Oriental Double Inside Aperture Card Tutorial

I finally found it! What? You know, the card that I made for my husband's birthday that I hid so well I lost it...

"Oriental Double Inside Aperture Card"

My husband loves birds, no not those, the feathered variety :-) I knew he'd love these panels from Graphic45's Birdsong collection and thought a double aperture card was the perfect way to showcase them.

"Fixing the patterned paper panels"

Starting off with two A4 pieces of thick card, score a double line down the centre of one of the panels (dividing it into 2 x A5 sides with a thin gutter between them). Crease both the lines to make a thin book cover, then fix the patterned paper in place with PVA and surround with double sided foam tape.

"Cutting the apertures"

If, like me, you only have one of the smaller diecutting machines, you may need to score and fold the other piece of card in half and cut both the apertures at the same time. If so, you will probably need to use a steel rule die to get a good cut (I use the Sizzix Bigz dies for this). After cutting, the card is decorated by stamping and heat-embossing in gold, then both pieces of card are lined up and joined together with the foam tape. The thin gutter helps the card to close properly, which would otherwise prove difficult because of the thickness of the foam tape.

"Adding diecut decoration"

Some flourishes are cut from antiqued gold card and fixed in place by gluing the tails beneath the aperture.

"Adding sentiment panels"

 These sentiment panels from Papermania's Oriental collection are just perfect.

"Front cover"

Another panel of the Graphic45 papers is added to the front cover, along with some Chinese characters stamped and heat-embossed in gold to wish my husband wealth, harmony, love and happiness.

Ingredients:

Graphic45 Birdsong 8" x 8" paper pad

Papermania Oriental Treasure stamp sets & sentiments

Artemio stamp set - Chinese Vases

Versamark ink pad

Stampendous embossing powder, Pirate Gold

Spellbinders Die D-Lites, Fantastic Flourish One

Sizzix Bigz M&S Vintage Cabinet die

Aquamarker, gold (for edging)

Cardstock: black 300gsm

Adhesives: PVA, Pinflair, Foam Tape

Entered for the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp and Show...April 1...A Very Strict Challenge