Beautiful Days

Wow!  What a week it has been.  It's been so nice to see the sun again and also to see loved ones again.  My youngest brother and sister-in-law, who have been teaching in South Korea for the past 14 months, came to visit last Thursday evening.  They are in Canada for 2 short weeks and we were able to spend 2 1/2 days with them here in Kitchener and also in Midland for the Mother's Day weekend.  I am so thankful that they made room in their busy schedule to spend so much time with us. 

My son took to his Uncle and Auntie immediately and was soon busy showing off his vocabulary and love of chasing bubbles.  The fun continued on Saturday in Midland when my other brother and his wife also joined us at my parents' house.  This was quite an event for my family.  We don't think we've all been in the same room with each other since our grandfather's funeral at Christmas 2009!  We had a great time playing basketball, just like when we were kids, sitting around talking politics and eating great food.  Thanks Mom!

So, in the busyness of catching up with family, I, obviously, put cards on the back burner.  It was back to business tonight though because my cousin's workshop is coming up quickly on Sunday and I wanted to put together a couple of ideas for it.  With Mother's Day now past, I have turned my focus to Father's Day cards.  I really like the new "Best Dad Ever" set from the Summer Mini, but my uncle(in-law) and father(in-law), who will be the recipients of these cards, are far from being shirt and tie men.  Thanks to my faithful Make and Take friends and their great ideas, I have an alternative to the shirt and tie.

Hawaiian Shirt Father's Day Card

 As an homage to my uncle(in-law)'s wedding a few years ago, for which the men were asked to wear Hawaiian shirts, I created this fun Father's Day card.  It's a great way to use up your scraps of flowered paper (I've used the Beyond the Garden DSP here)!  The base of this card is Wild Wasabi and the shirts and other papers are mounted onto a piece of 3 3/4" x 5" Whisper White cardstock.   I ran the piece of Pacific Point paper through the Big Shot using the "Perfect Polka Dots" embossing folder and then wrapped a bit of linen thread around it.  The little strips are just a little less than 1/4" in Melon Mambo and Early Espresso.

It certainly doesn't fit the mold of "masculine" colours but I like the whimsy that the flowered paper creates and I think that my cousin will have a lot of fun making this and will be proud to give it to her father.

The second card that we'll be doing uses the "Hello Again" stamp set from the 2010-2011 IB&C.  I choose to keep this card in the Brights family because the flowers are finally starting to bloom here in southern Ontario and the bright colours along with long needed sunshine are creating beautiful scenes.
 

Hello Again card

I used Daffodil Delight as the base of this card (the daffodils are gorgeous again this year) and used the Retro Mix Stampin' wheel in Daffodil Delight ink along the left edge of the card.  The matte is Pacific Point and Real Red and the grass is done in Old Olive.  I used a variety of Stampin' Write markers from the Brights family to colour the flowers and the butterfly.  Finally, the "hello" is stamped in Tangerine Tango ink onto the same coloured paper and then punched out using the 1" circle punch. 

I hope that these cards brighten your day and I'm looking forward to making them on Sunday with my cousin and her guests.  I've got more cards to post tomorrow, so please come back and visit : )