Welcome to the Dragon's Lair ... ooops, Library!

Hello crafty friends and hope you're well this morning. After a rather chilly start here, we've got a very bright and sunny day - would love to put some washing on the line but it's not that warm and that's always assuming I could make it to the line without sinking into the lawn :oD!!!!!!!!!!

It's new challenge time at Incy Wincy Designs and this time we'd like you to Personalise It! It doesn't matter what your project is, but we'd like to see some sort of personalisation on it and it doesn't even have to be for you ..... ! 

We've got two fabulous sponsors for this challenge:

Our first are the team at Fabrika Fantasy ... as well as their online store of digital artwork you can keep up to date with them via their blog or visit their Facebook Page where Dmitry is hosting another challenge! They're offering a prize to our first lucky random winner.

Our second sponsor is Lizzy from Oddball Art who is offering 3 digital images of choice to our

second lucky prize winner.

Lizzy has always loved the stranger, quirkier side of life and that is exactly what she loves to create. Her art described as a perfect combination of sweet and sour that glitters up the grunge! As a love of all things whimsical, kawaii and creepy cute, she throws in some Pastel Goth with a touch of glam, punk & rockabilly pinup!

She has certainly never been a mainstream type of girl and definitely won't fit into your stereotypical cookie cutter artists role; but rather she finds beauty in the truly unique, big eyed creepy little cuties with a bittersweet sadness. She is never truly happier that when she is in her art studio painting or sewing, creating a whimsical dream world easily recognizable as her signature style of creepy yet cute, all the way from the haunting darkness to the rainbowtastic, Lizzy's creations are lovingly sprinkled with a heartbreaking sweetness.

Growing up a child of the 80's, pop rocks princess, with an extreme fondness for anything candy coated, Kawaii Kitten & Ziggy Stardust, all of which had a major influence in the work that she is creating today. Lizzy employs many different mediums when she creates, anything from mixed media painting to sewing with many different textiles, the end result always being the same; a whimsical dream world filled with big eyed beauties, creepy little cuties and quirky monsters of all shapes and sizes.

For my first inspiration piece for this challenge, I'm using an image by Fabrika Fantasy, but before I get to my project why don't you settle down with a cup of tea as I've got a story and a short tutorial to share with you!

Those of you who are regular readers know that a lot of projects here at "Casa Mia" develop from situations that I find myself in ... usually with a little voice on my shoulder! This project stems from a trip we took as a family to London in the fallow period between Christmas and New Year, when we did a bit of shopping, saw the Christmas lights etc. Whilst exiting several stores, I set the security alarms off! At one of the stores I was questioned by the security guard who also searched my rucsac. Had I bought anything? Only a yo-yo. Had I got any makeup with me? Er no, I don't wear much makeup. What's in this bag? Our packed tea! Papa Mia was outside the store and remembered that I had a library book from school that I was reviewing for our librarian ... was that it? I took the book from my bag and threw it out through the security barriers to Papa Mia and sure enough the alarms went off! Mystery over, happy security guard, and I spent the rest of the day with the book in my jacket pocket so I didn't have to empty my bag any more. Now comes the really funny part of the story. I was retelling the events to our librarian telling her she was in so much trouble and she was wondering what had happened to the little index card from the front of the book as that protected the alarm tag. "Oh that," said I, "well that was my bookmark!". So I figured that I needed a bookmark!

I used to have a really great little bookmark that was double sided and magnetic, so it stuck in my book. However, that is no longer anywhere to be found ... so I've made myself a new attaching bookmark, and this is how it's made:

Materials:

1 piece of cardstock - the width and length is up to you, but you need to be able to fold it in half so allow double the length of the front portion plus 3mm for the fold (my piece of cardstock is 6cm wide and 25cm long)

Cutting and scoring tools - I have used my Crafter's Companion Ultimate Pro together with The Boxer Board

Bone Folder
2 thin magnets


How to Score and Fold

Using the Ultimate Pro Boxer Board butt the short edge of your cardstock up against the top of the board and score your first fold. My design is 5.5cm x 11.7cm so I'm leaving a 3mm border all round my image. This means that my first fold will be at 12.3cm, which isn't one of the score marks on the board, so I've very lightly pencilled in a mark at 12.3cm on each long side of my cardstock and have lined these marks up against the same score line to get my fold line.

Make a second score line 2mm back from your first line.

Fold and burnish these two fold lines - getting the second fold is a bit fiddly, but you should end up with something like this in the middle of your bookmark:

Decorate your bookmark as you like, although remember it does need to fit into a book so flat embellishments would be best, unless you don't mind your bookmark poking out of your book in which case you can put bulkier embellishments at the top of your bookmark!

To finish your bookmark, take one of your thin magnets and stick it on the inside of your bookmark towards the bottom edge (the opposite end to your fold) in a central position.

Now for the clever bit! To ensure that your second magnet attaches in exactly the right place on the reverse of your bookmark, stick it on top of the magnet you've just attached ....

... and fold your bookmark over, and press the cardstock down to attach it to the magnet.

And here is my completed bookmark:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Bookmark base - Centura Pearl Snow White Silver cut, scored and folded as per my tutorial above
• Front of Bookmark - Image is the pre-coloured version of Wise Dragon by Fabrika Fantasy. Using my word processing package, I've merged the image with a sentiment from Paulette at Create with TLC. This was a freebie on her blog last month and as soon as I saw it, I knew it was utterly perfect for this project! Once my merged design was printed, I cut it to the right size and then lightly distressed the edges using Walnut Stain Distress Ink
  
• Reverse of Bookmark - the backing paper is Slovenia Dragons Paper by Marisa Lerin at Pixel Scrapper Digital Scrapbooking ... I nearly fell off my chair when I found it - it's perfect for this project! I created my Ex Libris nameplate using my word processing package and this was die cut using the middle sized Die'sire Essentials Rectangles die. The edges of my paper and name plate have been lightly distressed using Walnut Stain Distress Ink
• Magnets - are 12.5mm in diameter, 1mm high and are self adhesive. Mine came from eBay (although I can't remember the seller now as we've had them a while) but search for craft magnets and you should find them!

I hope you like my tutorial, but if you need any more inspiration head over to Incy Wincy Designs and see how my clever team mates have Personalise(d) It! Then come back and join in the fun by sharing your creations with us! This challenge closes on Saturday 5th March and we'll be back with our next challenge on Monday 7th March 2016.

I would like to enter this project into the following challenges:

• February Challenge - Things with Wings at Bunny Zoe's Crafts
• Critters and Creatures Linky Party 1 - February at Ellibelle's Creative Moments
• Week 7 - Animals and Insects at Digi Choosday Challenge

Stay tuned, as I'll be back soon with a project featuring an image from our second sponsor.

In the meantime, take care!

Hugs, Helenx

I'm late for a very important date!

Well in fact I'm not late at all for this date ... I'm bang on time, but the title might give you a teeny clue as to the theme of today's project!

Morning all - hope no-one has fallen off their chair at yet another missive from me this week, but there is a very good reason for this, honest!

About 7 weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be selected as a Top Tipper at Top Tip Tuesday, and my prize was a GDT spot with the team - and today is that day! This morning's challenge is entitled Cut It Out! so I reckon everyone should be able to enter this challenge, as long as there's something on your project which you've cut out.

We're being sponsored this fortnight by Tammy at Shape EZ who is not only going to provide the lucky winner of this challenge with a prize package, but also kindly gave the DT and I our choices of template to use for this challenge.

Before I get to my card, the girls at Top Tip Tuesday asked me if I could come up with a Top Tip for you, so here goes:

If you're using shrink plastic, take the guess work out of sizing it to suit your project and make a "Magic Ruler".

This is simply a piece of "Shrinkles" plastic which I've marked from 0cm to around 12cm (and I've also used my hole making tool to make appropriately sized holes) before following the manufacturers instructions to shrink it in the oven.  So, here goes on how to use it:

Using the "Magic Ruler" measure the length and width of the part of your original design that you want to make in "Shrinkles" plastic - so here, I'm measuring the length of the teapot lid knob (3cm) and width (2cm) - these aren't the actual measurements, but the size that I need to increase the teapot lid knob to.

So here is screen print from my word processing programme, and I've imported the tea pot lid at actual size. The red box measures 3cm x 2cm which is the size the knob needs to be, so I need to increase the size of the lid until the knob fills the red square.

The knob is now the right size, in "Shrinkles World"! Print this out onto a regular piece of printer paper.

Overlay the printer paper with the "Shrinkles" plastic and trace the outline of your design using an alcohol marker pen (I'm using a Spectrum Noir Pen in True Black). Allow to dry.

Turn the "Shrinkles" plastic over, and colour your design using your chosen alcohol marker pens - I've used Spectrum Noir Pens in shades LV1, LV2, LV3. Allow to dry.

Cut around your element carefully leaving a small border around the edge of your design and then heat it according to the manufacturer's instructions. Once cooled it should look like the piece on the right side of the picture below:

It's now ready to be afixed to your project and if you check out the photos below, you'll see my the coloured knob on the teapot lid!

Here's my card, featuring one of Tammy's templates and showing the teapot lid, complete with  "Shrinkles" plastic knob:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - Shape EZ Tea Pot Template printed onto regular lightweight light cardstock and hand cut. I distressed all the edges with Craf-T Chalk in Turquoise and stuck the "crystal" shrinkles knob onto the top of the lid
• Papers - are MM024 from a retired set called Mixed Media by Donna at, sadly now closed, Bearly Mine Designs. I printed these directly onto the paper templates from the Tea Pot Set ... very easy as they're sized to match perfectly!
• Image - is one I was lucky enough to win a couple of months ago and she is called Lucy Loo
  
  "Mad Hatter" by Unky at The East Wind. How much sass-itude has this girl got? I brought Lucy Loo to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours before fussy cutting her out:
• Skin - FS2, FS3, FS6, LV1, LV2
• Hair - IG1, IG2, IG4
• Hat - BT4, BT5, BT6, LV1, LV2
• Shirt & Cravat - IG1, IG2
• Jacket - DG5, DG6, DG7, TN8, Silver Gel Pen
• Cup - TN2, DR11, Gold Gel Pen
• Outline - BT1
• Sentiment - is by Paulette at Create with TLC and once I had cut this out, I distressed the edges with Craf-T Chalk in Turquoise. 

I hope I've inspired you to have a go and Cut It Out! but why not head over to the Top Tip Tuesday Blog and check out all the fabby creations from the DT girls and pop over to the Shape EZ store and see what other great templates Tammy has that you could use? Then come back and show us your cut out projects! This challenge ends at 4pm BST on Monday 22nd June 2015.




I would like to enter this card into the following challenge:

• Challenge #262 - A Touch of Vintage/Shabby Chic at Sentimental Sundays
• Shabby Chic at Make my Monday
• Challenge #9 - Anything Goes with a Twist of Fantasy at SLSlines Challenge (Second Entry)

Hope you have a good day, and if you use my tutorial please let me know - I'd love to come over and see what you make!

Hugs, Helen

Advent Countdown

This is my second post of the day - please scroll down to see my first post

Hi and welcome to my second post of the day - this time introducing this fortnight's challenge at Lexi's Creations. Yesterday was "Stir Up Sunday" at my church (we made our Parish Christmas Cake!) and next Sunday will be Advent Sunday here in the UK, so we're now on the countdown to the big "ho ho". Therefore Susan has set us a topical challenge and would like to see your projects celebrating Christmas. This one should be nice and simple, so no excuses for not joining us!

Of course everyone likes the opportunity to win a prize, and this fortnight our sponsor is the lovely Lexi from Fairy Dust Crafts who will be letting our lucky winner choose 5 digital images from her store. Fairy Dust Crafts  is "Your one stop shop for Lexi's Digi images and a growing choice of delicious crafting goodies. Here you can find all Lexi's Creations digital images...also available as clear rubber stamps plus other crafting goodies in store now!" 


Now, like most things at 'Casa Mia', there is a story behind this project. 

Youngest daughter and I were in a very well known store (that one that has "Magic & Sparkle") in our local shopping centre and as we walked past their Christmas Shop, we saw a perpetual Advent calendar. "Can we get that Mum?" she asked. Mr Mojo must have been light years ahead of my brain because I suddenly heard a voice say "I can make that" ... there was no-one else around us, so it must have been me! Well of course, she's held to me that statement! 


Here is another tutorial for you, this time showing you how I made the cubes for this project:

Materials:

1 piece of card measuring 10.5cm x 15cm for each cube (you can get 2 cubes out of an A4 piece of cardstock if you cut the long edge to 15cm, and then cut the 21cm side in half)
Cutting and scoring tools - I have used my Crafter's Companion Ultimate Pro together with The Boxer Board

Bone Folder
Scissors
Glue

How to cut, score and fold:

 Using the Ultimate Pro Boxer Board, butt one piece of cardstock with the short edge at the top of board and score at 1cm, 4.5cm, 8cm & 11.5 cm. Make sure you take the measurements at the right hand side of the board as I've shown here.

 Turn the cardstock round so the 1cm "tab" is on the left hand side, and butt the long side against the top of the board. Score at 3.5cm & 7cm.
On the right hand panel only, also score at 2.5cm & 8cm - these will make tabs for securing your cube. 
Again, make sure you take the measurements at the right hand side of the board as I've shown here.

  Turn your cardstock round again so the original 1cm "tab" is butted up to the top of your board and score (using the measurements panel at the right hand side of the board as I've shown here) in the right and left hand panels only at 3.5cm and 9cm - these will also make tabs for securing your cube.

I have marked the cutting lines in red on the template; the black lines are fold lines. The shaded areas are going to be cut away. Cut each of the RED lines - you may wish to round the corners on the 1cm wide "tabs" to make them easier to fold into your cube. Then fold and burnish the panels along the BLACK score lines so that they bend away from side of your cardstock you want showing, and your cardstock should look like this:

This point would be a good time to decorate the sides of you cube as it's the last time it's going to be flat! So, turn your cardstock over and embellish to your heart's content - just remember that the cubes have to rest on each of the sides so flat decorations might be best! :o)

 Now, to fold the cube!

With the decorated side of the cube facing up, firstly glue the two tabs marked 1 using a glue suitable for your cardstock - before the glue dries, fold the two side panels up and stick the cube side adjacent to these onto the tabs. Ensure that your folds are square before the glue dries, otherwise it will make your cube wonky. The cube is starting to take shape, and looks like this:

Do the same for the two tabs marked 2- this folds the "lid" of the cube down and the tabs will stick to the side we've just folded up.

Repeat this for the three tabs marked 3, which will close the front of the cube up - just make sure that the tab that's at the end of the front "wall" of the cube tucks in!

And here is the final cube. Each side is 3.5cm square, which gives a perfect base for numbers (or anything else) cut using the smallest of the Sizzix Framelits Scallop Squares Dies.

So, with a nod to that store, and featuring one of Lexi's wonderful images, here is my project for you, with not one, but two of these cubes!:

And for those of you who need a jog ... yes, there really are only 30 days until Christmas :o)

My project recipe is follows:

• Base Card - is the remainder of an A4 sheet of Centura Pearl in Snow White, once I'd taken the off the card I needed for the cubes. Using the Ultimate Pro Boxer Board again, I butted the short edge of my card against the top of the board and scored at 3cm, 7cm and 10cm. I folded and burnished these score lines so that they made 2 "feet" and a plinth to stand the cubes on. For added stability, I used double sided tape to adhere the cardstock together between the 7cm and 10cm fold lines.
• Images - I've used 2 images on this project. The first image is called Pine Forest and it comes from
  
  the pen of Beccy Muir at Beccy's Place. I think this was a blog freebie this spring, as I can't find it in her store. I recoloured the forest using one of the preset colours in my word processing package. The second image is Santa from the Santa Snowglobe (also comes with a Merry Christmas sentiment on the snowglobe base) by Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts. I brought Santa to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours, before fussy cutting him and mounting him on a double set of foam pads (for added depth):
• Santa Suit - DR1, DR2, DR3
• Skin - FS7, FS8, FS9
• Beard - IG1, Colourless Blender
• Fur on Hat - IG1, Colourless Blender, White Glitter
• Boots - True Black and Silver Gel Pen
• Ornament - GG1
• Cubes - made using Centura Pearl in Snow White. I printed the numbers 0 to 9 (doing two copies of the numbers 1 and 2!) in my word processing package using the font 'Stencil' onto the Red Damask Paper  from the kit Believe by Summer at Summertime Designs. I gave the numerals a touch of glitz courtesy of my Versamark Pen and Holographic Embossing Powder before die cutting them into squares using the smallest of my Sizzix Framelits Scallop Squares Dies. I attached these to the cube shapes (you need to be able to make sequences of numbers from 24 to 1, so you need to make sure you have a number 1 and number 2 on each cube) and then made up my cubes using the tutorial above.
• Sentiment - is computer generated, again using the font 'Stencil' in my word processing package and printing onto the Red Damask Paper  from Summer's kit Believe.

