Anyway, it all started yesterday afternoon. We’d done some shopping in the morning. (Was very surprised and delighted by some sparkly navy goldstone beads for my bracelet by Mr Tree!!).
We had lunch – a very tasty vegetarian rice dish based on a lasagne-type sauce with TVP, garlic-stuffed olives, passata, mushrooms, onions, fresh, chopped garlic, tomato puree, stock, fresh oregano, fresh basil and a sprinkle of dried mixed herbs with rice and a large mixed salad of rocket and spinach leaves, more olives, scallions, tomatoes, cucumber and all drizzled with sweet balsamic vinegar.
I made another bottle of brandy cream liqueur – have got that recipe off to a ‘T’ for our taste now – and it takes just 10 minutes from start to finish. After a tidy up and a bit of bimbling about, what then? I picked up a book I have by Sheila Sturrock called ‘Making Mechanical Cards’ and felt the inspiration to make one she calls the ‘Accordion fold’ card.
It wasn’t as easy as it maybe looks. The basic card itself is the work of minutes. I soon became absorbed in creating swirls and smooshes of swooshes to give the back of the card lots of delicate cuttings and intricacies. Of course, the plain straight edges didn’t go so well with it then. What to do to create interest on the front-folding panels? I know, a butterfly and a flower opposite one another! These were both elements I had in my files and have used before – but if I welded them on and cut them, there would be no pretty bits (the inner cut outs) of the butterfly to display. But if I cut out the inner bits, there would be no ‘proud’ bits to stand out from the folds.
So, I sat down with Illustrator and worked my way through the design issues systematically to solve them. They didn’t take very long and I enjoyed thinking them through. You’re probably thinking it is really easy – in which case maybe I was having a slow day yesterday!
Anyway, I finished off the card by shaping the front panels into curves and backing it with vellum. Then came the envelope (yes, my favourite button-close type!) and some shots to show you the stages it went through. Maybe it will inspire you to have a go or at least check out the book. I’ve put together a little slideshow to better demonstrate the folds and cut-outs etc – click on the thumbnail below to view it:
I haven’t taken a picture of the envelope but it is the same as the ones for the pop-up teapot, elephant and teapot-shaped cards (though resized appropriately). The file includes the flower and butterfly toppers so you would have them to use on other projects. The butterfly is quite lovely – I designed it a while ago now but it is still one of my all-time favourites.
For those of you who don’t have the time, you can buy the card and envelope templates together here for €8.00 euro in SVG or GSD format (if you would like a Studio file, let me know and I’ll make the format available).
You can now download the file from the ‘Files I have ordered’ link (on the right-hand side of the page here) once Paypal has completed the fund transfer:
(€ 8)
(€ 8)
Please note, you will need a cutting machine such as a Craft Robo, Silhouette, Cameo, etc to cut the template.
Thank you for looking. Have a great day.
Hel
