HD Christmas Classics - Robin and Friends #3

Today's card (#3 of Robin and Friends card topper from HD Christmas Classics) is a folding 3-D Shadowbox card.  This card is SO EASY to make!!!

MATERIALS:

• Hunkydory Christmas Classics Luxury Card Collection (Robin and Friends card topper set)
• Greeting scavenged from a Christmas card I received previously.
• Glitter fun foam
• Patterned paper (HOTP)
• White card blank - 5" x 7" size
• Spellbinders die - Decorative Labels Eight

METHOD:

1. Card Base - Cut in half along pre-scored line giving you two pieces that are 5" x 7" in size.  Score at 1/2" and 1" from each 5" side and crease well.  (picture at end of post shows how these two pieces will go together)
2. Card Front - Cut a piece of patterned card stock that is 5" square.  Attach in place in center of one piece of prepared card stock (step #1) using repositionable adhesive.  Die cut a hole through both pieces - setting removed pieces aside for another card.  Cut a piece of acetate (clear plastic from packaging works great!) and sandwich this between card stock and card front, gluing all in place.  Glue large frame (from die cut sheet) centered on card front, making sure not to get glue between scored lines.  Frame will overlap center front area, but this is fine so long as no glue is on the overlap!
3. Inside Shadow Box - Cover inside of "shadow box" (center part of 2nd piece of scored cardstock) with a coordinating print paper, making sure to avoid getting glue between scored lines.  Mat scavenged sentiment piece on glitter fun foam with added foam tape for dimension.  Then carefully place so it will be centered behind the acetate window in the finished card and glue in place.
4. Finishing - Glue sides together along out edges ONLY (between edge of card and 1st score lines).  Glue 5" border strips (from die cut sheet) in place on top of these outside edges, making sure not to extend them past the scored lines.  Grasping each side and pushing toward each other will create a nice shadow box - pulling away will help it lie flat for mailing.  Add a small piece of scored card stock to the back of the card to serve as a stand - see picture below.

HD Christmas Classics - Robin and Friends #2

My second card from the Robin & Friends topper set in the Hunkydory Christmas Classics Luxury Card Collection is an Inverted Center Step Card - turned UPSIDE DOWN!!!  

MATERIALS:

• Hunkydory Christmas Classics Luxury Card Collection - Robin & Friends Topper Set
• Hunkydory Red Mirri Card Stock
• Clear Acetate
• 5" x 7" cream colored card blank
• Paper Artist 9 Tiny Christmas Things & Shadows
• Red Jewel Dazzles

METHOD:

1. Card Base - Make card as inverted center step card (see here).  Then turn it upside down so the "step" is at the top of the card. 
2. Recessed Card Front - Cut patterned card stock at 7" from side with robin.  Place in front of you with robin in lower right corner - cut horizontally 4" from bottom. Then cut 2" off the left side, leaving a piece that is 5" x 4" and has the robin.  Glue this to the "upside down" center portion of the card.  Reserve cut off pieces for step 4.
3. Middle Layer - Cut a piece of acetate - 1 1/4" x 5".  Score at 1/4" on long edge and fold.  Glue 1/4" folded edge to bottom of upside down "step" - butted up against the patterned card stock.  Align 5" long border strip (from die cut sheet) along lower edge of acetate so it can be seen below the fussy cut leaves.  Glue in place.  Using ornament die from 9 Tiny Christmas Things and Shadows (HOTP) cut an ornament from red mirri card stock.  Trim ornament in two - uppper bulb portion & lower pointed portion.  Attach these as two ornaments hanging from the border strip.
4. Sides of Card Front - Cut 5" x 7" piece of acetate. Taking largest remaining piece from step #2, cut opening in it to fit the card base - 1" from each side & fussy cut along the border. Sandwiching acetate between this and the card base, glue this piece to the top and sides of upside down card front (card stock will not come all the way down sides of the card).  Take remaining 2" wide piece & fussy cut along the leaves like you did for the piece along the top of the card.  Trim to 1" pieces and glue to bottom of sides to finish them off.  Cut strip from die cut sheet and glue along bottom of acetate. Add sentiment (from die cut sheet), and a few small red Dazzles to embellish sentiment & edges where strip joins sides.
5. Stand - Card is basically finished, but with the acetate and card stock glued to it, the front was way to heavy to stand in place - so I added a piece of card stock in the back that could be folded to hold it in place (See picture below).  This was just a piece of left over card stock approximately 2" square.  I scored it at 1/2" from one side.  Then, with scored line on my left, I measured 1/2" from the bottom edge on the right side & draw a line from that point to the bottom at the fold and trimmed along this line so the card would sit at the right angle.  Then I just folded it along the score line - and glued just the 1/2" part to the back of the card, lining up the bottom of stand with the fold line of the card as you see in the picture below.

It folds pretty flat for mailing, but makes a really nice 3-dimensional card.

HD Christmas Classics - Robin & Friends #1

Today's card is from the 4th topper set in the Hunkydory Christmas Classics Luxury Card Collection - the one called "Robin and Friends".  I came across this "inverted" center step card the other day and just had to try it.  It's super easy.  For the card base - instead of the step being on the outside, we move it to the inside.  This sets the center portion back instead of the edges - though I'm not sure how well you can see it in the picture above.  (Perhaps you can see the depth better in the last picture in this post.

MATERIALS:

• Hunkydory Christmas Classics Luxury Card Collection
• Essential Book of Christmas Sentiments 2016
• Cream colored card base for 5" x 7" card
• Red Glitter foam from the dollar store
• Ribbon from my stash
• foam tape
  

METHOD:

1. Card Base - In the picture above, the dotted lines represent scored lines, and the sold represent cut lines (though please make them straighter than I could get in the picture!!!! )  The two score lines on the outer edges of the cut lines are along the original score line of your card.  I started with a 5"x 7" finished card size.  Score line A in this case is 1" from the lower edge, score line B is 1" above that.  Score line C is 1" past the original center score line.  Cut lines are equidistant from the edges - in this case I cut them 1 1/4" from the edge.  As you can see, they run from scoreline A to scoreline C.  All folds are mountain folds except for scoreline B.
2. Sides & Lower Step - I cut a piece of Gold Mirri card stock at 5" x 7" - then cut out a piece in the upper center portion that was 4" x 4 1/2" so it perfectly fit the sides & lower step. I glued that in place, then added a strip of glitter foam tape - then added a greeting from the die cut sheet using foam tape.
3. Center Portion of Card Front - I cut a piece of patterned card stock (from a previous topper kit in this same set) 4 1/2" x 4" and glued in place before adding the topper with foam tape.
4. Finishing Front - Finally, I added a little greeting from the Essential book to the upper left corner with foam tape.
5. Inside:  On the inside I took two strips of the patterned card stock and glued a 1/4" cream colored ribbon down the center of each strip (wrapping ends around to the back and gluing in place).  Then I centered pieces of 1/8" shiny gold ribbon down the center of the cream colored ribbon and glued in place - again wrapping the ends to the back.  Now I simply glued the strips in place as borders on each side of the inside of this card.

HD Christmas Classics - The Nativity #4

This is the 4th card from the "The Nativity" card topper set - made as a center step card.  Sometimes my card designing process is a bit unusual.  This one was a case in point.  I first decided I wanted a card topper that was 3 3/4" x 5" in size.  Why?  Because the border I wanted to use at the bottom was only 3 3/4" wide!  As I was playing around with elements on the card topper, I realized that rather than making such a small card, what I wanted to do was use the topper as the center piece of a center step card!  Once I knew that, the rest was pretty easy.

NOTE: it was only as I started on another topper set from this card collection that I realized I had switched two of the patterned card stock pieces!  What you see here was actually from the Christmas Greetings topper set! (though still HD Christmas Classics collection)

Materials:

• Hunkydory Christmas Classics Luxury Card Kit - The Nativity topper set
• Star embossed cream colored paper from "hand made" paper kit I got at Costco years ago.
• The Essential Book of Christmas Sentiments 2016 (Hunkydory)
• Cream colored 5" x 7" card base

Method: 

• Card Structure: I followed the standard procedure for making a center step card - making the front step 1" tall and calculating how wide the sides needed to be to leave me with 3 3/4" in the center portion.
• Center Panel: Often I make the side of the front step a part of the center - cutting patterned paper to cover it all in one piece.  This time, I decided to do things differently.  The center panel goes all the way to the bottom of the step, but is straight on the sides, leaving the side portions of the step uncovered.  I cut a piece of the embossed "hand-made" paper that was 3 3/4" wide and 5" tall.  I glued my left-over border piece (the rest of it was glued to the bottom of Nativity card #2) to the bottom of this panel.  I centered the focal elements in the remaining space and glued them in place - the wise men piece on foam tape.  Then I added a sentiment (from the Essential book) using more foam tape.
• Sides: Taking the remaining piece of border print card stock, I cut two 1/2" strips of the gold foiled portion - just a little shorter than 4" long.  That left a just a bit of the foiled border on the remaining patterned card stock.  I cut this at 1" tall and then into two pieces approximately 1 3/4" wide to form the sides of the front step.  I then cut two matching pieces from the remaining patterned card stock - each about 1 3/4" x 4" - just the size of my sides.  I glued the 1/2" foiled strips down the center, then added gold-edged ribbon (from my stash) on either side of the foiled piece - wrapping ends around to the back before gluing the whole in place on the sides of the card.
• Inside: The inside has borders done in a similar way as the sides - except the center part of the border is not foiled, but is in fact made from scraps that coordinate but were from my stash rather than the kit.  After gluing them in place I added a couple of sentiments (from Essential book) - one at top left and one at bottom right.