Relaxing Teddy Bear Retirement Card

 Here's a card and gift card holder set I put together for a dear friend who recently retired from her workplace.  

 

I kept the front of the card simple, decorating with die cut images from different companies: Stampin' Up "Adirondack Chair", Lawn Fawn "Stitched Rounded Rectangle" and "Stitched Hillside Border" dies, and an unbranded double palm tree die from "Custom Crafter 500" store on Etsy. The Happy Retirement sentiment was computer generated using Brisk Extended font.

On the inside, I used the "Adirondack Chair Pop Up" die set from Karen Burniston to create a fun pop up card. 

I made a very similar card to this one several years ago when I created the cutting files for the palm trees, wave border and slippers, so decorating the inside of this time card took a lot less time to do. 

The one thing I did do differently this time was to add a sitting teddy bear to the chair. I used the "Bentley at the Beach" cut file from Marjorie Ann Designs to paper piece Bentley the bear and propped him up onto the adirondack chair with a tropical drink. The cut file for the "Summer Cocktail" is a freebie from Cre8ive Cutz.

Then, for a matching gift card holder, I decorated a slider box with a mini version of the front of the card, using the adirondack chair die from  the "Tropical Collection - On the Beach" from Creative Expressions. Fishtail banner was hotfoiled and cut using Spellbinders "Hexi-Gems Sentiments" Hot foil plate and die set.

As the drawer is pulled open to reveal the gift card inside, the panel with the beach scene pops up.  The svg template for this fun pop up slider box comes from the Lori Whitlock Shop. I really like that the pop up panel can be decorated as you please and that the slider drawer is deep enough to hold candies or even a small gift.

Flowering Tree Retirement Card

   This is the card and matching gift card holder I put together for a very dear friend who retired recently. 

This open box style card was inspired by Spellbinders Large Die of the Month for March called "Flowering Tree". I purchased the die earlier this year but was disappointed that the completed card from the dies in the set made a card that was a lot smaller than I expected. At that time I was trying to make a Mothers Day card and I ended up designing a similar but larger box card template in Make the Cut Design Program to better suit my needs. You can view my finished Mothers Day card here.

I decided to use that same larger template I created for my friend's retirement card. This time, I used a retired Stampin Up die to cut an adirondack chair to add to the second tier of the card. 

All the flowers and leaves were cut from the original Spellbinders "Flowering Tree" dies. I also added a few birds which were cut using the Memory Box "Resting Birds" die.

I used gold foil board for the die cut sentiment, " Happy Retirement" and added it to the bottom two tiers of the card. The die for the word "Happy" was included in the original set. The letters for the word "Retirement" were individually cut using an old Quickutz Alphabet die set, "Banana Split". Each letter was then adhered onto a strip of acetate before being glued onto the bottom tier.

This box card easily folds flat to fit nicely into an envelope. I used the blank panel on the back side to add a sentiment and personal message. 

Karen Burniston's "Slider Box" die was used to create a matching box to hold a gift card. Lawn Fawn's "Stitched Hillside Borders" die was used to cut the background, together with another adirondack chair die cut and more flowers, branches and leaves cut from the "Flowering Tree" die to embellish the top of the box.

If you've seen some of my past posts using this slider box as a gift card holder, you probably know that I've been trying to figure out for a while now, how to get the gift cards I put in these slider boxes to pop up as the recipient slides open the drawer of these boxes. Well, I think I finally got it to work the way I imagined. Watch the short video to see the fun!

In addition to the "Bam Box Pop Up" which I glued inside the box to pop the gift card up, I also needed to layer two pop up cubes on top of the gift card inside the box. These fun rubber band activated pop up cubes were assembled from pieces cut from Karen Burniston's "Surprise Cube Pop Up" dies. Love how fun these are and will definitely be using these often.

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.

Pop Up Adirondack Retirement Card

Not too long ago I picked up a couple adirondack chair dies, thinking they would be perfect for making fun retirement or vacation cards. Lol, now that I'm in the phase of life where I make more retirement cards than wedding or baby shower cards, I figured my purchases were justified.                                      I kept the front of my card very simple, creating a beach scene using Lawn Fawn's Stitched Hillside border for the sand and a cloud patterned paper for the sky. I used a stitched rounded rectangle die to cut it out and added die cuts of palm trees and my first adirondack beach chair. "Happy Retirement" sentiment was computer generated using Brisk font.

On the inside, I added a pop up adirondack chair put together by using  Karen Burniston's die with the same name. 

