Showing posts with label P - Note Card Folder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label P - Note Card Folder. Show all posts

Friday, March 12, 2010

Fancy Cards can be Simple too!


(This post originally appeared on the Everyday Cricut blog where I was the Guest Designer for the week of March 8-12, 2010)

Welcome to Fancy Card Friday.  This is Diane and it is my last day as Guest Designer here on Everyday Cricut.  The week has been jam packed with creating, experimenting, testing, photographing and writing about all of the projects I shared.  I want to thank Joy and Melanie again for inviting me to join you this week.  I know that some of you were already familiar with my work, but some of you are new to me and I hope that you will continue to visit my personal blog, Capadia Designs,  for inspiration and help as you create with your Cricut.

I just want to answer a question that comes up frequently - "Who/what is Capadia and how do you pronounce it?"  When I first got my Cricut, I went to the Cricut..com site to look for the educational videos about how the machine works.  I discovered the Cricut Message Board and "lurked" for a few weeks and then got brave enough to sign up so I could post messages.  I didn't want to use my full name and all of the clever "crafty" names I could think of seemed to be taken.  So I took pieces of my name and combined them to come up with a message board name - CAmpbell PAyne DIAne = CAPADIA.  That's really all there is to it!  I pronounce it Kuh-PAY-dee-uh (as you may have heard on one of my videos).


 So, let's talk about the card(s) I made for Fancy Card Friday.  In an effort to have something for everyone, I created one card (and a sister card)  in Design Studio, but I also made some additional simple but elegant cards that can be made with one cut directly from a wonderful and versatile cartridge that is one you should have on your shelf (or add to your list).  More about that later...

One other question that has come up several times is "Why don't you use your Gypsy more?"  I have worked with the Gypsy and I enjoy it, however, I find that there are features in Design Studio that are not available to me on the Gypsy and I prefer to use the Design Studio.  According to Provo Craft, the goal is to make the two programs have true "design parity" but there is a lot of work to be done to get there - I am hoping that they are getting closer!


 For this card, I started with the A Child's Year cartridge again - it truly is one of my favorites for it's incredible variety, the font and the realistic images.  There are also great tags and a full set of interesting cards all packed into this one cartridge!  I started with this fancy shaped card and used it as my base for an A2 card.


Here is a screen preview of the card - it took just a little Design Studio magic to get there!

To cut the base card, you could just set the size on the machine to 5.5 inches and cut.  I have a "pet peeve" that means that I usually cut my card bases using Design Studio so I can hide the little "tick marks" that are included to show you where to score the card.   It is pretty obvious how to fold the card in half and the cuts from those guides marks can be unsightly and look a bit sloppy.


Someone asked about how to use "hide selected contour" - I have a video on my blog at this LINK that goes into some detail but the quick explanation is that you left click on a line to select it - it will turn a pinky red color.  Then, right click on the mat and choose "hide selected contour" at the bottom of the drop down menu.  The line will turn a very pale blue and will not cut.  (It turns blue so you can find it if you want to "show selected contour" by using the same procedure).

Here are a few things you should know about "hide selected contour" to save frustration -

You can not hide a contour on an image that has been copied and pasted.  You will have to save and reopen the file (just the file not the whole program)  to make the feature active on a copied image.  

If you hide lines on an image and then copy and paste it, the lines will come back and you will have to reopen the file and hide the lines on the second image.

If you hide only one line on an image, it will not stay hidden when the file is closed and you will have to "rehide" it every time you use the file.  I have a workaround for this if the image you are using has at least three lines - here is a LINK to the post on my blog.

For this card, I also needed to have the card in my Design Studio file so I could adapt the size of my top layers to fit the shape of the card.


If you watched my video about making the Easter Egg card on Monday you know about the "guideline rectangles" I use to help plan my cards.  I just want to point something out.  If you use the Shape Properties Box to set the size on some objects there may be a difference between the size you set and the actual size. This is due to the bounding box not being exactly on the lines of the image.


In this case, a 5 1/2 inch card base will have these values in the Shape Properties Box.  I just wanted to mention this to help you avoid a problem with sizing. 


I wanted a scalloped oval for the card topper and there is a very handy one right here on the A Child's Year cartridge.


I needed to adjust the oval slightly to make it fit on the card base.  I kept the preview of the card on one mat on while I adjusted the sizing with the handles until it fit nicely.


