This is my second post today; click here to catch up on the important news of the day! For my creative post I'm sharing a card for a couple of challenges:

September is the month of birthdays in the James family (mine included!) so I have lots of cards to make. My Dad's birthday isn't until later this month, but I thought I'd get a headstart since the team at Just Add Ink are encouraging us to make 'Cards for Guys' this week and the sketch at Fusion gave me the perfect layout (I am using the sketch there this week and taking a fairly liberal interpretation at that, although I was somewhat inspired by the soft greens of the photo too) - take a look:

Here's the low-down on today's card:

Garden Shed - For as long as I can remember my Dad has been a keen gardener - of vegetables, rather than flowers though! He has a greenhouse and a kitchen garden at home and a large allotment with a shed where he spends much of his time each day now that he has retired and more recently given up golfing too. He can while away hours pottering away, whilst taking shelter in his shed if it rains or sitting out front watching the world go by as he drinks his morning coffee with his fellow allotmenteers. As such the Garden Shed stamp set is perfect for his birthday card; whilst his doesn't have a straw hat adorning the outside and the exterior is more brown in colour than the one I coloured with my Stampin' Blends, the inside is full of paintings and pottery made by his grandchildren and is certainly filled with green-fingered creativity. 

Family Party - I used a slimline card format for my card today, as I knew I would need a larger, customised sentiment and wanted to give my shed plenty of space to shine without being obscured. If you need a special sentiment for a relative, the Family Party stamp set is perfect - I used four different stamps to make my greeting and it fits just right on my card.  

On The Inside - No more embellishments on the outside of my card (it is for a guy, after all!) but I did add a little extra colouring along with a custom greeting to the inside of my card:

I'm sure he will love it; I just need to make a Grandpa card too now and then that order is complete!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Enjoy your evening and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

GARDEN SHED CLING STAMP SET (£21.00)	FAMILY PARTY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£20.00)	WHISPER WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	MINT MACARON A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	WHITE STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)	STAMPIN' BLENDS MINT MACARON COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN' BLENDS NIGHT OF NAVY COMBO PACK (£8.50)
STAMPIN BLENDS SMOKY SLATE COMBO PACK (£8.50)	SOFT SUEDE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN' BLENDS MOSSY MEADOW COMBO PACK (£8.50)	OLD OLIVE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	CINNAMON CIDER STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)
STAMPIN' BLENDS GRANNY APPLE GREEN COMBO PACK (£8.50)

Happy Bank Holiday Monday to my UK readers and Happy Memorial Day to my USA readers! I'm sure like me you are spending your day differently since we are either still in lockdown or experiencing some form of social distancing, wherever you are. I actually have an online class today featuring the Birthday Jubilee bundle so my post needs to be a quick one. I do have a couple of cards to share with you though. So first up is a card using this week's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches: 

This layout is very similar to our Paper Players one this week, so I tried to do something different to yesterday's card and grabbed my Tropical Oasis Memories and More Cards for a colourful thank you card - take a look:

Here's the low-down on today's card:

I paired one of the smaller colourful cards with a sheet of the Tropical Oasis paper with a rustic pattern that I embossed with the Coastal Weave Embossing Folder for added texture, then added a layered 'thanks' that I cut down from the word 'Thanksgiving' in the Word Wishes Dies. I stacked the diecut with three pieces in Early Espresso and them one in Whisper White that I offset slightly.

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

I also have another quick card, it's actually notelet size, that I made using a retired Crumb Cake notelet I found as I was clearing out, along with a discarded Highland Heather mat, for the current challenge over at CASology this week:

As I was sorting through my stamps I cam across this small image in the 'Garden Shed' stamp set that was just perfect both for the challenge and to use up the bits and pieces on my desk:

I simply stamped the image, coloured with my blends, and added some linen thread to finish. 

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

TROPICAL OASIS MEMORIES & MORE CARD PACK (£10.25)	TROPICAL OASIS DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	COASTAL WEAVE 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£8.25)	WORD WISHES DIES (EN) (£33.00)	MANGO MELODY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
EARLY ESPRESSO A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	WHISPER WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	GARDEN SHED CLING STAMP SET (£21.00)