The Never-ending Continuous Card DIY

NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN

This is a paper trick that's been around for a while so I'm not doing anything new here that hasn't been done before. But so many people are having trouble understanding how this works so I thought I would try to explain how to do it the simple way.

finished flattened card

This card is only as complicated as you make it. All you need is one sheet of 12" by 12" scrapbooking paper to make one card. Cut the paper into 8 equal 3" x 6" pieces. I cut my paper into four equal 6" x 6" pieces and then cut each of those in half.

If you are going to do a lot of embellishment, use a thinner paper so it will fold easier because you will be decorating four sides of 6" x 6" areas for this card and it needs to lay mostly flat to turn. The decorating is what makes it labor intensive.


PUTTING IT TOGETHER

The back of the paper will not show so it does not need to be printed on both sides. I used double sided paper here to make the wrong side very clear from the right side but the striped side of my paper will not show on the finished card.

(1) First lay two pieces face down with the center going in one direction and glue or DSST (double sided sticky tape) one square inch in each of the four outer corners. Both edges of the papers must meet in the center. Do not leave a space between them. (2) Then lay two more pieces face up on top of that with the center cut going in the opposite direction. Get them perfectly centered and stick them together.

step 1

step 2

(3) Now open the top section up and fold the sides back to meet exactly in the middle of the back. Make a center mark with a pencil if you need to. Use a bone folder to flatten the edges neatly. Leave it wrong side up.

step 3

(4) Lay the next two pieces along the center cut line and glue the four outer corners together again at about an inch square for each corner keeping back sides together.

step 4

(5) Fold this layer back and really press the folds down flat

step 5

(6) repeat for the last layer, always laying the paper edges along the middle cut edges. Keep opening the card and pressing all the edges flat. You can trim the outer edges a little if needed. The outer edges are the inner edges for each card face.

step 6 - the finished card base

It doesn't get any simpler than that. Now you have made a continuous, never-ending card and it is ready for decoration. 

If you like gimmicky cards, square cards, and decorating 4 sides for one card, you'll love this one. Now you can decorate! Wasn't that easy?

Small Fans to Print

I just thought I would make a page of fans to cut out for making cards. I got all these from the public domain. I brightened them and cleaned them up a bit. These are small. The largest one is only 3" wide. I have them stored on a WIX server because blogger compresses the quality too much and resizes the page too small for printing. These should print out sharper at a higher quality on 8-1/2" x 11" card stock.

Besides compressing files too much and making them look bad, blogger will not let me upload PDFs, SVGs and ZIP files so I have to store them on other free servers.

So just click on the sheet to take you to the printable page and then right click and 'save as' to your computer to print out.

Enjoy!

A Few Cricut Explore Air 2 Hacks

I was really hesitant to get this machine. I wasn't sure I would use it all that much and for what? I can cut out paper right? Then one day I saw some really beautiful signs made with vinyl and I wanted one. I did not want to spend big money on the Maker so I got the Explore Air 2 on the easy payment plan (HSN) and glad I did. It will do everything the Maker will do for what I need. I'm perfectly happy with my Explore Air 2.

This machine can cut just about anything!  It has a deep cut blade that will go through chipboard and balsa. It cuts everything I've thrown at it so far. It cuts paper, craft foam, chipboard, vinyl, aluminum, leather, fabric, and does so much more than just cut. It will kiss cut stickers so you can peel them off the backing. It scores fold lines, it draws and writes whatever you want to say in any font you have. It can even etch glass, metal and plexiglas. It can also cut fabric. And it can emboss or "deboss" too.

One glitch I've noticed is that I have to unplug it or sometimes turn it off and back on to reset it when it messes up occasionally. But that's with any computerized machine.

You can buy an engraving tool made by Chomas Creations to fit the Explore Air 2 and you can emboss by turning the cutting blade over or putting the scoring tool into the "B" clamp. Pad your sticky mat with a spongy layer like leather or craft foam when you emboss and tape your paper to it. You'll have to engineer a holder for the embossing stylus if you move it over to clamp "B". Wrap paper tape around it to get it to hold. Why would you do that? Because on the "cut" setting you will get a deeper emboss than you will on the settings for clamp "A".

Order the engraving tool straight from Amazon if you have prime and you can get it for the same price delivered the next day! That's what I did!

I may have started out to make signs with my Cricut (I bought way too much vinyl) cause I've only made one sign so far... I know. But, I did discover the 'print then cut' feature and proceeded to print and cut out just about every flower graphic and fancy lacey paper pattern I had. I even scanned some flowers in using my scanner and GIMP. The GIMP is a free program that is equivalent to PhotoShop. It will let you edit your own graphics and make your own flowers to cut out.

Get Inkscape, it's a free program that will draw (like Illustrator) and let you make SVGs that will resize in the Cricut design space and allow you to share your creations with other Cricket people.

So now I'm designing files directly in Design Space. I've had my Explore Air 2 for less than a year so don't give up if you got one and haven't used it yet. Don't be intimidated, just unbox it and plug it up. Take a look around and you'll probably find something you want to make. That's how it all gets started.

I fell in love with Anna Griffin cards and flowers so that's what I've been doing with mine. Designing and making cards and little paper engineered stuff. I cut out a lot of stuff with it. I made all my Christmas presents last year with my Cricut. It's just that much FUN.

Pop-Up Teacup Cards

I spent a long 4th of July weekend designing these cards. I was inspired by the pop up cards engineering and the little paper teacups I've seen. The biggest difference with my card is that is folds flat. It's not just a paper sculpture, it's a 5" x 7" greeting card that you can mail.

The pattern I made is only three pieces to make the cup but you can add as many embellishments as you want like little tea bags, spoon, doilies and a ton of flowers and butterflies. You could even add some candy or a little napkin.

There are so many ways to make this card unique so I'll be making more of them. I've used a lot of Anna Griffin embellishments on them. The flowers are from her Vintage Collage Card Toppers and I've used her spoon die and teabag from her Tea Party Cut and Emboss Dies. I did the doily from Cricut Design Space and I got my butterflies from the public domain.

Click on the "FREE Pattern" button on the right to go get it. For mobile users, click on this page link.