View-Master Nostalgia Travel Card

Do you remember using a "View-Master" as a child?  I was fascinated with the 3D images you could see on those odd round slides.  Lately I have seen View-Master images and even actual discs popping up everywhere.

We used half of a View-Master slide at the top of the "Heart and Soul" project in one of the Tim Holtz classes.  (This class was a lot of fun and we learned to do the "faux metal" effects - more about that another day...).

When I was at the Tim Holtz classes and exploring the Absolutely Everything store during the lunch break, I found this sheet of paper from the "Note to Self" collection by Lori Whitlock for Echo Park.

I loved the look of this paper and "needed" to buy it.  When I was waiting to pay, I noticed that the label in the center says "Payne Bros." so I will definitely be using this for a project about our two sons - the Payne Brothers!

I thought that it would be pretty easy to make my own View-Master type image - so I opened up the Silhouette Studio software and gave it a try.  (I like to make my own files - after I was finished with my card and writing up this post, I thought to look in the Silhouette store and there are two files available there - one is by Lori Whitlock and the other is a Silhouette file). 

I will share the details about how I designed my file in another post.  It isn't difficult, but there is some math involved (!)  Here are all of the bits and pieces for my card.

I cut the two phrases using the font "Reklame Script Regular" Demo version (available at dafont.com HERE).  I welded most of the letters together.  Sometimes a phrase is easier to read if you don't weld all of the letters.  I used the LetraTac adhesive again - it is so easy to use for these small pieces.

I recently found this "Travel" paper pad from Martha Stewart Crafts and I thought it would be perfect for my corny sentiment!

I chose this paper with foil accents for the card front and cut a layer at 4 x 5 1/4 inches.  I chose the lower right corner of the sheet of paper so I could have the word "adventure" showing above and below the View-Master slide.

I inked the edges lightly and adhered the paper to a blue A2 card base (5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches folded in half).

For the inside of the card, I chose this paper.  I cut a piece from the lower left corner, a little bit over toward the center so I could include the Turtle Crossing, palm tree and signpost.

This allows a nice space for the sentiment and a clear spot at the bottom of the card for a message and signature.  I also inked the edges lightly just to take away the white that shows on the cut edge.

I added the View-Master disc with some foam circles for a little dimension on the front of the card.

The raised effect makes it look like you could lift the disc off the card and put it in a viewer!

I think that my little film windows are a bit more rectangular than the actual View-Master version.  I didn't check the exact dimensions of a disc when I designed the file.  I may tweek the file a bit to resize the windows and I may also do a print and cut version to add the numbers and a title.

It was fun to figure out how to make this simple file.  You could also do this in the Cricut software (Design Studio, Gypsy or Craftroom) fairly easily.  The only tricky thing would be to make the little notches on the outer edge.  I would just make a couple of small squares, turn them on the diagonal so they would notch the circle and make sure that you didn't weld the pieces together.

Did you have a View-Master?  Did you know that there are at least 25 different models, thousands of titles and one and a half billion copies of discs!  View-Master is part of the National Toy Hall of Fame in the United States (source - Wikipedia article HERE).

Have a nostalgic day!


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