How to make a double easel card.

One of my favourite card folds is the double easel, and just about every time I make one I get comments like "That looks complicated" or "I wish I knew how to do that" so I thought I would  share with you just how simple it is. A scoring board will help you to make your card base very quickly.

I usually use an A4 sized piece of cardstock but any size will do. Score the centre line but don't fold it yet. Then measure up from the bottom left hand corner the same distance as from the corner to the centre fold and mark the edge. Cut across from the mark to the centre fold, making sure you keep the cut parallel to the long edge.

You will have a long strip and a square, each attached to the other side along one edge.

Now measure the centre of the long strip (if you are using A4 card and have half and quarter A4 measurements on your scoring board, the measuring is all done for you) and score it.

Move on to the lower square and score from the point where the square, strip and other side meet to the bottom left corner of the square.  This is the most important step because somehow the opposite diagonal looks more sensible, but if you do it that way your easel will point outwards from the card and look peculiar.

Your piece of card will now look like the diagram above, where dotted lines are score lines and solid lines are cuts. Make valley folds along all the score lines and burnish them well with a bone folder, and your card is ready to decorate as you wish, remembering to include raised elements on the base to act as "stops" to keep the easels standing up.  I'll end this post with photos of some of the many cards I have made this way to give you some ideas.  I often add more and thicker embellishments to the base  than I usually would to the inside of a card, after all the stops are going to stop it from closing fully anyway so why not go the whole hog!

One final tip - after completing your card, or indeed any fancy fold card, grab that bone folder again and re-burnish all your folds. You'll really notice the difference in the way  the card stands and lies.