Spitfire Father's Day card

Hello blogging friends

Today I am sharing the card I gave to my husband for Father's Day which for Australians, was celebrated on September 1st.  I didn't realise until I started cardmaking that only Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea celebrate Father's Day on the 1st Sunday in September;  I just assumed that the rest of the world did too!  After some research, I discovered that over 90 countries including the UK and USA celebrate Father's Day in June - and in fact, Father's Day is also celebrated in other countries in other months of the year except for January and April - and for some countries, it's different each year depending on their calendar eg: Islamic, Iranian or Hindu.   Anyway, trivia lesson over and onto my card:

When I went to the Paperific Show the day before Father's Day (August 31st), I found some Spitfire Aeroplane Toppers which were just perfect for my husband as he has a family connection to Spitfires flown in World War 2 and he has a wealth of knowledge on the subject.  As is my usual procedure with masculine cards, I went for a simple layout and nothing tizzy.

Because I was making the card the night before Father's Day, if I had had my time again, I would have made the card base a little wider as by the time I added 2 layers underneath the topper, it was almost as wide as the designer paper on the card base.  But it was already 10pm when I went to put the Topper on the card and I didn't want to start again.

The designer paper is an old one by Kaisercraft - Squadron which I have had for quite a few years.  The one with the stars is called Sergeant and the light blue layer underneath the star paper is called Admiral.  The card base was made from kraft cardstock.   The pre-printed and diecut sentiment is by Docrafts from their Wellington Bear collection and was popped up on dimensionals.  I diecut a star from red glitter cardstock using a Memory Box star die from the Celestial Bodies die set and popped it up on dimensionals.  I thought adding the red star picked up on the red on the plane and just brightened the card a little plus it balanced out the ribbon and sentiment.  The topper is also up on dimensionals.

The bottom scalloped border was diecut using a My Favorite Things Dotted Scallop Border die:  I used the smallest border die in the set of 3.  It looks very similar to my Fiskars Threading Water border punch which is getting quite worn out but I have used it a gazillion times over the years and it has lasted very well.

Here is another picture at an angle so you can see the depth:

I trimmed the layers to either 1/16" or 1/8" using my Perfect Layers Tools.  The ribbon tails have had Fray Stop added to stop them from fraying.

On the page of Toppers, there were some really little pictures and I was wondering what on earth to use them for because they are really too small for a card front - and then the lightbulb went off and I popped it on the card inside:

I popped the little topper up on dimensionals and added a tiny little red glitter star in the top left-hand corner to mirror the card front which I punched using a Martha Snow Flurry edge punch ie: it is the leftover punchie from using the punch.  This particular edge punch has snowflakes and little stars on it which come in very handy as little embellishments.  If you are ever looking for a small embellishment for your cards, have a good look at your punches because some of the leftover punchies are just perfect for the job.  I suppose you could use the little topper on a gift tag as well now that I think about it - wish I had thought of that at the time and added it to the present - doh!

When my husband opened the card and he saw the Spitfire on the front, he had the biggest smile on his face:  that's what makes it all so worthwhile - maybe it was just a topper and my card wouldn't win a prize in a cardmaking challenge, but to my husband, it was much more than that and to see the appreciation in his eyes just made my heart glow!  

I think just by changing the sentiment, you could use this card for a birthday as well. 

Thanks for stopping by - have a fantastic weekend!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps and Ink:  None

Designer paper:  Kaisercraft Squadron - Sergeant (star paper) and Admiral (light blue paper)

Accessories:  Ribbon, Fray Stop, Dimensionals, Perfect Layers Tools, Big Shot, My Favorite Things Die-namics Dotted Scallop border trio - smallest one, Star die from Memory Box Celestial Bodies, cardstock - navy blue, kraft, red glitter, diecut sentiment by Docrafts - Wellington Bear range, Diecut Topper by Craft Creations - Fighter Aircraft CDT019P

Punches:  Martha Stewart Snow Flurry edge punch