Happy Father's Day

I've been in search of my mojo lately but I did manage to put together a Father's day card for my Father in law. I created the background by watercolour blending Distress Inks, and I hand lettered the sentiment. I stamped some critters from Lawn Fawn sets, coloured them with Copics and fussy cut them. Quick, easy and cheery.

I'm linking up with the Lawn Fawnatics challenge where the theme is Cards for Guys.

Card: 300 gsm Daler&Rowney watercolour paper, Hobbycraft 190 gsm white card, white linen textured card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Party Animal, Critters In the Jungle

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Inks Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio, Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint Sketch, Copics

Other: STAMPlorations Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies

June STAMPlorations CAS Challenge - Mid-Month Inspiration

Welcome to the mid-month inspiration post for the June STAMPlorations challenge. You still have two more weeks to play along with our Masculine Colours theme. There are some amazing projects already linked up in the gallery, thank you for all the inspiration. Keep it coming! Don't forget that this is our last CAS challenge for a while, we'll take a break over summer but there will be lots of fun things going on over at the STAMPlorations blog so make sure to check in over the summer. 

I created a Father's Day card for my father-in-law using the cheeky monkeys from the Chikoo Goes Bananas stamp set by Dee's Artsy Impressions. I thought he might enjoy the fun little monkeys as he is the adoptive father of Gordon, a very handsome orangutan living in Monkey World. I used Distress Oxides to create a jungle-like background and then stamped and coloured the monkeys using Copics. The sentiment was die cut from a scrap piece of card I created ages ago using Distress Paints. Last, I stamped the second part of the sentiment using a Lawn Fawn stamp set - the only one I have which says 'father's day'. 

Card: 350 gsm Daler&Rowney watercolour paper, scrap of yellow card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Chikoo Goes Bananas, Lawn Fawn Happy Everything
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Oxide Vintage Photo, Cracked Pistachio, Fossilized Amber, Copics
Dies: CUTplorations Happy Word Die 

STAMPlorations discount code: If you want to save 20% when shopping at the STAMPlorations store you can use the code STAMPGIRLKAROLA at checkout. The discount applies to all normal priced and discounted stamps, stencils and dies. The code cannot be combined with other discount codes. If you have any questions or problems, just let me know!

There's Snow One Like You Dad

It's Father's day in Finland next weekend, and of course my dear Dad deserves a great card to celebrate the day. It's always hard to be an ocean away on these special days when all you want is to be there and make a really great Father's day breakfast. Maybe some waffles, or cinnamon buns... But a card will have to do. So I wanted to create a really special card so I got out the penguins. I thought the "There's Snow One Like You" would be a great sentiment for a father's day card instead of the usual Happy Father's Day, just to make it a bit more special.

I was inspired by the Keep It Clean and Simple theme over at Lawnscaping. Further, I was also inspired by the colours over at ColourQ and the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. Last but not least I am linking up with the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where the theme is Thinking of You. 

Card: 250 gsm white card, 300 gsm white textured card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Snow Cool and matching dies
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Ink, Versamark, Tim Holtz distress inks Peacock Feathers, Chipped Sapphire, Copics
Dies: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Stitched Hillside Borders, Forest Border
Other: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka, Perfectly Plaid Fall, Ranger fine clear embossing powder

Father's Day card

I'm trying to keep on track with the various Mother's and Father's days. Mother's day in the UK this year was on March 30th, and Father's day is Sunday June 15th. Finnish Mother's day falls in between the two, this year on May 11th and Finnish Fathers's day doesn't take place until November 11th. The good thing of course is that this means there's lots of cards that need to be made all through the year! As I've already managed to tackle both Mother's day cards this year (on the UK date for the Culinary Consultant's mother and on the Finnish date for my Mum) it was now time to start thinking about Father's day cards. I will try to post both Mother's day cards at some point, as they turned out rather nice even if I say so myself.

This Father's day card is inspired by two challenges, the Muse challenge (below) as well as one of the themes for the Friday Mashup, which was ombre. I used a stamp set from Stampin' Up called The Open Sea. I actually bought the stamp set specifically for the Culinary Consultant's Dad as he likes boats and has one himself. As all card makers know, it's always so hard to make cards for men, so if they have some special interest you can use as a theme, that makes things so much easier. I also deliberately didn't use all stamps from the stamp set, only the sailing boat as I thought I can use the world map and the anchor for another card, maybe a birthday card and in that way get more use out of the stamp set. You know how making several cards to the same recipient using the same stamps is kind of like showing up in the same dress to party after party...

I used Tim Holtz distress inks to create the ombre background for the ship, and stamped it in Hobbycraft black pigment ink. I matted it onto matching Tim Holtz core'dinations cardstock and added some Tim Holtz paper string. I made banners out of the leftover scraps of the matting cardstock, and printed the sentiment onto the DSP.

Card: Craft UK kraft card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm ivory card, Tim Holtz ColorCore Cardstock in Faded Jeans and Barn Door
Paper: Stampin' Up DSP Fan Fair
Stamps: Stampin' Up The Open Sea
Inks: Tim Holtz distress inks Broken China, Faded Jeans, Peacock Feathers and Salty Ocean, Hobbycraft Black Pigment Ink 
Other: Tim Holtz Paper String