Itty Bitty Accordion Card

When I have extra time in Fresno I enjoy going to Borders to browse the craft magazines to see what's new and get ideas. A few months ago I picked up the Stampers' Sampler Take Ten, Summer 2009 magazine and saw a feature about Itty Bitty Accordion cards and have wanted to make one ever since. My girlfriend Divina's 40th birthday is in November and so I decided to take on the challenge and make one for her. I'll definitely be making more of them!

I am pretty happy with the finished product pictured below and learned alot during the whole process.

Since the article didn't give any instructions, besides the various sizes of the panels of the cards shown, I had to figure out how to configure and attach the panels to make the accordion and how to close the accordion to make the card presentable.

I knew I wanted the word "birthday" inside so I needed 8 panels for the letters, 1 panel for the front and 1 panel at the back of the card to write a birthday sentiment. I needed a total of 10 panels and the size I chose for each panel is 2 3/4" (Now I know why they didn't include instructions, this is proving very difficult to explain!). I made a total of 3 segments, scored at 2 3/4" and bent the appropriate way to form the accordion.

Since it was my first time making this card I found it helpful to draw out my concept of the panels. I am a visual person and it helped me formulate what I wanted my card to look like. I then started decorating the 8 panels using the french script stamp, green embossing ink, clear powder and the embossing heat tool. Embossing is what gives the french words the shine you can see. I put a post it on the first and last panels to remind myself not to emboss them, I'll be decorating them later.

Each "birthday" letter was stamped in Rose Red, alternating Pretty in Pink and Rose Red solid cs. I then used the french swirl and postmarks stamps with green ink and stamped around the letter. I attached the solid cs to the patterned paper. I used the ticket corner punch on both the the solid and pattered paper before adhering them together.

The picture the below is a close-up of the end of the card with the last panel left blank for the birthday sentiment.

Here are the 3 segments after I decorated them (the picture quality isn't too great).

Next I decorated the front panel, first stamping the background with green ink and the french swirl and postmark stamps. The 4 and 0, exclamation point, crown and hearts are all Tim Holtz Grungeboard products "painted" with his Distress Crackle Paints. I added the silver heart charm to the crown attaching it with a silver jump ring. I closed the itty bitty accordion card using a clip and to make it more feminine I tied white and rose red ribbons on the clip.

Here is what it looks like laid out as the accordion card. Unfortunately I don't have a nice mantel or bookshelf to display it on but I worked with what I had using my craft table. It turned out pretty good for my first try!

Thanks for taking a look. It's great to be crafting and blogging again!

Addition to my family

I adopted a kitten on September 26th, her name is Luna and she was 4 months old. She is a domestic short hair and is white almost all over her body except for the splash of gray on top of her head. Her eyes are the most beautiful golden color, one of the things that attracted her to me when I first saw her at Pet Smart.

This is my first time owning a cat, we grew up with dogs because my dad is allergic to cats. After being around my friends cats the last few years I've grown to like them and see that they do have personalities of their own and can be affectionate like dogs, just in a different way.

One of her favorite games is for me to roll the ball into the paper bag and I say "get the ball". Instead of just going in the bag and getting the ball she walks around it and paws the sides and back of the bag before she jumps in to get the ball. It makes me laugh every time she does it!!



Since I moved out to the country to a cottage, this is the perfect environment for Luna to have birdie TV. All she has to do is look out the various windows and she sees many types of birds flying about. One of her favorite spots to look for birds in the morning is the bathroom window because she can get so close to them. In the afternoon the same window provides a great sunny place to take a nap, as seen in the picture below.

A great closeup of those gorgeous golden eyes.

Of course sleeping is a big part of her day too, she is a cat after all!

I can't believe I've only had Luna one month, it seems like I've had her for a few months at least. She is a sweetheart (most of the time!) and I am so glad that I adopted her.

I'm back...

I haven't quite been myself these past few months. I've been going through some personal stuff and wasn't doing things I enjoyed such as reading, blogging, crafting, etc. I've come through the experiences with a better understanding of myself and am ready, once again, to start participating and enjoying life.

Today I actually started to make a mini accordion card for a girlfriends 40th birthday. I saw a few examples of one in a magazine a few months ago and have wanted to make one ever since. It's my first time making this type of card so it took a while for me to get started. I'll share my experience and pictures when I'm finished with the project, probably sometime in the next few days.

It feels good to be back.