Focusing on Fathers

Father's Day is almost upon us, so I thought I'd share some of the Dad's Day cards I've made recently!

The fun paper is what makes both of these cards pop! I think both are from Karen Foster Designs. It's so hard to make guy cards, so the paper was a great jumping off point for something fun for Dad!

The first card is for the Dad that loves to BBQ. Which is nearly every Dad I know (well, maybe my Dad is a little old to enjoy BBQ'ing these days)!. My hubby loves it! You think I buy lots of stamp supplies? My husband goes through grills faster than I go through a pack of Very Vanilla cardstock! This card will be perfect for him from the boys. The grill stamp is from Inkadinkado and is stamped with Night of Navy. The sentiment is actually a portion of a stamp from Endless Creations (I've never heard of this company before...have any of you? ) I THINK I got it at Archivers last year, but I could be wrong. The whole stamp actually says "Happy Father's Day" first, above the verse, but I don't like using it that way. So, I ink up just the verse and use that alone.

The "Dad" stamp was one I bought off the clearance rack at a LSS recently. It is from Wordsworth. I stamped "Dad" first on Whisper White and then punched it out with my Martha Stewart 1" punch. I've wanted a 1" in punch for a long time, and finally found hers. Here a fun tip for you....I layered my "Dad" sentiment on top of my new flower punch from Martha Stewart. Unfortunately, I'm not sure which flower punch this is.....cornflower? Does anyone know? Then I mounted both on top of a 1 1/4 inch circle punch! I love how the tips of the flower punch just peek out ever so slightly around the "Dad" sentiment! It's such a great detail!

I thought a long time about how to use my new tie paper......it sort of speaks for itself, doesn't it? In an effort to keep it simple (very guy-like), I cut out a "tie" from some Real Red cardstock, cut a few blue "stripes" for the tie and the basic layout was finished! I used the same "Dad" stamp and stamped it three times down the tie, and then finished the tie with an Impression Obsession sentiment that says "It's Your Day"! I did a little straight line doodling around the edges of the tie because that's what the ties on the paper have on them. It ties (whoops, an unintended play on words!) paper and stamping together, don't you think! I hope these cards get your creative juices flowing!

Wanted to share a few photos from last nights baseball game using my new zoom lens I got for my birthday! Wow, it's awesome!!!!! I got a bunch of great shots, which always pumps me up!!! These are all shots of my little guy in one predicament or another during the game. We ended up tieing the game 17-17. We should have won! At this age, the boys are happy to have tied than rather to have lost!

Hope you have a fab day. The Tahoe is going into the "doctor" today to be fixed. Pray for good news. We can't afford a big bill, or worse yet, having to buy a new car. That means I am stuck at home with no transportation. I plan to get some stamping done, and attack the laundry that's threatening to overtake the basement!


HUGS!