 Hi there, I'm Sandy Alnok, artist and paper crafter here on YouTube, and today I'm going to show you how I made a nativity mini tri-fold card. I did a mini tri-fold card previously, I'm going to show you a snippet of that one, but this is what it actually folds down to be. And there are directions on the package that show you how to stamp it, exactly where to stamp everything. And I'll link you up to a video that I did a little while ago showing you exactly what my measurements were, how I did them, and how that all worked out, because it can be a little bit confusing. The first time you try it out, I recommend you try it on a piece of scratch paper first, just to make sure you're comfortable with the measurements and how you're going to lay them out, etc., especially if you're going to use watercolor paper like I'm using because I don't want to have any accidents with it. But on this one, I give you all the measurements and everything in that video, and then I show you how I used my MISTI to do it and to line everything up using a piece of acetate and everything. So there's a little bit of complexity you can get into. I know there are lots of people who simply stamp it, they just have a good eye for it and they stamp it. I'm not quite that good. So the MISTI is really helpful for me in getting it to all work out. But for the two panels on the left and right, there are two little dies, and the dies cut out something on the inside. There's a whole bunch of different mini tri-folds. They all work about the same, which is why I'll link you to this video. But basically I traced the die opening on the inside onto the next panel and then used the MISTI and a piece of acetate to line them up. And if you want to see how to do that, obviously go click on that video at the end of this one. And this one was for spring, but the idea is still the same so that you can continue to work your way from the outside to the inside of your card and have everything peek through the way that you would like it to. So I've got mine all stamped out onto watercolor paper and I'm going to show you how I use my hydras when I don't really feel like using a palette. A lot of times I'll take a few drops of the colors and put them on a palette and pick up the color from there, especially if I'm going to be mixing colors before I put them on the paper. But I thought I'd show you kind of an easy way to do it and some tips on what to do if you do it this way. I'm just picking up color from the dropper itself. I'm not dipping the brush all the way in because that way I can control just picking up a tiny bit of color if I want to use a lot of water on my brush and then just touch it to the edge of the dropper. So I'm only picking up a small amount of color. And sometimes with hydras watercolors, the color is really strong. You can see how strong that yellow is. And here's a little bit of a difference in how strong that brown can be. I'll show you in a bit that you can get a bunch of different shades out of it depending on how much water you have it mixed with. When you have it on a palette, you can mix up those different consistencies. But when you're picking it up off of the dropper itself, you just mix a certain amount of water on the brush. You use water on the brush to pick up just a little bit of color on the dropper itself and just recharge the dropper by dipping it in there. And then you're not dipping your whole brush in and always picking up super heavy pigment. And so I'm going to try to use a couple of different colors of the brown, a couple of different shades. You can see now I'm getting a little stronger color because I haven't picked up more water from my water cup yet. And then I'll switch over to the burnt sienna that was raw umber previously. And this is burnt sienna. The yellow is new Gamboge, of course, the best yellow. It's the closest to Y17 in Copic land. If you're familiar with my love of that color. And this burnt sienna is a little bit on the redder side. So you can get a couple of different colors of wood. The hydrous watercolors come in sets of 12. And you can see what all the colors are. There'll be a link on my blog to the color chart that I made that shows you what the different colors are. If you want to pick out which set might be most appropriate for what you like to paint. But one of the cool things about these is that they don't really go through the paper. So if you're using some thinner watercolor paper or if you're using them in your Bible, because I use these in my Bible quite a bit, the color doesn't go through, which is nice. So they definitely don't bleed through. You can use lots of really strong color without without the color seeping through. But they also are permanent once they're dry. So you can do a layer over top of them without lifting up any of the color underneath. And there's a lot of times that will be a really helpful thing. And one of the reasons that I have, by the way, a paper towel underneath of that dropper is that one time when I was practicing this earlier, I accidentally was holding onto the dropper a little too tightly and I squeezed out a drop right onto my card. So that is my tip for you. Make sure you protect your paper. So I'm using some cobalt blue. And what I did was use a lot more water at first and just get the whole area good and wet. And I wanted to have a rough watercolor looking edge. So I let the edge be kind of dry brushy instead of trying to make it all perfect and let it just kind of let it be loose. And I'm going over it kind of with a second bit of color. I dropped some heavy color onto it. And as long as it's all still wet, I can continue to move that color around. But once it dries, it dries. And I'm careful to make sure that the only area that I have to worry about blending now that the left side will be wet and the right side is dry is that little tiny area right above the stars. I have to be a little careful there to make sure I don't get a hard line. If you're ever working on an area and you want to make sure that you don't get that hard line, just start on one side and keep moving. Just keep rewetting that edge. But here, since I do only have that little spot, I wasn't too worried about tackling each half at a time. And I will continue just spreading that color around and managing the amount of water on my brush. If you use too much water in there along with all this pigment, you'll end up with some blooms. So I'm just going to be real careful to make sure I keep moving until it's all good and dry so that it comes out nice and even. For the second panel, I'm going to use some yellow for my little hay down at the bottom. And then I wanted to have this blend out into white. I didn't want to have a big solid area. So I'm just painting some clean water around the edges and then dabbing some off. Even though this color is permanent when dry, it lifts fairly well. Most of the colors lift fairly well while they're still wet. So I'm going to take the burnt sienna and paint in the fence. And I'm going to use the burnt sienna and use it a little heavier. So I have some good dark color to contrast with my sheep. With sheep, you can, I know they're white, but you can color them in a variety of colors. You can use grays, you can use blues, but I'm actually going to use a brown color because I wanted them to feel a little more natural looking. And if you were actually looking at sheep in the field, you would probably see some grays and browns on them. So I wanted to make sure the fence looked like it was a very different brown than I'm using on the sheep. So the umber color, I'm going to use lots of water with it and then just tap onto the edge of that to pull in a little tiny bit of color. So I don't end up with a ton. And then leave some highlight area in the center of each one because they're looking into the scene on the inside and on the inside is where the little baby Jesus is. So I want to have all my shadows out behind them on the rear ends facing away from the light source. So even though it's technically not going to be glowing from the inside, this allows me to create that effect looking like there's light coming from the inside. And then I'll add just a tiny bit of yellow along those leading edges. And then finally, I will be working my way to the inside here. Again, I'm going to do a light yellow and blend it out into white by just adding clean water all the way around it and dab off. And then I can just add a little bit of browns to both baby Jesus, a little bit of the umber color. And if you get too much on there, again, as I said, you can dab some color off. It does not have to be a really dark color. A really dark color. And then I want to add again another darker bit of the burnt sienna in order to make sure that it's nice and hefty color compared to the flesh tone on there. Add a little bit since I had it on my brush to the bottom of the the ground where little baby Jesus is sitting. And there is the finished card. I love how these telescope inward so that you can see the inside of the card from the outside. It's just an intriguing thing that helps people to open the card and be interested in seeing what's in there. I hope you enjoyed today's card. And if you're interested in seeing some more, here are a couple other videos that center one will show you how to do one of these trifold cards and how to do the setup with the misty, etc. And the other two videos are a little bit more with the hydrous watercolors. And remember on my blog is a chart with the colors that are in each of the sets of 12. If you're curious about which one you might want to choose, be sure to hit the subscribe button and the like button. And I will see you next time. Thank you. Bye.