Father's Day Christmas?!

Did that title get your attention, lol?  The Christmas part came from using the Christmas Deer stamp. I'm getting smarter in my old age (haha), and have started looking at stamps with an eye toward "Can I use this in more than one way?"  Upon first glance, the Christmas Deer stamp would be "No", but then I thought if I just inked up the deer and left off the ornate antlers, I could use it for a masculine card, too!  Turned out pretty well, I think.

Doing marker-to-stamp works better on smaller areas, but I think the slight lines from the marker makes it look like the deer is standing in a slanting snowfall.  Anyway, I'm sure dad liked it. :-)

Stamps: Christmas Deer, Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Basic Black, Well Worn DSP (retired)
Ink: Early Espresso Stampin' Pad and Stampin' Write Marker
Accessories: Big Shot, Chevron Folder, Bitty Banners Framelits, Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack, Paper Piercing Tool, Stampin Sponges

Father's Day

I was (am) so grateful to have my dad around for another Father's Day. There for a while it looked like I wouldn't.  I'd like to give a shout-out to the wonderful nurses working the oncology ward at St. Peter's Hospital in Helena, Montana. You are so special!

This is the card I made for Dad this year.  He's retired Navy, so I think he got a kick out of it.

The image was heat embossed in black on Marina Mist CS, then an old Blender Pen dipped in bleach lightened the sails.  The ocean was added with a Not Quite Navy marker and white caps with a gel pen. The anchor was heat embossed in silver on Brushed Silver CS, then cut out and tied (anchor knot) with baker's twine.

I think the white eyelets are reminiscent of portholes, don't you?

Stamps: The Open Sea, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Cardstock: Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Not Quite Navy, Brushed Silver, Nautical Expedition DSP
Ink: VersaMark, Basic Black Classic, Not Quite Navy Stampin' Write Marker
Accessories: Heat Tool, Silver and Black Stampin' Emboss Powder, White Baker's Twine, White Eyelets (retired), Petite Pennant Punch (on edge of greeting pennant), Stampin' Dimensionals

Sailing into Father's day

Yet another card for Operation Write Home! I so adore this new stamp set from Stampin' Up, called The Open Sea. My father is retired Navy, and I've always loved the old sailing ships from days gone by. We even have the world's oldest active sailing ship, an iron-hulled beauty called the Star of India, right here in San Diego! With the release of the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie, I want to say "arrr" when I see these ships.

Anyhoo, this stamp set is going to make those always-difficult masculine cards a whole lot easier now!!!  I really hope this set will carry over into the new Idea Book & Catalog.

If you look reeeeeally closely at the hemp twine, you'll see I tied an Anchor Knot, heh heh! I had to look it up, and found a great site that shows animations of different knots. But it still took me a few many tries to get it right....


Stamps: The Open Sea (greeting from $1 bin at M's)
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Autumn Spice DSP (retired)
Inks: VersaMark, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, So Saffron, Peach Parfait and Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pads
Accessories: Finial Press embossing folder, Big Shot, Hemp Twine, 2-1/2" Circle Punch, Spiral Border Punch, 2"x1-3/8" Oval Punch, Old Olive 1-1/4" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder, Heat Tool

This will be the last card for a week or so. I'm dealing with a very ill family member, and won't have a chance to play in the stamp cave for a while. (Cue the violins.)  

Patriotic Father's Day

What father of a deployed service person wouldn't love to receive a patriotic card from their son or daughter? The red, white and blue stars are perfect! (I really wish SU hadn't retired that smaller star punch!) A bunch of these were sent to OWH on Saturday.

Stamp: All Holidays

Cardstock: Real Red, Whisper White, Night of Navy

Ink: Real Red and Night of Navy Stampin' Write Markers

Accessories: Night of Navy 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, Square Lattice embossing folder, Big Shot, Large Star Punch, Star Punch (retired), star brad (non-SU)

And here's one of the "ANY HERO" cards included in the box.

Stamp: Hero Mail (AMuse)

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Real Red, Night of Navy, Autumn Spice Specialty DSP (retired)

Ink:Soft Suede Classic,  Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic Sketch Markers

Accessories: Night of Navy 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, Real Red 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon, Decorative Label Punch, Finial Press embossing folder, Big Shot, star brad (non-SU)

Fête des Pères, Parisian Breeze Style

I admit it, I'm a paper hoarder.  I buy lovely patterned papers and want to save them all for some "special" future project.  This, of course, presents a problem when the old stamp cave starts really feeling cave-like from the encroachment of the ever-growing stash. But of all the papers I've acquired in the past three-plus years, Parisian Breeze is my all-time favorite.  The colors, the patterns (BOTH sides of ALL the sheets!), the lovely heavy textured cardstock......*sigh*.

Never before or since has there been anything that even comes close. Needless to say, I have been very carefully hoarding that particular stash, using a little snippet here, a tiny piece there. (I even have a unopened pack!)

Well, I finally found a cause worthy enough to use some of the opened pack, and that's some CAS Father's Day cards for OWH.  Lookee!

Stamp: All Holidays
Cardstock: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Parisian Breeze DSP (retired, darn it!)
Ink: Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake and Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write Markers
Accessories: 5/16" Jumbo Brads (Neutrals)

Another OWH Father's Day

Gotta be quick today...I'm getting ready for the Summer Mini Open House this afternoon!  Here's another from a batch going to Operation Write Home later this week:

Stamps: Plane & Simple
Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Basic Gray, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Big Shot, Square Lattice embossing folder, square brads (non-SU)

Father's Day

This card was one of the make 'n takes at last Saturday's SU card club, and it just perfectly fits for my father for Father's Day. He's retired now, and doesn't even keep track of what day of the week it is anymore. (Lucky bast guy.) LOL!

Anyway, I love, love, loved the Stampin' Up! Specialty Designer Series Paper that we used for it - so much so, that I ordered a pack for myself. BTW, SU is having a special right now where if you order three packs of DSP, you get a fourth one free! I don't know about you, but I'm a paper addict, so I had no trouble at all picking out 4 packs. ;-D If you want to take advantage of this special, contact my demo Rosalie. She's the best!

Cardstock: SU Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze and Whisper White
DP: SU Parisian Breeze SDSP
Stamps: SU Sense of Time
Inks: SU Chocolate Chip
Ribbon: SU Chocolate Chip