Thursday, March 14, 2013

Flying Unicorn Card Challenge - Easel Cards

It's mid-month Card & Tag challenge again at Flying Unicorn, and this month I challenge you to make an easel card.  Easel cards are quick and easy, yet pack a lot of punch - people think you spent more time on the card than you actually did.  And who doesn't like a little extra credit?

I made my inspiration card using papers from the March Flying Unicorn Kit of the Month, Sweet Days.  Our March Guest Designer, Solange Marques, made a gorgeous layout where she fussy cut the Webster's Pages Park Drive diecut from the Patterened Paper Add-On, and I was so inspired I had to lift her here.


If you have never seen an easel card before, it is a card that is designed to stand up like an easel to display both the front and inside of the card, as you can see in the picture below.


Easel cards are very simple to make. Although my examples are squares, you can also use diecut shapes for your card, by folding the base before putting it through the diecutter and making sure that the folded spine is not cut; you would then cut a single-layer diecut which you would mount on the front.


For my card I started with a 5X10 piece of heavy cardstock for my card base and a 5x5 piece of cardstock for the card front.


Score the 10" side of the base a 5" (the halfway point).


Score one portion at 2.5" - this will be the portion you mount your frontpiece to.


This is how the two pieces will be assembled, however I prefer to assemble my front piece first before mounting it to the card base.

You will also decorate the inside of the card.  In many cases you will want to add buttons, flowers or other thin, dimensional objects to the inside that you can use to prop the front piece behind to display it, but that will allow the card to lay flat enough for mailing.

Here are a couple of closeups of the front of the card.


The image is a Saturated Canary digital stamp colored with Spectrum Noir and Copic markers.  Have you seen the new Sharpie Paint Markers in the store?  The white one is indispensable for adding in highlights, like those in Nevaeh's eyes and on her dress.





Here is a simpler easel card I made for my son's birthday a couple of years ago.



The image is from Mo's Digital Pencil.


 I can't wait to see what you create!




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