Happy Father's Day!!

Hi Blogland... Well, today's the day we celebrate those great guy's in our lives! Our Dad's... I had several ideas of the kind of card I wanted to make for pop'sand "eventually" settled on this one!
It's grunge(ish), it's vintage, it's distressed, it's Steam Punk.. It's all the things I enjoy playing with.. It's me in a card really!! Can't get much more personal than that can you?..I started off by Brayering a White piece of card stock with some Latte (Beige) Adirondak Ink.And then embossed the piece of card through the Cuttlebug Machine using the Pocket Watch Embossing Folder from the Tim Holtz Textured Fades Embossing Folder Set Pocket Watch & Steampunk.I then brayered over the image using Slate Adirondak Ink to highlight the embossing.Then matted it onto some Slate coloured Mirror card.I got the idea for this card from my last Brayering lesson, a day spent with some great crafter's who were not afraid to get a little bit mucky!! Hands covered in Ink, and in some cases forearms and up to the elbow's too, eh Emma!!For the next part of the project I Brayered another piece of White card stock, again using the Slate coloured Ink. I also stamped my image using the same Ink, tone on tone can look so effective and I think that if I had used a Black Ink it would have been too much of a contrast! This train image is from a stamp set by Sam Poole... A great UK artist with a great style.. Take a look at her Blog for some great inspo...I also matted the Train image with some Slate Mirror card to tie the theme with the Pocket Watch image.On one of Sam's (Sam, get me using her first name! like I know her personally! Don't you just find that you do that with the crafting elite! Sam, Tim, Martha, Dawn.. lol)! Anyway, on one of Sam's other set's of Stamps is this Ironic Sentiment.. Which sums me up to a tee, and many other's no doubt! Again, this was stamped using the Slate Ink onto a piece of card stock which had also been coloured with it.. Then matted onto some more mirror card.
I put these images to one side so that I could get on with making my base card.I had a piece of this Clock backing paper left over from another project. As it is White it would not work with this project,so I coloured it using the Antique Linen Distress Stain, going over the Clock faces a second time to give a contrast to the background. Once the backing paper was dry, (it doesn't take long!)I cut it to size and added it to a prepared Easel card.Adding my embossed and stamped images to the front.
For the stopper of the Easel card I wanted to keep the Steampunk, Vintage theme going..So, I cut out some shapes using the Sprightly Sprockets Die from Spellbinders!These shapes were cut from some new Mirror card we now have in.. Now, you know I use a lot of Mirror card on my projects! I also feel that I waste a lot of Mirror card!! A little while a go I found a whole box of Mirror card off cuts (and shamefully some whole sheets too!!). I totted it up and there was £75 (US$120) worth of Mirror card in the box!! ouch!! I have put it to good use now though!
So I think that this new Quad cut Mirror card is going to help me no end.. Sometimes I either only need a little bit, or certainly don't need a whole sheet.. So I can now be a little bit more economical with it! Why didn't they think of this earlier!! Lesson learnt!Once the shapes were cut out I applied them to the bottom of my Easel card to finish the project off...Ta Da!!! Have a great day all you Dad's out there and thanks for checking us out..
See you soon.
Andy..