Father's Day Cards That Kids Can Make

Last night I finally found time to craft up some ideas for Father's Day cards that are simple enough for grade-school children to make, and that don't use the Big Shot, since this class is happening in my garage!!  Whenever I'm making cards with kids, I always pull out the long-retired Pun Fun stamp set... cute, colorable, and well-suited to CAS (clean & simple) card designs.  

First, a card for coffee-loving Dads:

Love you a Latte from Pun Fun, cups from Every Little Bit, the largest Circle Punch and Window Frames Framelits (I'll just cut a few before class!)

Next, for the father who is fun:

Pun Fun rocket & Every Little Bit star.

Then I found this adorable dinosaur in a sandbox, and I bought it online, but can't remember the company:

Does Dad brighten your day?

Sun from Every Little Bit and sentiment from a Sale-a-bration set: You Brighten My Day.

Does he mean the world to you?

Uses Chalk Talk, Chalk Borders & Open Sea stamp sets.

Thanks for stopping by!  Please let me know in the comments which one of these ideas you think the dad in your life would really love.

Links to previous Father's Day cards, maybe not as kid-friendly...

Lawnmower Punch Art

Golf Punch Art

Love those tools, handy dad?

Friends 4 Sketch Challenge

Darling Daughter played along with me again today because we ARE Crazy 4 Challenges!  What a great sketch this is!  I notice that the cards I've been making this week seem to use stamps from many sets, so I added the "challenge" that the card I made could only use ONE stamp set!   

Spring inspired me to choose Storybook Friends and this lovely Lost Lagoon DSP from the All Abloom stack.  The mat, ink and ribbon are Soft Suede and the card base is Crumb Cake.

DD liked the sparkle of this retired DSP and we paired it up with some Raspberry Ripple CS.

A Big Spring Thank You

My 10-year old is really getting on the card-making bandwagon this week!  She loves the idea of a challenge, I think that's helping!  She started with a sketch we found from MyPaperCrafting and Melon Mambo ink, with Daffodil Delight DSP, some Pretty in Pink (I think) cardstock, and an edge punch from American Girl Crafts.  Retired Stampin' Up! stamps (Beautiful Bunch & Perfect Punches) and punches for the flower and sentiment.

Be sure to check out the other lovely submissions to the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge - this week the theme is Spring!

Halloween Llama Blog Hop

So excited that the second in our series of Fall-i-days blog hops is finally here, and I'm at the beginning of it!   I know my fellow demonstrators have come up with fun and inspiring projects for you!   For links to all their blogs and all of our llama hops, click on the gorgeous banner up there that Stephanie created!

The first thing I'd like to share with you today is a Halloween card.   I love the versatility of stamp sets like this one with lots of little images; they work for treats, tags, cards, anything really!  So cute, too.

Stamps: Spooky Bingo Bits 

Ink: Basic Black, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie 

Cardstock: Old Olive, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Pumpkin Pie 

Tools / Accessories: 1" circle & Curly Label punches, Stampin' Dimensionals

Technique:  Faux Tearing (sponging w/ a torn mask) and actual tearing

Next is a teacher thank you card I created for this week's Mojo Monday sketch challenge using My Digital Studio.   Since version 2 of the software is now in full release, Stampin' Up! is donating the remaining disks of version 1 to schools.   Contact me or your local demonstrator if you would like more information.

I printed out the image from Greeting Card Kids and colored it by hand, then scanned it in and inserted it into my project like a photograph. Used the eyedropper tool to color the circles and the mat of the oval the same red as the girl's apple and the blue of the boy's book.  In the new version of the software, images can be colored digitally; so easy! 


Finally, the first card I've ever made with French Foliage!  A wedding invitation inspired me to make a card stamped with purple leaves.  What do you think?

Stamps: French Foliage, Curly Cute 

Ink: Crumb Cake, Elegant Eggplant, Rich Razzleberry 

Cardstock: Whisper White, Perfect Plum 

Accessories: Linen Thread

Technique: OSW (one-sheet wonder:  create your own patterned paper with your stamps, here I did a half sheet that I cut into strips to make a set of matching cards)

Next in the hop is Marsha, or, if you like to do things backwards, click on the other button to head back to Debbie!

