Saturday, May 31, 2014

Fatherhood

As I was putting away all the incredible stamps from Lawn Fawn's new release, I came to the realization that my stamps are just not getting enough use. I love every stamp I've bought, even those that were bought for a specific situation/card. I've taken them all out of their packaging and put them in stamp storage pockets, but quite a few of them still have that pristine "never been used" look. I still delight in looking at them and thinking about what kind of card to make, but I really want to make sure I'm using them too. After all, I bought them to do something fun and creative and not to just have them sit in a pocket.

So, I've decided to make a little challenge for myself and do a Stamp Trio Challenge. I will take a specific stamp set and create 3 cards with it, and I'll try to push myself to make very different cards (ex. masculine, feminine and general, or different themes/sentiments).

For the first Stamp Trio Challenge, I'm going to be using Lawn Fawn's Hello Baby stamp set and coordinating dies.

So, my first card is a masculine card intended for a new dad. I rarely venture into the greeting card aisle anymore, but I still remember never really seeing a card that was meant just for a dad. There were quite a lot of mom and baby, or general baby cards, but not many dad cards - unless they were also meant for Father's Day. I think it's nice to have a baby card for a new dad, and that was my inspiration for this card.

I started by cutting a piece of Simon Says Stamp's Mint heavyweight card stock in half, so it measured 4 1/4 x 11". I scored it in half, making it into the base of a standard A2 card (5 1/2 x4 1/4). I set it aside to worn on the front panel.

I grabbed a scrap of white cardstock and cut it to measure a quarter inch less than the card base (4 x 5 1/4). I adhered two pieces of patterned paper, then adhered the panel to the front of the card. Using my BigShot, I die-cut a medium circle and a label out of white cardstock.

I created a mini-scene in the circle by stamping background pieces from the Hello Baby set and coloring around them with Copics. I then stamped out the frog prince from Hello Baby and the frog and crown from Lawn Fawn's Critters Ever After on a separate piece of card stock. I love how proud and happy the frog from Critters Ever After looks, and his slightly larger size makes him the perfect "dad". After coloring the frogs, I used my BigShot and coordinating dies to cut them out. I adhered them to the scene with foam squares.

For the sentiment, I used Milo's ABCs to spell out a custom message. I adhered the circle scene and the sentiment label to the card with foam squares. Lastly, I tied a light-blue ribbon around the front.

Supplies:
Stamp: Lawn Fawn Hello Baby, Lawn Fawn Critters Ever After, Lawn Fawn Milo ABCs
Ink: MFT Hybrid Ink in black licorice, hot fudge and gumdrop green
Copics: B000, B00, B91, B95, G21, G43, G46, Y35, YR15
Card Stock: Simon Says Stamp 100#lb heavy card stock in Mint, Neenah Solar White 80lbs
Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares
Recollections Brights patterned paper
Light Blue Ribbon

4 comments:

  1. Elle, I think you have hit upon the PERFECT challenge. Maybe you should start a challenge blog because I bet you (and me!!) aren't the only stamper in this situation. We spend so much money on this hobby of ours but because new things are always being released it is easy to forget the stamps that went before (lol). I want to play along. :) Was about to press "publish" and realised I hadn't even commented on your sweet card! What a doofus! This is beautiful! Your colouring, as always, is perfect. Love the design and your colour choice. Gorgeous!

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    1. In fact, I am going to start now. I have the Hello Baby set so I am going to take up your Stamp Trio Challenge. :)

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  2. Aw, thank you! I did briefly consider making it a challenge blog, but then I couldn't really think of good prizes to give away - and challenge blogs do give prizes away. Maybe I'll look into sponsors etc some more.

    I am really loving the idea, though. Having to use a stamp 3 times in different ways is really making me think how to make good use out of it. I don't find it too hard to make one card, but 3 of them is a little more challenging.

    I'm so glad to have you on board! I'd love to see your challenge cards, too. :D

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  3. You should definitely give it some thought. Contact some suppliers and see what they say. The worst they can say is no. :) I think it is such a great idea. I've started on mine - one under way. Although I needed to buy something to finish it. lol

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