Mother's Day

Well, I had to wait until Mother's Day to post the card I made for mine, since she reads my blog!  But I think it's a fun card that can be adapted to many different situations.

It's called a box-pleated card and I read about it here.  The originator is in the U.K., so I had to come up with my own measurements.  Here's how I did it (after a little trial and error!).


Cut a piece of heavyweight cardstock that is 7" by 5 1/4".  Now score the shorter side at 3/4", then starting with the last score line each time score in this pattern:  1/4", 1", 1/4", 1/2", 1/4", 1", 1/4", 1/2", 1/4", 1", 1/4".  I used the Scor-Pal and lined the paper up at 1/4" on the left edge to start, scored at 1" (to get 3/4") and then moved the paper so the score line I just made was now in the 4-inch groove, then did the 1/4", moved that score line to the 4-inch groove, etc.  It was easy to line up the top and bottom this way so that each subsequent score line is straight.  You should end up with a piece of paper that looks like this (minus the black lines - I had to draw those in so you could actually see the score lines in the photo):   

Now turn the cardstock a quarter turn to that the score lines are horizontal and fold along the scored lines in the following manner:  valley (right sides together), mountain (back sides together), mountain, valley, valley, mountain, mountain, valley, valley, mountain, mountain, valley.  You should end up with three 1" box pleats raised up.

If you started with a piece of paper 7" long, you can now trim each edge (the right and the left side) to 1/2".  This way it's straight and even, since depending on the weight of the paper you use, you could need a little more than the 6 1/2" all those score lines add up to (guess how I know this!). 


Cut another piece of cardstock 5 1/2" by 8 1/2" and score in the middle for your card base.  Turn the box-pleated cardstock over and attach red-line tape to the four 1/2" strips and adhere to the front of the cardstock base.  I stuck the top one down first, then the bottom one, and the two in the middle just popped right into place with a little push down.


Now just decorate the pleats with 3 pieces of decorative paper cut a little smaller than the pleats.  I even cut small strips of decorative paper to fill in the 1/2" tunnels. 

Pretty cool, huh?  Since Mom is a card-maker too, I have to try to come up with new things whenever I make her a card!   


Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there~