Promoted to Grandma

This is the card I made to send to a dear long time friend who recently retired and became a new grandma. Instead of sending our congratulations in two separate cards, I decided to create just one card to celebrate both happy events.

I wanted to use a fun but simple format for my card so I chose to do a Lever style card with a square window. Difficult to see from the photos but the computer generated sentiments read, "Congratulations! On your Retirement... and your promotion to Grandma!"

Patterned papers are from Echo Park's "Bundle of Joy-Girl" digital collection. I love how easy it was to print and cut all the insert panels for this card using the texturize, fill and cut features in Make the Cut design program together with my Silhouette Cameo.

Paper pieced teddies were created using a Marjorie Ann Designs cutting file, "Starburst and Moonbeams" for grandma bear reading to baby bear on the front of the card and ...

...an older, retired cutting file; "Sister Bears", from Too Cute By Jessica for baby bear's high chair.

Here's a view from the top which shows the easy construction of the Lever style card. I sent the double congratulatory card along with a couple fun Hallmark books for grandma to read to her new granddaughter; "That's What Grandmas Do!" by Alarie Tennille and "Elephants Have Grandmas Too" by Susan D Gotschall and a gift card for Grandma to splurge on herself as well. 
 

PANDA-mic?

Enjoyed putting together the Accordion style card with the cute digital stamps from Dandelion Designs for my granddaughter  (shared in my last post) so much that I wanted to make more cards to send to my friends as well. To add a bit of whimsy, I decided to use an idea for a play on words that I had come across while browsing the web using the word "panda-mic" together with Dandelion Designs' image of the adorable masked panda holding a cannister of disinfecting wipes for the front of my card. I used Cuttlebug's Wicker Weave embossing folder to add texture to the oval panel behind the panda and added a print and cut speech bubble for fun.

Although I liked the way the Accordion style card I made for my granddaughter turned out, I realized attempting to make a dozen more cards  might be too ambitious so I was happy to come across a tutorial for a Pop Out Panel Card by UK Stampin' Up Demonstrator, Teri Pocock on her blog, Teri's Stampin' Magic. I really like how this Pop Out Panel Card has a look similar to that of  an Accordion style Card but with a lot less work!

Here's  a view of the card from the top which sort of reminds me of a pop up z-fold style card on the inside.

First I printed theThe Dandelion Designs digital stamps onto white and Bo Bunny Double Dot cardstocks. Spellbinders nested circle dies were used to cut the images that I had printed onto the Double Dot cardstock. The images printed onto white cardstock were colored with Copic markers, fussy cut, and adhered onto the colored circles with foam tape. 

Thanks to Teri's tutorial and the ease at which this Pop Out Panel card came together, I was able to put together a dozen of these fun cards pretty quickly to share with friends. Hope it helped to brighten everyone's day just a little bit!