February Woodblock Wednesday Post

 Hi all,

It's Woodblock Wednesday for February! I so enjoy playing along with Amy's challenge each month.

After I got started with my stamping yesterday, playing with my chosen wood mounted stamps, I ended up making four cards. I thought I should do some practice stamping with the technique I planed to use, and I ended up using all but one of the images that I stamped. Even the practice ones. I used the marker to stamp technique, spritzing the colored stamp with water before stamping onto water color paper.

I thought I'd try combining the wood mounted images with some newer postage themed dies and stamps for my cards, and it worked pretty well.

Here are the four finished card fronts. I did finish the insides as well, but I'll spare you the pictures, LOL. 

I used SU water color markers to color on the stamps. For cards 1 and 2, the backgrounds are ink smooshed and then stamped with small hero wood mounted butterfly, dragonfly and ladybug images. On cards 3 and 4, the background is made using a Spellbinders 3D embossing folder. For all four cards, the backgrounds are die cut using Hero Infinity Postage Stamp A2 dies, which for cards 3 and 4, I did some partial die cutting to get the slimline size.

The small postage dies and postage stamped images are from Gina K Designs.

Here's the wood mounted stamps. Some are used for the inside of the cards. The stamps are mostly from Hero Arts and Stampassions. (I just noticed that one one the sentiment stamps is upside down!)

TGIF, and enjoy the weekend ahead!

Colleen

Supplies

Wood mounted stamps: Hero Arts and Stamppassions Art Stamps

Postage themed stamps: Gina K Designs

Paper: Tim Holtz water color paper, Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Layering Weight White card stock, SU Blushing Bride pink card stock

Ink: SU water based markers, Gina K Designs and Simon Says Stamp inks

Other: Gina K Designs postage dies, Hero Arts infinity Postage A2 dies, Spellbinders Stylized Lattice embossing folder, Gina K Designs small tag die, Spellbinders water mister bottle, foam tape, SU Dimensionals, twine

FEELING WICKED

Hello Peeps,

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I didn't really do much of anything. I got a new smart TV for my craft room on Friday and spent some time getting Apps added etc. We dumped cable before we went on our vacation last month, thinking we would go the streaming route. My TV was over 20 years old, so I needed to get a new one for streaming to work. Plus, it was a plasma TV, and it was not very energy efficient. I don't really watch too much TV, but I'm a big baseball and tennis fan, and there are some series I like, plus the news, so I figured it was worth it to get a new one. (Just in time to watch the US Open Tennis.)

I only made one card over the weekend as I wasn't feeling very creative for some reason. I liked the open sketch that Judy created for Freshly Made Sketches. I used it to make a Halloween card.

Using some really old patterned papers from Basic Grey, Dies from Spellbinders, Hero, and Time Holtz I made this one.

The martini glass die is from Hero Arts, and I cut it from Holographic card stock. After cutting the Spellbinders halloween images, I added them to the glass and popped it all up with foam tape to the front of the card. To help the Halloween images pop out, I added some stickies to the bat, the witches hat and the eyes in the skeleton. The sentiment was cut twice and the letters stacked. 

Here's the inside, which uses a Gina K Designs sentiment and flying bat image.

Wishing everyone a great week! Maybe my mojo will return at some point.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Haunts and Harvest stamp set by Gina K Designs (inside)

Paper: Gina K Designs Tangerine Twist, Sweet Mango, Black Onyx, SU Basic White Thick and SSS Holographic card stock, Basic Grey Eerie Collection

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Tangerine Tango, Blue Demin

Other: Hero Arts Martini Glass die set, Spellbinders Boo-Licious Fall Cupcake die set, Tim Holtz Bold Halloween Text dies, Black, Orange and Stardust Stickles, foam squares, Connect glue

Encouragement & Sympathy Cards

 Hello Peeps,

It's Thursday already! Sometimes it seems like the weeks just fly by. I've been working of some sewing lately, instead of stamping. I finished three quilts in the past two weeks, two are for wedding gifts and the third is one I helped a friend make. They all turned out beautiful.

