Inspire Me Monday: A Twisty Little Tutorial!

Hello all and happy Monday to you! I'm here to help you kick off your creative week and share a fun spin on the average, every day card. How often do we create and then our masterpiece is set on an A2-sized piece of folded card stock? For me, all too often! I very rarely step outside of that comfort zone or challenge myself to think of new ways to "present" my colored up images. So, I bring you.....

For this edition of Inspire Me Monday, I challenged myself a bit. I decided to hunt around, looking for inspiration for some fun card mechanics that maybe YOU can use for your creations. Keep in mind, these are not entirely my ideas. They are adaptations from cards that I saw on the blogosphere. They do have my "spin" on them though! So, let's get to it, shall we?

For this creation, it's simple, almost too simple! I cut a panel of double-sided decorative paper, and then, using my cutter, cut a 2" slit somewhere in the middle. I didn't measure a thing, just eyeballed it and then, folded back both sides of the slit. That's it! I adhered this piece to a piece of yellow decorative paper and then, stamped my sentiment in the void, embellishing it with a few faux brads for a little pop of color. See?

I knew that this wasn't where I wanted this card to end. I mean, for easy peasy cards, you could let the paper be the focus, but I wanted, needed, had to have a FLOWER! ;-) So, I stamped the main floral image from Power Poppy's Potted Primrose stamp set in Vivid! Taupe ink, fussy cut it, colored it up and attached it to my card front with foam tape to accent this twisty design. Here's a look at the finished card! 

      

This second creation is one that needs a bit more explaining. I wanted to create a card that had a bit of a surprise "void" if you will --- one where the sentiment could peek through and reveal more after the reciever of the card opened it up. I started with an embossed strip on an A2 size card. After I added that to the top and put a punchy bit of decorative paper on the inside, I trimmed the top to reveal just a flap. See?

Be sure to save the strip that you cut off the front bottom. You'll need it! I trimmed off a bit from that strip and added a piece of embossed decorative paper. This gives you a hint of where we are going to go with this card....

While you have the pieces set like above, take a pencil and lightly trace lines to give you a guide for your soon to be sentiment window, just like so!

Are you starting to see the pieces of the puzzle come together? This will be the area that you want to stamp your sentiment. I decided to even make my sentiment a bit of a surprise and used a couple of the sentiments from Power Poppy's set Bloomin' Wonderful. I will showcase how this comes to play in a second, but first, I needed something to connect the top and the bottom sections of my card front. So, enter this little flag die cut featuring Power Poppy's digital stamp set Asters Abuzz! 

From there, I added a couple pencil marks on my flag so I would know where to add the foam tape to attach it to the bottom portion of my card front. You can see the tiny pencil marks on the die cut above. And, behind you can see the foam tape...

Then, peel back the tape and add the little bit for the bottom!

And here's the full sentiment that's revealed when you open up the card! Make sure you heat set the ink that you used for your sentiment to make sure it is really dry before trying to erase your pencil marks. 

And then, a look at the finished card.....

This last card started in one place and ended up in another place entirely! I had this image in my head that I wanted to have a fold where the front of the card featured a spotlight of my main image and the inside revealed the full black and white picture with a bit of a surprise sentiment. I thought I'd attach the spotlight piece with the help of a flap, so I started there using some die cut borders and decorative paper accents. See? This is my base....

From there, I took a printed out copy of Power Poppy's digital stamp Bees in Foxglove and cut it out using a stitched rectangle die. From there, I added it to the inside of my card. 

From there, I took another Bees in Foxglove printed snippet and using a smaller stitched rectangle die, eyeballed a piece of the image and cut out that section so that, when cut, it could be layered on top for a spotlight effect, see?

To add to the element of surprise, I wanted to reveal a sentiment when the recipient opened the card. 

So, I added a bit of pink decorative paper and lined it up so that the pink mat would look like it was the mat to my spotlight image. See?

And, sweet stamping friends, here's a peek at the finished card from the outside....

And, from the inside.....

Well, there you have it -- twisty little takes on your average, everday, A2 card! I hope you've enjoyed watching the process "unfold!" :-) As I love to say, if you try one of these versions, link up your creation below. I would love to see your take on them!

Thanks for stopping by everyone! Have a fabulous week!

~Julie