Midweek blog #159 - Fault line technique

 Hello & welcome to my blog,

My name is Alison & I am an independent Stampin' Up® demonstrator in Melbourne, Australia. I love creating cards & gifts for my loved ones & this blog will show you how to create something special for those you love. I blog twice a week, once on a Sunday where I mainly showcase a stamp set or dies & sometimes special DSP. My second blog is mid week on a Wednesday where I look at techniques, colour challenges, card sketches, fun folds, tools & equipment & ways to make or improve your projects. That's what this blog is about.

This week I have a fun technique for you called Fault Line. It's a simple technique that creates a torn feature edge on cardstock to expose DSP below.

I played around with the technique to create a landscape & portrait design. Here are the completed cards...

The first card I created was the landscape tear as this is the most common one you find when searching for this technique.

It was created with a Basic White base which measures 29.7cm x 10.5cm & then trimmed to 24cm. This is then scored at 14.85cm. So now you have a regular back to your card but the front has a smaller section from the fold down. You will also need a piece of Basic White measuring 10.5cm x 14.6cm which will be used as a backing for the card front. This is not needed at this stage though.

I chose some beautiful DSP from the Mediterranean Blooms pack for the centre piece, measuring 10.5cm x 10.5cm, and a piece of Lemon Lolly & Night of Navy cardstock, both measuring 8cm x 10.5cm.

Now this is where the technique comes in. Place both pieces of coloured cardstock over the top half of the card, leaving a space at the top & bottom of around 1cm. Holding all three layers together firmly, you then carefully rip from the right edge to the left edge in a diagonal direction making sure that you are careful not to let the coloured cardstock shift. You need all of the three layers to have the same tear line.

Once you have completed the tearing you will have a base with torn edges & a section that was torn off which will be the bottom section of the card front. 

You are now ready to adhere the layers together.

I aligned the Lemon Lolly layer behind the top, front of the Basic White base & applied adhesive, making sure that there was a gap of around 1-1.5cm from the tear line. I then did the same with the Night of Navy piece & adhered it before repeating the process with the section that had been torn off completely for the bottom section.

The DSP was then attached behind the top section of the front, centring it so that there is enough for the bottom section to be adhered to.

With the card laid flat, align the edge of the bottom section with the edge of the back of the card & adhere down to the DSP.

The front is now completed. Take the other piece of Basic White that was cut before & adhere it just under the centre score line so that the card front has some stability & all of the adhered pieces are hidden from behind.

For the edges to appear curled you can either use your fingernails or the spatula end of a Take Your Pick tool & gently curl the edges, one at a time.

Here is a closeup of the curled edges...

The final step was to stamp & decorate the front. I chose Night of Navy ink & Citrus Blooms for the decorative detail & Beautiful Butterflies for the sentiment then added a few Adhesive Backed Solid gems.

Now that I had finished the first card I decided to play around with the orientation as I wanted to use a piece of the Naturally Gilded Specialty DSP & the image was vertical.

I stayed with a Basic White card base, but the measurements were 21cm x 14.85. I trimmed off 4.5cm from the right edge of the card & cut a piece of Copper Clay 14.85cm x 8cm & a 14.85cm x 6.5cm piece of the DSP.

I used the same technique for the ripping, placing the cardstock over the front of the card, ripping vertically this time to create the 2 sections of the card front. The adhesive was applied to the Copper Clay & aligned, the DSP was added, then the right side of the card was adhered, aligning it to the right edge of the card base.

I repeated the Basic White backing & the curling of the edges, just like in the previous card.

The elements on the front were varied as I wanted a metallic element to match the DSP.

The images are from Beautiful Butterflies, heat embossed in Copper.

I then heat embossed a sentiment from the same stamp set in White on a Copper Clay scrap & adhered it, trimming it to fit.

So that's it for this post. I had a lot of fun playing around with this technique. It gives a unique WOW factor to your cards.

My next blog is on Sunday & I will be sharing some creations with the main focus on the DSP.

Next week's mid week blog looks at a different colouring technique.

I hope you can join me for both of them. 

Til next time, take care & keep creating.