Little Nine-Fold Hello Card

Materials:

8-1/2" x 11" card stock
8-1/2" x 11" paper
glue stick
black dye-based inkpad
Michael Strong's "Just a Little Hello" stamp
metallic gold pen (optional)
rubber stamps for embellishment (optional)
paper or card stock for embellishment (optional)
paper cutter
at least 18" ruler or yardstick

Steps:

1. Using the paper cutter, cut the card stock in half to yield two 4-1/4" x 11" pieces.

2. Fold them in half so that you have two 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" cards. Note: The cards will be short and wide as opposed to the traditional tall and narrow. Set one card aside for future use.

3. Stamp the front of the card with "Just a Little Hello" using black ink (figure A).

4. Embellish the front of the card with other stamps, stickers, glitter or metallic ink, etc.

5. Fold the 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of paper in half so that it measures 5-1/2" x 8-1/2". Make folds and creases as precisely as you can (figure B).

6. Fold back the right side of the front to meet the spine. Now fold the back the same way. You will have a four-section accordion folded sheet (figure C).

7. Open the sheet up and smooth it out on the tabletop.

8. Using the ruler, make two diagonal creases from upper left to lower right corners and from the lower left to the upper right corners, making an X (figure D).

9. Stamp the tiny hello in the center of the sheet (figure E).

10. Open sheet and reverse the direction of the center accordion fold. Holding the edges of the two outer accordion sections, fold the sheet so that the "X" folds in on itself, so that you get a perfect triangle with all the folds on the inside (figure F).

11. Laying the triangle-folded sheet on the tabletop, fold the four open corners as shown in figure G.

12. Open up the sheet and reverse the direction of the four folded-back sections so that all the folds are on the inside.

13. Glue the folded sheet to the inside of the decorated card, positioning the folded sheet so that the point touches the inside crease line of the card (figure H).

14. Close card and press to help glue adhere.

See below for two other examples of how to use this folded card.