Hi Everyone!  I wanted to share with you my convention swap.  I participated in a 3×3 swap with my SUDSOL group – a group for only SU demonstrators who share everything with each other!  I wanted something a little different than the usual 3×3 card and thought how cute would it be to do a little 3×3 side step card, so I reworked measurements and this is what I came up with:

Here is a side view:

How stinkin’ cute is THIS??  It turned out adorable, I must say!  The smallest side step card that I have EVER seen!  The tutorial on how I created this 3×3 card is below for anyone who would like to make their own little 3×3 side step card (AND, did you know that Stampin’ Up offers envelopes for this size – on Page 160, #107309 – only $7.50 for 40 envelopes!).

Tutorial:

• Cut a 6 x 3 inch piece of card stock.  Place vertically in your trimmer at 1 inch and cut a slit from 7/8 of an inch (2 marks before the 1″ line) to 4-3/4.
• Using your scoring blade (I like to use our bone folder in the groove of our trimmer), make score lines from the top to the slit at 1-1/4″, 2-1/2″, 3-7/8 (2 marks before the 3-1/2″ line), 4-1/4″, and 5″.  Then go back and made a score line at the 3″ mark ONLY in the 1″ space, which will be your fold line for the middle of your card.  See the diagram below.
• Accordian fold the card, folding at the 3″ fold for the center of your card and then attach your pieces.  If you would like instructions on how to make the canopy top, I have a diagram below.

To create the canopy top, cut your cardstock 4-1/4″ x 2″.  Score at 2-3/4″.   Then punch out 3 pieces of coordinating card stock using the word Window punch.  Next, using the scallop edge border punch, punch out the shorter end from the scored line and this is how I did it.  I inserted the paper in just far enough over to have a curved end like this and punched it out.

Then flip the piece over and finish punching the other side like this:

Now, attach your strips you punched out from the Word Window punch and adhere, fold at the score line and snip off the excess.  Then insert it into your trimmer to score the next two lines at 3″ (not 3-1/8) and 3-1/2″:

It will look like this:

Once you do that, turn it over and adhere a piece of 1/4″ red lined sticky strip (Pg. 177) between the first and second score lines, remove the red liner and fold over the canopy section to adhere.  Then fold up on the second score line and fold down the 3rd score line to create your canopy look.  Stamp your image that you want on this piece and adhere it to the back section of your step card.  Then stamp your sentiment and place that on the 2nd fold of your step card and then stamp your front image.  Attach a piece of designer paper for the front side and you are done!  I hope you find this little tutorial helpful, and I would love to see what YOU come up with!

Stampin’ Hugs!

~ Gail