Friday 29 March 2013

Happy Retirement Dad!

Woohoo!!!  I am so excited about today's card!!  My lovely Dad is retiring today and I really thought a long time about what to put on a retirement card for him.  Having decided I didn't have any stamps suitable to portray his hobbies I thought of retiring and general and knew I wanted to use my hAnglar stamp "sit back and relax", and that was it - I would make a deckchair!!  Sitting on my desk was the gorgeous red stripe grosgrain ribbon from Ribbon Girl and I knew it would be perfect for the job.  Those of you that read my blog regularly will know that I get a bit snap happy when I love how a card turned out....this is one of those days.....LOTS of photos for you because I just couldn't decide which angle I liked best lol!!
So here it is from another angle :).  I started out with some kraft cardstock which I cut into a circle using fancy edged scissors.  The edge is inked with gathered twigs distress ink.  I then cut a smaller circle from pearlescent ivory paper to represent the beach.
Hehehe!  Another view :).  After practising the whole deckchair mechanism with some thin card I made the whole on a larger scale with very thick chipboard.  One of the reasons I'm so proud of this card is that I am absolutely hopeless at putting this kind of deckchair up!  Yet I managed to make one from scratch without pictures to refer to lol!!  Hubby couldn't believe it!
Is that the same picture?  Lol no, slightly, every so slightly different angle!
  I cut out the hAnglar sentiment with a spellbinders tag die and tied it to the deckchair frame with some twine from the Ribbon Girl.
I added some shells and a starfish from Hobby Craft to add to the beach effect and the lettering "enjoy your retirement" was created with Webster's Pages alpha stickers.
I used walnut stain distress stain to turn the chipboard into stained "wood" and can you see I even notched the "wood" so that the support has somewhere to lock into!
The whole thing folds down flat like a real deckchair so that it can be put in a box to hand to my Dad :).
  I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed creating it and thanks for looking! x

24 comments:

Anita Wells said...

Happy retirement to your Dad, send him our best wishes. x

Craftin Suzie (Susan Wykes) said...

Wow Jane that is brilliant! What a wonderful idea and fabulously made! He will love it!! Susan x

Only By His Grace said...

OMG!
You are so clever Jane to make this fabulous chair. Your Dad will so love this. Awesome job.
Hugs Maz

Penni said...

WOW Jane - that is amazing. I love it. You must do tutorial and show us how you created this masterpiece please!! I'd love to have a go at it
Hugs
Penni

Janette said...

This is so fabulous, what a brilliant idea.xx

Martina said...

This is stunning Jane! What a great idea and especially how you have done that card...amazing!!!!!
Happy retirement to your Dad!
Martina

AnyOldCraft said...

How wonderful.
Such a fantastic design for a card :)
Congratulations to your father.

Dorte said...

Awesome job, so very creative. I'm sure your Dad will love it.
hugs Dorte

mru said...

awesome idea ;)

Julie said...

Brilliant!

Ribbon Girl said...

Wow - what a fabulous and unique creation for your Dad - I wish him a long a happy retirement! Mary x

Lesley Thomas said...

Happy Retirement to Dad - amazing card, so inventive! Well done. Happy Easter to you and your family too.

XxJULESxX said...

Oh Jane so clever!!! it's just fabulous!!!

Candy said...

AWESOME!!
I am so delighted with the deck chair you made and the little scene. Awesome that the the chair also folds down!
A very thoughtful and clever card.
Please wish your Dad a long and happy retirement. :o)
Big Hugs, Candy

Aurora said...

Absolutely WOW! I wouldn't have known where to start in creating a deck chair. Happy retirement to your Dad. X

Christa said...

This is awesome !! What a great idea ....

Anne said...

I bet you had the most amazing time making this! I just saw it over on FB and WOW'ed it!! You did a fantastic job! You should sell the template! :o) x

chrissy xx said...

It's STUNNUNG!!
What a FABulous retirement card...
Chrissyxx

Jane said...

I saw this on the Ribbon Girl blog and just had to come over and say how fab it is. I am sure your Dad was amazed...really well done x

Lucy Abrams said...

This card is AMAZING. you are SOOO clever.

Keren Baker said...

That is utterly amazing!

craftyb said...

Very clever!! So creative and totally unique! bx

Hanna said...

This is one of the most original and creative things I'VE EVER SEEN, it's AMAZING! What a fantastic and fun idea!!! LOVE IT!


hugs
Hanna

The Dolphin Inn said...

What an absolutely perfect and clever idea for a bespoke card, bet your dad was thrilled to bits, love it Jane and happy retirement to your dad ( my dad tried that once too lol) xxx