Creative Stamping Issue 104

 Hi there!

In this months issue of Creative Stamping magazine, we get a Japanese themed stamp set and embossing folder. This set is called Japanese Dream and comes to use from Paper Discovery. I have created a YouTube video where I use both the stamp set and embossing folder to create a Joy Fold card, click HERE to watch the video!

This is the first time I have created a Joy Fold card and I absolutely love it! There is something different about this card, there is lots of areas on the card to add decoration and would definitely stand out amongst other card.  

First of all lets talk about the dimensions for this card, there are two ways you can create the basic card base (in the size I have created). 

The finished folded card size is 6"x6", so you can either use a premade 6"x6" card base and cut the front at 3.25" (to make things a little easier you could cut this to 3" instead) OR you can cut an A4 sheet of card to 9.25"x6" and score at 3.25". 

For the second smaller card, again you could cut down another premade card, but it might be easier to cut a piece of card to 10"x3.25" and then score at 5". If you want to decorate the inside as I have, then you will need to create you background first, before you add this smaller card to the inside. 

Lets look now at creating the mats and layers for this card, all of my layers a cut to 0.25" smaller then the previous, so below are the dimensions for what I have created.

Inside Back
Gold mirror card - 5.75" x 5.75"

Yellow card - 5.5" x 5.5"

Koi background - 5.25" x 5.25"

Inside Left Panel

Gold mirror card - 3" x 5.75"

Front Left Panel

Gold mirror card - 3" x 5.75"

Blue embossed panel - 2.75" x 5.5"

Smaller Inside Back

Blue Happy Birthday panel - 4.75" x 3"

Smaller Inside Right Panel

Gold mirror card - 4.75" x 3"

Smaller Front Panel

Gold mirror card - 5" x 3.25"

Red Panel - 4.75" x 3"

Front decorated panel - 4.5" x 2.75"

I wanted to use as many of the images as possible on this card, so the Koi fish made a create background for the inside of this card and in the orange added a nice pop of colour. I did also add some lily pads to the middle, but the smaller card ended up covering most of it. I could have added more images to the inside panels, but I decided to leave them blank with the gold mirror card. 

I used the embossing folder for the front panel with some blue card stock, but I wanted to really show off that design, so I inked the inside of the embossing folder with some white ink and then tapped the pad on the card afterwards. The raised sections of the design caught the white ink perfectly. 

Lastly for the front panel, I wanted create a bit of a collage of the images, so I did a little stamping and masking. This is a great way to have more images, but without all the bulk, just remember to stamp the image you want at the front first and then create a mask for it. When you stamp the next image it will appear behind the first and to finish I did some really simple colouring on these images using my Copic Sketch markers. 

I decided not to add a sentiment to the front of the card, but instead to the inside panel. If you want to add more images to the inside of this card, then you can write your message on the back.