Tutorial - Squash Book Card

If you're looking for a cute little card that will fold out to give you plenty of room for messages, then today's tutorial might just be the answer. Squash Book Cards fold out to reveal lots of space for photos, embellishments, stamps, sentiments... whatever you wish to add! Perfect for those special occasions when you need a group card to hold lots of signatures, or as a little memento filled with photos of a memorable event.

1. You'll need three square pieces of heavy double-sided patterned paper or card stock. My pieces are 6" square, which will give me a finished, folded card that measures 3" x 3". I've also printed some images and sentiments and trimmed them down to 23/4" x 23/4" to embellish my finished card.

2. Place one of the pieces of patterned paper on your score board and score at 3". Rotate it 90 degrees and score again at 3" so you have score lines forming a cross in the middle of your patterned paper.

3. Score the paper diagonally from corner to corner. You only need to do this once.

4. Now fold and burnish along each score line.

5. Fold your patterned paper by pushing the diagonal folds inward and squeezing the two square sections together as shown in the photo below.

6. Repeat steps 2 - 5 for the other two pieces of patterned paper.

7. The next step is to adhere the squares together so that the diagonal score lines are vertical and the two end pieces are on top of the centre piece as shown below.

8. Use glue or strong double sided tape to adhere the pieces together, taking care not to cover the score lines so that your card folds freely.

9. Time to decorate! I used an image and some of the sentiments from the Button Collector digital stamp set. I also added some hand drawn borders around the other sections of the card.

10. As this is a bulky card, I decided to add a piece of twine to hold it closed. You could also add ribbon or a belly band if you prefer.

11. Secure the twine ONLY on the front of the folded card with glue or very strong tape. I used a combination of both so that the tape would hold the twine in place while the glue dried.

12. Add some foam tape on either side of the twine to hold a sentiment or image panel. You can add some additional glue on the back of the sentiment to ensure the twine is ultra secure.

Stamps: