Room Card Class

	Room Card Class - by Melissa Baldwin These Room Cards will get Ooohs and Aaahs from all your friends, family and neighbors! They are unique and fun and completely made out of paper. This was one of our most popular online classes from June 2004
Ready?.... let's go! Cut your Cardstock in a perfect square. Mine is 8.5 x 8.5
	Fold your cardstock in half
A bone folder, or the edge of an ink pad, is a great way to get a nice crisp fold.
	Unfold and fold in half the other direction.
When unfolded, your creases should look like a cross, or plus sign.
	Now go half way up one of the fold lines, and using a craft knife and a ruler, make a straight cut.
Move your ruler over slightly (I think a "smidge is the technical term"!) And make another straight cut along side it.
	You should now have a thin piece of cardstock, which your can go ahead and remove by cutting off the end near the fold.
This is what it should look like.
	Go ahead and fold it half way up as shown.
Then you will fold the bottom right flap over the left flap, and it should stand up!
	Well.... it will stand up with a little coaxing! You will need to bend it a little so it will stand up straight. Let's call the technical term for this "Paper Manipulation"! LOL!
Wala! You now have the frame work done for your room card. It is the perfect size to decorate!
	Let me show you how to fold it up so that you can place it in an envelope to mail it. First unfold the flaps like this.
Then just fold "up" the flaps this time.
	Then just fold in half.
This is what it looks like closed, and now you have a wonderful square cover to decorate as well.... but we will do that later. (Boy do I need a manicure!!)
	Now let's concentrate on decorating our room. We will be working on the inside of the room card, so go ahead and unfold it, and measure the right upper corner flap, and cut patter paper to fit. This will be your wall paper. You could of course also stamp your own wallpaper too!
You will need to cut two of these, and go ahead and glue in place.
	Some patterns you may want to line up where they meet in the middle. I am using Chatterbox pattern paper, Gallery Collection. It makes a very sophisticated looking project.
Chatterbox also has a product called "Moldings" that we sell, and we are going to use them as Crown Molding in our room. How appropriate!
	The Moldings just get cut to size and glued at the top and bottom of the wallpaper. Crown molding does really finish off a room doesn't it?! Is anyone else here a Trading Spaces fan?
Now we need a rug don't we? In our Trading Spaces stamp set we have a rug rubber stamp image that you can stamp. I am using the Colluzle cutting system here with the oval template to get an oval rug from pattern paper. There are so many possibilities with this... how about wall to wall carpeting with textured paper?.... or wood pattern paper for hardwood floors?... or a rectangle or square rug?.... or how about drawing a mouse hole in the crown molding and drawing a little mouse in the house?.... I am sure you have many more idea's!
	Go ahead and glue your rug down (or color your stamped rug) and use a thin black pen (like Micron) to draw in some fringe. You will glue your rug onto the bottom right flap of your card.
Looking Good!
	Here is our Trading Spaces stamp set that I mention before. It is perfect for these room cards!
Now stamp your images on cardstock or pattern paper and cut out. I used pattern paper here so I did not need to color anything.
	If you are using text weight pattern paper, you may want to back it with cardstock to give it more stability. You can do that with a thin coat of Yes glue.
I had a little fun with the lamp, and cut the base and shade from pattern paper, then stamped the lamp onto the wall..
	Then I glued the contrasting shade and base to the the stamped image. It makes it stand out a little bit more.
I wanted to hang a picture on my wall and decided to use our mini Flash Frames. This is a bamboo looking frame. (These are on sale too! Buy one get one free!) These just pop out.
	I wanted mine to be a framed mirror, so I backed the flash frame with tin foil. I have also used small photo's before as well as stamped images in frames. I have also used the Moldings from Chatterbox to create my own frames. Oh! how about using slide mounts?!!
This is how the mirror looks hung.
	I felt like we needed some more furniture against the wall, so I stamped our Pie Safe image onto more pattern paper for some texture.
My cabinet looked good, but needed more depth, so I decided to use my Chocolate dye ink pad, and a blending pen to give it some color. To create a pallate from your ink pad... while closed press into the middle until the middle of the cover touches the pad itself.
	When you open the ink pad you will have a pallate of color on the lid. (cool hugh?!)
Then all you need to do is dip your blending pen into the ink and color.
	Then color the image in. This technique is meant to give you a watercolor look, so the trick is to move the blending pen from one side to the other, and the color will blend out that way leaving it darker on one side and lighter on the other. Lights and Darks are a good thing! So resist the temptation to make it all one shade, and always have the dark shadow on the same side... so I ususally color from right to left every time I color anything. Less confusion that way!
Here is the finished cabinet. Then you can go ahead and cut it out.
	I cut out two chairs and also two pillows from pattern paper, adding fringe with a black pen.
You then need two cut two strips (a strip for each piece of furniture you want to place in the room) that are the same color as the floor, and about 1.5 inches by 1/2 inch. You can cut them down in length as needed.
	Fold each one in half
Place glue on one half of the strips...
	Glue to the backside of the furniture as shown.
Then go ahead and glue your furniture into place
	This would be a good time to stamp a saying on the card.
Isn't it great looking?!
	To close the card up for mailing, fold down the furniture.
Then fold up as described previously
	Now let's decorate the front cover!
I stamped our Welcome Door image onto pattern paper again, and colored in with blending pen exactly the same way we did for the pie safe, and then trim out.
	Here is how my cover turned out. I added one of our Seasonal Wreaths to the door too.
Don't forget you have two other surfaces that you decorate if you would like!
	Stamping Break!! Here is one of my stamping buddies Sierra. He was suppose to be a small sheltie, but really is the size of a collie. Besides stamping... Sierra's next favorite hobby is eating, and my husband Byron likes to joke that "Sierra is not fat... his coat is just to tight"! LOL! He is the "sweetest" dog I have ever owned and can usually be found right where this photo was taken,... in my stamp room guarding the cardstock and pattern paper.
Wanna see another one?! This sample is an invitation to an open house. Our stamp set "On the Road Again" was used for the cover. The trees were stamped in green, then the sky and ground were chalked in. The car is "moving" a chair, lamp and pillows all stamped from the Trading Spaces stamp set.
	A decorated tag with more furniture images, and the saying "We've traded spaces come check out our new pad" has been stamped on vellum and attached with a mini brad. Ribbon has been added to act like a handle.
The invitation information will go on the inside left flap, and the right side flap reads "See you there" all from our "Invitation" stamp set.
	Here is the inside view of the card. It is similar to the card we just made, but look at how changing the colors really changes the look and feel of the card.
The following are samples made by the ladies who attended this online class that night. And I was just bowled over by all of their creativity!! Stephanie Loomis created a Hat Shoppe in her room card!
	Mary sent this wonderful room card to me, and she said that since she did not have our furniture stamps yet that she "free-handed" hers! You are very talented Mary, and I love all the molding, and the finish on the walls... great texture.
I love all the elements Rita Ann Plummer used in her card! Look at the cupboard doors that open with the lingerie hanging inside! She even has shoes on the floor, and some lingerie that has fallen on the floor as well!
	This is so "groovy" Brandi! I LOVE the fish bowl!
A BIG thank you to everyone who submitted their samples... they are very inspiring! I hope that you enjoyed class and have been inspired to create your own room card. Next time you feel like re-arranging your living room, maybe you will create a Room Card instead!