Valentine Pop Up Card Tutorial

Hi Everyone, Tiffany here! I am so excited to have joined the talented Joli Paquet group and bring you some fun kits and tutorials for Valentine's Day! We have some great things in store for you, I hope you enjoy making them as much as I have.

I have always loved vintage Valentine's Cards, especially those that are pop ups. My love for them inspired me to create this easy tutorial to create your own one of a kind pop up card for Valentine's day. Scroll to bottom of page for a full view of completed project!

Ok, let's start. Here's a list of supplies you will need:

~ one piece of cardstock ( anything larger than 4x6 inches will do, even a scrap. you will want it in a neutral or valentine's day color.)

~heavy duty glue (like heavy glue stick, or something else quick drying)

~paper trimmer/ruler

~piece of chipboard ( medium weight, at least 1x7 inches. I get mine free at paper stores it comes in their paper packs and usually they are happy to recycle)

~ Valentine Girl Download (provided) and photo paper or other heavy weight paper to print on

~various valentine's embellishments.

Step One:

Cut the piece of cardstock down to 3 1/2 inches wide by 6 inches long. Measure from the bottom of the long side up two inches and make a score line across the cardstock. Fold the bottom up and press firmly.

Step Two :

Unfold card and cover the whole piece on the front with pretty paper using a good glue or glue strips. I chose to use ledger paper.

Now fold the bottom of the card up again and make a crisp crease. Add pretty paper to the front of the fold.

Add embellishments to the front of the flap. Remember that this will be the base for your card to stand on, so keep your embellishments flat, to ensure your card will stand properly when opened.

Step 3:

Cut a strip of medium weight chipboard to 1 inch wide by 7 inches long.

Make score lines down the long side at 2 1/2 inches, 3 1/2 inches, and 6 inches. Fold chipboard at score lines and crease firmly. Chipboard should now make a rectangular box shape.

Step 4:

Unfold chipboard strip and glue SHORT end (only glue to the FIRST score line on the chipboard) to the unfolded card, making sure to center the strip at the card's fold line.

Fold bottom of card up to 45 degrees to form an "L". Fold chipboard strip into box shape again and attach strip to back of card so the chipboard box is glued to the card in the "L". Fold card up to close and crease and press firmly to make sure everything lies fairly flat.

Step 5 :

Click here to Download Valentine Girl image .

To print, click on link to picture. Once there, right click on the image and choose "print". Print image on photo paper or other heavy weight printer paper. Cut out scraps DO NOT CUT OUT CENTER OF HEART!!! ( I did not "fussy cut" the heart either, I simply cut a heart shape around it, and did not worry about the fine details.) Adhere girl to the heart, and then glue both to the front of the chipboard strip.

Close card back up and crease and press firmly to make sure everything lies flat. Now comes the fun part! Continue embellishing until your heart is content! This technique of adding the chipboard to make a pop up can be repeated in the same card with different pop ups, and the entire idea can easily be adapted for other holidays and occasions too. Here is the finished project :

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I hope you enjoyed today's tutorial! Come back for more great holiday ideas, and some fabulous kits for you to celebrate Valentine's Day with!

xoxoxo, Tiffany

Sweet Family Fun!

I wanted to quickly share this memorable moment with you. We had one of the best Valentine's Days 2 years ago. The kids and I planned a surprise Valentine's dinner for my  hubby. He works so hard and we wanted to show him how much we loved and appreciated him with a fun family dinner. I let the kids do a lot of the work. My son loves to cook and my daughter loves to decorate so they were off and running with a little help from me. We used things we already had around the house for the table. We played a "luv ya" bingo game with m&m's as markers. We went around the table and shared what was special about each person. It was a great night! My hubby loved it and the kids were so proud of themselves for doing a lot of the work. So make Valentine's Day a family affair by getting everyone involved!

There's only a few hours left to put your name in the hat for the "sweet give away"! I will be cutting comments off at 10pm CST. So if you haven't entered just leave a comment on the post below!

And tomorrow is our first tutorial by Tiffany! It is so cute, so be sure and come back tomorrow to see the tutorial and to find out who won the give away!

Hugs to you all!

Cindy

A LOVELY Give Away!

We are ready to get started and here's the first thing on the schedule! It's a Valentine themed give away! I have put together some fun things to get you started creating for Valentine's!

Some of the items include rubber stamps, a mini scrapbook, seam binding, tags, note pad, cards, vintage wallpaper, berry beads, and more! By the time I get the goodies packed up I'm sure I will add more to it!

So just leave a comment by this Thursday, Jan 15th, 10pm CST. I'll draw a name and post a winner by the weekend. Please only leave one comment so I don't count you twice.

EDITED: COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED!

Now for some more important dates! We are going to get started with some fabulous tutorials starting this Friday, Jan. 16th! I am so excited about this round and I hope you are too! So be sure and check back in this Friday, it's going to be fun! Be sure and spread the word on your blogs too and tell all your friends! Don't forget to add the new button in the left hand column to your blogs too.

We are so excited about our artist group this go around and we would like to welcome Tiffany and Ellen. We are so thrilled to have their talents join us! Please be sure and stop by and visit the current contributing artists sites. You will find them in the left hand side. Just click on their names to visit their sites.

Hugs,
Cindy

Crafting in the Kitchen ~ Part 2

Now here's a quick and easy project you can whip up in no time at all. This time of the year always makes me think of baking Christmas cookies with my mom and grandma. Well, once you are finished rolling out the cookie dough, you can make this cute little garland to use as a decoration for your kitchen or on your Christmas tree.

~ Supplies ~

* Cookie Cutters - These can be vintage cookie cutters or new ones. I bought this set of six vintage-looking cookie cutters at Homegoods for $7.99. I like to use an odd number of cookie cutters (I used 5 of them for my garland), but you can use as many as you like.

* 48"-54" of ribbon - I used 7/8" wide red gingham.

* Red & green buttons - larger buttons work best for this project. I used 3/4 " diameter buttons.

* Glue gun and glue sticks.

Fold ribbon in half and mark the center with a straight pin.
Figure out which cookie cutter you are going to use for the center of the garland. Thread the ribbon through one of the holes in the cookie cutter, starting from the front and going to the back of the cookie cutter. Then thread the ribbon up through the other hole, from back to front of cookie cutter. Center the cookie cutter on the ribbon by using the straight pin marker as a guide.
At this point, your garland should look like this.
Continue to string the cookie cutters on to the ribbon, spacing the cutters evenly along the ribbon.
Apply a dab of hot glue to the back of one of the buttons.

Center and glue the buttons to the ribbon midway between the cookie cutters. If you prefer, you can sew the buttons to the ribbon using needle and thread.

Tie a knot near the end of each ribbon.

Hang your garland on the Christmas tree, or the fireplace mantle, or from a small kitchen tree or wherever you want to add some holiday cheer! Don't forget to post a picture of your garland (and other projects) on the Joli Paquet Flickr site, so we can see all of your wonderful creations.

Don't forget to leave a comment on the post below to sign up for the GIVEAWAY.

Be sure to periodically check back here and on the artist's blogs listed on the left ~ you just never know when another Joli Paquet event may be happening again here in blogland!

xoxo

jeanne