicking on the link), I needed to do something much simpler. I had some 'not so nice' papers in my stash and decided to turn these into cards. Sometimes these horrible craft papers, can turn into really cute cards. Let me show you what I did. These are the front covers of my two cards.

These are the back covers of my two cards.

I started by cutting the images apart.

I then grabbed a coordinating 12x12" paper and cut it in half.

I folded the halved 12x12" papers into cards..

I trimmed the cut-apart images down.

I then started playing around with different layouts, deciding what I wanted at the front, ...

…and what needed to go to the back.

I cut some coordinating papers to mount the images on.

I secured everything in place with double-sided adhesive.

That took care of the outsides of the cards for the time being.

I cut some writing space for the insides of the cards from the same paper I used to mount the images on, on the outsides of the cards.

I added some washi tape trim. I secured this in place with double-sided adhesive as these particular roles of tape have very little stickiness to them.

Some paper flowers finished the insides of the cards. I did not add any sentiments as I had no idea what I would be using these cards for. I was simply giving the ugly papers a new lease on life!

I added some bling to the outsides of the cards.

And that was done! Front ends.

And back ends.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:

You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
You may prefer to follow the traveling blog, A Pretty Tourist.
For more crafty ideas and great product reviews, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
If you are in a literary mood, follow Miekie's musings, stories and poetry on A Pretty Author - Miekie.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making life PRETTY.
You can subscribe to any of these blogs and receive regular updates by email. Simply register your email address at the top of the applicable blog.

Card Making: Interactive Infinity Card

In today's blog I will show you how to make an infinity card. This is an interactive card that keeps opening up without end. It is slightly more intricate than other cards, but great fun to make, to play with and to give, when you see the delight on people's faces as they discover the endless paging. As the card is rather difficult to photograph because of its many faces, I suggest you watch the short video I made to get a clearer understanding of how the card works, before heading back here to see how I made it. This is the front of the card.

It then opens up to this page.

The second page, opens up to this page.

The third page opens up to this page, and this page then opens up to the first page again,

You can watch the video of how the card works by clicking on this link: How the infinity card opens up

You will need two double-sided papers, measuring 6x6" each. I used two 12x12" papers.

These are the reverse sides of my pages.

Trim the top tear-away piece off the paper with a paper cutter to ensure an even edge.

Cut the papers in half, and then in quarters.

Score a fold line at 1,5".

Score again at 4,5".

Fold the two ends in at the score lines. Make sure you fold the pages both ways, in and out, for the card to lose its stiffness. Do the same with the other 6x6" square of paper.

With the ends folded in, cut the papers in half, perpendicularly to the fold lines.

Lay two similar pieces with the fold running vertically and the cut line running horizontally. Lay the other two pieces on bot ends in the opposite directions.

Carefully place your glue or double-sided adhesive at the top ends of the inner cards only.

Glue the cards on either ends of cards in the middle, first to the top card...

…and then to the bottom card. Make sure the edges all line up. If need be, trim the edges to line it up perfectly.

The left hand flap will open up like this.

With both flaps open, it will reveal the second face of the card.

Flip the top card up and the bottom card down...

...to reveal the next face of the card.

Flip the sides open once more.

The last face of the card is revealed.

One more top and bottom flip.

And we are back at the original face of the card.

I am going to be using this stamp and die set to decorate my card with. You can of course decorate yours however you wish. The possibilities are endless.

I start by placing white cardstock in my stamping tool. I lay the stamps in place on the cardstock.

I then fold the lid in on the stamps and secure them in place on the lid by applying light pressure.

I ink the stamps in brown (I thought black might be too stark).

Stamp the images onto the card stock. Gently rub over the surface of the lid.

The images did not stamp very well. The stamping tool allows for multiple stamping attempts without creating double or blurred lines, so this was not a problem.

I re-inked the stamps.

Slightly better results.

It required two more re-inkings before I achieved the desired results.

I proceeded to stamp the rest of the images and sentiments in the set as well.

I then used a pair of flat-nosed pliers to separate the dies from each other.

I used alcohol markers to colour the stamped images.

I then carefully laid the dies in place over the corresponding stamped images.

I put these in the sandwich and ran it through my die-cut machine.

The dies cut beautifully and I was very pleased with the results. Now I simply needed to pop the images out of the dies.

This is how they came out. Lovely, isn't it?!

I used packaging cardboard to cut the wooden planks from.

I used off cut craft paper to cut the grass from.

I used an alcohol marker to accentuate the wood grain in the planks.

I then trimmed the stamped sentiments into useful pieces.

I laid the images in place on the card and then cut some 3x7" strips for the four flaps.

I used a corner rounder punch to create pretty rounded corners.

I found another die set and cut some balloons and bunting from it. In the end I did not use the bunting.

I coloured the balloon and glued everything in place.

I added a few drops of bling by gluing it onto the card.

The first face of the card was done. On to the next!

I cut some more 3x7" paper strips from another page from the set I was using, and rounded the corners.

I cut a green piece to measure 7x7" to make the image stand out better against the background. I also mounted the sentiment on the same card, and added writing space cut from white cardstock, measuring 7x7" again. Everything was glued down.

I raised the sentiment and the stamped image by mounting these on double sided tape.

The second face of the card was now complete and I flipped to the third face.

Here I had a dramatic colour change awaiting me.

I mounted my die-cuts on the centre panels. I cut 3x3" squares for the four corners. I then laid my sentiments in place at the top flaps, after double-checking that my card was still the right way up. These two flaps at the top and bottom will also be part of the fourth and last face of the card.

I glued everything down and added two balloons to the horns of the one image, as if they were tied in place there. I loved how that contributed to the look of consternation on the creature's face.

I added the sentiments and some bling.

The third face of the card was now done.

When planning the previous face of the card, I decided to take a risk by cutting my last image in half in the centre of this last face. This allowed me to add to two sentiments to the top and bottom of the third face. These are now in place on the last face of the card as well. A couple more 3x3" squares in the corner, and a final balloon, and the card was done.

The last face of the card. Don't forget to check out the video to see how this card 'performs' in real life.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:

You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
You may prefer to follow the traveling blog, A Pretty Tourist.
For more crafty ideas and great product reviews, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
If you are in a literary mood, follow Miekie's musings, stories and poetry on A Pretty Author - Miekie.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making life PRETTY.
You can subscribe to any of these blogs and receive regular updates by email. Simply register your email address at the top of the applicable blog.