Tool Father's Day Card

This week's Simon Says Stamp's current challenge was just what I needed to get me to make my Father's Day card.

I bought corkboard sheets years ago and have never used them, and since I recently got charm tool dies, I figured now was my chance.  I die cut the tools out of black cardstock and used a silver gel pen to colour the metallic parts.  I cut out a piece of corkboard and rounded the edges.  For the background I embossed silver cardstock.

I don't have a proper Father's Day sentiment stamp, so I used an alphabet stamp I really like (and used for the first time).  To get the letters straight I taped a piece of acetate to my card.  I still got the T and H a bit higher than the other letters (as I did each letter separately so they'd be closer together), but on the whole I'm happy with it.  I used a silver pigment ink, and so had some stamp cleaner on one cloth and water on another so I could quickly clean the ink off and not stain my stamps (and it worked!).

To attach the corkboard, I used 4 screw brads (which are attached to the silver cardstock).  For the cardstock I used a tape runner.  I glued the tops of the charms to the corkboard so the bottoms swing free.

My dad's quite a handyman who worked with metals for most of his career, so I think he'll like this.

Eagle Father's Day Card

Once again, sorry about the lack of posts lately.  I finally had some card crafting time again, so I hope to get back to my regular posting schedule.

This is the Father's Day card I made.  I'm submitting it to Simon Says Stamp's Masculine/Father's Day challenge.

I stamped the background tree in black ink, and then smudged dark green ink around the branches.  The eagle was stamped in black and then embossed with clear powder.  It shimmers a bit, which looks cool.  I coloured the beak and claws with pencil crayons before embossing it.

I added faint clouds in the sky with a mask and ink daubers.  Finally two of the corners were emboss punched before I added the panel to my backing.

Calm Seas

This is a card I made for my dad a few years ago.  It was done after a trip to the Creativ Festival in Toronto, where I picked up a ton of shaped buttons. :)

Originally I had high waves in the water, but wisely smoothed them out as they didn't quite fit the sentiment I was going for (smooth sailing).  The birds were leftover curls from one of my punches and the score lines for the insert frame were added with a stylus and a metal stencil I also got at that show.