My First Easel Card

If you're at all familiar with the cardmaking world, you've probably heard of easel cards by now. If not, go to Splitcoaststampers and do a search for "easel". It seems everyone is doing them right now.

Well, I've not been one to just blindly follow everyone into the "latest and greatest". I looked at them and thought they seemed quite impractical. After all, how would the recipient know how to fold it right to get it to stand up?

Finally, after seeing dozens of beautiful easel cards, my curiousity was piqued. I broke down and looked at the tutorial on Splitcoastampers. I was surprised at how self-explanatory they will be for the recipient, and especially how very practical they are.

A lot of us cardmakers pour our time into making the perfect birthday card, but I've often wondered how many times it ends up filed away somewhere (hopefully not the trash can, but you can only save so many) when the recipient only got a few moments' enjoyment out of the design I labored over for hours just for them.

Well, this solves that dilemma. The recipient can display this little card on their countertop, or even their coffee table if they so choose. It can become a little display of its own. It's perfect for someone in the hospital, nursing home or even someone who is sick at home long-term and could use a little end table decoration to cheer them.

Do I have you convinced yet? :) Yes, I am in love with these cards!

So let me share my first-ever easel card with you ...



Supplies: stamps (Sarah Kay), Elegant Word Art by Bethany, Recollections ("Love"); ink (BIC Mark-Its, Versamark); paper (American Crafts, Paper Reflections); MS PATP Iron Gate Fence punch; Nestabilities Labels 8; ribbon (grosgrain and unknown fabric ribbon); clear embossing powder; dimensionals

I love this Sarah Kay image! It reminds me of my sister and I when we were kids. We were always best friends, even though we did fight on occasion. But fights were not the norm for us, and we are still the best of friends years later. We also happened to grow up in the Holly Hobbie generation, and these little girls remind me so much of her!

I chose the sentiment, "Family ties are bound with love" because the older sister is tying the younger sister's bonnet. Isn't it adorable?

I also finally discovered the best way to choose colors for an image -- pick the patterned paper first! Too many times I've colored an image and then couldn't find any paper to match it. But this time I grabbed the paper that I wanted to use with it and then found matching markers to color the image.

The image is cut out and popped up on dimensionals to give it a little "distance" from the ribbon that acts as the grass. (By the way, that ribbon is a perfect stand-in for a flower-strewn meadow. My friend got a bunch at a thrift store and shared a few yards with me. Thanks!)

Here is a side view so you can see the easel part:



It rests on the paper lace I've attached to the bottom card layer. I only added adhesive to the middle of this paper lace so that the card would have the points to "catch" on when you open it up.

I made my card a standard 4-1/4 x 5-1/2". At the end of the tutorial, there are instructions for adapting it to this measurement. Most of the other easel cards I've seen have been square, but I didn't want to pay extra postage since this one will most likely get mailed instead of hand-delivered.

I hope you enjoy this little card as much as I enjoyed making it!