Masculine French Foliage

I made this card for this week's Teapot Tuesday challenge. The challenge was to make a manly card, no flowers. (Eek!) I love the way it turned out and I think I may make a bunch more of these for an upcoming Fall Card Swap that I am participating in.

               Stamps: French Foliage, Just Believe 
               Paper: Cajun Craze, Naturals Ivory, Early Espresso Core'dinations card stock
               Ink: Chocolate Chip, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Riding Hood Red,
                       More Mustard and Soft Suede 
               Accessories: Brushed Bronze Button, Linen Thread, Decorative Label Punch, 1" circle
                      punch, Woodgrain Embossing folder, sanding block, dimensionals, sponge 
               Techniques: Sanding, Sponging, Stamping Off, Rock & Roll 

The base is Cajun Craze sponged with Chocolate Chip ink. The card front is made with a couple of sneak peak items from the upcoming Stampin' Up! holiday catalog. I used the new Woodgrain embossing folder to emboss a piece of Early Espresso Core'dinations card stock, and then sanded the embossed cardstock to make the pattern stand out. I stamped the script from French Foliage in Crumb Cake on a piece of Naturals Ivory card stock.  I inked up the water stains stamp from the same set in Soft Suede, stamped it off on scratch paper once and then stamped it on the image panel to give a lighter shade of Soft Suede. The leaf images, also from the French Foliage set, were inked in Cajun Craze, Riding Hood Red, More Mustard and Soft Suede. I used the Rock & Roll technique on the leaves. This means I inked up the entire leaf with one color, then rolled just the edges of the stamp in a second color to make the leaves two-toned. Two of the leaves were cut out and put up on Dimensionals. I used Linen Thread and another sneak peek item, Brushed Bronze designer buttons to finish off the main panel. The greeting is from the Just Belive stamp set, stamped in Early Espresso on Naturals Ivory card stock and punched  out twice using the Decorative Label punch to get this label shape. For a tutorial on how to create this label shape, please see this post on my blog. http://mnfroggie.blogspot.com/2011/05/polka-dots-toile-and-tutorial-for.html The greeting is backed by a 1" Cajun Craze circle that is sponged with Chocolate Chip ink.

Thanks for visiting my blog today! Everything used to create this card is available from Stampin' Up! If you would like to purchase Stampin' Up products, please visit my business website at www.trina_kuriger.stampinup.net.