Six Panel Pop & Twist Card Tutorial

Another version of my Six Panel Pop & Twist Card for you... and the Tutorial... so warning... this is a very picture heavy post!

This is a re-make of the wedding card shared here earlier ... but dressed up for Mothers' Day wishes this time...

I have used the Falling in Love papers, Large Letters dies, Stitched Shapes dies , Window Shopping stamps and So Detailed dies again. And introduced the new Happy Celebrations and Dragonfly Dreams stamp sets and also used the Layered Letters alphabet stamps to complete the overall sentiment.... and the long retired Family Reunion stamps for the Mum on the front...

Six Panel Pop & Twist Card Tutorial

Recipe

Cardstock

Card Blank: Thick Whisper White 11” x 5½”

Panels: Thick Whisper White 10½” x 3”

Mechanism: Thin Whisper White 8½” x 3”

Front Card Mat: Sahara Sand 5¼” Square

Decoration

Panels: 1½”W x 2¾”H (x6)

Inside: 5¼”W x 3¾”H (x2)

Front: 5”W x 4”H

Ribbon x 18”

Step by Step Card Fold Tutorial

       Outer Card Blank

1.       Score largest panel LANDSCAPE at 5½” (Card Blank) 

2.       Place PORTRAIT at 2¾” on Top Bar of Trimmer and pencil-mark using the cutting groove ruler at 10, 14 (ie on score line!), 18 & 25 cm (alternatively 3⅞”, 5½”score-line, 7⅛”, 10”) See Bonus Tip 1 below

3.       Bone fold (with marks on inside!) & set aside

Concertina Panels

4.       Score longer 10½” Thick White panel LANDSCAPE at 1¾”, 3½”, 5¼”, 7” and 8¾”

5.       Concertina Fold Mountain, Valley, Mountain, Valley, Mountain.

Mechanism

6.       Score shorter 8 ½” Thin Whisper White panel PORTRAIT at 1 ½”

7.       Turn 90 degrees & score LANDSCAPE at ¾”, 2 ¾”, 5 ¾” & 7 ¾”  See Bonus Tip 2 below

8.       Score diagonally from 2^nd Top (2 ¾”) score to 3^rd Bottom (5 ¾”) score

9.       Repeat for 2^nd Bottom (2 ¾”) score to 3^rd Top (5 ¾”) score

10.   Bone Fold central long score as a mountain fold

11.   Bone Fold the two diagonal score lines as valley folds

12.   Open out (ensuring central horizontal score-line is a mountain fold and the 2 diagonals are valleys) and push the sides/mountains in towards each other until they meet at the centre (ie they form a house shape with a triangular roof on top!)

13.   Place down flat and Bone Fold

14.   Apply glue to top and bottom triangle sections See Bonus Tip 3 below

15.   Open out and mark top right section (see R) and bottom left section (see L)

16.   With the R to the top right hand side! Cut along central line from outside edge to 2^nd score-line… then cut up from bottom right diagonal score line to cut off the bottom right sections

17.   With the L to the bottom left hand side… Cut along central line from outside edge to 2nd score-line… then cut up down from top left diagonal score line to cut off the top left sections

18.    Apply glue to the 2 sections/tabs marked R and L

Making up the Card

19.   Open out the Card Blank PORTRAIT with one mark to top and 2 marks to bottom

20.   Do a dry run…. Place the closed mechanism PORTRAIT with the top triangle tip onto the central pencil-mark/score-line and the centre of the legs lined up with the bottom pencil-mark to ensure everything is straight… See Bonus Tip 4 below. The R should show at the bottom right hand side…

21.   Remove protective strip on the underside and stick in that position

22.   Remove protective strip on the top face and close the card blank down onto the mechanism

23.   Open out the mechanism. 

And open out the 6 panel concertina piece ensuring that the mountain folds are in the centre and 2 sides…

24.   Lay down flat on top of the mechanism with the centre score-line lined up between the top pencil-mark and the 1^st pencil-mark on the bottom of the card blank (note that the mechanism and concertina panels are the same height so they do line up flush…)

25.   Fold over the right hand (6^th) concertina panel (to the left), remove the protective glue strip and stick the 6^th panel down onto that top right tab

26.   Fold over the left hand (1^st) panel (to the right), remove the protective glue strip and stick the 1st panel down onto that bottom left tab

27.   Ensure that the end panels/tabs are a mountain fold… ie give them a good “squidge”!

28.   Rub out your pencil-marks…

29.   Close up your card with the end panels facing out and down towards the bottom of the card blank … it does tend to need a helping hand for the first closure… See Bonus Tip 5 below

Bonus Tips

1.      Positioning Marks
These marks down the centre of the card are for positioning panels later and ensuring that they are lined up and straight.

This version of the card allows for decoration after the “blank card” is complete… which also enables decorating the main parts of the card from just one strip of 6” x 12” of paper….

But if you wish to cover all of the inside of the card blank– make sure you stick your papers in first and then make your pencil marks…

2.     Score or mark  - up to you!
Seeing as I need to score the ¾” and 7 ¾” lines – I find it easier to just score the other 2 lines I need… but these do not need to be score-lines… So you can mark the 2 ¾” and 5 ¾” at the top and bottom of the panel if you prefer. Some ladies ended up marking the score-lines as they couldn’t see them to then score those diagonal lines… So personal preference!

3.      Apply glue right to the edges of the triangular mechanism parts…
Some of my ladies commented that their mechanisms had started to pull away at the sides of the triangular parts with previous versions of Pop & Twist cards they had made. I hadn’t suffered this problem… We thought this may be due to my usage of thin card for the mechanism and thick card for the card blank ( whereas they had used thin or thick for both) but it could also be due to the applying of glue on the triangular part of the mechanism – as it is likely to come away if you haven’t got glue right to the edge…

4.      Place the centre/top point of the triangle onto the score-line/mark
The main problem suffered when making this card was the mechanism not then opening out and laying total flat! This is due to placement of that central top tip of the triangle section. Most people have placed it just slightly too low (ie under the score-line) so there is a little gap and the mechanism then lies slightly proud & buckles. However it all still works – it is just that the card doesn’t fold as flat as we would like!

However you also do not want to stick it too high (ie over the score line) as the card blank will then not close flat! Easy to make sure you have hit the “sweet spot” when doing a dry run as you can ensure that the card blank folds over flat before you stick everything down in position…

5.      Close the finished card with a helping hand and with the end panels protruding down…
Put your fingers into the mechanism from both sides (imagine those pens as your fingers!!) whilst pushing your concertina panels flat together with the end panels folded out/down towards the bottom of your card blank . Hope the pictures make those words make sense!!

If the end panels are folded in the concertina mode instead - they tend to catch as you open and close the card. Though the panels open up more pronounced as mountain folds as you open it...

6.      Use Standard (Thin) Whisper White for the mechanism part of the card
It just seems to work better overall. So far!

I started off with the card blank in Thick Whisper White and the concertina panels and mechanism both in thin Whisper White as I wanted the card to close as flat as possible and I had noticed other people having to use belly bands to keep the card closed…

Then I tried Thick Whisper White for both the concertina panels and the outer card blank. Not only are the panels stronger but the card opens and shuts more easily after the first closure

Ladies that used all Thick or Standard (Thin) reported the mechanism peeling away at the corners after a few open & closes… though my glue tip above may indeed solve that problem for them…