Great job...I also have just started making hand-made cards....not yet brave enough to try using wire though!!

I would gather ideas first. And check what paper items you may already have in the house. any decorative paper or even scrap of material. Practice using a plain paper cut to card size and start layering some of the snippets on it to form an attractive background. Then find a cute pictre of an animal or flower and carefully cut it out and glue it to the front. If you have a nice handwriting write a saying on the front. see how it looks. Then when you go to the store get a little pack of plain notecards with envelopes usually found in the card making area. look at the rubber stamps and pick out a general one that you could use on a lot of different cards and then get a black rubber stamp pad. Take those home and try the sme practice method with those. Then you can expand your supplies Hope this helps.

I agree! Its a mighty special Dad to even think of it, much less DO it! None of the guys I know would do that.

Thanks for that last link, raenjapan. I've been looking for the same thing for over a year! I had pretty much given up due to the price, but $13 I might swing. I tried the Allen and Roth Pearl, which is pretty, but was not good with my countertop. Like you, I am really drawn to a varigated grey green pop of color. I like the Leaf Peeper. What a name, huh? Looks a little yellow, but it is so hard to tell looking online. I am liking green river and moonshadow too. What other color samples were you going to order?