My very first Tri-Shutter Card & Quilling attempt!

Hello everyone! Today I was inspired to make a tri-shutter card as well as try my hand at quilling. I had seen a ton of people on YouTube showing their tri-shutter cards all beautifully decorated, but I had not seen any made from scratch. I thought for sure I would need all kinds of fancy tools and have to do a billion steps that would take forever just to make this card. Well I was so wrong! This card is not hard to make at all and there are no special tools needed. I made my card from scrap papers and items I found around my house. The only tools you need are a ruler and a blade/xacto knife. For the quilling, again no special tools, you can just use your fingers or find a thin round stick. (If you happen to have a paper cutter/trimmer on hand or a quilling needle, it just makes these projects even easier!) I am so happy with how this turned out for this being my first tri-shutter card and my first time quilling, I can't wait to see what all I can create the more I make these. Once I get this blog more established I will be doing a video tutorial on this card as well as other video tutorials, so stay tuned. Now, let me show you my tri-shutter card and first quilling attempt :)

Full view of card open

Card closed - Front View

 

Top view of card open

This is how I made this card: I used a piece of 12" x 12" card stock and then using my ruler and razor I cut it down to 6" x 12". I then folded the card stock at 2", 4", 8", and 10" (If you happen to have a scorer then instead of folding, you would score). Now turn your paper so that the 12" length is horizontal (refer to my picture and you will see the long length is horizontal). At the first fold/score line measure 1" from the top downward and place a light pencil mark. Do the same at the last fold/score line. Use your ruler and line it up with both of your pencil marks, take your blade/xacto knife (remember blades are very sharp so use caution) and cut along the ruler's edge from the first fold/score line to the last fold/score line. You should now have a long slit in the paper. Next you will rotate the paper so that the uncut 12" length side is now at the top and the cut side is at the bottom. You will be repeating the same steps: at the first fold/score line measure 1" from the top downward - mark it- do the same at the last fold/score line - line up the ruler - cut from fold/score line to the other fold/score line. (after you have cut your slits they should measure about 10" in length) This next step is a bit tricky but you can refer to my picture to help you. At the folds/score lines, you are going to fold the card stock in an fan/accordion style fold, basically rotating your folds. Then grab the middle section of the card stock and fold it in the opposite direction of the other folds using the fan/accordion style fold. Your card can now be decorated any way you would like. I took scrap paper to decorate mine. For the side and top panels I simply measured the area where I wanted to decorate and then cut my scrap paper about a 1/4" to 1/2" smaller all the way around and glued it down to the card stock. I chose to use a Spellbinders die to cut my round piece for the front, stamped it with the sentiment "Thinking of You", I used a glitter pen to place hash lines around the circle and lettering so it looked stitched, added some rhinestones, some of my quilling shapes, and used foam squares to attach and raise it up. I also added some swirl lines with my glitter pen and some other quilling shapes to other areas of the card. I wanted to have place to write a personal note so for that section I used plain paper and took my finger, dipped it in different colors of my stamping ink to give it some design yet still allow my personal note to be read. By the way for my quilling shapes, I simply cut scratch paper to the width and length I wanted. I then took a very tiny knitting need and wrapped the paper around until I wanted to stop or when my paper ended. I slid it off of the knitting needle and pinched the paper into my desired shapes. I used a clear liquid clue to hold them onto my card. My daughter wanted to trying quilling and she simply used just her fingers to roll the paper. You can even mix up the size of the card by using the same method you just simply change the dimensions. I hope you experiment and try making this card as well as quilling. Use your creativity and have fun!