You guys. Can you stand it? I saw this design on the Dreaming Tree website and realized that it was absolutely the perfect card for the super dad in my life, my husband Mike. In the tutorial below, I will show you how to get this card into Cricut Design Space, do very little file manipulation, and put together this super, super dad card. This is a great file that needs nothing much from us....in fact, I struggled to pull anything original into it at all!
There are a LOT of layers of paper in this card design, but I think it's totally worth it. I actually also really enjoy layering paper because it puts me in the same head space as putting together a puzzle. Anyone else? Only with card making, when you are done with your puzzle, you have a card to gift instead of a mess to put back into a box. 🙂
So let me show you how to get here...
If you are reading this in the future, this will likely not still be true, BUT for those of you reading this in advance of Father's Day 2020, this design is actually free right now if you make a purchase of $9.98 or more. UPDATE: This deal is already gone and there is a new free bundle up...but the link to the card file is here and it's $2.99 at the moment.Â
Dreaming Tree does these promotions a fair amount and it's always kind of nice that the promotions typically match something you actually need when you go to search. For example, I went looking for Father's Day card designs and that was the first page. Â
Hmmm...I spent $10 on other stuff and get $7 in free Father's Day cards that I was probably going to buy anyway. Yes please. So, I usually take these opportunities to grab a few files for upcoming projects in order to get to my $10 order and then add in the freebie.
There's a video tutorial link toward the end of this post, and in the video tutorial I show you how to get the free gift into your shopping cart. It's not at easy and just putting it in your cart and having it come off at the end.  Get all your stuff ready to go, then DON'T put the freebie in your cart. Seriously. I've made this mistake before and ended up with 2...one I paid for and one I didn't. All you need to do is put "freegift" into the coupon code and it magically populates itself into your cart.
This is a pretty straightforward import into Design Space. If you need help with the actual process of getting the card downloaded from the site and uploaded to Design Space, I have a step by step video tutorial showing how to get third party SVG's into Design Space. I used Lori Whitlock's file as an example, but the process works the same for Dreaming Tree files.
As I said before, there's not much to be done with this card file! The biggest thing you need to watch out for are score lines that are imported as cut marks. You will want to select those and change them from cut to score. The video mentioned above does this step by step with you.
You can see from the picture below that if you didn't have score marks on your card base (they grey part), you would be slicing off the sides!
The only really tricky part about this card is getting the layering done in the right order, but I'm going to step you through it.
I started, however, by inking some of the pieces to add a little dimension. This is a technique I use a lot and am kind of obsessed with the Colorbox Cat's Eye chalk inks. I love that they stack and make it easy to have a bunch of options in one tower of color.Â
The file will have marked some tiny notches on the yellow piece that show you exactly where to stick the Super Dad logo. It's actually important that you get this piece in the right spot, because it's what peeks through his shirt when the card is closed.
For this card base, I used an 8.5 x 11 cardstock that is one of my favorites for card bases (and placecards, as seen here). It's super sturdy and has a great pearlescent sheen to it. In the tutorial video, I think the sheen was picked up a little better than in the photo.Â
The important thing about folding a gatefold card base is lining up the center.  The magic of the gatefold card is that the design is uniform on the front. You want to make sure the seam meets perfectly so you don't ruin the effect.
For this reason, I like to fold half of the card, and instead of using the score mark on the other side, I line up the center in the top and bottom, and then force the score line to be wherever it needs to be. Some machines callibrate a little differently...and some papers are thicker than others, so I think this is a good habit to get into.
I used double sided tape to affix my inside because I didn't use cardstock for the yellow piece, I used text weight paper. To avoid getting it all wiggly and weird, I used the smallest amount of glue I could.
I think my centering was a little off, but you still have the nice peek-a-boo effect from the front!
I used some enamel dots and Doodlebug Designs Sprinkles to make cufflinks and buttons. The file will have given you the small star for the center of the Super Dad logo...I cut mine from Cricut glitter vinyl so it would already be a sticker.
The belly band design may be my favorite part of this design. I HATE piecing together tiny little letter bits, but this card has been designed so the interior pieces of the letters are made with a rear panel of the same color.
This is probably easier to understand with photos...
https://youtu.be/2TGTS3uWTWQ
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 Link to Dreaming Tree file: https://www.3dsvg.com/shop/cards-svg-files/super-dad-card-svg/?affiliates_svg=1045 Heavyweight pearl cardstock for card base: https://amzn.to/2A5slkCI use this cardstock a lot, and particularly like it for placecards in addition to card bases.   Cricut cardstock: https://shrsl.com/21uhjCricut red metallic textured paper https://shrsl.com/2bhivCricut glitter vinyl: https://shrsl.com/2bi34Cat's Eye Chalk Inks: https://amzn.to/2Y4JX8bDoodlebug Designs Sprinkles: https://shrsl.com/24r68Carta Bella Home Again collection enamel dots: https://shrsl.com/28p3sDouble-sided adhesive and dimensional adhesive squares found here in a variety of sizes: https://shrsl.com/24rsx  Links to favorite glue and other supplies are on my blog resources page here: https://amandatoryactivity.com/papercraft-supplies/
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