Swing Card – Free Silhouette Cutting File

This timeless card design has been around for some time and I wanted to try it, so I made the basic cutting file and decorated it up to make a card for my Dad’s Birthday.

Known as “Swing” or “Flip” cards, the center cut out is decorated on both sides to form the focal part of the front of the card and when the card is opened it swings around to reveal the decorated inside, which can be a simple as a sentiment or lavishly decorated.

As it’s my first attempt at these, I’ve kept it simple with a curved corner rectangle but the cards can be quite varied with multiple cut outs or different shaped cut outs.  If you’re not familiar with these cards a quick Pinterest or Google Search will bring up loads of ideas and inspiration.

The Options

• I cut the base card from plain white card stock and covered it completely with coordinating scrapbook paper overlays on the front and the back of the card. If you used a coloured card stock there may be no need to cover the back, I just thought the white on my card looked a bit plain.
• My paper set included a few stickers which I used to embellish the card a bit more. Otherwise use die cuts, ribbons, cut shapes from your Library or any other kind of decoration.
• The overlay pieces in the file fit the card exactly but if you create an internal offset on them and use the smaller offset pieces instead, when assembled on to the base card a border will show for contrast.
• I didn’t think of this in time, but you could use Sketch pens to write a sentiment on the card. Instead, I made a custom sized document in Word to match the rectangle size and printed it out instead.
• When folding the card, the left fold is a “mountain” fold and the right fold is a “valley” fold.

Here’s a flat view of the showing the front of the Swing panel.

and here’s how the Sentiment looks when the card is flat.

Folded and finished…

Hold the card with the Front of the swing part facing you. (as above) left side in left hand and right hand on right hand side and pull your hands apart to make the card flat. The mid section will swing around to reveal the sentiment side. Magical!

Clearly mine’s a Birthday Card, but it easily could be made into a cool Father’s day Card too!

The File.

The finished size of the card is approx 18 x 13.5cm (7 x 5 1/4 inches).  If resizing, ensure everything’s grouped together first.

The file includes several elements: the Base Card, two optional overlay parts for the card sides and another optional separate part to overlay on the rectangle cut out.

Here’s the Swing Card Cut File for Silhouette Studio Version 3 (Tested in this)

Here’s the Swing Card Cut File for Silhouette Studio Version 2

Looking for some other Dad’s Day Cards or wrap? Have a peek at my related projects below.

I was featured at The Pin Junkie’s round up of Quick Father’s Day Projects.

 

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