Thursday, April 28, 2022

For Baby Girl's Father-to-Be!


Hello and welcome again!  

Today's Stamp Simply card is a sweet, clean and simple project that is super quick to put together in spite of a very tiny bit of fussy-cutting.  I love the unexpected color combo and this cute banner frame (I've used it before, here) and thought it would make a fun card for a father-to-be whose wife is expecting a baby girl in just a few months.  (It is amazing that the same papers can have such a different feel from one card to another, one for celebrating the beginning of life and the other for grieving the end of a life well-lived).


Here is a close-up of the fussy-cut stroller.  I stamped it in Memento ink directly onto the printed frame, then again onto the pink designer paper.  What makes it so fast and easy is that thankfully there's no need to fussy cut the stroller frame, only the bassinet part which is almost all easy, straight line snipping.  The only tedious part is the one tiny little curve where the two come together.

I colored it all with Copic markers, adding just a hint of shading to the bassinet part to make things look a tiny bit more three-dimensional.  


One of the things I love is that while the colors are not quite traditional, they are completely girlie but still work for Dad!  And just look at all those adorable girlie shoes!  Aren't they fun?!  They're gonna give Daddy just a hint of what he's in for!  ;)

Supplies:

Thursday, April 21, 2022

Getting Ready for Father's Day!


Mother's Day is coming soon and Father's Day will be not far behind it, so it's time to think ahead and order supplies for those projects.  I'm here today with a fun card full of masculine textures and traditional "guy" things (although I will confess that there are as many tools of mine in our garage as there are his, including a belt sander and drill press)!  


The sentiment and dies I've used for today's project are from one of our newest Stamp Simply sets, A Man of Knowledge.   Since my husband is not that into books (unless they're cookbooks!) I wanted to take things in a different direction.  I combined this sentiment with several prints from two paper pads for his card.  I really love how realistic these papers look.  Patrick was a career Naval Aviation Maintenance Officer so this ought to be right up his alley.  These prints would be great for both of my brothers who are car enthusiasts too! 


The little printed square sentiment from "Workshop" gave me the idea to mount another smaller square card onto the front of the larger card.  The squares are all cut using various nesting sizes of Spellbinders square dies, and the sentiment is a punch out.

I used gray card stock and silver ink for those die-cut gears.  If I'd had more metallic paper I could have used that but I'm almost completely out.


The inside of the card has more of that cool paper that looks like embossed metal.  It makes me think of the drag races since so many cars' trailers have it on them somewhere or another!  The sentiment is a favorite familiar scripture from our Welcome Baby set.

Supplies:

Thursday, April 14, 2022

To the Graduate!


Hi y'all!  Graduation season is almost here!  Our son will be graduating from FSU in just a few weeks.  I am so excited for him and so so proud. 


This Congrats graduation paper is so fun!  The colors practically glow and a little distress inking on the edges helps to accentuate that illusion.  Of course, black makes everything pop!  I cut two of the graduation cap and trimmed the board and tassel from one, popping it up on dimensional adhesive to make the cap look more 3-D.   The tassel was colored with gold Wink of Stella and there's a black rhinestone for the cap's button center.   


The inside of the card is a little "study vignette" using some wood grain designer paper for a desk with our new books stamp and matching die, the diploma, an even some stenciling for the background "wallpaper."  For the diploma I cut one from white card stock that I colored and shaded with Copic markers (it looks like some parchment calligraphy paper that I have!), and a second one from a scrap of black for the fussy-cut ribbon center.  Those little details take some time but they really add a lot and I think they're fun to do.

Supplies, all from Stamp Simply:

Thursday, April 7, 2022

Freedom Isn't Free!


Between stamping ahead for the upcoming holidays and knitting some red, white and blue plaid socks for Sock Madness, it is feeling quite patriotic around here this week!


The socks are color work plaid with a double-knit pocket, so I am learning two new techniques!  I have a feeling I will get bumped this round because it was also concert week (the chorale I am in sang Rutter's Requiem Thursday evening and Sunday afternoon) and Matthew was home for a visit, so knitting was low on the priority list, but the needles are clicking away now if by some miracle I might still qualify for Round 3! 


Holly used our stamp set with the more traditional flag in it for her post on Monday, but my card uses a more modern rendition of the flag waving across a map of the good ole US of A.  I love both sets and find that sometimes I might choose one over the other depending on the occasion.  For a fun 4th of July event I might use this one, whereas for a card for someone in the military I might go for the more traditional/formal.  


For the front of today's project I combined some wood print designer paper and the tray/plaque from our All Seasons Decor set with the sentiment, accented with a tiny red white and blue star.  


The inside actually almost looks like another card front (and very well would work as one!) using stamped stars with the Pledge of Allegiance.  The square "God Bless America" is a printed sentiment from the paper pad that I cut out and matted with Spellbinders' classic squares.  There is just a hint of sparkle from a light splash of diluted Delicata ink both inside and out.    

Supplies:
My heart is filled with love and pride for my own country, but also with respect, admiration, awe, and so much sadness for the people of Ukraine.  The situation there has made people the world over so very much aware of the terrible cost of freedom.

With continuing prayers and much love.