Last year I made a cute handbag using a Sallie Tomato pattern and I've enjoyed using it, but it's getting a little worn looking and I thought I'd make another. I'm waiting on some hardware that I ordered before I can put it all together, but I have been "making" the fabric that I want to use. Mostly, cutting 2.5 inch squares of flowered material and sewing them together for a scrappy look. The accent fabric is denim. I'm excited to see how the completed project looks.

Since it is Thursday, I put the sewing aside so I could make some cards for this week's  Paper Players challenge. LeAnne is hostess with the monthly CAS challenge and her theme is Sympathy or Encouragement. I made a few cards for my stash.

For the first card I started with a card front cut from a PinkFresh Studio Blanket Stitch Rectangle die. Using Masking Magic quarter inch strips I masked off the stitching and then divided the panel into thirds. I ink blended Distress Oxide inks in pink, gold and turquoise into the areas, spritzed with water and splattered with white paint. I removed the masking strips, added the palm trees, SU, cut from white card stock and the stamped sentiment element. This lovely sentiment is from Gina K Designs.

Here is the inside of this card. The sentiment is actually a rub-on from Hero. The palm tree is from SU.

These other two cards are made using stamps and rub-ons from Hero. I used the same inside sentiment for each card.

Second card.

 Third card.

Inside of cards 2 and 3.

TGIF tomorrow. We have plans for Saturday. We are meeting friends that live in the Palm Springs area in the Temecula Wine Country for lunch and a little wine tasting. On Sunday, a girl friend and I will be at Petco Park for a baseball game. I hope you have some fun plans too.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Hero Arts With Sympathy set and coordinating dies and rub-ons and Gina K Designs Guiding Light mini stamp set

Paper: Gina K Designs white, kraft, black card stock & vellum

Ink: Distress Oxide, Gina K Designs Black Onyx and craft white, Concord & 9th Rainforest, Grasshopper,  Eucalyptus, and Lemon Grass

Other: PinkFresh Studio Blanket Stitch Rectangle dies, Gina K Designs Sentiment Strip and Stitched Circle dies,  Stampin' Up Paradise Palms dies, SU Circle Punch, Blending Brushes, WOW white pearl embossing powder, heat tool, water brush, Dr pH Martin's white paint, small paint brush, Misti, Intri-cut die cutting machine

Sending Fairy Kisses

 Happy Saturday Peeps,

I saw the Stay Crafty with a Blog Named Hero March Chaallenge on a few blogs while surfing some of my favorite crafty blogs yesterday and decided I would play along. This month it's about the "magic" of melting embossing powder. Who doesn't think it's magic? I thought I'd pair embossing magic with fairy magic with the Hero Fairy Kisses stamp set.

In addition to the Fairy Kisses set, I also used the July 2021 My Monthly Hero set, the Meadow Heroscape set and the Mushroom Forest die to complete my card. The stamped images are embossed using gold EP and the sentiment is embossed with white EP.

The night sky background is ink blended using Gina K Designs inks. After the card was assembled, I added some Nuvo white drops (because I can't find my white paint) and tiny clear sequins for some sparkle.

For the inside of of the card, I used the other large image and sentiments from the Fairy Kisses set, both heat embossed.

Enjoy your weekend, and thanks for checking in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: All Hero Arts Fairy Kisses, July 2021 My Monthly Hero set, Meadow HeroScapes set

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight White, Black Onyx and Lovely Lavender card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Craft White, Embossing and Watermark ink, Powder Blue, Blue Denim, In the Navy and Wild Wisteria inks

Other: Hero Mushroom Forrest die, Gina K Designs fine detail gold and white embossing powder, Nuvo white pearl drops, Gina K Designs mini disco ball sequins, Connect glue, Misti, Big Shot, heat tool, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1, SU Dimensionals and mini dimensionals

Wishing You Sunny Days

 Hello and happy Sunday afternoon,

I have my card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge. I've combined a SSS die with a greeting from Hero Arts and some bright ink blending to make a sunset card. 

