Napkin Focal

I know it is not anywhere near Thanksgiving, but I'm posting this now for two reasons. First, I wanted to show a card using a focal from a napkin and this was the only one I had right now.  Second, I like to take advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday to send cards to friends and loved ones, with very personal messages telling them specifically what I appreciate about them and thanking them for enriching my life.  This means I need quite a few Thanksgiving cards, so I need to start early with them, just like I do for Christmas cards.

This card is a gate-fold card turned on its side. Opened up it looks like this:

Here are the specifics of how I made this card:

• I started with a plain white gate-fold card and a napkin left over from Thanksgiving dinner last year. This particular napkin had two distinct parts to it, two striped parts, and two parts with pictures of leaves, acorns and berries.
• I started by cutting the striped portion a bit bigger than the front of my card and removing the back ply of paper (the napkin was made in several layers pressed together - I removed the back one which was a bit loose -- NOTE: I should have removed ALL other layers from the printed layer - over time if there are more than one layer, the top layer will start to come loose since it's not actually the layer that is glued to the card!).  I glued the top flap completely with a glue stick and lined up the green stripe along the upper folded edge.  Using my fingers, I smoothed it out over the rest of the glue, then went over it with my bone folder to really embed it in the glue. Then I trimmed around the card with my scissors to remove the excess. Then I repeated this for the bottom flap.
• Next, I cut out one of the picture parts, trimming closely around the leaves, etc. at the top.  I removed the loose ply of paper from the back and then carefully ran my glue stick over the back of the piece I had cut, covering it completely with glue.  This was then carefully placed along the inside bottom edge of the card, smoothed out with both my hands and the bone folder, and trimmed with scissors along the edges of the card.
• I cut a rectangle of white cardstock and rounded the corners.
• Then I chose a part of the remaining picture for my focal and carefully cut around it. (Compare the focal to the picture on the inside of the card to see which part I cut out.)  I removed the back ply of paper, then applied glue to the back of my focal and smoothed it in place just like I did in the last step.
• Using a glitter pen, I drew a thin border around the edge of this cardstock piece, then glued it to the TOP flap of the card (don't glue it to the bottom flap as well, or you can't open your card!)
• Using a brown chalk ink pad and acrylic stamps from Melissa Frances Crystal Clear Stamps set, I stamped the greetings over the top of my focal.
• A 1/8" ribbon bow finishes it off.