All That Glitters: Graduation Gift Card

Hello Again!

We hope everyone is having good weather! They say it's June here in Indiana but it feels more like September when this is being written. There is a saying in Northern Indiana: If you don't like the weather, just stick around and it'll change. This is saying is no joke around here, especially during the "warmer" months. Just the other day we were at high 80s by 10am all the way into the night. The next day we didn't even hit 70s until late afternoon! Such a crazy "summer" we're having! 

Good thing that the weather in our craft rooms is always lovely! Today we'll be working on this adorable gift card holder:

This is an unbelievably easy card to make, which makes it really fun to add things like sparkle paper to add an extra flare to it! So lets get started!

What I used:

• Glitter Paper (Glacier Springs Collection) by Colorbök
• This is Huge Set stamp by Art Impressions
• Spellbinders Shapeabilities (Labels 17 Collection)
• Scoreboard, Scissors, Adhesive, Cuttlebug (AKA Piglet in 3Chicks), Tim Holtz Archival Black ink

The arrows show what pieces I used from each collection.
I love all 3 sets and I'll be using them all eventually. :)

The first thing I should mention is that only one side of this paper is glittery. I'm sure it was meant solely for scrapbooks but I like to be rebellious and do things my own way. This card would probably look just as great with a black outside and white inside (the white is a really soft to the touch, yet has a crisp white color so that is very nice) but I wanted a totally blacked out card. I just want the glitter to be the focus of the card and I felt like the white was so bright it would be lost as soon as the card was opened.

If you don't want to do this double up technique, then all you'll need to have is a 6" x 4 3/4" paper, scored at the 3" mark and you're ready to move on. If you do like the doubled up paper (this really does make the card stronger even if you're not interested in the blackout technique) then keep reading!

I cut a sheet of the 12" x 12" black glitter paper into a 4 3/4" x 12" strip. I then scored the paper at 3", 6" and 9". I did a double score (meaning I flipped the paper to the other side and scored again) to really soften the 3" line for easier folding. When I do this card again, I'll probably end up double scoring all of the lines. 

The next thing is adding glue to all four squares. I didn't add any glue to the score lines because I wanted to be able to have some give there. Keeping the page laying in front of me as it is photographed above, I folded the paper completely in half to take the paper from 12" to 6" long. I really worked on making the paper smooth, getting all the glue evenly distributed. Then I folded the card in half again so that it became it's final size of 3" x 4 3/4". Then I tucked it firmly between some heavy books to dry overnight. (Glue and I don't always get along and I wanted no chance of warping or wavy pages.) Ta da:

Just a tip: If you're doing a card like this where it's possible for stray white edges to pop up, don't panic! Just grab a black sharpie and color those edges black (or whatever color you're working with in the majority) and it will all blend so no one can tell! :)

We next move on to the "pop up" part of the card that holds the gift card. For that we use more black glitter paper cut to 5 1/2" x 4 1/2". With the 5 1/2" laying in front of you, score at 3/4", 1 1/4", 2 1/4", 3 1/4", 4 1/4" and 4 3/4".

For the sake of the camera I left the inside white , but on the finished
product you'll notice the inside is also black. I repeated these steps
on a flat black paper and glued it to the inside.

Before I glued the outside tabs together I really give these scores some good folding and creasing because it has to be able to go from fully popped open to fully flat in an easy motion. After I felt like it moved good, I started folding at the score lines inward toward the center creating a square that had an extra "side" on the inside. After some experimenting I found that glue worked the best because the glitter would coat any tape and then pop open after some test folding. I again wanted this part to sit overnight for strength before I fully assembled this card. I would recommend using something to keep the tabs together while they dry. I used some bobby pins since there are so many lying around my house. They worked very well! Whatever adhesive you use, make sure not to go too far in or your card won't fit. 

In the picture you can see the white from the glue,
it dried clear so you couldn't even see it. I love the
Martha Stewart craft glue for that very reason!

Next I punched out all of my layers using the white and black glitter paper and my "Piglet". I also stamped my image onto flat white paper so it could dry while I was doing this step. I layered white glitter, then black glitter, then flat white. I love the effect it gave! (Shown at the end.)

I also punched out a flat white paper for my sentiment on the inside. I wanted enough room to actually write something other than just "congratulations" but I was very limited on space because of my pop up. So after some thinking I decided that I would just line up and cut off the top and bottoms. It still looks great and now it fits like a glove! Which is a great reminder that I don't have to use things as packaged.

So now it's time for the fun part...putting all these pieces together to show you my finished product! A really beautiful pop-up gift card holder! I'll definitely be using this basic idea for many years to come! Let us know if you end up using it as well!

Thanks so much for checking out our blog! We hope you really are enjoying our posts half as much as we are enjoying making them for you! Give us a shout if you have any questions or requests!

