Be Bold Blooms Retirement Card

I received my long awaited order of Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms dies in the mail last week and it couldn't have come at a more perfect time! I had procrastinated for too long and was in need of  three cards and a lot of inspiration in a hurry. I'm a very slow crafter so three cards in one week from me is quite a stretch. But getting to play with this new die set really helped to get the creative juices flowing again!

I'm usually not a fan of die cut or paper pieced floral arrangements but this Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms die set caught my interest because the set includes several different types and sizes of blossoms and foliage that can be mixed and matched and look great together. I also really like that the dies have lots of embossed details that add pretty textures to the petals, leaves and flower centers.

This retirement card for a former coworker was the first card I made using my new die set. I used a Sizzix embossing folder, "Argyle #2" to add texture to the panel on the front of my card, cut a window and added the die cut flowers and leaves. Through the window you can see a die cut adirondack chair.

On the inside, I used Karen Burniston's "Rockin' Rectangle Pop Up" mechanism die to animate my card.  As the card is opened, the panel with the chair pops forward and "rocks" to the right to reveal another panel with the sentiment underneath. This has become one of my favorite pop up mechanisms to create a fun and fairly quick interactive card.

I used the same dies to create a matching gift card holder to enclose with my card. Really happy that these floral dies make it easy and fun to decorate cards. In my next post I'll share the other two cards I was able to finish in time thanks to this die set.