Today's interactive card is one that is new to me and trust me... it is easier than it looks and will be so fun for the kiddos! And my new digi stamp set, "Gator Party" was a perfect set to use with this fun rotating mechanism!
The fact that he's got a birthday cake in his choppers goes perfectly with the sentiment on the slider.... "Time for CHOMPING on some Birthday Cake" riiiiiiiight?!!! :)
You may have noticed that I have the "Snappy Birthday" on here twice. That is a mistake due to being overly focused on trying to get the sentiments printed on my slider piece a 2nd time after having messed up by printing it horizontal and there was clearly not enough room, so.... It was not suppose to be on the slider, just on the front of my card. OH SNAP! *giggle*
I was inspired to create this style after seeing one of Laura Dovalo's cards here. I really wasn't sure how it would turn out on my very first attempt, so I did not film it, or take very many pictures along the way, but I'll share what I do have. It will probably not make alot of sense here without seeing a video tutorial, so I highly suggest if you are trying to make one, to hop over and watch Laura's video first. These are basically my notes as I fumbled my way through :)
I started by resizing and printing the digis from this fun new set ...
Once I decided that I wanted the bigger alligator to open his mouth for a yummy cupcake, I printed 2 of him, and cut the portion of the head off of one and cut mostly the body and the lower jaw of the other. I figured his big cheek was a good spot for the mechanism to be hiding under.
Next I cut the top and bottom of my card at 5 1/4" x 4" and cut a 1" semicircle from the middle of one edge (for the pull tab). Next, I layed my gator on top to see where I wanted the mechanism to go behind his head, and cut a small oval out. It's suppose to be a tiny circle, but this was the smallest roundish die I had, which came from the "Suit & Ties" dies from SU!
Next I layed that top piece onto the back piece (cut same size) and made a pencil mark in the middle of the oval so I know where to attach the brad.
For my mechanism, I used SU!'s word window punch, but I did cut it down one one end and rounded it, not sure that was necessary though. I cut 4 of them and glued 2 and 2 together before punching the holes on each end. In the picture below, only the top brad is attached to the bottom card layer. The brad on the left (upside down) is only attached to the sentiment slider piece. And the brad on right is only attaching the 2 arms of the mechanism.
Before attaching the mechanism to the slider piece, I put 2 layers of foam tape around the other 3 sides. Then I measured inbetween, which was a tiny bit less than 3". So that's how wide I cut my slider down to. You don't want your slider to keep receeding back into the card (gator's head would be spinning 180 degrees!) so I added another small piece of foam tape to stop the slider. Cut your slider so it's even with the left edge of card, poke a hole in middle of right side, and attach your brad. (sorry for the blurry photo)
This is where I had messed up the first time. With the arm extended as much as it will go, you know how much room you have to put your sentiment. If any part of it is to the right of that card edge, it will not show when your pull your tab, so be sure your sentiment/s are to the left of that card edge line.
Next I worked on the front/top piece. I made a semicircle from copy paper and sponged my grass on. I cut a very thin line of the foam tape, removed the backing on it, and wrapped it around the top brad (in a circle) then added a 2nd layer on top of that so it stuck up as high or higher than my brad. See Laura's video for a visual a I was so into figuring it out rather than doing a tutorial so I forgot to take pictures. 😜
I peeled off all the backing to the foam tape around card and attached the top blue layer. Then I glued the cupcake behind the gator's lower jaw and glued him just under the oval. Next I added the head, making sure it would cover up the cupcake all the way when his mouth was shut.
I then popped up the balloons with foam tape and drew the strings in black permanent fine tip marker. I also popped up some clouds to help fill the space and glued the girl gator. Added some shadows with Copic markers and an arrow on the pull tab so recipient knows what to do.
Lastly, I adhered the card to a white folded base so there's lots of room to write a message, although it would've worked to just glue a smaller white piece to the back of this card... I just felt like it needed a border around the blue. :)
It sounds like a lot of steps, but I really is easier than it seems. I hope you'll try it too as these are going to make really FUN interactive cards for the kiddos! Thanks for stopping by, happy INKing!