Sweet Citrus Carousel Card for Creative Creases Challenge

Today I have the privilege of being a guest designer for my favorite fun fold challenge: Creative Creases. Thanks for inviting me to be a GD, Debbie! If you enjoy making fun fold cards, you'll find a lot of great inspiration at CCC. Here's the link Creative Creases Challenge Archives - Secrets to Stamping (secretstamper.com) to join the fun!

Two of my nieces have July birthdays, so for the first one, I wanted to make a citrus-themed card. I pulled out my SU! Sweet Citrus stamps, dies, and hybrid embossing folder and got busy stamping, embossing, ink blending, and die cutting elements for this card. Then I watched a video tutorial on creating a carousel card because who doesn't love a card that spins, right? If you'd like to try a carousel card, here's the video I watched: 🔴 How to Make an Out-of-This-World Space-Themed Carousel Card in Minutes! - YouTube. Tami's card only has four squares, but I wanted my card to be a bit fuller (plus I had all those elements I had stamped, embossed, and die cut to use!), so I added two more squares to my carousel card base, but the instructions for forming the squares are the same as in the video. 

After cutting and scoring all 6 squares, I adhered them together to form the base of the card. I love my SU! paper trimmer for projects where I need to both cut and score because it has attachments for both. After assembling the card base, I chose some great design papers for the bottom of the squares as well as the background for the top of the squares. I had some papers in my stash that I thought went great with my citrus theme. In the video tutorial I linked above, Tami cuts and scores the design paper for the bottom of the squares, but I decided to cut the squares on the diagonal and avoid having to line up score lines and bend the design paper over the scored card base. Instead I just cut the squares into two pieces and kept an even border around all the pieces as I glued them down. 

Then came the fun part! I arranged all the little grapefruit, lime, lemon, and oranges pieces I had stamped, embossed, and die cut as well as the little flowers and leaves from the same Sweet Citrus SU! set that I stamped and die cut on the squares to decorate everything. I had a 4 sentiments I had stamped, and I fussy cut two of them and die cut two of them to add to some of the panels. Then I played with some pink specialty paper that shrinks up like Shrinky Dink paper when I use my heat tool on it. I used the flower stamps and dies from the Sweet Citrus set on the specialty paper and then put the pieces on my glass mat and held them down with my craft tweezers while I used my heat tool on them. It was so much fun to watch them shrink up! I felt like a kid again! Anyone else remember playing with Shrinky Dinks? 😂 Then I added those little embellishments to 2 of my sentiment panels and love the dimension and fun they add to the card. 

I've included photos of all the different panels (each one is different from the others) and a video of the card in motion at the end. If you are interested in purchasing the Sweet Citrus stamps, dies, and/or embossing folder and don't have a Stampin' Up demonstrator already, I've linked the items below to my friend Debbie Mageed online SU! store. It's such a versatile and fun set! Besides making lemons, limes, oranges, and grapefruits, some of the stamps/dies can be coconuts with a little creativity! Plus you can emboss and die cut the images in the different colors of card stock and just use a little ink blending if you don't want to bother with stamping the images. 

Top views of the card: 

Close ups of the panels when holding the folds down:

1st set of panels:

2nd set of panels:

3rd set of panels (the flower embellishments on the "It's time to celebrate you" sentiment are from the shrinkable specialty paper stamped and die cut with the flowers from the Sweet Citrus SU! sets):

4th set of panels (the flower embellishments on the "Birthday blessings to you" sentiment are also from the shrinkable specialty paper stamped and die cut with the flowers from the Sweet Citrus SU! sets):

 

5th set of panels:

6th set of panels:

Another top view:

Here's what it looks like when closed. I'm going to hand deliver the card, so I wasn't worried about how thick it was. I also didn't decorate the front or back panels because they don't show when the card is open:

I chose to use tiny magnets to make the card stay open, and I couldn't believe how strong they are! Even through several layers of paper, they snap together to hold the two ends of the card open. 
 

Here's a look at how the card spins:

If you'd like to purchase the Sweet Citrus set, I've included photos and links to Debbie Mageed's online SU! store below:

Sweet Citrus Stamp Set by Stampin’ Up! (stampinup.com)

Sweet Citrus Hybrid Embossing Folder by Stampin’ Up! (stampinup.com)

Challenges I'm entering:

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge (trimmiescraftchallenge.blogspot.com): Shaped Card (1/2; ends 8/2/23)

Tic Tac Toe Challenge - Inspiring creativity 8-ways each week: Middle row horizontal: Any color, free, sentiment (1/3; ends 7/27/23)

Ellibelle's Corner: Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday (simplyellibelle.com): ATG (1/3; ends at the end of the month)

Ellibelle's Corner: I spy with my little eye (simplyellibelle.com) Sweet Treat or Summer Colors (1/5; ends 8/13/23)

The Crafty Addicts: ATG (1/3; ends 8/1/23)

Word Art Wednesday: ATG (1/5 for the week; 1/10 for the challenge; ends 8/2/23)

A Place To Start (hereisaplacetostart.blogspot.com): ATG (ends at the end of the month)

Crafting Happiness Challenges: ATG (ends at the end of the month)

 613 Avenue Create (avenue613.blogspot.com): ATG (8/8; ends at the end of the month)

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge ...: ATG (3/3; ends 8/5/23)

Crafts Galore Encore Challenge Blog (cardsgalorechallenges.blogspot.com): ATG (3/3; ends at the end of the month) DT Favorite 7/31/23

Daisy Chain Challenges: Summertime (2/3; ends 8/5/23)

The Diva's that cut ....paper! (die-cut-divas.blogspot.com): Birthday (3/4; ends at the end of the month)

DL.ART (dianamlarson.blogspot.com): ATG (ends at the end of the month)

fourseasons (thefourseasonschallenge.blogspot.com): ATG summer

The Creative Crafters (creativecrafterschallenge.blogspot.com): ATG (3/3; ends 8/15/23) Top 3 Pick 8/15/23

The Crafting Challenge: Summer Time (3/3; ends at the end of the month)

Scribbles Designs Challenge Blog: Say it with flowers (2/3; ends 8/15/23)

Scribble Challenge (rabiscochallenge.blogspot.com): ATG (5/5; ends at the end of the month)

{PIN}spirational Challenges (pinspirationalchallenges.blogspot.com): Birthday and Summertime Vibes (ends at the end of the month) DT Favorite 8/1/23

Mix It Up Challenge Blog: ATG with option of aperture (1/5; ends 8/16/23)

Love To Scrap Challenge Blog: ATG (1/8 ends 8/14/23)

Love To Craft Challenge Blog: ATG (1/8; ends 8/14/23)

Let's Craft and Create (letscreatechallenges.blogspot.com): Add flowers (3/3; ends at the end of the month)