I marked off the box for ink blending with some GKD Masking Magic strips then used orange, bright pink and dark blue ink to make my sunset. Using the SSS Radiant die, I cut the shape and then added the greeting. After trimming the panel down a bit, I added some gold glimmer paper behind the cutout and used foam tape to pop it up on the card base. I added some gold gems for a little extra sparkle.

I like these good well greetings and graphic images in the SSS Hello Sunshine set. I used them to sort of mimic the card front.

We've had no sunsets, just gloom, for more than a month, but on Friday the marine layer thinned out in the late afternoon and cleared out at the horizon in the late evening, and I got a good snap of the actual sunset. Unfortunately, we're back to total gloom😏

Enjoy your Sunday evening!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Hero Arts Beach Heroscape set and Simon Says Stamp Hello Sunshine set

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight White and SU Basic White Thick card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Tangerine Twist, Passionate Pink, Denim Blue, Wild Dandelion and Black Onyx ink

Other: Simon Says Stamp Radiant die, Gina K Designs Masking Magic Strips, blending brushes, Misti, Big Shot, Trinity gold gems

Wishing You A Very Happy Day

Happy Saturday to all!

We are headed out to watch our young friend play in his high school baseball game a little later this morning, then I have crafty plans later this afternoon while I watch my MLB team play a game broadcast from Mexico City. 

First, I wanted to get my card posted that I made for Amy's Wood Block Wednesday Challenge. This card was fun to make, and I mostly did the designing as I went along. I didn't have a "destination" for the final card, but I'm really happy with how my layout worked out, especially since I picked out a very simple stamp for the focal image.

I used more wood mounted stamps for the inside of the card, making it a birthday card. 

I used Spruce shades for the inks and card base, unfortunately, the photos make the shade appear more teal. The green and gold look nice together IRL.

Enjoy your weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Front stamps: Leaf by DeNami Designs (1997) and greeting stamp from Hero

Inside stamps: Greeting stamp's label is unreadable and the confetti stamp is Hero

Paper: SU Soft Succulent and Basic White card stock, Gina K Designs gold card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Embossing Ink, Light, Medium, and Dark Spruce and Applemint 

Other: Taylored Expressions Burlap embossing folder, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 dies, Leaf Stencil, Blending Brushes, and Fine Detail Gold embossing powder, Big Shot, Heat tool, Water Brush for the watercoloring, Trinity Gold Pearls, Connect Glue, Foam Tape

The Witch Is In

Hello and happy Hump Day,

As you read this I'm on the highway again heading back to my Mom's in Northern California. My niece's baby shower is this Saturday in Bend, OR, so I'm driving to my Mom's and then we will drive from her house to Bend on Friday afternoon. 

Earlier in the week, I did have a chance to make a couple of cards for Claire's Paper Player's Challenge. It's CAS week with a Fall theme.

I made two cards. One has some die cuts and one is a one layer card. I would consider both CAS, but I am posting the one layer card in the gallery for my challenge card.

Here are the cards. 

This first is a Halloween stamp set from Hampton Art Stamps. This is a mini slimline card size. The card stock is GKD Heavy Weight Vanilla and the images are colored with colored pencils. 

My second card is made with Hero Arts images and dies. I used the Taylored Expressions A2 Rectangle Mask to mask off the outside of the card to ink blend the center with three fall shades. The Hero Arts pumpkin die is cut from shinny gold card stock.

