Fussy Cutting With Mintay Papers

 While cleaning up craft supplies, ran across this beautiful 6x6 Mintay Papers paper pad, called Woodland, I picked up a year or 2 ago. Their papers are so delicious in detail! I also recently watched a YouTube technique video featuring similar Ciao Bella papers, another one of my favorites. Not in English, but I experimented with measurements after watching this fun lovely video! My version can’t compare, but I think my just turning 3 years old grandson won’t mind the imperfections! I decided to share it in case I could inspire others.

I found a coordinating paper I could use for the accordion folds that make up the frame of the shadowbox style card. I knew I didn’t need to fit a normal card envelope as it would be too thick, so I was free to pick and choose the size I wanted. I picked Kraft card stock for the base and used my Scor-pal to create about a 3/4” back. I started by folding the paper with 1/4” folds. I’d say for this first experiment I used about 6 folds. I cut 2 about 5 1/2” strips. I did this again for the top and bottom of the frame, this time, I believe the size was more like 4 1/2” size. I then carefully meshed the ends of a short strip and a long strip together. Continuing to gently nudge then tightly together, then gluing the top and bottom of both sides. (Again, the talented artist in the video was much better than I at this, but I tried hard… here’s the video… https://youtu.be/MXVFb3ZYa9w). I did this same process on all 4 corners.

Once completed, I adhered it to the paper I used as the bottom layer. I then added a top layer using paper from the same pack and made sure I created a mitered corner look. I adhered it to the card base and added papers to all sides except the back.I then started fussy cutting! My little guy is getting into “qurrel” (squirrels) and “bur” (birds), etc! So I wanted to capture as much wildlife as I could. Basically, you use the folds in the accordion frame to create different elevated heights of the cutouts.

The only stamp I used was from a Unity stamp set for the cover. I ended up spritzing everything with white paint and Perfect Pearls. I also sprayed a couple fake flowers to match the colors in the kit so I could tuck them in as well. To complete the storybook, I added ribbon, a metal leaf and Nuvo drops.

Must admit, this was a very fun experiment and for a first try, it didn’t turn out too bad. In reality, ephemera pack cutouts or cutouts from a 12x12 collection pack would have made larger more visible images. But I still had a heck of a lot of fun putting this together. I had been considering using stamps to create the images to insert, but that’s a much more complicated effort, and then you have other considerations…such as, finding coordinating stamp sets with similar sized images, styles and perspective. 

Hope you enjoy this idea and give it a try! 

Thanks for stopping by! Happy crafting, till next time!