Using Old Favorites

When I need a card and I'm stuck for ideas, I spend some time with one of my best friends, Pinterest. :D  If there isn't anything specific I'm looking for I find myself drawn to ideas of what to do with some of my long lost (and my lost I mean sitting on my stamp shelf).  

I need  couple of masculine birthday cards this week and I find them the hardest to just create.  I think I over think it trying not to ling it up too much. Because the new Stampin' Up catalog comes out next month, there are a lot of photos using stamp sets that I own from my days as a demonstrator.  I guess a few of my old favorites are retiring, including the Open Sea stamp set that includes these images.

I decided to make it the tool of one card this week for a friend who recently retired after 20 plus years in the US Navy.  I used a light taupe card stock for the card base and stamped all the images except the ledger and the ship with the same color ink, stamping off first so they just blended into the background.  

I found some old pattern paper that looked like a ledger and cut a strip that is 4 3/4 inches by just under 2 3/4 inches and layered it on a piece of  brown card stock.  This is when I decided to tear off one edge and ink the edges to give it a worn look.  I also added some natural twine around the middle for more texture.  

I stamped the ship in the same taupe ink on the taupe card stock and die cut it with a circle die. I layered it on to a larger circle cut from the dark brown.  I added some small brads around the outer circle to look like rivets on a porthole.  I inked the edges of the circles as well.  I added a small Happy Birthday layered on both card stocks to the porthole. I forgot to take a photo of that but I cropped one heheh.

Now the assembly.  I might have gotten a bit distracted with all the layers and wasn't sure it was going to all fit.  oops. But in the end, it works and looks as good as I was hoping.

Thanks for looking :)