Today’s post features four Book Binding fun fold cards, including one Christmas card and three made with the Garden Dandy Suite and Gilded Foiling!
Unusual opening style cards are just the best so when I recently saw this simple layout I knew I just had to play with it. The card in the photo below is the first of several Book Binding Fun Fold Cards that I’ve created. This one was a Team Creative Play event project. It uses the Dragonfly Garden Bundle, Dandy Garden Designer Paper, and Gilded Leafing that’s coming in the new Jan – Jun MiniCatalog. I just love how shiny and special the Gilded Leafing makes the images look.

If you’re not familiar with Gilded Leafing, you’re in for a treat! It’s a bit messy but there are a number of fun ways to use it, some of which I’ll be sharing with you today. All you need is a sticky surface or image for the Gilded Leafing to stick to and you’re good to go!

Method #1: Stamp your image with Versamark, cover with Heat & Stick Powder, heat to melt, and quickly press into the Gilded Leafing. You’ll then need to remove the excess from around the image with a sponge.

For this next card, everything is the same except I used a different piece of the Dandy Garden designer paper along the binding. Isn’t the addition of the blue in the paper so pretty?!



Now if you’re like me, you might be asking yourself why not just heat emboss with gold embossing powder? It’s definitely less messy!
I created a focal piece to compare the look of the gold embossing powder with the Gilded Leafing. Can you see that the gold embossed images are not as shiny and bright as the Gilded Foiling? Here they are side by side:

That said, you may also be able to see that with the gilded leafing you loose a bit of the fine detail of the images as compared to the gold heat embossing. They are both pretty but clearly have pros and cons to each.

For this next pair of Book Binding fun fold cards, I went in a completely different direction.
I’ve created a Christmas Card with the Perfectly Plaid Stamp Set and Pine Tree Punch. Plus, I’ve reoriented my card so that it’s a landscape orientation. This required playing around with the scoring dimensions a tiny bit. In this case the binding measures 1-¼” instead of 1″.

The only challenging aspect to making this card was tying the ribbon around the binding. Since I used both ribbon and gold twine layered on top of one another it was a bit tricky to do. I simply placed my ribbon with the twin on top of one another on the backside of my card binding, folded the layered ribbon around the front and used binder clips to hold it in place.
Here’s a visual of the back side of my card:

Here’s a visual of the front side of my card:

Another fun option is to attach the binding so that you leave a pocket for a gift card.
Here’s what I did:

There’s more! I’ve still got 2 more Book Binding fun fold cards to show you AND 3 additional methods for using the Gilded Foiling!
This next card is of course a variation on the first card. I just reoriented and pretty much used the same focal piece, just smaller.


For this one, I’ve stamped the images in the background with Versamark. Then, I used the heat & stick powder with the Gilded Foiling for my dragonflies and then punched them out with the Dragonfly punch.

The bottom dragonfly is attached with mini dimensionals only at the center so the wings can “fly”. The top dragonfly is attached with two layers of mini glue dots so they’d be raised up a little bit but not as much as the other one. Plus, check out the adorable little Ladybug Trinket in the lower right hand corner!


Here’s my trio of Book Binding fun fold cards made with the Dandy Garden Product Suite and Gilded Foiling.
I just love this dramatic color scheme and love how they all look together.

Next, I experimented with a few other ways to use the Gilded Foiling.
I started with using adhesive sheets with die-cut shapes in 2 different ways…
- Option #1: Attach a piece of card stock to an adhesive sheet, die-cut the shape, removed the backing to expose the adhesive, and place the shape into the Gilded Foiling. In this case, it was hard to get clean edges and the die-cut shape was delicate to work with.
- Option #2: Attach a piece of card stock to an adhesive sheet, removed the backing to expose the adhesive, cover the whole sheet in the Gilded Foiling, and then die-cut the shape. I got cleaner edges in this case and didn’t have to worry about tearing my delicate die-cut shapes while removing the gilded foiling.
Here are some of my die-cut shapes and an adhesive sheet I covered with the gilded foiling.

Isn’t the full sheet so pretty!?

During my Facebook Live video, I showed and/or created all the pieces you see below.
- The snowflake was created by die-cutting a foam adhesive sheet and then covering it with the gilded foiling.
- The foliage shape was cut out of a sheet covered with the gilded foiling.
- I also showed one additional method for using the gilded foiling using the new Painted Texture 3D embossing folder.
Watch my video at the end of this post for all the details.

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing all my Book Binding fun fold cards and that you’ve loved learning about the Gilded Foiling too!

