Squashed Diamond Fold Tutorial

Hiya, Crafters! Happy middle of the week! I hope everyone is having a good week so far. Since it's the first day in October, I put out my sole Halloween decoration warning of Zombie Crossings! Hehe! Today's card is inspired by this card. The link leads to a site that's in a different language. Something was lost in translation as it came out as a "Mystery Ventilation" card - which I certainly didn't care for so I am calling it a squashed diamond fold for now. I really like the look of it and I'll be glad to show you how I did it.

Here's what you'll need to make this card:

• Cardstock cut to 4 3/4 x 11" for your base
• Cardstock cut to 7 1/8 x 7 1/8" for your insert.
• Sponges (optional)
• 2 coordinating pieces of patterned paper
• Trimmer
• Bone Folder
• Stamping and die cutting tools needed to finish the card

Let's get started! Score your base cardstock at 5 1/2" and set aside. Take your insert and fold it diagonally both ways. Open the card and fold in half both ways. Open it once more and fold in half the other way both ways. I rubbed ink on all edges and the score lines.

Next you'll turn the full square facing you so it looks like a diamond, then all you need to do is tuck in the sides. You'll have something that looks like this:

After that take your 2 coordinating pieces of patterned paper and cut them both to 3 1/2 x 3 1/2". We will then cut those diagonally in half. On your trimmer line it up point to point on your cutting mat.

I also sponged ink on the edges here for continuity. Then glue them onto the angles. This is what it looks like.

On my card base, I used my border punch along the edges of both ends. Then, without gluing the insert down, I lined it up to see how it looked. The diamond is about 5" wide, and since the card base is 4 3/4" wide, I snipped the bits that protruded from the inside. (I also marked lightly with a pencil through the punch so I knew where not to run my glue.) And sponged them as well. Once I had that sorted out, I glued the top first, then the bottom. It won't sit perfectly flat, so stamp your greeting into the insert first. 

Here's what it looks like folded even though all the pizazz is on the inside.

The sentiment on the front was a freebie photo-polymer stamp set with a magazine I picked up at Joann's. I stamped it first on scrap paper and I'm glad I did since there was still an oil like residue on the stamp and the ink was beading up. I took an eraser and rubbed it over the stamp and that solved my problem.

Honestly, the fold is rather quick as is assembling the card. What took me so long was figuring out how I wanted to decorate it in and outside. That's it for this tutorial. I hope you enjoyed it and that you found some inspiration here. Thanks for popping by, Crafters! See ya soon!