This adirondack chair pop up is easy to install because the die cuts the chair directly from the card background. Things get a little tricky though, if you want a chair that's a different color or print than the background. In my case, I wanted the background to be sand, palm trees, and sky and the chair to be white, so that involved a few extra steps which are explained very well in Karen Burniston's assembly tutorial for this die.

 

I added a pair of sunglasses and flipflops paper pieced with cut files created from free clipart, and a cool drink created from a freebie cut file from Cre8tive Cutz. The drink was attached to the chair arm by attaching a piece of acetate to the bottom of the glass and threading it through a slit made in the arm. Thank you, Karen Aicken of Painted Mountain Cards blog for the advice on that!

I used the Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside die to cut another strip of sand colored paper to create a pocket on the backside of the card as well as a simple gift card holder. Sea shells were cut from very old Quickutz dies.

I had lots of fun creating my first adirondack pop up chair card. I've been seeing many adorable cards that other crafters have made with this die where they have propped cute little critters up in the chair... can't wait to give that a try too!

Retirement Shaker Card

After binge watching cardmaking tutorials on YouTube, I was excited to give the "see through" or "floating" shaker card another try; this time on a tri-fold retirement card for my sister in law.

 Scalloped frame for the shaker was die cut using Park Avenue Creative Cuts by Mama Elephant.

 I used stamped images from Dandelion Designs "Sakura" and "Sakura Girls" sets, colored with Copics and fussy cut. Sakura Girls' kimonos were paper pieced with washi papers. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of using foam tape to adhere the stamped images onto the front of the shaker.

As you can see here, since this is a "see through" shaker card,  when the card is opened, the back of the stamped images and the foam tape I used are visible...which isn't too pretty at all. Definitely need to rethink the placement of cutouts and embellies on my next attempt of a see through shaker card!

Here's the trifold card completely open. Background wave patterned papers are digital paper from Gradient Fox on Etsy.

On the back of the card, I used the Pretty Pink Posh's Pocket Border die to create a pocket to hold a gift card. As much as I love the look of all the different styles of shaker cards there are, creating them continues to be a lesson in progress for me. Guess I'll just have to keep on practicing!

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. 
 

Let the Relaxation Begin!

Here's a fun retirement card I put together for a special lady who I used to work with. Although I myself am recently retired, I haven't had the opportunity to make many retirement cards yet so I needed to create a board on my Pinterest account to start saving ideas right away! The inspiration for this card came from a super cute and clever punch art retirement card that was created by Rochelle Peterson and posted on her blog, Creative Corner Studio.

To make this into a fun pop up card, I used the pop up mechanism from Karen Burniston's Katherine Label Pop Up Die so the teddy bear on the float rises and pops up as the card is opened.

The adorable bikini clad teddy and the float are paper piecing cut files from Marjorie Ann Designs: "Girls Just Wanna Have Sun" for the ring float, and "Beach Day Fun" for the teddy. The fancy labels  I used for the sentiments are freebie svg cutting files from Images by Heather M blog.
Kudos once again to Karen Burniston for coming up with this easy and fool-proof pop up mechanism die so everyone can create fun, "wowza" pop up cards everytime!

Adirondack Retirement Card

I have another "non-cutesy" card to share this week, a retirement card for a friend. I do believe this is the first retirement card I've ever made...LOL, and I guess it shows! I began by first searching for inspiration on Pinterest and found pins for a lot of really nice cards I liked featuring the Adirondack die from Stampin' Up. Only problem is that I  felt the die is quite pricey, and besides, I needed this card in a hurry.

So instead I searched and found an image for an Adirondack chair and some palm trees I liked and converted them into a cutting files using Make the Cut design program. The tall cool drink is a svg cutting file from Cre8ive Cutz. Adhered everything to the front of my card, which is actually a sleeve with an oval window backed with clear acetate.Used Copics to color in some sand and pounced some blue ink on the top with a makeup sponge for the sky.

Pulling on the ribbon at the side of the card pulls a gift card holder out and reveals a message printed on the inside of the sleeve. I used water color digital patterned paper for beach scene on the front of the gift card holder which shows through the window.

On the inside I added a pocket to hold a gift card and my sentiment. Sigh, unfortunately this card didn't quite turn out how I had imagined in my head...I had such high expectations, but I think I need much more practice with retirement cards. The good news is that since many of my friends are soon approaching that retirement age, I guess I'll have many more chances to practice!