The Card Concept #77

Hello everyone!  It's time for the challenges at The Card Concept to start back up with the return of school and this week we have a theme of  "Weathered Floral".  As always, we have this beautiful inspiration image to show you and the design team has tons of inspiration for you to see at the blog.

I was so inspired by the rustic door in this photo so I wanted to incorporate a wood element into my card.  I had a couple of options to achieve this; I could use an embossing folder or wood grained paper. I chose to use some wood grained paper although what I had was not the right color.  But since we just had a little tutorial from Lizzie Jones during Papertrey Ink's Stamp-A-Faire, I colored mine the color I wanted with an E37, Sepia Brown Copic Marker. I wanted the richer wood tone.

Here's a fun little story for you; I have a specialist that I see for check ups about every 4 months in Downtown Tulsa.  So when I was there a few weeks ago I wanted to stop in a the nearby Michaels Arts & Crafts Store.  Well, I was shocked when I got there and I couldn't even get near the front door because of the fence and equipment sitting there.  It got hit by the recent tornado that happened in Tulsa.  We live north of there quite a ways, but I hadn't realized there was any damage to Michaels.  I guess it took the roof completely off the store.  So I trotted on down to Joann's even though I knew they didn't carry the brand of paper I was searching for.  As I'm strolling along, I saw this paper pad that has the description as "Marble Paper Pad" with an image of different colors of wood grain paper.  I think it must have been a manufacturer error but for a 5.5 x 7.5 inch pad of 24 sheets of paper at $1.00, that baby was mine!  *Ü*  Every once in a while, I need a wood grained paper for a challenge, so I was happy to get it at almost no cost.

Now, on to my card!  I started by making a card base from Papertrey Ink Rustic White Cardstock. This is a kind of egg shell colored paper with little flecks in it - perfect for a rustic look.  I colored the wood grained paper with the copic marker and allowed that to dry completely before die cutting it with Papertrey Ink Tipped Top Dies.  I also cut two banners using MFT Angled Banner Dies. I cut a few of each shape from the Beautiful Berries: Autumn Dies and then stamped them in my Mini MISTI using the negative as a place holder. This works well because you can stamp all of them at once.  I just had to do 3 sets. In total, there are 4 layers to stamp including the stem and leaves although not all of the stems have leaves. I used Papertrey Ink's Lovely Lady, Autumn Rose, Classic Kraft and Ripe Avocado Inks.  I wanted to have kind of a wreath or swag look for my card, so I gathered the stems all up and tied a piece of gold cord around them.  The sentiments were also part of the Beautiful Berries: Autumn Stamps and I heat embossed them using Antique Gold Embossing Powder.

I thought I should add that the Beautiful Berries: Autumn are actually meant to be Bittersweet. But I'm thinking I can even use it to mimic Redbud blooms in the Spring.  I'm also anxious to try other color combinations because one of the best things about stamping is that we can make things any color we want.

I've already mailed this card out to some friends that we have been close to for all of the years that hubby and I have been married -- 33 years and counting. They visited us a few weeks ago and Carol Jean and I had a ton of fun together (as always) making a trip into Pawhuska, OK (about 45 minutes north of where I live) which you may know is the home of Ree Drummond, Pioneer Woman, co-owner of The Mercantile or The Merc as is is affectionately known and Food Network Star.  The Merc is a kitchen gadget heaven.  My personal favorite is the Plastic Wrap Dispenser - I have one for Plastic Wrap, one for my Press 'N Seal and I need another yet for my Waxed Paper.  There's also a similar one for aluminum foil.  It was a lot of fun but it was the first time I'd been on a Saturday and even at 9:30 in the morning, the wait for the lunch line was a couple of hours.  I'll share more about that another time, but this card was exactly what I was looking for.  It inspired another card which you can find in this post.  I hope you'll enjoy both cards and if you take time to comment, I really enjoy that.