Thanks for checking in, and have a great rest of the week.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: The Witch is In set by Hampton Arts and Color Layering Fall stamp set and dies by Hero Arts

Paper: Gina K Designs Heavy Weight Vanilla, Layering Weight and Heavy Weight White card stock,

Concord & 9th gold card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Sweet Corn, Sweet Mango and Jelly Bean Green, VersaMark

Other:  GKD Fine Detail Gold EP, heat tool, Misti, Gemini Jr, MFT Wonky Stitched Rectangle die, Prisma Color colored pencils, gamsol, blending stumps, yellow Stickles, Nuvo clear glitter brush

Hi There!

 Hello,

Did you see this video on Jennifer McGuire's blog. She teaches us a cool way to do ink transfer using Distress inks, heat embossing, stencils, water and a die cutting machine. It looked like a super fun technique so I decided to give it try Friday evening after work. I ended up with several panels, some that look pretty good, others not so much. Two that worked well, I've used on these two cards.

The darker one on the right is the panel that I applied the ink to and then embossed with the background stamp. The lighter card on the left is the ink transfer card. For these two cards, all of the stamped images are from Hero Arts.

As the Hero Arts Background stamp is bee themed, I combined it with another Hero Bee themed stamp set to make a card using this week's Freshly Made Sketches layout. I used the Hero Infinity Hexagon die set for the focal element in the sketch.

For the second card, I use the SSS Hexagon Hi die, in keeping with the bee theme. Using a gold gel pen to make the bee's trail on the "Hi" cutout, and then I popped the little bee image like he's "flying off."

This ink transfer is a really fun technique, and once you get going, it's kind of hard to stop, LOL. In Jennifer's video, she uses some stencils in the process. I tried those too, and mine turned out pretty well. Now I just need to make some cards with them.

Happy crafting all, and thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Hero Arts stamps Bees & Flowers Background, Bees & Flowers Wreath set, My Monthly Hero Jan. 2021 set, SU Bumblebee, Daffodil Delight, and Basic Black card stock, Gina K Designs Heavy Weight white and Honey Mustard card stock, VersaMark, Tim Holts Distress Inks in various gold and yellow shades, Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Copic markers, clear embossing powder, heat tool, Hero set dies, Hero Infinity Hexagon dies, Simon Says Stamp Hexagon Hi die, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1, 2 and 4 die sets, Misti, Big Shot, Gemini Jr, enamel dots, gold gel pen, SU mini Dimensionals

Hello and Ride The Wave - Two Cards, Two Challenges

Happy Sunday peeps,

I rarely post multiple challenge cards in one blog post, but that's what I'm doing this morning. I'm headed out of town early tomorrow morning and since I had the cards completed, I figure should get them out.

You'll notice that I must have been in an ocean color mood yesterday.

This first card is for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge. The flower stamp and die are from Pink Fresh Studio and the Hello die is Stampin' Up. The card stock and inks are from Gina K Designs.

I used one of the new nested background stamps where the pieces can be removed so that each line can be stamped in a different color. These stamps are quite fun. I trimmed the stamped panel down to 4.0x5.25 inches and and mounted it onto the dark teal card base. For the triangles at the top and bottom, I simply cut a piece of the the dark teal to the same dimensions and then cut it corner to corner.

The hello die is cut from the pool card stock 3 times and glued together then glued to the front of the card with Connect glue. I added a layer of SU Shimmery  Crystal Effects for some shine and added three enamel dots for embellishment.

The current  CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge sketch is very interesting. After spending some time looking through my stamp sets, here's what I came up with for it. This is my rendition of "surfing the tube." The wave and surfer dies, and the sentiment stamp are from Hero Arts. The background wave cover plate is from Avery Elle. I cut the cover plate from white, and from Tranquil Teal and Tranquil Sea card stock. The card base is Sea Glass. The surfing girl and her surfboard are cut from bright pink card stock with a layer of Shimmery Crystal Effects over top. The card stock is Gina K and the pink ink is Rina K Electro-pop Poppin' Pink.