If you especially love the Dandy Garden products you may want to check out my “Taste of a Suite” product share for this suite. You can get a little bit of all the consumable products I’ve shown today and more without buying whole packs of anything! You GET MORE BUT SPEND LESS!
Plus, in the last 20 minutes of my Facebook Live Video you’ll see ALL the consumable products, up close and personal, for all 8 product suites in the January to June 2021 mini-catalog plus more! Click HERE to go straight to where the Product Walk-Through begins!

Make sure to go to the end of this post for the dimensions and supplies for all the projects shared today. Plus, there’s a link to my Facebook Live there as well, if you want to see the gilded foiling in action, see how these cards come together AND see my walkthrough of my NEW “Taste of a Suite” product shares!
Thanks for spending some time with me today and Happy Crafting!
Melissa 🙂
More Going On Now
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See the August to December 2020 Mini Catalog PDF by clicking below.
Check out the 2020 – 2021 Annual Catalog PDF below.
Learn how to make these project and see my Product Shares walkthrough in my Facebook Live video tutorial here:
The project demonstration begins at around 6 minutes in case you’d like to jump ahead. The Product Shares walk-through starts at around 45 minutes.
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Project Dimensions:
Christmas Card
- Shaded Spruce or Cherry Cobbler Card Body: 4-1/4″ x 11″ scored @ 5-1/2″ & 6-3/4″
- Red Velvet Layer: 4″ x 4″
- Tis’ The Season Designer Paper: 3″ x 3″
- Tis’ The Season Designer Paper: 1″ x 4″
- Shaded Spruce Dry Embossed Piece: 2-1/2″ x 2-1/2″
- Whisper White Inside Layer: 4″ x 4″
- Whisper White Sentiment Backing: 7/16″ x 2-3/16″ (optional)
- Vellum Cardstock Sentiment Piece: 9/16″ x 2-5/16″ (optional)
- Red Velvet scrap for punched tree
Dragonfly Garden (Portrait Orientation) Card
- Basic Black Card Body: 5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″ scored @ 4-1/4″ & 5-1/4″
- Dandy Garden Designer Paper: 7/8″ x 5-3/8″
- Mossy Meadow Layer: 3-1/8″ x 5-3/8″
- Basic Black Layer: 2-7/8″ x 5-1/8″
- Gold Foil Layer: 2-7/16″ x 4-7/8″
- Basic Black Focal Piece: 2-1/4″ x 4-11/16″
- Whisper White Inside Layer: 3″ x 5-1/4″
Dragonfly Garden (Landscape Orientation) Card
- Basic Black Card Body: 4-1/4″ x 11″ scored @ 5-1/2″ & 6-3/4″
- Dandy Garden Designer Paper: 1-1/16″ x 4-1/16″
- Mossy Meadow Layer: 4″ x 4″
- Basic Black Layer: 3-1/2″ x 3-1/2″
- Gold Foil Layer: 3-3/16″ x 3-3/16″
- Basic Black Focal Piece: 3″ x 3″
- Mossy Meadow Inside Layer: 4″ x 4″
- Whisper White Inside Layer: 3-13/16″ x 3-13/16″
Dragonfly Garden with Large Dragonflies (Landscape Orientation) Card
- Basic Black Card Body: 4-1/4″ x 11″ scored @ 5-1/2″ & 6-3/4″
- Dandy Garden Designer Paper: 1-1/16″ x 4-1/16″
- Mossy Meadow Layer: 4″ x 4″
- Gold Foil Layer: 3-1/2″ x 3-1/2″
- Basic Black Layer: 3-5/16″ x 3-5/16″
- Mossy Meadow Focal Piece: 3″ x 3″
- Mossy Meadow Inside Layer: 4″ x 4″
- Whisper White Inside Layer: 3-13/16″ x 3-13/16″
Project Supplies:
Products Available Starting January 5, 2021
- Dragonfly Garden Bundle Item #156224
- Dandy Garden Designer Paper Item #154297
- Ladybug Trinkets Item #154299
- Mossy Meadow 3/16″ Braided Linen Trim Item #154298
- Gilded Leafing Embellishment Item #154560
- Heat & Stick Powder Item #156110
Melissa, your Book Binding cards absolutely blew me away!! Soooo creative, clever and colorful!! Thank you so much for sharing!!
Pam Boke-Dalrymple
Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator
Pingree Grove, IL
I’m so glad to know you enjoyed these Book Binding fun fold cards so much! Enjoy creating your own and Happy New Year!