Happy Father's Day Koi

I've been on kind of a "Father's Day card" kick lately, since I want to send several to Send a Smile 4 Kids. (They have to receive cards by May 15, so they have time to ship them to the hospitals they serve.) I think Father's Day cards are hard to create when you're not creating them for a specific man. Not so much because they are masculine cards, but because you don't know what the recipient is into. So I just try to make them generally masculine. I don't know where (or when) I got this koi stamp, or who makes it, but I figured it would fit for a Father's Day card!

I stamped the koi onto a scrap of 140 lb. watercolor paper with Versafine Onyx Black ink. I colored them with my Inktense pencils, kind of following photos I found online for how the colors might go. I also colored the background, first using color from a blue pencil, then over that with green, so they look like they are swimming in a pond.

For the "wood" panels, I stamped the "Wood Pallet Background" from Altenew (a new one for me) onto a piece of cream cardstock with Hero Arts Cup o' Joe ink. I inked over it with Brushed Corduroy Distress ink, followed by a coat of Pumice Stone ink, to give it a worn, weathered-wood look. My idea was to emulate a pier by the koi pond.

I cut a strip to go between the 2 woodgrain panels, and printed one of the greetings from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps' "Father's Day Sentiments" digi set onto the bottom. I inked around the edges with Iced Spruce Distress ink, and then adhered that & the woodgrain panels to a piece of green cardstock. I inked the edges of the focal panel with Iced Spruce as well. After punching a piece of blue cardstock with Fiskars' "Threading Water" border punch (apparently discontinued), I cut it into a strip, inked the edges, & adhered it to the image panel so it's peeking out below. Finally, I glued the focal panel onto my card front, and mounted that to a white A2 card base.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Send a Smile 4 Kids: "For Dads or Special Males (From the Kids)"
613 Avenue Create #197: "Anything Goes"
Pile It On #130: "Animals"