Easy Easel Card--A Tutorial

Hello! Thank you for visiting my tutorial for and Easy Easel Card. There are no shortages of easel card tutorials out there. I've looked at quite a few of them. And many of them are easy. But hey, I thought we needed another one, so here is my take on an easel card! :-)

Here's my sample--what I wound up with:

Here are the steps I took to make it. Hope you can follow along. If something isn't clear, please just send me an email (address is in my right side bar,) I'd love to hear from you.

Step One--The Measuring (don't be spooked, it is easy!)

Decide how large square you'd like your card to be. I wanted mine 6" x 6". So I'll work with those measurements, then I'll tell you how to measure to make one any size you'd like.

We'll cut just the framework of your card for now.
First you'll need a piece of card stock, 6" x 12" for your base of your easel portion of your card.
Then another piece of card stock for the base of the front of your card, 6" x 6" (in my sample, this base is where the flowers and and image are.)
And one more piece around 2" or 2.5" inches (up to you really) by 6". This is for the panel that will hold your easel face of your card up and show when the card is in the easel position. (On my sample it is the pink piece that has the bow on it.)

Set aside the smaller pieces for now, and let's talk about scoring the easel base portion. Here comes the tiniest bit of math, but if you know it, you can make an easel card any size you'd like. You could even use your knowledge to make a card in a shape other than a square, like a rectangle, or even a circle!

First, you have to find the center of your long side of your base of your easel. In my case, my card stock is 12" long, so the center point is at 6" So, score it at 6".

Since I scored at 6", I have to the left of my score a 6" by 6" square. To the right of my score at the 6" mark, I also have a 6" x 6" square, don't I? I need to score that part to the right of my 6" score at it's halfway mark, in order to make the easel for my card to display on. So, that's one half of 6", which is 3". So I scored three inches over from my midpoint score. Here's a photo to make it a bit clearer.

(As a side note, here's the secret to make any size square card. Cut your easel base twice as long as the width. Then, when you score, put one score in the in the half way point. And another at the half way point of that right hand square you just made with your first score. So a 5" square card would be a 10" x 5" easel base, for example. And you'd score at 5" and then again 2.5" to the right of that first score.)

Breathe easy, the measuring is over, ha! :-)


Now to fold the easel base.

Fold the card on each fold line.

Now you have your base of your easel card ready to decorate. I decorated the inside first. Just as I would in a typical card, I used a 5.5" x 5.5" piece of white cardstock for writing, and matted it with a 5.75" x 5.75" piece of contrasting cardstock. Then, I placed the 2.5 " x 6" piece that I cut of the pink cardstock at the bottom half of the inside of the card. This leaves a bit of room to write, but allows for room to decorate the pink cardstock with whatever you choose. Here's the way it looks before decorating.

Here's what it looks like decorated.

You'll want to also find some way to make a stopper for your easel. In this case, I used a large green brad, as you can see in the photo above. I've seen folks use buttons, a row of small brads, and a number of other things. You may have to play around with the placement of your stopper so that your card stands up at a good angle.

Now for decorating your card front. In my case I used a 6" x 6" piece of orange cardstock. You can use your favorite sketch, images and embellishments. When you are done, adhere your card front along the bottom of your short fold, pictured here. Be sure to line up the bottom edge of the base and the bottom edge of your card front. If you don't, your card won't be square all the way around when you close the card and won't fit into the envelope. (Ask me how I know this. . .No wait, don't ask me how I know this.) 

Here's a photo of how mine went on.

I placed a piece of designer paper on the back of my card front where the back was showing above the easel fold. 

And here's the finished product again:

And there you have it! If you read through and I've left something out or you have questions, please send me an email (a link to my address is in my sidebar.) Thanks for looking and happy stampin'! Lisa :-)