Ocean-inspired Father's Day card

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to make some cards using the Stampin' Up!^® stamp set By the Tide. I was struggling to come up with ideas, so I went looking for some inspiration in the By the Tide gallery on SCS. I found many cards to "oooh" and "aaah" over, and I used some of the ideas to make two cards of my own. The first card, which I used as a masculine birthday card, I shared earlier this week (see the May 19, 2013, post titled "Celebrate with the guys"). Here is the second card, which will be an ocean-inspired Father's Day card for either my dad or my uncle:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: By the Tide
Card stock: Naturals White, Soft Suede
Ink: Soft Suede, Real Red, Midnight Muse
Accessories: Antique Brass jumbo eyelets, linen thread, corner rounder, Dimensionals

This card was inspired by the Nautical Blocks card by Amanda Mertz, a fellow independent Stampin' Up! demonstrator. I loved the strong images on the crisp white card stock, so I decided to make my own version. (If you click on the link to Amanda's card, you'll see that she was inspired by a card she found on Pinterest. I love how each person has a unique take on the same basic idea. And it's great that so many people are willing to share their creativity!)

I started with a Soft Suede card base and randomly stamped the coral, text and circle images all over the background in Soft Suede ink. I stamped the lobster, fish, seashell and seahorse on pieces of Naturals White card stock, trimming the blocks and playing with the layout until I had an arrangement I liked. I rounded the corners of the blocks and adhered them to the card base.

I also stamped the circle image on Naturals White card stock and cut it out by hand (none of my circle punches were quite the right size). Using Dimensionals, I adhered the circle near the bottom of the card so it overlapped two of the white blocks.

To add a little embellishment and to fill the empty space on the left side of the card I added three jumbo eyelets. I wrapped linen through the two outside eyelets a few times and then tied it in a knot.

I'm really pleased with how this card turned out. I actually ended up using all the images in this stamp set to make this card, which doesn't happen very often. Thanks for stopping by!