Z Fold Cards: Everything You Need To Know

What is a Z Fold Card?

Cards with fancy folds make for the perfect show stopper for any recipient to display on the mantel, and a Z fold card is the perfect beginner option to start experimenting with shape and design. These folds can be altered to create lots of shapes and sizes and can come together from just one sheet of cardstock and a few tools from your stash – a scoreboard, a bone folder and a pair of scissors. In this article we share a super-quick Z Fold step-by-step, plus inspiration and video tutorials of how to take your folds to the next level!

How to Make a Z Fold Card From an A4 Sheet

How to Make a Double Z Fold Card

In this video, Jennifer McGuire shows you how to put your folding skills to the test with a new twist on the Z-Fold card tutorial to create a new pop-up feature! Once you've master the card base, the sky's the limit - embellish to your heart's content with stamped toppers, die-cuts and more!

How to Make a Z Fold Box Card

In this super-easy video tutorial, Deb Valder shows you how to create a box element for the centre of your Z fold card with tabs - the perfect combination of a pop-up box card and a Z fold design! Here, the scenic card has been embellished with Easter egg toppers to add dimension, you can alter this base of this card to work for all-occasions. Make sure that the toppers on the tabs don't stick out beyond the boundaries of the card base, or the card may not shut flat!

Five Z Fold Card Ideas

We round up five fun Z Fold card ideas from the site to get you started! These simple 3D designs are easy to master – combine with your favourite mediums and techniques to make them for all your loved ones!

Thanks A Bunch Z Fold Card

This clever design utilises a border die set with a separate outline die - simply die-cut the front and back edges of the card black for an ornate shape, then fill in the shapes with die-cut flowers. This is so effective and easy to do!

Let The Adventure Begin Z Fold Card

This steampunk-inspired masculine make is made using a stamp set from issue 33 of Creative Stamping. The zig-zag panels create the perfect canvas for hot air balloons!

Bird Double Z Fold Card

This card is the perfect example of how you can embellish the z fold border to co-ordinate with the main part of the design. Depending on how you make your card panels you can also offset balance to show off two focal points as we see here! These fantastic digi stamps are available to Premium Members - click here to grab yours!

Star Happy Birthday Z Fold Card

Kim Dellow is shooting for stars with this colourful card! This quick and easy card is whipped up by folding A4 card into thirds, trimming the tops of each panel to create a waterfall effect and embellishing with co-ordinating patterned paper and die-cut stars! Find out how to create this effective card by clicking the link above or the card below.

Birthday Present Z Fold Card

Believe it or not, this winter birthday design was made using a Christmas stamp set from Creative Stamping issue 49! Jane Roy has cleverly used the festive present to whip up a birthday card with paper-pieced details. These fantastic digi stamps are available to Premium Members - click here to grab yours!

Of course, once you have the basic construction down, then you can enjoy finding different ways to decorate your designs! In this video, craft expert Jennifer McGuire creates scenic Z fold designs which pack a punch! Click through to view this fun video tutorial.

Jennifer McGuire Ink | Surprise Scene Z-Fold Cards

Taking embellishment a step further, the wonderful Jenny Hall shows you how to decorate the inside of a normal side-fold card blank to achieve a Z fold design in another way! This can be done in a range of shapes and sizes, click through to watch this fun step-by-step guide!

Jenny Hall | Surprise! Inside Z Fold card with Jenny Hall

We hope you have enjoyed this round-up of fancy folded cards, we would love to see your Z Fold cards on CraftWorld!

Happy crafting,

Natalie