Finally a card that I made yesterday evening that isn't for any challenge. Just because I had the stamp sets on my table. Stamps and dies are Hero Arts and inks from Gina K and Hero Arts. The sand is made using blending brushes. I tried to be arty and make cloud shadows on the sand using a darker ink to blend. The sky is blended with a very light blue. The clouds are stamped with Hero Sky Blue ink for the first stamp and the layering stamp is stamped with Hero Unicorn Craft ink. They came out pretty nicely.

I'll be packing the rest of the day. I'm off to see my mom and my sister for a few weeks.

Thanks for looking in and have a nice Sunday,
Colleen

Supplies Card 1
Stamps: Modern Layered Florals and Nested Chevron Background by Pink Fresh Studio
Paper: Gina K White, Sea Glass and Tranquil Teal card stocks
Ink: Gina K ink cubes in Jelly Bean Green, Key Lime, Applemint, Sea Glass, Tranquil Teal
Other: SU Hello die, Modern Layered Florals die, SU Shimmery Crystal Effects, Misti, Gemini Jr, Connect glue, Gina K foam squares, enamel dots

Supplies Card 2
Stamps: Beach Heroscape set by Hero Arts
Paper: Gina K card stocks
Ink: Rina K Electro-pop Poppin' Pink
Other: Hero Arts Surfs Up dies, Avery Elle Wave Cover Plate, Gemini Jr, SU Shimmery Crystal Effects, Connect Glue, foam tape

Supplies Card 3
Stamps: Beach Heroscape set by Hero Arts
Paper: X-Press It Blending card stock, Gina K Sea Glass card stock
Ink: Gina K ink and Hero ink cubes, Hero Unicorn craft
Other: Beach Heroscape dies, TE blending brushes, Misti, Gemini Jr, Connect glue

Spring Card Camp 2 - Day 2 Cards

Hello peeps,

Jennifer McGuire was the instructor for Day 2, and she showed how to make stripes using ink blending and masking. These make colorful backgrounds for large stamped images. The technique is pretty simple, just use some "purple" tape to mask off the stripes, and then use your favorite ink blending tool to add color to the unmasked area.

I made two cards both, with horizontal stripes. (Jennifer made a fun card with diagonal stripes.) These were fun and relaxing to do, although a bit messy. The hardest part for me was deciding on the ink colors.

Thanks for stopping in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Just Keep Swimming set by Hero Arts and Mondo Daisy set by Ellen Hutson
Concord & 9th Playful Patterns set, Honey Bee Ocean Boarders set
Paper: SU Basic Black, Coastal Cabana, Orchid Opulence, Neenah Solar White card stocks
Ink: Gina K Amalgam black, various SU inks for the stripes, VersaMark, Terra-cotta Tile (fish layering)
Other: Misti, purple tape, TE blending brushes, white EP, heat tool, Gemini Jr, Mondo Daisy dies (lady bug)

HBD

Hello and happy Hump Day,

I had to go out to see a hospital customer today so I'm late getting some more post done for cards I've made over the last few days for the Spring Card Camp. I've been skipping around since I'm about 4 days behind, but that's okay. I'll eventually do all of the techniques.

This post has Day 8 cards. The teacher was Kathy Zielske, and the lesson was to make a shaker card with  a word die, and then use the negative cutout to make a second card. I looked through all my dies and the ones that are words are very small and I didn't think they would work for the shaker. What to do? I used alphabet dies and a couple of rectangle dies instead and it worked pretty well.

The front of both cards are inked with Hero Arts birthday stencils with Distress Oxide inks. These were super fun to make.

Kathy used watercolor paper and brushed Distress Ink in 4 colors over an area to cover the die being used, so that is what I did. After drying the panel with a heat tool, I cut it out with the stitched rectangle die. Then I centered the three letters and cut them out. After putting the shaker elements together, I cut a slightly larger rectangle from the card front then glued the shaker in place. The cutout letters are used on the second card. Love how colorful these turned out.

