Stand Up Santa & Friend

Here's another stand up card by way of the Deerfoams box inspiration (see Saturday's post):

Card standing measures 7" across x 6" high to top of image panel x 2" deep.

You'll be so proud of yourself after you make this card you'll want to just put it on your own mantle instead of sending it off to a lucky recipient for Christmas ;o) But if you do send it out, it will fold flat.

I really really REALLY suggest (strongly! >;o) that you make yourself a practice template like the one below (click photo for larger view) first and hang on to it for a refresher when you want to make a new one. It's SO much easier if you don't have to remeasure everything.

*tip*
I keep a 3-ring binder for all the mechanical/3D cards I have made or would like to make. For each seperate type, I slip the pages of directions in a sheet protecter and the template and/or a sample card featuring it behind these so I can just flip thru it for instant inspiration.

You can start with a piece of patterned paper and adhere it to cs for strength or make your own base piece like I did here. I started with an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of off-white cs, planning to trim it down as needed.

I wiped a Distress ink pad in Peeled Paint on a nonstick pad, then spritzed it with water. I laid the cs down on this and lifted off to dry. It needed more interest so I use a Distress ink pad in Frayed Burlap and ran it randomly over the paper, starting at the tall end and coming downwards with it. Still not right so I took the Frayed Burlap pad, swiped it on the nonstick pad lightly, and then poured a puddle (about quarter size) of Irredescent Watercolor Medium, mixed with some water, onto the pad and used a rubber brayer to mix it all together and roll over the background paper. This added a faint sparkle that shows up close and browned the green more evenly.

*tip*
The reverse of the bkgd cs will show a bit so I like to give the back side a wash of the color I'm using.

I stamped 2 different PSX Poinsetta stamps over the bkgd using Frayed Burlap and then the Background Text-Thin stamp (A Stamp in the Hand) in Brilliance Galaxy Gold.
After the bkgd was completely dry and flat, I trimmed it to 7" x 11". I flipped it decorated side down and drew pencil lines the short way at 1" (A), 4" (B), 6" (C) and 9" (D), and then scored these, still on the reverse. Then I drew the same type of lines at 5" (E), 7" (F) and 8" (G) without scoring or cutting. I turned the piece sideways with line A at the far end and focusing on the area between line B and D I drew pencil lines at 1 1/2" (H), 3" (I), 4" (J) and 5 1/2" (K). I know this seems tedious and confusing at the same time but you're almost there!! ;o)

I measured 1" up from line D and scored this line (G) between lines H and K. Then starting at this scored line I cut the two pencil lines (H and K) up to Line B with an Exacto knife. Then I scored lines E and F between I and J, and then cut lines I and J (with the Exacto) between lines E and F.

And the cutting and measuring is done - yayyyyy! Breath a sigh of relief now ;o)

The rest is pretty simple - I just stamped my main image (Inkadinkado) on off-white cs using black ink, the second stamping. I colored it in using Distress inks and Q-tips, and trimmed the edges with deckle scissors. I layered this to a green panel, then dark brown and then red. It's important to make sure the red panel will fit between lines H and K with a little room to spare. At this point I sponged some Frayed Burlap onto all the cut edges of the base card for definition.

To put it all together, glue the 1" panel near line A underneath the wide panel at the opposite end. Now holding the base, push on the panels between the edge and line H and the edge and line K. Now center the red panel on the 2" x 1" pop out panel adhering it from line F to the scoreline at line C only.

I punched some flowers from the green and red scraps and layered them with a gold brad, and then adhered them to the card as shown with Glue-Dots. I wrapped the bottom of the panel with a red ribbon and tied a brown and black gingham ribbon around it.

*tip*
Always adhere a part of your ribbon to the cardfront, even if it seems stretched tight enought to stay in place. I like to do this right near the most awkward spot - here where the tied ribbons bunch up the red ribbon. I like the skinny ATG tape gun for this.

For the tag accent, I stamped the Merry Christmas collage word stamp (Hero Arts) on the off-white cs using the Distress Peeled Paint, then the large Merry Christmas again in black lining it up with a stamp positioner. I used the Multitags Scallop punch by McGill on this and on the brown cs, then layered them as shown.

Because my image panel ended up so much heavier than the base it had a tendency to be too top heavy and fall backwards. I fixed this by attaching a matching easel on the back of the image panel (see photo) that will fold back on itself when folding the card up.

Thanks for looking!