I hope you'll come over to Lexi's Creations and look at the wonderful creations made by my teamies. Don't forget to then come back and link up your projects celebrating Christmas! This challenge ends on Saturday 7/12/2013.


I would like to enter this project into the following challenges:

• November 2013 Challenge - Christmas/Winter at Crafter's Companion Challenge 2nd Entry
• November Monthly Challenge - Christmas at Stamping Sensations - 2nd Entry
• Challenge 113 - Christmas Traditional Colours (Red and Green) using Die Cuts at Bearly Mine Challenge
• Monthly Challenge  #39 - Christmas at Little Claire's
• Christmas Challenge at Crafty Sentiments - I'm now following your Inspirational Blog as well for 3 extra entries!
• A Month of Holiday Cards Challenge at Beccy's Place - 2nd Entry and I'm hoping that a Holiday project (rather than a card) counts!
• Challenge #138 - Christmas is Coming at The Paper Shelter
• Photo Inspiration Challenge (Santa) at Winter Wonderland

Hope you have a good, and crafty, week :o) !

Hugs, Helen x

Yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello again everyone!

It being Monday morning, it's time for a new challenge at  Incy Wincy Designs and this time we've got a Sketch Challenge for you. DT member Karen has come up with this lavishly layered layout for us all to use. Please feel free to flip or rotate the sketch ... as long as we can still see it's our layout, we'll be happy!

We've got 2 awesome sponsors lined up for you again this week:


Our first sponsor is the team at Digital Delights who are offering one lucky winner 3 digital images. I love the new musical set release - you could compile your own digi band with the lovely images!



Our second sponsor is our very own DT Member Nikki who runs Limited Runs Digital Stamps. Nikki has a "Freebie Friday" every week so do head over to her blog and check out her digis. 

I've always admired those who put such wonderful stitching on their multi-layered cards. However, as I put my layout together digitally, I was never going to be able to stitch this lot and get the layers right. I don't know if there are any tutorials out in Blogland showing "Digital Stitching", but I thought I would put together a brief tutorial on how I did it.

Materials:

Digital Papers (see below for details of the digi papers I'm using)

Word Processing Program on your computer - I use Microsoft Word on a PC and I'm not sure if my tutorial will work for all computers.

How to insert Digital Faux Stitching:

Choose your digi papers and a layout that you like. Layer up your papers in the order you want them to appear on your card and at the right size that you want them to be when they're printed out. My base layer here is 14cm square to go on a 15cm square card.

If you're a beginner in layering digital images, I can recommend that you follow this tutorial by my bloggin' buddy Annette who explains the "How to ..." very clearly! Once you've got your papers layered up, with a picture border as the faux matting layer....

Choose the "Insert" tab and select "Shapes". From that drop down menu, choose the "Rectangles" shape and click on it. 

Draw a rectangle (or whatever shape you need) inside the shape of your first paper layer. Here you can see a yellow rectangle with a red border on top of my blue paper, which is the top layer of my stack. How close you put the rectangle to the edges of your paper depends on how close you want the stitching to be to the edge of the paper.

Click on the "Format" Tab and click the "Shape Fill" option; then click on "No Fill". As you can see in the picture above, the yellow rectangle has gone, and the blue DP is visible with a red border on the inside edge.

Click on the "Format" tab again but this time click on the "Shape Outline" option - you can choose how heavy your line is by clicking on the "Weight" option and then choosing one of the preset options. Here I've chosen 2¼ points.

Go back and click on the "Format" tab and click on the "Shape Outline" option again. This time select the "Dashes" option and you can choose from the pop-out box of options what style you want your "stitching" to be. Here I've selected the "Long Dash Dot Dot" line. If you look closely at the blue paper, you can see that our choice of "stitching" is already showing on it.

