Technique: Waterfall Cards - Part 1

This was supposed to be my Friday follow-up post, but due to no phone,internet and TV service for almost 4 days (very long story) things got pushed back a bit. But now that everything is back up and running :-) let's start with the Waterfall Card Technique.

Here are the parts I used for this card:
- card base in colonial white (cream) 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 
- colonial white cardstock 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"
- brown design paper 4" x 5 1/4"
- strip of colonial white cardstock 2" x 9"
- strip of colonial white cardstock 1" x 4 1/4"
- 4 squares off colonial white cardstock 2" x 2"
- 4 squares off design paper 1 3/4" x 1 3/4"
- 2 brads and stamps or cut outs for decoration

The cardstock strip measuring 2" x 9" is scored at 2", 2 3/4", 3 1/2", 4 1/4" along the 9" side. Fold and crease all score lines.
If you use stamped images, now is the time to prepare your smaller squares with the images before you continue to assemble the card.
First I adhered the brown design paper to my extra piece of cream colored cardstock (not the card base!). Fold your 9" at the 4 1/4 line over and lay it (no adhesive!) on to the brown design paper piece. This folded strip has a longer side and a short one. Place the longer side down facing the shorter one with the rest of the scorelines up. Depending if your waterfall is going horizontal or vertical make sure you have an even distance from the outsides top/bottom and left/right. I my case the waterfall is placed vertical on the card. 

Now take the 1" cream cardstock strip and place it over the 9" strip flush with the sides of the bottom piece. Move it down to the point were the bottom part of the 1"strip (in my case) is flush with the end of the shorter side of the 9" folded pieces. Hard to explain, but it should look like this:
The part of the 9" strip with all the scorelines is flush at the end with the little 1" strip while the bottom part of the 9" sticks out underneath about 1/2".

Carefully remove the 9" strip holding the 1" in place. Place a little adhesive on each end of the 1" strip and adhered it to the brown design paper piece. (no adhesive in the middle of the strip!) Punch a hole on either side of the 1" strip through all three layers of the sandwich for the brads. Place each hole more towards the sides. Add your brads and bend the ends on the back over.

Next we add the 9" strip to the sandwich. Make sure your scorelines are creased back and forth. Slight the longer half of the 9" folded at the 4 1/4" mark underneath the fastened 1" piece. Place the shorter part of the 9" on top of the 1" piece. Your 2" part of the strip should be the first one touching the 1" strip. Place about 1/4" strip of adhesive on the edge of the 2" part and adhere it on top of the 1" piece flush and centered. This is it for the mechanism. Before you continue decorating, carefully pull the part underneath the 1" strip to the side and make sure your creases on top peak up and move underneath. Continue to move the strip back and forth so the mechanism is working smoothly.    

Now to the finishing touches. In my case I added the design paper squares in the center of each of my 4 cardstock squares. Looking at the 9" strip on the sandwich you should see four score lines. Take the first square, add about 1/4 adhesive to one side and line it up with the 2" fold line. Adhere it to the score line, but don't go over the crease. Take the second square and add it the same way to the next score line....continue with the remaining two squares. The last square should line up with your 4 1/4" fold of the strip. In between each square I pulled out the strip to make sure things are working smoothly.

Now add the rest of your embellishments to the card. Don't use foam dots, adhere them just flat to the squares. Make sure they don't stick over the squares to much otherwise they might get stuck on the 1" strip when you try to pull it through. 

If you done everything correct, you can pull out the lower strip part while the top squares fold up and disappear underneath the strip. Ad a message on the pull out part and decorate so your recipient knows to pull this part to get the message. Las but not least, add the assembled piece to your card base and decorate the inside of your card. By finishing everything this way, the ends of the brads will disappear between your sandwich and the card base ;-)

I know this all sounds a bit complicated, but it is really pretty simple. Hard to explain here than actually making it. Ones you are familiar how this mechanism works it will be a breeze to make these cards. 

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions about this technique and anything else you might see here on the blog. I would love to hear from you. Sent me pictures of your creations too :-) I would love to see what you made. Stay tuned for one more example of these wonderful cards coming your way next Friday. Yes, and it will be on the blog on Friday because I am going to set it up right now LOL....have a wonderful week and check back often. Thanks for stopping by.