Tri Shutter Card - always a favorite!

There are so many different interesting styles of cards.  I think people really enjoy receiving a card that pops up or moves in an unusual way.  I have recently had a couple of requests for directions on making the "tri-shutter card" and I thought I would do a quick post with links to my tutorials and some examples of this style of card.  I have been writing this blog for over three years and there is a lot of information that you can find by reading older posts.

You can find my directions for making these cards at THIS POST.  You can make these very quickly and easily without using anything but a trimmer and a scoring board.  It is possible to cut the pieces with a die cutting machine but I prefer to cut my pieces manually.  The measurements are quite simple and you have more control over the placement of the design on your patterned papers when you cut them the "old fashioned way."  You also need the full width of the 12 x 12 cardstock and it can be tricky to get the mats loaded accurately in the machine to produce perfectly aligned cuts.

You'll find more photos and directions at THIS POST.  There are many variations for cutting the extra layers.  If you are in a real hurry you can use an interesting patterned glitter cardstock for the base (this is from the DCWV Animal Crackers stack) and eliminate most of the layers.

Click the photo to see more about this card

Click the photo to see more about this card

There are so many ways to personalize these cards - if you have never tried making one, I hope you might be inspired to start.  The directions are simple and once you have folded up one card it is very easy to remember how to do them.  Once you master the basics you can focus on having fun with the decoration!


Right now we don't know whether to prepare for a hurricane or the wedding - so we are doing both!  I hope you have a safe weekend and that the storm stays away from you.

Subscribe to Capadia Designs 

 
 

A Birthday Card and a surprise meeting...

I did warn you earlier this month that our family has many birthdays in August.  Here is yet another birthday card.  This one is a "tri-shutter" card - one of my favorite styles to make.  I have posted several other cards in this style - here is a LINK to the older posts.  Scroll down to the oldest two posts to find all of the directions on how to measure, score and fold these cards along with the dimensions of the layering pieces.

Here is the closed card.  I used both striped and solid papers for the layers and  outlined the solid paper with a Martha Stewart glitter pen.  I used some of the felt embellishments from Creative Charms to decorate the card.  These are part of the August "Deal of the Month" in Pink and you still have a couple of days left to place an order for the pink or blue deal.  Here is a LINK to the page on the Creative Charms site.

I added some pink gradient gem stickers to decorate the felt embellishments.  I used the darkest pink on the butterfly and flower on the front of the card and the medium pink on the inside flower.  These were also part of the Deal of the Month.

I used the Core'dinations Core Couture glitter cardstock for the "Happy Birthday" inside.  The sentiment is from the "Stamping" Cricut cartridge.  This is a solutions cartridge (not to be confused with the "Stamped" full cartridge) that is often overlooked.

There are lots of simple sentiments and some wonderful frames on the base level.

The shift level is full of great images that have a shadow and a blackout option so you can make three layered images.

Here is an example of the cake.  The shapes are relatively simple since this cartridge was designed to be used with the Cricut Cuttables stamp material to make your own rubber stamps.

I have had this cartridge for quite a while but had not used it recently.  I used Design Studio to search for the various "Happy Birthday" sentiments and found quite a few.  The screen shot above shows some of them.  Using Design Studio I was able to choose the proper size for my cut and then just go downstairs and quickly make the cut the "old-fashioned" way (yes - I actually pressed buttons on the keypad for a change!).

Here is one more view of the card that shows the folds and angles a little more clearly.  The blank area by the second flower is for a hand written note.

If you like this style of card, you can make up some of the base cards in various colors, add the layers and keep them ready to decorate with sentiments and embellishments for the occasions when you need a quick card.  People are usually enjoy this style of card because it is a bit different and it is also fun to try to figure out how it was made!

Now I have to tell you about something nice that happened today.  I left my Dad's to head up to New Jersey but couldn't resist stopping in the local shopping plaza where there are both a Michael's and an A.C.Moore store right next door to each other.  I was doing a quick cruise of the aisles looking for any great sale or clearance items and I heard someone say something along the lines of "that woman looks so familiar - I think she's the one on the computer."  I looked up and realized that I was the woman she meant.  Kimberly recognized me from my blog and the message boards!