OK - now for the "fancy" part!  I went to the "Wild Card" cartridge and chose this card - but I am not going to use it as a card.


I wanted the lovely filigree to be cut inside my scalloped oval layer.  To do this, I simply used the handles to shape the filigree area to fit the scalloped oval with a nice even border.  Then, I hid the outer cutting line of the card and the two "tick marks" for the scoring.  Since I hid two or more lines, they will stay hidden when the file is closed and reopened.

That's all there is to it - takes much longer to explain than to do it!


I cut a plain scalloped oval, the fancy filigree center scalloped oval (in white glitter cardstock) and the card base and I was ready to assemble my card.  I tried the plain oval in the gemstone cardstock (above) and also in some matte finish blue cardstock (below).


I liked the color of the plain cardstock better but it was too plain - so I embossed it using the Swiss Dots embossing folder.


The embossing is just enough to balance the filigree and keep all of the pieces of the card interesting.  The shaped card can stand by itself - I like that in a card!  I was thinking that this would be a nice baby card and I could add a tiny sentiment in the bottom section - but I might use it for something else...


So, what about the "leftovers"?  When the scalloped oval filigree was removed from the mat these pieces remained.  I decided to try the same "trick" I used on another card from the Love Struck cartridge and lift these pieces with transfer tape to place them on a second card.


This is the card I made earlier this year using this method (here is a LINK to that post and the file).


 I placed some vinyl transfer tape over the pieces on the mat and burnished it down as well as I could.  It was much more difficult to lift the glitter pieces than it was to lift the paper pieces on the valentine.  The glitter surface did not cling as easily to the tape so I had to be very careful to peel it up evenly.


Once I had lifted all of the pieces on the tape, I applied adhesive.


Then I centered the filigree on the blue gemstone oval I had "rejected" and adhered the glitter pieces to the scalloped oval - it looked very pretty in the end!


Glitter cardstock tends to separate and there was one spot where this happened very noticeably.


I used a liquid adhesive to try to hold the glitter layer down - unfortunately it showed through after drying.


Remember,""there are no mistakes"- they are simply "creative opportunities!"  I decided that what my card needed was this lovely sequin flower from Creative Charms.


 The gemstone oval is raised up with foam squares and the card base is the large piece left from the pink sheet of cardstock I used for the Easter Egg cards.


The file for this card is available on my blog in today's "sister" post - here is a LINK.


Can you guess what is inside this pretty box?


Eight of the cards that I made using the "leftovers" from the projects for this week.  I designed the note card folder over a year ago when I made some cards for a gift and needed a way to present them.  The folder is made with a single sheet of 12 x 12 cardstock and the only "leftovers" are the two strips you can see in front of the box.  I used the Scor-Pal to make the box and the owner of the company was planning to include it in an Ezine last Spring, but the issue never came out.  The complete directions to make the folder are on my blog - here is a LINK.


 I did promise a truly simple but still elegant and "fancy" card or two with no Design Studio involved for today didn't I?  Well here they are - all lovely and easy .  With beautiful cardstock and the Lyrical Letters cartridge you can make these in no time at all.  Since I have run very long in this post today, I will send you to the sister post on my blog  to get all of the details.  Lyrical Letters is a fantastic cartridge with seven fonts and all sorts of surprises - like these perfect card toppers.

I hope I have inspired you to get busy creating.  I encourage you to experiment with the vinyl and eggs, download the trial of Design Studio and use your leftovers!

Have a great weekend!



Friday, January 9, 2009

Step by Step Guide - How to make the Note Card Folder Box



People seemed to like the little card folder box I posted yesterday. Some said they were able to make it easily from the diagram and others had some questions and wanted more directions. As I promised, I made some more folder boxes today and took photos to show the steps.

This really is a quick and simple project and if you do these assembly line style you can make a lot of them in a short time.

First you need a sheet of 12 x 12 heavy cardstock. I used a textured Bazzill paper.

You need to make the cuts shown in the diagram (reposted here to make it simpler for you).



First cut off a 2 inch strip and cut it into two six inch by 2 inch pieces. (By cutting this first you will avoid accidentally cutting off the 1/2 inch strip first and making the remaining 2 inch strip too short to get two six inch pieces - don't ask me how I know this!)

