Sending Aloha

 Hi peeps,

I hope everyone is having a great Saturday. I had fun catching up with friends who live in the Chicagoland area this morning via phone. It was quite the long call as we hadn't talked in almost a year! How does the time fly?!

When I first started out in my current career (30 years this year) I traveled quite extensively. Some years I would clock over 265 days away from home. One of the best parts of my territory was Hawaii, easy to get to from the west coast. One of the best parts is my Uncle and his family settled there when he retired from the Navy, so instead of having to stay in hotels, I always stayed with them. By then, their kids were all out of the house so I had my own bedroom and bathroom and I was met at the door every evening with a glass of wine. 

I had started my stamping hobby a few years prior and so I was always on the lookout for stamps when I traveled. There were stores around Ohau called "Made in Hawaii" and they had some beautiful hand made gifts. They also had wooden art stamps with Hawaiian images and I collected several over the years. Here's a photo of a few. I have many more. I picked these out because I used some to make the card in this post.

My friend, LeAnne, is hostess of the current As You See It Challenge. Her recipe for a masculine card includes neutral colors, twine, die cut and embossing folder. Now,  I certainly have many newer stamp sets that I could have used, but sometimes I like to open up my wooden stamp drawers and see what jumps out. Today, it was Hawaii. Maybe because I'm starting to want to travel? Who knows, but here's my masculine Hawaiian card using LeAnne's recipe. I've used Jacquuie's Freshly Made Sketch for the layout.

The background is ink blended using Distress inks in Frayed Burlap, Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs. (While the iPhone takes pretty good photos, this one does not do justice to the blended inks. They are very shimmery with a warm gold under tone.) After the ink dried, I stamped the map image with GKD Charcoal Brown ink.  I used the GKD Master Layouts 1 to cut the stamped panel and the mat in brown. I used two EFs, first the SU linen folder and then the Tim Holtz Burlap. I stamped the other various images on a piece of GKD Sandy Beach paper then cut them out using a SU stitched rectangle die and cut brown mats for each piece. The twine is actually a piece of SU burlap ribbon that I cut down. The three stamped rectangles are popped up with SU Dimensionals.

I used the map again here on the inside of the card with the Aloha greeting. 

So who is ready for some Hawaiian sun? Hopefully, we'll feel safe to travel again in the not too distant future. Until then, we have memories.

Have a great rest of the weekend, and thanks for looking in.

Colleen

Supplies

Hawaiian themed stamps by ©RSP Honolulu Hawaii, Gina K Designs Sandy Beach and Charcoal Brown card stock, Charcoal Brown ink, and Master Layouts 1 & 2, Distress inks in Vintage Photo, Gathered Twigs, Frayed Burlap, Tim Holtz Burlap embossing folder, SU Linen 3D embossing folder, Stitched Rectangle dies, SU Burlap ribbon, Dimensionals, Honey Bee Warm Wishes stamp set (sending)