Just Relax!

Happy Friday! Hooray! The weekend is finally here! I am still getting used to 5 day weeks- when is our next furlough day again? Anyway, as I mentioned in yesterday's post, we have two retirements at the same time in our office, so I volunteered to make the cards. I had this one in mind for quite some time- its kinda the reason why I bought one of these stamps. I didn't know if either of the two girls would like this type of card though, so I took a chance and made it anyway. Started by altering the pleated center pop up card by making it a 6x6 size. Needed to have enough room for everyone to sign it. Once I figured out how to make it bigger, I started decorating it. Although I knew what stamp I wanted to use on the inside of the card, I didn't know what I wanted for the outside. I had bought this stamp at the same time as the one on the inside, and thought they kinda pair up nicely, so I used this one too- both are Penny Black wood stamps. Since the girls' apendeges (spelling?) are stick like and I didn't feel like cutting them out, I decided to stamp the image directly onto the background and paper piece the other parts. This became especially challenging on the scarf! Even though it was a lot of work, I think it looks better than if I had to cut out those stick figures! Added in some flowers for color on the grass and added another Island Scrapbooking laser cut- this time in pink to match the card. Here's a close up of the girl... OK- now for the inside... Ta daaaaaaaa! I thought this image would be so cute for a retiree since I would hope they would take time to relax after working all those years. I really wanted to use this image on this pleated center card so I could make the image pop up when laid flat. Here's what the inside looks like with the background... And here's what it looks like when its open flat. And I found out the recipient loves cats, so I had to add in a little feline companion! Create in Me makes the cutest animal stamps, so I dug in my stash and added this kitty in the grass. Oh yah, also used more Island Scrapbooking laser cuts on the inside- the Best Wishes and mini sakuras are by IS. Hope you have a nice weekend!