Then cut a one inch strip and cut it into two six inch pieces - one will be used for the box and one goes to your scrap box to use in another project.

Finally, cut 1/2 inch from the remaining 9 x 12 inch piece of paper resulting in a 9 x 11 1/2 inch piece of paper. The extra 9 x 1/2 inch piece also goes to the scrap box.

This photo shows the cut pieces.



This photo shows the two pieces you will not use to make the box off to the right.



Take the 2 inch by 6 inch pieces and score them at 1/2 inch from the long side.



Use a corner rounder to round the corners furthest from the score line of each of these pieces



Then fold along the score line. I use a ScorPal and the recommendation is that you fold toward the "mountain" or "bump" so be sure to score the paper with the textured (right) side facing up.



Set these two pieces aside for now.

On the 11 1/2 inch top and bottom, score at one inch and one and 1/2 inch from the edge on both top and bottom.



Below you can see the full sheet after this step



Next take the 9 x 11 1/2 inch piece of paper and score it 1/2 inch from the 9 inch edge on both sides. Then position the paper at the 1/4 inch mark on the ScorPal and score at the 5 1/2 inch mark on each side. This score line is 4 3/4 inch from the 1/2 inch score line if you are not using a ScorPal and produces a one inch center spine for the box folder.



Once you have made all of these scores fold the paper toward the "bump" starting from the center score lines and working your way outward in each direction. The more textured side (right side) will be on the outside of the box.



Top and bottom folds above, side folds below




When the entire piece is scored and folded it will look like this.



Next, use a good pair of scissors to cut away the corners and the area in the center of the top and bottom right up to the scored lines as shown.



It is a bit awkward to cut away the center pieces and it helps to fold the flap that will remain under to get a good line for cutting.



Now, use the corner rounder to round the corners of the top and bottom flaps nearest to the center or spine of the box.



It is a little tricky to fit the corner rounder in these spots but it will work.

Now you will have a paper that looks like this, and you are ready to assemble the folder.



Use a strong adhesive on the 1/2 inch side flap of the larger piece. (I used my new tape gun which has a fairly aggressive adhesive perfect for making boxes).



Then take the side flaps and carefully align them with the 1/2 inch scored sides and folded areas overlapping - be sure that you have the textured side facing in the correct direction.



You will now have something that looks like this.



Almost finished! Now apply strong adhesive to the wrong side of the side flap, being careful not to go beyond one inch from the top or bottom edge and stopping at the first score line. If you sit the paper on the ScorPal you can use the scoring lines as a guide to the show the one inch available for adhesive. You do not want any adhesive to be exposed on the inside which could stick to the cards or envelopes.



Fold the top and bottom flaps in toward the center and bring the side flap over, carefully lining up the corner to be sure that it is squared off neatly. (You can get your fingers inside to help make this square corner).



Repeat the process on the opposite side

You now have a finished box folder and can use it as is or add a closure.



If you want to attach a ribbon for a closure, cut a piece of ribbon approximately 30-32 inches long (this is probably a bit more than you need but different ribbons vary and you can trim the ends to suit once the bow is tied).

Measure a point about 12 inches from one end of the ribbon and apply a bit of adhesive.





Use the ruler to center the ribbon at the 3 inch mark and attach the ribbon to the spine.





Then, to secure the ribbon and make the spine more sturdy, apply several lines of adhesive to the length of the 1 x 6 inch strip (be sure that you apply it on the "wrong," less textured side).



Stand the folder on the side and carefully attach the strip of paper over the ribbon making sure that the all of the edges are even.



Turn the box over and use your bone folder to burnish the spine and insure that the strip is well adhered.



Then tie the ribbon on the top of the box.



There are unlimited ways in which you can decorate this folder box. You can add an embossed piece of card stock, some decorative paper, an initial, any suitably sized cut from your Cricut - the list is endless. You could also try using an edge punch along the inside flaps. Here are a few photos of random things that were nearby on my scrap table to get you inspired (some may not be in the colors I would ultimately choose - just some ideas).















I was able to make four of these boxes quite quickly tonight (once I stopped taking a photo at each step of the process!) and the contents of these boxes will be revealed here very soon - maybe even tomorrow!



Have fun with these - it is very nice to have your cards and their packaging totally coordinated (and to think - if I had found a spare box around the house yesterday, I would not have needed to come up with an alternative!).