May the Force be with You!

It's R2D2! I'm sure all Star Wars aficionados would recognize this robot (even tho I realized later that the dark blue color is all wrong...) Made this covered slider card for dd's bf's birthday last month. And although this falls in the category of "masculine cards", I must admit I had a blast putting it together. The absolutely amazing cut file for Artoo was created and shared by Susan Bluerobot on her blog. Thank you again, Susan! Susan is a master of Design Studio and of any and all types of paper crafting. Just wait till you see the cut file she created for C3PO, not to mention all her incredible 3-D popup creations. She is awesomely talented, a true inspiration, and always so generous with sharing her cut files, tips and tutorials. Please leave a comment with your thanks if you decide to download any of her files.

The Artoo cut file uses the George cartridge and is amazingly detailed. Susan has even included instructions on how to do all the detailed dry embossing on Artoo's body. This was a bit challenging, but fun and I thought results were well worth the extra time and effort. I didn't have any white glossy cardstock (as recommended) on hand, so I used glossy photo paper instead, which worked quite well as an alternative. I used metallic silver and blue cardstock for the rest of the robot and later realized (after searching the web for images of Artoo) that I probably should have used mat silver and light blue metallic instead.

For the card base I used black glossy and more blue metallic cardstock, and silver glitter cardstock from DCWV. Susan used a red rhinestone for the light on her robot, which I again, did not have, and substituted with a circle punched from red prismatic mylar.

I chose to do a covered slider card; pulling up on the star at the top of the card simultaneously reveals the birthday sentiment and a gift card which slides up from behind Artoo. Very cool, huh. The template for the covered slider card is shared by Chia Wald at Chia's Rubber Stamp Art. The sliding mechanism on this is simple and the pattern can easily be changed to almost any size card.

For a final touch, I added a personalized tag cut with a sizzlits die and tied with silver metallic ribbon. I like to always try and include some sort of personalization on the cards I make as a way for the recipient to know that yes, this card was created just for you!