Tutorial - Concertina Cards

Concertina cards are fabulous display cards that have a concertinaed or fan-folded centre.  They are constructed out of a few pieces of heavy paper folded inside a standard card blank and can be decorated for just about any occasion.

TEMPLATE

1.  Start with one sheet of heavy patterned paper measuring 12" x 6" and a coordinating piece measuring 8" x 4".

2.  Place the 12" x 6" sheet of paper horizontally on your scoreboard and score at 2", 4", 6", 8" and 10".  Concertina fold the paper, beginning with a valley fold, then a mountain fold, valley fold, mountain and finishing with a valley.

3.  Use a craft knife and ruler or a trimmer, to remove an 8" x 3" panel from the centre of the concertinaed paper.

Make the first horizontal cut between the first valley fold and the last valley fold, 11/2" from the top of the paper.

Make the second horizontal cut between the first valley fold and the last valley fold, 11/2" from the bottom of the paper.  Join the two horizontal cuts with two vertical cuts to remove the centre section.

Refer to the template above for cutting measurements and placement.

4.  Now you're going to cut little slots in each of the centre 2" panels (refer to the template).

Starting with the bottom cuts, measure and mark 3" from the LHS of the page.  Your mark should be in the centre of the second 2" panel (see the photo below).  Use your craft knife to cut a 1/2" vertical slot (refer to the template).

Repeat this process to cut slots in each of the other bottom panels.  You should have cuts at 3", 5", 7" and 9".

Now turn your paper around 180 degrees and repeat the process.  You should now have a total of 8 slots cut in the top and bottom panels.

5.  Place the 8" x 4" piece of heavy paper horizontally on your score board and score at 2", 4" and 6".  Concertina fold the paper starting with a valley fold, then a mountain fold and ending with a valley fold.

6.  The smaller piece of paper will now slot into the cuts you made in the larger piece of paper.  It might take a bit of fiddling to get this right.

8.  To decorate the card, I used an assortment of stamps, pieces of kraft card stock and some ink.  You don't want to place anything too bulky on the inside of your card or it won't fold up properly.

9.  Many card artists leave this card as is, but I like to use it as an insert inside a 5" x 6" card blank.

10.  Decorate the front of your card blank as desired... I used a digital stamp, some ribbon and some of the paper off cuts from the insert.

11.  Place some double sided tape on the reverse side of the outer two panels of your insert.

12.  Line up the left hand edge of the insert with the left hand edge of the card blank, making sure the top and bottom also line up.  Press firmly to secure.  Repeat for the right hand side and you card is done!

Stamps: