Happy Monday, everyone! We were thankful to have a few days of beautiful weather here in North Texas — with sunshine anyway. This summer we’ve done the abrupt gear shift from lovely spring to straight into the fire. But we were glad to see a string of dry days nonetheless. And we did our best to make the most of it. How about you?

This week, we’re going to be looking at a whole host of wonderful Stampin’ Up! products that you can use to honor the dads in your life. Today, we’re getting started with the Gone Fishing stamps and dies.

There are so many things that you can do with the combination of stamps and dies. And today’s card shows the most straight forward way — filling a tackle box. I don’t know about you, but I grew up fishing with my family. And it was always a treat when we could choose something to use from dad’s tackle box!

We get started with today’s card with a base of Crumb Cake cardstock, which won’t be visible when your card is closed. I chose a patterned background from the (now retired) Let’s Go Fishing designer paper pack. As you can see, only a tiny portion of the background pattern peeks out from behind the tackle box, so any subtle pattern will do. Next up, we diecut the tackle box from Basic Grey cardstock using the Gone Fishing dies. The tackle box is comprised of the base and topper dies. By using dimensionals to adhere to the two layers to the card front, you’ll get a realistic look into your tackle box from top view.

TIP: Don’t throw away the squares that are cut with the tackle box topper die. Save them to use as sentiment panels on other cards. You’re welcome! *grin* (Genius idea from my upline Patty Bennett!)

Now comes the fun part — filling your tackle box. On white cardstock, I stamped some of my favorite lures and tackle from the Gone Fishing stamp set. I chose minnows, a spoon, and a bobber. I used the detail stamps to fill in each image with some color. Then I diecut each one using the coordinating die. For added detail, I chose to remove the stamped hooks on the minnows and spoon and replaced them with hooks diecut from silver foil specialty paper, which gives the hooks a more realistic look. I added an additional spinner element to the spoon with the silver foil wing.

Now we fill the remaining bins in our tackle box. I assembled two peg-style bobbers. Using the larger bobber die, I cut white cardstock and then used the smaller portion to cut Real Red. The white pieces serve as the base for the red element. The bobber peg is cut from Crumb Cake and affixed to the back of each bobber. I used a twist of linen thread to represent fishing line behind one of the peg bobbers and added a few sinkers, diecut from silver foil, to the bin for a complete bobber setup. I adhered one bobber with a dimensional for a realistic look to the bin. From the silver foil specialty paper, I also diecut two larger spoons and a small triangular turning element. I tied them together using linen thread. The sentiment from the Gone Fishing stamp set is stamped on white cardstock that is diecut using the Autumn Leaves dies with the extension method. The sentiment is adhered over the tackle box to catch the eye. The scene is finished off with some Industrial Trinkets to catch the eye and draw it across the full scene.

This super cute design can be adapted with any sentiment to make a masculine card perfect for just about any occasion. And while it looks complicated to put together, it really does come together in a snap!

Tomorrow, we’ll be taking to the sky for our next design. And you won’t want to miss tomorrow’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays either — we’re going to learn a neat (and quick) fun fold and how to use the die extension method! I hope you’ll buzz by and check it all out!

Products used in today’s card:
Crumb Cake, Basic Gray, Real Red, Basic White cardstock
Let’s Go Fishing (retired), Silver Foil DSP
Gone Fishing stamps & dies
Autumn Leaves dies
Linen thread
Industrial Trinkets
Dimensionals
Adhesives