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