Another Concertina Card

Hi everyone!  I wanted to do another accordion (sorry, concertina) type card when I made this one.  I had previously done this type of card using the lace doily die set last year.  I thought that the new Moroccan dies would look great that way also, but I wanted to keep the card a bit more simple this time.  I am always restricted to what I can use to make samples with depending what is on any given show.  This card I think really needed some scrolly stamp on the bottom part of it, but alas, I did not have any to use.  It looks a bit empty to me so I wasn't completely happy with the finished card  but not quite orphan status either!  In hindsight, I think I should have moved my sentiment to the bottom and just made a fancy medallion on the top, oh well!  What I really liked was this paper which did not photograph well at all.  The bottom card is the prettiest shade of metallic gold that I have ever seen.  It is some discontinued Scrapbook Sally card that I had and I love it.  I am not big on metallics at all.  They just seem to over power whatever I use them on, but this has the most luxurious understated gold shimmer I have ever seen.  Such a shame you cannot get the true sense of the colour from my pic. It almost looks like Kraft card in the picture.   The striped background paper has a similar gold stripe in it as well.  Please use your imagination here!

As for the topper, I cut two of the large Moroccan motifs and folded them by scoring down all the sections.  You cut to the centre and then fold it back and forth all the way around.  Do two like this and glue them together to get your base for the topper.  I used several pieces of foam on top of it before adding my next piece which was a smaller Moroccan die cut out of the gold card.  Next I stamped my sentiment and cut it out with one of the tiny Moroccan dies and added it to the top.  I wrapped some sheer ribbon around a piece of cream card and put it through the ribbon buckle (I wished I had used the micro beads on it as I think that would have looked very pretty here)  I used my ribbon piece as a divider between my sections.  I added some black swirls to the top and bottom of my focal element.  Paper pierced the edge to complete the card.  I hope you can use the topper idea and make a card that really siongs to you!

While I am on the subject of paper piercing, I have been getting quite a few emails asking me about it.  I use the Tim Holtz design ruler which has holes in it.  I line it up with the edge of the card that I am going to pierce and I anchor the ruler to my the outside of my card using push pins stuck into my foam mat.  You have to have a foam mat under your card so the needle on your piercing tool has somewhere to go as it pokes through your card.  I always start two holes in from the edge and end two holes in from the edge.  I find that this gives the most even edge around my card.  It doesn't always line up perfectly, especially if your cutter is a bit wonky like mine.  Sometimes I will have to make small adjustments as I go along so it will come up even at the end.  I always hold the ruler as I go even though it is anchored too as there is always a tiny bit of play in it. 

The other question that I have been asked a lot is about the stamps.  I am connected to Creative Expressions and all the producst that I use (unless I state it is from my craft stash) are from Creative Expressions, including every stamp set I use.  The one exception is the decorative papers.  If you are interested in where to purchase any of the other products, you can go on their website and look up the product and they will list the retailers that have purchased those products from them.   There are several competing distributors that carry the same products for retailers, such as Spellbinders and Ranger products.    If you like what I do, please support me and ask your local retailers to order the products I use from Creative Expressions.   Please feel free to email me if you have any other questions.  All for now, Sue x