Thanks for stopping in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Hero Arts Party set and Hero stencils
Paper: TE bright yellow and green card stock, Neenah Solar white card stock, Bristol watercolor paper
Ink: Distress and Distress Oxide inks, Memento tuxedo black
Other: Die-namics lower case alphabet  and Stitched Rectangle dies, Misti, Gemini Jr, water brush, enamel dots, foam tape, sequins for shaker

2020 Spring Card Camp Day 3 Project

Hi all,

Day three's project for the Spring Card Camp, brought to us by Yana Smakula, is all about cutting up a background stamped image to "color with paper." The idea is to take a fairly abstract background stamp, stamp it on multiple sheets of different colored card stock, then cut out pieces to make a background for your card. My large background stamp supply is extremely limited, especially one that would work for this technique. The best I could come up with is Hero Arts stamp called Abstract Waves. In Yana's instructional video, she used the background to make the sky, hills, rivers and a lake for a little village. I used mine to do a similar scene. The houses and trees are from Concord & 9th.

Below is the completed card with the background stamp. I have a box of retired SU card stock colors and I thought this would be a good project to use some of the up. I used various blues and purples for the sky, then some browns, rust and golds for the mid area and finally greens for the grass. The houses and trees are stamped with Memento and colored with Copics and cut out using the set dies. I thought  a black card base would look good and I used black with white embossing for the sentiment.

For the inside of my card, I've used other images from the same Concord & 9th set.

This was a very long process, maybe because the background stamp I used has so many little swirls. I'm not sure I'd really do this again, LOL, but I really like learning the concept. I sure wouldn't have thought to do this, although it is similar to paper piecing on smaller images instead of coloring.

Looking forward to doing day four's project. But first, I actually have to go visit a customer and do some staff training, so my stamping will have to wait until later this afternoon.

Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Abstract Wave background and Layering Sea and Sky sets by Hero Arts and City Stacks by Concord & 9th
Paper: Various retired SU card stock, Basic Black and Whisper White card stock
Ink: Gina K Amalgam black ink, Memento tuxedo black, Copics, VersaMark, Hero blue ink cubes
Other: Misti, liquid glue, Concord & 9th dies, Hero Sea and Sky dies (clouds), white EP, heat tool, Gemini Jr, Dimensionals

What's the Scoop?

Happy, happy Friday to all,

A very slow work day for me today and I'm not sorry one bit. I had some house chores to do this morning (paying bills, it's always so fun-not!), and a few actual work e mails to answer. After having lunch with Mr Personal Chef at this little mediterranean food bistro, I decided to do some stamping. I needed to get my weekend stamping fix in early because I will be flying to Northern Calif tomorrow for the weekend to attend my Aunt's memorial. My mom's older sister passed a few weeks ago. Always a sad time.

Using Linda's Freshly Made Sketch, and the colors from the current Global Design Project I made this card. When I saw Linda's sketch on Wednesday, I knew immediately what I wanted to use for the vertical element, and the GDP colors worked so well for my idea.

I tried keeping my card fairly CAS. Just a little Twinkle Twinkle DSP with small scalloped borders. The only embellishment is that sweet little puffy heart sticker.

I didn't stamp a greeting on the inside, thinking this would make a good note card for any occasion.
I did use the new SU Stitched Rectangle set to cut a frame from Soft Sea Foam card stock and stamped that sweet little cherry at the bottom.

I'm going to try and get one more card done tonight. I still need to pack, but that shouldn't take too long.

Thanks for coming by and have a great weekend!
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Layering Ice Cream set by Hero Arts
Paper: Whisper White Heavy, Soft Sea Foam card stocks and Twinkle Twinkle DSP, all SU
Ink: SU Soft Sea Foam, So Saffron, Petal Pink, Gina K Sandy Beach, Kraft, and Jet Black ink cubes,
Other: Hero Layering Ice Cream set dies, SU Stitched Rectangle dies, Taylored Expressions Scalloped Border die, Misti, Gemini Jr, Crate Paper puffy heart sticker, dimensionals

Sending You Sunshine

Happy Friday evening to all,

I'm glad to be home from the desert. It's still hot, hot out there and on Thursday it turned humid as well. Very sticky. Luckily, I'm finished with the project there for now, so I won't have to go back next week.

