Tri Shutter Tutorial

I have had a few questions about this Tri Shutter Card from my previous post. So I hope this post will answer them!
Here is a photo of mine again...

Tri Shutter Card

First, where did I find out about them?  

I have a search that I do when I am wanting something new but I am experiencing 'creators block' (!!).  I do a Google image search for 'handmade cards'.  I browse through the images and sometimes I end up spending my craft time discovering new blogs and websites!  However, sometimes I find some really cute ideas that power up my creative engine!  This was definitely one of those of power up days!!  My image browsing brought me to this site...SewDelish.  Here is the image that caught my eye;

 

I went back to my search and changed it to 'tri shutter card' and what the ????????? Where have I been?  Am I the LAST one in the crafting world to find out about these??  Oh I have got to browse more. Ha! instead of get out more / browse more!  Sometimes I crack myself up!!  Anyway, I digress...

I went back to SewDelish's and I clicked on the tutorial she referred to and... Big Surprise... it's Splitcoaststampers!!  I looked through it and was already suspicious of something I didn't think would work well for me so I went to work figuring this thing out!!  Here's are a few things I learned through this process...

When deciding to make one of these rewarding beauties you need to first decide what size you want it to be when it is closed.  I had just purchased a box of envelopes for a super good price and wanted to use one of those.  They are for 5 x 7 cards.  So I got out my scrap paper, ruler and thinking cap.  Hey, I think my next project will be to make me a real thinking cap!!  Sorry, again I digress...  After looking at the card and figuring out the mechanics of it here is the simple 'formula' I cam up with...  First a drew a template so to speak for illustration purposes..

Tri Shutter Card Template: score lines-Black, cut lines-Red, size of card when closed-Green area

Okay so basically you take the width of the closed card and divide by 2.  In this case, 5 divided by 2=2.5".  This gives you the measurements of the two smaller panels on the sides.  Then for measuring for the top and bottoms panels, you want the center to be greater than the top and bottom by at least an inch.  So for this card the top and bottom are 2" and the center is 3", totally 7".

Now what to do you do with all those calculations and measurements you ask!!  Well, you start scoring and cutting...Except, First...do you notice the areas that look like T's on their side on both outer sides of the card.  The tutorial from above as well as others I looked at said to score the complete height of the card at the given intervals (for this card it would be 2.5", 5", 10", 12.5")  the first time around, I did it that way.  I know it makes it easier to score but it scores that middle section which makes it fold less gracefully than if you don't.  So I tried it again and did not score that section at all and I think it makes a big difference.  For example, the first score line I started at 2.5" from the left and proceeded to score until I scored 2 inches then picked up my scoring bone and went down three inches and started again and scored to the bottom and did the same thing at 5", 10" and 12.5".

Now that you have all that scoring out of the way, get your cutting tool and cut along the cut lines.  then you simply fold the top and bottom panels using mountain / valley and waalaa, you have a tri shutter card.  Just lay it flat on your work surface again and embellish to your heart's desire!!

Well, I hope I explained this well and you are able to follow through with me and be able to make your what ever size you want.  If you any questions, just leave a comment and I will do my best to answer.

Thanks for stopping by,
Shabby Jo