   

Father's Day digital scrapbook page

Let's go fly a kite!
This was one of the first pages I created with MDS (My Digital Studio) and this was the day I fell in love with that software.   When I discovered that I could use one of my photos as the background for the page, the entire thing fell into place in 15 minutes.   Definitely a land-speed record for me, and yet it is probably one of my favorite scrapbook pages I've ever created.

The bare-bones version of MDS is still available as a 30-day free trial.  Before the end of this year, MDS2 is going to be released, and it will be free to anyone who has purchased the software since May 8, 2012.   The upgrade will cost $20 for those of us who have had it longer.   Lots of exciting new features - Hooray! 


More Father's Day projects  Here and Here.

Baby birthday

A sweet baby girl we know is turning one, and these are the cards we made for her.   Most of the products used will only be available from Stampin' Up! until the end of May, so if you see something you like, don't delay!

Stamps: Party This Way

Punches:  Pennant Builder, Lace Ribbon Border

Paper:  Domestic Goddess DSP, 2011-2012 In Color DSP

Colors:  Whisper White, Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze

My young daughter wanted to color, so this is the card she made.

Stamps: Elebration, Curly Cute, Party This Way

Colors: Whisper White, So Saffron, Pool Party

Princess Party Favors

I know I've said this before and I'm sure I'll say it again, I think the Petal Cone Die may have been my single smartest Stampin' Up! purchase ever.   Tooting my own horn...Toot, Toot!, but I think these little princess hat favor boxes are so cute!   If you wanted a circus theme, you could easily top these with a pom-pom to make tiny clown hats or with a frill of shirred paper to make a"party" hat.

1.   For each hat, use your Big Shot (or similar machine) and cut 2 shapes using the Stampin' Up! exclusive Petal Cone Die.   Cut one in half down the score line.  In these pics, I was using cardstock, so I stamped and embossed the images at this point.   Not necessary if you're using Designer Series Paper.

2.  Trim off a bit of the half-circles on both sides to allow the box to close correctly.    Easier to do it before you begin assembly rather than after, like I did here :)

3.  Apply Sticky Strip to tabs; you won't need the piece you cut off that has no tab.   Fold an 8"-10" piece of ribbon in half and adhere it to the top of one of the tabs. 

3.  As if you were using a curling iron, wrap the ribbons around the handle of a paper piercer, dowel or pencil.   Heat ribbon with Heat Tool for 10-30 seconds, more or less.   This depends very much on the type of ribbon you are using.  The more polyester content, the quicker the curl will set.   It's not that hard to melt 100% polyester ribbon or set all-cotton ribbon on FIRE when what you really want is a curl, so use caution and common sense!   Allow the curls to cool undisturbed for a minute then arrange them to your liking.   

4.  Assemble box as usual.   Decorate as desired.  Fill box with treats and seal.

Hard to see the sparkle in this photo, but the  Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder with Versamark is very sparkly and pretty.




For the projects shown above, I used the Modern Label punch,  Season of Friendship stamp set, Short and Sweet stamp set, Calypso Coral CS, Whisper White CS, Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, Brights Patterns Stack DSP, Stampin' Up! white taffeta ribbon and some ribbon scraps from gifts.   I hoard anything pretty that could be used for crafting, so it's nice to justify that craziness by using the stuff occasionally!  The hat below uses retired Specialty DSP (with glitter, of course) and retired pink ribbon along with the Boho Blossoms and Modern Label punches.

So the boys didn't feel left out, I made some magician hats with Basic Black CS (Night of Navy would work great, too).   I stamped them with White Craft Ink and the star is from the Every Little Bit stamp set.

I don't have a tiny crescent moon stamp, so I made one!  I just cut the shape from a piece of the scrap rubber that you get with every stamp set.

Hope you enjoyed these as much as the kids at the party did!   Let me know if you try your own...