Last Minute Father's Day Cards!
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I am the queen of procrastination, which means that I am often making cards for events at the last minute. Since last-minute is too late usually to shop for supplies, I've discovered that a great way to do this is to pull out my Silhouette Portrait machine and download a file.
Father's Day cards this year was no exception. With Father's Day coming, I needed to make some cards fast. Out came the Portrait machine. But while I had the machine out I decided to take advantage of how easy it is to create multiples, and create duplicates to put in my card stash and to donate.
I went with the Father's Day Tie Card file by Sweet Afton from the Silhouette Store. Because it is a suit and tie design, it can be varied in color to create very different styles of cards.
It was fun digging through my old 6x6 paper pads looking for papers that would make good suits (not exactly something that I have a need for every day). I finally settled on papers from Basic Grey's Kissing Booth, Echo Park's This & That, and My Mind's Eye's Dolled Up (a Michael's Stores special package). I also used Walnut Cream Bazzill (smooth) for the cut that makes the card bases. Dig around - you'll probably be surprised that hiding even some very feminine collections there are suit-like materials!
The key to doing duplicates like this is to "batch process" your steps. First, I started cutting each of the cuts one at a time, using as many pieces of paper as it took to get the multiples I wanted. For the small pieces for the tie and handkerchief and lapel, I copied and pasted the cut so that I could cut more than one at a time out of a piece of paper. It made things faster and easier.
Father's Day Card Assembly
Then I sat down and started sorting and dry assembling the pieces. Once everything was in the right place, I got out inks to use to shadow the edges to give them some texture and depth. This was definitely the most time-consuming part of this whole process. I used my Ranger Inkssentials Ink Blending Tool to get a really soft touch with the ink.
For the inking, I used:
Stampin' Up! Classic in Raspberry Ripple
The result was a package of cards with an assortment of looks, although they almost all have the same base color scheme of brown and burgundy:
Father's Day Cards with SIlhouette
Silhouette Father's Day Card
Father's Day Cards with Silhouette
Silhouette Father's Day Card
There's six total of those cards, and each one is a little bit different, with a variety of combinations of the papers for the jacket and the tie.
Eagle-eyed readers might have noticed in the assembly photo, there was a card in the bottom right corner that was dramatically different from the others, with a bright green base (Bazzill Apple Crush) for the shirt. Just for fun, I decided to make one that was retro-liciious!
I used a gray stripe from the Dolled Up pad for the jacket, imitating a sort of retro seersucker look. Then I used a bright plaid from the same pad, along with the bright green shirt, to get a bright fun look. This one didn't seem right to ink, so I left it fresh, crisp and clean. The result reminds me of the look that the barbershop quartets wear on Main Street at Disneyland, although the color scheme isn't right and it should be a bow tie. (There is a bow tie version of the file as well if you prefer a bow tie.)
Retro Father's Day Card
This card could also be turned easily into a tuxedo with some black cardstock (maybe some black glitter for the lapel!) and used for an invitation for a formal event or wedding party, like a groom's dinner. Drastically different looks can be achieved by altering the papers used, a concept that greatly excites me about die cutting items like this because one of my favorite parts of scrapbooking is playing with pretty papers and seeing what I can make them do when I put them together! It always takes me forever to choose papers for a project because I have to shuffle and contemplate all sorts of options before finally selecting the perfect one.
While the front of the card doesn't have a sentiment on it, one could be stamped inside the card, if you feel the need. I will probably do that to the ones I use, and then leave the donated ones blank so that they can be used for other occasions as well as Father's Day.
What are your last-minute card tricks? Share them in the comments!
