3D Bench Fold Café Card Tutorial

There are times when I see something handmade and think “I can make that!” only to find no instructions are available or the instructions won’t work with the materials I have. That’s what happened with this Bench Fold Cafe Card – Instructions were for A4 and A5 size cards, although I needed A2 for our post in the United States.

What do you do? I sit down at my craft table and start playing. Of course no one wants to use the nice cardstock until my design has been worked out. Therefore, I bring out my scraps and used copy paper (everything gets a second life in my tiny craft closet) to draw out, design, and redesign until the prototype works!

I wanted the bench fold card to have that 3D effect as if it were a café, but it also needed to fit in an A2 envelope. This is a standard size sent in the US. Envelopes are 4.37” x 5.75”, so a 4.25” x 5.5” card fits nicely.

This tutorial may seem to have a lot of steps, but I promise each one is easy and the final product is worth it.
Here is my finished Bench Fold Cafe card:

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Instructions for this card:

Card Base:

Cut a 4¼” x 8” piece of cardstock. I used a light brown. Note: you can get two of these out of a single 8½” x 11” paper.

Score at 1¼”, 2½”, 5½”, and 6¾” as shown to get the dimensions shown below.

Go ahead; fold the sides in and start envisioning your café.

Next I cut a few pieces of blue to give it that depth and “paint the walls.” You can use whatever color you like best.  Cut 2 pieces of 4” x 2¾” and 4 pieces of 4” x 1” of blue for the walls.

Glue the four tall pieces onto the front of your card. Glue one of the larger pieces in the middle section of the brown card and the other in the middle section on the BACK of the card. This gives space to write a message.

Next, I worked on creating the table.

Desk Brace:

Cut 5”x1”. This will be covered by the front brace and won’t be seen, so I just cut and used a white scrap.

Score 1” from each end of your brace.

With the card folded but open like a café, position the white brace with one end on the second panel and the other end on the fourth panel, crossing over the center panel to form a box. The desk will rest on this brace. Mark card 2” up from the bottom of the second and fourth panel, and paste the ends of the brace. From here, you should be able to fold the card to one side as if to stuff it into an envelope.

Desk:

Cut 3” x 3¼” from light brown. Score from the 3” side at 1¼”. This will make your desk 3” 1¼” and 2” that’ll fold in front behind your front brace.

I decorated the top of the desk with a 2¾” x 1” piece of polka dot designer series paper.

Front brace:

Cut 5½” x 2” from light brown.

This brace needed cafe-themed decoration, so I added a blue 2¾” x 1¾” piece in the center and two brown 2¾” x 1” pieces to resemble wooden cupboards. Then I cut another piece of my polka dot designer series paper at 4” x 1”, rounded the edges, and glued it as the tablecloth.

Here is my finished card semi-folded to one side for a better idea of how it works:

Glue the 3” x 2” side of the light brown desk to the middle of the front brace so that the desk will fold into the card.

Lastly, with the card folded to one side and the desk lined up between the panels, glue the front brace to only the first panel along the bottom. It should line up with the edge of your card base, and you can now glue the other end of the front brace to the last panel.

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That’s it! Now you can decorate your café however you like! I stamped a few windows, added a coffee pot, and a few mugs to make it feel cozy, but maybe it could use a few scones and biscotti!

This card design can of course be used to create lots of other scenes…maybe a toolbox for father’s day or a craft table for other creative people in our lives! Please let me know if this tutorial was useful for you, or if this sparked your creativity and you are making this card into some other great scene! I’d love to see it!

Thank you for reading, and happy crafting!

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Supplies for the Bench Fold Cafe Card:

If you are interested in creating your own coffee cafe card, check out these crafting necessities!

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