Yes I know I promised this long ago….but it took a bit to get it all written up in a good way! So here you go…. remember this?
contrasting pocket and brads
Our finished size is 5 1/2″ square with a pocket depth of 2 1/2″. Our insert cards are 4 1/2″ tall and our main invite panel is 5 3/16″ tall and 4 1/2″ wide. This was a 3 day process for us with the 1st day being me cutting the needed accent strips. You’ll see what these are in a minute on the supply list and in the instructions.
To make this you are going to need:
- Paper cutter that will cut 12 x12 paper with both a cutting and scoring blade
- corner rounder (optional)
- mini brads, I used 1/16″ ones ( you will need 2 per pocket)
- 12 x 12 cardstock (you will get 2 pockets out of one sheet)
- Contrasting 12 x 12 carstock, cut into 2″ strips ( you will get 6 per sheet)
- a sheet of corrugated cardboard to protect your work surface
- a corkboard pin
- Tacky paper glue
- Bone folder
- Paper towels
- A spreading stick…we used a bamboo skewer
Ok now on to the instructions!
Step one
For dark color paper like mine lightly score a line acrossed your main cardstock 1″ from the edge on the back/non decorative side of the stock. This is going to be a helper mark. Make it heavy enough to see it on the back, but not heavy enough to see it from the front. You may need to do a few test first to get it right so get a extra sheet to sacrifice for testing. If the back of your stock has a barcode then use that side for this part! ( See where I didn’t do that in the above pic on the left side!)
Step 2
Clear a lot of floor or table space before you start this step. You will be laying all of these out to dry after glueing so make sure to save enough room that you don’t have to move them for a while. Spread glue on the 1″ section you scored then take your 2″ contrast strip and glue it face/good side down to the back of your main stock using the scored helper mark as your line up spot. It will now be hanging off the edge of you main card stock by 1″.
The Boy glueing while I score
We used very little glue since we didn’t want our stock to get the wave wet paper look that can happen if you over glue. The boy made a wavy line of glue, then spread it out with the skewer to get it thin and close to the score line and edges of the stock. Allow to dry overnight or as long as it takes for you glue to completely dry. We did this part on day 2 of assembly.
Step 3 (or on to day 3)
Using your test sheet figure out which side of the sheet you need to score and how deep you need to score to get a a clean fold from your stock. For me it was on the back side with medium pressure but different stock weights mean different pressure. Then score a line 2.5″ from the edge you added with the contrasting stock, or 1.5″ from your main stock edge. Fold edge up carefully and press with the bone folder to get a crisp edge. Then using the scoring blade score a line parallel to the contrast side 5″ from the opposite end or 5.5″ from the first fold line, which ever is easier to do with your paper cutter. Only fold over the contrast stock end as shown below for the next step.
Scoring the "Pocket"
Step 4
Cut your folded stock from the folded edge down at 5 1/2″ to make 2 pcs 10 1/2″ long x 5 1/2″ tall.
Optional Step 5
Round the corners of the contrast stock and the opposite end. I found that doing so helped to hide any folding imperfections that happened in later steps. You do not have to do it, I just like the way it worked and looked so I chose to. If you chose to make sure to get a corner rounder that does not have ridges on the pressing part (see pic at top for what I mean) I didn’t listen to that advise and really regretted it when I was done rounding all the corners!
Rounded corners
Step 6
Make a template of the folded/contrast paper end of your your pocket.
folded end template
Mine is one that I botched the 3rd fold scoring pressure and went thru the cardstock. I rounded the corners then marked with a corkboard pin hole my brad spot 1/4″ over and 1/4″ down from the edges on both sides. Put the template over the folded end so it ends up on top and underneath the folded pocket end. Working on top of your corrugated cardboard poke a hole through the template and into your pocket on both sides. Remove the template and carefully fold up the last fold, flattening with your bone folder. Doing this before you put in the brads insures that you don’t end up with a brad imprint in your cover when you are flattening the fold.
Last fold complete!
Poke your brads thought the hole you made making sure you get though both the contrast color and back layers. Bend the brad tabs in opposite directions on the back side. Get them as flat as you can, I used a butter knife as a pressure tool on stubborn ones.
Pocket brads
And TaDa you have pocket folds to fill with what ever you like! So what do you think? Not to hard…just a little putzy and you get something that looks really nice. All told I think there is about 3 hours of slow work in the 75 we made, spread out over a 3 day period. So if you start early like we did it doesn’t seem so bad.
Do you have a DIY thing you are making that if done in steps is more manageable? If so give a shout out in the comments with your tutorial on it!!
Other posts in the Paper Trail series:
- Paper Trail: Invite Insides
- Paper trail: Our invites… the prototype
- Paper trail: Save the Dates
- Paper trail: Our design motif
- Who knew fonts were stressful!
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