In the Country at Cardz 4 Guyz

This week's challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz is In The Country, so we are looking for something in a rural setting. The beautiful Basingstoke Canal runs through Fleet and on out into the surrounding countryside. There is very little traffic on it, in fact much of it in our area isn't navigable and has been preserved to encourage wildlife, and this gorgeous kingfisher scene from the CD Water's Edge by Design House Studios always reminds me of our local canal. Since my husband retired a few months ago he's had many walks beside the canal, enjoying watching the wild birds along the banks.

I've chosen to make a centre stepper card - last year when I went to the Make It show in Farnborough, I went to a shaped card making class with Debbie Moore and she showed us a way to cut and fold one of these in literally a few seconds - no measuring, no templates, no dies, and every card tailor made to suit your chosen topper. She said she was planning to produce a DVD showing how to do that and about a dozen other folds, all of which she demonstrated, but the DVD never appeared. I suspect she was worried about the backlash from the people who manufacture and sell templates for making these cards!

It is very simple though, you just hold the topper in the middle of your card, cut down each side of it to where you want the lower full-width part to finish, fold the two side pieces down at the bottom of the cuts, and then up again level with the bottom of the card, then open the folds out and re-fold them the right way round. It takes a LOT less time to do than to type!

Anyway, here is my card, made with a design sheet and backing paper from the Waters Edge CD.

I am sharing this with

The Crafters café - Things with Wings
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes
Use Your Stuff - Show us an animal
Naughty or Nice - Anything Goes (this is my Nice entry - I'll be back soon with a Naughty one)