Sail Away Father's Day

As I shared with you yesterday, the new Sail Away a la carte stamp in the Summer Mini is a great investment for masculine birthday cards. I'm also enjoying using it to create Father's Day cards.

My dad has always been intrigued by sailboats and old ships with masts, although he's not a waterbug at all. For years, there has been a picture of a boat called the James Arnold, coincidentally my father's name!, hanging in my parent's home, and until a recent move, a large model of a ship with several sails was displayed on the fireplace mantle.

My father-in-law is the one responsible for instilling a love of the water in my husband. From the time my husband was in elementary school until the present, summer weekends have been equated with Lake Puckaway in Wisconsin, and Lake Puckaway has been equated with boating. So I know both my fathers will appreciate this image this Father's Day.

I followed the lead of a card I saw on Stampin' Connection, a private gallery for SU! demonstrators (you could join my team and get access to thousands of great card ideas--ask me how!), and stamped the image with Whisper White craft ink and embossed it on Not Quite Navy card stock with white embossing powder. Then I cut a matting of Cherry Cobbler card stock and planned to mount all that on Whisper White card stock. Then I started playing around with incorporating the Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine into the design, and I framed the image with it! The whole thing was too stark on the Whisper White, so I pulled out some Sahara Sand card stock for a base and it all came together.

The sentiment is from another new set in the Summer Mini called Best Dad Ever. It has 4 sentiments in masculine fonts--FINALLY!--including Happy Father's Day. There is also an image of ties; poor dads, they get ties most of the time for this holiday, don't they? I bought the set for the sentiments, and for $14.95 for clear-mount, it's a great deal!

Rmember that you can shop online by clicking on the Shop Onlie 24/7 button on the sidebar. Click on the picture of the Summer Mini to view it online too!

Pressed Flowers, the Big Shot Way

When the new Summer Mini Catalog debuted May 1, one of the first things to go on my order was the latest addition to SU's line of Textured Impressions Folders for the Big Shot. This one is called Flower Garden, and it creates a LOVELY impression of four flowers! I had seen it used a bunch of different ways, all of them seemingly quick and easy. Here's my first attempt. Trust me, there will be more to follow.

I embossed a piece of Whisper White card stock and used my Stampin' Pastels for this project. With the help of sponge daubers, I was able to place the chalk right where I wanted it. The color scheme here is Pink Passion and Certainly Celery. This was so easy! A set of these cards would be a perfect end-of-the-year gift for a teacher, wouldn't they?

The sentiment is from Because I Care, a Level 1 Hostess set. I stamped it using Old Olive classic ink, because my Color Coach told me that it is a Dynamic Duo to Certainly Celery. Love tools that eliminate guesswork.

Here's an embellished version that I created for my sister's birthday card. Her day is today--happy birthday, little sister! The sentiment is from Best Dad Ever, a set from the Summer Mini that I'll be profiling later this week.

Tomorrow I'll show you a prototype for a set of monogrammed cards using this same TI Folder.