Dragonfly on a Leaf Card by Lis Whiting

For this card I chose blue and rust to be my color theme to mimic the sky, branches & vines.

Create your Base Card:
Cut a piece of cardstock to 10 x 8-1/2. Fold in half long ways. Choose paper that has a design that you want to show through inside your card. This can be scrapbook paper, gift wrap or even a napkin. I chose gift wrap with a pattern by William Morris (an Artist famous for his paintings of flowers and plants). Cut the paper 9-3/4 x 7-1/2. Fold it long ways (a valley fold-pattern up). Glue it to the interior of your card. Make sure to center it top to bottom and side to side. You might want to put glue on one side and close the card. Open the card and smooth the glued side. Make sure that the centers are exactly together. Glue the other side of your paper. 
See Picture 1


The Front of the Card:
Cut a gold glossy cardstock piece 9-1/2 x 3-3/4. Glue to front of card. Choose a patterned Mulberry paper, cut it 9 x 3 ¼ and mount onto the gold glossy. (I chose an oriental theme.) Punch an aspen leaf (small) in the upper left hand side and a rooster in the lower right hand side of the gold glossy/mulberry piece. Mount onto the card. If you want, place a dragonfly on the front of the card (see instructions for dragonfly in “Create the Interior”).

Create the Interior:
Take a second piece of cardstock and cut it to 10 x 8-1/2. Score at the following intervals lengthwise: 2”, 4-1/4”, and 6”. The center fold will be a mountain fold. The folds on either side will be valley folds. Make the folds crisp. Choose two large 2” leaf punches [McGill Maple Leaf and Aspen Leaf 2” punches used here]. Keeping the cardstock folder in half, punch leaf designs from the center fold.
See Picture 2
  Save your punches for decorating the outside of the card. When you open your interior piece you will have a pattern.
See Picture 3
  This technique is the same principal as when you cut out snowflakes when you were a little kid.

Try out the interior by overlaying it on the inside so that you can see what will show through the open spaces. If you are not happy, sometimes punching another leaf or a flower will help. Also you want to be sure that everything fits well. Place the interior inside the card and close the card so that you know where you will be gluing the interior. You want the interior to cover the paper completely but you do not want the center fold to come out past the end of the card when it’s closed.
See Picture 4
  In picture 4 I left some of the paper and card showing so that you can see where I am lining up my cardstocks and paper. Stamp a background design [Stamper’s Anonymous & Marvy Ochre used here] on the interior piece and glue it in place one side at a time. This assures correct placing. If you find anything sticking out of either the bottom or top, you can trim it. If it sticks out of the middle, you will have to reposition and re-glue.

Once the interior and exterior are glued together, take some crinkled gold washi paper and glue torn pieces of it on the inside of the card.
See Picture 5
  Don’t be afraid to glue to the center. Just curl your washi and glue to the back side through the punched design. You can also use your punches.

Choose a couple of your punchies and stamp the same pattern on them. Outline in gold. Using mounting tape, affix one leaf in the lower left corner and the other in the upper right corner on the inside of the card. Don’t try to match up the design. You want it not to line up so that you can see the leaves.

Punch out two dragonflies [McGill] in gold vellum. Mount using mini glue dots. Please two rolled glue dots on the center of the back of the dragonfly body. Place one each on the upper left and lower right of the inside on the edges of the leaves. Bend the wings up and curl the tail to create a 3-D effect. Fold the card closed to test it. Reposition the dragonfly if needed.

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