Today's card is one that I made last weekend for a co-worker who lost her father recently. These sunflowers are from a Hero Arts set from last fall called Color Layering Fall.

No challenge with this one, just a fairly simple design. The flowers are stamped with various SU gold and yellow inks and the stems with various greens, then cut out with the set dies. The background is made with embossing paste and a brick wall stencil. The circle is vellum. The card base is kraft.

I didn't take a picture of the inside, but it was a typical sympathy sentiment.

We're having dinner with our neighbors tonight, which will be fun. Tomorrow I'll be back in my craft room. Yippee!

Thanks for looking in and Happy Weekend!
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Color Layering Fall set by Hero Arts
Paper: Neenah Desert Storm, SU Whisper White, kraft vellum
Ink: Various SU yellows, golds, greens and Crumb Cake
Other: Hero Arts set dies, Die-namics Pierced Circle die and Brick wall stencil, SU embossing paste, Gemini jr, Misti, dimensionals

Happy Father's Day

Hello to all,

I haven't made a Father's Day card for anyone in several years as I lost my Father over 20 years ago, and Mr. Personal Chef's Father has been gone for almost that long too. But this year, we've been invited to dinner at our friend's house to help celebrate Father's Day, so I thought I'd make a card for Jai. (Their 11 y/o is the Little Leaguer whose games we attend during the spring, and they also have an 8 y/o son.)

I'm using Jaydee's Clean & Simple Bird theme for The Paper Players Challenge for my inspiration. The stamps are from the Hero Arts June 2018 kit. I've been having tons of fun with this collection of stamp sets.

I'm pretty jazzed about how this card came together, as it was a "create as I went" deal. I first blended some light sky blue Hero Arts ink onto a piece of X-Press It Blending card stock over the top third of the panel. Then I put the panel into my Misti stamping tool and stamped the sea image using a dark blue Distress Ink pad on the solid part and Hero Arts Deep Ocean ink on the area where the waves are. I stamped the seagulls in the sky using Hero Arts Soft Granite ink. Using a Die-namics circle die, I cut an area of the scene out to use for the card.

Using another piece of X-Press It card stock, I made the card base and using the same inking technique, stamped the sea stamp in the middle of the card base. I taped off the ends of the stamp because I didn't want the image to go all the way to the edges of the card. I glued the circle over the card base matching up the two stamped images. The Die-namics Stitched Circle frame die was cut three times from three pieces of X-Press It card stock and glued together, then placed around the stamped circle. The seagull and wooden stand are stamped using Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics. The images are cut out using the corresponding dies and popped up over the frame with dimensionals. Finally, the sentiment is stamped in the lower corner using the Hero Arts Soft Granite ink.

There's a bit more stamping on the inside. All images are from Hero Arts.

Since we all live close to the ocean, I thought a beach/sea themed card worked to make a Father's Day card for our friend.

If you are celebrating Father's Day, I hope it's a fun celebration!
I'm heading out of town for work again tomorrow morning. This week I'll be on California's Central Coast in Santa Barbara. I drive home Thursday evening, then we are spending Friday through Sunday in Palm Springs area with the same friends that we're having dinner with tonight. (Yes, it will be hot!)

Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Layering Sea and Sky set & Seas the Day Seagulls set by Hero Arts. Sentiment stamp from Dad and Me by Lawn Fawn
Paper: X-Press It Blending card stock
Ink: various Hero Arts, Distress Inks, Memento Tuxedo black, Copics, SU Real Red
Other: Hero Arts corresponding set dies, Die-namics Stitched Circle Frame die, Misti, Gemini Jr, dimensionals