Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #144 - Penny's "All About Birthdays" Challenge

It's time for me to host this week at the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge, and I'm delighted.  I never seem to be able to keep up with all the birthdays that are coming up.  I hope my project will inspire you to create a card or project and enter it in our weekly challenge. 

The WWC144 Linksy is open until 5:00pm on Monday November 14th.  All you have to do is make a birthday card or project and link it to your post through our Linsky.  All the stuff you need to know about playing along is located on the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge Main Page.  So I hope you'll play along.

Here's My Birthday Card:
My card for this challenge is called a Square Easel and I think (IMHO) it's one of the best quick and easy fancy fold cards you can make. This is my stepped up version and my original plain version is below.

Originally my card was very plain, as you can see from these photos but after setting it aside for a day before posting, I added some additional decorations to bring it to life.  Either card would be great, but I must confess, I love the final version the best. What do you think?

Original card without decorations.  Very plain and simple.

This side view shows how the "stopper" holds up the front layer of the card when it's opened.

Standard Dimensions and Assembly Square Easel Card:
1. Choose your base card stock, a contrasting card stock for your layer, and a neutral card stock of DSP for your focal layer.

2. Cut base card stock to 8 1/2" x 4 1/4" and score at 4 1/4" and 6 1/2".

3. Use your bone folder to crease the center fold at 4 1/4" and then crease the next score line to fold as a Mountain fold. Add adhesive to this front fold.

4. Cut a 4 1/4" x 4 1/4" piece of card stock for your card front.  Adhere your card front to the front of the card where you've placed the adhesive.

5.  You need to add a "stopper" to the bottom inside of the easel card that will support the front card piece so that it sits up in an upright position.  For my stopper on this card I used a double strip of card stock. 

For those of you who are visual and need to see how the scoring works on this card, check out Michelle Boyer's great tutorial.  Her picture tutorial takes the guess work out of it and really shows how easy it is to make an easel card. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Tree Rings and Colourful Season,
Ink: Momento Black, Crushed Curry, Lemon Lime Twist, Early Espresso, and Crumb Cake
Card Stock: Lemon Lime Twist, Basic Black and Whisper White Old Olive, Crushed Curry and Old Olive
DSP:  Color Theory DSP, Color Theory Memories and More Pack
Accessories: Big Shot, Trimmer, Tom Bow Glue, Dimensionals, Happy Birthday and Seasonal Layers Thinlet Dies, Glitter Enamel Dots.

 Details For Stepped Up Version:
1.  The card base is Lemon Lime Twist scored and folded as noted above.

2.  For the layers:

• Cut a 4 1/4' x 4 1/4" layer of Basic Black card stock and adhere to the front of the card base as noted above.
• Cut a 4 1/8 " x 4 1/8" piece of Lemon Lime twist for 2nd layer and adhered to first layer.
• Cut a 4" x 4" piece of Whisper White for stamping layer.  Stamp with Tree Rings background stamp with Tuxedo Momento Black ink. Colour this piece with sponge daubers and Crushed Curry, Lemon Lime Twist, Crumb Cake and Early Espresso inks. Adhere to Lemon Lime Twist layer.

3. Cut the "Happy Birthday" sentiment from Lemon Lime Twist and from Basic Black card stock using the "Happy Birthday" Thinlet Die.  Adhere these two die cuts together, offsetting them "just a touch" so you get a shadow effect.  Glue the sentiment to the card center.  

The Basic Black die cut placed just a touch out of step with the Lemon Lime Twist one creates a shadow and depth.  I put some Tom Bow Glue on my silicone mat, just a dollop, and then used a sponge on the back of the lettering to attach the two sets and then repeated this on the back of the back layer before attaching to the card.  The sponge makes it a lot easier to add glue to die cuts that have intricate patterns. 

4. Using the Seasonal Layers Thinlet Die cut out several small leaves in Crushed Curry, Early Espresso and Old Olive.  Sponge the outside edges of the leaves and then adhere them to the front of the card. I also attached some of the small sticker leaves from the Color Theory Memories Pack (top right corner).  Save three leaves for the inside of the card.

The smallest leaves are actually stickers from the Color Theory Memories and More Pack.  The large leaves were cut out with the Seasonal Layers Thinlets.

 5.  For the inside cut a 4 1/8 x 4 1/8" piece of Basic Black card stock and adhere to card base.  Cut a 4" x 4" piece of Whisper White and adhere to Basic Black layer.  Stamp with the sentiment "May all your tomorrows be as happy as today" from the Colourful Season stamp set, in Momento Tuxedo Black ink.  Attach a cluster of three small leaves below sentiment on right hand side. The top leaf is mounted with a Dimensional and the other two are glued flat.

6. Create a ledge for the card front to rest against by cutting a 4 1/8" by 3/4" piece of Basic Black Card Stock and adhering it 1/4" from the bottom of the card. Cut a 1/2" x 4"strip of Lemon Lime Twist and mount it to the black strip with Dimensionals. Add Glitter Enamel Dots along this strip.

And that's all there is to my Happy Birthday card. What do you think? Did you like it? Would you try to make one yourself? I'd sure like to know your thoughts on it as I plan to make more of them showcasing some different decorating techniques. Okay here's one last look:
 

I hope this post inspires you to join in our weekly challenges. You can click here to return to the Watercooler Wednesday Home Page and this challenge and check out the other Watercooler Design Team Artists birthday designs.

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot