Thanksgiving Gatefold Card Tutorial

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Gobble Gobble day is right around the corner so I thought I would write up a card tutorial for this Thanksgiving! Every year and every holiday I always sit down and design cards for my amazing incredible parents! They just love getting personalized cards from me and it’s all worth it to know how much these cards mean to them!

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Materials for this Project

• Cutting machine or you can do this by hand
• Cricut Mat (green or blue)
• Design Space if working with a cutting machine
• Scoring Wheel (this is just the tip- You do need the housing)
• Fine Point Blade
• Cardstock– Pick the colors you are using
• Glue (tacky glue)
• Cricut Ultimate fine point pen-Color is your choice
• Tweezers plus weeding tools
• Velcro

Thanksgiving Gatefold Card Base

To start we are going to open up Cricut Design Space and start a new canvas. We are now going to start with a gatefold card base. So let’s grab a square from the basic shapes.

New to Cricut Design Space? Make sure you check out my Ultimate Beginners Guide to Cricut Design Space.

We are now going to unlock that square and make it an 11 (W) x 5.5(H) and change the color of the card base to what color you want to use. Next, We are going to grab two score lines and apply them to both sides like so. Once they are positioned right go ahead and hit attach so they can’t move.

Panels for the card base

We are now going to add panels to both sides, the middle and two more for the front of the card.

So let’s grab another square and size it to 2.5 (W) x 5.25 (H) and change the color to the color of your choice. Once that is done, duplicate it. Now we have one side panel for each side. See the image below.

Now we want to align both sides to the card base. This is optional but a good habit to get into. It’s optional because it isn’t going to matter if it aligned when you cut. You will be doing the aligning when you are putting it together. It’s a visual thing for me.

Now we are going to make another panel to sit on top of that marron panel. The size is 2.25(W) x 5 (H) and these sizes can be changed if you want. See image below

Since we are working with the side panels, let’s go ahead and duplicate the marron panel twice and also the orange panel twice. These will be for the front of our card. I just moved them underneath the middle panel so I know that is the front of the card like so.

Thanksgiving Gatefold Card-Middle Panel

We are now going to grab another square and size it to 5.25(W) x 5.25 (H) and place it in the center. Next, grab another square and size it to 5 (W) x 5 (H) Our card should now look like this

You can go ahead and figure out what colors you are using for your card base! I pulled in my own pattern that I wanted to use for three of the panels. If you have a pattern you want to use go into upload >Upload pattern >pick the pattern you have and save.

Then you would go into fill (right in between to line type and select all > top left ) and hit print then pattern and choose the pattern you want to use on your panels. This is optional but you can see what the pattern would look like against everything we are doing!

I went ahead and changed my colors and got the pattern on two of the panels. The third pattern is behind that green square but I didn’t feel the need to do that one because I know which panels I want that on! I mentioned this because so many people have no idea we can do this. So here is what it would look like

Now we get to decorate this beautiful Thanksgiving Gatefold Card🥳

How you decorate your card is up to you, but I will tell you what I used and how I made this card! I do have a bit of warning. I love the effect of cutting all those little pieces and gluing them together. If you do not want to do that I totally understand.

Cricut Design Space Thanksgiving card images

We are now going to images in Cricut Design Space and searching for Thanksgiving Sayings. If you want to use the one I did just copy the number with the # and paste it into the search.

Thanksgiving #M46DDF

Let’s line it up in the center of the left panel. Once it is centered we are going to change the cut line to a draw line and then select both and hit attach.

For the Right side panel let’s type out Gobble till You Wobble, in Milkshake font or your favorite font, all in different text boxes, so each word has its own text box.

Let’s go ahead and size it to fit the panel and once we are happy with the placement let’s select all the words and hit Weld. ONLY do this if you are sure that is the way you want them. If you are not sure yet, just group it together for now.

MAKE SURE BEFORE YOU CUT THAT YOU WELD THE TEXT TOGETHER!

Need more help with Attach, Group, and Weld? Check out Attach, Group, and Weld in Cricut Design Space

Next, we are going to go to images and type in little turkey or you can just use this number. Remember the # needs to be in there.