The Three Chicks,

Hannah, Marisol & Joyce

Masculine Shirt & Tie Card

Hello!

Today we'll be waking through a step-by-step tutorial of a great looking shirt and tie card for the men in our lives. 

We were going through Pintrest (a ridiculous obsession; if you've never been on there DON'T GO! Save yourself!) looking for ideas for some men's cards that we needed when we happened upon one that seemed pretty easy and pretty cute at the same time! There weren't any dimensions with the one we found so here is what we came up with. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did! 

Let's get started...

Supplies You'll Need:

• Base Cardstock: 8 1/2" x 6 3/4"
• "Shirt" Cardstock:  1" x 5 1/2"  AND  4" x 5 1/2"
• "Tie" Patterned Paper: 2" x 2" AND 2" x 4 1/2"
• 1 Brad
• Adhesive
• Scissors (or cutting board)
• Scoreboard & bone folder
• Hole puncher

*** In this tutorial you'll probably notice that the "shirt" has texture on it. This was creating using a Cuttlebug and the Polka-dots folder. If you don't have one, but like the effect (as do we) that it gives; Michael's Craft Store (and probably Hobby Lobby or other craft store) has paper in stock by Bazzill Basics Paper that gives the exact same effect but it's already done! It's open stock and in lots of beautiful colors and if it's not on sale, it's $0.79 but check the website for a coupon to save you some money! And often they do have sales on open stock cardstock, so just do your homework first to save $$$. Enjoy! ***

** I apologize that it's a little blurred.**

Step 1: Take your Base card stock and lay the 8 1/2" wide side is against the measuring line. Score at 4 1/4" mark. Fold and run the bone folder against the fold line so that it's nice and crisp. Set aside for now.

Step 2: Take the 1" x 5 1/2" shirt paper out. This will be your shirt's collar. Lay it in front of you as shown. Mark the top of the 5 1/2" (the farthest side from you) at 1 1/2" from each side. Without turning the paper at all, we're going to make marks on the bottom of the 5 1/2" (the closest side to you). Mark the bottom at 1 1/4" from each side.

**I used heavy mark lines to show up on camera, but you'll want to make sure any marks get erased so that they don't show up on your final project.**

Step 3: Put your newly marked paper on your scoreboard. We're not going to be using the measuring line at the top of the board. Here you can see us lining up the marks to a ridge on a scoreboard then we'll score them. After one side is done, we'll line up the other marks and do the same.

Step 4:  Now we fold our lines. Before running the bone folder over your lines, you'll want to check that your shirt collar corners line up nicely. Sometimes things just come out a little wonky. So once you achieve this ... crease those folds!

Step 5: Now we move onto the tie! First we'll be working with the knot of the tie. Take your 2" x 2" paper and lay it in front of you. We're going to mark 1" on the side closest to you and then use that mark to draw a line to each opposite corner. You should now see a triangle. Cut out the sides, leaving the large triangle center as your knot.

Step 6: Now we'll work on the base of the tie. Take your 2" x 4 1/2" patterned tie paper and lay it in front of you so that the 2" portion is closest. You're again going to mark the 1" line on the side closest to you. Then you'll turn the paper 90 degrees and mark 1" up from the 2" side then go across from it and make the same mark. Return your paper to where it started. You should have the side with the three marks closest to you. On the side farthest from you, we're going to mark a 1/2" in from each side. 

Step 7: After you cut, you should end up with the above scraps and the perfect center tie!

Step 8: Lets start assembling!!! First we're going to attach the knot to the collar. Turn your collar over and place some adhesive (our favorite adhesive is our Advanced Tape Glider or ATG and you'll see it referenced a lot in future tutorials) on the collar's corners careful to only put adhesive where your knot will cover. We're going to line up the widest part of the triangle knot against the bottom of the collar line. Centering it in between the lapels.

Step 9: Attach the collar and tie to your shirt. On this shirt, one side has raised texture and the other has an embossed effect where the dots are inverted. You need to decide now which you want to be seen on your card. Which ever side you DO want, lay face up. Turn your collar and tie face down and give a generous amount of adhesive. Then line up the bottom of the "back" collar to the top of your shirt. Your collar should extend above your shirt.

Step 10: Now we're going to make a hole for our "tie clip" or in craft terms a brad. In most cases a hole punch would work great for making a hold for brads, however in this case, where I want the hole is too far for my hole punch to reach. Thankfully I have a trusty pin kept near my craft desk for such emergencies. 

Here's where we are now. Looks pretty good! Let's keep going!

Step 11: Now we're going to apply adhesive to the whole back side. Really go to town on this one because we want it to stick really good to our card back.

 

 

Voila! Our finished masculine card! We love it and we hope you do too!



**This isn't a standard size card. If you would like a tutorial on a matching envelope please feel free to let us know! Thanks!**

The 3 Chicks,

Hannah, Marisol & Joyce