Two for One Project of the Week for Repeat Impressions

It's my turn to share a Project of the Week at Repeat Impression's blog, The House that Stamps Built. I decided to share two new ideas with you- a fun fold and a great product for stamping, sponging and distressing. The fold is the Reverse Gate Fold and here is a picture of how the fold looks from the top:

 Start with a base card that is 9 1/2" by 4 1/4". Score at 2 3/4" and 3 3/4" from both sides. Valley fold the first score lines on  both sides and mountain fold the two inside score lines on both sides. Cut a piece of cardstock 3 1/4' by 4 1/4"  for the front of your card and then decorate the card and front as you wish.

For the front of the cards I am sharing today, I chose to use a Specialty Stamping Paper by Ranger which is a matte coated surface for distressing and other techniques. I sponged on blue and green distress inks (also by Ranger) and then spritzed with water to create the spotted background. Then I stamped the Over the Hill swing stamp (part one) in black archival ink. The sides were embossed with a Tim Holtz Sizzix pine trees embossing folder and then sanded for a distressed look.

This is what the back of the reverse gate fold card looks like and it does fold flat to mail in an A2 envelope. I stamped the punch line of the Over the Hill swing stamp set on patterned paper and left the right pieces blank to write a happy birthday greeting to the over the hill recipient.

This fold and the specialty paper were way too fun to play with so I had to make a second card to share with you today. I created the reverse gate fold the same way described above out of a shiny pink card stock. I embossed the whole card with a flowery embossing folder by Cuttlebug. I sponged pink, green and blue distress inks onto a 3 1/4" x 4 1/4" piece of Ranger's Specialty matte paper and then spritzed with water. Then I stamped Repeat Impression's Ode to Spring with archival black ink and attached it to the front of the card. On the back I attached some pink patterned paper and stamped The Beauty of Springtime greeting.

I am entering the second card in the "Make your own backgrounds" challenge at Sugar Creek Hollow and the Animal Antics challenge at Open-Minded Crafting.

I hope you will try this fun fold and specialty paper and check out Repeat Impression's great stamps. Have a great day- I know I will, because I am celebrating the Wisconsin Badgers in the Final Four, the start of the baseball season and my birthday with a lobster dinner out at  favorite restaurant with a 60% discount:)