Tuesday Tips - Belly Band

Sometimes it is fun to create a card with an unconventional shape or fold.  Today's card is folded as a gate-fold card and is cut to have the two flaps overlap, with a "belly band" that slides over the card to hold it closed.

In most cases, all you need to create a belly band for a card is roughly an inch-wide strip of cs.  Just wrap the thin strip around the card, bending at the sides, then secure with adhesive.  To get a cleaner look, score the side folds.

The scallop border punch creates the scalloped outer flap and the decorative trim on the belly band.

And, have you ever used a Spritzer Tool?  You can get a speckled or splattered appearance on card stock when you apply Stampin' Write marker ink onto card stock with a Spritzer Tool.  For splattering a dark cs, another technique is to use a stiff paint brush and white ink - simply separate the stiff bristles to splatter the ink onto the paper.  The card stock will have the same look as the dark cs on today's card.

Card Interior

This card pairs both Night of Navy and Bashful Blue for a handsome masculine birthday card.  The birthday cake stamp image is from A Slice of Life, a Level One Hostess Stamp Set from the Occasions Mini Catalog.  This stamp set is available until the end of April FOR FREE with a $150 Stampin' Up workshop or product order.  The cake is watercolored with Watercolor Wonder Crayons and a blender pen.

Here is the interior of my card.  Since the card interior is a dark color, I opted to adhere white cs to the inside.

Happy Tuesday!

Linda