Creating Kindness February blog hop - Guest Designer - Fun Fold

What a pleasure to be the Guest Designer this month for the Creating Kindness Design Team. They are a creative, talented bunch and I was chuffed to be invited this month. Thanks for having me guys. I am Lou Kitzelman and I live on the Sunshine Coast, Australia. We are currently sweltering in a heat wave so think of  me if you are on the other side of the world and are still having snow!

The theme for this hop is Fun Folds - and if you are a regular reader you will know this is right up my alley. Lately I have been revamping card folds that I have taught in classes over the years. For this hop it was fun putting a new spin on the Swing Card Fold. Once upon a time we would cut tiny strips of Designer Series Paper for the outside edges but I have decided 2018 is my year to work smarter and not harder! So why not use the DSP as the card base and cut out a step! So on to my card. This is the front as it sits flat.

The Petal Passion Suite made decorating this a breeze. I just got it all out and off I went! I love how the embossing folder matches the DSP. To open the card and to make it swing you simply hold onto the 2 outside edges and gently pull away from each other. The card fold does the rest for you and swings around to reveal the message panel. Here is the card mid swing. I have a short video showing it in action at the end of this post. Warning - it is very amateurish as I don't have the right set up but you'll get the idea.

Because I have used DSP, the back was already partly decorated. By adding some flowers coloured with Stampin' Blends, some Champagne foil die cuts and a sentiment with a shadow mat I created a simple, yet stylish (well in my eyes anyway) card.

I love that this 2 part sentiment applies to lots of different occasions, even new beginnings, what ever they may be. Perfect to enter into this week's Global Design Project challenge.

Making the card is simple. Apologies that this is only in metric - that's just how I roll! I rejigged my original measurements so that I got a larger middle panel. Start with a piece of DSP 17 x 14.5 cm. Cut, score and fold the DSP as per the diagram below. A Stampin' Trimmer is perfect for this. Once you have the valley and mountains it all makes more sense. You can use my pictures and dodgy video as a guide too.

When you are decorating the card, the front panel is actually surrounded by the DSP pattern that will be on the back and ....

... the front DSP pattern surrounds the back message panel. Tricky! I cut my mats 11 cm x 9.5 cm and 10.5 cm x 9 cm.

This card fold can be used with lots of different stamp and die sets. Here is another one that I made using the Bubble Over Bundle. 

The Bubbles and Fizz DSP (free with qualifying orders) is perfect for this card. Because it is quite busy I kept the decoration simple.

I love that sentiment! It can be used for so many occasions.

The bottles have been die cut from watercolour paper and coloured with an aqua painter and ink from the Daffodil Delight ink pad lid. When it was just about dry, I spattered water over it to make it look like water beads on the outside of the bottle. Simply spatter water by flicking the aqua painter over it, let sit for a few seconds and then blot with paper towel.

I hope that you give this Swing Card Fold a try. Let me know how you go with it. Make sure you hop around to see all of the fabulous card folds that the Creating Kindness Design Team have to show you. I've had a sneak peek and you will not be disappointed! Next up you are off to the UK for the mad talented Jay Soriano. The Design Team members also have videos (of the non-dodgy variety) to show you how to make their cards so make sure you check them out as well.

Lou

Here are my very amateurish videos so you can see the swing in action.

Product List

Petal Palette Clear-Mount Stamp Set [145788] $61.00	Petals & More Thinlits Dies [145655] $59.00	Petal Palette Clear-Mount Bundle [145974] $108.00	Petal Passion Designer Series Paper [145589] $19.25	Petal Pair Textured Impressions Embossing Folders [145656] $16.00	Bubble Over Photopolymer Stamp Set [145868] $30.00	Bottles & Bubbles Framelits Dies [145663] $49.00
Bubble Over Photopolymer Bundle [146082] $71.00	Bubbles & Fizz Designer Series Paper [147244] $0.00	Champagne Foil Sheets [144748] $7.00	Silver Foil Sheets [132178] $7.00	Pink Pirouette Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [144604] $15.50	Old Olive Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [144597] $15.50	Pink Pirouette A4 Card Stock [116203] $14.00
Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549] $15.75	Basic Black A4 Card Stock [121688] $14.00	Basic Gray A4 Card Stock [121689] $14.00	Card Stock A4 Bermuda Bay [131286] $14.00	Watercolor Paper [122959] $8.75	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] $10.00	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad [131171] $11.50
Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad [126944] $11.50	Aqua Painters [103954] $20.00	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $6.00	Tear & Tape Adhesive [138995] $9.00	Stampin' Trimmer [129722] $50.00