Now to colour the "stitching" - click on the "Format" tab and click on the "Shape Outline" option once more. This time, choose a colour from the colour palette which is shown - I've gone for the same mid-grey shade to match my faux matting layer. Again, look closely at the blue paper, and you can see that the "stitching" lines are now in our chosen colour.

I like to group the paper and the "stitching" line see through shape together - that way, if they get moved they will stick together! Left mouse click on the "stitching" line and then hold down the Shift key. Keeping this key depressed Right mouse click on the blue digi paper - this should bring up a menu. (If your 2 shapes are very close together, this might take several goes to get right!) Use the mouse to highlight the "Group" option. This should bring out a little pop-out box and you can now release the Shift key. Select the "Group" option and your "stitching" is now on top of the blue digi paper.

I like to put this layer at the back, so that I can work on all the other layers. So, right mouse click on the blue digi paper, use your mouse to select the "Send to Back" option. This will generate another pop-out box, and you will need to use your mouse to select the "Send to Back" option from this box.

You can see that the blue paper has now disappeared leaving the formatting outline on top of the paper stack. This will disappear as soon as click away from the papers.

For each remaining layer of digi paper that you want stitching on, follow the above instructions and then send that layer to the back. By the time the bottom layer (here the stripy paper) has got it's faux stitching and been sent to the back, the stack of papers is all in the right order again, as shown in the picture above. All that remains to be done is to print it out and attach it to your card base.

Nikki very kindly gave each DT member their choice of one image to showcase, so here is my card featuring one of Nikki's Limited Runs Digital Stamps and the layered and "stitched" paper stack shown in the tutorial with two extra layers physically added for the image and the sentiment:

My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - made from Centura Pearl in Snow White which I cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card.
• Design Papers - are all by Summer at Summertime Designs and they come from her new kit Patio Picnic. From the bottom layer, the papers I've used are called Stripes, Green Patterned, Pink Flourish, Pendant and Blue Flourish. I have digitally matted and layered these papers together using a dove grey outline in my word processing programme, so there will be little bulk to this card. Using the tutorial process, I also used to my word processing program to insert faux stitching on every layer in the same dove grey colour. 
• Image - this mouthwatering image is called Ice Cream Sundae and it has been drawn by Nikki at Limited Runs Digital Stamps. I brought the sundae to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours before slicking a layer of Glossy Accents over the Sundae Glass, and sprinkling a layer of Holographic Embossing Powder over the sauce and heat setting it:


• Sundae Glass - BT2, BT4
• Ice Creams - EB1, EB2, CG2, CG4
• Sauce - DR1, DR3
• Outline - IG2
• Sentiment - this Subway Art style sentiment is by Paulette at Create with TLC. I got this from Paulette in February 2012 - I can't remember whether it was a blog freebie, or whether it was a Scavenger Hunt prize ... sorry! Whichever it was, it's perfect for this card!

I do hope you'll head over to Incy Wincy Designs this week and see the other wonderful layouts from my very talented team-mates and Valou who is still with us as our Guest Designer. Then come back and show us your creations which follow our Sketch. This challenge closes on Sunday 28th April.


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• Just Add Glitter Recipe Swap at Catered Crop
• Challenge 59 - Food Glorious Food at Little Miss Muffet
• Challenge 99 - Say It Isn't Sew (No Machine Sewing) at Top Tip Tuesday My tip for you this time is how to put digital faux stitching on your card using the Tutorial above

Hope you have a great week.

Hugs, Helen x

Feathers, Flowers and a Diamond!

This is my first post of the day - please scroll up to see my second post

Hello again friends!

It's time for a new challenge at Lexi's Creations again. Wow, you sure loved the Anything Goes challenge ... I was quite worn out heading round your blogs looking at your creations, and I'm sure the other DT girls felt the same! This fortnight, Susan has set us the theme of Fancy Folds ... no one-fold cards please, but cards with multiple folds.

Our wonderful sponsor this time is Priyanka from My Heart Pieces. The prize that is up for grabs this week is 3 of Priyanka's lovely digital images. Pop over to her blog to check out her cute digis.

