Fancy Folds - Lever Cards

Welcome back to another month with the Fancy Folds Design Team, thanks for stopping by. . .

This month we are making Lever Cards, which are sometimes called tunnel or hinged cards, irrespective of the name I hope you are enjoying the amazing creations.  If you have just hopped over from Frenchie's Blog I know you are feeling inspired.

Here is my creation this month:

I am really excited by the new papers in the Annual Catalogue and simply adore the Floral Boutique Designer Series Paper.  If you are looking for a video on how to make Lever Cards I suggest you check out Frenchie's simple video. My card is slightly different in that it is a square card (in Australia it is 14.8cm square but the imperial measurement is 6 inches square).

The Floral Boutique DSP is stunning and of course matches the Floral Phrases stamp set and Detailed Floral Framelits. There are other items in the suite all incorporating the beautiful Night of Navy and Whisper White colour scheme very reminiscent of Spode China. Today I have used the Floral Phrases stamp set only.

My cardbase is the thick Whisper White cardstock, layered with a square of Night of Navy with a square of Floral Boutique DSP on top of that. I used Square Framelits to cut the void in the front and cut though three layers of cardstock at one time to ensure that everything lined up perfectly. I then used the next sized (larger) square framelit to cut the DSP just that little bit wider. I kept the square of night of Navy cardstock cut out of the base mount to use as the mount for the stamped image.

The featured stamped image is the floral stamp from Floral Phrases; I simply stamped it upside down once I had lined up the top image, I married the bottom to be a bit of a reflection even though they are not mirrored images. The sentiment is from the same set. I love how the stamp inks unevenly so the image looks a bit vintage. The Whisper White base was narrower than the sentiment so I cut off the words "to you" but the message/intention is still clear.

I adore bling and couldn't resist mounting the stamped square (which was cut with a complementary sized square framelit to the Night of Navy mount) on a square of Silver Glimmer Paper which I cut to a corresponding size to the mount and top layer.

Because my card is square I adjusted the z-fold insert that fits the card and makes the lever or hinge work. Rule of thumb your insert needs to be 3/4 the size of the base card with a little extra for tabs. Your scoring is always half the width of the closed card. In this instance my closed card was 14.8cm or 6 inches square so the score mark was at 7.4cm (3 inches) then 14.8cm (6 inches) and I allowed an extra 2cm (1 inch) for the tabs and cut them exactly like Frenchie's video.

I couldn't resist stamping the border stamp from Floral Phrases in Night of navy to add continuity to the card patterns.

The card looks quite nice when it is completely opened up and the navy and white colour scheme is perfect for any occasion. If you plan to make it a birthday card or wedding card my suggestion would be to make the square cut out larger to allow room for a sentiment of that nature. The size of the cut out doesn't effect the function of the card and this is a really great card to utilise your collection of framelits with.

Let's hope you have found some inspiration in my colour scheme and use of stamps. This new suite is already proving a favourite of mine.

Why not head over and check out out next Design Team blogger Anne Granger

Until next month stay crafty!

Shanni xx

Order of Lever Card Blog Hop

Patrice Halliday-Larsen

Tanja Kolar

Delphine Lorelli

Martha Inchley

France Poitras Martin

Shannean Moncrieff (that's me)

Anne Granger