Ink & Share Blog Hop - Summer is Here!

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Thank you for stopping by the Ink & Share summer blog hop and another creative trip with Stampin' Up! demonstrators from around the globe. It's that time of year here in the United States - warm weather, beaches, cookouts, fireworks, and what else . . . . baseball! Growing up with two older brothers who played, baseball became my favorite sport and at the risk of sounding a braggart, I was pretty good at it. Hence, when I had a son, it was only natural that he'd play as well.

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I was in the grocery store when I spotted the bubble gum and all those fun memories with my son and as a kid came flooding back. It was either bubble gum or sunflower seeds that every kid had in their back pocket! I decided to make a wrap for this package that I thought might be fun to give to your favorite baseball player along with a card for good luck. You can replace the gum for a package of sunflower seeds for a healthier option.

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I've used the new Shaded Spruce cardstock that looks really close to the Fenway Park green. If you're not a baseball fan, Fenway Park is the home of the Boston Red Sox and the stadium is painted in this custom color. The ball is made with the largest Layering Circle Framelits Die, which I sponged with a bit of Smoky Slate ink. I used the framelit as a template to draw two arched lines using a Smoky Slate Stampin' Write Marker, then drew red stitches with a Real Red Stampin' Write Marker.

Behind the ball is a Crumb Cake square cut from the largest square in the Stitched Shaped Framelits. I thought it kind of looked like a baseball diamond. The words are stamped in Blueberry Bushel and Real Red Classic Ink using one of my favorite lettering sets - Labeler Alphabet. I stamped each letter separately and trimmed each one attaching them with a Mini Stampin' Dimensional. I think arranging them this way makes it less stressful trying to line up the letters.

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I decided to create a card to go along with package. It would be an appropriate good luck gift at the start, middle, or end of any Little Leaguers season. I soon realized we didn't have anything sports related that I could stamp so I improvised. Again I've used Shaded Spruce cardstock for the card base. I drew a template for the bat, traced it onto Crumb Cake cardstock that I had stamped in Crumb Cake Classic Ink with the Hardwood stamp, heat embossed it with Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder to give it that classic varnished look then cut it out with my paper snips. The ball is a 1/2" Circle Punch that I again drew stitches on. The baseball diamond was also hand cut and the baselines drawn with my white Watercolor Pencil.

The "scoreboard" is from the Broadway Lights Framelits Dies and the lettering is from the Make A Difference stamp set, which I also used to add "CHAMP" to the sentiment from the Itty Bitty Greetings stamp set and punched it out by modifying the Tailored Tag Punch.

Now click on the "Next" button and hop across the Atlantic over to Linda Handford's blog to see how she interprets summer in the United Kingdom.