Fancy Fold Cards make a great impression--they look really complicated and clever, but can be very simple to achieve! This week I tried a fancy fold card technique, known as a "Bridge Card."
I have never made a bridge card before, but it was pretty easy to figure out once I had the gist of how it works. Basically, a bridge card has an accordion fold on both ends connected by a piece of paper at the bottom, which helps it to stand up. This fancy fold is pretty cool, as it does lay flat for mailing and fits in a standard size Stampin' Up! envelope.
I decided to use the Merry Patterns hostess stamp for my card. I was the lucky winner of this stamp set at our last team meeting (thanks again Leena!) but I hadn't had a chance to play with it at home yet. It really does have an impact with two-step stamping that looks way harder than it is!
What is hard is getting a photo of the card that shows what it is all about with a bunch of shadows!! So please forgive me if I wasn't terribly successful at that. :)
I wanted the candles to be the stand out feature of this card so I went with a Basic Black card base of 4.25" x 8". I changed the original template scoring measurements because I wanted to use the "tis the Season" sentiment from the stamp set in the middle background and it was just a hair too wide to fit. I scored my base at 1", 2", 6" and 7",which left me with the wider centre I needed.
I used four strips of the black paper from the Merry Little Christmas DSP pack for my accordion pieces, and a rectangle of Whisper White for the centre piece. I stamped this with my sentiment in Archival Basic Black and then again in Cherry Cobbler for the "filler." I stamped "Light the season with love and laughter" from the Wishes All Aglow set in Crushed Curry just underneath the main sentiment. Across the bottom of the panel I stamped the candle image two times and then stamped the inside decorations in alternating Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive and Crushed Curry for the flames. This stamp set makes it so easy to achieve this look--there are two filler stamps that alternate candles and let you stamp three at a time. Genius!
For my bridge piece I took a piece of Whisper White cardstock and stamped the candles three times in Archival Basic Black, then again alternated the colour of the candles themselves. I fussy cut around the whole thing and adhered this piece to the black base one side at a time. Just lay the card flat and glue ONLY the piece of the bridge that will cover the first side piece. Slide the base over to the other side and repeat. Trust me, it's way simpler than you think!
I tried to capture a picture of the base lying flat...this is how you will attach the bridge, and how it will go into the envelope when you are ready to mail.
Having the candles on the bridge as well as on the centre piece really helps the image look 3D, and I think the black background helps the coloured candles to really pop.
I'm very happy with my first bridge card and think it will be a big WOW to whoever is on the receiving end. :) I plan to finish the card by signing our names on the back of the base using the White Stampin' Chalk marker along with a personalized message for the recipient so I don't have a picture of the "inside" to show you. Instead I'll give you a closer look at the 3D effect!
Thanks for stopping by!
Barb
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