MFT Card Design Superstar - Innovation Master Flipbook Card

I wasn't planning to enter any of the other Card Design Superstar challenges, but I got this idea in my head and it just kept percolating and wouldn't go away, so I had to try it.

I wanted to created a flipbook card which told a little story from the front of the card to the inside of the card.

You can make a flipbook go forwards or backwards, but since this is a flipbook on top of a card, I thought it would be easier to flip from the back to the front so that the card itself didn't get too bent.

Because this was my first try, I wanted to use a smaller image that would be pretty easy to color.  I settled on the cute little ducks from the Rain or Shine set.  I used two of the ducks, the one who looks like he's walking to the left and the one with his wings out as well as the puddle and water droplets.

I started by creating a mock-up of the flipbook, cutting pieces of printer paper to 2 x 3" so I could make sure to get the right placement and number of pages.  This also helped me because I knew I'd have to do some masking on a couple of the pages.

I first stamped the puddle in the same place on each little sheet, easy when you use a stamp positioner.

For the mock-up, the ducks and splashes were stamped using a small block (for the actual pages later, I used a stamping platform).  Once I was happy with the order and arrangement, I cut 2" x 3" pieces of white cardstock.  For all but the last two scenes, I stamped the puddle first, following up with the ducks.  For the last two scenes, I stamped the duck and splashes first, created a mask for the duck, and then stamped the puddle last.

To try and keep the coloring as consistent as possible, I colored all the ducks first, using Y000, Y11, and Y13 for the body, R11 for his cheeks, and YR14 and YR16 for his beak and feet.  The puddle was colored next using B0000, B000, B00, and just a touch of B01.

Then I needed to figure out how to incorporate the flipbook into my card.

I started by deciding that I would sew my flipbook pages together as well as to the card base.  On the top sheet, I scored a line 1/4" from the left edge and used a pencil to add a dot every 1/4" along that scored line.  I then used a yard needle to pierce holes in cardstock at each of those pencil marks.  Using this page as a guide, I pierced holes in the next sheet and so on, until each of the pages was done.

Placing the flipbook sheets over my card base, I added marks where I wanted a window to appear on the front of the card base.  It wasn't symmetrical because I needed to attach my flipbook to the left side.  Using my paper trimmer, I cut an opening slightly larger the edges of the flipbook, approximately 2 1/8" x 2 3/4".

Once the hole was cut, I lined up the last flipbook page inside the window to use as a guide for stamping the inside of the card base.  Those images were stamped and colored, and a sentiment from the Puddle Jumper set was added inside.

With the inside taken care of, I needed to figure out how to decorate the front of the card.  This was where I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants.  I found that cute yellow heart print that I thought would be perfect.  It was trimmed down and adhered to the card front.  Of course I had previously cut the opening for the window, so working on the inside of the card, I carefully used a craft knife to cut away the patterned paper from the window.

I wanted to add a couple vertical elements, so I use the smallest of the Fishtail Flag Layer STAX dies to cut two accent pieces, one from the Black and White Stripe paper pad, and one from a coordinating blue paper, and adhered them to the card.

I then centered one of my flipbook pages, on the card/in the window as a guide, and used my yarn needle to pierce holes through the card front.  I also added a hole right at the top and bottom of the flipbook page.

To make the stitching a little easier, I added a bit of adhesive to the left edge of each of the flipbook pieces so they stayed together more readily, and then stitched the flipbook to my card front.  I used a basic back stitch with some floss and smaller needle, sewing down and back up to make sure it was very secure.

To finish things off on the front of the card, I added a sentiment from the Birth-YAY set which was embossed in white on a strip of black cardstock and popped up with foam tape.

It was fun to puzzle through this one!  Here's what the flipbook looks like in motion (I'm a GIPHY novice and for some reason the video below looks super blurry, but if you click on it, it'll take you to a non blurry video):

via GIPHY

Thanks for visiting and hope you're having a great weekend!