Lockdown Layouts 5

This past week should have been card class week for my four regular groups. With no post and no SU deliveries to New Zealand, it's been hard to organise any alternative. Thanks to a wonderful video presentation by American demonstrator Sharon Armstrong, I got the idea to run a Mystery Card challenge on line.

I organised a mystery challenge via my Facebook group page. People tuned in at 9 am for the first clue to making a card but they had no idea what the card would turn out like. Once half the group had finished each clue, I put up another one until they got to the end.  It was a lot of fun and I was amazed at how differently each person's card turned out.

I'm sharing a truncated version of the 'clues' in case you'd like to have a go. Try not to peek at the end pictures. 😀

The first clue was to assemble materials: white card, a piece of DSP not bigger than 15cm x 15cm, a piece of A4 in a coordinating colour, black ink, coordinating ink pads and/or colouring tools, a stamp set and a sentiment that would fit into a space 4.5cm wide and 6 cm in height.

The second clue was the cutting instructions.

1. White - cut 1 piece 10cm x 14cm, 1 piece 11.5cm x 4.5cm
2. DSP - cut 10cm x 7 cm - if there’s a pattern, (eg stripes) and you want it up and down rather than across the card remember it’s the width that is 10cm.
3. Coloured card - For the card base, cut an A4 piece in half across the short side at 10.5cm. Then take one of them and trim it to 29cm. So the card base will be 10.5cm x 29 cm in a tent fold. Score, or fold, it at 14.5cm.
4. Coloured card - Cut two more rectangles 12cm x 5cm

The third clue was to stamp and decorate the focal panel. Take the 11.5cm x 4.5cm piece of white and stamp/colour it and make it the star of your card. Make it narrow and tall. Add in die cuts or punched shapes if you want to and you have them eg if you stamped a floral pattern you could add a butterfly. Once completed they had to mount it on one of the coloured card pieces, 12cm x 5cm

The fourth clue I called 'The Scary Bit'. It involved folding and burnishing the tent fold base, then cutting off first the bottom 5 cm of the front and then another 6.5cm, leaving a flap of 3 cm attached to the front. Keep the 5 cm piece and put aside the 6.5cm piece.

The fifth clue was to cut the DSP at 2.5cm, so you end up with 1x 2.5cm x 10cm and 1x 4.5cm x 10cm. Attach the 2.5cm x10cm to the flap at the top of the card front.

The sixth clue, I called 'It comes together' and I'm sharing it exactly as it was:

1. Take the 5cm tall piece of card with DSP. Place it on top of the card back at the bottom - so that it’s in the position it was before it was sliced off. Make sure it’s all lined up neatly at the bottom and the pattern matches up with the top piece. You might like to hold it in place with a post-it note.
2. Take your decorated and mounted focal panel. This is going to bridge the two sections of the card front. Place it approximately 1 cm in from the left-hand side of the card front and approximately 1 cm down from the top/1.5 cm up from the bottom.
3. When you’re happy with the placement, add some glue/tape to only the top and bottom of the decorated piece and attach it.
4. Open out the card. Take the second piece of coloured card, 12cm x 5cm and attach it to the back of the bridge piece to give it strength. It isn’t so important where the top and bottom are but you do have to be careful with the width. Check it doesn’t show from the front. Using glue would be good here so you’ve got some wiggle room, just in case you need to adjust it.

The seventh clue was called 'The Inside'.

1. Take the 10cm x 14cm piece of white and lay it inside as if it would be when it’s attached.
2. You’ll see that to the right of your decorated bridge panel, there’s a gap. Take a pencil and very lightly mark the edges of that gap.
3. Take the inner piece out and use the pencil lines to help you judge where to stamp the sentiment.
4. You can add in any other stamping to decorate the inner if you like. For instance, you might want to add a stamp under the bridge section that can only be seen once you open up the card. Or you could add small stamps around the sentiment. Or you might want to add some stamping or DSP along the bottom. Or you might like just as it is.
5. When you’re happy with it, rub out the pencil lines and attach the inner.

The eighth and final clue was to add any desired embellishments, post a photo in the comments and to leave some nice comments on other people's photos.

Here's a picture of two cards I made while sorting out the instructions plus a third one (the golfer card) where I took the idea a bit further. Apologies if you saw the picture before you finished working your way through the clues. 😀

I hope this gives you some ideas for using up some of your stash while you're in lockdown.


Feel free to message me for information. If you do follow these instructions and make yourself a card, I'd love to see so please leave a picture in the comments or on my Jan Clothier - Independent Stampin' Up Demonstrator FB page (link in the sidebar).

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the Contact Me tab at the top of the page. You can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand by clicking on the SHOP NOW button in the sidebar.