Little Turkey #MC96C519

Let us Flatten that image now and put it under those words we typed out. Now let me say that if you do use this image even as a print then cut it will still cut out all those pieces so you will be gluing those pieces separately. If you don’t want to do that I recommend using another image or make it a draw line and have Cricut draw it out for you!

Thanksgiving images for the center of the card

We can go into images and search turkeys or you can copy these numbers and paste them in with the #. Remember you can choose whatever images you would prefer.

• Thanksgiving Turkey Wearing Hat, Print Fill #M10BB3041
• Turkey Eating Corn, Print Fill #M10BB3063

Now let’s look for a Happy Thanksgiving we like. Below is the one I used

Happy Thanksgiving #M3BD9A

Next is a wreath- If you do not want to glue all these pieces together find a wreath that is attached to each other or you could change it into a print then cut.

Holly Wreath 2 #M113A7E7F

Let’s size everything the way we want it to look on that center panel. Here is what I came up with for the middle panel and I also listed the size of each image.

Here you can flatten what you want, which will determine how much glue you will have to do. LOL The only thing I flattened here are the Turkeys, but I don’t mind gluing all those pieces together for the wreath and the Happy Thanksgiving. It is a personal choice.

Thanksgiving Gatefold card- Front

Let’s go ahead and search for a turkey. I am looking for a 3D turkey that I can attach to the front of the card.

3d Turkey Mandala #M19458957

Let’s size it to 4.07 (W) x 3.439 (H) and place it right in the center of the bottom panels. Now we should have a card that looks like this!

Now if you didn’t weld your words together earlier, then now is the time to do that because we are ready to make this project. So hit make it and we will come to the cutting mats screen.

Note: If you want to change some colors or sync some colors together so you aren’t cutting so many mats then you can go into color sync and move some things around. It’s ok to experiment here. We should have 14 mats depending on the color you chose.

Cutting Mats for Thanksgiving Gatefold Card Tutorial

If you are doing the exact same thing your mats should look exactly like these mats. If not no worries and continue on.

Select your paper size and hit the continue button.

Next, we are taken to a screen to select the materials we are using. Medium cardstock is what I used so that is the setting it will be on. This may differ from what you are using. I put two pieces of white cardstock into my printer paper tray.

Let’s send mat 1 to the printer and then into the cutting machine and do the same for mat 2. Then cut the rest of the mats.

Now that we have everything cut, we are now ready to piece it all together! WOOHOO!

Assembling the inside of the Thanksgiving Gatefold Card

The card is going to look the same as the Design Space layout. The first thing we need to do is match all the panels together and glue them. Once we have both side panels, the center, and the front panels glued together we are going to glue the Gobble till you Wobble down on the right-side panel.

Next, We are going to grab all those pieces for little Turkey and place that underneath the Gobble till you Wobble saying. Tweezers work great to position these pieces perfectly!

So we now have both side panels of the inside of the card done. 🥳 Next is the center. I positioned the turkeys where I wanted them and then glued the Happy Thanksgiving saying together because it has two layers.

The wreath is next and if you used mine you might be shaking your head, but it’s not bad, just grab your tweezers and start adding the red circles to the ends of the branches.

Then I added the leaves just like the picture above. I just looked at design space as I was gluing this together and finally, we get to add the top and bottom red circle and leaves. We will position it how we want it to be on the card, and start gluing it all down.

Assembling the outside (front) of the Thanksgiving Gatefold Card

Our panels for the front of our card are glued already so we only have to focus on the 3D Turkey. The 3D Turkey has six layers that need to be put together. I used foam adhesive circles in between three layers to make it have a 3D effect.

We are now going to grab two Velcro circles (both sides of Velcro) and apply them to the front of the card like so

We have officially created a Thanksgiving Gatefold Card for that special someone or someones in your life this Thanksgiving Season! I hoped this taught you a lot and you enjoyed making this with me!

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Let me see the card(s) you made in the comments below! I want to see those great creations!!! You can even share your pictures on Amandas Craft Corner FB page

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