Tuesday Technique - Screen Card Tutorial

I love to use the matching large and small Sizzix Movers and Shapers dies to make screen cards and I thought you might like to see some step by step photographs of the process. The dies I use the most often are the Ornamental and Vintage Cabinet dies, but you could use any matching pair of dies of different sizes. Steel rule dies are best for screen cards because you want to be using really good, strong card and that can be more difficult to cut with thinner dies. However, if you only have thinner dies, you could use thinner card and stick it together after cutting to make a thicker layer.

1. Start with 3 sheets of A4 strong card (at least 300gsm) and cut each in half (at 14.8cm along the longest edge) to make 6 x A5 pieces.

2. Set the smaller Movers and Shapers die inside the larger one to cut a frame.

3. By carefully lining up the card near the cutting edge on the die, you can get two cuts from each piece.
N.B. I use a Sizzix Big Shot for diecutting. If you have a Cuttlebug, you will need to cut each of the A5 pieces of card into A6 and make one diecut from each piece of card because the Cuttlebug does not have as wide a cutting area as the Big Shot.

4. Cut 8 frames in total.

5. Remove the smaller die and replace with a magnetic release block.

6. Cut four of the larger shapes out whole to make four panels.

7. Now each panel has two matching frames, one for each side.

8. Decorate the frames and both sides of each panel before sticking the frames to the panels.

8. Stick the frames to the panels, one on each side of each panel.

9. Make two holes in one side of two panels, add eyelets if required. These will be the panels at the left hand side and the right hand side once they are all joined together.
N.B. It's important that the holes match up for joining the panels together, so make them the same distance from the top and bottom edges for all the panels.

10. Make two holes in both sides of the remaining two panels, add eyelets if required. These will be the two middle panels once they are all joined together.

11. Join the panels together using the holes and book rings or lengths of string or ribbon

12. Decorate with extra embellishments as required.

13. I always like to add some extra dimension to the front cover. Here I've used some Wild Orchid flowers which were part of a brilliant birthday pressie from my bessie mate Lee. Another part of my pressie was the most amazing mini and it's well worth a look at Lee's blog to check it out.

Please pop back later in the week when I'll be sharing another screen card. You can also see some more examples of my screen cards in the following posts:
What Are You Known For?
Christmas Screen Card
Tropical Travelogue Screen Card (see Project Six)
Birthday Screen

Ingredients:

Sizzix M&S Vintage Cabinet & mini vintage cabinet

Hunkydory vintage patterned papers & toppers

Cuttlebug embossing folder - Script

Spellbinders - Rose Creations, Carnation Creations

Cheery Lynn mini Fanciful Flourish die

lace

pink brads

leaf gem stalk

gilding wax, enchanted gold

cardstock: brown 300gsm

gold string

Wild Orchid Crafts flowers

adhesives: PVA, Pinflair

Entered for the following challenge:
Hobby House Challenge - Anything Goes
CountryViewCrafts - Diecuts