Father's Day is sneaking up on us!  It's Sunday, June 17th….this Sunday!!  As you have heard time and time again, this stamp set, Lovely As a Tree  (p. 84) (now available in clear-mount!) is so versatile and well-loved….and perfectly suited for those difficult masculine/manly cards for any occasion.

I think the simplicity of this card will suit a father or any man in your life. You can use any background paper, layer the tree and add a greeting for whichever occasion.  Teeny Tiny Wishes is perfect for most occasions!

Just stamp the tree in Black Stazon ink and color in however you like.  I used a Blender Pen and various inks straight from the ink pad.  I started with a little yellow (the new Summer Starfruit) because someone used to always say use a little yellow with any green. Then I colored in with the new Gumball Green and Old Olive.  And there is nothing "artistic" about coloring in the greenery on the tree….just scribble on some color…really! It will look fine! The tree trunk is Soft Suede to match the card base and layers.  The designer paper background layer is the new Comfort Cafe #126898.  If you don't have the new papers yet, I'm sure you will be able to find something suitable in your stash. Well Worn from last year would be great…and don't overlook the subtle patterns on the back of the more dramatic sides of any designer paper.

To order Lovely As a Tree in either wood-mount or clear-mount or any other stamping supplies, please go to my Stampin' Up! Online Store HERE. Or contact me if you prefer and I'll put in your order for you!

Get started on your Father's Day cards right now if they need to be mailed..and check back this week for more Father's Day papercrafting ideas.

This would be a great card for either you to make or have your kids make for Dad on Father's Day!  You can use My Digital Studio, as I did, or you can stamp with the All in the Family stamp set #113488.  Either let the children design it or let them color it in after you make it!  With this stamp set, All in the Family, they can each make their own personalized card!

Father's Day is June 19th so it is time to be making Father's Day cards.  There are plenty of Stampin' Up! ideas for Father's Day cards…just look through your Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalog and you'll find a great resource of ideas, even if you change the paper or color or saying.  Sometimes I am surprised myself at how easy it is to be inspired by looking through the catalog.

I had so much fun making this card!  The clouds are made by punching out the solid piece on the Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer Punch #122464 (the first image on the left of the punch), laying it on your paper and then sponging off the edges a little bit with a little bit of ink.  I used Bashful Blue.  Just move it around until you have your sky how you like it!  You just want to be a little more careful than I was and not get much ink on your sails!  For the water I just sponged on some Night of Navy ink.  To emphasize the waves, I used my White Gel Pen #105021 so my sea may look a little stormy!  Everyone should order this Sail Away stamp #123013…great for masculine cards and gifts, summertime themes, nautical themes, general occasions.

You will want to order the Baker's Twine in the Summer Mini (page 10) because it is really trendy right now and certainly easy to use.

And to finish off my card I stamped a greeting from Teeny Tiny Wishes, punched with the Modern Label Punch.  With the two little gold brads on it, it seemed to just "make" the card when I attached it!

This was a simple card to make (and my eyes were dilated from the eye doctor so I could barely see what I was doing!) and just one of those that I LOVED when I got finished!  Isn't rubber stamping grand??!

Order your retiring stamps and accessories today at my Online Store!

This is a swap card I received at the Stampin' Up! Convention this summer, made by Julia G. from California.  I thought it would be perfect to showcase today on Veterans Day, a day set aside to honor military veterans.

This card uses the stamp set Courage for the main image, the set Service & Sacrifice for the sentiment, and in the background on the Brilliant Blue the wheel Hero.  You can find all of these stamps on page 67 of the Idea Book & Catalog.

You can read all about Veterans Day by clicking HERE.

For those of you scrambling at the last minute for a Father's Day card, here is one I must made and it only took me probably five minutes….and you don't even have to think up the design!  This old stamp set, "Lovely As A Tree" has been around a long time and we always hold our breath at retirement time thinking it might go.  Fortunately, it is still here and is such a versatile set, especially when you need a masculine card.

Here's my Father's Day card for my husband!  I haven't used this set very much even though I like it a lot, so decided a few stamped beers would make a good card this year!  The base of the card is Kraft cardstock, the designer paper "Manchester", great for masculine cards.  If he wouldn't have come home earlier than I expected, I would have covered the beer steins with Crystal Effects to look like glass….but too late now!  I colored the beer with my Watercolor Crayons, with a little shadow of gray around the foam.  The inside has the "Happy Father's Day greeting from "All Holidays", a stamp set I just received FREE from Stampin' Up! for my Sale-A-Bration award.  It's possible to earn free stamps as a demo!  And who doesn't like FREE?!

So maybe he's not a "boy" anymore at age 23, but he will always be MY little boy!  Here's a card I made for Eric for his birthday.  Sometimes it is difficult to think of a card to make for any male.  Some stampers even do swaps for male cards just to get a selection of ideas.  I forget how it came to mind, but somehow I came up with the idea of making a card with a Yellowstone National Park theme after our memorable trip there this summer.  I had even tracked down the retired set "DD Pines" to use for those Yellowstone scrapbook pages I still plan to make! (we'll see!)  Long ago I had learned to make a diorama card, which actually folds down flat for mailing, and while they look impressive and are decorative, they are actually easy to make.  So here is the Diorama card I made with the retired DD Pines, plus the ever-useful "Lovely As a Tree" stamp set….talk about a great "male" set!

It's difficult to tell from this angle, but that is a moose in the foreground and a bear in the background!  You can see some of the "Lovely As a Tree" trees stamps on the inside layers of the card and the "Pines" tree stamped, embossed, and cut out adhered to the front with dimensionals.

Here is a view of the inside:

You can see how I cut out both the moose and the bear and attached them to the middle part and the back part with dimensionals.

And here is just another view of the front, maybe with better lighting.

If you want directions on making this easy diorama card, which you can adapt to any theme, just email me!