Greetings Lovely Friends!! I'm here today with another tutorial using my fabulous Bombshell stamps!! I am going to teach you how to create a super cool Napkin Fold card. While a little tough to photograph accurately in all of it's papery glory, this card has a super WOW factor when opened up. This tutorial is very photo heavy so grab a mug or cup of your favorite beverage, maybe even a snack and have a sit down.
I will apologize in advance for the "state" of my desk. I normally don't photograph my desk as it's all cut up, inked up, and well...it's well used and well loved. But with a larger element like this 12x12 it's hard to photograph in my pop up studio. So that's my disclaimer for today! =)
Come along and create with me!!
Let's begin!!
We start with one sheet of 12"x12" cardstock. I prefer to have a bit of a thinner weight cardstock for my base as it makes all of the scoring and folding easier. Take your Scor-pal or whichever tool you prefer to score with and score first at 3" and then again at 9". Turn your cardstock 90 degrees and score at 3" and 9" again.
Because you are working with lighter weight cardstock be careful when you are scoring not to push down too hard and tear through the paper. I did that about three times before I lightened up! So when you are done scoring you should have four score lines, a smallish square in each corner and a large square in the center.
Fold your cardstock on all of your lines and score. Do it both ways, front then flip it over and score the same way on the back. You will have a 12x12" piece of stock that looks the same as the photo above!
Your next step will be to find the exact center of your cardstock and place a dot there. I marked mine with a pencil and then a white dot so it could be seen in the photo. Now, you will take each corner and fold it into the dot meeting each corner in the center.
Once again, score on all of your folded lines. You want everything to be nice and crisp. Now here comes the part that is a *bit* tricky to explain. I tried hard to photograph as well so I can be as clear as possible. Now that you've brought your corners to the center, open your 12x12 back up.
You want to start with one corner at a time. I had to try this a couple of times before I could get it but I promise you once you do it once you'll understand how it folds. =) Remember those small squares that you have on each corner of your 12x12? Ok, now put your hands on either side of one corner and nudge the sides of the small square inward towards the center of the paper as shown above. I had to do it with one hand so that I could photograph at the same time. Once you have one corner down, fold it down flat and score the edges. Keep doing this for each corner. It will take a bit of fiddling to get them all flat.
Remember, its paper so it's rather malleable! Don't get frustrated!
Keep folding and scoring all four corners.
This is what it will look like when your "inward" folding is all done! Now, the next step is to take each corner and fold it backwards. You will do this for each corner. It will look like this: (top right corner is done here)
Here is what it looks like when all four corners are done:
And that's ALL the folding you have to do!! YAY! Now it's time to embellish!! Grab your papers and trimmers! We will be cutting squares and then making those squares into triangles.
I chose to embellish both the front and back of my creation. I am giving you the number of squares to cover both the front and back. If you choose to embellish the front only then cut the number of squares in half.
- 16 squares measuring 2-3/4" x 2-3/4" (cut in half to make 32 triangles)
- 4 squares measuring 4" x 4" (cut in half to make 8 triangles)
- 3 squares measuring 6" x 6" (for the center - this will be where your flat card is displayed) (DO NOT CUT IN HALF)
Now start playing around with where you want to lay your triangles down. The larger triangles are laid to the top, bottom, left and right of the main 6" square panel. The small triangles go everywhere else. Mix and match and have fun!! In my next version of this I'm going to stitch each triangle to get a quilted appearance.
Here are pics of the front of my Napkin Fold Card in progress:
And here is a shot of the back:
I realized after the fact that I so easily could have put another main 6" panel on the back making it a double sided card! I will do that next time.
Here it is, pictured above all folded up completely covered. I have not yet done the center panel.
Here is is from the side. See how all of those cool papers that we put on the back peek through? That's why I like to embellish both sides. So when this is being opened or closed you can see all different colors and textures! So fun!!
And here is it somewhere between open and closed! Ok, time to create our main panel. I chose to use my Bombshell
Butterfly Dreams set. Super pretty and so versatile.
I find that for this set it is easier to color with my Prismacolor pencils. The wings of the butterflies are so intricate and beautiful that I find that I tend to color outside the lines when using my markers so I head to my pencils for this set.
I stamped my butterflies and sentiment, layered and stitched my panels and adhered everything down using liner tape for extra security.
The last step is to create a band to slide around the outside of the entire creation when folded to hold it all together. Like this:
This part is easy. Mine measures 3" wide by 14" (give or take) long. I used a remnant of a 12x12 piece and added on a little scrap to make it long enough to completely wrap around my card yet be just loose enough to slide on and off with no effort. I then tied a length of wide Grosgrain ribbon around tied in a tidy bow.
And that my friends is IT! Somewhat labor intensive, yes...but...it is TOTALLY worth it!! Check it out completely finished!
If you have any questions at all don't hesitate to ask!!! I truly hope you have enjoyed my Napkin Fold Tutorial and been inspired to try something new!!
