Sunday, September 26, 2010

Spooktacular 3D Halloween Card



For this project you will need 2 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 card stock paper, glue, a paper cutter, an xacto knife, a bone folding tool, a ruler, a Halloween stamp, a frame stamp, embossing powder, an embossing tool and some fun stickers for embellishing your card.

You can use any color and style of paper you like, but I used orange and black Stardream paper. For the fence I used stickers by Stampendous. The flying witch and crystal spider stickers came from the Making Memories Spook Alley collection. This is a lot of ingredients, but I assure you that this is quick and easy and the end results will be bewitching!

Start by cutting the orange paper down to two squares that are 5 1/2 inches by 5 1/2 inches.

With the bone tool, score two lines down both the left and right side of the orange squares. The first score should be 1/4 of an inch in from the edge. The second score should be 1/2 of an inch in from the edge. The end result is two scoring lines on each side of the card (creating two fold lines). Do this to both of your orange squares. TIP: Scoring is an important step when working with card stock so that you can insure that your folds are clean and straight and it prevents your paper from cracking.
Next, stamp the frame on one of the orange cards. The frame should be centered high so there is space to stamp the Happy Halloween below and it should be stamped so that the scored edges are on the right and left of the frame. After the ink has dried, carefully use an xacto knife to remove the center piece, leaving the outer frame line and a hole in your card.Next, stamp the Happy Halloween below the frame with clear ink, cover with embossing powder, and then use the embossing tool to heat the powder. This creates a raised, glossy effect on your "Happy Halloween". TIP: Before using the heating tool, I like to clean up the excess embossing powder using a small brush. Remember, once the powder is heated, you cannot remove it, so be sure the powder appears how you like it before heating it up.

Now, fold the scored edges so that you have two right angles and the card sits raised up when placed flat on the table. Do the exact opposite fold on the remaining orange square which will become the back of the 3D card. Once folded, cut down a piece of the black card stock to fit the inner folds of the back piece. Glue the black card stock in to create your background.

Now you can embellish the card with stickers. I like to create the folds in the card before embellishing so that I can play with the placement of the stickers to get the optimum 3D effect. For this card, I put the flying witch sticker on the inside of the card, stuck directly to the black card stock. I cut down the fence sticker and placed it on the outside, lower part of the frame.TIP: the back side of the sticker fence will still be sticky, so I dabbed the back of it with a Q-tip dipped in alcohol to remove the adhesive. This will prevent the card from sticking together when its folded together and mailed.

Next, glue the the front and back together before adding the final touches. Assembling the card is easy. Glue the outer lip of the back side of the card and carefully place the front side of the card so that it is aligned with the back. Be sure the front and back of the card aligns on all sides and that the card will stand on its own before the glue sets. Also, be sure that the card can fold in so that the final product will fit in an envelope. It will fold down to a mailable thickness, trust me! But you need to make sure it's perfect before the glue dries.
As a final touch I added the sparkling spider sticker to the outer corner to enhance the 3D effect.

Faster than you can say "trick or treat" you have an amazing card! The end product will fit in a standard A2 envelope. Keep checking in for more fun Halloween ideas in addition to the great ideas we've already had, like the frankin' fun card, the lanterns and the candy wrappers. And do not forget about the Crafters' Challenge!

Happy Crafting --Kim

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