The Open Sea for a Navy Dad

This time of the year gets me thinking about the men in my life that I love and admire...family members who have proudly served our country and Father's Day peeking just around the corner.  I usually struggle with the manly cards, but when I start with a great manly stamp set, and a simple sketch layout, the manliness comes together quite easily!  I made my way over to the Freshly Made Sketches blog and this is what I came up with.  

 Here's to a smooth sailing Memorial Day Weekend!  Happy Unofficial Start to Summer stamping friends!

Ingredients:

• The Open Sea stamp set
• Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set
• Soft Suede card base
• Midnight Muse card stock cut to 5 1/4" by 4"
• Print Poetry DSP cut to 4 1/2" by 3 1/4"
• Cherry Cobbler card stock cut to 1 1/8" by 4"
• Soft Suede ink pad
• Midnight Muse ink pad
• Cherry Cobbler ink pad

Baker's Tip:  Use a bone folder to gently curl each end of the Cherry Cobbler strip, curling both sides of the paper until it starts to pull apart into two pieces.  Gently pull the card stock apart until you have two pieces.  Now you have two velvety strips of card stock to give your card another dimension.

Pinwheel Card

I'm on a pinwheel kick right now, even adding them to my seasonal decor! When I saw Vicky Hayes's beautiful grassy background on a card, I knew I wanted to try it, and add pinwheels for a focal point. She used a marker to color only the grass portion of an image from Love and Sympathy, and restamped the image several times, and added sponging for an amazing effect! You can see the original here.

I stamped and sponged exactly like Vicky explained (she is really amazing!); first sponging with Wild Wasabi, So Saffron, and Island Indigo. To get the Island Indigo very light, I removed a lot of the ink off my sponge onto my grid paper first. Then ink up the grass portion of the Love and Sympathy stamp, ink Garden Green, and stamp repeatedly.

To my background I added Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, and Marina Mist DSP from the Polka Dot Parade Designer Series Paper pack. I started with a 1" square, marked the center (using a grid ruler), and clipped half way from each corner to the center dot. Then I folded every other corner to meet the center, and glued it down flat with a 2-way glue pen. You can see a visual on how to make a pinwheel, on a much larger scale on my blog.

Ingredients:

• Stamps: Love and Sympathy, Sweet Essentials
• Paper: Whisper White card stock:
• 1 pc 3 3/4" x 5"
• 1 pc 3 7/8" x 5 1/8"
• 1pc 4 1/4" x 11" (scored at 5 1/2" for base)
• Ink:
• So Saffron
• Wild Wasabi
• Garden Green
• Island Indigo
• Basic Black
• Tools and Accessories:
• Rhinestone Basic Jewels
• Stampin' Sponges
• Stampin' Dimensionals

End of the Year Teacher Gifts

Packaged card sets in clear boxes from Clearbags

I decided to take the inspiration I found for the Monday Muse this week and make monogrammed cards for the teachers and staff members at my daughter's preschool.  I used some of my retired Brights DSP and lots of brights card stock.  I was able to make up 12 cards for each teacher and staff member with the Brights DSP I had left over.  To make the gift more presentable, I placed them inside these clear boxes I had gotten through Clearbags.  It was a quick assembly-line gift making session for me and all the teachers loved them!

2" x 4" DSP cut into banners

Add DSP banners to card bases

Stamp initial using Lovely Letters stamp set; Punch out with 1 1/4" Circle Punch & Scallop Circle Punch for layering

Add monogrammed layers to card bases

Completed card sets - Easy to do when done in an assembly-line fashion!

Grab some DSP, card stock and ink and give it a try today!

Ingredients:
Brights DSP Pack (retired but substitute with any DSP)
Regal Rose, Tempting Turquoise, Rich Razzleberry, Real Red, So Saffron (didn't like the Daffodil Delight card stock with this DSP) and Old Olive card stock and ink
1 1/4" Circle Punch
Scallop Circle Punch
Lovely Letters stamp set #115030 WM or #127796 CM(retiring soon)

Get well card

I combined two card challenges on today's card. I used the layout from Freshly Made Sketches and the theme, favorite retiring stamp set, from SUO Challenge. This set is one of my favorite and one that will take me a long time to part with.

 



 

Ingredients:

• Stamps: Scentsational Season, Express Yourself
• Paper: Baja Breeze - 11" x 4 1/4", 3 5/8" x 2 5/8"
• Whisper White - 5 1/4" x 4", 3 1/2" x 2 1/2"
• Patio Party DSP - 1" x 2 1/2"
• Primrose Petal (flower)
• Summer Starfruit (flower center) 
• Ink: Baja Breeze, Midnight Muse (greeting, steam)
• Tools & Accessories: Holiday Collection framelites
• Boho Blossom Punch
• Whisper White 1/4" grosgrain stitched ribbon
• Dimensionals

Monday's Muse: End of the Year Teacher Gift Idea

While checking out some card ideas on Pinterest, I came across a cute idea for using punches on a card.  But once I clicked over to the card designer's website, I fell in love with this adorable box of cards idea.  She had made them for a coworker for the holidays but I am thinking of teacher gifts!

I love how bright all the colors are and how the cute little banner pennant is placed on the outside of the box.  As soon as I saw it, it screamed "end of the year teacher gift".  So thank you to Erica Cerwin for giving me some fresh inspiration for making teacher gifts as we wrap up the school year.

You can do it!

Today's card is another Relay for Life donation. The forecast is for rain, but I know my friend will be out walking the track no matter what. You can do it, Relay teams!

Ingredients

Ink:

• Melon Mambo

Stamp sets:

• Mosaic Madness (available May 31)
• Express Yourself (Hostess: available May 31)

Paper and card:

• Melon Mambo card base 
• Whisper White cut to 4 x 5 1/4", plus scraps for punching

Accessories:

• Modern Mosaic embossing folder (available May 31)
• Bitty Banners die
• Mosaic punch (available May 31)
• Itty Bitty Shapes punches
• Dimensionals
• Rhinestones

Bombs Away Birthday

I have a confession to make.  I am in love with these new photopolymer stamps!  They stick like glue to the clear blocks and you can see right through them to the card stock you're stamping on.  And to top it off, this set is hilarious!

MOJO 293 over at the MojoMonday sketch blog seemed like a great place to start with my new favorite stamp set!

• Daffodil Delight card base
• Whisper White card stock cut to 4" by 3 1/2"
• NEW IN-COLOR Smoky Slate card stock cut to 3 3/4" by 3 1/4"
• Summer Smooches DSP scraps cut to different banner sizes
• Basic Black card stock cut to 3 1/2" by 1"
• Smoky Slate card stock cut to 3 1/2" by 3/4"
• 2 1/2" circle punch
• Whisper White card stock
• Staz-on Black ink

Baker's Tip: I mixed a little bit of Dazzling Details with a drop of Daffodil Delight re-inker to add a little color to my bomb.