Gap Cards - The Wedding Version

Hi!   It's Christine from iamcocoasmom.blogspot.com stopping by to share my easy peasy gap card technique using Cricut Design Space. Warning - looooong post!

We've called this little corner of the Pacific Northwest 'Home' for longer than DH and I have ever lived anywhere including England, where we were born.  We've also had homes in Bahrain, Singapore, New Brunswick and Alberta, (Canada) Tennessee, Maryland, Utah, and of course, Washington State.  This means, of course, that many of the cards I make have to be flat enough to pop in a regular mailing envelope.  This presents a problem for the resident cardmaker - moi - who is a big fan of bling, dimension, embellies, ribbon and layers!   Enter the Gap Card which allows me to add dimension, visual interest and that personal touch, without costing $15 to mail.

Here's my latest gap card designed for the wedding anniversary of a couple of friends, but it could just as easily be for a wedding or for a bridal shower with different die cut embellishments.

Deep breath!   Here we go!  In Design Space, use the 'Insert Shapes' button to add two squares and a score line to the canvas.  Resize one of the squares to the size of the finished card - in my case 5.5 inches wide by 8.5 inches tall.  Change the color of the square.  Rotate the score line 90˚ and change the height to a little longer than the width of the card.  Select the card and the score line and click on 'center' under the 'align' button.

Next, take the second square and resize it to a little longer than the width of the card (5.75) by 1.5 inches.  Position the rectangle over the card below the score line and with the edges beyond the sides of the card.  This will be the gap.  Try the 'gap' near the score line, near the bottom of the card, or anywhere in-between until you get the look you want. 

 The next step is to insert the text.  Type in the word(s) you want to fill the gap and experiment with the font until you find one that suits the mood of the card AND has a shadow layer.   Activate the shadow layer by clicking on the eye in the Layers panel.   Position the text over the gap and resize it so that the shadow layer is slightly larger than the gap.

You can see that I added two more text boxes to my design outside the gap and resized them to complement the gap word.   Move the gap word to the side and 'ungroup.'  Select the shadow layer only, and duplicate.   Save, save. save!

Slicing time!  Select the card and the gap rectangle and 'slice.'  Now the gap rectangle will become the same color as your card.   Move away the 'gap' and the extra ends and delete both of them.

Welding time!  Select one of the gap word shadow layers and position it over the gap in the card.  You can use 'align' to center it if you need to.  Select the card and the shadow layer of the gap word and 'weld.' Once again, everything will be the same color.  Perfect!

Select the card and the score line and 'attach.'  Choose any other die cut images that you would like to add.  I chose wedding bells and intertwined rings, added them to the canvas and resized.  Lastly I used 'sync' to consolidate my color scheme and SAVED!

Here's another look at my finished card.  The color palate is subdued for this card.  But I really, really want to try this card in teal and cream, or fuschia and pale pink.  Mmmmm.

And the innies:-

Bonus card for reading to the end of this post!   Here's a gap card I created for my DH's fishing buddy, Dan.  I used the Mickey font for this one but we won't mention that!  Love how we personalized this card including a genu-wine fly tying knot tied by DH to embellish the front.  Cool!

Thank you Sheila for allowing me to share today.  Do try an easy peasy gap card.  You'll be addicted too!   : ) Christine