Matthew 17:20 Tri-Fold Card

This week's cards for the shut ins at my church was designed with a Stampin' Up ("Mountain Air") set I won in a recent Creative Creases Challenge. This set appealed to me for several reasons. First, these are amazing stamps for creating nature scenes. Second, I had never tried reversible stamps before, and the idea intrigued me. Third, there are a lot of scriptures that speak about mountains, so I should be able to use this set to design several different Christian cards. I think it will be a versatile addition to my stamp collection. If you are interested in this set or other lovely Stampin' Up items, click here to shop the catalog under Debbie Mageed's name: Shop For Stamps, Paper, Project Kits, & Other Incredible Products (stampinup.com)  Thank you so much for the beautiful set, Debbie! 

To make the most of these stamps, I wanted to create a scene with some depth to it, so I decided to go with a tri-fold card. My first attempt was based on a card that used letter-sized paper. The disadvantage of that design was that the back panel of the card just flopped down. I wanted it to stand up, so I added a hinged panel to the back of the card. I ended up with a base that was 11 inches in length and 5 1/2 inches in width. I scored it at the 1 1/2 inch mark, the 3 inch mark, the 5 1/2 inch mark, and the 8 inch mark. Then I cut another piece of paper for the hinge that measured 5 1/2 by 3 1/2. I scored it at the half inch mark and folded that over to adhere to the back panel of the base card. The hinge is covered by the blue sky panel once the card is assembled. 

The verse I chose for these cards comes from the passage where Jesus told His disciples: "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you" (Matthew 17:20-21).  I like how Alyssa Roat summed up this passage: "The Lord has the power to move mountains. Our faith is in Him to do so. Nothing will be impossible for us because 'nothing will be impossible with God'" (Luke 1:37). Here's the link to the article I took the quote from if you'd like to read the rest of Alyssa's commentary: https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/true-ways-your-faith-can-move-mountains.html  

Here's a look at the card from the front and from the side. You can see how I folded it accordion style. 

I wanted to show the stamp set I used to give you an idea of what stamps are in it. The individual stamps are reversible. So fun! And so brilliant! Each stamp can make a shadow or a more detailed depiction depending on which side you use. I've used the mountain and tree line shadows as well as the reverse side of the moon stamp to make it look like the sun. 

This was my prototype card where I embossed the reverse side of the clouds with white embossing powder and used different colors for the mountains. I chose a verse that wound up being too long to see clearly due to the limited space at the front of the card. In the future, I may use this card design but put the trees at the front, the mountains in the middle, and the verse in the back so I can use a longer verse and still have it be easy to read. 

Here's a close up of the clouds so you can see what the reverse side of the cloud stamp looks like when I used Versamark ink and then white embossing powder (they would normally be solid white, but the original paper I chose had texture to it):

There's room on the back to write a message:

There is a coordinating set of dies available if you don't like fussy cutting. I fussy cut all the elements except the verse on the front of the card (which I cut with my Silhouette Cameo) but may decide to purchase the matching dies in the near future:

The card folds flat to mail in an A2 envelope (it will require extra postage due to the thickness):

I stamped the mountain shadow stamp with Versamark and used silver embossing powder for that layer. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the mountain background has a lovely silver shine in real life:

Finished set of cards: 

Challenges I'm entering:

Classic Design Challenge Blog: ATG (unlimited entries; ends at the end of the month)

Through The Craft Room Door (ttcrd.blogspot.com): ATG (2/4 ends on 9/27)

Taylormadecards4u: ATG with option of food and beverage (3/3 ends on September 30)

Creative Fingers Challenge Blog: ATG (2/3 ends on 9/23)

Moving Along With The Times: Trees and/or Leaves (1/3 ends at the end of the month)

Anything Goes With a Fun Fold for Creative Creases #41 (secretstamper.com) (ends on September 30)

Gem of A Craft Challenge (pinkgemchallengeblog.blogspot.com): ATG (2/3 ends September 23)

Festive Friday Challenge (theoutlawzchallenges-friday.blogspot.com): Nature

613 Avenue Create (avenue613.blogspot.com): ATG (2/8 ends on September 30)

Sweet Stampers Challenge: Add a sentiment

Word Art Wednesday: ATG

The Paper Funday Challenges: ATG with option of Thinking of You (5/6 ends on October 2; winners announced on October 5)

little red wagon (lilredwagon.blogspot.com): Anything but square or rectangle; ends 9/20)

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

Crafty Catz (craftycatzweeklychallenge.blogspot.com): ATG with option of use metal (I used silver embossing powder for the shadow behind the mountains) (2/3 ends on 9/22)