With Father’s Day less than a week away and spring sports finishing up,  I thought it would be a great time of year to work on sport inspired cards.

But as I was looking through my craft supplies, I realized I didn’t own any sports related stamps or dies!  How can that be possible?!  It was time to get creative and figure out how to make these cards with what I had on hand!

It’s amazing what can be created with just a few basic stamping supplies.  All the balls in the cards above were made using circle dies, even the football.

The golf ball was the easiest to create as I simply ran the small circle of paper through the Big Shot with the Polka Dots embossing folder. The reverse side of the paper looks just like the dimples of a golf ball.

To complete the background of the card I sponged Coastal Cabana randomly to make the blue sky, and cut out the greens and trees with the Jingle All The Way coordinating dies.  Yes, I used a Christmas set on this golf card, but it worked perfectly!!  My Dad loves golfing, so I chose a Father’s Day greeting for this one.

Next, I wanted to make Thank You cards for coaches and created these fun soccer and baseball cards.  I didn’t have a stamp to make “coach” so I improvised and did some brush lettering.

The soccer ball card used the same die for the field background as the golf card, minus the trees.  I didn’t have a pentagon stamp to make a correct soccer ball pattern, so I used a hexagon and just hoped no one noticed that small detail!!

The baseball card used a woodgrain embossed background, stitched square for the field, and a stamp of ++++++++ from an old Paper Pumpkin set to make the stitches on the ball. I am sure any baseball coach would appreciate this Thank You card!!

And finally, a birthday card for the biggest sports fan!

The background was a mistake that turned into something great.  I used a star stencil to sponge Versamark on the background and then covered it with gold embossing powder.  The problem was that there was a lot of extra gold all over the paper.  Instead of fussing with it to remove the powder, I heat embossed it as is and loved the smearing of gold everywhere!

Making cards isn’t about having every stamp set, every colour of paper, or every accessory out there – it’s about being creative with the supplies you have… and also turning a mistake into something beautiful!

Take some time this week to create something unique for your Dad, coach, brother, sister, or friend! Or if you don’t have time, contact me at lfedynak@gmail.com to order any of the above cards.

Leah