 I decided to challenge myself (again!) and use a card fold that I've not tried before, a Diamond Fold Card. There is a great tutorial here on this fold (including a video) at Splitcoast Stampers but the measurements are all in inches and a standard sheet of A4 of paper or card isn't quite big enough to get a strip that is 12" long! So, with apologies to Splitcoast Stampers, here is my tutorial (the first one I've ever done, so I hope it's OK!) using metric measurements and making this card from one A4 sheet of card:

Materials:

1 A4 sheet of paper or card - I used 120gsm card in cream. You could print a digital paper onto your card first to save you having to decorate your card when it's complete. I've left mine blank

Cutting and scoring tools - I have used my Clevercut Paper Trimmer

Bone Folder

Ruler

How to cut, score and fold:

 Cut the paper card so it measures 27cm x 9cm

 Measuring along the long edge (27cm) score at 4.5cm and again at 22.5cm. Fold along these score lines both ways, so folding the flaps to both the front and back of your card.

 On the reverse of your card (especially important if you're using a DP) mark the long edge (27cm) at 13.5cm

Using a ruler (or like me, the straight edge on my Clevercut) line up the 2 marks at the midpoint on the card. Now, take one side of your card and fold it along the straight edge so that top of the strip of card is now folded over and running along the ruler. Move your ruler to the other side of the midpoint marks, and do the same with the other side of your card.

Turn the strip round and repeat the last stage, and you end up with 2 diagonal lines each side of the midpoint going out to the flap and intersecting across the card.

 Now the clever part, folding the card!

I found the easiest way to do it was to pinch the top and bottom triangles with my left hand, whilst teasing the left hand triangle and left hand side of the diamond in to make a sharp point - photo below. The mechanics of this will fold the top and bottom triangles in half.

And then unfold the flap ... one side done!

Repeat the folding process on the other side, and unfold the flap

Turn the card round so the flap are at each side, let the spring in the fold open out naturally and the card will sit nicely on the bottom point of the diamond and the two side flaps. It's now ready to decorate and embellish as you choose - the side flaps measure 4.5cm x 9cm and the diamond is 9cm high by 9cm wide.

And here is my finished project using the card base photographed above using a gorgeous digi by Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts (thanks Lexi!):

 My card recipe is as follows:

• Base Card - made from cream card, which I cut, scored and folded (using my Clevercut) as above to make a Diamond Fold Card
• Design Papers - are called Green Paper and Yellow Floral Paper. They are both from a kit by Summer at Summertime Designs called Moments.
• Image - is by Lexi at Fairy Dust Crafts  and this little cutie is called Lillie with Tulips. I brought this very happy feathered friend to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the following colours:
  

  • Beak & Feet - OR1
  • Feathers - GB3, GB4
  • Bow - DR3
  • Petals - GB1, GB3
  • Stamens - DR3
  • Stalks, Leaves & Grass - DG2, DG4
• Outline - TB1
• Clouds - Chalk in Light
• Sentiment - is by Paulette from Create with TLC, and is simply called "Thank you, Thank you". This was a freebie on her blog in May 2012. I have used my Versamark Pen and Holographic Embossing Powder to highlight the script on the sentiment. Click on the photo to supersize it and check out sparkle!
  
  

  
  

  
  Do come over and join in the fun at Lexi's Creations with us, and check out what Fancy Folds the other DT girls and our talented Guest Designer Jen Zeeb have made. And then come back and link up your creations. This challenge ends on Saturday 2nd February 2013.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

• Challenge 252 - Diamonds are Forever at Cute Card Thursday - my diamond is the shape of my card
• Challenge AC154 - Colour Challenge (Artichoke, Pineapple, Pumpkin) at Annabelle Stamps - I'm hoping that the splash of red and blue sky is OK
• Challenge 63 - Emboss It at Pink Gem Challenges
• Thank You Challenge at Pixie Dust Studios
• Bingo at Aud Sentiments - I claim the upwards diagonal line of Flowers (as I've got flowers on both my DP and image), Embossing and "You" 
• Challenge 25 - More than One Fold at Artistic Inspirations

Don't forget to let me know what you thought of my first attempt at a tutorial! Hope you have a great week!
Hugs, Helen x