I CALL IT A CARD!!! YOU MIGHT WANT TO CALL IT A MINI-BOOK!!!

Hi, it's Audrey, and what a wonderful Thursday to be here again this month -- as always, thank you Sheila!!!

I'm very excited about today's project because it was a total shock to me and something I happened to stumble on by sheer accident!  I was actually making a pop-up card and my mind just ventured elsewhere to come up with something totally different.  This is why I love to play; sometimes the results are just too amazing!!!

I'd still like to call my project a card (just not really a pop-up as initially intended), and although there are places to hold small photos, pockets with tucked away tags, room for some journaling, to me it's still just a fun card!  You can call it a mini if you want but as my creatiion, I'm referring to it as a card... LOL!!!

You may as well get comfortable because as I want to show you as many "nooks and crannies" of my "card"as possible, and because there's no cutfile, this is going to be a pretty picture heavy and lengthy post.  I preferred not to do a cut-file at this time because this is really a quick, simple to do and cut card.  Besides so many of you do not own the George cart which is what I use on the majority of my cutfiles anyway, so ... let's get busy with your scoreboards and paper cutters!!!  I'll start off with a tour and several views of this card project from the cover through all pages.  At any time, please feel free to to click on any picture to enlarge it:

Okay, now I'll show you how to make your own!  You'll need  4 and 1/2 sheets of 8.50" x 11 cardstock: 2 for the base card, 1 decorative sheet cardstock for the base card inside panels; 1/2 complementary color card stock sheet for front and back cover;  and, (optional step) 1- 8.50" x 11" sheet for the inside pop-out panels.  To begin:

Base card:  Cut each of the 2 sheets of cardstock in half (you will end up having 4 -11" x 5:50" panels); score 2 of the 1/2 cardstock sheets down the center with the 11" side across the top of the scoreboard at 5.50"; score the remaining 2 halves, with the 11" side also across the scoreboard at 2.75", 5.50", and 8.25". 

Base card inside panels:  score 8.50" x 11" cardstock, with 11" side across the top of scoreboard at 2.75", 5.50", and 8.25"; turn paper with 8.50" side across top of scoreboard, and score at 4.25".  Cut along each score line to end up with 8 panel sections.

You should now have this:

Fold each of the 4 base cards along the score lines to have this:

Take one 1/2 fold base card and one of the base cards folded into 4 sections; turn the panel scored into 4 sections over (mountain side folds up), add glue to first left-side section making certain to get good glue coverage along the edges:

Adhere this section along the "left-hand" side of the base card up to and along the score line, making certain the top/bottom edges are evenly aligned:

This next step has already been down on the above picture sample but you'll add glue to the right outer section, and align and adhere to the center score line on the "right-hand" side of the base card.  In other words to simplify, you'll add the first right section of the 4 section panel to the right side of the base card along the center scoreline, and the left outer 4 section panel to the left side of the center scoreline of the base card -- right to right, left to left -- got it?!!!  LOL!

At this point, close up your card and smooth it down with a roller or bone-folder to make certain it closes smoothly.

Next complete these same steps above to complete the second base card to have this:

Now, taking the backside of one base card align and evenly adhere it to the front of the other base card.  You'll now have this:

Okay, now get ready to glue on your 8 inside panels but first you'll need to trim just a sliver from one side and the bottom of each panel to expose a bit of your base card).  Once you glue your panels on, you're card will then look like this:

Now if you look on the inside of the pop-out pages you'll see I have lined the inside with panels of a coordinating color, these are the optional inside pop-out page panels I referred to above.  You can include them if you like or not.  If you do, you would score, cut and trim an 8.50 x 11" sheet of cardstock to fit just as you did for the inside page panels.  Mine came out perfect when I cut each one down to 2.50" x 4".

Phew!  We're almost done!  If you want to add a ribbon or some other closure that needs to be hidden beneath the cover panels, now is the time to do that:

Last step, we'll add the front/back cover panels by cutting  the remaining 1/2 sheet of cardstock into 2 - 4" x 5.25" sections.  Adhere one section to the front and the other to the back of your card:

All that's left to do now is for you to decorate and embellish it any way you like, for any occassion you'd like it for!!!

I truly hope you enjoyed my "accident" card... lol!!!  And if you should have any questions at all, please just click on my name at the top of this post to be directly linked to my blog where you can leave me a comment.  I promise to get back to you!!!

Thanks so much for taking the time to drop by; I always appreciate and enjoy your company!!!

I'll be back next month, so...

I'll be seeing you!