STAMPTACULAR #127 "The Sky's the Limit" with multiple challenges

It's Sunday again and that means another fabulous challenge at Stamptacular Sunday Challenge where we are sponsored by the brilliant Bunny Zoe's Craft who are offering one lucky winner a lovely $10 gift voucher.  This week we are asking you to create anything your heart desires - "The sky's the limit".   We want you to be creative though - this isn't an ordinary anything goes challenge.  We in the DT  have been tasked to be "extremely creative; to do something outside of the box".  So I did!!!  My card was a real feat of engineering for me.  I wanted to make an easel bookatrix card with a difference.  I've never used my bookatrix stencil before AND I wanted the easel to be on the inside of the card instead of the outside.
My card is for our Grandson who is being baptised in Crete where he lives with his Mum and Dad. 
This is him Just Chillin' in their cafe bar one week after his second birthday.  He is wearing clothes for a four year old - he is going to be tall like his mummy!   

Baptism's are huge celebrations in Crete and apparently usually take place in the toddler years when a baby is walking.  The service is of course religious but the party afterwards is entirely secular and very often themed.  Our daughter has chosen a "Fairy Tale Prince" theme in bright greens and blues with frogs and crowns.  The candle holders for all of the tables are frogs, there will be crowns hung from the trees, the Baptism favours will be festooned with frogs and crowns and blue and green ribbons as well as the traditional sugared almonds.  I'm sure you get the picture.
Emma asked us to come early to Crete to help with making the Baptism favours - these are pronounced "bubinerra" in Greek (bonbonierre in french) and I HAD NO IDEA JUST HOW MUCH WORK IT WOULD BE TO MAKE THEM.  But make them I did.  I wish I could share them now but I have no way to transfer the photos from my camera to my pc at the moment so I will dedicate a post to them in a couple of weeks time.
In the meantime, I've had to take rather a lot of photos to show the mechanism for card.  All patterned papers are DCWV Citrus.  The plain card stock is Papermill, some DCWV Citrus card and some K&Co too.
This is the front which, after opening becomes a visible back because it stands up. It's made with a Large Prima flower, a Martha Stewart border punch and Marianne die corner features.

This is the base.  The letters were cut with my Cricut and act as the "stop" for the bottom of the easel.

When opening the card, the front panel is attached by a ribbon to the middle section and it automatically pulls the middle section up.  Unlike most easel cards my feature panel lays face down inside the card.  I decorated the inside of the front a little but it isn't actually visible below the Marianne die corner features when the card is fully opened and as the middle and top panels are attached to eachother the space in between is only partially visible upon opening.  I added two felt buttons which act as "stops" for the top of the easel.  

As my main focus, I have used my favourite image of all time which is Mo Manning's "Puddle Jumper" and coloured it with Promarkers.  Puddle jumper is cut out, embossed from the back and glued down with silicone glue to give it more dimension.   Sadly the dimension isn't very visible in this photo.

I made up my own poem for the inside which is word processed. Writing little rhymes for special occasions was something I used to do a lot of 15-25 years ago. The first line is actually taken from an Irish blessing but the rest of it is my own. 

The easel section is cut using a bookatrix template where you emboss the shape of the book and then cut around it. I found it very tricky. See how the button's at the top stop the front cover from falling backwards? 

Finally, here is the side view.
This card took me two full days to make and quite a lot of wasted card stock as I worked out the engineering and folding mechanisms.  Was it worth it?  I hope so.  It took me 60 hours to make the Baptism favours!!!! But more of that in a later post!

Please come and play with us this week and don't forget to share some love with my fabby teamies who have made all manner of lovely creations!

I am entering my card into the following challenges:
Kaboodle Doodle - "Easel done it!"
Passion for Promarkers - "Flexible" (Anything goes)
Flutter by Wednesday - "Celebrate"
Crafty Creations - "Dies and Punches" - I used my Cricut die cutting machine for cutting the ovals of Giannis' name and the word "Blessings". I hope that counts because we are supposed to use three different punches or dies - my other two are the Martha Stewart border punch and the Marianne die corners on the front of my card.
My Mum's Craft Shop - "1-2-3 .... it's as easy as".   I used 1 flower, 2 Marianne Corner punches and 3 felt buttons (one as the flower centre and 2 on the inside)
Simon Says - "Anything Goes"
Cute Card Thursday - "A pinch and a punch"
Charisma Cardz - "Anything Goes" and;
Totally Gorjuss - "As you Like It"