Birthday Parade Double Z Fold Card

I’m currently at Close To My Heart’s Annual Convention–we’re celebrating 35 years in the business this year!!  I thought this card I received from my talented sister-in-law, Barb Baldwin, was the perfect card to share for this celebration.

It’s a super fun Double Z Fold Card!

As soon as I saw this Birthday Parade Stamp Set in the Close To My Hearts Seasonal Expressions 2 Catalog, I immediately thought of her and told her this set was for her!

Since she happens to be here at the CTMH Convention with me (yay!) I’ve asked her to be my guest blogger today to share a little about this fabulous card she created…

This card is really fun to give, and the secret is that it’s fun to put together as well!  I live in New Orleans, LA and this card feels like a Mardi Gras parade. And who doesn’t love a parade – especially if it is celebrating a birthday!

For the card base, cut White Daisy cardstock 4.25″ tall by 9.25″ wide.  Then cut the green lawn piece 2.25″ tall by 9.25″ wide – I used the green plaid from CTMH’s Into the Wild patterned paper.  The stitched border of the lawn is one of the CTMH Decorative Borders Thin Cuts dies, so run the green piece through your embossing/cutting machine. I cut two pieces of CTMH’s Into the Wild patterned paper (the grey trees) 1.5″ wide by 2.25″ tall, and adhered them to the smaller folded parts.  Then I cut one of the star blue paper from the Into the Wild paper 5.25″ wide by 2.25″ tall and adhere to the card base.

I like to line the two pieces up together and then flip the green lawn piece so it’s reversed and now score them at the same time, so that everything folds together easily. Score at 5.25″ and at 7″.

Now flip the green lawn piece around, and using your bone folder, make sure the card folds the way it needs to.

Next I cut the elephant out of Linen cardstock and stamped the image.  Cut an extra piece of Linen cardstock 1″ tall by 1.75″ and fold up one corner, making a triangle so that the sides meet just below the top.  Glue to the bottom of the elephant, so that the triangle folds behind the elephant.

Then glue both of the outer edges of the green lawn piece to the blue base card. Fold in the double Zs so that the card lays flat and use your bone folder to enforce the folds.  When it’s finished drying, put glue on the back of the triangle, and line it up so that the tail edge of the elephant is lined up by the top of the lawn.  The elephant should pop up when the z-fold card is opened.

The fun part is next – cut out the little penguins and banner out of White Daisy cardstock. To make the mice a little more fun I used Ballerina Pink paper, and the gator is cut out of Clover green.  I used scraps of Candy Apple Red to make the party hats and balloons to decorate the party animals.

I hope you enjoy making and giving this fun card! Thanks – Barbara