Christmas Cube

This is my last card as hostess of the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, and probably my last Christmas card for a while, as the baby is due in two weeks!

I chose cube/pop up cards as my technique.

More than a year ago I downloaded a template for a cube card, but hadn't got round to putting it together, so this was my cunning plan to make me finish!

Unfortunately, the template and instructions I used are no longer available online, but there are lots of other versions.

Here's the template as printed, which I cut out and folded.

And then glued as carefully as I could, adding a rubber band before the last glue, so it pops up.

 Flattens to go into the envelope...

.... then opens up into a cube.

It is a bit tricky to get the sides lined up - so this isn't perfect, think it would take a bit of practice.

So now it's about decorating! Lots of options, of course.

I dug out some kraft card to decorate - I usually use distress oxides these days, but wanted stronger colour and find they go very chalky on kraft, so used distress inks instead. Aged mahogany and pine needles, a classic Christmas combo. I swooshed them onto my craft mat, spritzed with water, then dipped the card in.

While this dried, I stamped my sentiment (from Crafters Companion) and images onto scrap white card. The cube is quite small (just over 6cm a side) so I had to pull out my smallest - even most of the Clarity wee folk were too big, but these ones worked perfectly.

I wanted more detail on my background card, so dug out a swirly Clarity stamp and overstamped in the same two colours, before spritzing lightly.

Once dry, I cut out my 6cm x 6cm squares to cover each side.

For the four main ones, I die cut an aperture in the centre, then inked the inside and outside edges with aged mahogany.

I wanted more texture and a bit of shine, so I ran these through a Tattered Lace holly embossing folder, which I'd inked with versamark. I then added bronze mica powder over the top. I haven't used mica for ages - I do like it though!

A more logical approach given my lack of time and that I have a cold, would be to use designer papers, or something from the stash, for these, but where's the fun in that?

I trimmed my stamped images down, and blended antique linen distress ink round the edges to warm them up. I also did this on a blank piece of card, to be used to add the "to and "from". You could add a tag to do this, but I wanted it on the cube itself.

The images were then trimmed and added to the back of the frames I'd created.

Time to add them to the cube base! I used super sticky tape to make sure they stuck.

Once done, the top of the cube looked odd in white. So I took another of the squares I'd cut, trimmed it slightly then cut it diagonally into triangles. These I glued to the top, making sure the folds were still free to collapse inwards to flatten the card.

 And there we have the finished card!

Ridiculously hard to photograph, and the shine from the mica doesn't show at all, but hopefully you get the idea!

Very different but fun, and the cube wasn't that hard to construct as long as you can live with the sides being slightly uneven!

I think these could make very cute baby cards as well, like toy blocks - and I may have a few of those to make to the next little while!

To join in with the challenge, head over to the 52CCT, you have until Friday 31st August to enter. The design team cards are especially amazing this week, so I really suggest you check them out!