Greeting Card with Display Stand

Hello everyone!  Barbara here with a project I know you will enjoy, and most likely NEED! What am I talking about?  Well, it is this nifty little thing called Display Stand by Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts.  

As a matter of fact, you may want two, three, four, or more of these to use to display your artwork.  Or how about decorating it and leaving it flat for mailing with your card? They can insert the sides into the bottom and, because these are made so accurately, the pieces fit together quite tight.  Then, they can display the beautiful card you sent them for all to see!

Let me show you how easy it is to put together.  I chose to keep it simple so it would look great without taking away from the art being displayed.

These are the chipboard pieces with the print paper I have chosen to cover it.

Turn the paper over and trace around the pieces.  Since this particular paper has a direction, i.e., script, you will need to be sure to keep the writing going up  for best results.

Cut out each piece, as shown.  I like to lay it all out before I adhere the papers so I get that script going in the correct direction.

When covering the base, do one side first, then be sure to cut out the holes for fitting the side pieces before covering the other side.  Otherwise, you won't be able to find them.  

Here are a few of the tools I like to use when adhering paper to my chipboard. You can get nice, smooth edges on every piece by first using the craft knife to trim excess paper and cut out around the holes.  Then the emery board works quite nicely for smoothing the edges.  I use a couple of thin metal files to get into tight spots, like the holes, to ensure my "dovetails" will fit nice and tight.

Before gluing the pieces together, I inked the edges with a brown chalk ink.  I find that the chalk ink works better than distress ink for this purpose.

Glue the sides to the base to finish it off.

Now let's work on some art to display.  I thought a simple card would be a nice beginning.  I chose the square Filigree Frame to fit over a piece of art I found in my stash.  I painted it with black chalk paint.

Paint over the black with an iridescent gold acrylic paint for an aged look.

Dry brush burnt umber acrylic paint over the frame for an even more aged look, and to make it better match the colors in my paper.

Choose a stackable label to fit the size of the happy birthday stamp.  Treat the pieces the same way as the frame, but on the top part of the label, leave it gold so the stamping will show up better.  Stamp happy birthday with black archival ink.

Cut card stock and layering paper to A2 (4-1/4" x 5-1/2") size.  These are the pieces used for my card.

Put it all together and there you have a beautiful, finished card.

Supplies used:

Display Stand (coming soon)
Filigree Frames Shape Set
Stackable Labels Shape Set
Acrylic paints
Black archival ink pad
Brown chalk ink pad
Emery board
Craft knife
Metal files
White glue

I hope you enjoyed this fun little project today, and get yourself a bunch of these Display Stands to display all kinds of art work, or to give as gifts.  

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful, creative weekend!

Barbara