A never ending headache!

Last term I asked my card making group for ideas of projects they would like to do this term and one of the things they asked for was to learn how to make a 'never ending' card. I'd never made one of these, but I confidently said yes of course and put it in the programme. Last weekend I realised that there are less than 3 weeks to the workshop and so I'd better teach myself how to make one of these cards. I set to, using some instructions I'd found on the Internet. However, the finished card turned out to be HUGE. I should have realised, but I somehow thought it would fold down to about half the size! Well, I knew the group would not want to make a card that big so I had to reconfigure all the measurements to make a card 14 cm square, and start again. Mind you, it was good practice making that first card and it helped me to understand how the card works - for example, Face 2 shares parts of two panels on Face 3, so you have to bear this in mind when decorating. I made one card which I decorated mostly with printed papers and just a little stamping. Then I decided to make another but using a lot more stamping and background papers I'd made myself - here is the result.

I chose to go with a vintage, almost steampunk, theme and used a variety of stamps, quite a few by PaperArtsy. The backgrounds were all made with distress inks and water, with the odd spritz of glimmer mist. I was quite pleased with the finished card although it is far from perfect - there are a few wonky edges to some of the panels. You can't stick anything over the creases as this will interfere with the mechanism, so you end up having to measure, cut, decorate and adhere a total of 24 little panels!!! I have to admit that it is great fun folding back and flipping over the sections of the finished card to reveal the 4 different faces, and when you get back to front you just can't resist doing it all again... and again...