No9 in the Back to Basics Card Making

 Back To Basics Card Making 

No 9 Pop up Christmas Card

Hi Everyone and thanks you for stopping by. It is heartening to see so many of you are checking out this series of card making ideas. I would love to hear your thoughts on any of the cards shown and if you would like more series like this as we head toward Christmas. 

Today’s card is a good classic that I have built it up with lots of Christmas Trees and penguins as the main theme. Whilst it looks complex, it is not too difficult or time consuming, but can look very effective. I have seen the same card with flowers, or children’s teddies for a newborn and they look lovely. I have a particular fondness for this style of card as the first ones I made to sell went well and I even had a thank you note from one of my buyers saying she had sent it to her sister in Canada who had loved it. 

You can choose any theme, but for Christmas, the trees and penguins are simple and can be added in abundance making a solid scene for your card.

To make the base card you will need 

1 sheet of base card A4 

Scraps of card 12cm x 2cm 

Matching card to cut out your chosen die cuts. I have used a set of 3 Christmas trees from my stash, and a set of 3 penguins which I purchased from AliExpress. Spellbinders poinsettia edging die and a Tonic Christmas Tree Word Die. 

You can see a theme here with the white and silver as I love white on white and silver goes naturally well with the white if I need a bit of colour. 

I have cut the penguins out in white and silver as standing proud they look good in white but when on the white base card they need to be silver to see the outline clearly. 

The Greeting word die is also cut in silver to stand out against the white trees and background card.

Base Card

Cut the A4 sheet to 16cm wide by the 29.5cm long

Score at 5cm,14cm,19cm, 28cm

Turn and score at 9cm to the first score line, then miss the next section and score along the 9cm to the end.

This leaves a back panel standing up 

Fold and Burnish all the score lines 

The 2 scraps of card score at 1.5cm each end

If you want to cover the base of the card you will need 2 pieces of decorative papers 8.5cm x 8.5cm and 2 pieces 4.5cm x 8.5cm 

Glue these to the bottom panels before folding the box card around and glueing the flap down to make the box shape. Fold the two side flaps and front flap down 

With the 2 pieces cut from scrap fold over the ends and attach them with glue to the inside of the box with the top of the card just under the top of the box base.

It is best to use wet glue for this as you can then fold the whole thing flat and make sure it all lines up before decorating

Then with the die-cuts of your choice decorate along these strips and the back of the card

Add a greeting to the front if you wish and some decoration to the side flaps that match, or you can use these for writing your greeting on but personally I like to add mine to the back of the card so they cannot be seen. 

Make sure the decoration does not get in the way of the fold as you will want this to fold flat to go into an envelope. 

This card should fit into an A5 envelope as finished it measure 17.5cm high and 15cm wide although mine measures 20cm x 15cm as the tree sticks up at the top, and this will still go into an A5 envelope.

Here it is ready to go into the envelope.

And here it is stood up again, it pops up easily so the recipient will enjoy the structure of the card.

Back soon with the last card in this series.

Happy Crafting

Dee