Fancy Fold Christmas Card

This month's challenge at a2z Scrapbooking's blog is "Autumn & Christmas." I don't do autumn cards much, so I decided to make a Christmas card for my personal stash. I wanted to something a bit more challenging than a basic card, so I looked on Pinterest. I found this tutorial, and decided it looked challenging enough, so I went for it. And I was right--it turned out to be quite a challenge!

I cut my card base to 7.5x12". The card design can actually be pretty much any height; the width is more important, since you have to be able to divide it into thirds. Next, I opened the background file from Hero Arts' "Artistic Circles" in Photoshop. I resized it and adjusted the color to be kind of a rose hue, and printed it onto my card base. Finally I scored the fold lines, & cut the diagonal sections on the sides.

I used a Fiskars border punch to create the gifts border to go along the top & inside edges. (I don't know the name of it, and it appears to be discontinued.) I also used the Fiskars "Threading Water" border punch to create the green border strips, which I adhered to the inside top of the card.

For the inside of the card, I stamped an image by Penny Black onto a piece of 90-lb. watercolor paper, using Ranger Archival Jet Black ink. I colored it with Inktense pencils, and blended the color with my water brush. (I did have to use regular colored pencils on the mouse's shirt, since it was such a detailed area.) I also stamped the cat and dog from a set by Recollections on 140-lb. watercolor paper, and colored them with Inktense pencils. I added a coat of glitter to the stars hanging from the animals, and the one on the tree, with my clear Wink of Stella brush marker. I fussy cut the cat & dog, leaving a thin white border.

Detail shot of pop-ups

I inked around the edges of the focal panel with Victorian Velvet Distress ink, just to keep it from fading into the background so much. I then glued it to the inside of the card. The pop-up elements for the cat & dog were a bit tricky to figure out. On my first attempt, the pop-ups bumped into each other when I closed the card. Thankfully, I had the foresight to use temporary adhesive until I figured things out! I ended up just making smaller pop-up boxes, and glued them in place, & then glued the cat & dog to each box.

I stamped a greeting from Hero Arts' "Very Merry Christmas" set onto a piece of green cardstock, using Versamark ink. I heat embossed it with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder, and matted it with the same cardstock I'd used for the gifts border. I glued it to one side of the front. For the patterned cardstock on the outer middle panels, I used the same Hero Arts background as for the card base, just changing the color to a dark green. After cutting the strips, I trimmed the upper edges at a diagonal, & adhered them to the appropriate sections. I also made a belly band from that same color pattern, to go around the card to keep it closed.

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Work It Wednesday "Stamping"
Simon Says Stamp's Monday "Stencils & Stamps"