Happy Retirement

My uncle's retirement party was yesterday, and I made a card for the occasion.  Then, I so thoughtfully left the card and gift on my kitchen table and went to his house for the party.  Oops!  Well, I guess it is the thought the counts and he'll get his special card and gift the next time I see him.  In the meantime, I thought I would share his card here.
I used the following supplies:
Close to My Heart Outdoor Denim cardstock and ink
Close to My Heart Olive cardstock and ink
Close to My Heart B&T Duos paper (both sides of the paper are printed with a coordinated pattern)
Close to My Heart Enjoy Life stamp set and an acrylic block
Tombo Mono Adhesive roller

As you can see in the photo above, I layered a couple of different patterned papers as well as stamped images.  The bicyclist is stamped in Outdoor Denim ink, and the swirls behind him are also stamped in the same ink, but I stamped my stamp on a sheet of paper one time before stamping it on my patterned paper.  This gives a much lighter ink effect for the swirls and allows the bicyclist to come to the foreground.  I also swiped all of my papers against ink pads to distress the edges a little.

I used a very dark color of cardstock for the base of my card.  When you do this, you have a couple of options.  One, you can stamp your sentiment in white (or other light colored) craft ink and write a message and sign the card using a light or white colored gel pen.  Alternatively, you can do what I did, and cut a piece of lighter, coordinating paper, and stamp your sentiment in the darker ink.  If you look at the two photos, you'll notice that my interior paper matches the small blue layer on the front of the card, although the coloring in my photos doesn't make it look quite that way.  I promise, they are cut from the exact same piece!   I then stamped my sentiment in Outdoor Denim ink.  When I was all done with that, I signed my family names on the card in a matching Outdoor Denim marker.  I used the same marker to write my uncle's name on the envelope.  It was all very coordinated!  

Congrats on your retirement Uncle Dale.  You deserve to enjoy your time now.