'Imagine The Possibilities' Interactive Ladder Folio and Tags featuring Blockheads Stamps and Products!

Hello Stamping Friends!

Could you imagine the possibilities of the many uses for a fun and exciting mini interactive expanding portfolio?  I did when I was inspired to design one using architectural and astrological imagery available from Blockheads Paper Arts!  The Ladder Folio I designed has 3 pockets where I imagined I could write down my 3 wishes on the matching decorative tags I made.  I could also tuck in notes on my goals and keepsakes relating to my wishes!   The Ladder Folio is perfect for scrapbook pages, embellishing an Altered Book page or for mini books of any kind!  The possibilities really are limitless so lets get started on the construction before you dream away the rest of your day ;0) 

Just a note:  I apologize in advance if any of the line spacing, links or fonts are really weird in this tutorial!  Blogger doesn't support Mac users and even though I'm using Firefox as they suggest my posts still go completely nuts in places once I publish regardless of how much I edit the html before hand :0(

The Ladder Folio Construction!

To construct the Ladder Folio I used the following supplies:

Black cardstock, 

Martha Steward Scoring Board

Paper Trimmer and Scissors

pencil and ruler

Xacto knife

Circle punch

Double sided sticky tape

This is another tricky project to do like my Spring 3D Pop-Up Easter Egg Card, so I made a template based on the measurements of my ladder folio design that I created just for this project for you to use.  My tutorial will walk you through each step so I'm sure you'll be able to follow along!  Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments section if you get lost!

From black cardstock I cut out:

one 3" x 11" panel, one square 3" x 3" panel, two square 3.25" x 3.25" cover panels.

 

The long panel is the ladder part of the design.  Score the fold lines on a score board.  I really like the Martha Stewart version because it has grooves evenly spaced across the entire board.  Also score the fold lines on the three envelopes too.  Punch half circle notches out of the envelopes with a circle punch.

Cut out the sections with an Xacto knife.

Fold the ladder section like an accordian, starting and finishing with a mountain fold.  Adhere the back square panel to the last fold with double sided sticky tape.

 

 

Fold the envelopes with the top flap folded backwards and adhere together with strips of double sided sticky tape on the side flaps.

All the main components of the Ladder Folio are now ready for stamping! 

 

 

The Stamping!

To decorate the components of the Ladder Folio I used the following supplies:

Blockheads Paper Arts rubber stamps:

Stargazer Sheet

Architecture Sheet AR501

Backgrounds For All Occassions BG501

White cardstock

Brilliance Platinum Planet pigment ink

Versafine Onyx Black instant dry pigment ink

ColorBox Fluid Chalk inks:

Lavender, Wisteria, French Blue, Prussian Blue

Stipple brushes

Marvy corner punch

Marvy Tag punch or Spellbinder die

Paper Trimmer and Scissors

pencil and ruler

Post-It notes

I started off by stamping the front of the three envelopes with a combination of two background stamps, the retro border and the diamond background.  Placing the two stamps on the acrylic block together as one unit makes stamping the design much easier!  I also used a scrap piece of paper to mask the half circle notch to ensure I didn't stamp on the inside of the envelopes too.  I used Brilliance Platinum Planet silver pigment ink to stamp the images and put them aside to dry.  

I also stamped the retro border image onto the 7th and 8th fold of the accordian in Brilliance Platinum Planet and used post-it notes to mask the areas I didn't want to stamp.

I created a colourful background by applying Lavender and French Blue Fluid Chalk inks to white cardstock with stipple brushes.

For the covers of the Ladder Folio and the tags I stamped the following:

2 of the Stargazer collage, 2 of the Architectural collage and one of the second Architectural collage that comes with the stamp set as well as the 'Imagine the Possibilities' saying in Versafine Onyx Black onto the coloured cardstock and cut out one each of two of the images to make two 3" x 3" square panels for the covers and a narrow panel for the saying.  The remaining images I used to punch out 3 tages.

 

At this point I used a corner punch on the three panels so that all the card edges would be emphasized when I applied the darker inks in the next step.

 

I applied Prussian Blue Chalk ink to just the outer edge areas of the blue sections with a stipple brush.

And did the same to the purple areas with Wisteria Chalk ink.

Everything is now ready to start assembling the Ladder Folio!

 The Ladder Folio!

Double sided sticky tape and permanent adhesive tape runner 

Permanent glue dots and Crafter's Pick Ultimate glue

Purple/Blue Ladder Fibers, Silver cord and Silver elastic cord

Silver metallic paint pen 

Triangle hole punch

Mini purple staples

Galvanized wheel washer

Sticker jewel

Foam tape

Start assembling the Ladder Folio by sliding the first envelop through the first slot and fold the flap over the first rung of the ladder.

 Adhere the envelope flap to the back of the first ladder rung.

Do the same for the second envelope.

The third envelope flap goes through the top narrow slot and adheres to the back of the last ladder rung.

 Edge the two black cover panels with a silver metallic paint pen and adhere them to the Ladder Folio panel with double sided sticky tape.

 

Then adhere the two stamped panels to the Ladder Folio covers with permanent adhesive tape.

At this point I made the 'closure' for Ladder Folio out of the 'Imagine the Possibilities' panel.  I attached the stamped panel to a slightly larger piece of black cardstock and then adhered the two ends of a length of silver elastic cord to the back with double sided sticky tape and also secured the ends with mini purple staples.  I wanted the staples to show but you could always hide them by adhering the stamped panel to the cardstock after stapling!  To make up for the thickness of the elastic cord apply two strips of foam tape to the back of the cardstock and then adhere to another piece of black cardstock.

 

Adhere the 'closure' panel to the front cover of the Ladder Folio with permanent glue dots.

 

Punch triangle holes in the three tags.

And embellish with purple/blue ladder fiber and silver cord.

Embellish the front of the 'closure' panel with a galvanized metal washer that looks like a wheel cog and a sticker jewel in the center for extra bling!  I used Crafter's Pick Ultimate glue to adhere the washer.

The finished Ladder Folio can be displayed standing up and held closed by pulling the elastic cord round to the back.

 

Or it can hang up on a wall with all the ladder rungs expanded for easy access to the little envelope pockets!  You could have many of these decorating your work space or your crafty space with all sorts of goodies tucked into the pockets!

 

I hope you enjoyed my project and will stop by every week for another of my Blockheads Design Team tutorials!  Don't forget to also check out my fellow Design Teamster's blog for more Blockheads creations!  Karen has a great faux linen technique for you to try out!

Stamping Hugs!

THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN

Blockheads Design Team