Fun Father's Day Card

Wow - it's June already. Soon the kids will be out of school and the summer will be in full-swing. I thought in honor of Father's Day, also this month, I would show you a cool technique that you can use to create depth and texture on your paper-crafting projects. It's embossing with your paper trimmer! Actually, you really don't even need the paper trimmer for this to work, but it does make it a bit easier. Let me show you how to make a really nice Father's Day card using this technique.

Step 1: Cut your paper pieces. I used Desert Sand, Indian Corn Blue, Outdoor Denim, and Colonial White cardstock (CS), along with patterned paper from the Pemberley paper pack.

Step 2: Emboss Indian Corn Blue CS strip. To do this, place the CS on your paper trimmer so that the right edge extends 1/4" beyond the blade track (as if you were going to trim 1/4" off of the end of your paper).

Lower the paper guide. Using a dry-embossing stylus, run the stylus along the blade track, going over the CS several times to make sure you leave a good impression (we always want to make a good impression, don't we?!).

Now, move the strip to the right another 1/4" and repeat embossing with the stylus. Continue in this fashion until the entire strip of CS has been embossed with a line every 1/4".

Step 3: Turn CS strip over and lightly sand the surface to reveal the pattern. The sandpaper will expose the white core of the CS when you sand over the raised lines of the embossed pattern - how cool is that?! Now you have a fun, textured piece to add to your card.

Step 4: Stamp your focal image. I used the "Blue Ribbon" stamp set, which I stamped in Bamboo ink on Colonial White CS. I cut the "ribbons" off of the badge because I am going to replace them with real ribbon.

Step 5: Cut your ribbon. I used Outdoor Denim ink to stamp the "No.1" onto the badge. Then I trimmed two pieces of striped grosgrain ribbon from the Designer Ribbon Blue Collection, notched the ends, and adhered them to the back of the stamped badge with Glue Dots.

Step 6: Assemble your card. To add finishing touches to my card, I inked the edges of the award badge with Desert Sand ink, as well as the edges of the Colonial White pieces. I stamped "DAD" in Outdoor Denim ink using the "Pennant Alphabet" and sanded the outside edge of my assembled card. I also cut a 1 1/4" circle from Bamboo CS to place behind the "DAD" sentiment. I stamped the "I'm So Proud of You" stamp on it so that the thin double-line border would show, but the words would get covered by the "DAD" strip. And, lastly, I added two Antiqued Gold Square Durables - one on either side of "DAD" - to add some "manly" bling! I just love how this card came out!

I hope you have fun creating this project! Until next time - Happy Stamping!