Expanding Accordion Card

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As I mentioned earlier in the year, I have several ‘big’ birthdays this year, one of which was my father-in-law’s 70th.  If you ask most card makers, the consensus will be that cards for blokes are difficult – I am no different!  My F-I-L is a very practical man and builds models (designed by him and printed on his 3D printer) so I figured he’d appreciate an interactive card.  I saw this video by Sam Calcott on YouTube and thought it’d be perfect for him. You can find the dimensions on Sam's website here.

My card was to be a 5” x 7” so I trimmed 2 pieces of A4 card to 7” deep and scored them at 5” and then at ¾” intervals, trimming the last section off one panel.  These were then glued together using the small section as the glue tab. The number of folds can be adjusted depending on the number of spaces required for the sentiment, for example ‘CHRISTMAS’ would need an insert to give 9 mountain folds.

Next, I cut my mats and layers for the flip panels and large panels for the front and back of the card.  I used some dies to cut out the letters and numbers and my Cricut to cut the decoration for the front panel and inside from vinyl.

Now for the assembly! My top tip is the top row letters need to be on the right-hand side of the flip panel and the bottom row on the left.  Ask me how I know this!!!  After assembling each of the panels, the top row is glued onto the left side of the mountain fold and the bottom row onto the right side.

I transferred my vinyl onto the panels and adhered them to the card.  This card is quite thick so needs a belly band or ribbon to keep it closed.  I’d just had some flowers delivered so I reused the ribbon that came with them. It was secured by glueing it onto the back of the card (under the panel to write on), leaving long enough tails to tie a knot and bow.  I also added a fun little tag.

The outside...

 

...and the inside!
 

Here’s the card in action!  Apologies: Mr L struggles a bit with the double knot.


 

 



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