Another Sympathy Card

As I mentioned last time I posted a card, I've needed too many sympathy cards lately!  Last night I got notice that I needed another - so here it is.  I got the idea for the card shape from a Hot Off The Press DVD called "Theresa's 100 Moveable Parts Cards".

It is really quite easy to make.  It starts with a 10" square piece of paper.  Fold in half on each diagonal. Score 2 1/2" on each side of these diagonal folds, fold and crease well, then open back up. At this point I did it a bit differently than the directions.  I simply folded the corner back until the tip hit my fold line and creased well, then opened it up and folded the corner back to the fold line I just made. Then I refolded to the line before it. After doing this for each corner, I had something that looked like an octagon (see picture of opened card, below). After folding back the corners, I bordered them with wide and then narrower ribbon before gluing them in position (see picture of card with belly band removed, below).  Then I simply folded a flap in to the 2 1/2" fold line, turned it, and folded the next one, tucking the top of it under the right edge of the first folded flap.  Repeat for the remaining ones, tucking each under the previous at the top. This leaves you with the square shape you see in the picture above.

I made the belly band by starting with a strip of gold glimmer paper (11" x 1 1/2"). Because the card I needed to fit was a 5" square, I scored it 2 1/2" inches from the center on both sides (giving me the 5" space for the front), then again 1/8" beyond that on both sides (to allow for the bulk of the folded card).  I glued the focal to the front, and a velcro closure where the ends meet in the back. It is loose enough that it can be slipped off the card rather than messing with the velcro, if desired. I stamped the focal, then came back with a darker brown pen and traced around the outer edge and over the letters. Then I cut and embossed the outer shape with a Spellbinders Die.

This is what it looks like with the belly band removed:

And here is a look at the inside:

with a close-up of the center:

I went around the inside of the fold lines with a water brush dipped in a cream-colored pearlescent chalk to create a bit of a frame.  The embossed mat was trimmed from a piece embossed with an Mbossabilities folder from Spellbinders. The words on each of the four sides were all on one stamp (from Faith Greetings set by TPC Studio).  I carefully masked all of the stamp (with pieces of post-it note) except for the words I wanted for each position before inking the stamp, stamping it, cleaning it, and repeating the process. This enabled me to stamp each line separately.

For the focal, as I did before, I stamped it and went over the words and around the edge with a darker pen. Next I cut and embossed it with a Spellbinder's die.  After removing the die, I used a water brush (mine is the Aqua Painter from Stampin Up) with ink from the ink pad, to color in the outside edge up to the embossed line.

To finish the card, I added a stamped embellishment (not sure who made this stamp, I got it second hand) in each of the corners as you see here:

Both the stamp used for the focal on the belly band, and the one used on the inside of the card, are ones I made with my Stampmaker and digital art from the CD "Card Greetings and Sentiments" (from Hot Off the Press). The patterned paper came from a Colorbok Paper Pack.