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!

Omedeto Gozaimasu!

We are having a wave of retirements in our department at work and I volunteered to make cards for the two retirees. I really try to match the card to the person, so I asked around to see what they both like, hoping that it would inspire me when making their cards. Here's what I came up with for one of the ladies... She's very sweet and conservative and I just kept envisioning an asian style card for her... This washi paper is very nice and had so much going on, that I didn't want to take away from it's beauty, so I just added my sentiment and a few flowers, and that's it! I just love these sentiment laser cuts from Island Scrapbooking- they are the perfect size for us cardsmakers! Here's a shot of what the card looks like inside. To give it some interest, I added those asian looking photo corners by Sizzix. They really added to the plain inside. I also decided to try something different and place the sentiment on the top of the card instead of centered. In the bottom right corner of the middle section, I stamped my favorite kanji poem (Hero Arts) in versamark and then applied the gold mica powder to it for a more subtle effect. Needed enough room for everyone to sign the card, so had to also add paper to the back so everyone could sign. Hope she likes the card! Be back tomorrow to share the other card I made. Don't forget to check out our new Sister Stamps releases here and here for a chance to win!