Card Kit Swap

Today's card was created for a card kit swap hosted by the Paper Wishes Message Board.  The idea for this swap is that you create two "kits" as defined (a focal, a certain number/size of papers, ribbon, embellishments).  You make a card from one kit & send the other in the swap and see what your swap partner makes with it.  

This kit started with the Hunkydory Vintage Blossom Topper Card Kit - since I just happened to have 2 of them. It contained a card base & envelope, the focal, 3 small round coordinating embellishments, a border embellishment, gold-edged ribbon, 2 pieces of coordinating card stock from the kit (one was 6 1/2" by 5" and one was 5" x 5", and a 6 1/2" x 5" piece of rust-colored glimmer paper.

I thought today I'd describe the evolution of my card.  Often with this type of focal I might separate & use the frames elsewhere, but for this card I decided to keep it intact and use it for the center of a center step card.  I started by turning my card base into a center step card base:

1. Modify a standard card base by carefully centering the focal on it and drawing lines either side - 3/4" from the bottom of the card & extending 3/4" beyond the score line for the center fold.  
2. Cut along these lines with a craft knife.  
3. Score from top of this cut line to the edge of the card on both sides.
4. Score again from the bottom of the cut line to the edge of the card on both sides.
5. Score again 3/4" above the last score line (#4).
6. Carefully fold along the score lines - all are mountain folds except for the last set of score lines (#5) which are valley folds.
7. Decorate!

I knew I wanted the rust-colored glimmer paper on the bottom & sides of the focal - BUT I couldn't just cover the front of the card with it - I didn't have enough paper in the kit.  SO, I cut three 3/4" strips lengthwise and glued them to the bottom & sides of the card.  Here's another view of the card front:

I had thought to use the yellow border strip on the bottom & sides of the card, so carefully aligned a couple of small pieces with the bottom of the focal so I'd have enough left over to use on the sides of the card.

Before I glued it all down, I wanted to make sure I was set for the inside of the card, so I moved to that:

I used one of the colored card stock pieces for the center, but it was only 5" wide, so I needed something on the sides.  I thought the rust-colored glimmer paper would be great on either side, but by this time I had realized that I wanted to mat my little circular sentiment on a piece of that paper and I didn't have a lot left.  Since I only needed the strips to be 4 1/4" long instead of 6 1/2", I cut carefully so the remaining 2 1/4" was left intact for my sentiment mat.  I also cut some off the top of  the inset piece so the flower border would align with the bottom of my card.

It looked good, but a little unfinished where the patterned card stock and paper met.  SO, I decided to use the ribbon as a border between the two - finished it off nicely.

Then I went back to the card front, glued the rust-strips in place, then held the focal in place so I could align the little border pieces correctly.  After attaching them, I attached the focal, lining it up carefully so it's side edges were aligned with the side edges of the center step & the top of the cutaway corner aligned with the top of the 3/4" strip at the bottom.  Then, I carefully trimmed away the upper corners of the card to match the curve of the focal.

I cut my mat for my circular sentiment & cut the corners to mimic the corners of the focal.  I did that by carefully lining up one of the corners of the mat with the corner of the focal (just so happened there were inner lines on the focal frame that gave great lines to match my focal to), and drawing a light pencil line on the mat along the curve of the focal.  I repeated this for all 4 corners & then cut the corners.

The sentiment was added with foam tape for a bit of dimension.  I decided that adding the yellow/gold border along the sides of the card made for too much yellow.  So, instead, I added a bit of the gold-edged ribbon.

As I set the card up, I realized the rust-colored edge at the bottom wasn't as sturdy as I'd like, so I used the leftovers I cut from the patterned card stock on the inside of the card to piece together a strip across the back of it (which you can see at the top of the picture of the inside of the card).

Adding anything else that I had in the kit, just made the card seem too busy, so I stored them away for a future project.  If I'd had a bit more ribbon I think a bow under the sentiment piece would have been nice - but I didn't have any left, so couldn't test that. :)