Saturday, June 22, 2013

A pair of Father's Day Cards

Today I'm sharing the last of the Father's Day cards I made this year, both for my husband - one from me, and one from the kids.

First, for the one from me, I used pattern papers from Simple Stories: Take a Hike 6x6 paper pad. This has some great masculine colors and patterns, which I paired with PTI's Canyon Clay, Kraft, Fine Linen and Dark Chocolate.


The top panel is on foam adhesive. I used PTI's Boutique Borders: Father and Birthday, and World's Greatest to put together the sentiment, and also Modern Wood Mats to coordinate with the Mat Stack 5 and Layerz cut out.   

For the card from the boys, I used paper from My Minds Eye: Follow Your Heart 6x6 paper pad (can you tell that I'm trying to use up more of this patterned paper that I've been "collecting", lol!?). The "DAD" is cut with PTI's Block Alphabet from Limeaid Ice. If you look closely, you'll see a tone-on-tone pattern that I stamped on the letters using Sketched Shapes (the large circle works perfectly, just line up the letter under the circle and stamp). I really like this little added bit of detail. Then I attached the letters to a Framed Out #1 die cut that I stamped with the frame.


The scroll is from Boutique Borders: Father and the "Happy Father's Day" is from World's Greatest, and the "You're the Best" is from Sunflower Bouquet.


Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Sending You Love, Dad

Today I have a Father's Day card to share. This is the one that I sent to my Dad. I used Pinterest for some color inspiration (this pin) and came up with Canyon Clay, Summer Sunrise, Ripe Avocado, Spring Rain and Smokey Shadow. I reached for MFT's First Class Friend stamps and dies (a favorite go-to set, especially for masculine cards) and also incorporated PTI's Boutique Borders: Father.



The focal point label and the stamp are both popped up on foam adhesive.



And speaking of that stamp, guess how I made that? :)



The die cut is from MFT but I wasn't sure what I wanted to put on it. So just browsing through some stamp sets, I came upon Love Lives Here. I used one of the little house patterns, just centering the heart opening in the center of the stamp, and then added the heart from the same set. I love how it turned out! And so fun to come up with a new use for a stamp! 


I have two other Father's Day cards to share, so will try to get them posted in the next few days! Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, June 7, 2013

A Thank You for the Teacher

Are your kiddos finished with school for the summer? Usually mine would be by now, but they had a late start last fall due to renovations in their building... so they go through next Thursday! I told them last August when they were enjoying the extra time off, just remember - you'll be paying this back in June! ;) LOL! But anyway... I wanted to share a card I made for one of the teachers, to whom the class was giving a gift card. The main set I used was Teach & Inspire, with a little bit of School Time thrown in. The "you're the best" is from Tiny Tags 2. My colors are Pure Puppy, Limeaid Ice, Enchanted Evening and Summer Sunrise.


The chevron focal point was hand cut and then adhered with foam tape, after I added the pencil.


I added the Tiny Tag with a little brad.


Here's a tip - one of those things that might be obvious, but it felt like such a light-bulb moment when I thought of it that I wanted to share! I wanted to hand-stamp the apples for the background, but they just weren't turning out right. Then I thought to use my Hexagon Cover Plate die to create a sort of "stencil" to use as a guide to the apple placement. It worked perfectly! I'm definitely going to remember this little trick and use it again. I'm sure other cover plates would work too, to create differently-spaced patterns or for other small images!


Thanks for stopping by, and happy summer!

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Congratulations, Graduate!

This is a graduation card I made for a fine young man, one of our scouting friends, who just graduated high school! I tried to match his school colors, a burgandy-red and gold, with PTI's Scarlet Jewel and Summer Sunrise - I hope they came pretty close. This is a 4.5"x7" card, sized to accommodate a monetary gift, with a special "pocket" treatment on the inside that I'll show you below.

I used Fabulous Frames, Block Alphabet Numbers and Alpha Blocks dies for the main focal point, with the sentiment from Celebrations. The "it's your day" is from Framed Out #3. The arrow pattern is from Mama Elephant's On Target, and the graduation cap is from There She Goes' ConGRADulations set, stamped and then hand-cut.


I added texture to the background burgundy in the frame with a texture plate, and the frame and number blocks are popped up on foam adhesive.


On the inside, I put the sentiment (from Birds and Blooms, snazzed up a bit with the cap stamp again) on the left side, to make room for the pocket on the right side.


To make the pocket, I first folded up a flap from the cardstock base (cut 7"x11", then scored at 4.5" and at 9", so that I had the extra 2" to be the base of my pocket). I cut the bracket using the Edger #1 die, and adhered it to the inside of the flap. Then I added some Summer Sunrise striped paper to the top of the flap, and edged it with a strip of Summer Sunrise cardstock, just to give the whole edge a clean and finished look. I use a piece of Scor Tape on each edge to adhere the flap down and create the pocket.



Good luck to all those with kiddos graduating this year (we still have 6 years in this house, lol)! And thanks for stopping by!