{Carved} Woodgrain Father’s Day Card

After much searching, I finally bought a woodgrain rubber stamp off of Etsy (BTW, amazing seller – shipped within hours of my purchase) and I absolutely LOVE it!  Just one stamp completely transforms Kraft-coloured cardstock.

I decided that I wanted to make my first woodgrain card look like a carved tree trunk. After searching for images of trees with limited success, I suddenly realized that I could use my Silhouette CAMEO and sketch pens to “carve” my image onto a a pre-stamped piece of cardstock.

I bought the upgraded Silhouette Designer Edition back when there was a really great promo code after learning that I would have more sketch options with this version. It definitely came in handy for this card.

After designing my heart and adding the text (Ostrich Sans Rounded – a great sketch pen font), it looked like this:

Pretty plain, but a good starting point.

After experimenting with the different edge sketch options I settled on “pencil” for the text and “charcoal” for the heart outline.

Much better!

I loaded a black ball-point pen into my pen holder and sent it to sketch on a piece of Kraft paper that was already stamped with woodgrain in approximately the same spot.

If you don’t have a Silhouette, you could achieve the same effect by using a ball-point pen to repeatedly draw the same design. The harder you press, the more carved it looks on the paper.

Then, I took a blank card base (also Kraft paper) and stamped the woodgrain onto both halves. I thought that if I mounted the sketched image onto another layer of woodgrain it might look more like a tree trunk.

I tried another  trick when I stamped the card base. I put a thin piece of masking tape in the spot where I always add “Claire Cards” to my handmade cards so that it would not stamp in this spot.

I also inked the edges of the card base and the message to add more depth. This time I used my blending tool and Tim Holtz’ Distress Ink in Walnut Stain. Vintage Photo has some competition!

Then, I added some dollar store foam mounting squares . . .

and assembled my card.

It’s hard to see, but in the bottom right-hand corner you will notice that the two layers of stamped woodgrain work together to look more 3-dimensional.

Here’s a close-up of the “carved” detail.

Neat, right?

Off we go on the mandatory garden tour – you will come to know this brick wall and 4 by 4 very well over the summer!

 

 

Wouldn’t this make a fun wedding or anniversary card?  I guarantee you’ll be seeing more woodgrain cards in the future!

Since I have to be away for Father’s Day (for the first time ever!), here’s a special message for you, Dad, to tide you over until next weekend. Love you! XOXOXO

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