Sunday, December 18, 2011

Hidden Panel Card Tutorial


Well how did we suddenly get to Day 7 of Tutorial Week. I can't believe a week is already up. I have had great fun doing this and I have been so excited every day to see any comments you have left.

For my final tutorial of the week I am going to show you a Hidden Panel Card. These are great because you can use all of your flat embellishment inside. We tend to get very focused on making items 3D and making them pop off the card so this is a nice card where you have a ready made excuse just to keep it as flat as possible!!!! You can do so much more with these cards than I have shown. I just wanted to keep the cards very simple just to give you the idea of what it can look like.

I love when people open this card and think that maybe you haven't stuck it together properly and then they discover that it is actually a hidden panel inside. lol. I have even had people say "Oh Cliona its coming apart" and then realized that its part of the card. They love it.

I have made this card in A4 but you can actually make it in any size you want. Just take your piece of card and follow all the instructions below and you will produce the same results no matter what size you use.

Right here we go:

Take an A4 sheet of card

Fold this in half (Oops.... forgot to take this picture and the batteries are flat in the camera). But seriously just fold it in half....  :)

Now take the top piece of the folded card and fold it in half back to to the spine

 
Turn the card over and fold back the second half sheet to the spine
Your card should now look like this.
Your card spine is now in the middle of the card.(see photo)
Place that middle section (center spine) up against your craft board or ruler and measure it into 3 separate sections. My board is in centimeters and the card measures 21cm. So I make a mark at 7cm and 14cm.
Cut from these two marks (on the spine) to the center crease.
Measure the panel shown below.

Cut two strips of coloured card to the same size of this panel. You are going to be fitting these into the card. My preference is to cut them to the same size as the panel and then if they don't fit in neatly  - (they could cause slight buckling when you close the card) then you can cut a small sliver off the panel and try again. You want these panels to fit neatly. (not so tight as to buckle the card and not so loose that they slip out of the card). It is worth taking your time with this so you don't have to start cutting them again from scratch.

Open up the card.


Take one of the panels and starting on the left section put the panel through the top cut down the back and out again through the bottom cut.

 Now with the left section pop the card through the cut from behind down the front of the card and through the second cut. This can be quite tight and awkward but take your time and it will fit neatly.This all makes sense to me but I am sure I am making it very confusing!!! Hence all the photos to show you!!!

 You have now made your hidden panel card.

Where is the hidden panel you ask! In the middle section pull the sections apart. They will be quite tight to start with and the more you play with this card the easier it is to open and in fact it becomes quite obvious to the recipient that there is an extra panel.
 


This is the hidden panel when it is open.
Now pull on the white side panels and the centre panel will pop back togeather and leave the card as shown below.


4 comments:

  1. great tutorial and love how you have used these gorgeous images too
    Hugs Kate xx

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  2. Wow - well done with your week of Tutorials - mentler....... now have a rest! lol
    Fab tutorials all week xxx

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  3. Just made a mock-up of this in printer paper to get my head round how it works - you can fix the red strips in to make it more secure - when you have the card open (hidden panels closed) where the white panels go over the red, you could use a brad (with a small piece of paper to hide them on the back of the card), or with a dab of glue or DST.

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