Ask designer Susan Cobb what her favorite paper crafting supply is right now and she’ll tell you: “Slide mounts! I love them!”

Susan says one of her favorite techniques is to cover the slide mount with paper, then glue it to frame a window cut into the front of her card. “I cover the slide mount with paper, trimming around both inner and outer edges with an X-acto® knife. Then I cover a blank card front with coordinating paper and cut a window in the center of the card front. The slide mount gets glued to over the window to frame it.” Glue an embellishment to the inside of the card so it shows through the front window and you have an instant focal point for your card.

Want to try Susan’s technique for yourself? Take a look at her pretty Dreams card and these tips to see exactly how she did it.

Supplies:

• Cardmaker’s™ Part not in database (may have been discontinued): #7234
• Cardmaker’s™ Definitions Card Quotes
• Cardmaker’s™ Earth Tones Ribbons
• Cardmaker’s™ Jumbo Slide Mounts
• Cardmaker’s™ Large Square Slide Mounts
• Cardmaker’s™ Gold & Silver Mini Clips
• Chalks: Part not in database (may have been discontinued): #pn860007
• 5”x6 1/2” blank card
• X-acto® knife
• cutting mat
• stick glue

Place the card with the fold at the top, then trim only the card front from 5 down to 4 1/4”. Cover the card front with brown leaves paper. Tear the left edge of a 3 1/2”x 4 1/4” piece of dream paper and glue it to the right side of the card front. Cover a jumbo slide mount with tan canvas paper and a large slide mount with brown canvas paper.

Use the X-acto® and cutting mat to cut a 2 1/4” square window in the card front. Glue the jumbo slide mount over the window, leaving the bottom left corner unglued. Center the large slide mount inside the window and attach it to the jumbo slide mount with two clips as shown.

Cut out the quote and chalk it brown and tan. Mat it on tan vellum, then glue it to the card front tucked under the slide mount. Attach a clip to the left side. Glue a length of ribbon to the right edge as shown, trimming the ends even with the card. Tie a small length of ribbon around it.

For the inside: Place the fold at the top and open the card. Cover just the bottom half of the card with canvas paper. Cut a 6 1/2”x1/4” strip of burlap paper and glue it even with the bottom edge of the card inside. Cut a 1 3/4” square of dream paper and double-mat it on burlap and vellum. Glue it centered on the card inside.

Another great thing about slide mounts? Susan says: “Paper slide mounts don’t add bulk, weight, or rough edges to your projects, so they’re great for putting on a card that’s being mailed.”

Susan Cobb is a scrapbook page designer for Hot Off The Press and the author of Susan’s Paper Engineering Secrets and a co-author of Cardmaker’s Idea Book.