Card Cafe Thursday - swing card tutorial with Allison Cope!

Howdy all!  Welcome to another addition of Card Café Thursday!  I’m your hostess Allison Cope and today I’m going to show you how to make a quick and easy SWING CARD or otherwise known as a flip card.

All you need for this tutorial is:

• Sturdy cardstock
• Dies of a symmetrical shape (both sides of the shape are identical when you draw a line down the center)
• Pencil and ruler
• Scoring tool and bone folder
• Die cutting machine

Let’s get started!

Step 1:

Take a piece of 8 ½” x 5 ½” piece of cardstock and score and fold it at 4 ¼” to make a side folding A2 sized card (finished size - 5 ½” x 4 ¼”). 

Step 2:

Open up the card flat.  Turn the card so the inside of the card is facing up.  Part of the LEFT flap of that card is going to become the front of your swing card.

On the inside of that front left hand flap, using a pencil, place a pencil mark at 2 1/8” from the left hand edge of your card. Do this at the top and bottom of the card.

 

Step 3:

Take your ruler now and draw a line connecting those two lines from the very top to the very bottom of your card face.  My line is shown as a dotted line below.

 

Step 4:

Next you will need a piece of patterned paper for the front of your card.  This piece measures 5 ¼” x 2”.  If you wish to decorate the front of your card with stamping or place any stitching or multiple pieces of cardstock on the front, now is the time to do this…. before you adhere it!

Take the 5 ¼” x 2” piece of paper and adhere it, being generous with your adhesive on all the edges and even down the center of this piece.   Adhere it right against your pencil mark leaving a small 1/8” border around the top, bottom and left hand sides of the cardstock.  There should be no gap between your paper and the pencil line.

 

Step 5:

Place your card base onto your cutting machine surface.  A magnetic plate is so handy to have in this instance but you can hold things in place with washi tape, low tack painters tape or Post-It Notes.  Place your symmetrical shaped die centered on that pencil line you drew once again. 

The die below, works perfectly for this type of card because you can line up those central points right along that pencil line!  If you have a circle die, you may want to find the center line first and mark the die with a marker so you can easily line up those 2 marks to get an even cut.

  

Step 6:

Here’s the tricky part!  Take your upper cutting plate for your machine and place the EDGE of that cutting plate right up to that pencil line.  Yes,you will only have the front cardstock part of your card under the cutting plate.  Now carefully, holding that plate in place, pass it through your die cutting machine.

 

Some companies actually make dies that do all this cutting (and scoring) for you  but isn’t it nice that you can easily change up the shape of that swing card all on your own!

The image below shows exactly what your card front will look like after it is cut.  See how only that cardstock/patterned paper is cut and nothing past that pencil line is cut.

Step 7:

Take a bone folder or scoring tool and score ONLY from the very top of your card to where the cut line meets the pencil line.  Score the same from the bottom of your card up to where the bottom cut line meets that pencil line again.  Do not score anything inside that die cut shape!!

Carefully fold the card in half, like a tradition card and bend back the outer corners of that patterned paper piece.  This is what your card should now look like:

 

Now use a bone folder and burnish (press down on) all of the folds of your card so everything sits nice and flat.  This makes your folds crisp.

For my card example below, I chose to work with a piece of black cardstock for my card base (it’s hard to show folds on black cardstock for a tutorial so that’s why your instructions above use white cardstock!!) and a fun circle die as my swinging shaped element.  I also chose to create some interest on my card by using a diagonally grey striped paper as my matting and some cute heart paper for my card front paper.  I added all of my stitching before adhering my papers to my card base.

 

Supplies:  Stamps, Lawn Fawn (Critters in the Forest), Winnie & Walter (The Big, the Bold & the Extras);  Patterned Paper, Fancy Pants Designs (Beloved);  Cardstock,  Bazzill;  Inks, Ranger Distress, Memento, Copic Markers;  Ribbon, Stampin’ Up!, Offray;  Dies, My Favorite Things (Stitched Circles), Spellbinders;   Other,  thread.
       

Here’s a close up of my card front details.  I used the My Favorite Things “Stitched Circles” die for my swinging circle and a cute little racoon from Lawn Fawn’s “Critters in the Forest” stamp set for my focal image.  Isn’t she cute with that little pink bow on her bottom?!?

 

I hope you have enjoyed my Swing Card tutorial today.  Give this kind of card a whirl the next time you sit down to create… it’s super fun to make!  Make sure to try all kinds of different shaped dies for your swinging element.

Happy card making everyone!

~ Allison Cope ~

Comments

[Glenda]

Great instructions, once again thanks for the inspirational ideas.

[ChrisMG]

What a cool idea (even though I am not a card maker). I will have to try this out!

[Bevb]

Oh, too cute!!!! Your card is adorable and you make it look so easy, I must give it a try. Elegant and classy. Thank you.

[barbara macaskill]

Cool! Thanks for the great tutorial!!

[Deepa Lakshman]

Thanks for such a great tutorial.

[Ruthanne Leith Lea]

Love this type of card and the instructions are so clear. Thanks.

[Amber M.]

Awesome card! I always think they are so difficult to make, but now with Allison's tutorial, I think I can do it! Thank you :)

[Carla Hundley]

Wonderful! Thanks
for the instructions!
Carla from Utah

[Annette Allen]

that is awesome.. thanks for sharing.. that card is adorable..

[TracyM #6773]

COOL card and FABULOUS tutorial!!!
THANK YOU Allison - you have PERFECT timing, I'm just learning the ins & outs of my Big Shot and I REALLY want to try making a swing card :)

[Jackie Schachter]

Great instructions - thank you! Wanted to try this
type of card shape for ages.

[Kathy P]

Ooh, thank you so much for these great instructions. I have always loved seeing these cards and thought I had to buy those expensive dies for them....now I can give them a try!!!

[chark]

I just tried this without a tutorial and um...I think I'll try this one! :)

[Debbie C]

Wow! Great tutorial. I have that die and am going to try this. I have been interested in the flip cards but the dies are so expensive! Thanks so much for teaching me this new trick!!

[Ana]

This is the perfect idea that i need for my next craft project! I have some new patterns that i'm dying to try for this!

Thanks

[ionabunny]

Thanks for sharing this very easy technique for making a swing card. Hugz

[Lisa K]

Thanks for this wonderful tutorial. I have tried this before and didn't like it. I will have to try again with your tutorial.

[Lillie Keeton]

Thanks so much, I am trying to get into card making and this is one that I will try.

[Jennifer Scull]

oh my goodness, this is the best tutorial I have seen for this technique! thank you for the instructions! :)