Japanese Milestone Birthday Card

Here's another one of those open front sliding pop up box cards I always have so much fun putting together. This one was created for my dad's milestone 90th birthday, so I went with the typical Japanese symbolic "good luck, long life" theme.
The base of this card is the same as for the sliding pop up box but with the front panel cut down to create the "open" look and the top edge of the back panel cut into a scalloped edge. I also added tabs to the side corners of the box to make it easier to "push" the box into its open position and "pull" it back to its flat closed position. If you're interested, I have the template for the basic sliding pop up box card posted here.

For the front of the card, I used Japanese iconic symbols known as "Sho Chiku Bai" or Pine - Bamboo - Plum. I added the "Sho" or "Matsu" or Pine (symbolizes long life) to the left side,

and "Chiku" or "Take" or Bamboo (symbol for strength and resilience) together with "Bai" or "Ume" or Plum blossoms (symbol for hope in adversity) to the right side. The pine and bamboo icons are images I purchased from GL Stock Images and converted into cutfiles using MTC. Plum blossoms and centers are from mini punches from Punch Bunch, and branches were cut using a Quickutz branch die.

The cut for the kanji "fukuju" (good luck and long life) was created in MTC using a free image file from Kanji Style.com.

And my favorite cut on this card, the crane or "tsuru" (symbol for good fortune and longevity) is also an image file from GL Stock Images renderered into a cutfile with MTC. Swirly cloud cuts are from a Taylored Expressions die.

I glued the crane onto a few of the cloud cuts, then adhered it onto the sliding mechanism in the center of the box.
I must admit it took me quite awhile to gather all the images and create all the different cutfiles for this card, but in the end I was pretty happy with how this turned out. Well worth the effort, for my dad's very special birthday!