Monday, July 15, 2024

Kokeshi Landscape Accordion Card

I decided to try making another  three panel landscape accordion style card, this time with paper pieced kokeshi doll images for a birthday card for a sweet friend.
 
The original svg cutfile for the base of this card is the "Swing Through Card Valentine" purchased from the Lori Whitlock Shop. I enlarged the frame of the original cutfile to create a landscape oriented card that was 6.5 x 5 inches. I intentionally made this to be an oversized card so the kokeshi dolls would be large enough to easily piece together.

For the inset panels, I used Make the Cut Design Program to create and weld shadow layers of the kokeshi doll svg cutfiles purchased on Etsy. Digital papers were used for the kimonos and tiny blossoms for the hair were cut using Frantic Stamper "Petite Sakura" and Cheery Lynn Design "Baby's Breath Flower" dies.

Happy Birthday sentiment on the front panel was die cut from gold glitter and foil cardstocks using Hello Bluebird "Happy Birthday Words" die.  Computer generated sentiment on last panel uses Moderne and Hello Valentica fonts.

Although I was satisfied with how this card looked once it was opened, I found that getting the card to open was a little awkward because it seemed that the middle panel tended to buckle, despite my trying to reinforce it with an additional layer of cardstock. Next time I'll have to remember to try increasing the width of the frame borders to see if that would help.

I also made a matching gift card holder using the same kokeshi doll image on a fun pop up style drawer. As the drawer is pulled open, the decorative panel on the box pulls to a standing position.

Here's a side view of the easel-like mechanism connected to the back of the drawer that pulls the panel up. The svg cutting file for this box can be found at the Lori Whitlock Store here. Love the movement and surprise feature of this drawer style box!

1 comment:

Lynn said...

Gosh, the 3D card is fabulous! Love the kokeshi dolls...kawai! I think interactive cards are so cool. If I wasn't so lazy I'd make more of them. LOL! Oh, the box for the gift card is fantastic too! Your friend is lucky to be receiving a hand crafted card and box from you.