We had a nice chat and of course "talked Cricut" while her patient daughter waited.  Ashley snapped this photo of us with my little purse camera and I told Kimberly I'd give her a shout out on today's post.  It was fun to be "recognized" and Kimberly had some very flattering things to say!  I also found out that Kimberly has a blog.  It would be fun if some of you would head over there and say "hi!" and tell her I sent you.  Kimberly's blog is HERE and you will find many lovely cards that she has made and shared.

I hope you are having a great weekend - it is hard to believe that summer is nearly over...

Subscribe to Capadia Designs        

Spreading the Love

 I participated in a card drive challenge and made this card for an 11 year old girl in New Hampshire.   I learned about the card drive from Samantha (Scrapmaster) on the Cricut Message Board.  Here is the information from her blog:


On October 4th, 4 teenagers armed with knives broke into a home in a small town in New Hampshire. Alone and sleeping inside were a mother and her 11 year old daughter. These 4 boys broke into this home with the intent to rob and kill anyone inside. They stabbed the mom, Kimberly Cates, to death and left her daughter, Jaimie, for dead in their driveway. It was a completely random act, their home was chosen only due to its secluded surroundings."

Our hope is that everyone hopping around today will stop for a moment and think about Jaimie and her father and what life must be like for them now. One moment in time has changed their lives forever. We are asking that everyone reading this message please take a moment to make a card and send it off to Jaimie. You can make something very simple or much more involved, but please share some words of hope and love and let her know that people do care and want the best for her. Please send your card to the address below:

Jaimie Cates
c/o Mont Vernon Fire Station
Main Street
Mont Vernon, NH 03057


Here is a LINK to the Stamp Something... for Jaimie blog where you can find the blogs that were in the hop and see cards that others have made to send to Jaimie.  I believe the hop ends on Monday but I am sure cards will continue to be appreciated.

I made a tri-shutter card starting with this piece of 12 x 12 cardstock from the DCWV Sweet Stack. I have posted the directions for these cards before - here is a LINK to other posts about tri-shutter cards.

I fussy cut the 5 1/2 inch strip of the cardstock to have the green scallops across the bottom edge and the flower at the right corner.

I cut a strip of the same cardstock and trimmed it into sections to make the layers to go across the top of the card.   I also cut and embossed pieces of white cardstock with the D'vine Swirl Cuttlebug folder.  The butterflies are punched with a Martha Stewart punch.

Inside the card I added some hearts and the word "love" in pink glitter cardstock cut with the "Love Language" Cuttlebug embossing and die set.  I added two scalloped circles, one without holes in orange glitter cardstock with a pink scalloped circle with holes layered on top (I used the Creative Memories two-way punch for the scallop).  I wrote Jaimie's name with Martha Stewart glitter markers.

I hope that Jaimie gets lots and lots of cards and knows that many people care about her and her future.

Quick Birthday Card

It was a busy day - I spent a lot of time figuring out some new tricks with the Gypsy.  I am starting to find ways to make the sorts of complex designs I have been doing on Design Studio.  There are some tricks to getting all of the welds to work and I will make some videos to help show what I have learned by experimentation.  I also spent quite a while trying to figure out how to get a better screen image of the Gypsy for videos - I think I can do it but it is a multi-step process so will take me some time to edit and upload each video.  (I was not happy with the resolution when I used the Flip camera to make the video of the screen in action).

In the meanwhile, I thought I'd share yet another version of the Tri shutter card - this version is super simple to make because there is no layering.  By choosing an interesting patterned cardstock you can avoid the measuring and adhering of all the layers.  Here is a LINK to prior posts with tri shutter cards - there are so many variations possible and they are quick to make but always get a nice reaction from the recipient.

This card was for our older son. He lives in San Francisco and is a bit of a "foodie" so I chose some glittery cardstock from the Nana's Kitchen DCWV stack that is full of knives, forks and spoons.  One of the restaurants we went to with him when we visited last fall was called "Spork" (named for the camping utensil which is a combination of a fork and spoon).

