dearest dad

Happy June, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial weekend (for those of you in the United States.) This is the last week of school for my girls and the official start of summer!

The first of the month means that it is time for the Papertrey Ink senior design team challenge and this month we are focusing on a project for Father's Day.

This is a picture of me and my Dad on his birthday in 1976. One of the things I get to share with my Dad each year is having our birthdays just a few days apart. We have several pictures of us celebrating birthdays together through the years and having those memories hold a special place in my heart.

One of the hobbies that my Dad does is gardening. For as long as he has had a yard to grow things, he has had gardens. We had a huge vegetable garden growing up and because of the work that me and my brothers did (or at the time, felt like we were made to do...!) in the garden with him, I learned so much that when I started deciding to add flower gardens to my own yard, so much of the information on what I needed to do I already knew.

Our whole family enjoys the gardens he has added to his yard - more flower gardens now than vegetables. When the growing and planting season begins, my Dad is a regular at the flower places on his way home from work. He gardens for enjoyment, he gardens when he is stressed (we always know when he has had a hard week at work because we will come home to several new gardens full of flowers.

The perfect gift for my Dad is a gift card to one of his favorite places to get plants. I put together a card and coordinating gift card holder with a rustic outdoorsy feel. The card is a standard size: 5 1/2" x 4 1/4".  

The above photo shows the measurements for putting together the gift card holder.

I stamped the woodgrain background on kraft cardstock. I stamped off the Dark Chocolate on scratch paper before stamping onto the kraft cardstock so that the darker brown ink wouldn't contrast to boldly with the kraft cardstock.

I stamped polka dots onto the Ripe Avocado cardstock and then on the card bases and wood grain pieces, I scored in from the fold 1/2"

I attached the woodgrain pieces over the Ripe Avocado bases and then I punched holes with a paper piercer to do the biniding with the Rustic Just button twine. I found the center of each card and put the holes 1/2" apart.

On the edge of the card I did a Japanese Stab Binding with the rustic jute button twine. I learned this binding technique from one of my high school English teachers and have used it so many times since then for book binding projects.

I did the emboss resist technique for the front pieces for the cards. First, I stamped the sentiment, then embossed the large leaf with clear embossing powder. I sponged on Simply Chartreuse ink, and then stamped the smaller leaves over the top with Ripe Avocado ink.

I love the look of the finished cards and can't wait to give them to my Dad on Father's Day.

Here's a peek at the inside of the gift card holder. The one side of the pocket is held in place by the binding on the card and then I tied another piece of button twine on the opposite side of the pocket to secure it. The gift card tucks perfectly inside with a little mini envelope of seeds.

Make sure you check out all of the projects by the senior design team: Nichole, Betsy, Dawn, Mish, Lisa, and our guest designer Ashley will all have projects to share today!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Supplies:

all materials from Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted

For My Dad Gift Card Holder & Card

stamps: Masculine Motifs, Background Basics: Woodgrain, Polka Dot Basics II

ink: Dark Chocolate, Ripe Avocado, Simply Chartreuse, Fresh Snow, Versamark (Tsukineko)

cardstock: kraft, Ripe Avocado

other: Rustic Jute button twine, clear embossing powder, paper piercer (Making Memories), corner chomper (We R Memory Keepers)