How to create an awesome diorama card!

Hello Prickley Pear Stamp fans! Leslie here, from Love To Scrap 2, sharing another project using the gorgeous Cardinals stamp set with coordinating Cardinal die! I posted a stand-alone Winter home decor project yesterday morning (that post is HERE) and promised to come back with a similar but slightly different diorama project using that same stamp set and die plus one additional die (the Pine Branch die set), so here I am with a diorama card that folds flat for mailing! I also used the Cardinals 2 and Fall Leaves stamp sets, AND I have cutting and scoring instructions for you to make your own diorama card, so let’s get started!

If you are more of a visual kind of person (like I am), here is a photo of the template showing the cutting dimensions, scoring and placement of the aperture. The vertical lines are the score lines, and I cut an oval aperture but you can use whatever shape you want.

To create the base, cut an 8-1/2″ x 5-1/2″ piece of 110# cardstock and score at 1/2″, 1-1/4″, 5-1/2″ and 6-1/4″ on the long side. Keeping the cardstock in the orientation shown in the photo above, cut an aperture on the right side. 

Cut a 5″ x 5-1/2″ piece of cardstock for the front flap. 

Fold all the score lines and adhere the 1/2″ flap to the inside to form a box. Use a bone folder if necessary to get good creases and to ensure that the box folds flat. Adhere the front flap to the left side of the box. When the front flap is closed, the box will shift to the right and fold flat. 

Now it’s time to decorate the front flap and create the inside element that the recipient will see when they open the card! I cut a red and white striped panel and adhered it to the front. I used the music/pine bough and sentiment stamps from the Cardinals 2 stamp set on a smaller panel which I embellished with washi tape and layered on red cardstock. I outlined the pine fronds with a green alcohol marker and then adhered a stamped and die cut pine cone (which I mention below) and added some snowflake bling on the left of the panel. 

For the inside element, I die cut ten pine branches from green cardstock and four pine cones from brown cardstock using the Pine Branch die set. I used the pine cone stamp from the Fall Leaves stamp set to make the pine cones look a little more realistic, and adhered one to the front panel which I mentioned above. I arranged the pine branches, the remaining three stamped and die cut pine cones and three winter berries (created with a 1/2″ circle punch) on a 1-1/4″ punched circle to keep everything contained and easier to adhere to the inside. You can omit this step and adhere the pine branches directly to the inside if you want. I stamped the cardinal from the Cardinals 2 stamp set and die cut it with the Cardinal die, then layered three additional cardinal die cuts behind the stamped one for a little dimension, and adhered it to the pine branches. I used a little grit paste on a paint brush to create faux snow on the pine branches, pine cones and winter berries and let it dry for about 15 minutes or so, then adhered the element inside the box to be viewed from inside the aperture. The final touch was stamping, trimming and layering the sentiment, and adhering to the inside across the top left of the aperture at an angle.

And here’s a photo showing the card folded flat for mailing. The diorama box is 4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″ but the folded flat dimension is 5″ x 5-1/2″. 

Prickley Pear Stamps products used:
Cardinals and Cardinals 2 stamp sets
Cardinal die
Pine Branch die set
Fall Leaves stamp set