With Design Studio, it is a simple matter to set up the words to cut to fit in the three panels across the center of the card.  I did not layer a mat beneath the words because I wanted all of the cutlery on the cardstock to show. 

Just as a reminder - here is the view from the top of the card - the mechanics are simple but the effect is impressive!

I used the Lyrical Letters cartridge for this card - the "Happy Birthday" and the "Love You" were images already welded on the Cartridge and I added the rest - welding everything together.

When the card is folded it fits nicely in a standard A2, "invitation" size envelope. If you need more room for a message you can add a handwritten note to the back of the card.

The heavy glittered and patterned cardstock from the DCWV Premium Stacks is a great choice for these cards.  There are often sheets in a stack that I like but I sometimes have trouble finding a way to use them for a scrapbook - so I am using them for cards and enjoying the results!

Remember, Thursday is the last day to enter the Workbox Giveaway

Click the link to go to the Giveaway post and follow the directions to enter your name for a chance to win  - remember, only comments on the original post will be used to find the winner on my blog and this person will then have a chance to win a Workbox - good luck to everyone!

Triplet Tri Shutter Cards

I made some more tri shutter cards for a very special occasion - our triplet nephews turned six and started school this week and we went to their party today.



It is very difficult to get all three of them to look the same direction at the same time!

I decided to try something different with these cards. Instead of making a solid color card base and adding decorative papers I made the cards from glitter cardstock which is quite sturdy.



The cardstock I chose was from this DCWV stack - it is full of fun animal images and overall patterns in bright colors. Here is a quick reminder of the steps for making this card (and a LINK to my post a few days ago with a different variation of the card).



Cut the cardstock to 12 x 5 1/2 inches. Score at the 2, 4, 8, and 10 inch marks. Since the cardstock was dark, I am holding it up so you can see the scored marks on the back. A Scor-Pal is highly recommended to easily make the scores evenly spaced.



Cut from the 2 inch score line to the 10 inch score line, 1 1/2 inches from the long edge. An easy way to do this is to cut the paper with a trimmer at the four inch mark to make the cut 1 1/2 inch from the opposite side. Then flip and repeat.



I use a Creative Memories straight trimmer which has a handy arrow to show you exactly where the blade is cutting. Just take the blade from the two inch mark to the ten inch mark on both sides and then you are ready to do the folding.



Fold the top and bottom bands in a mountain-valley-mountain-valley pattern. For the center of the card, skip the two inch score line and fold a mountain at the four inch mark and then a valley at the 8 inch mark (skipping the ten inch score line).



Here is a top view to help you see the folds.



I cut some panels from brown glitter cardstock using my Nestabilities - the second from the largest in the classic large scalloped rectangle set. I went back to my old Sizzix dies to cut the "6" from orange glitter cardstock using the "fun serif"' dies.



Foam adhesive strips cut from the sides of the foam squares pack help to raise the "6" on the scalloped rectangles for more dimension.



The three "6" panels - ready to add to the card fronts.



I put the adhesive on the card front to make sure that there would be no excess in areas where the scalloped rectangle did not overlap the card front.



The layer pieces were cut at 3 1/2 x 2 inches to allow a border of the base cardstock to show.



The tan pieces are cut from glitter cardstock and I added the personalization using a Martha Stewart glitter marker. These markers are very sparkly and fun to use.



The green textured cardstock was also cut at 3 1/2 x 2 inches. I placed the pieces carefully in the Happy Birthday Cuttlebug folder to get the section of embossing I wanted.



Here are the three embossed sections looking a little bit plain and hard to read!



I inked the edges of all of the panels and rubbed the ink pad across the embossed sections to highlight the "Happy Birthday."



Here is the inside view of one of the cards.



By working on all three at once I was able to complete the cards fairly quickly.



The boys seemed to like their cards.



Of course, the mountain of presents was probably the most interesting part of the afternoon for them!



I hope that you all are having a nice Labor Day weekend - our weather looks to be perfect for the next couple of days.