The garage card I posted in a previous post was the inspiration for this card. It took quite a bit of time  to design. I am hoping you agree with me when I say,  I think it was worth all the effort.

 The base of the card was the same as the garage card. 113/4 by 6 inches. I scored down the long side at 13/4 inches then at 11/2 inches at both ends.  I folded the ends in on the inner score lines, then folded the outer  score lines back. Basically like a gate fold card but with a big gap in the middle.

I am going to give you two ways of  making and attaching the cot front  to the base card.  So this is going to be quite a long post. I will start with how I made the lilac version. Attaching the rails is slightly more involved but the rails sit back a fraction more than on the floral version, making the rails sit flush with the sides of the card.

Making  the cot front... Now,  I am not very good at cutting straight narrow strips from scraps and getting them all exactly the same width, so I tend to cut the longest strip possible, then cut it down to the lengths required.  

For the upright railings. You'll  need 10 strips measuring 1/4 of an inch wide  by  2  inches  long. 

The top  rail  You'll need a piece of card   7/8  of an inch by 6 1/2 inches.  Then scored at 3/8   and again at  1/4 of an inch,  length ways.  Carefully fold one score line and burnish the fold, then fold and burnish the second score line.

For the bottom rail You'll need a strip of card 51/4 inches by 3/4 of an inch and score down the middle, length ways. Again fold and burnish the crease.

On both the top and bottom rail, cut  1/2 inch slot along the score line at each end.  Then snip off one section at each end. (see photo below)  The end pieces are the tabs you will need to secure the rails to the base card.                                           

The reasoning behind this is so that the tabs are thin enough to slide into the slots that will be cut into the base card.

Open up the top rail and glue in the railings, butting the end of each rail into the fold line, making sure the rails are evenly spaced 1/4 of an inch apart. When you have all the rails stuck in place, add adhesive along the inside of the rails and fold over the top section and hold until secure.

My camera battery died in the middle of making this card, so I have had to make a second version this morning to give me the photos I need to complete this tutorial. 

So I thought I'd include a second easier way of making and attaching the rail. I will include the second method after the instructions for the lilac card. With the exception of the construction and attaching of the rail, most of the  instructions for both cards remain the same.

Lay the base card flat with one end folded in. 

Position the railings about an inch to an inch and a quarter  up from the base of the card.

 Mark the position of the tabs on the outer panel score line,  at both ends.

Make two small incisions on the  very edge of the score line on the outer panels.  Avoid cutting into the score line. It's best to cut just  half a millimetre away from the line on the side of the recess.  Do the same on the other end.

Slide the tabs of the railings into the slots and adhere to the back of the side panel.

Cut your chosen decorative paper/card into 3 panels.                    

Sizes;

 51/4  x  6 inches      1 piece                       

13/4  x  6 inches       2 pieces

Cut 2 inches from the bottom off the large panel.  You will now have  2 pieces measuring, 2 x 51/4  and 4  x  51/4. 

Adhere the larger panel to the top of the centre panel on the base card.

Save the smaller piece  for later.

Adhere the  two side panels to the sides of the base card.

Now to make the bench/mattress for this cot.  Cut a piece of white card  51/4 by 5 1/2 inches.  Along the 51/2 inch edge score at 2 inches and 31/2 inches fold and burnish the creases.

 Slide the bench under the railings and line up with the bottom of the base card. Lightly draw a line beneath the bottom rail and mark in between the rails just above the bottom rail. see photo above.  This will show you where to apply the adhesive later.

Now you need to cut out the area between the legs of the cot.                                            Measure  1/2 an inch in from each end and mark.   Measure 3/4 of an inch up from the bottom and join the dots to form a rectangle. Cut out this section.  I used a label punch to cut out the centre section to add a little more interest.  Then finished off the cutting out with a craft knife and steel rule.   The two little end pieces are the legs of the cot.

 That strip of patterned paper I trimmed off the back panel earlier is now back in play.  This strip is stuck to the back section of the bench panel.                              When the card is flat you don't see the patterned paper underneath the cot, but when it's standing the patterned paper is visible, giving the impression the back panel is all in one piece. (see photos below.)  

                                       

 Make one or two small slots in the middle of the mattress. You want a tight fit for the stalks so they don't fall out, so don't make the slots too big, but if you do make them too large, put wider stalks on the baby and bear for a tighter fit.

                      Now you can apply glue to the glue line on the front panel of the bench and slide it in place. Make sure the legs of the cot are in line with the bottom of the card.                                        

Construction complete and the decorating can begin. You can decorate this with any baby objects you have. I chose to draw a teddy bear and use a digital stamp of a baby with it's comfort blanket.

The baby image is a digital stamp by Lilli of the valley stamps and the teddy bear I drew. Once I'd coloured the images and cut them out. I cut two stalks to stick on the back of the baby and the bear. 

Then I poked the stalks through the slots. (See photo below.) If the stalks are a tight fit in the slots they won't fall out and they will tilt when the card is folded flat, reducing the need to adjust the baby /bear when the card is opened again.

The baby in the floral card is way too small for this card but I didn't have the time to print off another larger baby and colour and cut it out. So I just popped in the small baby for demonstration purposes.

To the back wall I added a sentiment. This can be any baby sentiment you wish to use. I chose this one on adoption  as a colleague has just adopted a baby.

I made a tiny blanket out of a disposable dish cloth. I die cut the lacey edges for a little more  interest and make  it less like a cleaning cloth. But I have to say once it was die cut it became quite fragile around the lacey edge.

I cut 2  side panels, size 13/4  by  6 inches for the back of the side panels to cover the those unsightly tabs. 

Construction of the floral card.

For this version you'll need 10  strips  1/4 wide by 2  inches long for the uprights.  

Top rail cover  51/4  by 7/8 of an inch scored length ways at 3/8 and 1/4 of an inch. folded and burnished as in the instructions for the first card.

 The bottom rail  cover measures  51/4  by  3/4 of an inch, scored length ways down the middle, folded and burnished.

1 more strip 1/2 an inch wide by 61/4 inches long.  Score along the long edge every 1/4 of an inch. Then cut the strip in half length ways. You will  attach the uprights to these strips top and bottom.

The score lines will help with the spacing of the upright rails.

 Starting  1 inch in from the end, start gluing the strips to the scored strip.

Glue the other half of the  scored strip to the bottom. See photo below.

As before, line up the railings on the base card, as in the photo below and  glue into place . The tabs should only be glued to the outer most panels. 

Take the bottom rail cover,  apply glue to  the inside and slip it over the bottom rail and hold in place firmly until secure. this will make the rail look neater while giving it strength.  Do the same the same to the top rail without crushing the flat top on the rail.

 From pretty  card  cut 2 panels 13/4  by 6 inches  adhere them to the side panels covering the the ends of the rails. Don't use paper if you use this method of attaching the rails,  it's not thick enough to conceal the  tabs underneath.

The rest of the instructions are exactly the same as for the lilac card above.

Wow!!  This has been an epic task. It's taken me the best part of two days to type this up. It's so much easier to demonstrate the construction of this card then it is to explain it in writing.  I have found the read  aloud button on my  pc so I must have listened to this post a dozen times to try and find the complex parts and tried to re word them  in a simpler form. I do hope  all this make sense to you. But if anything is unclear please feel free to ask questions and I'll do my best to answer them.