A common paper craft skill is the ability to creating apertures and frames. Apertures can be a single shape cut out of a pre-existing material; while, frames consist of two or more shapes to form a hollow shape. This tutorial will teach you both techniques to build this tri-fold card design.
You will need:
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Tri-fold card blank or adaptable
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Coloured card
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Pen holder and compatible pens
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Optional verses, sentiments and design SVGs
Cutting an aperture from a card blank
Start with an unfolded card blank, and on the right-hand panel draw a light pencil line marking the vertical and horizontal centre. Place the card onto your mat with a right-hand panel being closest to the origin point (usually closest to the blade in its resting position). Use your pencil guide to align your chosen aperture in your design software…
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In your design software (or on your machine for ScanNCut users), choose a simple shape to form your aperture.
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Align the shape to your pencilled guides using the measurements on your mat as a guide.
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Send to DRAW with your machine.
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Insert a pencil into your machine and draw the aperture first to check alignment.
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Adjust the aperture if necessary, and then cut the design.
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Save this shape as you will need it for the remaining stages of this project.
Creating a panel insert
This next section creates a panel to pop behind your aperture and it adheres to the inside back of your card.
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Import a sentiment or type your own
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Size it to fit your aperture shape with 2-3mm clearance around it.
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Lock your sentiment so you are just working with the aperture shape; click on it without moving it.
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Use offset to expand the shape slightly by 2mm; this will give you a neater finish to your card
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Depending on your software, you can then hide the original aperture shape for future use, or delete it if you don’t have the hide option.
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Send the file to your machine and DRAW the sentiment and border with either a fineliner or using the fine tip on the Foil Quill.
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Adhere this into your card using the verse to align the panel to your aperture before closing the card to adhere it.
Building a frame
Next, we are going to build a frame to add dimension and strength to our card. You are going to use the same panel shape for this process.
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Remove or hide the sentiment from the last section
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Select the shape and duplicate it if needed; use offset and expand the shape by 15mm (adjust this figure as necessary for your card blank).
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Send this larger shape to the back (usually [Ctrl/Cmd]+[Shift]+[[])
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Select both shapes and use subtract to make your frame.
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Apply colour to your frame and it should now be hollow like a doughnut.
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To this frame, we can then apply decoration or a border…
Adding a border
This step is purely optional; if you want to skip this step you can, or use offset to create a simple line border.
Fixed borders: geometric frames
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Import a border design or use one of the built-in borders (ScanNCut users)
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Duplicate as many as you need to take the design around your shape; resize it so the height fits the width of your frame.
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You can trim pieces using a rectangle at 45º to mitre the corners for squares or rectangles. Try to pattern match as much as possible. See my post on printed boxes for a method for doing this.
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Draw this pattern and cut out the frame.
Flexible borders: circular and oval frames
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Not all software is capable of this. If you have the ability to use brushes or decorative strokes, this is the time to use them.
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Using a copy of the original panel shape, offset to give you a line midway around the entire frame.
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Apply your decorative stroke and convert it to curves so your cutter can replicate it.
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Draw the stroke and cut the panel.
Additional decorative ideas
You can also import SVG designs to add to your frame. Be sure to add a duplicate solid shape and weld that to your frame if your design extends beyond it.
Another idea is to add a word or title to your frame, but that’s a project for another day.
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