How is that possible?? The impossible card!

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all having/had a brilliant weekend, it's been rather foggy here on the Yorkshire coast but the weather's supposed to be improving next week, just in time for the kids going back to school - it's always the way isn't it! My husband was very brave and went out to meet some friends from his past on Friday the 13th (dum, dum, DUM!!!) so I spend a quiet evening catching up on a bit of housework then watched some lovely TV. He came back at half past midnight proclaiming his love and clutching a takeaway bag in his hand. Unfortunately he'd decided to 'treat' me to a Spanish omelette which true is one of my favourites but not exactly the food of midnight feasts especially if you're prone to indigestion after late night eating (I'm part Mogwai - never ever feed me after midnight, ok 8pm if I'm honest!! Unless of course you want me miserable and bad tempered lol). As a result I didn't get much sleep and I've spent most of the weekend half zombied as a result. So all in all not a huge amount of cleaning's actually got done even though that was my plan for this weekend - smh. Still I did manage to find a new card style to try - the impossible card! I saw it on Facebook, I think it might have been a post by Trimcraft but I'm not positive. It didn't give much details on the post so I did a search on YouTube and came up with two videos, the first one was by MayMayMadeIt but at nearly 30 minutes long, I decided to watch the tutorial by Mixed Up Craft - here's the link to the video I watched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgGYZSr4zV0 . For an even shorter tutorial click the link to view the Trimcraft video tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWFwaKNVrig .

Here is my version using a piece of 5" x 7" smooth white card stock to make the base.

I used smooth silver glitter card to make the base layer of mats and then added another layer using Sheena's stamping card stamped with a beautiful dragonfly which came free with the fairy stamps in a recent magazine subscription that came last week. It includes a die for the wings, a tiny flower and a toadstool for the fairy to sit on but with a bit of masking I decided to have my blue fairy sitting on the tree branch instead. The die cut butterflies are some I cut out ages ago and kept in my scraps folder - I wanted something a bit different to decorate the edge and these seemed perfect. The dragonflies on the base panel pieces were stamped out using a new mini ink cube that came free with the latest issue of Creative Stamping magazine and is a lovely emerald green. The thin strip under the sentiment was stamped out using Broken China Distress Oxide ink which gives a soft chalky look to the finish but has the drawback of smudging quite easily. I coloured the stamped images on the stick up panel using FlexMarkers and added shimmery highlights with a Gelli Roll stardust pen in clear.

I really like this style of card, it looks complicated (especially in real life where you can pick it up and try to see how it works - how is it possible to have a stick up panel that's larger than the gaps??) but it's actually quite easy to make once you get past the cut and fold lines, tbh the hardest part is probably adding the panels and I will admit my first glitter panel was actually the wrong way to fit on the L shapes and I used it as a template for the next one I cut, I'll keep it as a template for future cards. It was my own fault though as I didn't bother writing the panel measurements down as I thought I could 'wing' it instead! The great thing about this card is that it will fold flat for postage even though the panel sticks up without support and if you you don't decorate the top edge it's easy enough to find an envelope to fit it or even better make your own with the WRMK envelope punch board (probably the best investment I've ever made craftwise - it's so handy!)

I'm not sure how long this card style has been around but the fact I could only find three videos in total (though I didn't scroll through the hundreds of impossible playing card tutorials on YT!) suggests that it's a fairly new style though it could just be one that's been re-named from years back.

I hope you like my quick card share, the video tutorials probably explain it a lot clearer than I have but if you have any questions about it or anything crafty in general then please leave your questions and comments in the usual places. I shall be making a few more of these card types once I've tackled my Spring Cleaning (yep it's mucking out time again lol) and I'm quite happy to do a step by step photo tutorial to accompany my next post featuring the impossible card if anyone would like to see one, just let me know. Until next time - keep crafting (and spring cleaning!)!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx